Finally, the king said, “Some I feel are very close, the others have to cross the ocean. All five survived their awakenings with the dragons and should be here within a few days. The main army will take much longer to make the journey.”
“What main army? What journey?!” Apep asked.
Gabi’s mind exploded in a burst of confusion.
“My army, Apep. Did you think all was lost? Did you think I was not smarter than humans? When the sages came to put us down, do you not think I had a back-up plan? My army is secure. I led only a hundred into battle – the rest I sent away to multiply and prepare in case we were to fall. By now they will number in the tens of thousands. We are nephilbock!” the king said, and pride filled Gabi’s chest.
“That’s impossible! There is nowhere you could have hidden an army that size for thousands of years!”
Then, as Ogliosh formed the thoughts, she gasped in horror. The army wasn’t hidden on earth, it was hidden inside the earth. Deep inside. Her mind reeled. Why? His people were astrologists, they were teachers! Why did he need an army?
“Inside, Apep! My army waits, deep in the bowels of the earth!”
“Inner earth?” Apep scoffed. “I knew it could be possible. After all, legends say Karelia has an inner world, but earth? Interesting… And you’re sure it was large enough and habitable for an army this size?”
“Of course, I am sure. The inner core is made up of liquid iron quartz. It is like an internal sun and provides for photosynthesis. The inner world is quite sustainable.” Gabi could feel Ogliosh’s impatience with Apep’s questions. “There is an opening not far from here in South America, in what is now called the Amazon. It is guarded by a native tribe of humans. They were to wait for the one phrase to be spoken. Once the phrase was spoken, they were to go and summon my people.”
“The Amazon in South America? How do you know these modern terms, Ogliosh?” Apep asked.
“I have a human. I have read through her mind and learned everything useful. She is a young human, but knowledgeable.”
Gabi felt her stomach tighten as she realized something was very wrong.
“Ah, the small one we walked past. Yes, very good.” Apep’s thoughts returned immediately to the army. “Do you understand how much time this will save us? You have ensured I have an army! If this army is as big as you say, you have done well, Ogliosh! Well indeed! For your efforts, let me offer a modest gift. I also have a human girl. Take her! She is young, but she is very intelligent for a human. She will be beneficial in furthering your knowledge. When you finish with her, have her for lunch, or whatever you like – just make sure she dies.” Apep laughed.
Apep was so suddenly happy that Gabi felt like giggling, but then Ogliosh spoke and his words left her feeling twisted again.
“Yes, I am quite hungry, and I expect my army will hunger for humans too.”
Gabi felt the giant’s hunger pangs as if they were her own. Tears filled her eyes. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, she didn’t want to believe. The shock racked her body, and she began to shake as she fought back sobs. He wasn’t going to help her. He wasn’t going to kill the dragon for her. Worse, he was going to kill her and… eat her! All this time, he was only pretending? He had been lying all along. He was supposed to be her friend! Ay, María Purísima, if he lied about this, what about Sarah? Had he eaten Sarah?
“Well, good. These two will get you started then! Mine is called Breanne. She is well educated. She was favored by the descendant of the mage who imprisoned you, and she helped kill your general. Make sure she suffers,” Apep said evenly.
Gabi’s breath came in rapid pants as panic set in and the tears stung her eyes. She couldn’t breathe. Ogliosh was going to check in on her any second and find out she had been listening. She just knew it! She was going to die! Her face was hot, and her vision narrowed. Think, Gabi! What had Apep said? Mine is called Breanne… Breanne? Sarah’s Breanne? Could that be? She looked over toward the heap crumpled on the platform. It was unmoving, exposed under the hot sun. She had to do something. She pushed herself up onto wobbly feet as the conversation in her head continued.
“What is the phrase that must be spoken to call forth my army?” Apep asked.
“Why does it matter to you, Apep?”
“I will go and speak the words while you do what needs to be done here. We need the army moving now,” Apep said as if the question were stupid. “How can you even be sure after thousands of years the humans you have entrusted will still be there? Will they still know the phrase?”
“They worship the nephilbock as gods. We are their religion. They will be there,” Ogliosh said confidently.
“We are wasting time!” Apep countered.
“You were never supposed to hold the stones in their assembled form. That was our agreement. The nephilbock were to be the keepers of the stones. We would assemble the Sound Eye only when it was time to return. The power is too great… too tempting for a—”
Apep’s crazy laugh flooded her mind. “For a dökkálfar? Is that you were about to say, Ogliosh?”
Gabi staggered past the Jeep and out onto the ledge. Something stirred inside her – inside Apep. It was a hateful feeling and she didn’t like it.
“You think me a fool, Apep. You think my army would follow you without the nephilbock to lead. Would you be so arrogant to try and cut us out? Would you try and leave us here? Or maybe you would try and turn my army against us? But you forget, Apep, you must place the Sound Eye atop the pyramid to open the gate. The words must be spoken, and you don’t know how. Don’t you forget that!”
“And once the gate closes, the Sound Eye comes back to the one who placed it atop the pyramid. Don’t you forget that, Ogliosh!”
“We have a treaty! You signed it in your own blood. When you rule Osonian there will be peace between dökkálfar, nephilbock, and dragons. That is why we all came, Apep. That’s the promise!”
“Yes! And that hasn’t changed! Once I overthrow my father, I will keep my word,” Apep said.
“And the nephilbock will be standing next to you all along the way, ensuring you keep your word. And ensuring you return to us our God Stone.”
“Of course,” Apep said. “Now allow me to go signal them so we can get on with this.”
“I would never allow an elf to call forth my army!”
“Careful with these new words you have learned, Ogliosh! Do you think it wise to insult me?” Apep said.
Gabi felt the Sound Eye begin to react to the Apep’s anger, and her own chest grew hot with rage. The rage she felt from the two creatures was flooding her mind and was almost too much to control as she reached the unconscious girl.
Gabi shook the girl. “Wake up, Breanne! Please, please wake up!” The sudden thought of kicking the sleeping girl in the ribs sprang forth in her mind. The angry emotions were not her own, and, amidst the rage that wasn’t hers, she felt ashamed for thinking of hurting her. She threw her palms to both sides of her head, shutting her eyes up tight, trying to somehow force the feelings away. She wanted to scream. She shook the girl again. “Wake up!” she shouted.
Breanne moaned and opened her eyes, fixing them on her with confusion.
“Your service is not required, Apep. It has already been taken care of!”
“What! How?” Apep asked.
“I ordered one of my five to give the signal before reporting here. So you see, it is done!”
“Well, good! Then I can get on with more pressing matters.”
“I still don’t believe you, Apep. Just like I don’t believe Balor was so easily convinced to obey you, nor that he was destroyed by a tiny human boy.”
Gabi sensed Apep’s anger turn to something else, and she didn’t fully understand the emotion, but it terrified her.
“You would be best to remember your place. You can think whatever you want but understand this. You and all your half-breeds are mine to command until this is over, and I am on the throne. Do we have an unders
tanding?”
Ogliosh hesitated only briefly. The decision lingered between them. Finally, he nodded.
“Good. Now, how long before they arrive?”
“Three months hence, maybe longer. Now, perhaps you should deal with Azazel? I am sure she will be making her own plans.”
“Just leave her to me. Her dragons will have plenty of humans to feed on, with plenty more to enslave. You have no idea how their population has grown over the millennia.”
“My human has informed me of the population among other things,” King Ogliosh said.
The king thought of Gabi in that moment, and she froze, gasping sharply. She grabbed the girl’s shirt in fistfuls and shook her desperately. “Get up, get up, get up, Breanne!”
Breanne sat up, blinking. “Where am I, and who are you?”
“I’m Gabi. We’ve got to go. Can you walk?”
“Gabi? Sarah’s Gabi? I… I think so.”
Gabi nodded. “Come on!”
“I know what Azazel will be doing and where she and hers will gather. I have known for a long time. When the time comes, all you need to do is make sure the door is open and stable,” Apep said confidently. “Azazel will want to go home to her people as much as we do. I will go to her. I have a proposition she won’t be able to refuse. This is all coming together so much easier than last time. You should have allowed me to assemble the stones in the first place.”
Gabi pulled on Breanne’s arm in a frantic jerk. “We need to hurry, Bre!” she begged. Then as she tried to speak again, a sudden smugness washed over her. “Get in the Jeep, stupid girl, or do you want to die?” She gasped at her own words, covering her mouth in shock.
In that same moment Ogliosh spoke with a smug finality. “Even with the Sound Eye, you can’t control dragons.”
Breanne, still clearly disoriented, turned to look at her with furrowed brows. “What? No! Of course I don’t want to die!”
“I’m sorry! I wasn’t … I didn’t mean…” Gabi pleaded as she led her to the Jeep and yanked open the door.
Apep’s voice screeched in her mind, and she felt this new agitation rake down her spine. She balled her fist. “María Purísima, please!”
Apep snapped back at the giant. “I don’t need to control them, I just need Azazel to follow orders!”
“You have no idea what assembling the Sound Eye is doing to this world. You have put us on a timeline, Apep. This tiny world wasn’t made for the power of the Sound Eye. In time it will destroy itself, but before it does the creatures of this world – humans and others, the ones that are capable – they will feed on the Sentheye! What do you think will happen when those creatures find out you wish to open the portal home and take the power from this world? Do you think they will want to give up the Sentheye after they have tasted it? There is an awakening happening, and they will all want what you have.”
“Then you better get to work, King Ogliosh. Now I suggest you stop! Stop trying to get into my head!” Apep said.
The Sound Eye began to glow.
“I’m not in your head! Wait! What is this!?”
Gabi tried to slam the door of her mind, but it wouldn’t close. “Seat belt, Breanne!” she yelled, pulling the emergency brake.
Breanne pulled on her belt, clasping it into place with a click. “Do you know what you’re doing?”
“No!” Gabi yelled, as the Jeep rolled forward toward the edge of the ledge.
“Gabi!” the giant yelled in her mind.
“The human!?” Apep said.
Pressure pushed against her mind, and a door slammed with a sharp pain. Apep was gone. Now she could only hear Ogliosh. “You should not have been listening, human girl.”
The voice was not her father, it was the ugly voice of betrayal. The ground shook as an angry roar filled the tunnel. Gabi gripped the wheel of the Jeep for dear life. She looked in the side mirror in time to see Ogliosh appear behind them, coming fast.
“What the hell is that?!” Breanne yelled as the Jeep tipped over the edge of the platform and down onto the mountain.
Both girls screamed.
51
Feast and Grow!
Wednesday, April 9 – God Stones Day 4
Rural Chiapas State, Mexico
Apep and Ogliosh arrived at the edge of the ledge just in time to see the Jeep bounce across the uneven terrain, crash through the camp near the base of the mountain, and vanish into the gorge below.
Apep laughed. “You fool. You’ve let them escape.”
“Careful, Apep,” King Ogliosh said, tightening his eye, “I don’t bow before you. You aspire to be a king, but you forget I am already a king.”
Apep spun on him, staring skyward, trying to meet the giant’s eye. “It is you who should be careful – I possess the Sound Eye,” he snapped.
“You possess nothing, you only hold it.”
Apep frowned. “Either way – hold it, possess it. The point is, Ogliosh, I could smite you with its power.”
The giant stared back, his one eye unblinking. “The humans are of no matter,” he said flatly. “There will be more, many more, to harvest.”
Apep hated giants – not as much as humans, but still he hated them. They were big and dangerous, worthless if not for their size and impossibly long lives. The truth was he didn’t know how long they lived – perhaps forever. And they never seemed to forget anything. While humans were cursed with incredibly short lives and were too stupid to remember yesterday, nephilbock remembered it all. The dökkálfars were the perfect race, and he was the perfect dökkálfar. Perhaps he would take the dökkálfar goddess Ereshkigal as his own wife when this was over. Yes, she would make the perfect queen.
Apep shook away the thought. All in due time. Everything that was owed would be paid. “You will be vulnerable to humans and their weapons should they find out about you and send armed forces. Two birds, one stone. I will clean up this mess with these two escapees and provide you with some protection while I am gone!” And show this nephilbock why he should fear me in the process, Apep thought, as he began to chant words and the Sound Eye began to glow. Blue-grey ribbons the color of Apep’s skin poured forth in thick bands. The elf stepped to the edge of the ledge.
King Ogliosh backed away from Apep toward the mouth of the pyramid.
Apep opened his palms to the sky and gazed out from the ledge, down the mountain to the jungle beyond. The ribbons of power dissipated into a fog, flowing down over the mountain, following Apep’s gaze as it spread across everything in sight. He chanted more words and the Sentheye obeyed, moving with a purpose, his purpose. He was one with the Sentheye, seeing through it.
The jungle floor teemed with life. Just in his span of reach were thousands of insects – mosquitoes, ants, flies, and larger bugs too. There were scorpions, spiders, and some sort of strange giant beetle nearly as big as Apep’s hand. Then he detected even more substantial life. Iguanas sunned themselves on the warm rock shelves while others fought amongst themselves over females and territory. Further down the steep slope he sensed a lynx and her young. She was nursing a litter under the shade of a rock outcropping. He reached even further and deeper, groping with the Sentheye, finding even more creatures – poisonous vipers, wild dogs, something like a racoon but not a racoon. What a strange thing. The Sentheye led him to dozens of small black monkeys. There were so many of them, the trees seemed full of them.
“What are you doing, Apep!?” Ogliosh asked, his massive brow wrinkling.
Ignoring the giant, Apep cocked his head to the side. Yes, I see you, I see all of you. He sucked in a deep breath and extended his hands outward, splaying his fingers. How strange he must look, dressed in human clothes, boots, and a long duster with his magical crown slightly askew atop his midnight hair. He supposed he looked almost comical, but what came next no one would find amusing – except him of course.
He chanted the words over and over, shouting them as loud as he could shout. “Flah oz zaeshi ff mue, flah oz zaeshi! Flah oz za
eshi!” More Sentheye poured from his hands as dense as smoke from burning car tires. The Sentheye supercharged the liquid grey fog until it too became impossibly thick, heavy like liquid given shape, given purpose. But this was not smoke, nor shadow, nor liquid. No, this was power – magic – Sentheye.
“Now eat! Feast upon the Sentheye and grow!” Apep shouted triumphantly.
The Sentheye found its way to all the creatures, and as the creatures fed on the Sentheye, the Sentheye consumed them, then changed them. From the thick smoke a giant snake slithered, iguanas lifted their heads above the fog, a jaguar roared, trees swayed and bowed under the weight of giant monkeys. Wasps, mosquitoes, and even biting gnats could be seen from a distance.
Apep dropped his hands to his side, his vision becoming narrow as he swayed on his feet. Just as quickly as it had begun, it was over. He blinked back the darkness, surprised at the exhaustion he felt.
“What have you done?” the king demanded as he leaned his great girth over the mountainside for a better look.
“I am cleaning up your mess. If the human females lived through that little stunt they pulled, these creatures will ensure they don’t for long. You will be vulnerable while you work. If word gets out about you being here, they could send military. My new pets will take care of them,” Apep said, brushing his hands together in satisfaction. He turned back to the giant. “You’re welcome.”
Below, giant insects buzzed around noisily. A few iguanas darted off – the rest, about a dozen or so, were all easily visible due to their newly acquired monstrous size. They were seemingly unaware of how they had grown as they went back to sunning themselves or fighting one another for space. “You can command them?” Ogliosh asked skeptically, pointing down the mountain at a viper easily forty feet in length as it slithered through base camp.
The Keepers Of The Light (God Stone Book 2) Page 35