Chapter ten
I woke up the next morning in my own bed with a hangover, I had a moment of panic, then relief when I saw the magic bracelet I had made at Hattu’s complex sitting on my night stand. I had another moment of panic when I remembered what I had done last night.
I sat up on my bed and looked at the sun coming through my window, it was already approaching its zenith.
I showered and dressed and then walked to the kitchen to get the largest cup of tea I could possibly make. I saw Shelley sitting on the couch in our living room watching TV.
“Nothing bad happened last night... right?” I asked.
“Well... other than scaring the crap out of some random stranger no.”
“Oh God, that was stupid... that’s why I never bring my bracelet with me. I have a mischievous spirit living in me that is freed by alcohol.”
I poured boiling water into a large cup with a tea bag in it, I walked over to the couch and sat down beside Shelley.
“Well... don’t feel too bad, I’ve woken up in bed a guy I didn’t know before,” Shelley said.
“Yes... it’s not like I destroyed a city with a pillar of flame... now that would be bad.”
I saw Shelley’s eyes narrow as she turned her head and stared at me, I smiled back innocently.
“What was up with that spell? It was pretty cool,” Shelley said.
“I found it in one of Hattu’s spell books, he also wrote a bunch of similar spells, they are all basically sophisticated automatons , they don’t really have any use.”
“Other than terrifying some geeky beatnik.”
“I stored all his spell books in my bracelet, I’ll dump them in my workshop so you can look at them.”
“It’s ironic that such a powerful sorcerer died of old age,” Shelley said.
“I can think of few ways around death... but it would not be good for my Ka, besides as you now know things of infinite abundance have little worth.”
“What about Maggie’s idea for finding stuff in our library?”
“I think that would be a great project for you... you would have to write some pretty sophisticated spells.”
“God... I didn’t realize project management was part of sorcery.”
“If you really want to create great spells, you have to organize teams, delegate the writing and constantly fix problems. I had lots of great idea’s I just gave up on because they would have taken too long.”
“Like what?”
“I was going to make a sort of collective intelligence using a matrix of people in time and space, but it got to confusing and the math was way beyond my capabilities, it didn’t help that the zero hadn’t been invented either.”
“You could farm that stuff out to some grad student now... and use a computer to organize it,” Shelley said.
“I try to stay away from clever people, they have a tendency to figure out stuff you don’t want them too.”
I sipped my tea as Shelley and I watched the TV in silence.
After my cup of tea and a long nap I felt much better, I told Shelley that I had an errand to do in the Magic City and that I would be gone for a few hours. I had put on my magic bracelet and now used it to summon up a large bronze sword in a sheath. I slung its strap over my shoulder.
“Expecting something?” Shelley asked.
“Just being cautious.”
“In all the adventure novels I’ve read the hero’s swords have name’s, does yours?” Shelley asked.
I thought for a moment, “It’s called my little friend,” I said with a smile.
I said goodbye to Shelley and was on the wide flagstone paved streets of the ruined city in a few minutes.
I had walked around the city many times since Shelley and I had taken up residence here, but I had never gone more than a few blocks.
This time I started walking past the familiar area’s and into the unfamiliar. I noticed as I walked that there were subtle changes in the style of architecture, the further I walked the greater the change.
I stopped in front of a particularly impressive building and used my bracelet to conjure up a very high quality digital camera, I then conjured up a small metal platform as well and inserted the camera into it. I stretched out my arm and then let go of the platform, it hung motionless hovering about three feet above the ground.
I stepped back and then used my bracelet to maneuver the platform remotely, I increased its altitude until it was a small black dot high in the sky I then caused the camera to take a series of pictures.
I lowered the camera and recovered it after a few minutes, I looked at the photographs it had taken on its large LCD display.
The city appeared to be much larger then when I had first lived in it, the photographs could not encompass all of it, the cities roads and pathways continued right up to the edge of the picture frame.
I used the cameras digital zoom to search the streets of the city and soon found what I was looking for, I used the building I was standing in front of as a reference and then plotted a route to my new destination. I wrote down the route with a pen and pad of paper and then caused the camera to disappear.
I started walking towards my goal.
It was a small building compared to the edifices surrounding it, but it was still quite impressive. It was constructed of limestone, with large columns lining the front. There were shallow steps leading to the buildings entrance.
I walked up the steps and past the columns, I saw that the front exterior wall was covered in brightly painted images and hieroglyphs.
I read the large hieroglyphic phrase over the entranceway, it said TOMB of SENBI and KEMAMONIT. I felt my heart skip a beat.
I walked inside the tomb, I entered a brightly lit enormous room, the walls of which were covered in hundreds of brightly colored images of people doing various mundane things. I saw a man and woman and two small children sitting in a boat fishing, beside it a picture of a woman instructing four children in a classroom.
I felt my heart skip a beat again as I realized the woman depicted in most of the scenes looked like me.
I saw two sarcophagi’s sitting in the middle of the bright white marble floor, my heart started beating wildly as I walked towards them. I stood beside the first one and looked inside, I saw an old Nubian woman lying on her back, she appeared to be in her mid-sixties. The expression on her face was a relaxed look of contentment, she was wearing a conservative linen dress.
It was me, but not me... I felt a weird feeling of almost deja vu as I looked at her serene face, I walked over to the other sarcophagus, I recognized the body lying there as Senbi almost immediately. He looked much older than the woman and had the weird device over his eyes that I had seen in his picture on the Sobek’s Teeth.
I stood up and started looking at the brightly painted walls again, a scene caught my eye, it was different then the other’s, instead of depicting a happy family outing it showed a young Kemamonit bent over in pain handing a papyrus scroll to a young Senbi.
I walked over to the scene and stood in front of it, I heard a musical note sound in the still air and the scene suddenly transformed into a long hieroglyphic script. I stepped back in alarm.
I waited for a few seconds to see if something else would occur nothing did. I stepped forward towards the script and started to read it.
My dear Kemamonit, you are alive after all. I have always doubted that anyone as stubborn and wilful as you could ever succumb to the pestilence.
My time on this world is quickly coming to a conclusion and I fear I only have days left to live. Last night I had the first dream I have had in many years, it was of you entering my tomb many years in the future and examining our bodies.
I created this spell to satisfy your curiosity if my dream was a premonition and you were ever to stumble into my tomb.
I am sure you are oblivious to the great happiness and the great pain you have brought to my heart, as I write this I still remember our first meeting, and being awest
ruck by the impossibly beautiful Nubian girl.
When we then worked together so long ago I used to lie awake at night praying for Ra to hurry in his journey and light the morning once again so I could see you.
Then you disappeared... I had felt as if my heart was a large weight in my chest, every morning seemed to be colored in drab greyness.
I searched for you for many months not finding even the smallest clue.
The years passed and the greyness faded but it never disappeared.
And then you reappeared, I remember that night as if it happened yesterday, feeling my heart fly as high as a bird on seeing your face only to fall again as if shot by an arrow on seeing your condition.
You were so ill and in such pain, and the gods seemed to sense the tragedy of the situation by providing a raging thunderstorm.
Still the stubborn wilful girl, you refused any offer of help, and then for reason’s I will never understand you gave me the secrets of sorcery.
I would have seized you then and forced you to stay if you hadn’t disappeared in a flash of light. I felt my heart sink again on your exit.
I left the next day following your map to the City of Magic. I was determined to find you, I searched the city for many days finding only deserted buildings and streets as empty as I felt.
I finally gave up and started my study of sorcery and after many terrifying bouts of trial and error obtained a small mastery of the craft.
It was then I came up with a plan to get you back, for good this time. I spent many months on spells and complicated schemes that even the gods would not have been able to decipher.
I finally hatched my plot confident in success, I travelled to the past and enticed you away from your small fishing village by showing you the wonders of sorcery, then I plied you with luxuries and sly words of seduction.
And it all failed miserably, you saw through my machinations in a few short days. I remember our first argument, I was furious at you for your attempts to manipulate me into giving you all my secrets, and you were furious at me for trying to use lies and deceit to resurrect a dead love.
As I stared at you feeling a profound sense of failure, I suddenly realized something so obvious it startled me, that she was not really you, that she was a completely different person.
It was only then I saw the faintest tiniest flicker of love in her eyes.
I will not lie and say that our courtship and marriage was a serene and joyous affair, like most things in life there were times of plenty and times of famine.
We had four beautiful children and she never did succumb to the pestilence as did you, but in the end she broke my heart just as you when she died in my arms four long years ago.
I wrote this spell to thank you for showing me a glimpse of the universe, I see you now not as an unrequited love but as a true friend.
Good luck.
I walked back to the sarcophagus of the woman and looked at her calm face, Senbi was right, I got the sense of looking at a sister or a close relative. I felt a surge of envy as I looked at her, which surprised me, and then I had a feeling of relief as if I had been let off the hook from an onerous task.
She had had children, my wheat had already been sown many years ago. I wondered for a moment what became of them, I thought about using sorcery to find out, and then decided against it. I could see nothing good coming from knowing their fate.
I took one final look around the tomb and then made my way to the exit, I thought about getting the exterior of the building cleaned up and repaired as I walked.
I stood outside in the middle of the street, I looked at the tall buildings lining both sides of the road. They were all in fairly decent shape and were of every variety of architecture and building material.
It would take years to search this city, god only knew what secrets were hidden in it. The city had been occupied for at least three thousand years by sorcerers of every race and sex and then abandoned for reason’s unknown.
I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, I unsheathed my sword as a precaution. I saw the movement again and quickly turned my head. I saw a feral cat sauntering next to one of the buildings.
It stopped and stared at me for a moment then decided I wasn’t much of a threat and continued on.
I heard the soft crunch of a shoe being put carefully down on the stone of the street behind me. I spun around my heart beating wildly, it was Clyver.
“All this magic... and you put a normal lock on your door.”
I realized now that I had forgotten to dispel the doorway we had used to travel to Maggie’s bar.
“You hunt like a crocodile Mr. Clyver,” I said as I raised my sword up.
“Is that a compliment? It doesn’t matter I guess... look I have one too,” Clyver brought his hand out from behind his back showing me a long bronze sword.
Clyver advanced towards me nonchalantly waving his sword back and forth.
“Why aren’t you using your device, or a pistol?” I asked as I circled to keep him at a safe distance.
“The device didn’t seem to have the results I’d anticipated... and they want you alive.”
“Who are they?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Clyver moved then with inhuman speed. I dived out of the way but not before I felt his sword nick my wrist.
I scrambled back to my feet with my sword in a defensive position. I saw Clyver examining something he held in one of his hands. I felt my stomach drop as I glanced at my wrist, he had my bracelet.
“I suspect this is kind of important,” he said as he dangled it from an outstretched arm.
“n m3=i mity srw pn,” I said loudly in ancient Egyptian.
My bracelet burst into flames in his hand causing Clyver to yelp in pain and drop it to the ground. The bracelet was a pile of ashes in a few seconds.
“To bad... they would have wanted that,” I could see an expression of annoyance in his face.
I activated one of my swords enchantments and the finest sword fighter I could find, albeit six thousand years ago, now had control of my blade.
Clyver advanced almost carelessly, I could see this was a ploy for I saw no expression of overconfidence in his features.
He rushed again with blazing speed, my own sword moved to counter so fast I could barely keep hold of it. My blade then attacked, moving so quickly I could scarcely see anything but a blur.
We stood toe to toe the noise of our battle sounding like a blacksmith hammering a stubborn piece of metal.
Clyver retreated, I could see beads of sweat forming on his brow.
“I’m impressed at your swords ability... for I doubt it is your own skill... but it seems to lack a certain sophistication,” Clyver said.
I felt my sword shake as if angered and then it became deadly calm.
I had never had a real conversation with the swordsman I had hired so long ago so but the swords reaction made me now suspect he may have been a remorseless killer.
I had no desire to kill Clyver, or anyone, and there was no guarantee that I would win this battle, however good my sword was, it was still using ancient techniques to fight. I racked my brain for a solution that didn’t involve either of ours death.
Clyver advanced again, my sword countered and the battle continued. I looked at Clyvers feet as his shoes made marks on the thin layer of sand that had blown on the roads flagstones over the millennia.
I had an idea.
I used my peripheral vision to watch the ground for I did not want Clyver to see what I was doing. The fight had reached a fever pitch and I felt large blisters forming on my hand. I would soon not be able to keep my grip on the sword ending its enchantment.
We reached a stalemate and the two combatants retreated to rest for a moment. It did not matter for I was finished.
“It is over Clyver,” I said.
Clyver looked at me with a suspicious expression.
“Some new magic? I think your bluffing... I can see the b
lood dripping from your hands.”
I kicked my foot which completed the spell I had written in the sand of the road. Clyver looked down at the writing and then at me with an expression of what looked like grudging admiration, he then disappeared in a flash of light.
I felt my blade drop in disappointment, I shut off its enchantment, sheathed it and then ran as fast as I could to the building that housed the door to Seattle.
The City of Magic was not just a name, there were layers of spells and magic that pervaded the city. One of these layers enabled me to write spells in a sort of shorthand, l could have not written a spell of this complexity in the sand without it.
Unfortunately the spell was not lethal, it simply transported the victim to a random spot in Seattle. If Clyver reappeared somewhere close to the door he could gain access again.
I reached the room with the door in it drenched in sweat, my heart felt like it would explode. Relief washed over me as I saw that the door was still closed, I frantically grabbed a lever on the console which controlled the door and it disappeared.
“Oh my god... Shelley!” I said aloud as I realized Clyver may have gotten to her first.
I ran out of the building and to the building that housed our quarters, the entrance was locked with magic not a mechanical lock. I unlocked it with a voice command and rushed up the stairs to our rooms.
I burst into our living room, it was empty.
“Shelley!! Shelley!!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
I heard no reply.
I ran into the washroom breaking the door open with my shoulder, Shelley was fast asleep in the bathtub only her head visible above a mound of bubbles.
She jerked awake when the swinging door smashed into the wall.
“Jesus Christ!!” she yelped, her eyes the size of saucers.
“Clyver... in city... fight...” I was panting so hard I could barely talk.
“Kem... your hands!”
I looked at my palms, they were red with blood. I felt my legs go rubbery and then I collapsed onto the floor.
Shelley jumped out of the tub put her robe on and then helped me up off the floor. She led me out of the bathroom and onto the living room couch.
She disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a first aid kit, I held out my hands as she opened the kit and then started to clean and disinfect them.
I told her everything that had happened when I had regained my breath.
“So he must have waited outside Maggie’s for hours until we came out,” she said when I’d finished talking.
“He is like a crocodile lying in the reeds waiting for us.”
“What can we do? I have friends and family in the city how can I visit them?”
“I don’t know... it isn’t just him either it’s the organization he works for, this Rand company.”
“This is crazy, we’re sorcerers we should be able to deal with him easily.”
I thought for a moment, “How does one hunt a crocodile?”
“I don’t know.”
“We must first go to the river... I will find out where this fiend lives.”