DEMONS UP CARTER'S _
(AYANNA, I SWEAR ON HORUS'S FIST IF YOU ACTUALLY NAME THE CHAPTER THAT)
19.03.2015, Alexandria
Ayanna Kane
There's always balance in life, and it's always shitty. There never seemed to be a decision that can make everyone happy. I couldn't both help Carter and stay with Dad. I knew that. I knew I had to choose, and I knew I was sure in my choice. It still sucked leaving the mansion, knowing there was nothing I could do to help there. Nothing I could to do heal Dad's pain, or stop him from destroying himself.
It sucked a bit less, however, knowing that I wasn't carrying the secret on my own.
Walt and I arrived to a fancy suite, in a five-star hotel, in the center of Alexandria. And then they have the audacity to say I'm spoiled, just because I call the warehouse a 'basement'. (It is a storage space under our house! Isn't that what a basement is? Not my fault the house in question is a mansion.)
Meeting Bes might just have been the highlight of my day. He radiated positivity, offered us chocolate figurines, had the coolest shirt ever! I wanted that shirt. You know what's the fun thing about holiday shirts? They looked goofy af on men, but incredible on women. A boy wearing one would be seen as a dork, but put it on a girl, and I'm in love. There is just something about women that makes everything look better.
(2023 Ayanna interjection: Baby, I know what you are.
2023 Sadie: And you thought you were being subtle, too.)
It didn't take long for Sadie and Carter to explain the situation and we jumped straight into the travel preparations.
Another good point for Bes in my book: the staff at the hotel was ready to go above and beyond to meet his wishes. They found me the cutest, cutest, cutest headscarf ever. It was sunset orange with a motive of white suns, which I was hoping was a good omen. Majority of clothing nowadays is so dull and the colors, even when bright, are so muted, it is a downright shame. But sunset-orange? And the way it made the different shades of brown in my eyes pop out? I was in love and I was hoping it wouldn't get ruined during the mission.
You might be wondering, Ayanna, why take it on a dangerous mission if you don't want it to get ruined? Because I deserve to feel cute while saving the world, that's why.
At dawn, Sadie and Walt took off towards the nearest bus stop while me, Carter and Bes went to… an auto-morgue?
"I have a friend that works here," Bes said. "Very reliable. They will let us borrow the best car they have."
"This is an auto-morgue, though." Carter pointed out. "Aren't all the cars here supposed to be broken and old?"
"Not with a bit of magic, no. Oh, there they are, my friend who definitely works in this auto-morgue!"
A tall person, dressed all in black, walked towards us very weirdly, swinging like a human pendulum. It was almost as if they didn't know how to use their legs, or perhaps couldn't see where they were going through the thick black sunglasses. Their hair was long and bright red, and I was worried for a moment it might be Set, when I took in their style. The outfit was way too cool to be invented by Set. A tight tailored suit with sharp square lines. The suit's jacket was open, revealing a gray-ish shirt with a waistcoat over it. While the waistcoat was very clearly a waistcoat, it was also very clearly a corset at the same time. Their tie looked more like a shoelace, tied in a knot over their chest.
They waved at us.
"Happy to help, Bes, but we'll have to be quick. Angel's waiting for me to pick him up."
"Date night?" Bes asked.
"Oh, we'll surely stop by at the Ritz afterwards. But no, we are heading down to South Downs, scheduled house-hunting. Though I think I've already decided on one of the cottages there. You can hear nightingales sing in the garden."
"Well, thank you for sparing us a minute." Bes turned to us. "Kids, this is… actually, how do you want me to introduce you?"
The person threw up a peace sign. "Anthony J. Crowley, at your service."
They handed us a business card.
"What does the J stand for?" Carter asked.
Anthony seemed to panic for a moment. "Ngk. Janthony?"
"Anthony Janthony Crowley?"
"Don't question it. It's just a J, really."
"Okay? And this guy is going to find us a working car in a yard of junk?" Carter asked.
Crowley smiled widely and I half-expected to see fangs poking out. "Not a guy. But yes, like it's a miracle."
Anthony Janthony Crowley did find us a car. It was a 1963 dark blue jeep, with a radio that only played Queen, for some reason.
Too late, after they had gone off, I realized they hadn't even given us any actually contact details. The card simply said: "Bildad the Shuhite: obstetrician/cobbler".
Halfway to Cairo, we realized it might be a good idea to ask for directions. Instead of stopping a random stranger, though, Bes drove us down the streets to a small local shop.
"A worshiper of mine is currently in there, buying lunch. He's a Bedouin, grew up in the parts around where I suppose Zia's village was. I'm sure he'll spare a day for a god like me."
Malek Raslan, a man we'd just met five minutes or so ago, took the wheel as we rumbled along dusty roads, looking for a long-gone village. By this point it was late afternoon.
Raslan knew every village, farm and crossroad. When he didn't, he was more than happy to stop and ask the locals for directions or legends surrounding the vanished village.
We heard more from the latter.
The hours were ticking by and Carter was getting clearly agitated.
"We should have arrived by now." He murmured.
"What?" It took a moment for the sounds that had reached my ears to turn into words. "Never mind, processed."
Carter sighed. "Unless I save her, Apophis would kill her. I'm running out of time."
"First of all, we. Second of all, why hasn't he killed her already if he knows where she is?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe he doesn't have the power yet?"
"Or maybe he doesn't want to. Maybe we're about to march straight into a trap."
"Wow, thank you, very calming!" He looked at me for a moment. "You're on Sadie's side, aren't you? You don't think this was a rational choice."
I sighed. "I think you're ready to give up everything for Zia. Can't judge you."
"Why not?"
"Because I would, too."
Carter hummed, his eyes following the cars passing by us. "What was she like? The real Zia?"
I looked through the window, too. Guess we both knew we couldn't look at each other, not now. I wasn't sure myself how many of my thoughts I wished to keep private. It was nice knowing Carter was willing to give me the privacy to not decide yet.
"Warm. Stable. Safe. She was everything I looked up to, everything I wanted to be. You'll love her. Even more than now. I just know it."
I'd tried my best not to think about Zia in the past couple of months. The last thing I needed was to become as obsessed as Carter. So I didn't really talk about her, either. But now that we were getting closer and closer to seeing her again…
"Back when we were first separated," I started. "The House forbade dad from talking to me about you and uncle. Not even something as small as whether you are alive or not."
"The House really is just a bunch of paranoid old fucks, isn't it?"
"You have no idea. Thankfully, dad found a loophole."
Carter raised an eyebrow.
"See, he couldn't tell me anything about you, but what if I just happened to overhear someone else talking? There was no rule against that."
"And who within the House would give information to uncle?"
"Believe it or not, Desjardins."
"No."
"I'm serious. We've been telling you he used to be nice, Carter."
"It's kind of hard to believe. He's actively requesting our heads on a silver platter."
"I'm not having this argument again. Do you want to hear about Zia or no?"
"Yeah, sorry, go on."
"I would be in the other room, when Desjardins would give his updates, listening in through the door."
"And he didn't notice?"
"He did. He started speaking louder. But Iskandar came along once and realized what was happening. The next time Desjardins came over, was with Zia. She was supposed to make sure I didn't eavesdrop."
"Did she?"
"At first. Iskandar hadn't explained to her the full situation. When I did, she folded. She…"
"What?"
I smiled. "She taught me how to create a fire messenger. A little flame that captures sound and then replaces it for you afterwards. Taught me a lot of other small tricks, too. Just with that she was going against the House, I was forbidden from formal training. She did it, anyways. It's why Desjardins had to stop her from visiting. She was kind and patient and understanding. She was the one warm person in a community that hated my guts simply for existing."
"So she's always been incredible."
"Yeah."
"The Zia, well the shabti of Zia, was terrified of being exiled from the House."
"Because she'd seen what that means, how they treated our family. And yet even when separated, we still looked out for each other. She would have had no one. Or, at least she would have assumed so."
Carter hummed. He did that a lot when he was stressed. A vocal stim, if I've ever heard one. I swear, there isn't a single neurotypical Kane. "How old were you, when you met?"
"Eight. And I was almost eleven the last time we saw each other. So, about a year ago."
"So she'll remember you? She'll trust you?" His eyes lit up with hope.
"Unless I am tainted by association." I joked. "I hope so. I miss her, a lot. She made me feel safe. She made my brain calm, helped me slow down when my thoughts were hectic. I don't know how I'd handle it, if all of that is gone."
Around six in the evening we got our first lead. An old fellahin, selling dates on the roadside, said he knew the village we were seeking. When he heard the name Makan al-Ramal al-Hamrah, he made a protective sign against the Evil Eye, but since Bes was the one asking, the old man told us what he knew.
He said al-Hamrah was an evil place, very badly cursed. No one ever visited nowadays. But he remembered it from before it was destroyed. We would find it ten kilometers south, at a bend in the river where the sand turned bright red.
The Bedouin decided he wouldn't be going with us the rest of the way. He suggested we gave up our search, too, but unfortunately we knew what we were getting ourselves into.
We traveled in silence for a couple of moments, before someone finally decided to break it. Surprisingly, it wasn't me.
"You two look terrible," Bes said.
Carter rolled his eyes. "Thanks."
"I mean magically speaking. You don't look ready for a fight. Whatever's waiting for us, you understand it isn't going to be friendly?"
Under the brim of his hat, his jaw jutted out like he was bracing for an argument.
"So everybody thinks I've lost my mind." Carter murmured.
Bes sighed. "I'd just say this isn't your brightest idea."
I stared out the windshield.
"Maybe Menshikov is still recovering from his head injuries," Carter said hopefully.
Bes laughed. "Take it from me, kid. Menshikov is already after you. He never forgets an insult."
His voice smoldered with anger.
"Was it Vlad?" Carter asked. "Was he the one who captured you?"
What? I tilted my head, asking silently. Carter nodded ahead, scrunching his nose a little. I'll tell you later.
Bes shook his head. "His grandfather, Prince Alexander Menshikov." He said the name like it was a major insult. "He was secretly the head of the Eighteenth Nome. Powerful. Cruel. A lot like his grandson. I'd never dealt with a magician like that. It was the first time I'd been captured."
Oh. I still felt like I was missing a peace of the mechanism, but even without it the clock still ticked.
"But didn't the magicians lock all you gods in the Duat after Egypt fell?" I asked.
"Most of us," Bes agreed. "Some slept the entire two millennia until your uncle unleashed us. Others broke out from time to time and the House of Life would track them down and put them back. Sekhmet broke out in 1918. Big influenza epidemic. But a few of the gods like me stayed in the mortal world the entire time. Humans have always liked me. So when Egypt fell, the Romans adopted me as one of their gods. Afterwards, I mostly laid low, hung out with gnomes, leprechauns, even some house spirits. Then, in the Middle Ages, the Christians made the gargoyles. Oh, the fun you can have with a gargoyle."
Bes scowled, most likely remembering there were kids in the car. "Anyway, the House of Life was never serious about tracking me down. I just stayed out of trouble. I was never captured until Russia. Probably still be a prisoner there if it wasn't for-"
He stopped himself, as if realizing he'd said too much. The truck rattled over hard-packed sand and rocks, heading for the river.
"Someone helped you escape?" I guessed. "Bast?"
The dwarf's neck turned bright red. "No, not Bast. She was stuck in the abyss fighting Apophis."
"Then-"
"The point is, I got free, and I got my revenge. I managed to get Alexander Menshikov convicted on corruption charges. He was disgraced, stripped of his wealth and titles. His whole family was shipped off to Siberia. Best day of my life. Unfortunately, his grandson - Vladimir made a comeback. Eventually he moved back to St. Petersburg, rebuilt his grandfather's fortune, and took over the Eighteenth Nome. If Vlad had the chance to capture me…"
Bes shifted in the driver's seat like the springs were getting uncomfortable.
"I guess I'm saying all of this because… " he locked eyes with Carter over the rear view mirror. "You want to save Zia. I get that. You want her to like you. But when you rescue somebody… it complicates things. Don't get starry-eyed about somebody you can't have, especially if it blinds you to somebody who's really important. Don't… don't make my mistakes."
There was real pain in his voice, but before we could say anything, Bes put his foot on the brake. "I think we're here."
The sun was going down at our backs. Everything in front of us was bathed in red light-the sand, the water of the Nile, the hills on the horizon. It was hauntingly fascinating. Bathed in blood. Set would love this place. Would dad do, too?
He would appreciate the peacefulness of the scene. No loud sounds, no city rush. Just haunting stillness.
Too still, actually, now that I thought about it. Almost stale. The air was dry, no breeze, no sounds. Only the Nile, shining and unbothered, added movement to this eerily perfect picture.
Bes didn't wait for us. When we caught up to him, he was standing on the riverbank. I picked up some sand, letting it sift through my fingers. For a moment my vision blurred, and in the mirage I saw my hand bathed in blood. I blinked the illusion away, yet the image stayed imprinted on my mind.
"It's not just the light," I whispered. "The sand is actually red."
Bes nodded. "You know why?"
"Red is the color of evil," Carter said. "The desert. Chaos. Destruction."
Bes dusted off his hands. "This was a bad place to build a village."
"Maybe it didn't seem like a bad place at the time?" I guessed. "Wasn't there something about how even the land around Pompeii was theoretically perfect for a thriving community?"
Carter nodded. "And then it blew up in their faces. Literally, in their faces, up their-"
"But it was objectively their best choice at the time!"
"Objectively, they're still dead."
"Okay, whatever, you knew what I meant!"
"I did, but this is more fun."
"I will have to agree with Carter," Bes hesitated a bit when I glared at him. "That hindsight is a gift, I mean." He pointed to the river.
Decaying boards and wooden poles bobbed and poked over the surface, the remains of homes. I walked to the edge of the water. A few feet out, it was calm and shallow enough that I could make out a line of submerged mud bricks: the foundation of a wall slowly dissolving into silt.
"The whole village sank?" Carter asked.
"It was swallowed," Bes said. "The Nile is trying to wash away the evil that happened here."
Carter shivered. "If it's such an evil place, why would Iskandar hide Zia here?"
"Could it be because of Nephthys?" I turned to Bes. "You said it yourself, the Nile is trying to cleanse the place."
"Good question," Bes said. "You want to find the answer, you'll have to wade out there."
"You're coming too, aren't you?" Carter asked Bes.
The corner of his eye twitched. "Running water's not good for gods. Loosens our connection to the Duat…"
I rolled my eyes. "Come on Carter, let us go. Let the dwarf cower behind two kids."
"Yeah, okay," Bes sighed. "I'm right behind you. That was mean, girl."
I smiled proudly. "Never said I was nice."
Bes searched my face for a moment, opened his mouth as if to say something, but then seemingly decided against it.
I slowly lowered one boot into the river, feeling out the bottom for a stable step. The water went up to my knees.
Two steps in, Carter slipped on something and almost fell back, before regaining his balance.
"The fucking wet rocks." He whispered.
"Before you step down, wedge your foot between two rocks, instead of stepping on top of them." I called out. "This way you're locked in before the next step."
We spent quite some time looking for anything useful, every and any sign of Zia Rashid. All we got was bricks, a few intact sections of walls, pottery shards. I'd feel a distribution in the river's flow from time to time, but when I would look back, there was nothing there but Carter and Bes. And the rapidly setting sun.
Bes snatched something out of the water-a wriggly fish or a frog-and stuck it in his mouth.
"Do you have to?" Carter asked.
"What?" Bes said, still chewing. "It's dinnertime."
I'd started to lose hope, when suddenly Carter called out. "Umm, guys!"
The rock surface Carter had found was deeper in and the water reached Bes's armpits. His form shimmered in the current like he might disappear any minute. Fascinating. I wonder if there was a scroll in the Library that talked about this, maybe a study on the properties of flowing waters or something.
I held on to Carter and traced the edge of the rock with my foot. A flat row of hewn blocks. The edge dropped off to another row of stones about a foot lower: like stairs, leading down.
"Huh." Bes dunked his head underwater. When he came back up, his beard was covered in muck and weeds. "Stairs, all right. Reminds me of the entrance to a tomb."
"A tomb," Carter said, "in the middle of a village?"
Off to our left, there was another splash.
Bes frowned. "Did you see that?"
"Yeah. Ever since we got into the water. You haven't noticed?"
Bes stuck his finger in the water as if testing the temperature. "We should hurry."
"Why?"
"Probably nothing. Let's get a look at this tomb. Part the river."
He said so casually, I almost didn't process the statement. Carter coughed nervously. "I'm a combat magician. I don't know how to part a river."
Bes looked at me questioningly. I raised up my hands in defense. "I'm good with fire and air. Don't see how either can be useful right now."
Bes looked offended. "Oh, come on. That's standard stuff. Back in Khufu's day I knew a magician who parted the Nile just so he could climb to the bottom and retrieve a girl's necklace. You should totally be able to part the water."
"Maybe a properly trained magician should," I pointed out. "Which neither of us are. We're just going based off instincts and vibes. If it's easy, why don't you do it?"
"Again with her and her attitude! I told you, running water interferes with godly power. Probably one of the reasons Iskandar hid your friend down there, if that's where she is. Just-"
He suddenly tensed. "Get to the shore."
"But you said-"
"Now!"
Before we could move, the river erupted around us. Three separate waterspouts blasted upward, and Bes was pulled underwater.
I tried to run, but my feet stuck in the mud.
The waterspouts surrounded us. They swirled around us like tiny water tornadoes, forming into distorted glistening human shapes.
Twenty feet downstream, Bes broke to the surface. "Water demons!" he spluttered. "Ward them off!"
"How?" Carter shouted.
Two of the water demons veered toward Bes. The dwarf god tried to keep his footing, but the river boiled into whitewater rapids, and he was already up to his armpits.
"Come on, kid!" he yelled. "Every shepherd used to know charms against water demons!"
"Well, find me a shepherd, then!" Carter yelled back.
Bes yelled, "BOO!" and the first water demon evaporated. He turned toward the second, but before he could scare it, the water demon blasted him in the face.
Bes choked and stumbled, water shooting out his nostrils. The demon crashed over him, and Bes went under again.
"Great!" I yelled. "Any actual good ideas?"
Carter shrugged. "Stay above water?"
"Oh my gods, I would have never guessed."
"You asked!"
One of the demons surged toward me. I shoved a current of air towards it, but the demon just slammed against it, knocking me backward.
I started to panic, but Dad says never to panic in water. Breathe. Your brain is stupid, it follows the signals the body sends it. So breathe and think.
I swerved out of the way of another demon. It was hard to see where it began, and the water ended. Like they were one. I'd hate to be a liquid, it seems so confusing.
Wait! I held my breath and dunked downwards, avoiding the literal body of water charging for me. Seemed counter intuitive, after all, the demons wanted to drown us. But if their bodies are made of water, can they tell themselves apart from the river?
The demon tried to reach for me, but the moment its arm touched the surface of the water, it dispersed into it. How does water tell itself apart from water? It doesn't. The molecules that make the body of the demon are too far apart from each other. Those of the river's water move right in between them.
Only problem: how long could I hold my breath for? Dad had trained me to dive in the pool, 2 minutes have always been my max. I had two minutes to come up with a plan. A minute and a half, if we factor in what I'd already used up.
I looked up. The demon looked down. We locked gazes. Its eyes spun like miniature whirlpools. Fast and rapid. Fast. Like bubbling water. Boiling. Evaporated! I can work with air, so I had to change the substance.
I needed air. There was oxygen in the water!
I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. My energy spread out like tendrils, catching the air molecules around and retracting them back into me.
Even though my lungs weren't moving, I felt my mind clear.
Boiling. Water boils at a temperature of 100 degrees. Temperature is just an indicator for how fast molecules are moving. They move faster when they have more energy. So I could evaporate the water if I gave it enough energy.
I collected the oxygen in my right hand, then slowly sent it to the left. Then back to the right a little faster. And a little faster. And then we add a bit of energy…
The space between my hands grew uncomfortably hot. Tiny bubbles began to appear in the water. Keeping the ball of heat between my hands, I swam upwards and threw it right at the demon's face. It began to bubble, a tiny stream of steam flowing upwards, but the air wasn't hot enough and the water was too cold. I needed more energy.
Taking in a deep breath, I sank back down before the demon can collect itself. More energy…
I looked around and spotted Carter, crawling against the sand. The water was filling up in his lungs, the demon blocking his way upwards.
I swam up to him and pulled him a little away, so that we could both break the surface.
Carter coughed out some water, but otherwise he seemed fine. Three demons turned towards us. Bes was nowhere to be seen.
"No time," I said, grabbing his hand. "Hold your breath and trust me!"
He nodded and we went down. I tapped him on the shoulder so he can look at me, and made an explosion motion with my hands. Then took one of his hands and put the other before me, palm facing upwards. The water began to bubble.
Carter nodded, holding his hand out towards the water demons, too.
A little bit of energy, making the oxygen in the water move faster. A little beat of heat, causing a small patch of boiling water, evaporating the water demons.
That was the plan.
Quick note, if you have two Kanes doing a spell together, you should probably define what 'little bit of energy' means beforehand.
The Nile exploded.
When my vision cleared up and the ringing in my ears subsided, I saw that the river had changed its course. It now curved around the ruins of the village. Exposed in the glistening red mud were bricks and boards, trash, old clothes, the fender of a car, and bones that might've been animal or human. A few fish flopped around, wondering where the river had gone.
About ten feet away, Bes was scowling at us in annoyance. He had a bloody nose and was buried up to his waist in mud.
"Usually when you part a river," Bes grumbled, "it doesn't involve punching a dwarf."
I looked at Carter. "Did you break his nose?"
We burst out laughing. The adrenaline had reached its peak and everything had gone past terrifying and straight into hilarious.
Bes huffed. "Very funny, alright, now get me out of here!"
We managed to pry him free with a sinking noise, that didn't help the laughing.
"I'm sorry," Carter stammered. "I didn't mean to-"
Bes waved aside the apology. "You handled the water demons. That's what matters. Now we gotta see if you can handle that."
That's when we saw the tomb and sobered up. A rectangular pit, lined with stone blocks. Steps led down to a closed stone door etched with hieroglyphs. The largest was the symbol for the House of Life.
"Those demons were guarding the entrance," Bes said. "There may be worse inside."
Underneath the symbol, was a simple serekh, a square enclosure for a royal name. Above it, side by side, stood a falcon and a sha.
"Weird stylistic choice," Bes murmured. "Only one Pharaoh had both Horus and Set over their serekh. Usually it was Horus, it's why it's called a 'Horus name'. Once in a while it would be Set. Only one had them both."
"A bad omen?" I asked.
Bes's eyes shifted between me and Carter. "Depends who you ask. Either way, this isn't the name of Khasekhemwy, which makes this serekh second of its kind."
"No," Carter's eyes widened as he recognized the name. "Zia. Zia's inside."