Theodosia & the Eyes of Horus (31 page)

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The first figure emerged from the mist, and I recognized the short, barrel shape of Sopcoate immediately. He had traded his sailor disguise for a top hat and an enormous overcoat against the weather. My heart sank at the sight of the tall German on Sopcoate's left, von Braggenschnott. He had a personal vendetta against me and was a bit of a loose cannon.

I got to my feet as the rest of the Chaos agents appeared out of the mist. There were nearly a dozen of them. Sopcoate stopped when he was alongside the sphinx. "You've come," he said. "You must have gotten my warning."

At the reference to my grandmother, my temper flared. "Yes, that was quite brave of you, burgling a defenseless old woman." My anger still fizzing through me, I lifted my gaze from his and surveyed his followers. "Just how many men do you need to take possession of one measly tablet anyway?" Perhaps not the wisest thing to say, but there was something about having my back to the wall that made me throw caution to the wind.

Von Braggenschnott's single hand twitched and he took a step forward. Sopcoate reached out and stopped him. "We have learned to underestimate you at our own peril. Furthermore, we thought we'd need the others to subdue you."

A small alarm bell went off in my head. Subdue me? That did not sound good.

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"You see, we have no intention of leaving you behind this time. You're coming with us. You are arguably too valuable to eliminate, but you are far too much of a liability to leave behind. Not only can you identify me and the others, but your instinct and talent for meddling is uncanny. Besides, when we find the cache of the gods, your unique skills might come in handy."

They meant to kidnap me! Why had I ever thought they'd keep their word?

He took three steps closer. "You have interfered with our plans for the last time. We will take you with us and make you an agent of Chaos, whether you wish to be or not."

A squeal of fear rose sharp and hot in my throat, but I swallowed it back. This was far worse than I had ever imagined. It had never occurred to me that they'd take me with them.

"Before we proceed, I want to see the tablet. I'll have none of your tricks now, so open the bag slowly."

I leaned over and set the satchel on the damp concrete step, then opened it and drew out the dull green tablet. Sopcoate's eyes fastened on the artifact, and his face lit up. "It is ours, then. We will finally have access to all the power of the gods. Hand it over."

There was a faint rustle behind me. "I'm afraid there has been a change in your plans." Awi Bubu's voice floated down

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from his hiding place up by the needle, filling me with relief. His tone possessed an underlying menace that I'd never heard before.

Sopcoate took a surprised step back. "Who are you?"

"Merely an Egyptian who has a more valid claim to this artifact than you do."

Sopcoate barked out a laugh. "The only valid claim is that of the one who can take it by force. As you can see, you are greatly outnumbered."

There was the scuff of a heavy shoe on the concrete up by Awi Bubu. "As you can see, I do not come alone," he said.

Sopcoate laughed again. "One man--even such a large one as that--does not put the odds in your favor."

"Perhaps not, but then, I have never been one for putting my faith in odds. I put my faith in higher things. Ah, look. We have even more company."

Sopcoate whirled around to see where Awi Bubu had been looking at the gardens that abutted the Embankment. Eight men wearing long flowing cloaks stepped out from behind the trees. The lamplight reflected off the bald white head of the middle one: Aloysius Trawley. Almost against my will, my eyes searched the scorpions; I felt a sharp stab of disappointment when I spotted Edgar Stilton among them.

He wouldn't meet my gaze.

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Awi had been right. Stilton had led Trawley right to us. Even though we'd counted on that for our plan to work, it still hurt.

Trawley's wild eyes zoomed around our small gathering. After pausing briefly on Sopcoate, he finally looked at me. "You have lied to us," he accused. Before I could answer, he took a step forward. "Repeatedly. And after we trusted you and took you into our family. I even had my men watching out for you."

"Watching out for me? Kidnapping me at every turn is more like it."

Trawley flung his hand theatrically in Sopcoate's direction. "Is that why you give what is rightfully ours to these men?"

"Ha!" I didn't mean to laugh, but honestly. As if I were willingly giving anything to anyone. "I
give
nothing to them. They have threatened my family if I don't hand it over."

"Then perhaps
we
shall have to threaten your family as well."

There was another flicker of movement in the trees behind the scorpions. More reinforcements? I wondered. But the tall figure remained tucked behind the trees and didn't come forward. A moment later I caught a faint whiff of ox dung. Fagenbush. Had Wigmere sent him to help?

As if hearing my question, Fagenbush shifted slightly so

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that our eyes met. Then he very deliberately turned his back on me and disappeared into the trees. My heart sank like a stone. I tried to tell myself that he was only one man, that he couldn't have made that much difference against these odds, but I still felt wretched, as if the last, final connection had been broken.

"Enough of this!" Sopcoate said, the authority in his voice from years of ordering men about cutting through the group. "It is we who have come for the tablet, and it is we who will leave with the tablet. And the girl."

Beside him, von Braggenschnott smiled.

Trawley smiled back. "Not so fast. We are evenly matched, I think, and I will have the tablet. You may have the girl. She is far too much trouble."

"Don't I know it," Sopcoate muttered. Then, louder, he said, "Actually, I think you will find that we are not evenly matched."

Trawley frowned, then looked to his row of men, as if counting them. As he reached the men to his right, Basil Whiting and two others took two giant steps toward the men from Chaos. Trawley looked annoyed. "Make no move until I order you," he barked.

"But Supreme Master," Whiting said, "we no longer take your orders, I'm afraid. We have found a new master, one who is much less of a joke."

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Trawley looked as if he'd been slapped when the full meaning of Whiting's words penetrated.

"Shall I count for you?" Sopcoate offered, his voice almost pleasant. "Eight plus three equals eleven. Eleven to five are odds I like very much."

Trawley looked from Sopcoate to Whiting, then back to Sopcoate, his despair and impotent fury mounting.

There was a soft, awkward sound as someone cleared his throat. I looked over to find Stilton stepping away from the remaining scorpions and coming forward to stand on my right. "Urn, four," Stilton said to Trawley, sounding most apologetic. "I'm afraid there are only four of you."

For a moment, in spite of the grimness of our situation, my heart soared. Stilton
hadn't
betrayed me. Or not fully, anyway. If my face hadn't been so frozen with fear, I would have smiled at him.

Before Trawley could finish processing the full devastation of his ranks, Sopcoate spoke. "I'm tired of these games. Give me the tablet. Now!"

Behind me, Awi Bubu raised his voice in a familiar chant. I moved to the side a bit so I could better see what he was doing.

He was staring at the scorpions with his arms raised like an orchestra conductor's, chanting away.

But nothing happened. Well, Stilton lurched forward and

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made as if to attack the Serpents of Chaos single-handedly, but none of the other scorpions moved. I reached out to snag Stilton before he got himself in trouble.

Trawley looked smug. "Your parlor trick will not work this time," he said. "My men have put wax in their ears to drown out your attempts to command them."

Uh-oh. We had not anticipated that.

"Enough of this chatter!" Admiral Sopcoate yelled. "Seize the tablet. I'll get the girl!"

However, as Sopcoate reached for me, Awi Bubu leaped down the few steps that separated us and grabbed the Emerald Tablet from my hands. Before Sopcoate could so much as bellow, Awi Bubu was moving around to the back of the obelisk, toward the ramp that led to the river.

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CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE WILL BE NIMBLE, WILL BE QUICK

***

MANY THINGS HAPPENED AT ONCE . Von Braggenschnott shouted something in German as he and four others scrambled after Awi Bubu. Sopcoate bellowed in rage, leaped forward, grabbed me, and held me in an iron grip. There was a shrill cry of attack as the remaining Serpents of Chaos, including Trawley's former colleagues, threw themselves on Aloysius Trawley and his three remaining men.

Ignoring Sopcoate's viselike grip biting painfully into my shoulder, I craned my neck around in time to see Kimosiri step forward to block von Braggenschnott and the others from reaching his master. But there were too many. As Kimosiri fought single-handedly with three of them, von

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Braggenschnott and another Serpent pelted down the ramp after Awi Bubu and the tablet.

I held my breath, praying that the magician had managed to get away. My hopes were quickly dashed when I saw four Serpents of Chaos escorting him back up the ramp.

Sopcoate's gloating voice tickled my ear. "We had all the exits covered."

Kimosiri, who'd just knocked out the third man he'd been fighting, turned to see his master held captive. With a bellow of fury, he launched himself from the obelisk step onto the group of seven Serpents surrounding Awi Bubu.

There were now so many bodies around the little Egyptian that I couldn't catch a glimpse of him.

Stilton stood rather helplessly nearby, looking from Sopcoate to me, unsure what to do. "Go help them!" I told him.

"But what about you?" he asked.

"I'll be fine, go!"

He stiffened his jaw, clenched his hands, and then ran up the steps to where the others were and threw himself into the melee. I closed my eyes briefly and realized that if we survived all this, he and I would have to have a serious discussion about strategizing.

From somewhere in the midst of all those men, I heard Awi's voice call out faintly, "The orb, Little Miss, the orb!"

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Kimosiri detached himself from the flailing arms and legs and staggered to my side. He was holding his left arm awkwardly, and blood streamed from his nose. He reached for my satchel to retrieve the orb for Awi.

My hand snaked into my pocket where the orb lay, a cold hard presence against my leg. "Kimosiri!" I yelled. "Here!" He looked up from the satchel, and before Sopcoate could guess at my movement, I yanked my hand from my pocket and lobbed the orb at Kimosiri.

Except it is hard to throw something when one is being held in a viselike grip, so my toss fell rather short. Kimosiri dove to the ground, caught the orb, then was back on his feet again in one flowing movement. He waded into the fight once more, wielding his elbows and feet like billy clubs.

A second later, golden light burst from the huddle of men. Some fell back, clamping their eyes shut against the fierce glow. Through the thinned crowd, I was able to see Awi Bubu on his knees tapping out a quick pattern on the orb's symbols. There was a faint humming sound, then the evening exploded in a deafening roar and a flash of blinding light.

Sopcoate kept a tight hold on me as we were knocked to the ground.

I blinked my eyes repeatedly, and when I could see again, Kimosiri was helping Awi Bubu to his feet; Awi still had the

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tablet in his hand. The rest of the Chaos agents lay scattered on the ground, some of them quiet, some groaning.

Catching my eye, Awi Bubu tried to bow, then grimaced painfully and clutched his side. He turned to leave, and Sopcoate called out, "Wait!" as he struggled to his feet, dragging me along with him.

Awi stopped, and I saw now that one of his eyes was swollen shut, and his left arm hung at an odd angle. He was bleeding from a cut on his lip, and there was a long gash along his forehead. He held his body gingerly, as if something were broken.

Sopcoate reached into his pocket, then I felt the press of something cold against my temple. "The girl," he said quietly. "If you don't hand over the tablet--and that orb--I'll kill the girl."

Everything inside me went still, and every clever or useful idea I'd ever had flew from my head.

Awi Bubu seemed rather stunned too. He looked at me, then at Sopcoate, then at the tablet itself, the lone map to a cache of artifacts so powerful they made the orb seem like a child's toy. What horrid mayhem could Chaos create with power such as that? Even so, I couldn't quite nod my head to give him permission to leave. I'm not
that
brave.

Awi Bubu's shoulders slumped. "Very well," he said.