Shadowhunter (Nephilim Quest Book 1) (58 page)

Ambrogio had no idea who or what this shadow, this ancestor, might have been.

For the first time Artemis now spread her wings. Ambrogio had suspected she had wings, but she had never shown them. They were not half as impressive as those of Hades, and they had a greyish hue. Still, their veins pulsed with vibrant red, and the light that emanated from them was red too. Despite being smaller in size, they were mighty and their hum revealed she had great power in them.

In the reddish glow of the wings he saw her extending her hand towards him, holding the strange small bow-like weapon. He bowed respectfully and took the weapon, trying to hold it as Artemis had.

"I would not recommend pointing the blades towards yourself," Artemis said in an amused voice, "you will only split yourself into two."

Ambrogio observed the strange weapon. It consisted of two metal pieces. One was straight, woven out of three thin, intertwining bars of some silvery substance, like a woman's plait. It shone like silver, but was much lighter. In the middle the metal bars looped away from each other, leaving enough space for Ambrogio to slid his fingers through, making it possible for him squeeze the weapon into a tight grip.

The other piece was of thick flat metal, and curved like the crescent moon. It curved away from the keeper's hand, and on its outward curving side it had what looked a lot like the arrow tips Ambrogio had used on his magical arrows. They were tube-like, translucent, and narrowed into needle sharp tips. It was as if he was holding the jaw and teeth of some magical creature. The weapon felt hot in his hands and he could feel a slight tremor in the blade, as though it was alive. His arrow tips had never felt this... alive. He looked at them closer, and they had a slightly different color from the arrow tips. These were of pale red color, though totally transparent. Like glass.

Artemis vanished somewhere in the background and Ambrogio made his move. Having observed Artemis for forty-four nights he knew what to do. He raised his hand and quickly slid through the air. An opening appeared like cutting through flesh. He ran forward, and into the opening. In his haste he did not think of calling for his shadow to help.

He did not have a chance. Two grey and red wings curled from behind and enveloped him, yanking him back to the world. When they touched his skin they burned him so badly that he had to scream. He dropped the weapon and fell to his knees at the feet of the furious goddess, on top of the bow. He could feel it snap under his weight. A pale hand snatched it away from under his legs.

"Tell me one good excuse why I should not kill you right now, thief, " her voice hissed above his head.

"Selene!" Ambrogio's voice broke in tears, "I will lose Selene if I don't bring your weapon!"

That took her by surprise.

"Why would you lose Selene if you don't steal my weapon?" she asked.

"Apollo cursed me so I could never walk under the sun again. Selene and I were to leave together to live as husband and wife... How could I take her anywhere if I cannot be touched by the sun? Then Hades came and said he would give us a safe place to live in, away from the sun, if I gave him your silver bow... I had no choice but to obey..."

Ambrogio did not dare to lift his head. He saw three fallen blades from Artemis's weapon on the ground, under his knees.

Artemis pulled him up on his feet.

"So, I see the one who asked you to do this was after my weapon, and not trying to win my love back. All the worse for him..."

Artemis looked at him in the eye. Then she pulled something from a pouch hanging on her neck. It was a little bottle, made of precious glass. And it had silver blood in it.

"What if I give you this blood to write a letter to Hades and to your girl? And you shall then be the servant you promised to be for ever."

"I would be forever grateful..." Ambrogio whispered, "but why would you do this? Why not kill me now?"

"I need faithful servants also. Hades would have given you immortality in his city, where the sun would never touch you. I can give you immortality in this world, and heal the curse of Apollo, so the sun will not harm you. There will be no need for you to hide in the mist at the edge of the world. You can be together with your girl. But there is a price to pay."

Ambrogio felt hope rising.

"Anything, my beautiful goddess, anything! I shall worship you forever!"

"Indeed you shall. As a result of your promise, you will be eternally young, but you will not be like normal people any longer. You will become the best hunter and no prey will be able to escape you, because you will outrun them all. And you shall hunt for me and kill whom I ask you to kill. For food you will drink the blood of the animals you catch, because no other food will ever be accepted by your body. It will be like intoxicating wine to you. And you will need lots of it."

"I can accept that, goddess," Ambrogio was eager to accept the terms.

"But this is not all. You shall have your Selene, but not in the way mortal men would want. You cannot touch her, you cannot kiss her, you cannot make love to her. Because if you do, your changed body will be the death of her. You will give her an illness that will turn her into a shadow.
 
Your sweat or saliva will do the same to her as Apollo's spit did to you. If you two can live together on these terms, I will help you."

Ambrogio fell silent.

"I shall have to tell her this," he said, "and if she agrees, I am happy to accept."

The goddess smiled and gave the bottle to him.

"Here, then. This blood is from last night, so it should still be fresh enough to write with."

Very carefully Ambrogio opened the bottle and dipped the quill into the liquid. He then wrote to Hades "I have killed the last swan". And then another note to Selene, in which he told he had met a goddess, and explained the terms of Artemis to her, following the dictation of the goddess: "If you agree to do this, come to the Kirrha docks by the sea. I shall wait for you there."

Artemis stepped back.

"Your shadow will come soon. I shall have to kill it so it won't reveal our plan to Hades."

And sure enough the shadow came. It looked around suspiciously.
 

"Where, oh Master, is the body?"

"It is behind that bush," Ambrogio waved in the direction where Artemis had disappeared.
 

The shadow did not have time to realize what was happening. Artemis hit it on the neck with her weapon, and the shadow disintegrated in front of Ambrogio. He felt an unpleasant snap as if something had hit him in his pancreas.

"There. Now we shall leave your final note to Selene."

The goddess slashed the air, and taking Ambrogio's hand pulled him into the grey mist.
 

The slash closed and all was quiet. Then, from the darkest shadow a figure stepped out. His eyes glowed faintly blue in the darkness, when he bent to look at the note written by Ambrogio. His finger traced the silvery writing and an angry hum filled the air around him.

Then he noticed something on the ground. He very carefully picked up the three transparent tubes that had fallen from the weapon from the ground, and vanished.

After a while another dark form materialized from the pre-dawn darkness. A hand picked the note from the ground. A low chuckle was heard, and then the figure was gone.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

73. The Team

If I had thought we would just take off and head for Amarna, I was very much mistaken. Instead of leaving we were effectively sent to school.

"You need to know as much as possible, before embarking on your journey. You need to know the history, the language, and the cultural background of the times," Lilith began. "You're
 
going to stand out from the crowd, and you will not learn everything in time, so you will need to act as foreigners coming on a visit to the royal city."

We were sitting in a classroom, with our pens, papers and laptops at the ready.

"We have chosen your team carefully," Lilith said. "Firstly, of course, there are the Nephilim. Daniel, Elijah and Dana. You're going to be foreign royalty from a faraway country in the north. And you're bringing with you something that's greatly coveted by Egyptian nobility."

Lilith opened a box on the teacher's table. It contained unformed lumps and also beads in warm golden, orange and yellow colours.

"Amber. Reggie will tell you more in a while."
 

"Then we shall have Layla, of course," Lilith pointed at Grandma. "She is well tanned, and of the right height to fit right in. Short hair isn't a problem - the Egyptians often cut their hair short or shaved it off for hygienic reasons. She is to be your servant. We want to have a good Hunter keeping an eye on any threats coming your way."

Grandma smiled across at me and I suddenly had a flashback of the day she had picked me up on the road. It was so clear and yet it seemed to be light years away now.
 

"Diana too. She has African ancestry, which was usual in ancient Egypt, as it was and is an African country. The Egyptians never considered skin color as anything of real importance, that is an unfortunate later invention. Ancient Egyptians were of every color and some came from far away lands - they were still all Egyptian - that's what counted. You were a dweller in the valley of the Nile, the major power in the ancient world for millennia. Diana will take the role of a worshipper of Hathor who has taken up a position in your retinue after the closure of many temples as the worship of the Aten came to prominence. Having a temple worker on the team means that we can get to places that ordinary people can't - such as into the inner sanctum of the gods and goddesses. It also means that you may have access to the secret conversations and thoughts of the elite and find out what is happening behind the scenes. So, you'll need to intensify your language skills, as will the rest of the team."

Diana looked both thrilled and slightly overcome at the thought of the responsibility of the role.
 

"The religious work of a temple priestess, even a minor one, is also very demanding. They dance and sing before the deities, to please them," Lilith smiled at her. "I know that you have the skills to fulfil that role. It keeps you in good physical form, being a Guardian. You must be ready to fight as well."

Diana nodded.

"I like that too."

I had never seen Diana fight, and never really considered her a Guardian, but looking at her cat-like, alert posture, I could well believe that she had mastered some Oriental fighting techniques that would take any ancient would-be assailant by surprise.

"We shall have our researchers too," Lilith went on, "and who better than Reggie?"

Reggie stood up and bowed to our applause.

"Delighted to join you, truly delighted... to be able to study the times up close is a great honor. Thank you, thank you."

"You'll need some soldiers with you, or no one will take your story of being royalty seriously," Lilith continued. "So: we have Jason and Aemilius here."

Jason grinned at me and Aemilius nodded gravely.
 

"Jason has been taught at the Centre here to be a Gatekeeper, but has asked to join you in the role of a Guardian. He has great strength and fights well, so we agreed."

"Aemilius's strength is his knowledge of ancient battle techniques - in 31 BC they used swords and spears and Aemilius has trained many of our people in those ancient fighting skills. He will be carrying an ancient sword as well," Lilith said.

"My own sword." Aemilius lifted a sword to the table in front of him. "This is a gladiolus. I used in the naval battle in which Octavian defeated Marc Anthony and Cleopatra. Right before I was brought here. And it has served me well in many an occasion after that."

He stroked the big scar on his cheek, a response to some fighting memory, no doubt.

Reggie whistled.

"That's going to cause quite a stir. There was no steel yet in Akhenaten's time. Iron was virtually unknown, because the Egyptians did not know how to use it, nor did they appreciate its strength. They thought there was no one to threaten the country at that time, not seriously with the deserts protecting it from east and west, and Nubia was held off behind a row of fortresses in the south. Though, come to think of it, Tutankhamen was buried with an iron dagger. It was a royal thing to own. That sword alone will assure everyone we are royalty."

"If all goes well, no one will be seeing this sword at work," Aemilius said gruffly.

"Let us hope that will be the case," Lilith said. "Now, I have one more thing to ask you. There is someone who is willing to come along, but who may not be strong enough for the part. We'll need to vote, to see whether he's allowed to join your team. He wishes to study the creation myths of the time. There was a great conflict in Egypt when Akhenaten chose to rewrite religious history according to his beliefs regarding the light of the Aten. Our proposed team member would like to research this conflict."

"I can guess already..." Elijah said, "Mr. Donnelly, if I am not much mistaken."

"Indeed," Lilith nodded. "The question is: do we trust him?"

"I do," Reggie said enthusiastically, "he is a true researcher. And he also learned hieroglyphs during his stay in the City of Immortals. His Coptic studies, though he modestly says he is not an expert in the language, are an asset too. The ancient Egyptian language's pronunciation was unclear, because they only wrote in consonants, but the Coptic language was a direct continuation of it, and as such is used as the basis of the pronunciation we use today."

"What harm could he do?" Elijah wondered. "If we notice any trouble, or that he doesn't have what it takes, we can bring him back."

"Is it agreed, then?" Reggie asked enthusiastically.

"Let's vote. Raise your hand, if you agree he can come," Lilith said.

All hands rose.

"Good, you can let Mr. Donnelly in."

Jason was closest to the door and opened it. Flustered Mr. Donnelly walked in.

"Welcome to the group, Mr. Donnelly." Lilith smiled at him.
 
"Do take a seat."