Chapter three
We emerged through a green door and onto a quiet street in the city. I had left my sorcerers bracelet in my quarters so to transport us I had created the facade of a door on the side of a building to transport us.
To do this I had used a badly designed spell which consisted of a contraption of levers and dials that existed in a small room in a building near our quarters. Shelly had called it a tardiness when I explained its operation. I didn’t understand why, but decided not to ask.
I closed the door and locked it with a key which I then hung around my neck.
“How come you left your bracelet?” Shelley asked.
“Magic and wine are a bad combination.”
We were very close to one of my favorite places, it was a small pub which served food. It was not popular with the young raucous crowd which made it quite pleasant. There was usually a small band that played acoustic instruments that entertained the patrons at night.
After a short walk we entered the pub and walked up to the large wooden bar and sat down on the tall stools.
“Hello strangers,” the young bartender said as she recognized us.
“Oh hi Maggie,” I said.
“Where have you two been, it’s been months.”
“Busy busy,” Shelley said.
“You look different Shelley, did you lose weight or something?”
“No... not that I know of.”
She studied Shelley carefully, “well something’s changed, anyway what’ll it be.”
“Um... whiskey... in the little glasses...” I said hesitantly.
“Oh ho... celebrating something are we,” she slammed down two glasses in front of us and then filled them with a bottle.”
I gulped down the foul tasting liquor, then felt the warmth of it radiate out from my stomach.
“Shelley graduated from her um... course in ancient Egyptian myths and magic,” I said.
“I thought you quit the university?” Maggie said to Shelley.
“Ya... it was a correspondence course.” she said.
“God, how are you gonna get a job with that,” Maggie said as she refilled our glasses.
The liquor tasted slightly better this time, the heat from it now spread to my head.
“I’ll just have glass of wine next,” I said to Maggie. I was not used to the hard drink of this era.
Maggie grabbed a wine glass and then filled it with a bottle of dark red wine, she put it in front of me.
I took a small sip, I found it odd that after six thousand years of winemaking all the wine now tasted almost exactly the same. The quality had improved but for some reason the only fruit used was grapes.
“Oh hi Sam,” Maggie said to someone behind us. She grabbed a pint glass and started to fill it with beer from a tap.
I turned my head around and saw a tall familiar looking man hanging his trench coat on a hook by the door. The man turned after hanging his coat and looked right at me, an expression of surprise flashed across his face.
“Oh shit!” I thought as I suddenly recognized him. It was the investigator who had come to my door a few months ago. The reason Shelley and I had left our apartment.
The man frantically jammed his hand into his jacket pocket and started to pull something out, I felt my own hand instinctively reach across to my opposite wrist looking for my bracelet.
My heart sank, I remembered I had left my bracelet in my quarters.
The man had something in his hand, it looked vaguely like a pistol except it had no barrel. I felt as if time was passing very slowly, he was starting to raise the device up to point it at me.
My vision changed to whiteness.
“Who am I?”
“Why am I here?”
The whiteness faded from my vision, it felt as if an eternity had passed.
I was lying face down on a beach composed of small rocks and sand, I heard the sound of the sea. I raised my head and looked around. There was a woman lying beside me, she had a worried expression on her face. I know her... I think.
“Who am I?” I thought again.
I heard a tiny voice deep inside me whisper, “Kem... you are Kemamonit”
I looked towards the sound of the sea, I saw a large group of horses harnessed to chariots, there were two men in each chariot, an archer and a driver. I saw an even larger group of foot soldiers behind the chariots, they were lightly armed with shields and bronze swords.
“The sea people! Look look.” I heard in a language I barely understood. I turned and looked towards the sound of the voice, there was a small group of women and children behind us.
I looked towards the sea again, I saw a long wooden ship a few hundred yards from the shore. It had a single mast with a square sail.
I saw another similar ship behind it then another. They appeared to be moving unnaturally fast for sailing vessels.
The first ship grounded itself on the rocky beach, suddenly dozens of men leaped over the sides and landed in the shallow water. They were large burly men with pale skin and long unkempt beards, they wore unusual three horned helmets and carried long swords.
The charioteers started whipping their horses, the frightened animals starting whinnying then galloped towards the invaders.
Another ship landed and more men jumped out, soon there were hundreds of bearded warriors in the path of the charging chariots.
The first chariot made contact, but instead of running the sea people stood their ground grabbing the frightened horses and the men in the chariots and pulling them to the ground. It reminded me of a large insect being overwhelmed by carnivorous ants.
The horses were screaming now, all the chariots had been overwhelmed and I saw brilliant red arcs of blood being flung high into the air.
I looked back towards the infantry men that had been behind the chariots, I could see the fear in their faces and saw their line wavering.
A much larger ship grounded itself on the beach, a gangplank was thrown over the rail and onto the beach. A tall thin man appeared at the top of the plank, he wore a long grey robe and carried a wooden staff, his beard was white with age.
The man calmly walked down the plank and onto the beach, he turned and faced the defenders holding his staff high into the air.
I heard an enormous crack of thunder and a blinding flash as a lightning bolt struck the beach in front of the foot soldiers.
It was too much for them, the men turned and ran, expressions of terror etched onto their faces.
One of the horned warriors then noticed us, he pointed and yelled to his comrades, a large group of them started walking towards us.
“Oh god Kem, we got to get the hell out of here,”
The woman beside me grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet, I felt a wave of nausea wash over me and I stumbled as I tried to find my balance.
The group of women and children had already started running, they were headed for a narrow path that led to the high rocky hills that were behind the beach.
The woman grabbed my waste and put my arm around her neck, we ran as quickly as possible. I heard the stomping of feet and the clanging of armor getting closer and closer. They would catch us soon.
“Kem do some magic!”
“I... can’t remember how,” I replied.
I saw terror in her eyes, she grabbed me so tight it was painful then almost carried me as she ran with an enormous burst of energy.
We made it to the narrow path and had almost caught up to the running women and children, there were steep banks on either side of the path.
We ran for another twenty yards then the woman stopped and turned, I turned with her and I could see the men a mere thirty feet behind us, I saw the lust in their eyes.
“ELEFANTE!” she yelled, her voice shaking with fear.
An enormous grey elephant appeared in front of us, it saw the men running towards it and panicked. The path was not wide enough for the huge animal to turn so it charged them bellowing a
t the top of his lungs.
I saw one of the warriors flung high into the air.
We turned and ran for another hundred yards, then turned again, the men were still following but slowly and cautiously now.
“ELEFANTE!” my partner yelled again and another great beast blocked the path behind us. We turned and ran once more. We did this two more times before the men behind us finally gave up, we were high in the hills now.
We had caught up with the group of women and children and walked with them. They looked at us with great curiosity, a few of them spoke ancient Egyptian so we were able to communicate.
I looked at the woman beside me and had a revelation, her name was Shelley and she was my apprentice. My memory came back then along with a searing headache.
I almost collapsed with the pain.
“Kem, are you all right?” Shelley said concerned.
“I think so. My memory is back.”
The rest of the day was blur, the weather had turned and a cold windy drizzle made the rest of our journey a miserable one. The steep hills had given away to cliffs and we had to navigate almost invisible trails up them.
It was night when we finally reached our destination, a small collection of huts and lean-to’s spread around a flat grassy meadow. We were at the top of a small mountain.
I crawled into the closest lean-to then collapsed into an exhausted dreamless sleep.
I woke the next day with the early morning sun shining on my face, a thick woollen blanket had been thrown over me as I had slept.
I sat up in the lean-to pushing the blanket away, the air was cold and clean. I could see a few women tending cooking fires in midst of the other lean-tos and huts. I was stiff and sore and still had a mild headache.
I crawled out from under the lean-to and stood up, I was a bit wobbly.
“Kem! You’re awake.”
I turned towards the voice and saw a disheveled looking Shelley walking towards me.”
“What happened? How did we get here?” I asked as soon as she was in earshot.
Shelley gave me a clay cup full of what looked like water and a piece of bread.
“Don’t worry I had them boil the water.”
I sipped the warm water and took a small bite from the bread, it was fresh and tasted quite good. I started feeling a little better.
“What do you remember?” Shelley asked.
“That man pointing the device at me, then waking up on the beach with no memory,” I replied.
“That device turned you into a zombie, you just sat there.”
“Yes but how did we end up here,” I asked again.
Shelley looked at me sheepishly, “I was so scared Kem, he pointed it at me and I didn’t know what to do.”
“Well you must have done something,” I said looking at our surroundings.
“I... well... I used a spell I had been writing... but it wasn’t really finished.”
“What spell?”
“I wanted to find out stuff about history, so I wrote a time travelling spell, I wanted to find out about the bronze age collapse.”
“So we’re in the past, where and when?”
“Around twelve hundred BC on the island of Crete.”
“Well, you must have had a way of going back.”
“Yes I did but it wasn’t finished,” she said enigmatically.
“Let me see it,” I said tersely.
She pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to me. I unfolded it and read the spell.
“So we’re here for four weeks.” I said after following the spells structure.
“Yep, but you’re from the past Kem. It should be easy right?”
I tried to smile at her reassuringly.
“I have to pee, just a minute,” I said.
I walked behind the nearest hut for some privacy, I looked at my hands and saw that they were both shaking visibly.
“Four weeks!” I thought to myself, “If the plague doesn’t get us we’ll probably be hacked to death by some megalomaniac... or worse.”
I felt the urge to wash my hands, a feeling of panic surged through me when I realized I had no soap. I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself.
I had developed a bit of an obsessive compulsive disorder when I had been told about bacteria and viruses and how they caused disease. It had manifested itself in an obsession with cleanliness.
I had learned to control it after treatment from a psychologist but it would sometimes re-emerge when I was stressed.
I quickly relieved myself trying to be as dignified as a squatting urinating woman could be.
I walked out from behind the hut when I was finished, I ran my hands through my now tangled hair trying to put it back in place. It’s naturally tight curls thwarted me as usual.
I saw Shelley talking to one of the women we had followed to this place, as I came closer I could hear they were talking in ancient Egyptian.
“How do they know Egyptian,” I asked Shelley in English.
“They’re Minoan, they were a seafaring society that traded extensively with Egypt.”
“The island peoples!” I blurted out,” that’s why I recognize some of their language.”
“You’ve met them before?”
“Yes, but they were different, and they had not travelled to Egypt yet.”
“I... um... have been using a copying spell to make more food for them,” Shelley said sheepishly.
“That’s ok, we are in their debt. You have paper then?”
Shelley reached into her pocket and pulled out a small pad of paper, there was an elastic band holding it closed with a ball point pen jammed under it.”
“Use your copy spell to make another one.”
Shelley opened the pad wrote something in it then put the pad and pen on the ground. We both waited for a few seconds then a new pad and pen appeared in the air and fell beside the original. I waited for two more pads to appear before I signalled to Shelley to stop the spell.
I picked up the extra pads and pens from the ground and put them in my pocket. I noticed we now had a small group of women and children as an audience.
“They are the god’s messengers,” I heard a mother whisper to her wide eyed child.
“Yes, we are in a war of the gods now,” another woman whispered.
I grabbed Shelley’s sleeve and pulled her close, “we should leave now. The men will be here soon and I don’t know if they will be so charitable.”
I was worried that someone would come up with the idea of us defeating the sea peoples for them.
We hastily said our goodbyes, the women gave us a leather bag of water and a few loaves of bread. I could tell that they did not want us to leave and were thankful for our help. We started our journey down the steep paths back to the beach.