Lair of the Winged Monster

by Dan Hunter

  “It tickles!” he said, looking at his arm.

  The scarab whirred its wings one last time, then fell – plop – into the sand, where it lay among the patches of blood. Akori carefully placed it back in his pouch. Manu’s arm bore a white blotch, but no sign of any wound. Ebe shook him and made a questioning noise.

  “I feel fine!” Manu said in answer. He sprang to his feet and pulled on his cloak. “Better than fine. I could walk. I could run!”

  Ebe laughed out loud. Joyfully, they hugged each other. It was almost enough to make Akori forget about the loss of his khopesh. Almost.

  I’ve still got the other gifts, haven’t I? he told himself. My scarab, my talisman, and my ring. Maybe I won’t even need my khopesh. But he didn’t really believe it. How could he stand before Horus again without the sword? Would Horus be angry, disappointed, or even despairing? Akori dreaded ever finding out.

  “Remember when Horus tried to warn you about some winged devourer?” Manu said. “I think we just met it!”

  “That vulture is one of Set’s beasts,” Akori agreed. “I’d swear to it.”

  “That wasn’t just a vulture,” Manu said. “It was too big and too intelligent. I think it was a Goddess, and I know which one. Nekhbet.”

  He took a scroll from his bag and showed Akori a picture. A Goddess with a woman’s body, a vulture’s head and huge outstretched wings was standing by the Pharaoh.

  “What’s she doing with her wings?” Akori asked. “Attacking the Pharaoh?”

  “No, protecting him,” Manu said. “Some of the Gods will always serve a Pharaoh, even if that Pharaoh is evil. Remember the cobra Goddess, Wadjet?”

  Akori remembered Wadjet all too well. She had been a huge cobra with a human face, not like this Goddess at all. “This Goddess has a human body, though,” he said. “How could she be the giant vulture?”

  “Sometimes the Gods can assume their animal form in order to do battle,” Manu explained. “Nekhbet must be working for Oba against the good Gods. Akori, don’t you understand? You faced one of the most powerful Goddesses, all on your own. And you beat her!”

  Akori didn’t feel like a triumphant hero though. His hand kept going to his side, feeling for the khopesh and finding nothing. The sword had been with him since the beginning of his quest for Horus and he was only now aware of how much he’d come to rely on it. It felt like he’d lost an arm or a leg.

  “Come on. Let’s get a drink,” Manu said.

  The three of them picked over the remains of their bags. Nekhbet’s talons had torn them to pieces and the contents had been scattered. They began to find the waterskins but their joy turned quickly to despair. Manu and Ebe held up bunches of tattered rags, torn and useless. Nekhbet’s sharp claws had punctured all of the skins. They continued to search, hoping they might find one intact, but not one had escaped. Every drop of the precious water had seeped away into the sand.

  “What about your waterskin, Akori?” Manu said hopefully. “We still have that one...don’t we?”

  “Nekhbet tore it to bits,” Akori replied. “I had to throw it to distract her. There wasn’t anything else to throw.” He swallowed hard. Already his throat was feeling dry. The sun felt hotter than ever. They were alone in the scorching desert, with the nearest water many miles away. How were they going to survive now? First the terrible thirst would come, and then the creeping madness – the curse of the desert. Every breath would be agony. In the end they would lie helpless, blinded by the relentless sun, too weary to move, praying for death...and then their bones would lie out here, unburied, scoured by the harsh desert winds.

  One thought came into Akori’s mind and refused to go away. At least death in Nekhbet’s claws would have been quick...

  Akori looked ahead towards the heart of the desert, where the baking sands were shimmering in the heat. The dunes looked red, like some strange, savage other world.

  “We can’t turn back and we can’t stand still,” Akori said. “So we just keep going. Come on.” He knew he was almost certainly leading his friends to their deaths. By the looks on their faces, they knew it too, and yet they stood up and followed on behind him without a word. Akori clenched his jaw and swore, once again, to be worthy of their loyalty.

  They walked for miles through an endless oven of red dunes. Nothing stirred. There was no wind to cool them. No creatures crossed their path, not even insects. More than once, Akori wondered if the vulture had actually killed them all and they were walking through one of the many Egyptian hells. Places like this were Set’s lawful dominion. Was he watching them now and laughing? Akori shook the thought out of his mind and trudged on. He longed for the cool of evening, but that was still a long way off.

  The endless burning day wore away at them. The nightmare of endless thirst was unbearable. Akori’s eyes ached, as if prickly ropes were being twisted inside his skull. His lips were cracking and his tongue felt like a lizard in a dry stone basin. The sand found its way into everything, clinging to arms and legs, working painfully into cracks and creases. Then the nightmare of madness began. Akori had seen nothing but blinding sun and crimson dunes for miles. Now he was seeing strange things in the corner of his eyes. Huge shapes seemed to twist and turn, but only when he was not looking directly at them, and there was a distant bell-like ringing in his ears. Akori knew they would soon start to lose their minds out in the wasteland. To keep his grip on reality, he bit his lip hard from time to time so the pain would bring him to his senses.

  “Look!” Manu cried, his voice cracking. “A well! We’re saved!”

  Akori followed his gaze. There was something greyish-white poking out of the side of a dune. It wasn’t a well – it was a dry old bush, long dead.

  Manu laughed as he ran towards it. But his laughter turned to a wail of despair as he tried in vain to fetch water from the bush.

  “The desert’s playing tricks on you,” Akori said sadly. “There’s no water there.”

  Manu scrambled out of the dry bush and rejoined him, looking miserable. Akori looked up ahead, praying they would find some kind of shelter soon. To his amazement, he saw a majestic figure towering high above the sand, arms outstretched in blessing. Behind it, the sun blazed fiercely, like a halo.

  “Horus!” Akori gasped. His prayers had been heard! Somehow, Horus had broken free of Set’s prison. Had he come to bring them water? Or maybe he’d come to bring him a new sword! Summoning up his last grain of energy, Akori staggered towards the radiant figure. “Horus!” he called, his voice shrunk to a painful whisper. “My Lord! I am here!” He turned back to tell the others to hurry up, but they were looking at him as if he was crazy. Well, it didn’t matter. This vision was obviously just for him. The vast figure of Horus towered above him. Akori flung himself at the God’s feet, grateful beyond words for his salvation.

  A terrible burning pain shot through his arms. He yelled and pulled himself away. He was bleeding from dozens of little scratches. What he had thought was Horus was in fact a massive cactus, covered in spikes. Akori sank into the sand. He had never felt so defeated. The cactus loomed over him, bigger than any other cactus he had ever seen. It seemed twisted and malformed somehow, as if magic had warped it. Some of its spikes were as long as his arm.

  Behind him, Manu had been curiously wandering closer. Now he suddenly screamed, “We’re saved!” and ran over excitedly.

  Akori tried to tell Manu that it had been an illusion, but he couldn’t bring himself to say a word. He lay in the shadow of the cactus, trying to force his arms and legs to obey his will. It took intense effort, but he managed to stand up. When he saw what Manu was doing, he wondered if he had lost his mind completely! Manu had grabbed one of the long spikes and was wrenching it off. Was he trying to attack it? Then a clean, sharp smell reached his nostrils. Manu had scraped out a handful of cactus flesh and was squeezing it into his mouth. Water was trickling down his chin!

  “Cacti store water inside themselves!” said Manu, digging out more wet green
flesh and offering a handful to Akori. “A cactus this size? We could live off it for years!”

  Akori sucked greedily at the pulp. Water gushed down his grateful throat, tasting sweeter than any water he had ever drunk before.

  Ebe found it was easier just to rip off a big spike, stab a hole in the cactus and drink from that!

  Once they had quenched their thirst and felt human again, they broke off some more cactus spikes to take with them for later, along with as much of the green flesh as they could carry.

  Manu consulted his map and whistled. “We’ve come a long way,” he said. “The hidden fortress shouldn’t be more than an hour’s walk from here! There’s just one thing I don’t understand.”

  “Only one?” Akori said.

  “How can it be a hidden fortress? There’s nothing here to hide it behind! Nothing but sand!”

  Ebe interrupted with a whine. Then she began to gesture frantically at the ground.

  “I know, Ebe,” Akori said. “I’m sick of the sight of sand too.”

  But Ebe became even more anxious, hopping from one foot to the other and pointing downwards. Akori wished she could speak, so she could just tell him what was wrong. Perhaps the heat was muddling her head too, and she was seeing mirages like he and Manu had? She might need another drink. He offered her a wad of wet cactus, but she shooed him away.

  “Manu?” Akori said. “I think Ebe’s seeing something—”

  But Manu was pointing to the ground too. “And so am I,” he said very slowly. “Akori, tell me I’m not going mad!”

  Akori looked down at the red sand.

  There, staring up at him, were a pair of cold, yellowish eyes, with slit pupils. As Akori watched, horrified, they blinked slowly.

  “Look!” Manu hissed. Another pair of eyes had opened in the sand nearby. And then another.

  “It’s not possible!” said Akori, staring at them. “We can’t all be seeing the same mirage!”

  The whole world seemed to have gone insane! How could the sand have eyes? Was the desert itself coming to life?

  The trio stood, gazing in disbelief at the three pairs of eyes staring back at them. Then the sand began to shift as each set of eyes rose up. Sand slid from three long, flat heads.

  “Lizards!” Akori exclaimed.

  Akori watched, transfixed, as the reptiles clambered up from their hiding places.

  They were huge, each one as long as a man, with red scaly bodies. Against the sand, they had been almost invisible. The camouflage was perfect!

  “They might not mean us any harm,” Manu said, backing away as he spoke. “Maybe they don’t eat meat.”

  The lizards watched them coldly and began to advance. The one closest to Manu opened its mouth wide, revealing a row of teeth as jagged and sharp as broken flints, then snapped it shut.

  “It doesn’t look like they eat cactus, Manu!” Akori said.

  Then, in one swift motion, the lizards stood up on their hind legs! They started marching down the dune, their eyes glinting with evil intent.

  Akori knew then that these were not natural predators. They were supernatural beasts, Set’s Minions, waiting in this dune in ambush. It all made sense now, Akori realized. Lizards were intelligent creatures. They must have known the huge cactus was the only source of water in this part of the desert. Where better to lie in wait for three thirsty travellers?

  The lizards were moving in to surround the group. Akori, Manu and Ebe backed up against each other, facing outwards.

  “You don’t know who I am, do you?” Akori growled at the lizards. “Because if you did, you’d know what I do to monsters!” With that, he grabbed for his khopesh. It was time to fight!

  But he had forgotten his khopesh was gone. The lizards made no sound, but they narrowed their eyes. Akori knew they were laughing at him. Soon he would be within reach of those red talons. How could they fight back? They had no weapons at all! He looked over his shoulder at the other two. “We need something to fight with!” he yelled.

  Ebe showed him her fists and gave a grim nod. She wasn’t going to go down without a battle. As for Manu, all he had was the bag of cactus fragments. That gave Akori an idea. “Manu! Give me one of those cactus spikes!”

  Manu passed Akori a long spike. Akori gripped it like a dagger. As the first lizard came shuffling down towards him, he jabbed at it with an angry yell. The lizard darted to the side and hissed at Akori as if to say, Ha, not fast enough! Akori gritted his teeth and tried again. But again the lizard was too quick for him, slithering away though the hot red sand. Akori wanted to fling his spike down in frustration but he knew he couldn’t give up. He had to deal with this enemy if he was to have any hope of saving Sekhmet. He took a deep breath and gripped the spike, imagining it was his golden khopesh. Just thinking of his sword made his birthmark start to tingle and Akori was filled with a new strength. “Aaaaarrrrrgh!” he roared as he charged towards the lizard. There was a horrible ripping sound as the spike broke through the lizard’s scaly skin. Cold black blood splashed up Akori’s hand. The lizard gave a startled hiss and pulled back. It looked wary now, surprised to have been wounded, determined not to be hurt again.

  “You two, get some spikes!” Akori urged the others. “Come on! We can fight them!”

  Manu and Ebe wasted no time in obeying. Manu held his spike two-handed above his head, waiting for a lizard to come close enough to attack. Akori felt a stab of concern for his friend. Manu was brave when he needed to be, but as a trainee priest he didn’t really know how to fight. Akori prayed he would be all right.

  Ebe was a different story. She gave the lizard approaching her a slow, cold grin, as if to say, The tables have turned – better start running away.

  The lizard hesitated, looking unsure. It glanced at its wounded comrade, who was limping away from Akori, bleeding across the sand. Seeing it was distracted, Ebe tensed – and sprang.

  Meanwhile Akori charged his own lizard once more, letting out a battle cry and raising the spike as if it were his lost khopesh. The wounded lizard’s nerve seemed to fail it completely. It turned and pelted back across the sand, hurling itself into the side of the dune. It squirmed, trying to burrow down out of sight. Akori leaped at it, and grabbed its tail.

  To his disgust, the tail fell off in his hands. He dropped it and it lay on the hot sand, twitching. The lizard wriggled down into the dune, vanishing from sight.

  Ebe had her lizard on the run too. It was bleeding from a dozen scratches where Ebe had caught it with her spike. Manu was holding his ground, yelling bravely at his lizard to come on and fight.

  Gritting his teeth, Akori picked up the tail and started waving it at the other lizards. “Is this what you want to happen to you?” he yelled at them. As soon as the lizards saw the severed tail they froze. Then, hissing in anger, they dropped to all fours and fled away up the dune.

  “Do we chase after them?” Manu panted, exhausted.

  “We’d never catch them if we tried,” said Akori, smiling at Manu’s bravery. “But we should find out where they were going, if we can.”

  Manu checked his map. A look of surprise came over his face. “I could be wrong...but from the direction they went, it looks like they were making for the hidden fortress! We must be right next to it!”

  Akori sniffed and looked about himself. “If we are, it must be really well hidden.”

  They all scrambled up the side of the large dune, following Manu’s directions. As they reached the top, Akori gasped in amazement.

  Spreading out beneath them, like a massive wound in the rocky ground, was a valley. The sloping sides were different shades of red, with clusters of dry bushes dotted here and there. They looked quite dead. All life seemed to have abandoned the place.

  In the valley’s very centre, carved from the same red rock that lay all around, was a squat fortress. It looked brutal and compact, like a clenched fist. The rising heat from the ground blurred the air, so the fortress seemed all but invisible against the scarlet roc
k.

  “We’ve found it!” Akori cheered. “Sekhmet’s imprisoned somewhere inside that thing. Come on. We have to finish our quest!”

  Filled with excitement and new hope, Akori half-ran, half-slid down the side of the valley.

  Then he stopped dead in his tracks. A horrendous hissing sound, like a huge kettle of water emptied over hot coals, erupted from inside the fortress.

  “Wh-what was that?” Manu stammered.

  “Whatever it is, it’s coming this way,” said Akori. “Quick!” He dived behind a thicket of dry bushes and lay low, hoping he wouldn’t be seen. He beckoned to the others to join him and together they watched the fortress, holding their breath.

  Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw next. Two war-chariots emerged, each one with a driver and an archer. They were wearing the Pharaoh’s colours and flying his banner.

  But the true horror was what pulled those chariots: colossal scarab beetles, clambering over the sand on legs like wavering tree trunks. Foul juice dripped from their mouths and from each one came a sickening, constant hiss...

  From below came shouted orders: “Keep a sharp watch out front! They can’t be far away!”

  Horrified, Akori, Manu and Ebe looked on as the two scarab-drawn chariots began patrolling back and forth in front of the fortress. The archers on the back of each one shaded their eyes and peered out across the desert. Both men looked strong. Akori was sure they could fire a killing shot, even at this range.

  But death from the point of an arrow would be mercifully quick compared to what Akori imagined those monstrous scarabs would do. He fingered the tiny scarab pin in his pouch, amazed at the difference between it and the colossal hissing creatures down in the valley. Their legs left dragging marks in the sand. Each scarab must weigh as much as a hippopotamus!

  Ebe looked from the patrolling chariots to Akori, her face full of fear.

  “I know!” he groaned. “But I can’t fight my way past them without my sword, can I?”