The Paladin's Odyssey (The Windows of Heaven) (31 page)

A’

Nu-Ahki must have pinched a nerve in his lower back on his jump into the tunnel. Each step came slower and more painful. He heard the soldiers gain on him. U’Sumi, T’Qinna, Taanyx, with the lantern, grew dimmer on down the tube. He wanted to call out
,
but
didn’t have
the breath.

It got dark much too fast.

Before his eyes could adjust, he thought he saw slippery shapes squirm like giant black maggots inside the reeking murk of each passing branch tunnel. His feet grew numb
,
then unresponsive.

An angry hiss escaped from one of the side holes
, as a
shadow lashed out and snagged his legging straps. Nu tugged free, but the
angular
momentum sl
ung
him headlong into the slimy oblivion of a branch conduit.

When he pulled himself to a sitting position in the scummy darkness, a hungry
,
coldly
radiant eye peered at him from out of the gloom. Abominable stench clung to his beard and nearly gagged him. Somehow, a distant control to his breathing and thoughts came over him
,
as
though
he saw
himself as
another man fac
ing
the creature from far away.

A’Nu-Ahki sensed the presence of his age-long enemy, but also that of
El-N’Lil
. The truth of his situation sharpened to a razor edge in his mind.

Nu said to the eye, “You keep changing your face, but I recognize you no matter what form you take. I’m not afraid of you. Not
anymore
.”

The Creature gurgled with hatred, but only glared at its quarry.

“I know your little pets are only dumb beasts. I’m not a superstitious fool! You started with a jeweled basilisk
and
then his cousins
,
Leviathan
,
and the wurm. I know the men you inhabit and then discard when they’ve outlived their usefulness. What are you this time
, a c
rocodile
, a s
ail-back? It doesn’t matter. Your days are
counting down
.”

The eye thrashed back and forth, followed by a loud snap of spring-trap jaws close enough to Nu’s toes for him to feel the
hot
air move.

“Very impressive,” mocked the Appointed Son of Seti. “But it’s just a show. You know better than I
do
that even here E’Yahavah’s
sword
rises
above my head to drive you off like always. Even if you have permission to take my body—which I doubt—you’ll never get what you really want.”

The eye leered at A’Nu-Ahki a moment longer
and
wavered. No voice replied, even in thought, but
Nu understood
the communication.

“No, I don’t think this is your worst. And yes, I know what you’ve been trying to do to my son. You knew what I’ve discovered only recently; that he carries the
Seed
Line
. So what!
You think you can use the girl to get to him, but you’re wrong!
The girl belongs to E’Yahavah—she has all along! I knew about her before we even reached Temple City. You should stick to chasing what you can catch
:
people you already own.”

The Creature bellowed with what seemed a frustrated rage. A’Nu-Ahki waited motionless, while it wheeled its bulk around and clawed its way back into the main tunnel. There the Temple guards still search
ed within earshot
. An army of smaller eyes followed the Beast, leaving A’Nu-Ahki alone to nurse hi
s weakened legs in the protective
murk
.

T’

Qinna buried her face in U’Sumi’s shoulder
,
and clutched Taanyx’s collar
in
one hand. Sail-backs and crocodiles streamed out of their dank side tunnels in slithering hordes. She waited for teeth to shred her legs and pull her down into a sea of dismemberment. When that did
no
t happen, she risked a peek through the corner of her eye.

The sphinx snarled and hissed, lashing out at the passing monsters with
talons
unfurled.
T
he reptiles gave all three of them wide berth.

“They’re not used to the light,” U’Sumi whispered, stroking her hair.
“It attracted them out, but they won’t come too near. And I don’t mean just the lantern. It feels strange
,
but I think there’s more to it than that.”

A distant ruckus from up the
drain way
drew the attention of the reptilian army away from U’Sumi and T’Qinna. As if answering a call, the creatures flooded up the tube toward the noise.

T’Qinna said,
“They’re leaving!”

U’Sumi did not share her elation. “My father’s still up there!”

He detached himself from her and scrambled after the sewer dragons like some grim shepherd from the shadow fields of Underworld.

P

andura glared at Mnemosynae as they both listened to the guard captain’s account.

He said,
“We followed them down into the sewers, but only a few of us had lights
.
At first
,
we still s
aw
a reflection
from
their lantern, but we had to push hard to keep up with it. The
n the
floor got wet and we started slipping, so we had to slow down. After a few minutes
,
the sewer creatures swarmed out of the side holes
—h
undreds
of ‘em, big and mean, snapped at our legs and pulled some of us down!”

“I trust you had weapons,” Pandura said between clenched teeth.

“Our hand-cannons were useless against so many.
Those of us who still could ran back
to the menagerie grate. Then we needed a rope to climb out
!
In the time it took for those waiting up top to find one, the monsters were all over us! By the gods
,
m
ost were sports of some kind—sail-backs with two heads, white crocodiles with three eyes, or that pulled themselves along with front claws because they had no hind
s
. Of ten men, only three others with me
got
out. I tell ya, Mistresses, we must exterminate those things, budget limits or not!”

Mnemosynae asked, “Is there any chance the prisoners survived?”

Pandura read the weak sentimentality in the Mistress of Memory’s eyes.
I’d wager that y
ou think Lethae’s blocks failed too, but you’ll never admit it!

The Captain said,
“I don’t see how, Mistress
.
Nobody could’ve gotten past those monsters without heavy armor.”

“
Which brings us to who let them out?
” The High Priestess paused to gather her wits. She disliked showing the weakness of raising her voice—even to her own underlings. “Can you confirm that both your patrol sentries saw the striped sphinx leap into the hole just before the Seer did?”

“Yes. One of them still lives.”

Pandura arched her brow at Mnemosynae, who flinched. “That can only mean Pyra was already in the hole. She must have fallen under the Seer’s spell. What else could account for such madness?”

“It seems likely,” said the Captain.

“Well, please send a man to the novice dorms and find out. We’ll be at the oracle pyramid, communing with Psydonu
,
if you need us further.”

After the man left, Mnemosynae spoke her mind. “Perhaps allowing Pyra access to the Seer was not such a good idea after all.”

“
You advised no changes to
her security level
and
that I should
‘be a mother’ to her. The prisoners would not have been such a curiosity to her had I not brought her along to Thulae to keep her
all mother—
close
. M
others indulge their children’s wishes, do they not?
Besides, she took an interest in the young paladin—wanted to bring him his flute, and such. It could have been useful in securing his cooperation eventually.”

Mnemosynae snorted.
“A calculated risk?”

“No more than Lethae’s blocks and your pseudo-memories.”

“It is unlikely the Seer could have perceived Pyra’s condition. It was too well buried.”

Pandura laughed. “The
Seer
could not have
perceived
? Why then, my dear, do they call him a seer
,
and why are we so interested in his codes? He does perceive! I’m afraid he perceives all too well!”

Mnemosynae frowned. “A lesson from Pandura on the reality of precognition
?
Now that’s ironic!”

The High Priestess shoved her concern for Pyra aside. Of more importance was how they would explain this debacle to the Titans.

U’

Sumi poked his lantern into the side hole and called out. For the first time he heard a response from inside the gloom.

“I’m in here, but my legs are weak. I need help.”

Soon, U’Sumi and T’Qinna assisted A’Nu-Ahki up to the main duct.

“The Basilisk will leave us be
for
awhile, but we still need to be out of here quickly,” the Seer said, as he limped with them down the tunnel.

They followed the sewer down to the slime, where U’Sumi hoisted the still unwilling Taanyx to his shoulders and staggered—with trembling claws embedded in his flesh—into the deepening sludge. T’Qinna helped guide him, keeping the cat steady. Nevertheless, progress w
ent
slow because the sphinx weighed about half as much as U’Sumi
did
.

After a seemingly endless plod through the fetid black
ness
, the conduit opened to the midnight sky inside the city’s southwest wall, where it emptied into a drainage canal.
U’Sumi
bloodied and out of breath, bent over and let Taanyx push
off
his back up onto the bank. He helped both his father and T’Qinna up the small slope
before joining
them himself.