“Indeed,” Aziza said, still grinning at me. “So, all you need to do is call upon your newfound magic, throw the guardian over your soldier like a continental soldier, and move down the hill, preferably before more monsters come to kill you. And they will come. Trust me.”
“How the hell do I have magic?” I snapped, leaping to my feet and staring at the stupid ghost. I held my palm out to her.
“The sacred heart grants the user magic, it’s a little more complicated than that, but that’s the nutshell version of what’s going on. Now close your eyes and let me walk you through the unlocking process.” She reached out and trailed her fingers along my eyes like she was trying to shut them, only it didn’t work because her fingers just passed through my face.
I was about to start yelling at her, but the look on her face pleaded with me to just go with it. I huffed out an annoyed breath and shut my eyes. Then I tried to ignore the fact I was talking to a ghost who said I had magic. What was next? An owl with a letter? Congratulations Luke, you’re a wizard. I snorted. I couldn’t help it.
“Concentrate,” Aziza snapped, and I stiffened, trying to do as she asked even though it was ridiculous. “Now reach out to the sacred heart. You won’t consciously be able to feel it or anything, but there’s nothing to do about that. Just breathe in, and when you do, imagine you’re trying to commune with the energy all around you like a crazy hippy.”
“That is the worst explanation I’ve ever heard,” I replied as I took a long, slow breath like I’d learned to do in a Shaolin temple a few years back.
The monks there had spent most of the day in meditation, and while I hadn’t found inner peace, I was more than used to meditating. At the time, it’d nearly drove me insane, especially since my father insisted I not spend the time reading. So, I’d sat there for ten to fifteen hours a day and tried not to go insane. The sad thing was that wasn’t even close to the worst summer I’d ever had.
I let go of the memory, allowing my mind to drift like the monks had taught me, and as I did so, I felt the pulse of something deep inside me like the faint beating of a heart. My concentration snapped toward it.
A thud echoed through my inner space, and without realizing, I’d reached out toward it with my mind. The sacred heart filled my vision. It looked like it had when I had first picked it up, but as I focused on the object, I realized it was looking at me.
Or rather, a huge golden wolf with eyes like rubies regarded me curiously. An involuntary shudder went through me, and as I tried to open my eyes and break the connection, scarlet tentacles lashed out, wrapping around my arms and legs and holding me in place. It was then that I realized I was, somehow, standing on a large purple platform. Cotton candy pink stars flashed through the sky overhead as I stood there, completely flummoxed by what was going on.
“Hello,” I said, somewhat surprised I could speak.
I’d half-expected to be unable to find my voice, but no, I could talk just fine. Now if I could just do something about the tentacles undulating around me, I’d be good. I was more than a little worried about them, but admittedly, not that worried. I was still pretty sure I was still physically standing back on the hill on Delos. This was just some weird mental thing. If this thing tried to kill me, I’d just wake up. At least I hoped so.
“Who are you?” the wolf asked, and the stars above pulsed with his words.
“I’m Luke,” I replied because asking “who the hell are you,” right back seemed a touch snotty. I wasn’t sure what this thing was, but Aziza had told me I needed to unlock my power, and this creature had to be part of that.
“Luke,” he said, rolling my name over his tongue. “That’s an interesting name.”
“Thank you—”
“It will not do.” He cut me off with a wave of his paw. “How do you expect to strike fear in the hearts of men and beasts with a name like Luke?” He was suddenly there in front of me, his eyes only an inch from my own. I wasn’t sure how that was possible since I hadn’t seen him move, but there it was. “You will need a new name if I am to aid you, one befitting your new station as my hand, Luke.”
“Your hand?” I asked as calmly as I could. I partially did it because if I didn’t ask about that, I was going to start screaming about how I was named after the guy who blew up the Death Star, and he could back the Hell off.
The thing smirked which was altogether weird since I didn’t know wolves could do that. “Aziza has given you the sacred heart. Do you know why it is called that?”
“No?” I offered as a bad feeling swelled in my stomach, and the urge to panic increased exponentially. This was the part where he revealed he was the devil himself. I knew it. Well, that was the last time I trusted ghosts. You’d think I’d know better, but evidently not. Still, if this was where I was going to bite it, I wasn’t going to do it like a wuss.
“It is not as you think,” he said, and his wolfish smirk grew wider, revealing dozens of dagger-like yellow teeth. Those were the teeth of a carnivore, and at the moment, I didn’t see any other meat around. “Long ago there were only three hundred and sixty days in a year. Nut was forbidden to have children on any of those days, but she desperately wanted to have children with Geb. She went to Khonsu, God of the Moon and begged for help. It did no good because the moon god was an ass. Fortunately, Nut was prepared for this. Khonsu was a gambler. She managed to win five extra days of moonlight from the moon god in a game of chance. Those last five days are known as the demon days.”
“Are you seriously telling me that the sacred heart has something to do with the demon days from ancient Egypt?” I asked, and I couldn’t keep the relief out of my voice. That was quite a bit better than I’d hoped for.
“Yes. There were five sacred hearts, one for each of the five days. The one you now possess once belonged to the Egyptian warrior known as the Dunewalker. He was … an interesting fellow.” The wolf waved his paw as if to say, “You know how some people are.”
“Wait,” I said, holding my hands up to make a time-out gesture, and surprisingly, I could do it. I was no longer bound in tentacles. I was standing there unharmed. This was getting better and better. “Isn’t he the guardian?”
“No. The guardian you see was merely chosen to guard the heart until the Dunewalker could be found.” The creature took a step forward and gestured at me.
“You can’t mean me, can you?” I asked, shocked. “I’m a college kid.”
“Perhaps you were, Luke. You are not now,” the wolf replied, staring into my face with his ruby eyes, and I got the distinct impression everything about me was laid bare before him. “I see understanding dawning in your eyes. This pleases me.” He offered his golden paw to me. “I am Wepwawet.” As he spoke the heavens above boomed in response, and I knew deep down he was telling the truth. “Accept me, Luke. Become my hand, and your name will be like a dirge wailed into the ears of your enemies.”
4
Before I could even respond to the wolf, a terrifying shriek exploded in my ears. My concentration shattered, causing the pink sky of the wolf’s domain to splinter into a billion glimmering shards of light. In an instant, I was back in the temple of Isis, standing next to Aziza beside the downed guardian’s body.
A swarm of birds was coming toward us in a seething mass of glinting bronze beaks that blotted out the sun. The creatures were huge, easily dwarfing the giant condors I’d seen at the zoo when I was a kid.
I stood there gaping at them as they hurtled closer. As the massive birds approached, they flung their wings forward at us in one nearly perfectly choreographed movement. Millions of metallic feathers burst from their bodies and streaked through the air like glinting, metallic arrows.
A cry of surprise tore from my lips as I stumbled backward, trying to scramble out of the way. I might have been known to snatch an arrow or three from the air, but this? This was impossible … There had to be thousands of them. Still, there was nowhere to run and hide and no shield to use to block them. I had two choic
es. Stand there and get skewered or try to knock them away. Admittedly, it was a pretty poor set of options.
Trying my very best to ignore the screaming voice of logic in my head, I shoved down my fear and rooted myself to the temple’s stone floor, spreading my legs into a wide, yet sturdy stance. I sucked in a slow breath in an attempt to still my hammering heart and dropped my arms to my side like I had done when my dad let that crazy Chinese monk shoot arrows at me for a day and a half. Yes, I still have the scars, but there are less than you’d think.
The air in front of me filled with iridescent purple light as the first feather approached, but I ignored it, allowing my brain to enter its “knocking arrows away from my face before they turned me into Swiss cheese” happy place.
My hands snapped outward on their own, batting aside the first metallic feather in a blur of speed honed from countless hours of practice. The feather smacked into the stone at my feet with a screech that threw up a cloud of sparks. I ignored it, mostly because I was too busy smashing the next several feathers from the air, and as I did, time seemed to slow.
Pain shot through me with each strike, but it felt far away and distant as I continued to move, continued to strike down the arrows. Even as blood began to run down my arms from numerous cuts and slices along my hands and wrists, I was too concerned with the whole not dying thing to focus on it very much.
Then the birds were upon me, and even though I’d never done it before, I began punching the crap out of what amounted to metal eagles. Their razor sharp bronze beaks struck out at my flesh as I weaved and dodged, doing my best to keep the creatures from laying so much as a single metal feather on the unconscious guardian. I mostly succeeded. I felt a little bad about it, but hey, stitches were sexier than being dead.
My chest heaved with effort as I stepped further into my Zen place. I’d had this happen before, and when it did, it always scared me a little because when it did, I was no longer a thinking being. I was a coil of tight muscles hammering my enemies into oblivion, even if my enemies were eighty-year-old monks who had just smacked me upside the head one too many times.
A second later, the cloud of avian death had passed by us, flapping upward into the sky like I was no more than a distraction. The bodies of their unconscious brethren littered the temple around us, and as I stood there shaking from the adrenaline coursing through my veins, their metallic carcasses began to melt into puddles of molten bronze. Then the stupid things began to flow together across the stone around me.
They converged into a shape that rose from the earth like that liquid metal Terminator after it had gotten blown apart. The air around the creature was so hot that even from several meters away, it sucked the moisture from my body. The mass of superheated metal lumbered forward, splattering bits of goo that popped and hissed across the temple. It was already fifteen feet tall and still growing. The ground beneath its feet cracked as it settled its molten bronze eyes on me and reached out for me with one glowing red hand.
“What the hell is that?” I cried as I snatched up the guardian’s hammer. Somehow the weapon didn’t seem adequate, but there is no way I was going to try punching something made of liquid metal, magic powers or not.
“Metal golem,” Aziza replied, her voice strangely calm. “They aren’t that big a deal. They’re pretty stupid. Just use your magic to suck out all its heat, and it’ll freeze in place. Then one good blow should shatter it completely.”
“Are you mad?!” I cried as the golem took another step toward me, and I pointed my tiny weapon at it.
“Look, Luke, just do as I say!” Aziza snapped as I ducked under one huge swipe of the creature’s hand and smashed it in the chest with all the strength and momentum I could muster. The weapon crushed the monster like it was made of tinfoil, but as I jerked the head of the hammer free with a squelch, the wound instantly sealed over, leaving behind no trace that’d I’d so much as dented its shiny metal surface.
“Stupid golem!” I yelled in frustration and tried again … which resulted in pretty much the same thing.
I reared back for a third swing, and as I did, the golem regarded me like I was a particularly annoying gnat before lunging at me once more. Awesome. This was going awesome!
“Stop hitting it and use your magic!” Aziza said, her voice filled with forced calm.
“I don’t know how to do that! Is there a magic word or something?” I growled, rolling between the thing’s legs and driving the hammer through its back. The head burst through its chest, splattering the ground with bits of molten metal. I had half a second to be glad none hit the fallen guardian when the golem whirled around, wrenching the weapon from my hands.
“Try yelling freeze,” Aziza suggested, and because I had no better ideas, I threw my hands out in front of me and screamed as loud as I could.
“Freeze!”
The world slowed down. Cold came over me, causing gooseflesh to break out on my arms as I sucked in a breath of frigid air even though it was like a hundred degrees outside and I was beside a golem that was more blast furnace than anything else. That cold swept over me, and as it did, my hands began to glow with soft blue light.
Thrumming filled my body, begging me to release it, and oddly enough I knew I could. I nodded to myself, directing the cold to escape from my outstretched hands.
A torrent of sleet and snow erupted from my fingertips, blasting the creature full in the face and sending it flying backward across the temple. It crashed to the ground and shattered into a million tiny shards of metal. I stared at in amazement until those shards started melting back together just like that stupid terminator. If this kept back up, it’d be on me in a couple minutes. I needed a more permanent solution. Right-freaking-now.
“Um, what now?” I said, my hands still outstretched. I still couldn’t quite believe I’d just thrown magic ice at the thing, but unfortunately, if I stopped to try to understand that craziness, the golemsicle was likely to get back up and punch me to death. I made a deal with myself. I’d freak out after I survived being attacked to death.
“Run like the wind!” Aziza replied before making a “hurry up” gesture. “Duh!”
She didn’t need to tell me twice. Without thinking, I reached out to the wolf in my head even though doing so made me feel like a special kind of idiot. I felt his presence spread out inside my mind, and for a moment, I got the impression that someone far above was looking down at me and grinning maniacally while stroking a cat.
“Have you made up your mind?” the wolf’s voice reverberated in my brain and lightning crackled in the sky above me.
“Can you help me carry this guy to safety, Wepwawet?” I asked, and I got the distinct sense the god was chuckling at me.
“And so much more. The power I have lent you thus far is but a taste.” The sky roiled as if an example, and it made me wonder for a split second if I could also control storms.
I shoved that thought away, spared a glance at the rising golem, and let out a sigh. There was a small chance I could survive without Wepwawet’s power, but I really doubted it. No, I needed his help, and while I wasn’t sure what strings he’d attach to it, I was willing to bet it was better than being dead.
Besides, if I accepted his deal and still died, well, I wouldn’t have to do anything. See, I’m totally a glass-half-full guy.
“Then I accept,” I replied aloud even though it would make me look like I was talking to myself. Then again, it probably didn’t matter anyway. The only people up here who could comment on it were a ghost and an unconscious magic pharaoh. They could both bite me.
“Are you sure?” Wepwawet said, and the hint of a question in his voice was strangely mocking.
“Yes!” I said, knowing full well I might have just sold my soul to an ancient Egyptian wolf.
Before the word had even left my lips, a surge of energy exploded through my body, filling me up from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. Red and purple sparks danced along my flesh, and for a second, I could ac
tually see every dust mote moving in the air, feel the worms burrowing through the ground beneath my feet, and taste the salt in the sea surrounding the island.
Scarlet lightning leaped from my hand and struck the golem, obliterating what remained of the creature and turning the surrounding sand into slag. More lightning struck the molten chunks that flew every which way until the whole of the golem was quite simply gone.
It was amazing. And terrifying. This was who I’d just asked for help, who I had just become the hand of, and sadly, I got the impression, this was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the wolf’s true power. Whatever his motivations were, there could be no doubting his strength.
Before I could let that thought take hold, I focused on the task at hand. I needed to get the guardian to someone who could help him. While I wasn’t sure how to treat injuries like he’d sustained, or what was even wrong with him since he’d magically healed his horrible gut wound, I wanted to at least get him to the first aid station down the hill.
This time, when I hefted the guardian in my arms, he felt lighter than a feather.
I spun back around to make my way back down the hill when I caught sight of Aziza staring at me from a few feet away. The look on her face made me stop in my tracks. She was afraid, but why? Surely, she knew who was in that sacred heart. After all, she’d been the one to tell me to take it.
“What?” I asked, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice as the sky above us roiled and churned. “What is it?”
“You changed.” She pointed at me, and her hand was shaking violently.
“I changed?” I gave her a quizzical look. “What about it?” I reached up and touched my head, but nothing seemed out of place. My hair didn’t seem to be on fire or anything.
“You’re a werewolf,” she said, and the tone of her voice was almost scarier than her words.
I was a werewolf? How was that possible? I looked down at myself, and as I did, I realized it was true. I’m sure I should have been worried, but as I stared down at my lanky, muscled arms, I couldn’t help but smile. Sure, they were covered with light brown fur and had giant black claws extended from my fingertips, but with everything else that had happened, well, it just felt fitting.
King of the Gods Page 3