Kenan laughed. “Aker is part of secret society of men with magic swords, so I’d say that all possibilities are firmly on the table.”
“It’s not magic and you know it.” Shifrah glared at him. They were well into the Songhai Quarter again and the morning foot traffic in the street was quickly growing as the locals left their homes for the shops, markets, and the new Eranian factories. They wove into the crowd, shuffling along no faster or slower than anyone else. “I trust Anubis. He was right about the window and the sword, and he was right about us, and I’m going to the rail yard, like he said.”
“He was right about us?” Kenan grinned. “So you do want to have my children?”
“Shut up, mister ashamed-of-your-own-love.” Shifrah sidestepped around a particularly slow-moving old woman and found a wall of white cloth and black muscles in her path.
The ageless youth frowned slightly. “You’re moving too slowly.”
“You!” Kenan stepped forward. “Who are you really?”
“You know my name,” Anubis said. “I made a promise to my cousin that I would see the two foreigners safely back to the rail yard with the sword of Aker El Deeb. That is all you need to know. But you might also wish to know that El Deeb and two dozen Shona and Zulu bounty hunters are approaching from the east. They have not seen you yet, but they will in a moment.”
“Can’t you just fly us away, like you did on the roof?” Kenan asked. “You know, poof?”
Anubis stared down at the detective. “No.”
“Then what would you suggest?” Shifrah slipped her hand into her jacket for her last knife as she glanced around the crowd in search of their pursuers. She suddenly felt very naked and exposed in her light olive skin.
If Kenan was wearing shabbier clothing, he might have been able to blend in by himself. As long as he kept his mouth shut. Not that it would do me any good.
“The Songhai Empire has no love for the Bantu kingdoms. Help is at hand,” Anubis said. He indicated a right turn at the next corner. “Go, quickly.”
Shifrah hurried past him, glancing back just once to see the stranger step into the shadows and vanish into a steamy mist. “When we get home, I’m going to have to learn that little trick.”
They jogged around the corner and found that the street ended just a few yards away at the front gates of a Songhai barracks. A dozen men in brown uniforms stood at attention on either side of the open gate, short sabers on their belts and single-shot rifles in their hands. Shifrah asked, “Do you know anything useful about the Songhai?”
“I know they like to shoot our men along the border of Marrakesh,” Kenan said. “But if you want a way to get them to protect us from Aker and a small army of Shona and Zulu warriors, then I can’t help you.”
“I thought you were the man with the plan.”
“I am, when I have time to come up with a plan.”
Shifrah grimaced. “Maybe it will be enough for us to just be here, close to the barracks. Maybe that will keep the bounty hunters from following us.”
They turned to watch the main street. A tall man strode into view, and then two more. They turned their heads slowly and stopped when they saw Shifrah and Kenan standing in the dead-end road in front of the barracks gates. A moment later, four more men joined them, and a step behind them followed Aker. The Aegyptian pointed at Shifrah, said something to his band of hunters, and the group started toward them.
“Nope,” Kenan said. “It won’t keep them from following us. Come on, think. We’ve got a gun, a knife, and a sword. How do we…?” The detective grinned.
“You have an idea?”
“Yeah, but you’re not going to like it,” he said.
She raised an eyebrow. “Just do it.”
Kenan winked and yanked the seireiken free of the scabbard on Shifrah’s back. He held the bright orange blade high over his head for all to see. “Do I have any bidders for an authentic aetherium sword? Step right up and buy a one-of-a-kind seireiken! We have only one left in stock and it is priced to sell! Do I have any bidders?” He went on shouting, making the offer in Mazigh and Espani.
Oh, great. Now everyone else will want to kill us too. Well, what the hell?
Shifrah took a deep breath and started echoing him in Eranian.
Every man in the Songhai ranks looked up. Every eye was fixed on the glowing sword. Several more men emerged from the gate to look. And behind Aker and his Bantu entourage, a handful of people began pointing and talking excitedly as they started forward.
“Okay, it looks like we have everyone’s attention,” Shifrah said. “Now dazzle me with your escape plan.”
“Follow me.” Kenan went on shouting about the great sword sale as he paced in lazy circles closer to the barracks gates, right down the dusty path between the two dozen guards in brown. Shifrah stayed at his side, announcing the imminent bidding war in Eranian.
But she kept her eye on Aker. He had brought his hired muscle most of the way down the dead-end road and now was hovering just beyond the Songhai soldiers, arguing with his men. She couldn’t hear him over Kenan’s yelling and the rising murmurs from the gathering crowd of gawkers and would-be bidders, but from Aker’s gestures she thought he was trying to convince the Bantu men to go closer to the soldiers.
The three men wearing tight-fitting red vests and white-beaded arm bands, whom Shifrah identified as Zulus, all shook their heads and walked away, vanishing into the crowd. But the five remaining hunters, who looked to be Shona from their patchwork trousers and intricately laced sandals, all stayed at Aker’s side and followed him toward the barracks.
“Now, Kenan,” Shifrah muttered. “Whatever you’re going to do, do it now.”
“No. It’s Aker’s move now.”
Shifrah watched the man in green, and he looked straight back at her, his eyes blazing with hate. He grabbed a pistol from one of the Shona men and aimed it at her. She yelled, “Gun! Get down!”
Half the crowd instantly ducked and a dozen people let loose shouts or screams of terror. The Songhai soldiers leveled their rifles at the Shona, and the Shona all raised their weapons in reply as several more bounty hunters jogged into the street. Shifrah grabbed Kenan as the detective sheathed the bright aetherium blade, and together they bolted into the crowd, putting two dozen soldiers between them and Aker.
“It’s my sword!” hollered Aker. “Put your guns down and give it to me!”
“Put your guns on the ground,” the soldiers hollered back.
“Lower your weapons!”
“Drop your guns!”
“Do it now!”
“Now!”
Shifrah didn’t see who fired the first shot.
Instantly the street transformed into a warzone of crackling gunfire, screaming civilians, moaning animals, twanging bullets, and running feet. In the surging mass of the terrified crowd, Shifrah felt a man elbow her aside, and she stepped on an arm, and a hand shoved her in the back.
She grabbed Kenan’s hand and ran.
Chapter 26. Qhora
The cellar was pitch black except for a single blinding ray of sunlight spearing down through a crack in the door. Qhora knelt by the door, peering into the crack. The room beyond the cellar appeared to be the inside of a shop, an empty shop with boarded-up windows.
“Well?” Salvator straightened his jacket and shook his rapier in its scabbard.
“All clear. It’s an empty room. And then we can just step out onto the street.”
“Can you see anyone on the street?”
“A few people,” Qhora said.
And that’s what we were waiting for. Although I’d hoped for more people, enough to shield us and mask our escape from the Temple of Osiris, but I guess we’ll have to settle for what we have.
“We should go now.”
“I agree.” The Italian gestured to the door.
Qhora led the way up into the empty shop and then cautiously out into the bright city streets. There were more than a few people out already, and more joining the press every few minutes. The shuffle of feet and clatter of hooves rose steadily, as did the dust.