"I know, baby," he said quietly. "It's bad enough me and you touched it holding hands, so
..."
"Yeah, I know. We could be carriers of something really foul to the whole group." A roar coming down the hall made Carlos instantly bulk, drop fang, and throw out a shield in front of him and Damali as the blade of Ausar came into his hand.
"No, no, no!" Damali warned. "It's Aset's guard lions. Stand down, or they'll attack to the death from the perceived threat."
It took him a second to heed Damali's warning as two huge white lionesses that stood four feet at the shoulders, with saber-tooth incisors bounded down the hall, muscular wings helping them gain momentum as their silver claws raked the golden floor. He stood at the ready to shield himself and Damali again, should it be too late and the creatures already have been confused. But the lionesses stopped ten feet in front of them, looked down at the black-box containing the pearl, and snarled at it.
Hesitant, one of the lionesses batted the offending item away with a hard swat. When the sound of Zehiradangra's screams began to leak out, the other lioness snapped the box into her powerful jaws, pivoted off a wall, and took flight, headed back in the direction they'd come from. The remaining lioness issued a warning growl toward Carlos, then glanced over her shoulder and went airborne to follow the lioness that had retreated first.
"Aw, man," Damali whispered, practically singing the statement. "They really did not like that."
"No doubt," Carlos said, rubbing tension out of the back of his neck. "Plus, you get a
whiff of that stink that came out of the box?"
Damali made a face. "Yeah. But now what? I've never called a council hearing and been -
"
Dense violet and gold-hued fog instantly filled the chamber, surrounding the sickly yellow vapor that had escaped, and cutting off Damali's words. She and Carlos watched in awe as the chamber fog retracted into a lance and speared the center of the yellow mist, eerily causing it to scream. Then just as suddenly the multi-hued fog formed a tight pyramid around it, and began to shrink as though compacting trash until it disappeared.
"Now that was deep," Carlos said in a quiet, reverent voice once the pyramid was gone. Damali never got a chance to respond before twelve heavily armed male and female warriors in glowing white-gold Kemetian armor strode down the hall toward them. At the lead was an unusually tall man and a woman. They looked like siblings. Both owned the same shaped faces, opaque eyes, gleaming ebony skin, and taut athletic build. The only difference was the male was slightly taller and thicker than the female, but then-tight dreadlocks were of the same length, and wrapped in silver bands, like their arms. The entire retinue carried shields, broad swords, quivers on their backs filled with an arsenal of silver arrows, and daggers stashed in the calf-straps of their golden sandals.
"The joint session of Neteru Councils has commenced," the warrior pair said in unison.
"Guardian spirits at the wall! Hank troops!"
In crisp military precision, the squad behind the lead pair took a step back to open the line, male warriors with their backs against the marble wall to the right, female warriors to the left, lining the corridor. The warriors that had led the retinue then spun on their heels and began walking down the row without another word.
Damali and Carlos looked at each other and then walked forward, not quite sure if they were supposed to. But from all indicators - since they hadn't been attacked and the warriors on the wall were sealing the space behind them - they could only assume that they were doing the right thing.
Guardian spirits? Damali mentally whispered to Carlos after they'd been walking awhile. She studied the strong, sinewy backs of every hue that walked before them. Yeah... these must have been some of the baaadest mugs on the planet to be guarding Neteru Council, D.
They both shared a glance as they walked.
You think we'd get to keep our Guardian family intact when we cross over, because we're Neterus?
Carlos glimpsed her again, but didn't break stride. Ya know, D, I was just thinking the same thing.
* * *
they came to an abrupt halt in front of a massive set of al abaster doors. Down the centers of each thirty-foot, one-ton door embellished with gold hinges, were moving, silvery hi
eroglyphics that seemed to tell a story that went back to the beginning of time. A war horn sounded and the doors then opened by themselves, but only after glowing in a flurried pattern and stopping like a whirling combination-lock on Damali's and Carlos's Aramaic names.
"Whoa," Damali said under her breath as the lead warriors bowed and then stood aside
for her and Carlos.
Carlos couldn't even speak for a moment. His entire Neteru King Council was in session, each King seated on a high pedestal, white marble throne next to his throne-seated Queen, and holding her hand. At their wrists, a long golden sash of Kinte and mud-cloth joined each couple. In the center of the semicircle of thrones were Ausar and Aset and Adam and Eve. Those single Kings and Queens formed a U shape of support behind them, going back row after row, up like in a huge coliseum without steps, floors, or anything one could see with the na**d eye holding up each row.
Damali felt her jaw go slack, just standing in front of such awesome power. The electric charge rippled across the floor and over their skins, making a tingly sensation of weightlessness enter every pore. She and Carlos simply gawked as the more aggressive of Aset's lionesses brought forward the offending black-box, roared, and dropped it at her feet.
Ausar looked at Carlos, then over to Damali, and finally at his Queen, before staring down at the box. "Council is called to order. Ashe."
Carlos and Damali looked at each other, their expressions plainly asking each other, Now what!