‘Yeah. It’s my job.’
‘I think we should save the witty repartee until we are actually out of here,’ Shavi said as he lifted Laura off the slab. ‘I’m going to bind your chest with mummy wrappings,’ he said to her gently.
‘Good old Shavi,’ Laura replied dreamily. She felt as if she was slipping away.
Osiris rose from his throne. ‘I expected more of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons. You stand here in the Court of the Two Ma’ats before the lords of the greatest of the Great Dominions. No stealth, no cleverness, just futile bravado. Now you will all be judged, and afterwards the Pendragon Spirit will be torn from you, and you will be devoured by the daemon Ammut.’
A shiver in the dark at the back of the chamber.
‘Your legend gone for ever. Everything you did, everything you stood for, forgotten. And this will eternally be the world of the Devourer of All Things. Without magic. Without hope.’
‘He’s got a point,’ Hunter said. ‘How were you planning to get out of here?’
‘I was planning on them recognising our superior ability and just letting us leave,’ Church said.
‘Can you two cut the comedy routine and get us out of here,’ Laura croaked. ‘I’m starting to feel in desperate need of a serious drink.’
Church and Hunter shared a brief look. Beyond them, Laura saw the gods not in the shapes they had given themselves, but in the essence of their power, their animal-totem wildness, so uncontrollable and destructive that any one of them could crush Church or Hunter in an instant.
‘Thanks for trying, guys,’ she said weakly.
She wondered why Church was looking towards the door. When it swung open, she realised he had arranged some kind of diversion to help them escape.
‘Always the man with the plan,’ she whispered. Now that she was off the slab, pain was creeping into her limbs.
Church’s expression grew dark.
The door crashed against the stone wall and a young Egyptian man came sprawling in. Behind him walked Etain, her dead eyes fixed on Church, and behind her came Veitch, his blade of black fire pressed against the nape of Etain’s neck. His anger was barely contained.
‘Jack Churchill, you bastard,’ he snarled. ‘You’re not going to rest until you destroy everything that matters to me, are you?’
‘Etain came to us, Ryan. You’d better ask her why she did that.’
Confused, Veitch glanced at Etain, but didn’t ask the question. He removed his sword from her neck and brandished it at Church. ‘You and me. Now.’
‘Slightly busy just at the moment.’ Hunter gestured to the gods, but Veitch could only see Church.
‘I beat you the last time we fought, Ryan. I killed you.’
Veitch grinned. ‘You were meant to. It got me just what I wanted.’ He advanced, taking in Laura, and Shavi, kneeling next to her and binding her wounds. ‘Come on. Now.’
‘I’m not going to fight you, Ryan.’
‘You don’t have a choice.’
Now grave, Hunter said, ‘If we don’t get Laura out of here, she’s going to die, no matter how special she is.’
Laura heard the concern in his voice and smiled.
‘You’re saying that like I care,’ Veitch spat.
‘I think you do,’ Church said. Laura could tell he was fighting not to reveal his true feelings about Veitch. ‘You used to care a lot, for all of us,’ he continued. ‘Those kinds of feelings don’t go away. They just get buried beneath all the crap.’
‘Is that what you call what happened to me?’ Laura met Veitch’s eyes, but he looked away. ‘No chance,’ he continued. ‘It’s too late.’
A scuffle outside the door ended with Ruth bursting in, the other Brothers and Sister of Spiders scrabbling to hold on to her.
‘Ryan, don’t be an idiot!’ She grabbed Veitch’s shoulder to hold him back.
‘Ruth, get over here!’ Church called, elation and concern fighting in his voice.
At Osiris’s command, Anubis and a hawk-headed god approached. Laura tried to warn Church, but her voice was now too feeble to carry.
‘Don’t let Laura die,’ Ruth said to Veitch. ‘You have the power to save her. You can do something right.’
‘Why should I?’
‘Do it for me.’
Veitch wavered. ‘Will that change your mind?’
‘I don’t know. It might.’ Ruth’s voice had grown quiet, almost disappearing beneath the growl that issued from the back of the room.
‘You are unreliable, Brother of Spiders,’ Osiris boomed.
‘That’s not my name.’ Veitch hesitated, then turned to face the gods. ‘I’m not standing with you,’ he said to Church. ‘As soon as we’re out of here, I’m going to end this.’
‘Sounds good to me,’ Church said.
‘As unlikely as it is that I’m the voice of reason,’ Hunter interjected, ‘but do you want me to do a quick headcount and tell you how seriously we’re outnumbered?’
‘I always keep a little something in reserve,’ Veitch said.
Hunter grinned. ‘You’re a man after my own heart, Veitch.’ He removed something from his shirt that he kept hidden in his palm.
‘You and that utility belt, Hunter,’ Laura whispered. ‘Always full of surprises.’
‘That’s me, baby. And when we’re out of here, I’ll show you another one.’
‘I’ll hold you to that.’ Laura’s vision dimmed. She couldn’t tell if Hunter’s bravado was just for her sake.
God, I’m dying, she thought. Shavi dragged her towards the door, pausing to finish binding her wounds with unsettling urgency. She tried to offer him words of comfort, but she began to slip in and out of consciousness.
Distantly, she heard Osiris issue an order and there was wild, terrifying movement from the back of the chamber. She heard Ruth scream. A freezing shadow fell across her as Ammut rushed from the shadows.
Everything began to come in flashes, like snapshots dropped before her eyes. Disconnected sounds came and went like the surf. There was a small explosion and the room was filled with acrid smoke. Hunter said something about thanking Omari and the Egyptian Secret Service. The Egyptian man was beside her saying, ‘Will she live?’ and Shavi hushed him.
And then she had the most amazing vision of Blue Fire and black lightning flashing across the room. Church and Veitch were involved in a graceful, athletic fight with the daemon, ducking, leaping, their blades slashing in shimmering arcs.
When her gaze fell on their target, she dry-retched and her brain would accept no clear images of it, but she had residual flashes of fangs and red, hateful eyes.
And then Hunter loomed over her, and he was grinning as she always remembered, but there was an intense, incongruous sadness in his eyes.
‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I can’t feel it any more.’ But he didn’t appear to hear.
‘Get her out of here,’ he said urgently to Shavi. ‘She’s going.’ He kissed her gently on the lips with a surprising tenderness that she hadn’t seen in him before. She remembered what Osiris had said in the oasis about both of them being lost, and she wondered oddly if they were now found.
He put his lips to her ear. ‘I-’
She never heard the rest.
7
In the confusion, Hunter, Shavi and Fayed carried Laura out into the corridor. Church, Ruth and Veitch fought for their lives as the Devourer of the Damned drove them back. Numerous blows had been struck, but its true form was too slippery for their perception to tell how badly it had been wounded.
Through the curling smoke, Church could see the gods becoming more animal than human with each step. Anubis loped on all fours, preparing to attack. Sobek slithered in his crocodile form, jaws gaping wide.
‘Get over there and hold them back,’ Veitch snarled. Etain instantly led the Brothers and Sisters of Spiders to protect Veitch’s right flank.
‘They’re going to be slaughtered,’ Church shouted.
‘Serves her right.’
‘She brought me here to take Ruth away. God knows how or why, but I think she cares for you.’