by Aiden James
Maybe it was the fact there were now eleven ‘Sekhmets’ in the cavern with us at that moment—twelve, if the slithering Morag was included. Where the Egyptian goddess had made a grand entrance in her treasure room when she greeted us inside her forgotten pyramid in southwestern Egypt, our latest encounter here in Scotland began much more subtly. The gods and goddesses of the ancient Celts appeared to be nothing more than amazing sculptures when we first arrived. Maybe the blasts that rocked the backside of the hill earlier had awakened what they truly were… although none of that mattered at present.
Marie’s warning to me came after one of Yassir Ali’s men was impaled by the spear-like point of Morag’s long tail, and then flung toward us by the angry mermaid/serpent, once she had her fill of the man’s blood. Ali managed to dive out of harm’s way, but with my hands still bound behind my back, I couldn’t avoid the rain of crimson from the brutalized corpse. Fortunate enough to avoid being hit by it, I tried to scurry for cover where Marie waited, inside the crevice.
“Don’t even think about it, Mr. Caine!”
Yassir Ali pointed his weapon at Ishi and me, and for a moment I thought he’d shoot us dead where we stood… until I saw the terror in his eyes. His lofty plans of plunder while celebrating our demise were on the verge of turning into one stinking pile of dog shit. I kept a watchful eye on his rifle, worried that his fear could revert back to the homicidal rage surely still brewing within his heart. If I was right about him, then the only thing he had to look forward to could well be killing the three of us. Our only reprieve was his attention being drawn to the tall serpent-woman now headed his way.
Morag laughed giddily as she closed in on the Egyptian, her voice chilling and melodic in its unearthliness. I couldn’t see her face entirely, hidden beneath long locks that were part strawberry blonde and part gold. But I could tell she regarded him seriously. She spat words in a language unfamiliar. Something predating Gaelic, I would assume, with similar harsh consonant sounds. Yet other aspects were uniquely different from anything I had ever heard before.
But the fire in the mysterious words was quite palpable, and enough to make Yassir Ali retreat within the confines of a small cove behind him. But there was no escaping Morag’s wrath.
Gunfire erupted from his assault rifle, and a blur of bullets pelted this creature that was no longer a myth. Once the clip was emptied, her head hung low as she bent over and I believed she was mortally wounded. Our nemesis chuckled nervously, and I heard him replace the clip with a fresh one. But before he could try and finish the job on her, she raised her head defiantly and thrust out her chest at him, as if daring him to launch a second assault. She wasn’t bleeding. In fact, there was no sign that any of the bullets had even hit her.
Morag’s hair fell back momentarily, allowing me a better view of her face. I was stunned by her gorgeous profile that contained delicate features; a sleek nose, supple lips, and raised cheekbones that I’ve heard have long been prevalent among the Scots. But I was also horrified to see blood dripping freely down her chin and onto her exposed breasts—likely from the victim she tossed at the foolish Egyptian foreign minister.
The guardian of Loch Morar turned her attention briefly to me, as if she were aware of my admiring gaze. Her eyes were as blue as the amulet’s sapphire, and were aglow with a powerful cognizance that might’ve brought me to my knees if I wasn’t already crawling to join Marie and Ishi in safety. Her lower body, which was in the shape of a serpent and bore a humped tail that, by my guess, was between seven and ten meters in length, was covered in green scales that carried a luminous sheen.
“Are you believing this shit?” I asked Marie, when I was huddled with my two beloved cohorts and pressed back as far as we could go inside the wall’s crevice. Ishi’s and my hands and arms remained bound behind our backs, making it nearly impossible to sit up or get comfortable. However, Marie’s bonds had been removed. “Hey, how’d you get out of your restraints?”
For the moment, she and Ishi ignored me, as their gazes were fixed on Morag’s immense serpent-like form slithering back to where Yassir Ali trembled in terrible fear. He realized far too late that he had made a terrible miscalculation in what his assault rifle could do to a creature not of his world. Surely he expected her to die like the one named either Lugh or Cuchulain. Perhaps he should’ve noticed what was happening throughout the cavern, as the terrible screams of his assassins filled the air—screams that had followed the rapid-fire delivery of bullets into the other statues that had come to life. Instead, he would soon understand what became of ignorant and self-serving human beings who didn’t respect the power and dominion of the ancients.
“Please… I beg you! …Please, I had no idea—”
That was all he was allowed to utter—his very last words. After that, it was only screams of agony, as Morag’s mouth and throat suddenly opened up like a giant boa. She swallowed him whole, and as his terrified face disappeared in her mouth, she closed her mouth and throat while chewing the contents. Ali’s horrible writhing and piercing shrieks ceased.
For a moment, she remained facing where the foolish little man had once stood. Her body swayed back and forth like a cobra being charmed by a haunting melody, and I was gruesomely reminded of how a snake digests its dinner, the abdominal muscles contracting as the ‘prey’ moved along the digestive track. No matter what her face and torso looked like—or even her graceful arms that contained the power of Samson—Morag wasn’t human. Never had been and never could be.
Meanwhile, amid the diminishing cries from the rest of the Egyptians, along with the ripping sounds of a primal feeding frenzy, she began to change. The gold faded further, allowing the lustrous hair and glowing pale skin of a fair maiden to come through. The blood and other matter that were smeared upon her lips and chin in profile suddenly dissolved, as if absorbed by her skin. Even her ample bosom was lifted.
Then she turned her attention to us.
To try and deny that the sight of a true goddess didn’t arouse me would be untrue—despite her horrific aspects. A glance at Ishi confirmed his reaction was similar, if not the same as mine. Marie appeared to also be taken by Morag’s beauty—even if it was foreign to the standards we were accustomed to.
Her eyes, so perfect in their shape, took on an extra delicateness in their luster. As deep and pure as anything blue I had ever seen—not even Marie’s eyes in moments of passion could begin to compare with Morag’s. Eyes, I might add, that regarded us with compassion—as if we were the victims here, and the Egyptian profiteers were the only ones with less than noble intents. Maybe the slight smile on her face, revealing the hint of pearly white teeth, was what gave the feeling of good intentions to come for us.
We would be protected. The munching sounds upon human flesh that seemed to indicate the frenzy was still in full force throughout the cavern were becoming easier to ignore. That dinner would just be the other guys and not us….
Morag motioned for us to come out of the crevice. Caution still was the best policy, and we carefully approached where she stood. The intoxication of her presence continued, and my heart thudded with a nervousness I had not experienced since getting laid for the first time, back in junior high.
Suddenly, her tail flicked around us, and the tip sliced through the rope binding Ishi’s and my arms. We were free… and she smiled a little more.
Everything was going well, and I began to believe we would be allowed to leave and go back to our lives as they were. Provided, of course, Marie would agree to let these deities return to their eternal rest. Seemed reasonable, considering the circumstances… the latest twist to this cluster-fuck of a misadventure.
All we had to do was leave and not take anything from this sacred place… or so I thought.
Morag motioned to Marie, whispering words unknown to Ishi or me. Hell, I figured Marie wouldn’t understand them either, and would simply nod to what the sweet angelic voice requested. But my gal surprised me with a vehement head-shake while clu
tching the amulet.
“What in the hell are you doing?” I whispered.
“Nothing,” she replied, tersely. “She wants the amulet.”
“Then give it to her,” I said sweetly, while smiling at the mermaid/serpent that despite such elegant beauty had just devoured our nemesis. I silently prayed Yassir Ali wasn’t just an appetizer. “Just give her what she wants. Easy as pie.” I brightened my smile to the point it hurt my cheeks.
“Over my dead body,” Marie replied, offering a smile in return that was icy enough to where only a complete imbecile would fail to recognize its unfriendliness. She turned her facial gauntlet toward Morag, whose own smile faded. “My father has told me about your dual nature, and to not give you the key to the fifth kingdom.”
What in the hell?!
We were so screwed. No matter how this would go, I could no longer see a happy ending—at least not one that suited either of our two ladies in attendance.
“What is she doing?” asked Ishi, his eyes darting back warily between Marie, Morag, and me.
“Why she’s trying to get us killed, my dear boy,” I replied, to which my so-called ‘better half’ shot me a dirty look.
“Oh, you think so?” Marie retorted, smugly. “You haven’t seen anything yet!”
Ignoring my final pleas to get her to quit the bullshit and just give Morag what she wanted, Marie turned to face the guardian of Loch Morar once more—a guardian I should say that was getting more agitated by the moment, to where the tips of her sharp fangs protruded above her lower lip—the countenance of goodwill from moments ago long gone.
Marie uttered something in Gaelic—a phrase I feared came to her from what I now believed was the illusion of Daddy Dearest. I could only get the gist, since admittedly I know very little of the ancient language of the Celts. But I did determine it was something to the effect of ‘Wench, take a frigging leap back into your loch!”
Whatever it was, it only took a moment for Morag to react. She threw back her head with a hiss of anger. When she brought her attention back to us an instant later, the fair maiden had given way to a green-scaled serpent with long fangs and a mouth filled with sharp pointed teeth.
“Okay… what do we do now, Boss?”
“We run, Ishi—run like hell!”
Chapter Twelve
No matter what happened next, it was too damned late to give the amulet to Morag. Or, too late to hand it over with minimal damage to our chances of survival.
I knew this even before we turned to run—to try and escape a creature that had physical attributes far superior to ours. And, that’s just talking about the ones we had seen so far. No telling what other fine qualities and skills Morag possessed that we hadn’t seen yet.
“Would you mind telling me why you have this death wish?!” I asked Marie, as we zigzagged our sprint with Ishi right behind us. Morag hadn’t pursued us yet, but instead had sent out a cry to the rest of her companions. At least that’s what I took it as, since they turned their collective attention to us. There was no way in hell we could outrun them, and I expected to be pounced upon at any moment.
“I don’t have a death wish!” she replied angrily, clinging to the amulet around her neck as if believing it might somehow vanish. “What I do have is Papa…. He will guide us!”
“What?! You’re going to have to give up that ridiculous shit!” I snapped. “Better yet, why don’t you tell us exactly how your invisible playmate’s gonna get us out of this mess alive?”
“You can be a royal asshole sometimes, Nick… you know?” She glanced back to where Morag watched our progress—probably thinking the same thing as me, that we had no frigging idea where we were headed. “Just follow my lead—he’s going to show me the right way to go!”
“Marie, I’m serious! You had better let this bullshit go before it’s too late!”
I picked up my pace and urged her and Ishi to keep up, though I had no idea where we were headed. Suddenly, the goddess Marie had called Dea Matrona leapt next to us, and luckily grasped empty air when she landed. Marie and Ishi yelped in surprise, and sped up to catch me. Dea Matrona had reminded me earlier of Medusa, and her three hideous faces eyed us hungrily.
“What in the hell has your father done for you so far today, anyway?” I meant this rhetorically, to hopefully help her see that Papa hadn’t done jack so far. Maybe it would fracture this crazy illusion of hers and she would begin to see reality again.
“Remember when you asked why there were no bonds on my wrists and arms?”
“Yeah… and your point?” I ducked when Sucellus threw his scepter toward me from atop a huge pile of gold coins. The wind force nearly knocked us all to the ground as a ‘swoosh’ resounded above our heads.
“That was Papa’s doing. He removed them.”
I didn’t have to look at her to discern the smugness—it was there in her voice. If she were trying to get me to shut the hell up about it, the effort succeeded—at least for a moment while I tried to fully process whether or not I believed her answer or thought it was more bullshit.
“Why didn’t he simply rescue our asses?”
“Who’s to say he didn’t?”
“He didn’t remove our bonds—she did!”
I pointed behind us, where Morag seemed to drift slightly above the ground, like an approaching mist-cloaked spirit, and moving with the stealth of Michael Myers in the Halloween flicks I cherished back in college. Just like that villain, I knew in my heart Morag would somehow cut us off from escaping this cavern.
“Up ahead looks like a small cave…. Could be a tunnel!” Ishi pointed to a dark hole that came up to my chest. It was likely a shallow cove and most certainly a dead end. However, when several more Celtic deities began pursuing us in earnest from either side, we ran like the devil to reach it, our fate likely to be resolved in the next minute.
Suddenly, Morag let out a shriek that was answered in kind by the others in pursuit. Was it a battle cry? Could be… or, maybe just a call to mealtime. Regardless of what their shrill voices meant, I didn’t slow down or look back. Instead, I pulled Marie and Ishi with me toward the small black hole, preparing to dive headfirst in desperation and with blind faith this was the right thing to do.
The clamoring onslaught behind us gained urgency and it sounded like additional members had joined in the chase. I had no doubt that most of the Celtic pantheon depicted earlier was behind us now—counting Morag, making it an even dirty dozen after replacing the one taken down by Yassir Ali.
“All of us at the same time—Dive!” I shouted.
And so we did… somersaulting into the hole that could have been a chasm to certain death. It wasn’t… Ishi was correct in calling it a tunnel. Yet despite this advantage, and being prepared to move through the passageway crouched like a trio of Groucho Marxes, we couldn’t see the path before us. Just a deep black sea of nothingness.
We were without flashlights since Yassir Ali had confiscated our backpacks earlier. We had our wits, our coats, and Marie had the amulet….
Suddenly, it began to glow. No, I’m not foolish enough to believe it had anything to do with my mental assessment of what we had left at our disposal. Regardless, the sapphire’s blue light steadily became brighter until we could see for at least thirty to forty meters ahead of us—sparing us needless bumps and bruises from the winding path and low ceiling, and giving us at least something of a head start on whoever or whatever would pursue us here.
“There are other ways to save someone, Nick…. See?”
Marie was beaming as she said this, and in truth, I had little to refute her belief that her father had something to do with what just happened. It was as good as any other explanation, as nothing this side of Merlin made sense as to why the amulet came to life on its own….
Or did it?
As we began our revived journey following the amulet’s glow, the first of the Celtic deities entered the tunnel behind us. They would have to crawl, on account of their height, and mo
st would be too wide to travel through the passage.
“Holy shit—it’s her again!” Ishi shouted, when something slithered along the tunnel’s floor.
Forgive me for being too stupid to realize that natural laws have little reign over the attributes of creatures that are one moment inanimate statues and the next living beings. Ishi was right—Morag—or something that looked like the serpent she had transformed into earlier was gaining on us.
I thought we’d have a significant head start, and now that illusion was in the same shitter that held the rest of my expectations for this ill-advised excursion to please Marie. Never again! I made myself that promise, should we survive our present predicament. Never again would I allow someone else to dictate the places I explored and how I went about the business of procuring lost artifacts.
“My way or the highway,” I mused aloud, drawing a suspicious look from Marie and a curious one from Ishi. At the moment, I pulled up the rear as we raced through the tunnel. We seemed to be increasing our lead over the thing that looked like a version of Morag, along with something else that had rejoined the pursuit of us.
“Thank God!” Marie suddenly exclaimed.
“Huh?”
“Papa’s back, Nick—he’s running with us, and he told me just now that there is another treasure trove just ahead—with more precious artifacts than the one we just left!”
“Two of them?”
I admit, my voice was filled with disdain. For one thing, it sounded preposterous that there would be a second treasure room. After all, this wasn’t Mount Rushmore or one of the Pyramids of Giza. It wasn’t even a significant hill in the Highlands of Scotland. It was a modest hill along Loch Morar that had enough size for maybe one big cavern—as already had been determined—and a few smaller rooms…. Unless this other place she spoke of was located deep within the earth.…
“Yes, there is indeed a second one, Nick, and Papa said it is just up ahead, where the tunnel splits,” she explained. “It will be trickier to get to, but he insists we must do this…. He says….”