*
Screeching, Ghost bared her small needle teeth, snowy fur standing on end. Taking a running leap, the Persian cat clawed her way up the Tiraz wall hanging and clung to the top, hissing furiously all the while. Hair and clothes powdered with broken glass, Ardeth instinctively dropped back, grabbing at his Brownings. A nightmarish blending of cobra and lizard, the djinn's reptillian bulk filled the ballroom, hooded head brushing the vaulted ceiling. Jet scales glistening like oil, Sebak's mouth opened, red mebranes unfurling at the corners, and he spat. A stream of pale green venom hit the polished floor at Ardeth's feet. The wood began to bubble, splinter and dissolve. Jumping aside, the Bedouin took aim and shot out the creature's eyes.
"Khepri! Layla!" the summons boomed at a preternatural volume.
The twin sphinx materialised at their mistress's side, steely talons extended, and leapt on the larger djinn, tearing at his limbs. Roaring, Sebak shook them off, spitting a virulent gob that struck Layla, raising a yelp of true pain. Her flank smoked, golden fur and compact muscle charred back to the bone. Wheeling about, Rhiannon drew back her arm, a fierce corona of light swarming around her clenched fist, and let fly. Streaking comet-like through the air, trailing crackling molten sparks, the sorcerous missile struck the serpent djinn, taking off his head. Bouncing heavily on the floor, leaving smouldering indentations, it exploded messily.
"Bugger! Missed!" the exclamation of dismay reached Ardeth's ears through a snapping haze of multi-hued light. It did not appear like she had missed her target to him.
The sentiment proved justified when the wiggling neck stump began to bulge, the flesh crawling and shifting, and spewed forth a gout of writhing, knotted asps. Momentarily frozen, Ardeth watched with fascinated horror as countless serpent bodies uncoiled, quickly spreading to form a fast-moving living wave that surged across the floor. With a nauseating wet pop, twin heads sprouted from the djinn's truncated stump, webbed by a translucent membrane. To the Med-Jai's astonishment, the torrent of snakes flowed past Rhiannon, leaving her untouched.
They're coming for me! he realised, backing up, shooting into the inky blanket of cold-blooded bodies until his Brownings clicked emptily.
Huge, worryingly-sharp teeth closed on the back of his bandoleer and he found himself dangling several feet above the floor. Breath hot against his neck, Khepri huffed disgustedly, hooked claws anchoring her into the ceiling. Ardeth could only watch as asps carpeted the entire floor with irridescent blackness. Those that came too close to the avatar of Isis burst into flames, burning to crumbling twists of scaly hide. Eyes blazing gold, she was surrounded by a throbbing light of fury, each movement of hand or limb leaving sparkling silver traceries in the air.
"Your master is a coward!" she screamed in the ancient tongue, facing the gigantic djinn. "He cannot kill me, so He targets a defenceless human man! Little wonder He shrinks from the Light of Ra!"
Snake eyes unblinking, Sebak hissed, twin heads bobbing on reticulated muscular necks. An intangible gathering of power burgeoned around Rhiannon Ward, reality seeming to tremble and shift in its wake. Cobra hoods flaring, the djinn reared back and shot two long, thin streamers of caustic venom at the Med-Jai, who swung like a pendulum from Khepri's grasp. Instinctively crossing his arms over his face, Ardeth gave a startled yell as his sometime rescuer sprang out of range, carrying him like a queen-cat bore a helpless kitten. Hissing deafeningly, the serpent djinn's dagger fangs clacked, all four eyes swivelling to fix on his master's hated enemy.
"Do not think Set's protection will save you," Rhiannon said, her voice resounding throughout the ballroom, drowning out the clamourous hiss of asps. "Osiris! Lord of the Underworld, hear thy consort! Anubis, Weigher of Souls, take this creature and judge him!"
She passed her hand before her, fingers splayed. The room began to shake, the very foundations of the old manor house groaning. Motes of plaster rained down from the ceiling, peppering the mass of snakes with white flakes. Sudden terror showed in Sebak's shrinking pupils and trumpeting roar as the floor gaped beneath him, revealing a bottomless chasm lined with flickering cobalt blue flames.
"I condemn you, Sebak, creature of Set, child of evil" the goddess decreed. "To everlasting torment – you shall be devoured by Beby each morning and regenerate each night. You shall never know the peace of the blessed."
She gestured to the rip between worlds. The flames suddenly flashed higher, licking the white plaster ceiling, and swarmed over the serpent djinn, dragging him towards the pit. Limbs wreathed in eldritch fire, Sebak opened his mouths to howl, only for his throats to fill with clinging flames that consumed him from within. Acrid smoke leaked from eye sockets, ear holes and from twin screeching maws, chinks of flame showing through overlapping scales. Glowing like a grotesque jack-o-lantern, the djinn was dragged down, great curls of wood gouged up by his desperately scrabbling claws. Sucked in, relentlessly pulled towards oblivion, the asps swirled down in a seemingly endless stream. The fissure in reality gaped wide, sending powerful eddies rushing outwards in decreasing ripples of matter and energy, and snapped shut like a closed book.
Rhiannon lowered her hands and the maelstrom of searing light and tearing wind died away, her eyes fading to a clear, hard emerald. Uncerimoniously, Khepri opened her mouth and dropped Ardeth, unhooking her great claws to land in a crouch next to her injured doppleganger. Hastily bending his knees to absorb the impact, the Med-Jai chieftan surveyed the smouldering ruin of the ballroom. Something dropped heavily onto his shoulder and he started violently. Ghost grumbled throatily in his ear and slithered into his arms.
"Are you hurt, sayadi?"
Ardeth shook his head wordlessly, looking at the foot-wide holes in the floor, the shattered windows and curling trails of drifting grey smoke. There was no trace of the fathomless chasm that had swallowed Runihura's djinn. Rhiannon tutted under her breath at the mess, a house-proud Englishwoman, but her eyes remained glacial, green as the spring Nile and merciless as the flood. She turned to Bey, each step producing a faint, white-hot hiss, skin glowing faintly.
"So you see what I, no we are up against," she said calmly, waving an encompassing hand. "It's begun far sooner than I imagined."
Moving to tend to Layla, she placed a hand on the djinn's flank, murmuring wordless comfort as one might to a child. A soothing silver glow emanated from her palm and the creature's whines of pain eased. Gently caressing the sphinx's massive lion head, she looked up at Ardeth.
"We must go to Egypt at once," she announced. "Time is against us – I must get the Throne before He does. I wouldn't put it past Runihura not to take His temper out on your people, sayadi. He knows of the Med-Jai just as I do."
An icy stab of fear lanced through Bey as he thought of friends, family and compatriots. Throughout the dynasties, there had been attempts to destroy the Med-Jai, but never by a vengeful god against whom they had no defence. Meeting Ward's steady gaze, hiding his emotions behind a composed mask, he nodded firmly.
"To Egypt, as allies," he declared.
"Allies," Rhiannon echoed.
*
That's all for this installment. Next!
The Duchess xxxGRRR!