Rand softly spoke to the other man and then headed towards her with all the fury of the world. She knew he wouldn’t be happy to see her. The last time she visited him, he nearly killed her. All Rand wanted, was to be left alone in peace.
“Why are you here, Terra?” Rand asked the former Judge.
“I mean you no ill will, Keeper,” she replied, showing him respect by bowing slightly. She truly did respect the man but not many of the people who knew her showed her the same courtesy in return. Most feared her. Some despised her. She didn’t blame any of them for the feeling either. She was responsible for a good number of deaths over the years. This would be another way of repaying her debt to humanity.
The wind howled around them, making them duck and cover their heads. Through the swirling vortex of air, Terra said the one thing that Rand didn’t want to hear. “I need your help.”
His eyes glowed bright, causing the mortal Terra to step back in fright. Normally, she would’ve just stood her ground unafraid. But now…she knew how easily she could die.
“I will ask you again… Why are you here?”
She straightened. “To help those who helped me.”
His anger faltered at her honest answer. He didn’t expect anything like that to come out of her mouth. Most of the time, she would ask for favors, not help.
Rand calmed some. “Why should I?”
She glanced over her shoulder as a small four-door sedan was sent rolling down the dirt road. “For them,” she replied. “You know they can’t succeed on their own. I’m surprised you let them fight and not run. Anepou is much too powerful—even for Hank.”
Rand’s shoulders fell slightly. “I’m supposed to be avoiding conflict, Terra. Anepou and the other Order members cannot obtain the Elixir. You know what will happen if they do…”
She nodded. “Yes, I do. And it’s the Elixir of Life that I need now.”
His eyes sparked. “Why?”
“To help, Great Architect.” She bowed slightly, showing him respect, something she’d never done before. The Judges respected very few in the past. “I need to help Hank and Nicole or they will die.”
His jaw unclenched and he closed his eyes, rubbing them hard. “What would you have me do, Judger of Man.”
Hearing her former title made her uncomfortable and she was about to mentally relive all those terrible things within an existence she only just escaped. But this time was different. She’d willingly jump back into the fire for Hank and his team. This was her choice—a choice she knew she could live with.
She held out her arms. “I need to be me again…but with one exception.”
Rand’s left eyebrow lifted, nonverbally asking the question. “And that is?”
“Do not make me immortal. I do not want that burden thrust upon me again. I wish to live my life as one of them—a mortal.”
He nodded. “I know what you mean,” he smiled, “Terra, Guardian of Man. I wish you luck.”
Rand held out his hand and concentrated, looking deep into Terra’s very DNA, searching for the piece of her past that still existed. It was the same spec of An’talean DNA that he found inside of Hank, attached to his garbage genetics. It’s what truly separated Rand’s people from the human world. If Anepou got his hands on the pure Elixir, he’d be able to grant his followers the same power he now did for Terra. Nearly all of humanity had trace amounts of his people’s bloodline through centuries of interbreeding. Though diluted, it could still be activated with ease.
Focusing harder, Rand’s eyes again flashed brightly as he did what he knew was right. Terra had changed over the millennia, that much he knew. There were few people Rand could trust, or in this case, believe. Terra, however, was one of them. She never posed a threat to him over the years but for his own safety he avoided contact with her. If anyone suspected that she knew where to find him, both would already be goners.
Terra screamed at the top of her lungs as her essence was glued back together. Each fractured puzzle piece re-adhering was more agonizing than the last. Like an invading virus, the An’talean part of her DNA conquered the human part, slithering its way into her nervous system and brain. Hovering a foot off the ground, Rand finally let go and dropped to one knee, breathing hard.
Terra also fell, landing on her feet, crushing the stone ground beneath her lithe frame. She may have still looked human, but there was something monstrous itching to reveal itself.
“It is done,” Rand said, closing his eyes. Two hands picked him up and began to drag him away, heading deeper into the city. Neither Nando nor Rand looked back, they didn’t need to. The ground rumbling beneath their feet was evidence enough. Terra would use the very Earth around her as her sword and shield.
She might just be enough to turn the tide against Anepou.
Rand hoped he was right. Anepou was truly the greatest warrior An’tala had ever seen. He was also the only living being on the planet that Rand was truly frightened of.
Anepou, Lord of Death.
* * *
Nicole and I hold each other up as the ground contracts and splinters. If we were fully human, I’m sure we would’ve been thrown to the ground already. Instead, we simply adjust our stances and lean into the quakes like a surfer does a wave.
An undead wave…
Anepou calmly chants to himself as his physical body continues to flicker in and out of the visual spectrum. The only thing not fading is his skeleton. He’s repeating the same four words over and over again, the tempo increasing with every go-around.
That’s when the freakiest of things happens.
Hands burst through the ground in the classic zombie style, but none of them are a ragged mess of flesh like the movies portray it as, or like Enki’s mitutu. No, these complete and very alive skeletons appear through a thickening layer of fog and steadily make their way towards us as they continue to yank themselves free of the mass gravesite.
Nicole and I look at each other and shrug. As I do, I see a group of them behind her and quickly spin, seeing a similar cluster behind me. We’ve been surrounded on all sides by an army of living bones. They’re closing in fast from every direction, looking stronger and stronger with every step taken.
“It’s gotta be Anepou,” I say, thinking aloud. “He’s giving the dead the power to rise and fight. We need to take him out.”
“How?” Nicole asks in my mind, still unable to speak. “We can’t touch him, and if we do, he just shrugs it off like nothing happened.” She eyes me. “I’m not sure we can beat him, Hank.”
My eyes narrow. “We have to.”
Suddenly, two huge slabs of stone rise out of the ground and pancake Anepou between them, fusing together as they do. The ground around us bucks again but instead of cracking further, it begins to settle, trapping some of the still emerging skeletons waist deep. Nicole and I look around and see a form emerging from back towards the city. Between the control over the earth and the size of the being’s frame, I think I know who is coming. But it makes no sense…
“I think I can help.”
Nicole turns and sees the same thing I do. The massive individual is unquestionably female but made entirely of stone—and huge—at least nine-feet-tall, maybe more.
“Terra?” I ask, not understanding what I’m seeing. “But how?”
“The Architect,” she says, holding up her hands, motioning to farmland around us. The twitching beneath our feet comes to a complete halt as she, the Queen of the Earth, commands it to.
“Rand?”
Her large, bald head nods. “I’ve been following you since your arrival and thought you’d be able to convince him to help me. As I’m sure you’re aware, he isn’t exactly open to the idea.”
“We know,” Nicole says.
“But for this?” I ask, remembering how happy she was to be mortal.
Shockingly, she nods again. “I began to understand how important my abilities were to the world around me and realized the mistake I made by giving them up. Although, I
did not ask for my immortality back.”
“So you’re mortal?” Nicole asks, glancing to me.
“Sort of,” Terra replies. “I’m exactly like you—powerful, but still vulnerable. It’s the perfect mix really. Now I can assist you to the fullest. In Eridu, you saved me in here,” she puts a huge hand on her chest. “The least I can do is return the favor.”
“And the skeleton army?” I ask. “How did you stop them?”
Her stone mouth smiles. “Oh, they’re still trying to break through, I’m just not letting them.”
“Cool,” I say, looking around, “but that doesn’t do a lot for the ones that already made it topside.”
“That’s where you two come in,” Terra says, flexing her massive arms. “My work is here, keeping more from coming. You two now must rid us of these…abominations.”
“Speaking of that,” I say, “where are they coming from?”
“This entire area was a burial ground for the earliest of settlers,” Terra explained. “Eventually, it was forgotten and then acquired by an overseas buyer, and turned into a farm.”
“So we fight them off and then turn our attention to Anepou whenever he decides to reform?” Nicole asks, clenching her fists.
“Pretty much,” I say, igniting my hands. “It would also be a good time to figure out what else you can do.”
Nicole turns on me, her eyes igniting in fury, not fire. “And how am I supposed to do that?”
I don’t get to answer. A horde of boners launch themselves at me and I go to melt them, only…it doesn’t work. They smolder for sure but don’t go down in a pile of ash. Instead, they slam into me and take me down—Nicole too.
“Get off me!” Nicole shouts, sending a handful of them twenty feet into the sky. I do the same and quickly meet backs with her. Another four go after Terra but stop after they figure out she’s too big and dense to harm with just bones.
Keeping my fists alight, I pummel the ones closest to me and grin as they explode into pieces. Nicole lets loose a flurry of kicks and does the same, decimating another five. A cold shiver courses through my body, pausing my next attack. It also stops Nicole, as well as the skeletons around us.
A deep moan escalates into a deeper growl. The remains of several destroyed corpses begin to adhere to one another.
Anepou will be back soon.
The sound triggers a secondary reaction from his dead army. The still animated ones turn on each other, but not in a violent way. Instead, they climb atop the next closest one and start fusing into something else. The resonances of dozens of bones snapping and then reattaching makes me twitch with every pop and crack. By the time the sounds stop, I’m looking up at a single giant foe, one made from the remains of those left behind.
It would probably be bigger if Terra hadn’t cut off Anepou’s supply.
Still…it’s another serpent and it's larger than Gerard’s eighty foot Xiuhcoatl incarnation. It’s not just any snake either. It’s the most infamous Egyptian serpent of them all.
“Apophis…”
Apophis, or Apep in Egyptian, was the very embodiment of evil and disorder and as such, pictured as a massive snake. As the sun god Ra’s natural enemy, Apophis opposed the bringer of light and was known appropriately as the Lord of Chaos.
“Is it just me, or is it weird that we’re fighting Egyptian legends on Mayan soil?”
Nicole glances at me and motions to her body. “That’s what bothers you the most out of this?”
“Touché,” I quip, turning back to the creature. “You should just tell yourself to be human again.”
She turns to me and tilts her head to the side, closing her eyes. Precious seconds go by but eventually I witness her mouth reappear. Her perfect lips smile at me and she shrinks back down to her still imposing size. But her body stays in its Guardian form.
Looking at herself, she nods. “Good enough for now.”
Back to the enemy…
Unlike the Apophis from ancient history, this one is made of nothing but human bones. As far as I can remember, the Egyptian god was just a really big, really angry snake. It was said to be miles long in size and it attempted to swallow the sun daily.
Anepou’s creation slithers towards us making an ungodly grinding sound as it does, decimating the earth around. It hisses at us showing off its fangs, of which are broken femurs from the looks of it.
“Okeydokey,” I say, “now what?”
“Now,” the snake says, “you die…”
“Anepou?” I ask, not being able to find his human form anywhere.
“Yesss,” Apophis says, his vocal cords sounding like they were sandblasted.
The ground shakes behind me as Terra approaches, no longer holding the ground at bay. Once Anepou merged himself with his latest creation, he apparently gave up on trying to summon the dead. But I fear that won’t be the last time we see that trick.
Unless we can put Anepou down for the count, that is.
“Any ideas?” I ask, looking at Terra.
Her monstrous shoulders just lift slightly and then drop, her eyes never moving away from the serpent in front of us.
“Same as the smaller ones,” Nicole says, “we knock it down.”
“It’ll be like chopping down a redwood with a hand ax,” I say.
“What other choice do we have?” she asks.
“None,” Terra replies for me. “We must fight.” Her mouth seals over and her eyes flash. She’s ready to rumble. Literally.
Then, as one, the three of us turn and stand our ground, watching as the largest enemy I’ve ever had the displeasure of standing up against. I look over my shoulder and see the town’s sleepy border. But as Apophis moves closer, the ground starts to shake worse, causing the normally peaceful city to explode into panic. People scream as they exit their homes, pointing and gawking at the exposed ribs and enormous fangs of the undead Egyptian deity.
“We mustn’t let him reach Valladolid,” Terra says, kneeling and placing her hands on the ground. The soil quivers and rises beneath the snake’s advancing body, quickly ensnaring its underbelly within its hardening clutches.
That’s when Nicole and I move, leaping into the air as one.
18
Valladolid, Yucatan
“Is Terra enough?” Nando asked, looking back in awe. He and Rand hustled deeper towards the center of town as soon as she left to aid Hank and Nicole. As much as he wanted to help, Nando knew there was nothing he could do except keep an eye on the Architect.
I can’t let him disappear, he thought, keying his comms.
“Todd, are you there?”
“Nando!” Todd shouted. “Where the hell is everyone? I’ve been trying to raise Hank and Nicole forever. No one is answering.”
“They, uh…are a little busy right now,” Nando said, watching as an enormous bone-laden snake reared its head up. It was so big that he could still see it from a quarter mile away as they ran down a main street.
“Doing what?” Todd asked.
“Look for yourself.”
Nando stopped, as did Rand, and they looked back, giving Todd the show of a lifetime.
“Oh…” Todd murmured. “Okay, then.”
“We need your help,” Nando said.
“Anything.”
“Can you alert Valladolid’s police and whatever military is the area. We need to evacuate the city as soon as possible. People are going to die if that thing comes this way.”
“Hank and Nicole?” Todd asked.
“Yes. They are doing what they can—Terra too.”
Terra!” Todd yelled, choking on his drink. After meeting the raven-haired beauty in the Castle a few months back, Todd had trouble thinking of anything else. “She’s there? I thought she was mortal?”
Nando relayed everything that happened, including Nicole and Terra’s transformations and the creation of Apophis.
“Rand and I are moving towards the center of town. I have Nicole’s backpack with me. We need to get out
of here without Anepou seeing us.”
“Architect!”
Both men stopped and turned.
“Or any of his minions…” Rand added, eyeing the newcomers.
Three men stood at the end of the road dressed in the everyday wears of the local populace. But that’s where the similarities stopped. All three were tall and massively built—very imposing. But Nando was shocked when Rand just shook his head in annoyance and continued forward, straight towards them.
“What are you doing?” Nando asked.
“Who are these guys?” Todd asked.
“More of Anepou’s minions,” Rand explained. “None are a match for me, though.”
“What about Gerard?” Nando asked.
“He was something different. These are just men who sold their souls to the devil to make a dollar. Nothing more. They won’t be a problem.”
“Do they have abilities?” Nando asked, just as one of them leapt onto the side of a building, crawling across it like a spider.
Rand glanced at him. “Does that answer your question?”
Nando felt sweat drip down the side of his face. “Yes, unfortunately…” Drawing his gun, he took a step back. “What do we do?”
“We?” Rand asked, looking over his shoulder, striding forward. “We do nothing. Me on the other hand…”
Reaching out with both hands, Rand eyed the advancing wall-climber and squeezed his hands shut. Normally he wouldn’t be able to do what he did now, but these men had no real power, just the secondary Elixir. They couldn’t resist Rand’s ancient strength. Midstride, he plucked the assassin off the wall and mimicked ripping a piece of paper in half.
The airborne killer did the same, falling to the street in two ragged pieces. But instead of red blood emptying itself from the dead man’s body, it’s a silvery plasma. The other two men stopped and watched as Rand lifted the substance into the air with just his mind and hands. The gelatinous goo wavered in the air as if fighting his control, but eventually bent to his will and headed his way.
Elixir of Life: A Novella (A Hank Boyd Adventure - Book 4) (The Hank Boyd Adventures) Page 12