Immortal Dynasty (23 page)

“So, who is she then? Who is this relative of yours who waltzed in here with that thief?”

“I need to find Darius. We need to know exactly who she is.” Fear clawed at her, making her gasp for breath. She had missed something. The truth was right there in front of her, but she couldn’t grasp it. “I can still feel his presence. I believe they have not left the estate yet, and I think--”

Leaving her thought unfinished, she sprinted to the mummy room. The door rumbled to a close as she and Therion reached the room.

“Gods in hell.” She threw a fire blast at the wall, but it had no effect. She used all of her energies, but the door wouldn’t budge. Something tickled the air around her. “There’s a spell on it.”

“Who could produce a spell strong enough to keep you out of your own room?” Therion grabbed a spear from a nearby display and tried to pry the door open.

The truth pounced into Lilith’s mind like a lion…or rather, a lioness.
His little lioness.
Straight out of Therion’s dreams. She’d been there in front of them all these years. Darius hadn’t done anything with the statue, because it wasn’t a statue. The empty platform in front of the wall mocked her. Yes, who indeed had power enough to keep Lilith out of her own room?

Fury flew from her fingertips, scorching the wall. Screaming with an anger thousands of years deep, she threw blast after blast. Breathless from the assault, she dug into her deepest energy source and directed it at the hated door. Finally, she broke through the spell. The door slowly rumbled to the side.

The room was empty.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Shaila drifted in a deep, dreamless void. She awoke in a strange room, but she was too groggy to get up. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she recognized the padded floor and walls. She was in the weapons room of Darius’ lab.

The faintest sound of deep breathing next to her drew her attention.
Shadiki!

She crawled to him. With a palm on his face, she mentally reached through his energy, searching for his mind. She needed him…needed to talk to him. But he seemed lost to her.

Now she knew the child was lost to her too. The memory of the burned bodies slammed into her with the force of a chariot. Her breath expelled in choking sobs as she hugged her priest’s unconscious body.

Voices drifted toward her from the other room, along with the aroma of coffee.

“I hope Bessie made it out of there.” She could hear the concern in Marcus’ voice.

Mentally ridding herself of the hated queen costume, Shaila whisked on her black leather clothing. As she padded barefoot into the room, both men openly stared at her, slack-jawed.

“Uh, Shaila?”

“Hello, Marcus.” She turned her back on them to pour herself a cup of hot coffee from a tiny machine.

“I, uh, think you forgot to fix your hair?” Marcus nervously pointed to the unusual direction some of her hair had worked its way into.

Absently sipping her coffee, she mentally smoothed the strands and wrapped them into a thick braid down her back. “Does this meet with your approval?”

“Knock it off, Shaila.” Darius pushed a chair out and indicated for her to sit down. “Marcus is not the target of your anger.”

“Maybe not,” she directed a nonchalant look in his direction, “but he’ll do for now.”

“Hey, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” Marcus leaned in closer but kept a discreet distance. “I’m sorry about the mummies.”

She nodded. It was not his fault. It was all her fault for not being there to protect the babe. She had failed them all: Nefertiti, the babe, her kind. A lump formed in her throat.“Darius, it will not take long for Lilith to put it all together. My blanket will be blown.”

“I agree. Your cover is probably blown.”

“How long was I…” She pointed to the back room.

“For only an hour. It’s not yet midnight.” Darius put his hand gently on hers.

“They will come, and I will need my full strength to fight.”

“How do you get your full strength back?” Marcus asked.

“Part of the process of preserving me in the statue was to remove my astral spirit, so that my soul would not decay along with the body. As weak as I am, I cannot stay in the astral plane long enough to find it.”

“Without it, she’s running at half power, so to speak.” Darius flicked out his cell phone and tapped away on it.

“Maybe that’s what saved you from being detected by Lilith for all those years.”

Shaila sipped thoughtfully. “My priest will know how to reach it.”

“You know, many ancient concepts of the soul involved the merging of masculine and feminine energies. It was very prevalent in ancient Egyptian mythology. Gods and goddesses were always paired as a husband and wife. The yin and the yang. The ouroboros, the eternal soul of the world.” Marcus drew his hands in a circle to demonstrate his point.

“There is someone who can help.” Darius cradled the phone against his face. “Hello, Bakari? We got him. We need you to--”

Before Darius could finish his request, Bakari shimmered into the room. “Where is he?”

Darius brought the man into the far room. Bakari knelt, honoring his unconscious friend. Briefly, he touched Papa Shadi’s face. A hesitant smile pulled at his lips. “Darius, your grandfather is not in a coma, but he is incredibly deep in a meditative state. I cannot reach him. He’s built massive walls around himself, probably to keep Lilith out of his mind.”

Shaila smiled at the resourcefulness of her priest. The time for despair was over. The warrior in her knew it was time to move forward. “I could reach him, but I need my full power to do it.”

Bakari put his hands on her cheeks, and smiled. “You will need the energy to fight soon.”

Darius moved to stand next to her, his expression a weak attempt at indifference. Shaila pulled Bakari’s hands down from her face, but held them in hers.

“Bakari, trusted friend of my mother, can you help me connect with my spirit? Can you help me regain my full energy?”

“No, my goddess, I don’t know how to help you.”

Shaila sighed dispiritedly.

Darius reached for one of Shaila’s hands, placing the
Eye of Ra
medallion into her palm. “Try this. You used it to give him long life, Shaila. It has his energy in it. I’ve felt him with me ever since I put it on. I think you can use it now to reach him.”

Darius looked to Bakari and held out one of Shaila’s wafers. “This will boost her energy, and I’m wondering if you can add your energy to hers to help her buy some time.”

Barkari smiled with pride. “Yes, I think I can do that. Shaila, the rest will be up to you and the will of the gods.”

“I
am
one of those gods, and I do indeed will it.”

* * *

Shaila and Bakari sat cross-legged on either side of Papa Shadi. She placed the wafer on her tongue, welcoming the warm sensation it spread through her. Laying the gold medallion over her priest’s heart, she held it there with her palm. Through her skin, she felt his pulse vibrate, weak and slow.

Bakari cupped a tiny ball of wispy light above his hands. “I’m ready. But remember, Shadiki’s built a wall to keep meddling goddesses out. Find the door, and I will help you get through it. Trust in that.”

Leveling her own vibrations to match her priest’s, she closed her eyes and lifted her spirit into the darkness. The astral plane greeted her with a blast of cold fog. She shivered, but pushed onward, searching for Shadiki’s light. It felt like she traveled for an eternity, but finally a long dark wall loomed before her. She raced along the edge of it until a door revealed itself. A sliver of yellow light shone around a golden door engraved with the
Eye of Ra
symbol.

Shaila tried to open the door mentally, but it wouldn’t budge. Blasting it with energy pulses had no effect on it. She tried to tamp down her frustration, knowing the negativity would hinder her chances of succeeding. Another futile attempt brought tears to her eyes.

Goddess, help me,
she screamed into the shadows. Digging deep into her remaining power source, she forced a continuous pulse toward the barrier.

Sobbing, she felt herself slipping away. Furious at the prospect of failure, her nails turned into talons, scratching at the door and shredding its outer layer. Exhausted, she felt her body begin to float away.

Quickly grasping the handle, she drew her face to the engraved symbol and pressed her lips to it. Behind her, a warm white light appeared. It surged into her, heaving her body into the door.

The golden barrier finally gave way.

Shaila found herself sitting in a room identical to Shadiki’s private study. The walls were filled with dusty scrolls and faded pictures. Her nose inhaled the smell of old leather and apples. Relief brought tears of joy to her eyes.

Shadiki sat in a cozy, patched-up chair, smoking his pipe. With an expression of sheer pleasure, he hugged the long water pipe to his chest with the tip of it resting on his lips. A cloud of apple-scented smoke plumed in her direction.

His wizened face was covered with a short white beard and mustache. But she recognized his eyes, bright blue and sparkling with the wit and humor befitting a mage.

“Ah, nefer, you finally made it!” He spoke in English with an accent as thick and strange as hers. “Come, let me see you.”

She knelt in front of him, and he cupped her face gently. He had always been like a father to her, giving her more compassion and guidance than she had allowed any other human to do.

“Thank you for bringing this back to me.” He chuckled and held up his medallion. “I lived through so many ages of time that I had almost forgotten what to do.”

“Yet, you did remember, Shadiki. I am here now.” She laid her head in his lap. Strangely, she felt warmth from him, even in this cold realm of unconsciousness. “You sent your grandson, Darius, to find me.”

“Ah, that boy. He is so troublesome.” But the pride in the old man’s eyes betrayed his true feelings. “I have been trying to prepare him for the future.”

“What is the future, my priest?”

“Destiny, of course.”

His cryptic answer did not please her. “And what is our destiny?”

He stroked her hair absently. “I can no longer see that,
nefer
, my beautiful one. My visions ceased long ago.”

Shaila looked up into his eyes. “Well, there must be a destiny in that too.”

Shadiki drew in another deep breath through his pipe and blew a puff of smoke above them.

“My priest,” Shaila pulled herself upright and leveled a serious gaze at him, “I do not have much time. My powers are weak. Darius managed to resurrect my body, but I cannot seem to connect with my astral spirit.”

He stroked her cheek, his smiled broadened with pride. “Smart boy, that one.” He puffed again on his pipe.

“How do I connect with my spirit?”

“It has always been within reach, Shaila.”

“How? It will not come to me.”

“He will deliver it to you. You are the protector. He is the deliverer.”

“No, priest. The deliverer is gone. He is destroyed.”

Papa Shadi looked puzzled at her tears.

“I saw the sarcophagus in Lilith’s room. I saw the wetnurse and the babe. She had burned their bodies years ago. I have failed.”

Papa Shadi’s eyes sparkled with mirth. “Ha, serves that witch right.”

“What?” She wiped the wetness from her cheeks.

“The babe you saw was not the deliverer.”

“He was not? But I saw him, still cradled in the wetnurse’s arms.”

“You saw what I wanted Lilith to see.” Slightly yellowed teeth grinned from behind the white beard.

“Tell me.”

“The world we knew is long gone. When you walked this earth, that part of the world was advanced. Our peoples were revered for our knowledge and power, but time has changed. My beautiful Egypt has fallen behind the rest of the world. Her people have been left in the dust.” He chuckled to himself. “I’d been waiting for a sign. But I finally tired of waiting. On my next trip to Cairo, I took a cruise boat to Karnak. While the rest of the tourists spent the day in the Valley of the Kings, I made my way over to Deir el-Bahari, your mother’s temple.”

“I remember it well, being in that room while you embalmed me in the statue.” A shiver fingered up her spine and goosebumps rose along her skin.

“I am sorry, I wish things had been different. I was so pleased to have remembered how to find the hidden room. Miraculously, it had not been discovered yet. I managed to push the lid of the sarcophagus over enough to remove the infant and replace it with one I had brought from a nearby cemetery. No one in particular, just a tiny body destined to help me.”

“But you left me there.”

“Yes, my goddess. I had no choice. I was out of time, and I had no way of carrying you.” He sucked in another puff of smoke, the scent of apples curled around his face. “The gods were with me. I do not know how I made it through U.S. Customs without that mummy being discovered.”

Shaila did not know what that meant, but she understood that he made it back here to Boston with the babe. “So, where is it? Where is the babe that I am to train and protect, Shadiki?”

He looked at her puzzled. “You don’t know?”

“I would not be here in your mind if I knew.”

“I already gave him life, Shaila.”

She drew away from him in shock, instantly aware of what she had missed. He had been there all the time. “Darius.”

“Yes. Darius Alexander, my grandson. Although we both know that he is not truly my grandson.”

“No. He is the only son of Nefertiti.”

“She understands,
nefer
. She sends her blessings to you.”

“She cannot.”

“She can. She does.”

“But I failed to protect her.”

“You did nothing wrong. She knew her time was almost at an end. The priests were not going to allow her to live, or her son. Lilith did her part too, in fueling the priests’ lust for vengeance.”

The room began to crumble away, slowly at first. Shadows slithered through the room.

“Beware, my goddess.”

More pieces of the room swept away with the cold winds.

“I am ready for Lilith.”