Month: July 2013

Avalon 2.11: Battle

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            Some say getting there is half the battle, but it is usually mouthed by ones who have never been in battle.

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            There was a ridge in front of them, about a quarter mile away.  The city proper was off to their left, closer to the river.  Straight ahead there were only a few houses, and Elder Stow assured them they were empty.  He let his feet float to the ground as he studied his instrument.  He adjusted something several times and at last made his pronouncement.

            “The children are in a cave beneath the ridge.  There is something else there as well.  Ghouls, I believe.”

            “Great!” Lincoln said.  Alexis took his arm and smiled for him. 

            “I was wondering why we haven’t seen them,” Decker said as there was some movement at the base of the ridge.

            “Soldiers, sir.”  Katie Harper took a long look through her binoculars before she handed hers to Lockhart. 

            “Dismount,” Lockhart commanded.  “Boys, take the horses to the rear.”  He and the others got their guns and prepared for battle.

            “Lieutenant Harper,” Decker called.

            “I have the flank by the river,” she said before he could say it.  She carried her semi-automatic to the far side.  He stayed on the other end.  Lockhart, with his police pistol and shotgun took the center with the Gott-Druk.  Lincoln and Alexis stood between him and Decker while Roland and Boston  were on his other side beside Katie.  Alexis and Boston pulled their wands, Boston having handed her Beretta to Roland, and they waited.

            “Emotep, keep the men back,” Katie ordered as she checked her weapon.

            Emotep got up on a horse.  “Can I have your attention,” he said, and about half the men looked up  at him.  Emotep called for the armor of the Kairos and it appeared instantly around him and adjusted automatically to his shape and size.  A number of the men gasped, but Emotep spoke as loud and clear as he could.  “Stay here until called.  Do not run out to attack because you will probably be killed by accident.  Wait until it is your turn.”  He did not know how else to say it.  He got down from the horse.

            “Wow.  I love your outfit,” Sakhmet stared at him, her mouth about ready to drool.

            “Awesome,” Ka said.

            “Not fair.  I am the eldest,” Aha-Aa said.

            Sakhmet reached out to touch his sword, but Emotep pulled back.  “Hey!” he said in imitation of her.  “That is mine.  You get your own.”  He winked at her.  “Seriously.  Keep these men here until they are needed so they don’t all just get themselves killed. He stepped up beside Lockhart who did not bat an eye at his presence and in fact asked a question.

            “You don’t dance do you?”

            “I don’t think so,” Emotep said.

            “Good.”

            The enemy charged across that hot, dry land.  That alone suggested that this whole war and fighting business was rather new.  The men would be worn and sweating by the time they arrived, but then there were roughly a hundred of them.

            “Remember the children,” Alexis shouted.

            “This is for the innocent ones,” Boston echoed  The travelers would avoid killing wherever possible.  None of them liked the idea, but in this case there was no choice and it was easy to justify.

            “Wait for it,” Decker shouted.  Everyone waited, but to be sure, a hundred men charging right at them, to kill them, waving their spears and copper weapons, screaming death got a lot closer than several might have liked.

            “Fire.”

            Men fell  in a line that never seemed to get any closer.  The noise alone frightened everyone.  And  when Boston stepped forward and something akin to a flamethrower came from her wand, the enemy charge broke and they ran for their lives.  Lockhart stopped firing right away, but he had to yell at Decker to get him to stop.

            Even as the men turned to run, something like a lightning bolt came out from the ridge top.  It struck the screens Elder Stow had put up without mentioning it.  Most of the magic was neutralized, but some of it broke through, slanted, like light through a prism.  It struck the ground and exploded in front of Katie.  She was knocked off her feet, not injured, but shaken up.

            Elder Stow pulled a weapon the others had not seen before.  A streak of white light crossed the field and struck a screen of some kind on the ridge.  Most of the weapon charge was deflected or absorbed by that screen as well, but enough got through to shatter several boulders there. 

            The lightning from the ridge came a second time, and this time more of it broke through the barrier.  Everyone ducked, but Elder Stow was knocked off his feet and had to shake his head several times to clear it.

            Boston got angry.  She grabbed Roland’s hand who understood and grabbed his sister’s hand to add her magic to the mix.  With their three strengths in magic combined, Boston let loose a fireball that streaked across the field and would not be stopped by any barrier.  The ridge below the top caught fire and spread like a napalm strike.  Whole sections collapsed and left a smoking ruin.  There was no third lightning strike from the ridge.

            Emotep in his armor stepped out.  “Stay here,” he shouted, and began to jog across the field.

            Lockhart shouted.  “Elder Stow, identify the opening to the cave with the children.  Decker, lead the assault on the ghouls to set the children free.  Katie, can you jog?”  Katie nodded.  “Let’s go.  Boys, stay with the horses.”  He took Katie’s hand while she shifted her rifle to her shoulder and they ran to catch up with Emotep.

            Decker stepped to where he could shout at the locals who were all bunched up and for the most part frightened to near madness.  “Men.”  Decker raised his voice as loud as he could.  “We are going to get your children, but for your own safety you need to follow orders and do what you are told.  No charging ahead.  Wait until the way is clear.”  He decided not to say anything about the ghouls, but he did add a thought.  “Any who choose to stay with the boys and watch over the horses is fine.  No one will blame you.”  He turned to Elder Stow.  Roland was right there as well.

            “There is a cave opening at the end of the ridge where the city begins.  The way appears open.  I was afraid our salvos on the ridge might collapse the cave, but there, it is at the other end.”

            Decker did not look back.  He began to walk, Roland and Boston beside him.  Elder Stow floated after a moment, but kept his eyes on his instruments.  Alexis started and Lincoln came beside her.

            “We don’t need to go, you know.”

            “But some of the children might be hurt,” Alexis said.  “But you can stay here if you want.”

            Lincoln shook his head.  “Someone has to watch over you and keep you safe.”   Alexis smiled, took his hand and leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked.

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Avalon 2.11:  Confrontation … Next Time

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Avalon 2.11: Followers

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            In the end there is only one option, to just come out with it.  Emotep needs to go to Abydos and he needs the travelers to help him get the children back.  Though against his better judgment that means Lockhart will be taking a number of minors along.  I imagine the parents will do something about that.

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            When the morning came, Lockhart found far more children on the beach than agreed to.

            “For the return trip,” Emotep said.  “Ankaret convinced me I needed the hands to keep that many little children under control.”

            “That does make sense,” Katie said as she helped Sakhmet up behind herself.  Lockhart made no response, he simply reached down for Emotep. 

            Ankara got up behind Lincoln and there was enough room in the saddle where Alexis let Neferet ride in front and hold on to the saddle horn.  Usersi rode out on the wing with Captain Decker who did not mind because the boy was fascinated with military things.  Aha and Ka got to ride out front with Roland and Boston.  Ka protested at being made to ride with a girl, but only a little.  He was seven, but small, so like Neferet he got to ride in front and hold on to the saddle horn, and besides, Boston could do magic and make fire and light and Ka was fascinated with magic.  A little Harry Potter in the making, Emotep once called him, though as far as they knew Ka had no magic in his bones whatsoever.  Elder Stow contentedly floated along under his own power, and so they rode out at dawn, only to be stopped a quarter mile downstream.

            There were a dozen men from the village there who insisted on coming, including Father Meni.

            “You did not think you would be allowed to go off without your elders,” Father said.  “Honestly son, this is our job, not yours.  You are far too young.  You should go home”

            “He has a point,” Lockhart agreed.

            “Are you done?”  Emotep asked, and hearing no response he said, “I am the only one who knows where to go and what we are facing, including the Sorceress.”

            Father rubbed his chin.  “I had forgotten about that.”

            “Sorceress?”  Sakhmet leaned over and asked.

            “She came up to Abydos a few years ago from Herakleon.  She sought me out and threw me in a scorpion pit.”

            “What happened?”  Katie leaned into the conversation.

            “Serket came to me.  She said she was sent by Isis to watch over me.  But all the sorceress saw, as far as I know was the scorpions, and there were hundreds, and they all stepped aside and let me climb out.  Then they followed me and went after the sorceress.  Scared her senseless and I haven’t seen her since.”

            “The vision of Serket probably would have scared her more,” Sakhmet interjected.

            “Serket?”  Lockhart asked.

            Father Meni, Emotep, Sakhmet and Katie all spoke in unison.  “Scorpion goddess”

            “Actually, she is over all poisons, snakes and such.  She strikes the wicked and heals the righteous.  At least that is her P. R.,” Emotep  added and looked at Sakhmet.  “I think she is nice.”

            “Son,” Meni put his hand on Emotep’s knee.  “You think everyone is nice.”

            “Well, mostly they are if you give them a chance.  So let’s go already.”  He was not about to bring up the idea that maybe the other children should go home.  Aha alone would never forgive him.

            They did not stay long in any of the villages they passed through.  The story was the same, and they picked up ten or so adults in each of the first three villages, so when they arrived in the fourth village, which was considerably bigger that the ones upriver, they easily outnumbered the thirty that came out to face them.  There were words and tears before the people settled in for the night.

            “The boats are docked in the town,” Elder Stow reported while he watched Alexis make loaves of elf bread.

            “City,” Emotep said.  “Abydos is a city in this world.”

            Elder Stow shrugged.  “Almost five hundred people.”  He shrugged again, but then the feast was begun and people were preoccupied with cooking and eating.

            “So,” Sakhmet sat next to Emotep and seemed determined to put him on the spot.  “Beloved of Serket.  I have heard of you.  They call you Scorpion.”  She grinned at him but he was ready for her.

            “And it occurred to me the sorceress of Abydos is named Sacmis after the great goddess Sakhmet, but she must be thirty.  I am guessing you are not ten or eleven.”

            Sakhmet lost her grin.  “Are all brothers so mean?”

            “Of course.  It’s our job.”  Emotep slipped his arm around her and squeezed her.  “We also tickle.”  Sakhmet laughed and jumped away, much further than he could reach. So he tickled Neferet and she let out a giggling uproar.  Sakhmet came back and helped.

            Sakhmet spoke again when they were all breathing hard.  “I never had a brother or sister.  I never knew it could be so good.”  She put her face in her hands and cried before she got mad.  “Amun never lets me do anything.  Mother never let me do anything.”

            “Ptah probably won’t either,” Emotep said.  “But what makes you think they don’t know exactly where you are?”  Or who you are with, he thought, and that made him pause. 

            “I know,” Sakhmet giggled, covered her mouth and looked at Emotep like this whole adventure was one big conspiracy.

            Aha came over then, Ankara and Usersi trailing behind.  They all carried enough meat and bread for six people.  “So when does the adventure part begin?”  Aha asked.  “This is just one boring village after another.”

            “The bread is good,” Usersi said.

            “Food!”  Emotep jumped up, grabbed Sakhmet’s hand with one hand and Neferet’s with the other and ran off toward the feast.

            That night, Sakhmet kept Katie up late talking about war and fighting.  Sakhmet was impressed that this woman was not only military, she was an elect.  Neither got much sleep, but Emotep was grateful.

            Come the morning there was one more village before Abydos, a small village that had not been attacked.  They did not stop.

            The approach to the city was arid, thirsty travel across an area almost clean of vegetation.  The men were sweating hot by the time they stopped, and the horsemen with their binoculars moved to the front.

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Avalon 2.11:  Battle

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Avalon 2.11: Plans and Places

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

            The problem when a god steps out of his natural place and goes after things that are not his to have, it is impossible to tell on whose side the other gods will come down.  Emotep realized he needed to solve the children dilemma himself.  Sakhmet was an easier dilemma to solve.  “Out of the mouths of babes,” Neferet is right that Sakhmet and Emotep are loving each other, but not like grownups, like true brother and sister even if Emotep only vaguely knows it and Sakhmet does not really know it at all.

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            By mid-afternoon, the whole gang was back in the clubhouse, avoiding the work in the village.  Aha spent his time showing off for Sakhmet and almost fell out of the trees, twice.  Usersi mostly just grinned, quietly.  Ankara sat beside his sister Neferet which only put the five-year-old between him and Sakhmet.  He was content.  Ka sat beside Emotep and kept nudging him to tell another story.

            “So much for a little time alone to think.” Emotep said that several times. 

            Aha showed Sakhmet the view of the village and the view of the Nile, twice.  She played along and said the river looked lovely, though Emotep knew she could see it all perfectly and in total detail even without having to look.  In the late afternoon, they all began to smell the first wisps of cooking and stomachs began to grumble.  They missed lunch.  Sakhmet moved to a seat beside Emotep and for a moment it looked like she might take his arm.  She appeared to be his age by then, no more than ten, though no one noticed the adjustment in her looks except Emotep and maybe Neferet.

            A bell rang out from the village.  It was Mother Beset banging her copper spoon against her big copper pot.  Aha, Emotep and Ka knew it was time for supper and Emotep stood.  He bit his tongue to avoid saying, “Saved by the bell.”  Instead, he said.  “Supper,” before he turned to Sakhmet and said, “Brother and sister.  Remember?”

            “But Horus and Hathor, and Isis and Osiris,” she responded.

            “And Nephthys and Set once upon a time,” Emotep responded.  “But we need to think Anu-Bast and Anubis.”

            “Are you a warrior?” Sakhment asked.

            “No, but you are.”

            Sakhmet looked thrilled that he knew.  Of course she was a bit of a love goddess through Ishtar, but she was also a serious goddess of war through Ishtar and Ptah in his own way, and thanks to Ptah she was no slouch in the intellectual department either.

            “I’ll be good,” she said.  Emotep did not respond directly.  He just let out a small laugh.

            After supper and a good, long scolding by Father Meni, Emotep found Lockhart and Katie watching the festivities.  They were sitting side by side, but not touching, each pretending to be friends and nothing more.

            Sakhmet slipped up and whispered in Emotep’s ear.  “But they would already die without each other.”

            Emotep turned his head to look at her.  “You reading my mind now?”

            Sakhmet shook her head.  “But like you thought earlier about me.  You are young.  You leak.”  She smiled, looked at her feet for a second and then pointed at Roland.  “They have a little spirit with them.”  Of course, she was not fooled by the glamour of humanity that Roland wore.

            “I know,” Emotep responded.  “He is an elf.  One of mine.”

            “One of yours?”

            “You didn’t think the gods left me with no responsibilities, did you?”  Emotep said “responsibilities” with a very teenage voice.  “They dumped the whole lot of them on my head.  I got elves, dwarfs, fairies, goblins, ogres and trolls.”

            Sakhmet made a face.  “I don’t like ogres and trolls, they’re scary.  Hey!  Can I have a fairy?”

            Emotep frowned at her.  “First of all, you don’t have fairies any more than you have people.  They have themselves.”

            “You sound like Papi Amun.”

            “And second of all, what is it about girls and fairies?  And no, I don’t have any say over unicorns.”

            Sakhmet let out a sly grin.  “Now you are reading my mind.”

            “Can we help you?”  Lockhart and Katie startled them.  They were staring at them.

            “Budding romance?” Katie asked with a kind but motherly smile.

            Emotep and Sakhmet shook their heads and pointed to each other.

            “My sister.”

            “My brother.”

            “Think Luke and Leah, same mother except we are not twins.”  Katie looked up.  “No, not Mother Beset.  I mean a bunch of years from now.”

            “Hey,” Sakhmet slapped his shoulder, lightly but it still hurt.  “I was keeping that secret.”

            “Right.  Good idea.”  Thus far she had told no one she was a goddess, but Emotep was not fooled.  He looked up again as he rubbed his shoulder.  Lockhart was still staring at him.

            “Oh.”  Katie shook her head like she really did not understand, but she turned to stare at him with the same expression on her face Lockhart had.  It made Sakhmet giggle and cover her mouth.

            “Alright.”  Emotep decided to just come out with it.  “Your job is to get home alive.  I understand.  But I need to go south – same direction.  I need to get to Abydos and get our children back.  I haven’t figured out how, yet, but since you are going that way.”

            “Won’t the gate move further south as you move south?” Lockhart asked.

            “Well, yeah.  But it will move north again after we free the children and I come home.”

            “Yes,” Katie interrupted.  “Why the children?”

            Emotep nodded to her before he spoke.  “I figure some kind of brainwashing or indoctrination like in your twenty-first century where the schools and media got tons of people to actually vote against their own best interests.  Make a bunch of Set worshipers and let them go home and in a generation they will be building a shrine to Set in my own village.  That kind of conquest takes time, but hey, Set isn’t going anywhere.”

            Elder Stow came over at that moment and Sakhmet stepped around to hide behind her brother, her eyes got big as she stared at the Gott-Druk.

            “The boats have stopped for the night between villages.  I estimate two days to reach the big village on the river.”

            “Abydos,” Emotep said.  Elder Stow shrugged.  Katie turned to Lockhart and set her hand gently on his arm.

            “I really can’t wait to get to Abydos where all the first kings were buried.”

            “And will be buried.  Not happened yet, but Osiris is there.”

            “Oh, Robert.”

            Lockhart looked like he already made up his mind.  “Elder Stow.  Tell the others we spend one more day here helping these people rebuild and then we are taking Emotep to Abydos.”

            “And me.”  Neferet jumped out from behind the bushes.

            Emotep shrugged.  “Only don’t tell our parents.”

            Lockhart did not look as pleased with the idea of sneaking off with minors in tow, especially such a little one as Neferet, but Sakhmet got down and hugged Neferet and Katie smiled so he assumed he had no choice.

            Elder Stow saw and let out a bit of his overly wide grin before he went off to tell the others. 

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Avalon 2.11: Followers … Next Time

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