The Dark Medjai
"Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives." – Andrew Carnegie
Egypt
An old castle was isolated from the rest of the world, located in the middle of the desert and half covered in sand to hide it. It was completely deserted but for a prisoner, two Medjai, and several thousand rats.
One of the Medjai, the younger, was mixing some debatably edible sludge in a bowl. He was bored.
"I don't know how you stand it, Tarik," he sighed. "I signed up for adventure – not to make oatmeal."
The older man stoked the fire. It was pitch-black, and the night was cold. "Guarding Nizam Toth is our duty. He is no mere criminal. He is – "
"The Dark Medjai," the younger guard interrupted, repeating the story he had been told countless times. "The only one to betray the Medjai order from within."
"Toth is not someone to be taken lightly," his superior warned, going to a cog on the wall and turning it. "Years ago, Ardeth Bay underestimated him – and was nearly overthrown."
Inside the dungeon, the old prisoner was stroking one of the rats that were his only companions.
"Soon, my pet," he whispered as his cell was opened. Escape was apparently impossible – a heavy chain decorated each of his appendages. "Soon…"
The younger guard entered, carrying the food tray. "Enjoy your meal, old man," he sneered. Isolation was getting to him, and he had only been on duty for a week.
"You should respect your elders," the prisoner replied, rising slowly to stand as light hit his head. He wore a tattered cloak, its hood hiding his face.
"There's nothing to respect about you," the youth responded rudely. "And by the way, you don't look so tough to me."
"I am not the Medjai I used to be."
A rat sniffed at the guard's foot before running up his leg. He gave a squeal and tried to shake it off, but more swarmed towards him. They bit and scratched him, and more always came no matter how many he threw away. One snagged the key to the Dark Medjai's chains and brought it to its master.
"I'm better," Toth replied, freeing himself.
#~#~#
Evy wouldn't take her arms away from her son. The group of five had just returned from collecting an artifact in Nigeria, and were dropping the teen back to his training camp.
"Mom," Alex moaned. He had long since released her embrace.
"Be careful," she said.
"I'll be fine," he replied, Tut chattering on his shoulder. "It's not like I haven't been here before. Are you sure you'll be okay?"
"Yeah," Rick answered, indicating his brother-in-law. "It's not like all our kids are leaving."
Jonathan walked closer to his nephew. "You can't leave me alone with them!"
"You're right. Tut?"
Tut jumped off his master's shoulders and darted up Jonathan's pant leg. He yelled, not liking the feeling.
Jena appeared from within the camp, having gone to quickly greet her brother. "Don't worry, Tut, I'll rescue you," she grinned.
"You're worried about a rodent?" Jonathan exclaimed. "What about me?"
"What about you?" she answered as Tut ran to her. She punched Alex' arm lightly. "Good luck with your training. Lai says he's been having class with blindfolds and weapons, but I'm sure you'll be okay."
Alex silently groaned.
Ardeth approached. "Time to go, Alex," he said.
Saying goodbye to his family – and a separate wave for Jena – once more, he turned to the solid wall behind them. Ardeth gave the password, and the wall suddenly allowed them to pass through it.
"Ah, I remember my boarding school days," Jonathan reminisced. "Dorms, dating, debates…"
"Defraud, deceit, detention," Rick finished.
Jena shivered as Libra whispered something to her.
"What's the matter?" Evy asked, anxious already.
"Nothing!" the teen smiled. With the limited knowledge she had, she wasn't about to worry her. "Cold breeze. Where are we going next?"
They loaded up, but when the anxious mother wasn't looking Jena sent her Dash inside the camp.
Dash darted between the teenagers playing a game with a stick and a hoop, finding the other arukatasu in the crowd easily. Laith was playing, but left instantly when he saw his sister's agent.
"What is it? Did Big Sis forget something?" he asked, his gentle silver eyes worried.
Dash emanated a troubled aura.
"Did she say what it was?"
The small animal shook her head.
It says, be careful over the next week, his own agents informed him.
Laith nodded to Dash, and it darted back to Jena so she could create a portal for it.
"Attention," Ardeth announced. He and Alex had just entered the populated area, causing the game to stop. Each of the boys and teenagers gathered in front of him. "The first part of your training focused on trusting your instincts. Now you must learn to trust your fellow Medjai. Training begins at dawn."
He left the group, who hoarded in on Alex.
"Look who's back," a tall, long-haired boy said cruelly. "The teacher's pet."
Alex glared at him.
Fadil grinned, taking a staff from one of his sidekicks and throwing it at the Caucasian. "You do know how to play darjaq, don't you, O'Connell?"
Immediately someone ran into him and knocked him over, and everyone ran passed him.
Laith appeared and helped him up. "Sorry, I tried to get to you first," he said. "You don't have to play, you know."
"Well, if I'm trying to fit in," Alex replied gloomily.
The wooden hoop passed quickly from the curved bit of each boy's staff to another. They played dirty, tripping each other until the hoop landed on the ground. A referee blew a whistle.
"You're on my team," Laith said, pointing backwards with his thumb. "Goal is that way."
In the center of the court, the hoop was thrown into the air. The two boys beneath it leapt up to catch and fling it in the direction of their goal. It flew towards the pair of outsiders, and they both jumped up to catch it. Alex got there first, but Fadil ran at him from behind, kicking him over and stealing the hoop.
"I guess someone needs a few lessons," he mocked, moving away.
"Yeah, O'Connell!" one of his sidekicks laughed.
"Hey, Hapu," a small teenager wearing a scarf wrapped around his head interjected. "Do your lips ever get chaffed from kissing up to Fadil all the time?"
Laith helped his friend up for the second time as the new teen approached. He was only a few inches taller than the arukatasu, although he looked older than Alex.
"Name's Yanit," he said with a grin.
"Alex," Alex replied. "And thanks."
Yanit was new to the training program; he had only arrived in the last couple of days. Laith had greeted him once, but for some reason the other boys ignored him.
The next morning, bright and early, the group of trainees stood in the main hall.
"The Medjai order survived for over three thousand years because of one principle," Ardeth was saying. He took a single arrow and threw it to the group. Fadil raised his arm faster than anyone else to catch it. "Try and snap it."
He cracked it in two easily.
"You are all equals. Alone, a Medjai may break," he then threw a bundle of arrows tied together to Alex. The teen tried, but he couldn't snap any of the darts. "Together, we are unbreakable."
Fadil and his lackeys were laughing at Alex, so Laith nudged the redhead and held out his hand with a grin. Giving him the bundle, the arukatasu used the help of Power to rip it in two. The laughter instantly ceased.
#~#~#
In another huge rock hidden in the desert, a dark figure entered the hiding place through a concealed door. Inside, Nizam Toth removed his ragged hood to reveal his face. Marks decorated every inch of it, blood red in color, and tattooed so they would never fade.
There was an evil energy surrounding the cave, and Toth stood in the center of it. Purple light flooded the room, and sparks of lightning fizzled as time was reversed.
When the light vanished, Toth remained. He was smiling as he flexed his hands, decades having been taken from him, and he looked up at two sarcophaguses that stood against the wall.
"Awake," he said, and the stone casings crumbled at his words. "Your master has returned."
#~#~#
In the sands of their training grounds, the teens had been tied together in groups of three. Their task was to race to the temple on the other side, but to do so they had to stay in time with each other.
Sprinting up a dune, Fadil used a quick piece of footwork to kick Alex without losing pace. The redhead tripped and fell onto the sand, taking his two teammates with him.
"Way to go, O'Connell," the Egyptian boy laughed.
Laith looked back sympathetically, but didn't dare trip Fadil in return. After the experience with The Destroyer's Scythe a few weeks back, his father had given him a stern talk about his lack of confidence. He had tried to have more faith in himself, but he usually remembered how mean the other boys could be before he remembered he was stronger than them.
The teasing didn't stop. In another exercise a few days later, each teen was blindfolded. There were four stands placed in a row, where one boy would hang upside down. The rest would line up and have to cross the room without setting foot on the floor by taking the hanging boys' hands and swinging to the next until they reached the end of the runway. It was a relatively simple exercise – until Fadil crossed. Landing at the end and removing his blindfold, he whispered to the nearest upside-down boy, "He's coming."
Alex stepped up, his blindfold so tight that he couldn't even open his eyes, and took the first boy's hand. He swung to the next, and the next, but for the last pivot the hanging teen didn't reach far enough, and Alex fell to the ground with a painful thud.
"Whoops," Fadil said with a cheerful grin. "Tough break, O'Connell."
Cleaning the dorm room at the end of the week, Alex wrung out the floor cloth over a bucket and used his arm to wipe sweat off his head.
Fadil, who was standing holding onto a mop – not that he was working, but pretending to should Ardeth appear – said, "Finally a task worthy of your Medjai skills," and he kicked the bucket over. Dirty water splashed all over Alex.
He stood up angrily, and threw the wet cloth onto the floor. "I've had enough of you, Fadil," he raged.
Laith silently stood nearby, ready to interject if he had to. He knew he could probably take on all the boys at once, but he also knew that these boys could be very mean for next to no reason. And also, Alex would want to take care of himself.
"Oh, and what are you going to do?" Fadil taunted. The other boys watched the scene as well, and someone called out, "Fight!". "Blow me away with your Manacle? That's the only reason you're here!"
"No, it's not," Alex denied.
"We are of Medjai blood," the Egyptian continued. "All you've got is that hunk of metal!"
Laith took a few steps forward, scowling at Fadil. The bully took a step backwards as the younger boy raised an arm to get his point across. One time someone had messed with the arukatasu, and he'd gotten angry. The other boy hadn't returned to the training camp, and although Laith was never violent to anyone, the rest had learned not to rile him.
"You don't talk about the Manacle like that," Laith said firmly. Like Jena, her brother was curiously attached to the golden bracelet. However, when it was clear that Jena hadn't told Alex the reason, he wouldn't explain why.
A warning bell rang throughout the camp, signaling an intruder. The growing fight was instantly broken.
"Think it's one of Ardeth's drills?" someone asked.
Laith whined, his strength from standing up to Fadil gone. "My sister warned me there would be danger," he said. "I don't think it is."
Running out of the dorm, they were approached by two skeletal dogs, old flesh covering patches of bone. A bearded man with red facial art walked behind them.
"Ah, young Medjai," Toth said, his golden eyes as cold as ice. "Tell Ardeth Bay there's an old friend here to see him."
"The Dark Medjai?" one of the students exclaimed in disbelief, recognizing him from paintings. "I thought he was just a legend!"
"We need to work together," Alex tried to take charge. "Yanit, Salim, take the right – "
Fadil pushed past him, cutting him off as he yelled, "Attack!"
The other boys were too scared to follow, and the intruder had no problem defending himself. He grasped the staff in Fadil's hands, yanking it and the boy towards him. With no time to think, Fadil was pulled straight into Toth's waiting knee and then thrown backwards.
"This isn't an academy, it's a nursery school," Toth mocked. "And I have no time to babysit."
He raised one hand and made a commanding motion for the dogs. The two of them instantly ran towards the group of students, biting and snapping, and one of them pinned Laith to the ground beneath his staff. He didn't have a problem holding it at bay, but as it scrambled away it closed its teeth around his leg. He let out a yell of pain.
"You all have much to learn," Toth added, drawing his curved sword. "It's a shame your lessons are over."
Flames burst from the scimitar as he raised it, but a whip caught him around his wrist before he could strike.
"Toth!" Ardeth addressed him harshly. "Your quarrel is with me, not my students."
"My quarrel is with all Medjai," the intruder retorted.
Ardeth drew his own sword, and the two men clashed fiercely. Toth whistled in the middle of it, and the two dogs heard the signal. Darting away from the students they were attacking, they suddenly mutated and grew into muscular, two-legged monsters.
"Okay," Salim said nervously backing away. "So these are not man's best friends!"
Alex caught their attention. "Hey, dog-breath."
The dog-human hybrid hit the wall of the nearest building, shattering the wood and sending a load crashing down onto the redhead. As he was immobilized, Yanit gave a loud yell and struck the monster. The only affect it had was that his staff snapped in two.
Laith tried to get up, but crumbled into a heap when he put weight on his bitten leg. The wound felt like a burning poison spreading through his body, and he was afraid it was exactly what it appeared to be.
"Give me the Medallion of the Medjai," Toth demanded, his flaming sword struggling against Ardeth's metal one.
"Is that what this is all about?" the Medjai exclaimed. "You shall never possess it!"
"Then you will all suffer."
Bringing his leg up suddenly, he kicked Ardeth away. He spun on the spot so fast that he resembled a whirring blade on a pivot, sending fire flying all over the camp. The flames trapped the Medjai as he attempted to pick himself off the cold sand, but before he could recover Toth gave a swift command of, "Take him," to the dogs.
The two monsters had pounced onto him in an instant, completely pinning his arms behind him. Their master approached, taking a small Black Scarab device from within his robe.
"Pleasant nightmares," he said as he placed the Scarab on Ardeth's forehead. The Medjai was shocked by a small jolt of electricity, and he lost consciousness. "Bring him," Toth ordered.
Alex watched in horror as the monsters dragged his teacher away. Trapped by the eye-level flames, he couldn't move from his position.
"Come on, Manacle," he begged the bracelet on his wrist. "Bring Ardeth to me."
He said the incantation, and aura shot out of the relic. He was really trying, and the golden light encased everything around Toth and his group. The Dark Medjai was resisting the Manacle's power, and protecting his prisoner from it so that it couldn't pull him to safety.
The huge cloud of aura pulled sand and branches towards Alex and the other students. Toth continued using his dark power to resist, and he moved further and further out of reach.
"O'Connell's going to get us all killed," Fadil said as wood and supplies flew over Alex' head and began piling around them. "Retreat!"
Laith, who was still lying on the ground clutching at his injured leg, yelled out, "Huõ!"
The flames that were blazing around the group like a maze all streamed towards the arukatasu as he absorbed them. In seconds they were gone, along with Toth and his prisoner.
Alex had been shocked by the word Laith had shouted, recognizing it, and the golden aura flooding from the Manacle was cut off in an instant. Weakened by the about of effort he had put into it in vain, he fell to his knees.
"We go after the Dark Medjai now!" Fadil commanded authoritatively – although he seemed to exclude Alex and the wounded Laith in his order. "Everyone grab a staff."
"I'm coming," Laith said, and he looked much better than before. He scrambled to his feet, leaning on his good leg. The skin around the wound was dark, and hadn't stopped bleeding.
"Me, too," Alex affirmed, dragging himself to his feet with great effort.
"O'Connell, don't you think you've already caused enough damage?" the self-appointed leader demanded. "Face it, you'll never be one of us."
The words stung him, but he didn't have time to argue in that moment. "Right now the only one who matters is Ardeth. Let's ride."
#~#~#
In his lair, Toth removed the Scarab from Ardeth's forehead.
After a moment, the Medjai stirred and opened his eyes. Blinking as his blurry vision came into focus, he saw the small room he was trapped in. His wrists were chained to the ceiling and he gave strength to his legs as soon as he realized this, to take the pressure off his arms.
"I want the Medallion," his captor repeated his earlier desire. "With its power to control the underworld, no one dare oppose me."
Ardeth struggled in the chains, checking how tight they were. The shackles cut into his wrists painfully. "You will never wear the Medallion."
"We shall see," he stroked the beetle in his hand. "Perhaps I can change your mind."
He gave another whistle, and two violet cobras about a meter long appeared out of a crack in the wall. They slithered along the ground and wrapped themselves around each of Ardeth's legs.
"I see my pets like you," Toth chuckled to himself. "As they shed their skin, every pore in your body will be blocked. Your temperature will soar until your brain quite literally fries."
"You may destroy me, but others will come for you."
"Yes… your students." Toth grinned horribly. "We can only hope."
As time passed the cobras snaked themselves up Ardeth's legs, leaving dark purple skin in the patches they had already passed. The hard casing pinned his legs together like glue as the snakes made their way around his waist.
"Your will is strong," Toth said, he tossing the Black Scarab into the air and catching it. "But for how long?"
#~#~#
The eight students from the teenage class galloped across the sand. The night was cold, and as they rode under the moonlight the wind bit into them like ice.
"The trail leads over those dunes!" Fadil called back from his position at the front of the group. The trail was relatively easy to follow; it consisted on one set of heavy hoof prints and two sets of paw prints.
Riding slightly behind the others was Alex, Laith and Yanit.
"So why don't you hate me like the rest of them?" Alex asked the newest disciple.
"Let's just say we're both outsiders," Yanit replied.
"Outsiders?" the redhead echoed in confusion. "But you're just like them!"
"I am a Medjai, but I am not like them."
"Maybe Fadil was right," Alex said. "A true Medjai has Medjai blood. Maybe the only reason I'm here is because of the Manacle."
"That's not true," Laith opposed, his face crumpled in pain as the horse jerked his injured leg. "You're one of the best in our class. Fadil's just mad that he has some competition."
Alex looked at his expression. "Are you okay?"
The arukatasu shook his head. "I think my leg's poisoned from when that thing bit me," he explained.
"Shouldn't you have stayed at the camp?" Yanit asked.
"I'm not staying behind when Ardeth's in trouble!"
Alex remembered the word Laith had shouted after Ardeth's imprisonment. He knew it from one time; three years ago, when he and Jena had been in China.
"What was that thing you yelled, when you stopped the fire?" he asked, trying not to sound too serious.
"I yelled?" Laith echoed, thinking hard. It took him a minute to remember. "You mean when I said 'huõ'?"
"Yeah, that."
"I was just calling my agent. Sometimes I say it out loud." After a moment he realized that not everyone understood the languages he spoke. "It's the Chinese word for fire. Why?"
"Did Jena ever tell you what happened when we were in China a few years back?" When he nodded, Alex continued. "That was what the dragon was called. At least, that was what its master called it."
"He named the dragon Huõ? Da-Jie never told me that," Laith said in confusion. "That's weird."
"Why? Do you know who he is?"
The boy looked away quickly, turning red. "No, I don't know it," he lied obviously. "I don't know anything except what Big Sis told me."
Alex would have liked to press the matter, but Laith was in pain so he let it go. Eventually the group of boys arrived at the cave in the middle of the desert.
"That must be the Dark Medjai's lair," Fadil said in a hushed voice as they approached it. They all dismounted and tied their horses to the trees at the nearby oasis.
"The trail was too easy to follow," Alex warned as they entered. Laith was hanging onto his arm, still barely able to walk on his leg. "He wants us to find him. It's a trap."
"O'Connell," Fadil let his irritation show in his voice. "You're all talk and no action. That's why I am the leader."
The boys all walked collectively through the extensive cavern. When they saw some rats, they all held their staffs like children with play swords and slowly edged sideways to pass. All facing the same way, their backs were completely exposed when they went by the rodents and they all turned to face onwards. They seemed to expect the rats to suddenly grow to the size of an elephant and attack them.
After half an hour they came to a fork in the passageways, and Fadil lead them right.
"This is wrong," Laith murmured quietly. He could sense the Dark Medjai's aura through the cavern. "Go left."
Alex spoke up. "This is the wrong way. Laith says we should've gone left."
"His instinct is wrong," Fadil opposed in a hard voice. "We go right."
The redhead steeled himself. Jena had never been wrong before, and he had learned to trust the word of an arukatasu. "Then it looks like we're going different ways."
"I'm going with Alex," Yanit spoke up.
"Anyone else can come, too," Laith added, still leaning on Alex for support. He was sweating more than usual, and was leaning more and more on the older boy to help him walk.
Fadil shrugged carelessly, and the other four boys followed him down the right-hand path as Alex, Yanit and Laith turned back.
Suddenly part of the floor ahead of Fadil's group raised out of the ground, hitting the ceiling and blocking their path. Another began descending from the roof, just in front of Alex and the other two. They had to dive under it to avoid being trapped in the small space, but there was nothing the other five could do to escape.
Fadil looked at the enclosed walls in shock.
"We're trapped," Salim said in fear.
A panel in the ceiling slid open, and sand began to pour into the chamber.
"Sand! It's filling up the room!"
Alex peeked through a crack between the rocks.
"We'll be buried alive!" one of the boys yelled.
Taking a few steps back, the redhead handed Laith to Yanit and faced the wall. He said the incantation for the Manacle just as Laith let out a weak, "No!"
The golden aura hit the wall and bounced back, slamming Alex backwards a few meters.
"Tried to warn you," the arukatasu said apologetically. "The wall is covered with some kind of barrier. It'll reflect the kind of magic that you use."
There was probably something Laith could do, but Alex didn't like to ask. He didn't look like he was in any kind of shape for using his agents.
Yanit looked into the chamber through the crack. "Dividing the rate the sand is pouring in by the size of the space, we have maybe… fifteen minutes to get them out," he worked out quickly.
"You're full of surprises," Alex said, slightly amazed.
"I've always been good at math," Yanit shrugged. "So who do we save first? Ardeth, or them?"
Through the wall, Alex said, "Guys, we'll be right back. Remember, we're a team. No Medjai stands alone."
The three of them turned and hurried down the passageway, taking the left fork.
"We'll… be okay, right?" Hapu asked hesitantly.
"I knew it," Fadil ground his teeth. "O'Connell is a coward. I will have to save us."
Using his staff he fought his way through the piling sand. Standing on Hapu's shoulders, he attempted to pull down the railings that the sand poured through. If he could only get it out of the way, the five of them could climb through the hole.
"Is the grate coming off?" Salim asked anxiously.
Fadil's hands slipped and he fell onto the ground painfully. "Don't worry," he said, his voice betraying his dismay. "I will get us out of here."
Alex, Yanit and Laith hurried down the passageway as fast as the injured arukatasu could hop. They hadn't been moving for long before the two skeletal, fortunately four-legged, dogs appeared, blocking their path.
Laith looked up dizzily and murmured, "Shield, please protect us."
His barrier surrounded them, but it was obvious that it was unstable. It had enough strength to protect them as well as a wall of half-solid mud. The dog's paws that scratched it were able to cross the threshold by a couple of inches before they were repelled, but it was the best the child could do in his current condition.
"No way I can hold them off forever," he panted, sweating profusely.
"I have an idea," Alex said. "Here's hoping these dogs know an old trick."
Holding up his knee, he snapped his staff in two and waved the sticks in front of the dogs' noses. They obediently sat and waited.
"Fetch!" the redhead heaved both sticks down the passageway behind him. The dogs stared at him through their cruel dark eyes.
He could feel the sweat rolling down his neck as the moment dragged out. Then, with a bark, the two dogs scampered down the passageway.
Laith thankfully lowered the barrier, and the next obstacle they came across was a large room with the floor fallen away. A two-meter wide bridge connected the doors, and a warning was written in hieroglyphics at the beginning of the path. Alex stared at them in deep concentration.
"I can't make out these glyphs; they're a weird dialect," he said. Laith peered at them, tracing some of the etchings in his delirium.
" 'No man may reach the other side alive'," he translated.
Alex stared at the thick bridge. "Looks pretty sturdy."
Leaving Laith with Yanit, the redhead took a couple of cautious steps forward. In an instant, several huge blades fell from the ceiling, rotating around a wooden beam. At a sprint there was no way that even Laith, completely healthy, could have crossed in safety.
"So much for that idea," he backed away, and the blades stopped moving. They settled on the wooden beam, facing upwards so that they were out of sight.
"Is that exactly what it says?" Yanit asked. "Word for word?"
"Yeah," Laith muttered, his eyes closed. "Why?"
With a grin, he made his way towards the bridge.
"No, Yanit, don't!" Alex yelled in shock.
To his astonishment, the small teen bounded across the path safely. The blades were completely still.
"I don't get it. The warning said no man could pass."
Yanit began to untie the knot on his headscarf. "I am not a man," she replied, pulling off the material as her long hair fell around her shoulders. "I am a woman."
Alex stared in astonishment. "Whoa. You really are full of surprises."
Laith didn't seem so stunned at the revelation, which was only partly because of his wound. He was breathing was becoming heavier, and he was beginning to have trouble moving. Alex wished he knew what to do, but he knew that if he left the boy somewhere safe, Laith would crawl after them and get himself killed.
Across the bridge Yanit caught her staff into the gears controlling the blades, jamming them. "It's safe now," she said. "Come on!"
Half-dragging the arukatasu, Alex approached the bridge. The blades shifted, itching to swivel and cut the space beneath, but they didn't move. They were properly jammed.
The two boys hurried across the path, and Yanit retrieved her staff.
"But why are you pretending to be a boy?" Alex asked.
"A woman is forbidden to become a Medjai," Yanit explained. "My father was a Medjai, and his father before him. I am an only child, so when my father died I felt it was my duty to continue."
"To go through all you've been through, just to be a Medjai? You must really want it."
Yanit replaced her headscarf, and they exited the chamber. A roaring fire blocked their path completely, and the temperature of the passageway was sky high.
"What are we going to – " Yanit began to say, but stopped as Laith half-crawled across the ground towards the flames.
"You're not thinking of using your agent, right?" Alex asked in shock, but the boy ignored him as he thankfully collapsed into the fire. He murmured his agent's name, and the inferno swarmed towards him. The flames from the entire length of the passageway were absorbed into him, just like at the camp.
After a moment, Laith sat up. He seemed a lot stronger, and he even managed to stand.
"You're okay?" Alex exclaimed.
The arukatasu untied the cloth around his leg to check the wound. It had started bleeding again, and the blackened part of his skin had spread to a greater area than before. "Not yet," he replied. "But I've bought some more time."
"But – how?"
"Arukatasshu each have an energy source," Laith replied, as if it was obvious. "It's the same way you humans have to sleep and eat every few hours."
"But you eat as well," Yanit said.
"Yeah, we can eat food. We don't have to. My energy comes from flames, so I can absorb them and use that energy to slow the poison."
"What's Jena's?" Alex asked, trying to think if there was something she did every so often.
He turned red. "I can't tell you," the boy answered, limping down the tunnel. "We're not allowed to tell each other's secret."
Alex ran a couple of steps to help him, as he was still a little unsteady, and was about to say something else when the Manacle brushed against Laith's hand and glowed.
It showed him a vision of Ardeth, chained to the ceiling and the two cobras twisting around his chest. There was a door in the background, shaped roughly like a triangle.
"I saw Ardeth!" he announced. "He's in a room with a triangular-shaped door. Laith, did you see it?"
Laith looked surprised. "No, why would I have?" he asked.
"Jena has always seen visions the Manacle shows me."
The arukatasu shrugged. "Figures she would."
Yanit ran ahead, "Let's go," she said. "There isn't much time left for the other boys."
They made their way through the passageway, and after a minute Jena appeared out of nowhere.
"Da-Jie!" Laith exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"Saw Ardeth in trouble and figured you'd be on your way to rescue him," she replied, looking at Alex. "Why do you need to hold my brother upright?"
"He got bitten by one of those dogs," Alex answered.
"It's poisoned," Laith interjected.
"Then why are you trying to save Ardeth?" Jena demanded. "Learn when to not fight. Let me see."
She checked the wound. "You need to see Mama about that," she informed him. "If you were a normal person you'd be dead a long time ago."
"But what about Ardeth?" her brother protested.
"You won't be any help to him." Jena looked at Yanit, and then Alex. "If you can free Ardeth, you should be fine against that guy."
"You know about the Dark Medjai?" Yanit asked.
"Nope. I can sense him just up ahead. He doesn't have any real power, but he'll be a pain to deal with." She took Laith's arm and hauled it over her shoulder, spreading her wings. "I'll come back in a second," she promised. "That's guy's just up ahead. You can see the door from here."
The siblings vanished, and Alex and Yanit hurried to the door. They could hear Toth threatening Ardeth through the wood.
"My patience is running low. Where is the Medallion?"
Alex burst through the door, grabbing Ardeth's abandoned sword in the process and swinging it at the Dark Medjai.
"Yanit, save Ardeth!"
The snakes were almost completely encasing Ardeth, just below his neck. Yanit used her staff to whack the cobras away. They changed their target to her, and she struggled against them.
Toth slashed at Alex twice, and he could feel the blade in his hands shudder under the force of it.
"I have defeated hundreds of Medjai," Toth growled, swishing his flaming sword. "It would be a mistake to think you could defeat me."
"You're the mistake!" Alex retorted.
He was forced to take several steps backwards under the force of the next blow, and Toth drove his scimitar into the ground. The rock cracked, dissolving the thin layer of stone dividing the cavern from a magma chamber below.
Alex scrambled over to help Yanit, and the pair of them managed to throw the serpents into the pit. Yanit crouched to the ground and swept her staff across the ground, tripping Toth as he advanced dangerously.
"Got your back, Alex," she assured him.
"Stay still; I'm cutting you loose," Alex said to Ardeth. With one slice, he used the blade in his hands to sever the hardened snakeskin. Although he was still chained to the ceiling, the Medjai could now move again.
Toth rose to his feet, and Ardeth grasped his chains and used them to hoist himself into the air. Raising both feet, he kicked his captor hard and forced him to fall into the magma pit.
"Alex, the scimitar will break the chains!" his teacher told him.
Alex grasped the flaming sword and smashed the shackles to free him as Jena reappeared.
"Aw, you had the battle without me," she said disappointedly.
"Fadil and the others are trapped in a room filling up with sand," the redhead explained. "There's no way in."
"Bring the scimitar." The Medjai walked over to the edge of the magma chamber, where Toth was clinging to a rock that was jutting out. Ardeth reached inside his robes and extracted the Black Scarab from him.
"The magic Scarab is quite powerful," he said, fiddling with it. "But what you don't know is that if its legs are removed, it can read minds."
Jena actually let out a burst of laughter at the irony. The Dark Medjai could have saved a lot of time and energy if he had only known that.
Placing the adjusted beetle onto Toth's forehead, Ardeth asked, "Now, how do we stop the sand?"
His eyes flashed as the Scarab worked its magic, but in attempt to keep his secret Toth let go of the ledge and fell into the abyss. His shout of, "I cannot be defeated!" echoed off the walls as he plummeted.
"Let's go," the teacher commanded, hurrying away.
In the chamber where the rest of the teenager class was still trapped, the boys froze as the sand stopped falling into the small space. Fearing another attack, their hearts skipped a beat when the flaming scimitar broke the grate open.
Alex fell through the hole, hanging upside down, and the boys let out a collaborative sigh of relief.
"I said we'd be back," he grinned as he pulled Fadil out of the shoulder-high sand.
"I should have trusted you," Fadil replied sheepishly. "You are the better Medjai."
"No, Fadil. We're all a team."
#~#~#
Dawn was beginning to break across the sky as they left the Dark Medjai's lair. Alex watched Jena as she tapped on Fadil's shoulder and asked, "Hey, my brother told me you called my Manacle a hunk of junk."
"Um…" Fadil stammered, trying to figure out if this girl was to be feared more or less than Laith. "I didn't say that exactly…"
"My brother also says you've been a jerk to him and Alex."
"That could just be a point of view," he murmured, but broke off as the slighted teen socked him hard.
"Yanit told me everything," Ardeth said to Alex, and the redhead tore his eyes away from the spectacle. "You have both honored the Medjai order with your skills and determination."
"Then you know her secret?"
"How else could you have made it over the bridge?"
"You're not going to kick Yanit out after everything she's done, are you?"
"All Medjai stand together as a team," Ardeth replied. "The world has changed, and that means our traditions change with it."
"So… does that mean no more 4:30am jumping jack drills, too?" the teen asked hopefully.
"I did not say all traditions."