King of the Gods

by J. A. Cipriano

  “You seek the book, don’t you? I would advise against it,” a low, angry voice said from behind me. I spun around and found myself face to face with a guy who stood within a beam of white light. He looked about my age only way shorter. He had long black hair tied in a braid that fell down his back and huge brown eyes that seemed to take up most of his face. He was wearing thick white pants with a gleaming khopesh strapped to his leg but was otherwise unclothed.

  “What did you do with Aziza?” I asked, trying to decide whether or not this guy was a mummy.

  “I have done nothing with the jailer. I am not her quarry, and thus, do not fear her presence.” He shrugged at me. “But they might.” He pointed behind me.

  I felt water hit me in the back as the sound of creatures bursting from the river filled my ears. I whirled to see several men splashing toward me. The bloody, torn carcasses of crocodiles filled the water behind them, staining the river crimson. They were all dressed in similar linen tunics, but that wasn’t what concerned me. What concerned me were the spears in their hands and the angry, murderous looks on their faces.

  “Who are they?” I asked.

  “Setne, why are you helping him?” the lead one asked, pointing at me with his spear. The tip of it sparkled like obsidian in the relative darkness. Now that the torches had gone out, the cavern was illuminated by pale blue algae that seemed to cover every surface.

  “I’m not helping anyone. None of you should be here,” the guy behind me said. I fought the urge to look at him and instead kept watch on the guys with the weapons.

  “What did you guys do with Aziza?” I asked, but my words came out like a growl. Already, I could feel the wolf inside me getting riled up as he looked out through my eyes and licked his lips.

  “We have done nothing with her, but that shouldn’t concern you,” the leader said, running one hand over his bald head.

  “I disagree,” I said, fighting to stay calm as my hands clenched into fists. I consciously unclenched them. “I think you should return her and get the hell out of here before I kill you all.”

  They laughed, actually laughed. Well, everyone except Setne who I could hear moving slowly away from me. Maybe he could see things starting to writhe beneath my skin.

  “Are you laughing at me?” I roared, lunging forward as the wolf took over. The smell of forest and earth filled me up. The darkness of the cave faded away in an instant, everything snapping into surreal focus as I landed on top of the center goon, my feet planting into his chest and knocking him to the floor with a loud, wet crunch.

  His friends spun, but they were slow. So very slow. I drove our heel downward as hard as I could on the man’s amulet, shattering it. Crimson light exploded from his chest as the man thrashed and writhed. I was already moving, muscles and senses working in perfect harmony. I dodged a spear thrust and grabbed hold of the shaft.

  I whirled, using my weight to tear the weapon from the thug’s grip and drive it through the chest of another. The point of the weapon pierced his dragon-shaped pendant. A scream like a raging inferno filled my ears as I released the spear and flexed my claws. Something slashed through my thigh as I threw myself backward. It hurt like a thousand rusty fishhooks tearing out my flesh for a split second before it was pushed down and away.

  I landed hard on my back and rolled to my feet without stopping to take a breath. My hands clenched and unclenched as the remaining four guys stared at me in amazement and shock, two golden sarcophagi gleaming next to them.

  “Where is Aziza?” I snarled, words more animal than not. “I will not ask again.”

  Without saying a word, they dove back into the water, grabbed hold of the bloody crocodilian corpses, and vanished beneath its surface in a flurry of bloody foam. I was already moving, crossing the distance to the river’s edge in a single bound that threw up a spray of muddy water.

  “Don’t,” Setne said, one hand on my shoulder. How had he gotten to me so quickly? He squeezed, but not hard. “They don’t have her.”

  I swallowed, barely resisting the urge to tear off his arm as I sucked in a deep breath. “What?”

  “I said they don’t have your friend. She was pulled into the tomb.” He pointed to a spot below where the horrible smelling torch had been. “There’s a button there that releases a trap door. You must have hit it by accident.”

  My rage died away, forcing the wolf into the back of my mind as I reverted back to human form. “What? Is she okay?” I asked, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him. If he didn’t tell me … “How do I get her back?”

  “Go inside and get her.” He looked at me stony-faced. “It is the only way.”

  “Why are you giving me that look?” I asked as the wolf retreated back into its cave inside my brain. Now that the fighting was done, it wasn’t interested.

  “No reason,” he replied. “But be careful. The spirit of Neferkaptah lives within. He guards the book of Thoth. Even if you opt to leave it there, he will still come after you for entering his tomb. You do not want that.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I need the book and Aziza, so I’m going down there.” I pointed at the torch. “Would you be a sport and hit the button for me?”

  Setne sighed and looked at the ground for a long time before nodding once. He moved over to the spot and stared at me with sorrow-filled eyes. “Good luck,” he said and pressed the button.

  The next thing I knew, my body was rendered completely insubstantial, and I was sucked down through the sand.

  17

  I hit the spongy earth with a plop. There had been a point where I worried that I would remain in a gaseous state for a prolonged period of time, and I was extremely glad my time spent as vapor had been limited.

  I patted myself down to make sure nothing was missing. Nothing was, but I did know one thing for certain. I would not like being a ghost. That was for sure. There was something about not being able to scratch an itch on your nose that bugged me … a lot.

  Getting to my feet, I looked around, wiping my greasy hands on my tunic. I wasn’t sure what I expected, exactly, but what I saw was a little off. For one thing, all of the walls were shifting from neon purple to blue to green and back again in an endless swirl of changing color. Shapes that reminded me of electric jellyfish writhed within the walls, floating about on currents that couldn’t exist within stone. The ground beneath my feet was made of the same substance and looking down gave me the weirdest sense of vertigo I’d ever had.

  The ground beneath my sandaled feet was surprisingly similar to a trampoline. I bounced with every step. I couldn’t help it. As I glanced around, looking for somewhere to go, a smirk crossed my face. Instead of having a billion doors or tunnels, there was only one exit. A big rectangle was cut into the floor a few meters in front of me. Lightning zipped through the floor around it as I approached, each footstep sending green sparks flickering outward.

  Stairs led downward into a tunnel I couldn’t see the end of. I took a deep breath and began making my way down into the depths of the jellyfish-filled hole. It wasn’t long before I reached the bottom because the stair’s trampoline-like consistency made it easy to take them two and three at a time. I wasn’t sure how far down I’d gone when I reached the bottom, but since the entrance I’d taken was just a faint spot against the background of color far above, I was guessing it was at least a couple dozen flights.

  A lone door stood in front of me, glittering like polished ivory. Its handle resembled a giant batwing carved from solid jade. It glimmered as I reached out to take it. I pulled the huge door open, and when nothing zapped me into dust, I let loose a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

  “I am the loud noise in the dark, making you shriek in surprise,” a voice like a tattered sheet whipping in the wind whispered in my ear. I spun toward it, ready to kick ass. There was nothing behind me but iridescent jellyfish swimming through the stairs.

  “I am the tree scratching on stones, making you hide beneath your sheets.” The w
ords tickled along my flesh, and again, I turned back around, but like before there was nothing there.

  “Hello? Is someone there?” I growled, growing annoyed.

  “I am the one there when no one’s around,” the wind whistled in my ear, the like rustling leaves on a windswept evening.

  This time, I didn’t look around. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened my eyes, the door in front of me was very slightly ajar, and cool green mist drifted in through the crack, rising up toward me like an amorphous cloud.

  “I am the poison gas that fills your lungs,” the voice said, reptilian and squealing as the door swung open. Pungent gas that smelled like rotten eggs rushed out toward me. My feet hit the bottom step as I backed up. I stumbled, my hands flailing for purchase on the slick, gelatinous stone. I hit the ground with a bounce that sent me lurching forward into the cloud.

  It stung me like I’d just walked into a steam line, and the beast inside me howled in pain, threatening to burst outward as my skin blazed with green-black fire. I clamped my eyes shut, willing myself to move forward through the caustic mist, one burning hand stretched out as I called upon my magic to shield myself. At once, the fumes stopped burning me, but my flesh was still raw, still hurt even by that momentary contact.

  The wolf inside me wasn’t having it. It pushed me onward, crawling along my flesh and shoving down the pain. Then I began to heal.

  “I am the breath that’s stolen from your lungs, leaving you to drown and thrash.”

  “Shut up!” I cried, the beast snarling through my words. I summoned everything in me, reaching so deep inside that I could actually taste the wind whipping through the forest after a hard rain and forced my magic outward and moved past the gas and into the room beyond.

  “So, it looks like the gas is just in the doorway,” I said to no one in particular as I continued forward, dropping my magic when I no longer needed it to shield me.

  A raised dais with a huge white-marble chair upon it filled the center of the tiny room. Sitting upon that throne was a man. He was clad in golden armor that covered his shoulders and waist but left his well-muscled midsection bare. A huge golden crown sat upon his head that made me think of a golden top hat.

  “Was it you telling me all those things?” I asked, glaring at the figure who regarded me as someone would regard an interesting bug.

  His regal face contorted into a thin smile. “No,” he said, pointing behind me at the cloud. “That would be Neferkaptah.”

  “Oh?” I asked as the wolf inside me perked its ears up. Something about this guy did not sit well with Wepwawet. The wolf stirred, looking around and sniffing the air.

  “Indeed,” he replied, crossing one leg over his knee and leaning back in his chair.

  “He’s really not as scary as I thought he’d be,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at the cloud. “He’s more like the rock in my shoe.”

  “Even a rock in one’s shoe can cause paralysis.” He let the words hang between us for a few moments before continuing, “Why have you come here, Luke Peters?” He waved his hand, blue eyes staring off into the distance like he was watching something play out in front of him. “Never mind, I already know. I just didn’t realize I already knew.”

  “Okay, cool,” I said, glancing around. “So, why are you here?”

  “Calm yourself, Luke. I will not harm you.” He stood, stepping off of his dais and holding his hand out to me. “I promise.”

  “Okay.” I nodded to him. “But that doesn’t answer my question.”

  “What, not going to ask me why you should trust me?” He raised an amused eyebrow at me. “No, of course not. The great Luke Peters would never do that.”

  “How do you know my name?” I asked just before he ran one slender finger along my cheek. His icy touch made my knees shake from the cold.

  “I know everything.” His lips curled into a smile as he reached behind himself and pulled what looked like a golden dictionary from behind his back, only I was pretty sure it wasn’t actually a dictionary. “I just don’t always know that I know everything until I do.”

  “Is that it? The book of Thoth?” I swallowed, my eyes going wide. It couldn’t be this easy ... right?

  “Yes. I’m not really much of a writer. Never got my ten thousand hours in.” He shrugged at me. “But I’m going to give you this because I already know how this story ends.” He shoved the book into my hands, and the moment I touched it, power washed over me like dew over a spring morning.

  A picture of a sand dune was etched into the cover. The details were so fine I could make out each and every grain of sand. The book was lighter than I expected, weighing less than a comic book, but as I tried to thumb through it, I found I couldn’t open the cover.

  “Why won’t it open?” I asked, but as I looked up from the book in my hand, the world around me spun.

  I careened upward toward the ceiling with green mist trailing after me like an emerald comet tail. I threw my hands out in front of me to shield my face just as I slammed into the ceiling. It was like hitting really warm jelly. I plunged upward, holding my breath. When my lungs were about to explode, I sucked in a breath that tasted of spearmint and cotton candy.

  Iridescent jellyfish swam past me in the murk, and I had the distinct feeling that they were wondering what the hell I was doing there. I was spat out onto the surface a moment later, the book slipping from my fingers. I lay there like a flummoxed seal, my face pressed against the cool stone. The wind began to whip around me, kicking up little motes of dust.

  I got to my feet and glanced around. Off to my left, Setne was standing there, staring past me with wide eyes. Blood spattered the ground next to him, but for some reason, it didn’t seem like any of it was his. I turned my head, craning my neck so I could follow his gaze, and my breath ripped out of me.

  Aziza was waist deep in the water, blood leaking from a wound on her shoulder as she wrestled with a massive mummy. He spun, grabbing her by the arm and flinging her across the room. She smacked into the wall to my left as a massive crocodile sprang from the water.

  It snapped and thrashed at the mummy, but before I could blink, he had one arm around its neck and was forcibly yanking back on its head like he was trying to tear it off its body. The water around him was littered with the bobbing corpses of crocodiles and glittering golden sarcophagi.

  Ignoring the fight, I rushed toward Aziza while trying to count how many mummies she’d defeated in the time it had taken to get up here. Ten, twenty? Where had they all come from? Hell, how had she gotten back up here?

  “Aziza,” I said, and I wasn’t sure how she heard me, but she must have. Her head snapped up, eyes going wide as she took me in.

  “Look out.” I spun in time to see the mummy take two steps forward and fling the massive croc at me.

  I threw my arms up to block and called on my magic. Power poured out of me as the giant reptile slammed into me. My magic exploded outward in a wave that reduced the beast to a cloud of crimson foam. It splattered across me and the ground, leaving a Luke-shaped outline on the stone behind me.

  “Is that all you have?” I asked, taking a step forward. My hands clenched into fists, and I made an effort to relax them.

  “I’m surprised you’re not dead, wolf,” the mummy snarled. The words were so acidic they could have melted through the stone floor.

  “I don’t actually like being called wolf,” I replied, cracking a smile. “How would you like it if I called you mummy?”

  “It wouldn’t matter to me.” He shrugged his shoulders the barest fraction of an inch. He moved, one tentative step closer to me, the muscles in his legs tensing like he was about to spring. Well, if he wanted to fight, that was fine.

  “Aziza, take this.” I slid the gilded Book of Thoth into her hands and turned to face the mummy as he sprang, one hand swinging his curved sword in a wide arc at my head.

  I twisted. The blade swept by me, so close that the wind of it buffeted my clothing. I d
rove my right hand outward, catching him in the throat with the heel of my palm. The blow knocked him backward on his butt, the sword slipping from his hand and skittering across the stone.

  “Setne, what is going on?” I asked, and my voice was only partially mine. It had the spirit of the wind in it, thrumming under my words like the first stirrings of a winter storm. “Who is this guy?”

  “I’m not sure.” Setne swallowed. He shook himself from his trance and took a couple quick steps forward as the mummy regained his feet.

  The mummy’s eyes threw daggers at me as I leaped forward, my knee slamming into the underside of his chin and knocking him flat on his back. Then I lifted my left foot and planted it square in the middle of his chest so that the ball of my foot rested on his pendant. The light of it throbbed, sending sapphire shadows scampering across the dark stone.

  “Move again, and I’ll end you,” I said, glaring at the man.

  “You’re too late, wolf,” he said, mouth puckered up like he’d bitten into a particularly sour lemon. Black smoke burst from the mummy’s lips, eyes, and well, pretty much every hole in his head. It exploded upward, reminding me of the time the Sequoia National Forest had burned and filled the sky with thick, dark smoke for miles. Bits of paper white ash flitted through the air on unseen currents as darkness pooled against the silver backdrop of the room.

  He shuddered, his body writhing beneath my foot as I watched the smoke hit the ceiling and turned toward Aziza. It hit her a second later, slamming into her chest, and as it did, little silver sparks leaped from the book’s surface and zipped through the air before dying away like firecrackers in the night.

  The volume fell open in my hand as the black mist swarmed over it. Hieroglyphs brighter than the sun filled my vision, making black spots dance across my eyes as I shattered the pendant, but even though the mummy was recaptured, it did nothing to quell the mist.

  My flesh squirmed, bones shifting beneath my skin as I leaped for her. Even as my feet left the ground, silver light burst from the book, filling the room like a metallic sunrise as the pages revealed a wolf-headed warrior ascending a pyramid, one clawed hand gouged into the surface of the stone.