Chapter 50
Cheri
I felt my jaw drop. The High Priest of Ra had just confronted a priest of the Old Ones and forbidden them to continue.
Fighting dropped off in the background as both cultists and the ex-prisoners turned to stare at what was happening in the henge. Even the priest in front of the white haired girl seemed to halt in what he was doing to stare at the High Priest. What the hell?
The black rectangle behind the cultist rippled.
Oh, fuck.
As we watched the surface rippled again and a form began to take shape. Who were they summoning? I listened for sounds from the cultists. Silence. Even the wind was quiet. A man stepped through the gate, shedding the liquid darkness yet becoming no more pale. Oh crap!
"Don't look at him!" I screamed and whirled to catch the boy behind me and turn him away from the thing that looked like a man. Madness lay that way. Nyarlthotep, the Black Pharoah, stood on the sand of what was once the Oasis of Ahm Shere. I shoved the boy toward the others, away from the insanity. I could see the others turning away, looking down and not toward the gate. Good.
Only Ardeth Bey and the High Priest stood behind me, probably still looking toward the Black Pharoah. Slowly, I turned back to the scene. The girl hung limp in her bonds. The priest who had summoned the Black Pharoah sank to his knees, holding out the cup he had used to mark her skin with arcane symbols.
"Neh!" Unarmed the self identified High Priest of Ra walked forward.
Imhotep, I finally put two and two together and figured out who he was. But even with the power of the Hom Dei curse, he wasn't strong enough to tangle with an actual … he walked past the girl and back handed the figure before him, sending it stumbling back through the portal. Then he turned to the other high priest, staring into the eyes beneath the hood. The other flinched and prostrated itself before Imhotep.
"You do not belong here," the latter announced in fluent Egyptian.
The surface in the gate started to flutter as Ardeth Bey cut the girl down, holding her in his arms and closing her robes. He yelled something at Imhotep I did not catch. My eyes were on the gate while my fingers scrabbled in my pockets for something, anything to turn into a weapon. The gate was still open.
