Shadowhunter (Nephilim Quest Book 1) (35 page)

"Well, what can you expect from mere mortals," she shrugged. "Also knowing your future may not always be a good thing. What if she tells you when you shall die? Or gives you an ambiguous oracle that you spend the rest of your life trying to understand? Her oracles are mostly like that. It can drive a man to madness."

Ambrogio had thought about this before.

"If she tells me how and when I shall die, then I shall try to live and experience as much as I can before it is my time."

She laughed.
 

"And what if she tells you that you'll never die? Will you not grow weary of life at the very thought?"

Ambrogio did not understand the question, but did not dare to ask what she meant for fear of appearing even more stupid. The naiads did live for thousands of years, so she might not have been posing a real question to him. Surely she knew he was a mortal man with only a few decades in front of him at best?

"Well, you learn to play the kithara. And if you win the games, and if you meet Pythia, I wish you luck. I shall return to your promise later."

She stood so close to him that her intoxicating, sweet scent filled his nostrils. Expensive perfumes, the smell of ripe fruit. He tried not to stare at her breasts, barely covered by the thin dress, with poor success. This seemed to amuse her even more. She raised a finger and gently traced his jaw with it. He felt the burning heat of the finger, and looked into her golden eyes. It was as though they sucked him into her mind, and he could not wish for anything else than for her to never turn her eyes away from him.
 

She looked amused, certain of her power over him, bent and kissed him gently on the lips. When she straightened herself again, he noticed his lips were bleeding as though they had been cut. He tried his lips with his finger and the pain told him that indeed there were two sharp cuts on his lips. An odd tingling made his lips numb.

A drop of his blood was on her lower lip and she licked it slowly with her tongue it as though it was a delicacy.

"Remember, forever more..." she said with a smile that made him shiver.

She turned and left. Holding the kithara, he watched her walk away, his lower lip tingling and numb, and felt an odd sensation that he had agreed to something he could not begin to understand.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

45. Song of the River

Mut-Bity and I sailed with the beehives to Mi-Wer. I was surprised at this, because I knew the bees should have been needed further south. But after meeting the odd pale man, Mut-Bity had been very quiet for a long time, and had not said much after telling the captain of the ship where we were headed.

I sat at the prow after the sun had grown tired and plunged down to its underground journey. The stars were rolling quietly from the east and across the sky towards the west. The river took us gently towards the imperishable stars of the north - the stars that never set but stayed above the horizon until the sun was reborn and bleached the sky to blue again.

The crew had already grown accustomed to us, and liked me too, despite my odd looks. Even now, wrapped in the silence of the night, I was eating a honey cake made by the captain's wife in a little clay oven on the deck. When I finished eating and the crunching noise did not disturb my hearing anymore, I concentrated in listening to the singing of the night.

I had tried to explain to Mut-Bity what the song sounded like, and she clearly believed I could hear it, even if she herself could not.

It was like soft waves up in the sky. It caressed the ground below, stroked the shining skin of the river, and made each living thing hum with its own unique note. Like playing a lute, but in such a way that each living thing gave its own, never-ending, never wavering sound. I could only hear it when my mind was completely peaceful, and when the world did not speak with loud noises. And when I did hear the song of the night sky, I could tell where and how far someone was, and to some extent even what they were doing.

Emotions had an effect on how high and strong the note was. When someone was asleep, the song coming from them was just a quiet hum - unless they had a very vivid dream. When a person was awake and felt something very strongly, the song had a louder, clearer voice. I found it very funny to listen how their melodies intertwined, when the captain and his wife retired to rest in the cabin of the boat. Sometimes they could not keep their silence, and I could hear both their muted moans and the song of the world turn up a notch, when their two separate songs reached a peak at the same time. During this last week I had also heard a new, very slight melody, which seemed to grow from the inner music of the captain's wife. It came from her mid waist, still nothing more than a tiny whisper. So I was aware many weeks before the mother-to-be that she was expecting their first child. Mut-Bity had earned us a little extra for many months now, when she had learned I had this skill. Women of the villages loved to gather together to talk, and for a small fee I would tell them if they were with child or not.

I heard Mut-Bity's note humming as she approached me. After a while she sat next to me.

"We have to leave the River," she said quietly to me.

"Why?" I did not need to disagree with Mut-Bity, I knew she was very wise. Still, I was curious.

Mut-Bity gathered her thoughts for a while. I followed her tune as it turned inwards, as it always did when she meditated on matters. This time her tune had a sharp echo. When people were afraid, their tune turned shrill and sharp. And now, perhaps for the first time, I heard Mut-Bity's fear.

"I will not lie to you, even when you are so young," Mut-Bity finally said quietly. So quietly that no one could possibly hear what she said but me.

I waited. Mut-Bity did not need to explain to me that she would not lie. Of course she would not. Not to me at least. She searched for words, and I waited, concentrating on listening to the songs of underwater beings. They were somehow very quick, and yet very slow - the song reacted to their movements much faster than to the movements of people. There were quick trills, and also slow, meditative echoes from animals living at the bottom.

"You are different, but not just in your looks," Mut-Bity finally said, "you love the stories that people tell about ancient days, as do I.
 
You are becoming someone like one of the people in those tales. You will have very rare gifts, but how they will show themselves, we do not know yet. The song of the world you hear is one of those gifts. You have inherited it from your mother."

"And my sister?"

"She doesn't seem to be going to the same place that you are going. She may never develop similar skills, because you were the first-born. But we may never know for certain. These things are a mystery. In any case, it is important that you know that these skills may be used for both good and evil. Since the dawn of time, the likes of you have existed and have always lived among ordinary people, often undetected, because they - you - are shaped like humans. They have not always managed to hide their gifts, and so many wonderful stories were born."

Mut-Bity was quiet for a long time and I calmed my mind and listened to the stars of the north. They seemed to pull my heart towards them, as if I had belonged there once and they were drawing me back. They felt fresh and invigorating in my mind. I was certain that the cooling winds of the north came directly from them.

"And that man is just like me, only evil,""I said.

"Exactly. And the worst part is, that now that he has come close to you once, he can follow your scent for a very long time - it leads him to you."

"Why would he like to follow me? Because we are alike?"

"Yes... but he would not let you stay the way you are. He would like to make you similar to himself. To bind you to him in vile ways, which you could not avoid, if he once gets hold of you."

"Why?"

"To control the powers you are developing. And he won't give up, now that he has found you and smelled you. We need to cut the trail."

"How?"

"It is harder for him to follow you on water, but he can travel the shores of the River, and even follow the boat, if the wind comes from the right direction. And in this case it does. He is very, very fast. Still - a bee-sting is a very bad thing for him, and it will take time for him to heal. But as he knows we are carrying beehives, he will come looking for you in the places where bees are currently working. That is why we are now traveling directly to Mi-Wer and leaving as soon as we can, in a direction he won't immediately guess. Somewhere where you cannot take bees. And we have to stay away for a long time."

I swallowed. Mother and sister were in Mi-Wer, at the house of the king's women. Would I have to say goodbye to them? I felt a choking feeling in my throat and the song of the night vanished. I felt very small and very lonely.
 

"We have to leave so that your mother and sister remain safe. Your mother is like you, but she is so strong that she can protect herself and keep your sister safe, once she has been warned. It is important, though, that we don't lead the pale man to them and cause them danger. This is why we cannot leave your scent near them for a long time."

I could not answer her, because I felt like crying. So I stayed quiet and just watched the cold stars warped by my tears, with my knees against my chest. The sky had turned mute.
 

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

46. The Place of the Neteru

Merit had clearly discovered information about some mystery that Elijah knew about as well.
 

"I am traveling in search of answers,"
Merit's journal told him.
"There are many ancient writings preserved here that we have no idea about in our time. They have vanished in centuries in between, but they still exist here. I did learn to read some hieroglyphs at home, but those were mostly offering formulas in tombs. I have taken on the task of learning to read this writing properly. Thankfully I am at a position where I can do so. I have become one of the children of the kap, it seems, despite the fact I am an adult."

"The kap?" Mr. Donnelly scratched his ear.
 

Frantic leafing of the Egyptology books brought Mr. Donnelly the answer.

"Ah, the royal nursery... Children of the royal palace learned reading and writing and other skills in the kap... So she is a member of the court! Learning hieroglyphs and reading and writing. Well done, Merit, well done..."
 

Pleased with Merit's progress in ancient life Mr.Donnelly kept on translating the last pages.

"And I finally found my clue to the location of the neteru. It was written on a piece of papyrus in the House of Life of Inbu-Hedj, or Memphis. I do not dare write the clue down as it may get into the wrong hands. I know no one can read this yet, because the language does not even exist - what a curious feeling that gives me! But if this book ends up in the wrong hands in the future... And I admit I tore that part of the papyrus out and took it with me."

Mr. Donnelly sat absolutely still, numb with shock. The place of Neteru... Could it be...

With shaking hands he searched his books which were now literally towering around him on the floor. He found a book about reading the hieroglyphs.

Neteru. Gods. The abode of the gods. And now he understood he had mistranslated earlier.
"Those who kept an eye on us..."
The Masters used another term completely.

This could not be a coincidence.
 
Merit had found the clue he was seeking for the Masters. It had to be.
 

His lips felt numb as he mumbled the last sentences.

"And I have found there are Immortals here as well. I do not know how long I can keep myself hidden from them. I think my looks will raise their suspicions, if they haven't done so already. I have to retreat to Mi-Wer and keep in hiding there, out of sight, protected by the guards of the royal harem, and trust that there are enough light-colored ladies there so that I blend in. Otherwise I shall draw doom over those I love as well. But rest assured, Elijah, I will do everything I can to find you again. If I cannot enter the mists of the buffer zone, then perhaps others near me can and they can lead me through the mists of time back to you... However, to find out if that is the case, I might need to wait for many years yet. They are still so..."

A hole in the paper again.

"Who are? What are they?" Mr.Donnelly wailed.

Mr. Donnelly closed his Moleskine and the sketchbook. He would have to hide them from the Masters. But where could he hide them? How could he keep them from the eyes of the Masters?
 
If only there was a way for him to leave the City of Immortals...
 

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

47. Truth Will Out

My memories of returning to the Time Walker Center are fragmentary. I only remember moving through the mist, then rising higher until a real landscape formed around us. What it was, I have no recollection. I recall Daniel's strong arms carrying me, and I was barely conscious. I was in a state of mental collapse because of the shock. His body heat felt calming and relaxing and I must have finally fallen asleep - or fainted.

When I woke up, I was in some sort of hospital room. My hand was bandaged and there was a strange taste in my mouth. And I had a fever. I could feel it.

My eyelids weighed a ton and I could barely manage to keep them open for a few seconds. I was lying on my side, with my bandaged hand in front of my face. There was someone sitting beyond it. My vision was blurry, but I felt the warmth emanating from the figure.

"Daniel..." I thought to myself before falling asleep again. I think I felt someone gently touch my cheek.

I woke up to whispering voices. People often think they cannot be heard, when they whisper, when in fact all the s's hiss so loudly you are bound to pay attention. Groggily I remembered reading in one of the Narnia books when I was a child that if you don't want to be overheard when you're whispering to someone, replace every letter "s" with an "h".
 
That makes the whispering difficult to hear from a distance, according to this character in the book.