Chapter 24 #2
His mother, known to the Anen as Nour, held him at arm’s length, as he’d done to Gamil. “You’ve changed,” she said, studying his face.
More than you know, Karim thought.
Her gaze dropped to his chest and the large scarab-shaped scar that peeked out from his robes. Her eyes widened in alarm. “What is this? What’s happened to you?”
“He still hasn’t explained Djet,” Gamil said.
“Or where he’s been,” Dima added.
“Did you bring me a present?” Faiza asked, tugging at Karim’s pack.
“Everyone wait a minute!” Karim raised his arms for quiet. He’d forgotten just how overbearing his family could be. “I promise to answer all your questions, but there’s something I must do first. I haven’t come alone, you see. During my travels, I crossed paths with the Hudjefa tribe.”
His mother looked confused. “The Hudjefa? They don’t exist. At least, not anymore.”
“The stories were wrong, Omma. They have been living in a forgotten Khetaran city, far out in the eastern desert. They’ve been expelled from their home and lost many of their brethren in battle, and now…now they need our help.”
“That’s not going to go over well with Babu,” his mother said.
“Babu…”
Perhaps I’ll snap up one of your little sisters, hey? They’re nearly ripe for the picking.
Remembering the Jackal’s threats during their fight, Karim whirled to face his sisters. “Tell me, did Babu ever…touch you since I’ve been gone? Did he hurt you in any way? Because if he has, I swear I’ll kill him!”
Faiza crinkled her nose. “Touched me? Eugh, no!”
Dima said, “He’s mean and rude, and he pinched my bottom once. I kicked him really hard, and he never did it again. He probably knows Omma would bite his head off if he tried.”
Karim exhaled in relief, though Babu would have to pay for the pinched bottom.
“He forced me to take over shepherding the old leader’s herd after he died,” Gamil grumbled. “I told him I wanted to fight, but he wouldn’t listen.”
“The old tribe leader is dead?” Karim asked.
His mother nodded. “Passed away in his sleep soon after you’d gone. Babu leads the Anen now.”
“You’re joking.” Karim cursed under his breath. Of all the people in all the world, why did it have to be Babu? “I need to get back to the Hudjefa before something terrible happens,” he said.
“Something like what?” his mother asked.
Just then, angry shouts erupted from the other side of the hill.
Karim grumbled in exasperation. “Like that.”
The five of them took off running toward the sound.
Karim reached the top of the hill and saw Babu and Elyas in a heated argument, while a dozen armed Anen and Hudjefa warriors stared down their opposition. Hager was beside Babu, looking as lank and spidery as ever, glancing between the two men as if he were hoping they’d come to blows.
“And how do I know you’re not all a bunch of Shass waiting for us to let down our guard, so you can slit our throats in the night, hey?
” Babu snarled. His savage demeanor hadn’t softened in his new position as tribe leader, though his beard was certainly longer.
The brute towered over Elyas, his hands curled into fists at his sides.
Elyas’s reply was strained. “As I’ve already told you, we are the Hudjefa, not the Shass. We were led here by one of your own tribesmen, though I’m not sure where he’s gone to…” The old man scanned the landscape and found Karim atop the hill. He pointed. “Ah! There he is.”
Babu turned, and his face purpled with rage. “You!” he snarled.
Karim sucked his teeth. Well, shit.
Babu unsheathed his dagger. “I told you what I’d do if you ever showed your face here again!” With a roar, the big man charged toward him, a hippopotamus on the rampage, enormous and much faster than one expected. All Karim’s old instincts kicked in, telling him to run away—but he didn’t.
Omma was right. I have changed.
Karim loosed a guttural cry and ran down the slope toward Babu. He had no reason to be afraid of the Jackal’s dagger, nor his fists, nor his rage. He had no reason to be afraid of anything.
Babu lifted the dagger in his meaty hand, ready to finish the job he’d started that day in the valley.
Karim didn’t give him the chance. Without slowing, he sprinted forward and rammed into the big man, toppling him onto the ground.
Once Babu was down, Karim scrambled on top of him and began punching him in the head, over and over again.
How dare he even think about touching my sisters!
Karim kept punching. He wasn’t tired. He could do it all day.
If it weren’t for Babu, maybe we could have closed that tomb before Setnakht got out! He could have helped me! He could have listened!
The next punch landed with a wet crack.
He’s a pig and a liar and he deserves to—
“Karim!”
Panting, sweating, his blood thrumming in his veins, Karim heard his mother’s shout and paused, his bloody fist raised to strike again. She looked down from the hill with the rest of his family, her arms crossed over her chest, disapproval clear on her face.
Karim sagged. Babu stared up at him through a mask of blood, eyes wide and nostrils flaring.
He’s afraid of me now. I could kill him with my bare hands. It would be easy. The thought was both exhilarating and a little frightening. If Karim wasn’t careful, this newfound power of his could turn him into a monster.
Faiza screamed.
Again.
This time, though, she pointed at Babu’s dagger, which was buried in Karim’s shoulder. He hadn’t even felt it.
Sighing, Karim reached up and yanked it out—eliciting screams not only from Faiza but other onlookers as well. Somebody fainted.
“I thought you said, ‘as little blood as possible!’” Elyas hissed at him.
Karim shrugged. “I’m not bleeding.”
Elyas rolled his eyes.
Karim looked back down and stabbed the blade into the ground beside Babu’s head. “There,” he said. “Leave me and my family alone, and we’ll call it a truce.” Feeling that he’d made his point, he stood up and brushed the dust from his bloodstained hands.
Babu scuttled away, his lip curled in loathing. Hager darted forward to try and help him to his feet, but Babu swatted at him. He refused to take his eyes off Karim. “W-what are you?” he stammered.
“He is a messenger from God!” Elyas announced. “And you should treat him with the respect he deserves, lest you feel his wrath upon you!”
Karim winced. He would have preferred a less ostentatious defense, but he couldn’t blame Elyas for trying to be supportive.
Karim glanced around the assembled tribes.
More members of the Anen had come to see what all the fuss was about and watched him warily.
He knew they’d been told he was a traitor and a murderer, and now he’d proved to be capable of even more extraordinary violence.
The Hudjefa, on the other hand, beheld him with a kind of reverence.
Karim wasn’t sure which of the two opinions disturbed him more.
“How do you know he’s not a demon? They, too, have powers,” Babu countered.
“A demon would not have fought the accursed monsters that slaughtered half of my tribe. I saw him slain! Saw him sustain wounds that would kill any man! Yet Karim-sen survived. And he was strong enough to lead us across the desert, over the great river, and here, to you.”
Babu struggled to his feet, and Karim was satisfied to see that the Jackal still limped a little from the leg wound he’d given him. “Monsters, eh?” Babu said with mockery. “Would that be the same kind of beast as the one that supposedly killed Djet?”
Karim advanced once more, his anger rising. “The creature that killed Djet escaped the tomb, as I said it would. And after following me across the kingdom and trying to kill me, it came to the city where the Hudjefa were living and raised an army of stone men to fight on his behalf.”
At this, the Anen erupted into alarmed chatter. Babu snorted. “You speak in riddles, sen. Stone men?”
“I mean exactly what I say. The kingdom now faces a foe that cannot be killed with blades nor arrows. These creatures are powered by magic—what the Khetarans call ‘heka.’ And until we discover how to defeat them, they will spread across this land like a pestilence and destroy everything in their path.”
The crowd fell silent.
“Since when do you know so much about Khetaran sorcery?” Babu asked.
Karim thought of Nefermaat, the little priestess with the haunting eyes, and of Sitamun. Beautiful, brilliant, intoxicating Sitamun. “Since I made some interesting new friends.”
Babu crossed his arms. “Really, sen? You’re the last person I’d expect to break bread with the Khetarans. Why should I care if this stone army slaughters them in their plush little beds? It serves them right.”
“Do you really think those unholy creatures will be satisfied when they’ve conquered Thonis?
I’ve seen them with my own eyes—most of the Hudjefa have too.
They won’t stop until we are all dead or under their thrall.
If we fail to fight evil when it threatens our neighbor, then we will have no allies left when it comes for us. ”
Karim caught sight of his mother in the corner of his vision.
She and his siblings had come down to join the group, and she stood listening, her lips parted, one hand pressed to her chest. Unlike the others, there was neither fear nor reverence in her eyes.
Her earlier disapproval had vanished too.
There was only pride, as if she were seeing her eldest son for the first time.
Karim’s heart warmed.
Has this strength always been within me? he wondered. Or is it simply what happens when you no longer fear death?
Perhaps it didn’t matter.
“Hear me,” Karim said to Babu. “If you can’t promise to leave our quarrel behind, you and Hager must leave and never return.”
Babu wiped the blood from his face and growled in frustration. “Have it your way,” he said. “But I’m still the leader here, understand? While you’ve been fooling around with Khetarans, I’ve been keeping the Anen alive. That includes your family as well as my own.”