The Burning Man

Laura heard the concern in his voice and smiled.

‘You’re saying that like I care,’ Veitch spat.

‘I think you do,’ Church said. Laura could tell he was fighting not to reveal his true feelings about Veitch. ‘You used to care a lot, for all of us,’ he continued. ‘Those kinds of feelings don’t go away. They just get buried beneath all the crap.’

‘Is that what you call what happened to me?’ Laura met Veitch’s eyes, but he looked away. ‘No chance,’ he continued. ‘It’s too late.’

A scuffle outside the door ended with Ruth bursting in, the other Brothers and Sister of Spiders scrabbling to hold on to her.

‘Ryan, don’t be an idiot!’ She grabbed Veitch’s shoulder to hold him back.

‘Ruth, get over here!’ Church called, elation and concern fighting in his voice.

At Osiris’s command, Anubis and a hawk-headed god approached. Laura tried to warn Church, but her voice was now too feeble to carry.

‘Don’t let Laura die,’ Ruth said to Veitch. ‘You have the power to save her. You can do something right.’

‘Why should I?’

‘Do it for me.’

Veitch wavered. ‘Will that change your mind?’

‘I don’t know. It might.’ Ruth’s voice had grown quiet, almost disappearing beneath the growl that issued from the back of the room.

‘You are unreliable, Brother of Spiders,’ Osiris boomed.

‘That’s not my name.’ Veitch hesitated, then turned to face the gods. ‘I’m not standing with you,’ he said to Church. ‘As soon as we’re out of here, I’m going to end this.’

‘Sounds good to me,’ Church said.

‘As unlikely as it is that I’m the voice of reason,’ Hunter interjected, ‘but do you want me to do a quick headcount and tell you how seriously we’re outnumbered?’

‘I always keep a little something in reserve,’ Veitch said.

Hunter grinned. ‘You’re a man after my own heart, Veitch.’ He removed something from his shirt that he kept hidden in his palm.

‘You and that utility belt, Hunter,’ Laura whispered. ‘Always full of surprises.’

‘That’s me, baby. And when we’re out of here, I’ll show you another one.’

‘I’ll hold you to that.’ Laura’s vision dimmed. She couldn’t tell if Hunter’s bravado was just for her sake.

God, I’m dying, she thought. Shavi dragged her towards the door, pausing to finish binding her wounds with unsettling urgency. She tried to offer him words of comfort, but she began to slip in and out of consciousness.

Distantly, she heard Osiris issue an order and there was wild, terrifying movement from the back of the chamber. She heard Ruth scream. A freezing shadow fell across her as Ammut rushed from the shadows.

Everything began to come in flashes, like snapshots dropped before her eyes. Disconnected sounds came and went like the surf. There was a small explosion and the room was filled with acrid smoke. Hunter said something about thanking Omari and the Egyptian Secret Service. The Egyptian man was beside her saying, ‘Will she live?’ and Shavi hushed him.

And then she had the most amazing vision of Blue Fire and black lightning flashing across the room. Church and Veitch were involved in a graceful, athletic fight with the daemon, ducking, leaping, their blades slashing in shimmering arcs.

When her gaze fell on their target, she dry-retched and her brain would accept no clear images of it, but she had residual flashes of fangs and red, hateful eyes.

And then Hunter loomed over her, and he was grinning as she always remembered, but there was an intense, incongruous sadness in his eyes.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I can’t feel it any more.’ But he didn’t appear to hear.

‘Get her out of here,’ he said urgently to Shavi. ‘She’s going.’ He kissed her gently on the lips with a surprising tenderness that she hadn’t seen in him before. She remembered what Osiris had said in the oasis about both of them being lost, and she wondered oddly if they were now found.

He put his lips to her ear. ‘I-’

She never heard the rest.

7

In the confusion, Hunter, Shavi and Fayed carried Laura out into the corridor. Church, Ruth and Veitch fought for their lives as the Devourer of the Damned drove them back. Numerous blows had been struck, but its true form was too slippery for their perception to tell how badly it had been wounded.

Through the curling smoke, Church could see the gods becoming more animal than human with each step. Anubis loped on all fours, preparing to attack. Sobek slithered in his crocodile form, jaws gaping wide.

‘Get over there and hold them back,’ Veitch snarled. Etain instantly led the Brothers and Sisters of Spiders to protect Veitch’s right flank.

‘They’re going to be slaughtered,’ Church shouted.

‘Serves her right.’

‘She brought me here to take Ruth away. God knows how or why, but I think she cares for you.’

‘Can’t believe someone likes me?’ Veitch lashed out furiously. There was a roar of pain from Ammut as the black lightning struck.

‘She’s dead, Ryan.’

Veitch didn’t respond.

Wielding her spear expertly, Ruth came between the two of them. ‘Stop it. In about three minutes we’re all going to be dead.’

Anubis’s snapping jaws tore a chunk out of Owein’s arm. He continued to hack at the god regardless.

‘For God’s sake, can’t one of you useless males do something?’ Ruth snapped. She fell back with a yell as the Devourer raised blood on her cheek.

Veitch cursed loudly. ‘Can you hold it off for a few seconds?’

‘What are you going to do? Run?’

‘What I’d like to do is ram this sword up your arse. Instead, I’m going to give up my “Get Out of Jail Free” card.’

Ruth retaliated with a ferocious spear strike. ‘Don’t be an idiot. You can’t control it.’

‘They’re scared of it — that’s a good enough reason to use it. Are you seriously telling me it’s going to be worse than this?’

‘Would one of you tell me what the hell’s going on?’ Church yelled.

‘The Anubis Box,’ Ruth replied breathlessly. ‘Ryan was going to trade it for free passage through the Great Dominions.’

‘It’s too dangerous!’

‘Sometimes you’ve got to take a leap in the dark.’ Veitch stepped back and removed the Anubis Box from inside his shirt. In one swift movement, he tore off the lid.

Church and Ruth yelled as one, but their voices, and all sound in the chamber, were sucked into the darkness in the box. For one moment everything hung, silent, motionless.

A barely audible susurration. Then tendrils as black and shiny as oil erupted from the box, lashing out with intelligence, accompanied by a deafening roaring. Veitch could barely hold on to the box, so great was the force of the evacuation. The gods ran in terror, but the tendrils sought them out, latching on to their faces, their limbs, pouring into their mouths, noses and ears.

When Church had last witnessed the contents of the box in action, it had been controlled by the crystal skull, but here it was untrammelled. The gods began to disintegrate at its touch.

Other tendrils splattered against the walls and ceiling, seeking out the minute cracks between the cyclopean