A/N—THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE WARLOCK and THE ENCHANTRESS! Please don't read if you haven't read it, or if you don't want spoilers. If you don't mind, or have already read it, feel free to continue.

Disclaimer: I don't own this. Michael Scott owns absolutely everything!

Rated T for violence and descriptive imagery.

Notes: This is a repost of an old piece I wrote that I took down until The Enchantress came out. It's out now, so I'm reposting it. It may contain spoilers, but the first chapters (up till 13, 14) shouldn't, most likely. But there will probably be spoilers later.

Oh, this is a friendship piece. I don't write anything else.

Thanks in advance! Please read/review!

willshakespeare-immortalbard

NOTHING

"Nothing." The jackal-headed figure snapped, spinning to face the wary anpu. "They are nothing!"

The creature shifted, fearful of its master. It made a strange, twisted grunting sound, rather like that of a dog, and its jagged fangs glinted in the light of the Archon make light that lit up the whole, mazelike room.

"They are nothing," Anubis repeated, answering the anpu in the language of Danu Talis, not bothering to revert to the yipping, snarling speech of his creations. "Treat them as such." His distorted features twisted in anger as he sensed the anpu's reluctance to obey. "Why do you hesitate?" he cried shrilly. "Aten is not your master! I am! You obey me!"

Another grunt from the anpu caused Anubis to turn purple with rage.

"NO! It matters not if he is master of Danu Talis! He is not your master. I am."

The anpu whined, and bowed as well as it could past its ceramic plate armor. Then it shuffled away, leaving Anubis panting with wrath, an animalistic tongue hanging from his mouth.

The order was given: the prisoners are nothing. Do not feed them. Do not water them. They are to be questioned, and by any means necessary or desired. They are nothing; treat them as such.

And once the order was given, the anpu forgot that they had been wary of Aten. Once blood was promised, was in sight, all else faded, and Anubis ruled supreme.

The vimana sank slowly into the shaft of the volcano. It stopped about half-way, and the glass dome hissed aside, disappearing into the slits in the roof. An anpu poked its jackal head out into the swirling steam, and the scream it emitted was horrible, causing ragged shapes hiding in the indentations carved into the volcano wall to cower, hands over their ears. On and on and on the howl went, high and piercing, a jagged scraping sound of pure agony.

Five of the caves were empty. Five prisoners—the prisoners—were gone.

They had escaped.

The anpu howled, knowing that Anubis' wrath would be inevitable.

A tonborigi ball slammed into the vimana, ripping through the metal sides, leaving a gaping hole with sharp petals that reached out into the craft. It whistled past their faces, boring another hole in the other side, where it fell to the roiling sea below.

It happened so fast that they didn't even have time to scream, though Joan's whimper was strangled, suggesting that she had quashed the scream, but had failed to completely suppress it.

"That was close," Scatty muttered as she maneuvered the vimana. "Way too close."

"It was behind you," Francis said shakily, trying to be funny. He swallowed, his Adam's apple throbbing, and smiled at his wife. He squeezed her hand. "Just an adventure," he murmured softly in French. "Remember."

Will peered out of the hole that the ball had left behind. "More," he said sharply, tapping Palamedes' arm.

Palamedes looked also, and he and Will counted in unison.

"One...two...three...four..."

"I get it!" Scatty snapped. "There are lots. Now shut up, and let me concentrate."

Will's lips moved, counting silently, and his pale eyes widened as the number grew. Palamedes turned to the front, where the flashing red dots that were their pursuant blipped closer and closer on the radar.

"My word..." Will breathed, but he never got to tell them exactly how many vimana there were, because at that moment the shrill scream of a missile filled the air, and the next they were falling, the Rukma vimana diving at an impossible speed, plummeting towards the sea below.

Fangs shining, reflecting the lights of the interior of the craft, an anpu almost purred with pleasure.

It could hear the prisoners' frantic screams as their ship fell, down, down, down, down, down, closer and closer to the waves.

"Did you hit it?" Anubis' voice filled the vimana. The anpu barked in reply, and when Anubis spoke again, his voice was sweet as honey.

"Splendid. They will fall into the sea—where the serpent will retrieve them. Go to the Huracan, and wait for them to arrive. Then, do as I said. You have your orders: question them. Find out what they know. Find out why they're here. Find out everything. And once you have, kill them. I want their blood brought to me in clear glass vials. A little gift for Mother."

Then the voice was gone, leaving the anpu grinning, looking for an instant almost human, watching in glee as its victims fell.