"Nusrat," he called into the dancing sands. "It's too bad you weren't able to find Meriray to kill him. It would have freed her from the shame."
"Nusrat's not here," a voice told him. "You're hallucinating."
The song grew louder, only it wasn't Gita singing, but somebody else. He tried to hum it, but it was not a song for mortal throats. No matter how much water they gave him, he was always thirsty. The sun burned hotter, but instead of red it was a putrid green. Hungry. Angry. Malevolent. Evil.
"He comes to punish me," Jamin muttered into the malignant green fire. "He comes to punish me for what I did to Shahla's baby."
"Stop the caravan!" Kudursin shouted. "The little chief is delirious again."
Hands pulled him off his camelid
"Take me," Jamin whispered into the flames, "and give Shahla back her baby. I didn't know what I was doing."
The sun grew hotter, eager to consume him. Yes. It would consume him. He reached through the desert heat, through the fire. Beyond that fire something lay buried. Its light was dim, but he could see it. The woman sang to him. His mother. His baby sister. Gita. Their voices came together as a single voice and whispered to him to serve him. Serve him and he will lay this world at your feet.
"Yes," Jamin whispered. "I will do whatever you ask." He reached for his mother who wanted him to come home. Oh, gods, how he missed her!
Hands carried him into an oblong house which glistened in the sun. Fangs. Claws. Creatures of nightmare stabbed his shoulder and reopened his wound. Tentacles pierced his body. He cried out to his mother. His baby sister. Gita. He bargained with the woman who sang the song. He was sorry.
Darkness. The creatures of nightmare faded as he floated in the emptiness. He sensed that presence he had felt the night in the pit, but it felt further away than ever, as though it were buried in a mountain. Another presence cradled him, rocked him, sang to him and pleaded with him to help her.
"Yes," he whispered. "I will do it.
Blue lips kissed his.
'Circumspector…'
The darkness faded. The fire faded. Chirping, kind of like a cricket, only higher pitched. Voices, but he could not understand their language. An astringent scent like myrrh or a vat of mead tickled his nostrils, antiseptic, but pleasant. A hand touched his brow. He opened his eyes and immediately shrieked.
"Demon!"
The monster which towered over him had scaly green skin and a maw full of sharp, pointed teeth. It wore fitted clothing similar to that worn by Mikhail, but on its head rose a greenish-yellow dorsal crest like you might see on a fish. Its gold-green eyes possessed vertical slits like a cat, and from time to time a long forked tongue flit out of its mouth and tasted the air.
"You will not be harmed," the lizard-demon spoke in Kemet, the language of trade. "You are in a house of healing."
Jamin tried to skitter off the sleeping pallet, which was level with the creature's chest, and realized he was tied to sticks which erupted from either side of the bed. He yanked against them to free himself, but they were strong … the same color as Mikhail's sword. It was not ropes which bound him, but some type of wrist gauntlet that gave him room to move his hands, but not far enough to undo the other side.
"Aieyah!" Jamin shouted. "Let me go!"
The tentacles were not part of the dream, but had latched onto his arm like leeches! Spiderweb-thin threads attached to his chest and his forehead to feed a box with a jagged light that danced across the front of it in a series of lines accompanied by the chirp of the cricket.
"Easy, easy," the lizard demon gestured with hands that had long, yellow claws erupting out of the end of each finger. Jamin fought harder. The lizard demon spoke to a second lizard demon. "Get Kudursin! Before our young chieftain hurts himself!"
Kudursin rushed in and began reassuring him in a mixture of Kemet and the Halifian language, the bridge language between their people as none of them spoke Ubaid.
"This is Dok-tor Pey-man," Kudursin pointed to the lizard demon who had tied him to the bed. "He is their healer. You were close to death when we brought you in. He saved your life."
Jamin glowered at the lizard demon, hoping to intimidate him even though the thing towered over him by nearly a cubit. It stepped back and spoke to Kudursin in a low voice.
"Doctor Peyman will remove your wrist restraints," Kudursin said. "When he does, don't make any sudden moves or things could turn out badly for you. They have assured me you will not be harmed."
"Ninsianna's prophecy was true," Jamin stared at the unbelievable creature which stood before him. "There really are lizard demons."
"I, myself, described them to you," Kudursin laughed. "It was all you talked about, wanting to meet them. And now that you see them with your own eyes, you doubt me?"
"I could not make myself believe it until I saw them for myself," Jamin forced himself to feign calm as Kudursin unstrapped the gauntlets which kept him bound to the bed, leaving the smaller tentacles still impaled into his flesh. After how badly he'd misread the Halifians, he decided it would be wiser for him to keep his eyes open and his mouth shut.
The lizard demon called Doctor Peyman watched him, but he noted it watched Kudursin even closer, as though he did not trust him. The Amorite had brought him here to collect a bounty, not because he cared what happened to him. He'd already seen how brutally the man sent mercenaries against his village. There were no friends here, only enemies.
Marwan's words came back to him. 'Perhaps you might make yourself indispensable to the lizard-people so they let you carve out the winged demon's heart after all?'
Jamin rammed his fear down into that place he shoved it whenever he hunted a lion, thankful his time amongst the Halifians had inculcated him to form alliances with one's enemies. Kudursin had sold him to these people. Was he a slave? If so, what kind of labors did they expect him to perform? And how might he rise above it so they learned to value his worth? He doubted it was physical labor or they would not have purchased him injured. His eyes met Doctor Peyman's gold-green ones.
"I take it you didn't summons me here to talk about the rainy season," Jamin forced his gaze to remain steady.
"-I- did not summons anybody," Doctor Peyman lips moved far wider than a human mouth could and exposed his sharp teeth. "I am just a healer. I will let Lieutenant Kasib question you."
A second demon stepped forward, perhaps shorter than the first one, but broader-shouldered. Their limbs were a more slanting than those of a human, their necks thicker, but they walked upright and were more human-like in shape than the lizards that lived in the desert. Jamin's eye immediately drifted to the weapon on the demon's hip. A firestick? One grab and perhaps he could fight his way out of here?
No. Even if he got his hands on the weapon, he had no idea how to work its magic. And besides … Aturdokht was right. He wanted to prove something to his father. Better to bide his time and watch for opportunities.
"It is said that you come from the same village as the Angelic," the one called Lieutenant Kasib asked. He tilted his head to one side, as though intently curious to hear the answer.
"Mikhail!" Jamin's heart rate sped up, causing a flush of heat to wash through his body. "He claims to be a colonel in the army of god."
"A colonel?" Kasib tapped his claws upon a strange square tablet that glowed. Without looking up, he asked, "does this Mikhail have a last name?"
"Last … um … name?" Jamin's tone was uncertain.
The Ubaid did not have last names, merely designations. He was Jamin, son of Kiyan of Assur. Or at least that had been his name until his father had disowned him. Now he was simply Jamin. Somehow he did not think that was the information the lizard man was searching for. Something he had overheard Immanu discuss with his father bubbled forth in his mind.
"Man-ki-li?" Jamin said.
"-ili?" Kasib's brow ridge rose as though in surprise. "Not '-el' or -'a'? Are you certain?"
"No," Jamin said. "We don't have last names. I only overhear
d my father say the name once."
Kasib tapped on the strange, glowing tablet then turned it so he could see, holding the device mere inches from his face. Jamin startled in surprise, at first thinking perhaps somehow he peered through an open window. The image was small, less than half a cubit square.
"Mannuki'ili?" Lieutenant Kasib clarified.
"That's him," Jamin ran his fingers across the tablet, noting the device was smooth and warm. "That's Mikhail. What sort of magic is this? Did you capture him inside this talisman?"
Kasib turned to Kudursin. "You have earned your reward. Wait outside, please. I am not certain whether General Hudhafah will wish to speak to you."
Kudursin bowed to the lizard man, no longer the leader he had seemed when he had set the Halifians against their village, but a mere lackey. Jamin noted the Amorite stayed out of arm's reach, his eyes darting at the slightest movement, and backed out of the room without taking his eyes off of Kasib.
Kasib, on the other hand, ignored the Amorite now that he'd been dismissed. He was much more interested in him…
Doctor Peyman gestured to his clothing which had been neatly stacked on a chair in the corner. "I would prefer you remain in the infirmary until you recover more, but we have an unexpected visitor. If you will give me a moment, I will remove the eye-vees from your arm." He stepped slowly and deliberately towards the bed, his claws held out, palms up, to signify he would not harm him.
Jamin resisted the urge to shriek and cringe away from those clawed hands as they tugged off the slender tentacles attached to his head and chest. Peyman's hands were warm, not cold as he had expected they would be. The cricket-box shrieked worse than a bird whose nest was being raided by a rodent, but Doctor Peyman poked it with one claw and the horrid noise ceased.
"This will pinch as I pull them out," Doctor Peyman pointed to the larger tentacles embedded into his arm. "But they will present no lasting harm. The eye-vees were only there to provide healing."
Jamin watched fascinated as Peyman pulled out the tentacles which terminated in a long stinger, perhaps half a finger in length? Blood oozed out of the holes, but as Doctor Peyman had promised, it was only a pinch. He pressed tiny squares of cloth onto the tiny wounds and then a second, smaller circle that stuck to his skin. Jamin touched the circle, fascinated by its smoothness.
"We will leave you to get dressed," Lieutenant Kasib gestured to his clothing. "Please do not try anything foolish. If you follow orders, you will not be harmed."
The lizards stepped back and shut a cloth curtain to give him privacy. He cautiously slid out of the bed, curious at the luxury and fineness of the blankets. His shoulder ached, but the sensation of being on fire had subsided, replaced by an annoying itch. A strange shroud covered him in front, but the back left his buttocks exposed and he had been stripped of his loin cloth. He reached for his kilt and pulled back when another man reached from the wall for the same thing.
"Aeiyah!" Jamin yelped.
The man appeared to yelp as well, but he made no sound.
Jamin froze.
The man on the wall froze, too.
Jamin moved forward again to retrieve his clothing. The man moved towards it as well. Was the man trying to steal his kilt?
Something about the man seemed familiar. Jamin had seen his reflection when he'd bathed in the river, but this reflection was clearer. It came from a magical device one cubit wide by three cubits high that was fastened to the wall. He noted how haggard the man looked, pale flesh, bandaged shoulder, with wild black hair and a coarse beard.
"Is that really me?"
Jamin touched the man in the magic reflecting device. The man touched back. Like the tablet that had contained an image of Mikhail, the surface was smooth and cool. Yes. It was him.
Lieutenant Kasib's voice filtered through the door in Kemet. "Are you ready yet?"
"I'm working on it," Jamin said.
He watched the reflected Jamin belt the kilt around his waist, no easy feat with an arm that hurt to move, and draped his shawl around his shoulders and torso to befit his rank. His clothing smelled fresh, as though someone had washed it, but they had not been able to completely remove the bloodstain where Aturdokht had shot him with the arrow. In fact, his entire body smelled as though he had been bathed in a stream of flowers.
Black eyes stared back at him from the magic reflecting device. Marwan was right, he did resemble his mother.
He ran his fingers through his hair to neaten it then sat down on the chair to tie on his foot leathers. If he was going to be inducted into slavery, he would go dressed as the son of a village chief, not some lowly cur. His shoulder hurt, but not as much as he thought it would. Had the tentacles healed his pain? Ninsianna would be fascinated by such magic!
"Come," Kasib led him out of the building, passing both lizard people and other humans in the hall, all of them men. "We have a special visitor here to meet you. Two special visitors, in fact. This is all very irregular."
The lizard men's tails bobbed as they walked. Sunlight blinded Jamin as they stepped out the door. The air was filled with moisture and salt. Up on the hill sat an enormous city of perhaps five thousand people, its houses made not made of mud-brick like Assurian houses, but piled stones such as Gita had spoken of when she'd described the temple where she'd lived before her mother had been killed.
Around him moved lizard people and other creatures of nightmare, some with tusks like a boar, others blue-fleshed with angry expressions, and two who with sturdy eyestalks erupting out of the top of their head. A group marched by in unison, their boots clonking into the ground in perfect rhythm. A sinking feeling settled into Jamin's gut. He recognized those synchronized movements. They were nearly identical to the ones the winged demon had been trying to teach his people.
Kudursin rejoined him, flanked by six more lizard demons. Jamin gulped and prayed they weren't leading him to his execution. Scattered about were perhaps two handfuls of the shiny, oblong houses he half-remembered from his vision. Behind them lay a vast expanse of ocean. How had they traveled so far in three days to reach the Akdeniz Sea? It was a journey which took three weeks!
"Do you still think they're a mirage?" Kudursin grinned.
"This is…" Jamin had no words to describe his awe, so he stood taller and shut his mouth, using false bravado to pretend he wasn't scared shitless.
Kudursin clutched an enormous leather pouch to his chest as though he were carrying an infant, his eyes darting to both sides as they walked as though he feared someone would take it away from him. Jamin noted the way the pouch jingled as they walked. Had all that gold been for delivering him?
"Wait here." Kasib tucked his tail up along his right side and gesticulated to his forehead, snout and chest to two burly lizard guards before disappearing inside a stone building that appeared to be one of the ones which had been originally here.
Jamin confronted Kudursin. "What's going on?"
Kudursin gave him a grin, showing his rotted teeth. The Amorite stank because he had not bathed, an offense made all the more obvious by the fastidious nature of the lizard people and the clean scent which wafted up from his own body, far nicer than any soap root. Jamin had to force himself not to wrinkle up his nose.
"You wanted to prove the winged demon's people are the end-buyers?" Kudursin laughed. "It seems you have gotten your wish. Not only will the lizard people tell you this themselves, but the leader of the winged demons has just arrived along with their lizard king to discuss the fate of our world. If all goes well, the lizard people shall install me as leader of the lands from Mount Hebron to the Armon River Valley!"
"They have sent their leader?" Jamin forced his face to remain neutral. He had come here to prove Mikhail was here to enslave his people! What better way to eliminate the problem than to eliminate the leader?
They would kill him…
Memory of his mother reaching towards him from the dreamtime allayed his fears. Would that be so bad? He had been banished from his
village and had nowhere else to go. He was already as good as dead.
He glanced at the knife tucked into Kudursin's belt. It was a crude weapon, advanced by Ubaid standards, but not the weapon of an elite warrior. The Amorite was so power-drunk with his bag of gold and the promise of new lands that he was oblivious to what went on around him.
Jamin pretended to stumble and cried out in mock-pain.
"Oh!"
What started out as a feigned cry turned real as Kudursin steadied him by grabbing the same arm which had an arrow in its shoulder. Pain stabbed through his entire body. So? It did still hurt!
"Whoa!" Kudursin said. "Don't drop dead on me until after we have met their lizard king. I wouldn't want him to take back my bag of gold!"
"My apologies." Jamin turned so that the folds of his shawl hid what he had tucked into his own belt. "I am still light-headed."
"For a while I didn't think you were going to make it," Kudursin's fetid breath puffed into Jamin's nostrils. "Your fever burned as hot as the desert sands and you kept screaming that the Lulu Khorkhore was coming to devour you alive."
"The Lulu Khorkhore will kill me," Jamin stiffened his shoulders. "But first, I have a promise to keep. When you see Aturdokht again, tell her I deliver to her the next best thing."
Kudursin gave him a puzzled stare. "Why not tell her yourself? It was Marwan's daughter who pleaded with me to inquire if the lizard men wanted you."
"She, of anybody, will understand that sometimes you have to make do with your second best choices," Jamin said. A flutter of regret beat in his chest. She was a wealthy woman now. Without his village, he had nothing to offer the wild desert spirit. She was better off without him.
Lieutenant Kasib came out of the house he had gone into.
Sword of the Gods: Prince of Tyre (Sword of the Gods Saga) Page 84