Chapter 36 The Sibyl of the Blood Moon #2
The Pharaoh Queen grunted, falling backward as the shield shattered. Smoke and ash filled the space, and Zahra held her breath as she pushed Namir forward.
A cry rent from behind them, and Namir pushed back against her. “Ramses!”
Zahra tried to push him forward, but he moved past her. “I will not leave him.”
Zahra’s eyes softened and she grabbed Namir’s hand, following him toward where Ramses had been. Waaiz and Nubia were gone, but Ramses was lying on the ground, his hand on his leg.
Namir came to Ramses’s side and grabbed his arm.
A figure appeared just beyond them in the smoke. Nubia’s angry eyes appeared for a second as she grabbed her dagger from the floor. Zahra focused on Nubia, throwing her psyche out toward her.
Namir and Ramses looked back in shock as Nubia screamed, the force of Zahra’s psyche throwing her back against the wall. Nubia fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Zahra gasped as she returned to herself. She grabbed Ramses’s other arm.
A hand grabbed Zahra’s leg, and she flinched. The Pharaoh Queen held Zahra’s calf. Her crown and wig were gone, revealing her short, gray curls. She struggled to stand, using Zahra as a crutch. She pushed herself to her feet, pointing forward. “That way.”
“Where is Waaiz?” Namir asked. “We can’t leave him here.”
‘There’s no time,” Zahra said, stepping forward. “We must go!”
Namir clenched his jaw before leading them out of the smoke. Soot stuck to Zahra’s face, and she looked up at Namir, who was focused on the path ahead.
Medjay appeared in their path. The Pharaoh Queen gasped, waving toward them. “We are here!”
The medjay raised their khopeshes toward them, and the group came sliding to a stop. One gripped his blade. “We are loyal to the true Pharaoh.”
Zahra let go of Ramses’s arm, throwing her arm forward. The medjay were blown back from her psyche, tumbling to the floor.
The Pharaoh Queen watched with wide eyes. “How did you—”
Blood dripped from Zahra’s nose, and she wiped it away, turning to Namir. “We must keep moving. The blood moon is still full. If we can outlast it, Iset’s power will fail.”
Namir nodded. “Let us keep moving, then. Mwt, help with Ramses.”
The Pharaoh Queen, though stunned, obeyed. She grabbed a khopesh with one hand, using the other to support Ramses. They moved past the unconscious medjay and into a hallway filled with tall windows. A door was at the end of it.
Beasts moved in the shadows, and keres shot from the darkness, blocking their path.
The jackals and snakes growled and snarled.
Zahra put her hands out into the moonlight that fell from the windows, focusing.
The beam brightened, and the keres hissed, drawing back into the shadows, but still blocking the path forward.
Zahra turned back toward where they had come as she swiped at her bloody nose. Zosar and Nubia were walking toward them. Zosar limped, holding his side, and Nubia gripped her dagger, blood dripping from a wound on her forehead.
Nubia paused some distance from them. “Come, Menes. This will all end quickly if you do as I say.”
Namir shook his head. “Nubia, this act will doom Aur. Think of our people. We cannot allow them to suffer.”
“They should suffer,” Nubia spat. “You all should, and you will!”
Zahra stepped in front of Namir, her fists clenched at her side. “You have failed, Nubia. The moonlight protects him, and your connection to Iset is dying. He can’t do more to us, and you won’t make it past me.”
Zosar gritted his teeth and nodded to Nubia when she glanced at him. “She is right. I am too weak.”
“No,” Nubia said. “There is another way. What if I give you his name?”
Whispers filled the air, and Zosar smiled, his tone changing and sounding more like Iset as he looked at Nubia. “It is no easy feat to do it against an heir of Re. It will only work if my vessel is willing.”
Zosar’s voice changed, and he nodded to himself. “I accept the sacrifice. My soul will live on in Aaru.”
“No,” the Pharaoh Queen said. “Nubia, don’t do it! Please, daughter. We can still change things.”
“You must have read about Asenath,” Zahra stated. “It was Iset that killed her, and another war will be the least of our worries if you go through with this!”
“Aseneth was a foolish Queen. She got what she deserved.” Nubia turned to Zosar. “His name is Sadiki.”
“Nubia, no,” the Pharaoh Queen screamed.
Zahra looked back at Namir’s terrified eyes. She nodded to him, glancing at her necklace still tied around his hand. He followed her gaze, and his face calmed.
Zosar grinned, and Iset’s voice came from him. “Sadiki, firstborn of the Pharaohs, heir to Re’s power—you are mine.” As he spoke the last word, a glowing red line burst from his chest, slithering like a snake. His form withered into ash as the red energy darted toward Namir.
Ramses cried out in fear, standing on his good leg and pulling Namir back. Namir stumbled backward, but his gaze focused on the red snake. It went straight for his heart. As it got close, silver light consumed it. It hissed and pulled away from him.
Nubia’s scream filled the air. “No!”
Zahra smirked, and she looked at the glowing red snake swirling above them. “You can’t have him! He is under the protection of Selene.”
There was silence, then Iset let out a raspy laugh. The keres behind them began to speak as one. “You think you are a clever little bird, but you have left yourself vulnerable by protecting him.”
Fear penetrated Zahra’s chest, but she shook it off. “I have Selene’s protection as her servant.”
“During a blood moon? Oh, no, my dear. Your goddess’s power is stretched too thin, and my servant’s sacrifice has yet to be used. That token was the only thing keeping you safe.”
Zahra’s gaze shot to Namir’s, and she stumbled back toward the wall.
Fear filled Namir’s eyes. “Zahra?”
“Y—You don’t know my name,” Zahra said, looking at Nubia, who watched with interest.
Iset chuckled, the snake coiling in the air and looking down at her.
“Oh, how little you consider your role in this. It was I who turned the Parsan soldier against you, small child that you were. For so long, I thought the flames in Ionia had consumed you, until I saw you at the young King’s Feast.”
Namir let go of Ramses’s arm, moving toward her. “Zahra!”
Zahra stumbled back, throwing her hand up. “No! Stay back!”
Iset’s voice came beside her, whispering in her ear, “Rhodopis, daughter of Nebthet, sibyl of the blood moon—you are mine.”
Zahra screamed as the snake flew into her chest. Black smoke foamed from her mouth as she keeled over, clawing at her throat.
Her stefana tumbled to the ground, her curls falling out of her braid and around her face.
Darkness consumed her eyes, and the stench of death surrounded her.
She gasped, feeling as if the desert sand was engulfing her, drowning her in its endlessness.
“Zahra,” Namir shouted. “Zahra, fight it!”
Zahra’s body shook as she laughed. Iset’s voice blended with hers as she looked up through her curls, tilting her head at Namir with a cruel smile. “She cannot hear you, boy.”
Namir’s frame trembled as Iset stood. She looked down at her hands, grinning. “I have never claimed a sibyl as my vessel before. My sister’s presence is… empowering.”
“Let her go,” Namir ordered. “Let her go or else—”
“Or what?” Iset stalked toward him. She lifted her fingers to Namir’s chin, and he whimpered as he looked into Zahra’s hollow eyes. “She was your only hope, and now she is gone. But she does not have to be. Let my servant kill you, and I will release her.”
Namir took her hand in his. “Zahra, can you hear me?”
The Pharaoh Queen reached forward. “Do not let her touch you!”
“Iset cannot hurt me,” he rasped, “and Zahra would never let her.”
“That is right,” Iset cooed, lifting her other hand to his cheek. Her brittle nails, stained by ash, hovered over his skin. “She would never hurt you.”
“I know you are in there,” Namir said, ignoring Iset’s unnerving smile. He looked into Zahra’s eyes. “I am here. Please. Show me you are, too.”
Iset gritted her teeth. “Do you wish to see her die again, boy? I may have called off my beasts, but I can still kill her.” As she said it, a large crack formed down Zahra’s forehead, twisting to the left of her nose bridge, as if she had been struck with a knife. Blood poured from it.
Panic filled Namir’s eyes. “No, please!”
“Menes, no,” the Pharaoh Queen said from Ramses’s side. “We can find you another bride. We cannot create another Aur!”
Namir’s fist holding the necklace quivered. Tears pricked his eyes, and he smiled sadly as he dropped Zahra’s hand and fumbled with the chain around his hand. “I do not want another.”
No.
Iset flinched at the voice in her mind.
Namir’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Zahra?”
Iset turned to Nubia. “Quickly, now!”
“No.” Zahra’s voice came through, and she pushed her hand against Namir’s chest. “Don’t do it. Don’t give up.”
Nubia rushed forward, but Katerina flew in through the window, striking Nubia in the face. Nubia dropped her dagger, screaming as Katerina clawed at her skin.
“No,” Iset cried, pulling her hand back and stepping away from Namir. “How are you doing this? I repressed your soul!”
Zahra did not know, but she did know this:
For a thousand days, she had fought the darkness. For a thousand nights, she had battled for even an ounce of light. She had not suffered all of these nights for nothing. The endless night would end, and dawn would come.
Zahra’s amber eyes glowed, burning as bright as the blood moon itself.
Iset screamed as the darkness was chased from Zahra’s mind.
Smoke fell from her mouth, vanishing once it touched the moonlight.
Iset screamed again as she was thrown from the mortal plane.
The glow disappeared from Zahra’s eyes, and she crumpled.
Namir caught her, pulling her trembling frame to him.
“Go,” the Pharaoh Queen ordered. “Go!”