Eerie starlight shone through the cracks, as if the catacomb was a shell floating through space. Then there would be another violent tremor and light blazed through these pan-dimensional openings and briefly Billi glimpsed alien, otherworldly shadows upon the tortured walls.
She and Faustus stood at the bottom of the stairs but the floor had sheared away. Right at their feet was a drop down a ragged crevasse into the hissing black waters of the sea. Waves splashed and spilled through the fractured cliff walls.
And then she saw Ivan.
He lay bound upon the floor in the centre of the catacombs, surrounded by fields of cuneiform scratched into the flagstones. The cuneiform covered his skin, all in meticulous black ink, and he squirmed as something slithered up from the cracked chasm in the floor before him.
Oily and slick, glistening in the phantasmagorical light the torso was a twisted aberration of man and serpent, swollen to grotesque proportions and from the hips below it was pure snake, but with a width of two metres or more. Staring at the distended skull, Billi recognised it.
“Reggie.”
This was what he’d become, what the Anunnaki had made him. Was it some jest of theirs? Was this his true shape in their realm, in Kurnugi? His jaws distended wider and wider and a tongue flickered in the air between him and his prey, Ivan.
Billi shook her head. “That can’t be real. He’s a giant snake.”
“He’s manifesting his spiritual form into living flesh. Reggie will consume Ivan’s soul but what’s happening in the spirit realm has become real.”
“He’s real here, that’s all I need to know.” And she took a step back.
“We can climb around,” said Faustus. “We need to work — no!”
There was no time for that, not with the snake slithering closer to Ivan, weaving its way through the columns and across the crevasses, its eyes gleaming and tongue darting back and forth, tasting the thick fear. So Billi jumped.
There wasn’t time to judge the true distance, or what would happen if she fell short. All that mattered was reaching Ivan. A savage gust of bitterly cold wind rushed up from the chasm beneath her, the rocks below grinned like a giant’s teeth longing to grind her bones as she flailed across towards the opposite slab.
She hit the slab hard, rolled to take the worst of the shock from the impact but still had the wind knocked out of her when she finally stopped. Billi winced as she got up.
“Billi!”
Faustus was edging his way across the far wall, he wasn’t getting anywhere fast and everything was a hurry. The serpent was sliding over one of the columns that linked the shattered pieces of the catacombs together. Billi ran along the slab and leapt across to the next one. She needed to keep the momentum going and even as the floor shook, she jumped up to one of the fallen columns and ran along its trembling length onto the next cracked piece of floor, dodging the new cracks opening up as the realms clashed.
The slab suddenly rose at one side, tilting towards the vertical but Billi didn’t stop, she used it to launch herself up and high, smacking down on the next slab, sword drawn.
The serpent rose up to face her.
Reginald’s face was huge, hairless and scaled. His eyes were yellow with two black slits that swelled as they focused upon her.
Billi took a side-step, watching the snake weave back and forth, both of them looking for that opportunity to strike. “What have you done with Erin?”
“Swallowed her whole.” Reggie pointed to his open mouth. “She’s inside here, Billi. Why don’t you come inside and keep her company?”
The scales rattled as they brushed across the stone. They shivered through wild colours, both beautiful and bewildering. Reggie circled around her, she couldn’t keep her eyes on his head and his tail. He was closing in like a noose.
Reggie’s spirit had risen to the surface, Erin was trapped within. That was what she was seeing, the physical manifestation of the spirit.
But how could she get Erin out? Or was she gone forever?
Reginald wove side to side, looking for that opening…
The rustle made her turn, just for a second. The tail swung down and Billi twisted aside but in that second she wasn’t looking at Reggie. He rammed into her, knocking her off her feet and through the air. Billi slammed down on her back, dropping her sword, and Reggie was on her instantly, rising above her, mouth wide and his jaw lined with rows of serrated fangs.
Billi’s hand darted to the stiletto and she jabbed it straight into Reggie’s left eye. He screamed and thrashed frantically, trying to pull it out but the dagger was in deep, right to the cross-guard. His short arms no longer reached as far as his face.
Billi flipped to her feet and ran for her sword. Reginald shot after her, hissing furiously. Billi scooped up her sword and swung even as she turned. The blade skittered along the scales uselessly.
If it doesn’t work, try something new.
Fighting was the ultimate Darwinism. Her dad had told her that while she’d been studying Biology years ago. Billi had sighed but he’d asked what Darwinism meant.
“Survival of the species,” had been her answer. It was at the front of the text-book.
And how did a species survive? It fought. And how did it win those fights?
It evolved.
A sudden side-step, bracing herself in a wide, solid stance and instead of cutting Billi let the tip find a gap under the scale. She swapped her grip, moving her right hand to cup the pommel. And then she shoved.
The tip caught on
