Heart of the Gods (40 page)

She touched the amulet that rested warmly beneath his shirt against his chest. Over his heart.

Looking up at him, she said, “He left this for you.”

Ky understood.

It was enough.

Ky turned to his doppelganger. He couldn’t survive, nor would she, unless he and Khai became one… He understood that.

There was a moment when it was Irisi who rose, not Raissa, and Khai that met her. It was their arms that closed around each other, their mouths that met in a kiss. If only for a moment. The last kiss they would ever share as they had been…

Became the first kiss Ky and Raissa shared, complete…

Ky looked down at Raissa, brushed her hair back from her face as she looked up at him.

Everything he needed was in her eyes.

They could both still die and he knew it, but this, for the moment, was enough.

Chapter Thirty Five

With a smile Raissa gestured, conjured up Khai’s sword, scabbard and all, and offered it to him on her outstretched palms, her blue eyes steady on his. He looked at her, sighed and chuckled wryly. Then he nodded and drew the sword from its scabbard, spun the blade around his hand.

It felt good, natural.

Raissa looked at him and smiled. “Now you’re just showing off.”

He smiled, caught her around the waist with his free hand to pull her close.

Below they heard Kamenwati shout, “The one who imprisoned you awaits you above.”

Raissa sighed. “Oh, thank you, Kamenwati, for that.”

They’d run out of time.

Glancing down toward the Tomb, Ky shook his head and smiled.

He looked at her.

She looked back at him steadily, almost wryly.

“It’s time,” Ky said, “to finish this.”

She nodded. “Agreed.”

None of her spells would help them here, fire was useless against fire elementals and the same with wind in such a confined space.

All that remained to her were her swords as the ancient prophecy had foretold.

That and the gifts of the Gods. Raissa prayed to them.

Suddenly a thought occurred. Perhaps there was a way to end this once and for all after all. She took a breath.

“Ky…I think I know a way to defeat them. It won’t be easy…”

There was something in the look in her eyes, the tone of her voice, a breath of hope. It was all he needed.

He looked at her, smiled. “There’s a surprise. You lead, I’ll follow.”

A glance at the remainder of Abasi’s men was all it took. Abasi nodded and his people set themselves around them.

Together Ky and Raissa turned, side by side, Raissa reaching for her swords, drawing them.

“One of us has to reach the Horn,” she said. “Don’t worry about killing them we just have to get to the Horn.”

Ky nodded, looked at her and smiled.

With a howl, the Djinn raced up the ramp from the lower tunnel.

Not all were concerned with revenge, some simply sought freedom, food, sustenance, ravaging through the chamber. Some simply tried to push past, to escape, to find sustenance, sometimes to the detriment of those who fought.

One of the Marid went through like a linebacker, bulling his way past the others, practically shoving one of his fellows into Ky’s sword.

Some of them had quite obviously forgotten what it was to fight altogether.

Those who had fed, who had regained some sense of themselves, didn’t.

Ky, Raissa and Abasi’s men met them with a crash of steel as the Djinn howled their fury.

Although they didn’t have an army around them, this time the Djinn didn’t face just Ky and Raissa but Khai and the Guardian, enhanced by Sekhmet’s gift.

Hassan’s men fought hard and well, their instincts and skills honed by generations of training and years of experience. These were not simple soldiers untrained in fighting Djinn as had been true with the army of Egypt.

Nor did Ky’s other training go entirely to waste as he drove one of the marid off with a solid straight side kick to the chest that sent the rabid thing staggering back.

It was ugly, though, and horrifying. It offended some deep, ancient part of him, his soul shuddered at the thought of the things.

Watching a ghul shift into something that was neither hyena nor man but some hideous amalgamation of both with crushing jaws and tearing teeth made some part of him recoil in revulsion. To see one of Zimmer’s mercenaries, clearly dead, reanimated by the sila that possessed him, was hideous. Even as attenuated as they were, though, they were shockingly strong.

Still Ky caught one by the throat, avoided the slashing claws and tossed it away.

As horrific as the battle itself was Ky was surprised to find he liked the pure physicality of swordplay, there was an immediacy to it that was undeniable…even as he punched one of the Djinn and hacked at another, driving it off.

Raissa was astonishing to watch, graceful and deadly. The sword along her left arm was like a part of it as one of the Djinn raked at her. She caught the claws on the blade, threw it off as it shrieked in agony, spun to follow through with her other sword, whirling like a dervish. The Djinn fell as her left sword thrust backward to take another that had broken through Abasi’s men to come at her back.

They battled their way down the causeway with Abasi and his men keeping them from being flanked.

It was some little consolation to see that Kamenwati had it no easier.

Even with the power and control of his marid self, some among the Djinn remembered Kamenwati well. To his shock and fury, he wasn’t finding it easy to reach the Horn, either. They didn’t want him to reach it and regain control of them again. Yet he must reach it, or lose control altogether. He was forced to take up a sword himself against some of them even as the marid Djinn within him reached out to call his brothers to them.

It worsened into a rout as Djinn stumbled backward out of the entrance to the Chamber, crowding into those ravaging below, awakening and alerting them to the fighting going on around them.

Djinn eyes cleared, some leaped for new prey even among their fellows, others sought new ones.

Ky saw Kamenwati spot Raissa, become aware of them as their fight reached the floor of the lower chamber once more, the Djinn forced backward into the Tomb.

He felt magic gather…a prickling of the skin he’d felt once before.

Reaching out, he grabbed Raissa―too busy fending off an ifrit to defend herself―around the waist and spun her out of harm’s way.

The bolt of heat struck around him and shattered uselessly on something Ky couldn’t see as the amulet flashed hot against his chest.

It jolted her, he could feel it.

Shielded by his body, Raissa looked up over her shoulder at him as she lashed out at the Djinn with her sword.

Both of them were spattered with ichor and gore…

She flung a hand out at Kamenwati and a burst of wind picked him up and flung him hard against the far wall, into a clot of Djinn.

“Go,” Ky shouted, “I’ve got Kamenwati…”

Khai had a long memory and Ky had his own memories.

As those memories merged, a fierce cold rage filled him.

Fury darkened Kamenwati’s vision.

She dared fight him with magic. He would kill her, he would kill them both, slowly, make them watch as the other died. Set the Djinn on them…

First, though, they mustn’t reach the Horn. The Horn was his. She’d dared touch it once, she wouldn’t touch it again.

Raissa nodded as Kamenwati hacked and slashed his way through the Djinn, trying to reach them.

Trying to reach her.

She took a breath, put aside her fear and trusted in Ky.

With a glance to Abasi she turned toward the entrance to the tomb.

Gesturing some of his men to follow Ky, Abasi gathered the rest and followed the Guardian.

A part of Ky knew Khai felt more than a little satisfaction at being able to face Kamenwati finally and at long last. Not least for unleashing the Djinn on their helpless people, or for the thousands who had died but also for what Kamenwati had done to Irisi―putting her in the ring, keeping them apart. Ky himself, remembered too well how Kamenwati had forced him to call her out of her tent, had used her trust of him and then watched Kamenwati horsewhip her. He had his own reasons for revenge.

As both Ky and Khai he went to meet him gladly, hacking at and kicking away any of the Djinn that got in his way.

Kamenwati smiled to see it.

It would be a pleasure to kill this man who had helped capture him, who had helped imprison him.

Against the strength given to him by his marid and his own well-honed skill with a blade, the other stood little chance. The man was an academic, weak like Zimmer, who was now food for the Djinn. It would give him even more pleasure to kill him in front of the one Kamenwati had once called slave.

Ky wasn’t certain what put that smile on Kamenwati’s face but he had every intention of making it disappear.

It did the instant their swords met as Kamenwati hammered a blow at him. His eyes widened as Ky met it easily and turned it.

Clearly, it wasn’t going to be as easy as Kamenwati had thought.

The part of him that was Khai smiled, remembering the force of Kamenwati’s blows. Now, by the mercy of Raissa and Sekhmet they had the power to fight him evenly.

It was Ky’s turn to smile.

“Surprised?” he asked, mildly, amused, his eyes narrowing.

There were a few new tricks he might show the ancient wizard.

Glancing over her shoulder, Raissa nearly smiled, her breath catching despite the danger.

Ky was amazing to watch, incredibly fast, fluid, even without Sekhmet’s aid. He just hadn’t known it.

With it…

She watched as he parried one of Kamenwati’s thrusts, kicked one of the Djinn away. She saw a sila come up behind him, try to take him while he was distracted and sent a burst of wind to drive it away.

It would have been a pleasure to watch him fight like that all day but she had her own battle to fight.

She drove her left blade backward into the ghul coming up behind her, slashed with her other sword to clear the way before her as Abasi’s men held off the rest.

Spinning, one sword took an ifrit through the throat, the other shielded her from the claws of the next.

They were gaining the doors. They had to reach the Horn.

A cry behind her told her she’d lost one of Abasi’s men and her mouth tightened.

It would be all the worse in there.

Taking a breath, she looked over at Ky quickly, one last look before they entered that awful place.

One last sight of his face, his eyes, all of him…and then she straightened.

Catching the next blow, Ky turned it and drove a punch into Kamenwati’s too pretty face.

Fury lit in the other man’s glittering black eyes.

Ky saw Raissa look back at him, quickly, just once and then she, Abasi and the rest of

Abasi’s men passed beyond the great iron doors into the darkness.

Within it was nightmarish, a huge echoing noisome chamber where some of the Djinn still prowled or roamed madly, their screams, shrieks and cries ringing off the walls wildly as they darted into, around or shied away from the thin light coming through the doors. They were like wraiths, some dark, some light.

Beneath Raissa’s feet clinker, coal and charcoal crunched, the bones of dead Djinn.

A burst of fire magic found nothing within the huge fetid chamber to ignite, nothing to light and guide their way save the light behind them.

It only made the Djinn within screech in fury and a rabid, slavering madness.

Part of her wanted to weep and gibber with terror.

There was no moonlight here in the depths of the earth to enhance or give them any illumination.

Gesturing, muttering a chant, she sent a burst of wind behind them to push the doors open farther to allow more light.

With a flick of her wrist she sent a burst of fire magic to splatter against a wall in a shower of sparks, searching for the Horn even as she spun away from the leap of a ghul, driving one of the marid off with a spinning kick to its head that sent it flying back into the darkness.

Another of Abasi’s men fell as some of the Djinn massed, leaped on him and dragged him back into the darkness. He wailed in helpless terror.

Knowing he was dead, another blast of wind took them all and smashed them into a distant wall. It wouldn’t kill the Djinn but it would stagger them and make them think twice about trying such a thing again.

It was all she could do.

Catching Kamenwati’s blade on his own, Ky turned it and drove a kick into the man’s chest that sent him staggering backward. Ky drove in but the wizard threw some kind of spell at Ky’s face.

Irisi’s charm held it at bay but the splash of energy dissipating in front of his eyes was enough to startle him, setting Ky aback long enough for Kamenwati to evade him and bring up his own sword to guard.

The moment the slave’s hands touched the Horn and the jars that stood with it, Kamenwati knew and he battled back, furiously.

He could sense exactly where she was.

Seeing the doors creak open and the depths of the darkness within gave Kamenwati an idea.

“The Guardian! Close the doors,” Kamenwati shouted to the Djinn, “close them.”

Ky went cold…Raissa…She’d be trapped in there.

Within the chamber Raissa was almost in berserker mode there were so many Djinn still inside, all fighting and clawing at anything near them. Turning, spinning, ducking, dodging, slashing with one sword, smashing her other into the face of something she could barely see, even with Sekhmet’s gift, she kept fighting.

Another of Abasi’s men fell with a cry as she sent a burst of fire against a distant wall, searching still for the Horn.

There was a flash of white in the darkness…

She turned toward it, Abasi and his men guarding her flanks, trying to keep the Djinn off her.

It was a tumbled mass of bone, a single skeleton.

Not Djinn, they were creatures of fire, their remains were scattered over the floor.