Death God Alliance

Chapter 4

Hakim was not having a good week. It had been his bad luck to get stuck with the Kane assignment. Those snotty kids were proving to be more slippery than eels to catch, and this was even after they'd forsaken the powers of Horus and Isis. At times Hakim wished they hadn't. Then he wouldn't be on this crappy detail. He was good, but he wasn't a good enough magician to go up against one of the five great gods. Someone more powerful and important would be charged with tracking down those brats.

Of course that wasn't the only thing that was going wrong for him. No. Things were much, much worse, thanks to his stupid partner Aziza running off her mouth about every little detail of the "godling" that she'd dispatched. Word of that had gotten to the higher ups, who had realized from the details in her description that Aziza's "godling" was actually a demigod. By killing that stupid anemic kid, they'd breached an ancient unspoken treaty between the House of Life and the Greek pantheon, and now they were in trouble for it. It didn't matter that the kid had been smart-mouthed, and weak, with one foot in the grave already, and was probably the son of some god so minor that it didn't merit a mention in most school text books. The House of Life simply wanted to discipline someone just because of the principle of it, the hypocrites. There wasn't a magician in the entire house who actually liked those half-blood bastards. Everyone thought the world would be better off without them and their self-important parents. So why was Hakim getting extra shifts and a pay dock as punishment for being around when his partner got rid of one of them?

"That could have gone much worse," said Aziza as she and Hakim exited their audience with Desjardins.

"It wouldn't have gone on at all if you hadn't bragged about killing that demigod," griped Hakim.

"I thought it was a godling," Aziza shot back. "And you did too. If you'd been the one to kill it, you would have been bragging about it too, I guarantee."

She was right, of course, but Hakim had to deny it just out of principle. "I know when to hold my tongue."

"That demigod would be holding your corpse right now if I hadn't killed him for you," Aziza reminded him. "He's still holding your familiar, I believe? You haven't been able to summon Mutef since the incident, have you?"

"I can only summon him once every few days."

"So that's a no," sniffed Aziza. "Even dead, the demigod still defeats you."

"Silence, woman," growled Hakim.

At that moment the ground started to shake. Softly, at first, a rumbling like machinery, or a minor earthquake, but then the shaking grew until the ground split open and the screaming started as three hideous winged creatures flew out amidst plumes of smoke and hell-fire.

"What in the world?" asked Hakim, staring stupidly at the beasts, because he couldn't really get his mind around the idea that the first nome was being attacked.

There was complete and utter pandemonium as the three creatures flitted about, causing havoc, overturning carts in the open air market, setting stalls and kiosks afire, clawing any upturned face they came close enough to, and screaming in a language that Hakim did not understand.

Some of the magicians tried to rally to fight against the things, but they were ill-fated from the start. The bird monsters were swift and in constant motion, while the magicians were bound to the earth and their actions were muddled and hampered by all the people around them. They dodged every fireball and every other spell thrown at them, and laughed at the mortals and their cackles sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard.

"Hear me, foolish magicians!" shouted one of the creatures, still circling high overhead to avoid getting hit. "Weak-blooded scum of long conquored pharaohs that you are! In your stupidity you have roused Lord Hades' anger and now he gives you but one chance to save your miserable organization from utter ruin!"