Daniel Taylor and the Scepter of Power (13 page)

Wow! Mike came staggering to a halt. If he recited the spell, he would no longer be an insignificant errand boy! His abilities were hidden deep within him. With the help of the scepter, he could train them, use them, and strengthen them — to influence the future! But Mike would need Daniel for that, or … Marla! She was a direct descendant of Anastissa! He had heard Obron and Metistakles speaking about that.

If he could heal her …

Mike was hesitant to recite the spell on the staff out loud. With Marla’s help, he could dominate everyone — he’d show the Guild, and his parents!

Deep inside him, there were hidden feelings that frightened him — the same feelings that had possessed the Pharaoh in his vision. No, not feelings. The Egyptian had become cold, a man with a heart of stone. Unjust and cruel. Countless men had died because of him. He had exchanged his soul for boundless power. The scepter had sucked it straight out of him.

Mike shuddered, and goose bumps broke out over his entire body. Suddenly, a shadow whirled around him and tore the scepter out of his hand. Mike’s head immediately cleared.

“D-damn, what was that?” he stammered.

Daniel was standing next to Marla, the artifact in his hand. He had been the shadow! Down in the underworld, Mike had marveled at Taylor’s powers. With the help of the scepter, Mike might have been a match for him, but now he was just Michael Standon again. However, he would much rather be normal than a power-hungry, conscienceless ruler. The images had disturbed him.

He sighed, relieved and happy to have let go of this burden. The scepter had almost taken control of him!

“Marla!” He ran to her, took her hand, and turned to Daniel. “Please, help her!”

Taylor’s eyes briefly glowed in the dark, like burning coals. Then the red stone in his amulet lit up brightly, and his eyes returned to normal. The eye of Horus seemed to protect him from temptation. Mike placed all his hope in him. Daniel was the only one who could save Marla.

Daniel had never in his life been so nervous. “What do I have to do, Dad?” He had no clue about Egyptian writing or how to pronounce it, and he didn’t want to screw anything up. Marla’s life was in his hands!

James stood close beside him. “I’ll read what’s written there, and you just repeat it after me. Whatever you feel or think afterwards, try to remember who you are. Don’t allow yourself to be tempted by your demon side! Think about your sister. Only you can save her!”

“How?” Daniel felt the staff emitting a strange vibration and a pleasant warmth. But there was more, an invisible power that pulled at his mind. This disconcerted him.

“You just have to imagine healing Marla,” his father said. “Anything that you visualize, the scepter can realize. Its power knows no boundaries. You must always take care not to be seduced by the power into doing something stupid.”

James called it “something stupid”; Daniel saw it more as the “ultimate catastrophe.” But he nodded resolutely.

James took a deep breath. “Okay, then repeat after me: Peret … em-bah netjer …”

As Daniel repeated the alien words, a shudder ran down his spine. All the hairs on his body stood on end. The scepter grew warmer and the vibrations increased as it emitted a golden glow. At the same time, Daniel noticed that the eye of Horus had heated up and was burning into his skin. Something dark pushed into his heart and festered there like a cancerous tumor. Despite this, his heartbeat grew stronger.

The amulet suddenly cooled off as though the protection of the eye of Horus had failed. The magical stone had apparently burned out. Now Daniel was on his own.

He heard his father telling him to focus his thoughts on Marla, but Daniel couldn’t. He was struggling with the temptation of taking all this power for himself. He suddenly understood why the whole world was after this scepter. It didn’t even occur to him to wonder why his father hadn’t succumbed to the temptation.

Daniel’s powers seemed to multiply. Sometimes, before he had been linked to the mental network of demons, he could hear what other people were thinking, especially Vanessa. But now he knew what was going through everyone’s minds.

Stay strong, son
, he heard from James.

Dear God, his eyes!
Vanessa thought.
They’re glowing!

Mike was looking at him hopefully.
Don’t screw up, Taylor!

From Marla, he caught only one word:
Deliverance
.

She didn’t want to live.

Daniel had to decide: Marla, or himself. Or could he have both?

No …
a voice whispered in his head. Where did it come from?

Daniel looked at the hopeful faces of his family and friends. His gaze lingered on Mike, and an evil thought crept into his mind:
Why should I save Marla? So that Blondie can get what he wants?

Daniel ran a hand over his face. Heavens, what was he thinking? Marla,
his sister
, would die if he didn’t act now! Why did he always feel so jealous of Blondie? He clearly wasn’t interested in Vanessa.

Daniel looked at Nessa. “Please,” she whispered.

He was suddenly grateful that Vanessa had left her hiding place and been captured. Had she not done that, things would have turned out quite differently.
I can make her my queen. The scepter can grant my every wish. Vanessa and I, side by side, for all eternity. I can save Marla as well.

Yes, that was a tempting thought. And he could make Vanessa submit if she didn’t do what he wanted.

His stomach tightened. He shouldn’t be having such thoughts. No! But the demon side of him was strong. Damn strong.

His gaze wandered away from Vanessa and landed on James. Rage suddenly surged within him. “Where were you all those years, when I needed you so badly?” he snapped.

James didn’t flinch. He merely said in a calm voice, “You already know the answer.”

His father had only wanted the best for him, because he loved him.

“Daniel, there’s far more watcher blood than demon blood in you! Not only mine, but that of your mother! Think about what I told you in the tunnel!” James looked at him intently. “Be strong!”

Your father is right …
Again, Daniel heard a woman’s voice and realized that it was Kitana, his real mother, whom he had never really known. Could he bring her back from the realm of the dead with the scepter’s help?

You shouldn’t even think about such things, my son. My fate was sealed long ago. But you can keep your sister from dying. Her time is not yet at hand.

Marla … He had almost forgotten about her! Only now did he notice that he was moving at lightning speed around the others, as though he were afraid that they might tear the scepter away from him.
If I tap into the full power of the scepter, I can still save her!

You won’t save her
, his mother said sadly.
The evil side in you is too strong. It will overcome you.

Why didn’t Dad succumb to the power?
Daniel wanted to know the answer, if his mother would still speak to him. Her pleasant voice soothed him.

He’s not a blood heir, so he didn’t feel the temptation so strongly. I also gave him the eye of Horus. It protected him from the temptation to retrieve the scepter from its hiding place. James was to never take the amulet off until the prophecy had been fulfilled.

Daniel’s ears pricked up.
What prophecy?

According to a prophecy, the scepter will save a child of mine. Everyone always thought that the prediction referred to you, but it actually meant Marla, as I have only just learned. That’s why I didn’t destroy the scepter when I found it. Any magically gifted person can activate it, but its full power can only be deployed by a blood heir.

A blood heir …
The words echoed in his mind. James had mentioned that as well.

My great-grandmother Anastissa created the scepter. Her blood also flows in your veins, my son, and it is strong.

Anastissa was evil!
Daniel was shocked.

Yes, she was
, Kitana said.
But James and I aren’t.

He suddenly felt someone touching his arm. It was Mike.

“Come on, Taylor!”

Daniel had come to a halt out of sheer astonishment. He felt the scepter taking hold of Mike through his body.

Mike’s eyes widened. Daniel saw what Blondie saw; their minds were linked until Daniel shook off Mike’s hand.

Now Daniel knew how much Mike loved Marla, and also that Mike had never felt anything of the kind for Vanessa.

Daniel looked at Vanessa. She was crying.
Please save Marla! If she dies because of me, I couldn’t live with the guilt.

Then it seemed to him like a switch had been flipped in his head, muting the voice of his demon side. There was a great deal of human in him, and the watcher genes did the rest. He would never be able to inflict harm on the people he loved. Not as long as he was in his right mind.

“I’ll save Marla!” Daniel cried.

Mike nodded. “I knew it!” Who would have thought that a seer was hidden away inside of Blondie? “But you’ll have to make a sacrifice,” he added.

Daniel swallowed. “Why?”

“There always has to be a sacrifice for such strong magic,” James said, stepping closer.

Daniel looked at him intently. “You’re only telling me this now?”

“I didn’t want to give you any more reasons to doubt the right decision.”

With his sharpened mental senses, Daniel knew that James had a guilty conscience about this. “What do I have to sacrifice?”

“I don’t know.” His father was just as frightened as he was. “The artifact will take from us what it needs.”

That could be anything — even a life, perhaps?

“I know what it wants,” Mike interjected. “I saw it.”

“Tell me!”

“You have to decide whether to sacrifice your soul or your magic. In the first case, you would become the sole ruler of all you survey; in the second case, Marla would be saved.”

His powers! Daniel would lose all his wonderful abilities. Only his demonic powers, or also the watcher powers? He didn’t really know which ability came from which side, but he didn’t want to give up any of them.

If he decided to keep them, he’d become the most powerful demon on Earth.

“Daniel!” James looked at him sharply.

“Hurry!” Vanessa was kneeling next to Marla, feeling her pulse. She was crying. “She’s very weak — she’s barely breathing!”

“Please!” Mike begged him, grief and worry palpable in his voice. He didn’t look desperate, but rather determined. His hands were balled into fists, and two deep creases had formed in between his eyebrows. “I’d give everything I had, if I had the choice. Everything!”

James nodded. “As would I.”

Daniel took a deep breath and briefly enjoyed the vision of all that he could have done. “Okay, I’ll do it!”

James hastily explained that he had to focus only on Marla’s recovery, not anything else. “It may be that the scepter automatically seeks out the evil within us, or our most hidden desires.”

“I only have one desire,” Mike whispered, looking over at Marla.

James nodded again. “Do it, Daniel!”

As he concentrated on Marla’s recovery, a wave of energy pulsated out of the scepter. Daniel was almost knocked off of his feet, and the others were pressed to the ground.

He planted his feet firmly on the gravel path and looked at his companions. Blondie, Vanessa, and his father were on all fours, their hair standing on end. The wave of energy had included them as well. Daniel could hear their heartbeats in his body, could feel their emotions — fear and excitement. A storm-like roar echoed in his ears, and the scepter inexorably sucked everything that it could out of him.

More and more energy flowed through his arm and into the artifact. Daniel thought only about Marla, about nullifying the poison and healing her body.
You’ll live, sister!

The scepter was glowing white-hot. Daniel was sorely tempted to drop it; it was as though the object were reluctant to do good. The light, already so bright that Daniel was forced to squint, increased in intensity.

James and Mike dug their fingers into the path while Vanessa fell against a bush and clung to it.

Daniel positioned himself directly over Marla, who was still lying on the hedge in front of the statue.

The light gathered itself into a ball that floated above the snake head. It looked like a miniature sun. The ball remained there for a moment and then shot directly into Marla’s body through her mouth. A golden aura formed around her body, enveloping her. It pulsated and then disappeared. Marla reared up screaming as a green cloud escaped her mouth, then dissolved into a thousand tiny green flies that flew off into the night and were gone.

Marla gasped for air, her eyes open wide. There was no more blood running from her mouth or gurgling in her throat. Daniel sensed it: She was healed.

The hurricane-like roar suddenly ceased, as did the flow of energy. Daniel felt profoundly exhausted. Overwhelmed by a sense of relief, he staggered and saw spots dancing before his eyes. The scepter ceased to vibrate and stopped glowing. Daniel saw James and Mike lying motionless on the ground nearby.

His last thought as the staff slid out of his hand and he saw the ground rapidly approaching was,
What have I done?

When Marla opened her eyes, she saw her mother leaning over her. Smiling, Marla reached a hand out to her and let a lock of black hair slide through her fingers. It felt like cool silk.

Her mother was with her, and that brought a smile to her lips. Behind Kitana, she could see a gigantic cloud vortex swirling in the night sky like a portal. There was a portal in the sky. Would her mother take her with her? Had her torment finally come to an end?

Marla felt very weak, but there was no more pain. Yes, it must be all over.

“Mama,” she breathed.

Kitana pressed a hand to her cheek. “My child …”

Has my time come?
Marla wanted to ask, but it was so exhausting to speak.