Strange that Anubis bled like a human I thought, and reached around to grab hold of the elongated snout, which had yet to move despite all the noise.
And pulled.
“Oh, fuck!” Ray said, staring over his shoulder at the long spill of silver hair that flowed out of what was now quite obviously a mask. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Fey,” I agreed, and put a knife in its eye.
But these weren’t ordinary fey, if there was such a thing. I’d met the silver haired bastards before, and while they were taller, stronger and faster than a normal human by an order of magnitude, they weren’t this strong. Or this fast. Or this numerous, because the marketplace was suddenly crawling.
And they didn’t like that I’d just killed their friend.
“Go up, go up!” Ray screamed, as half a dozen fake gods leapt for us.
The rug went up. Unfortunately, our enemies were up there, too. Running across rooftops, jumping from balconies, throwing huge spears like freaking rain and causing our little conveyance to have to dodge here, there, and everywhere along the narrow alley, goddamnit!
“Need some help?”
I felt a familiar, cool presence slip inside my skin, or our skin technically, since my alter ego was back. And just in time. “Is that supposed to be funny?” I yelled, as five jackal-headed thugs dove at us like they were trying to set an Olympic record.
And fell in pieces on the ground a second later, because—
“Where did you get that?” I demanded, looking at the bloody scimitar in my hand.
Dorina gestured vaguely behind us, to where I guessed she’d ripped off a vendor as we flew past, or mugged a fey, before I'd even realized she was back. Which she definitely was. Because instead of gripping the little rug with both knees and at least one hand, I was now standing up on the tiny surface like a surfer on a board, and slashing at jumping fey with a bloody sword.
“Dorina?” Ray guessed, staring up at me.
“What do you think?” I yelled, trying to focus past the panic and find—
Him, I thought, half in joy, half in shock, as we slung around a minaret, above a cobblestone courtyard where I finally spotted Louis-Cesare, fighting alone, and surrounded by what had to be three dozen massive, jackal headed assailants.
My heart seized as Ray circled 'round again, as half a dozen spears flew up at us, and as I scribbled as fast as I could one handed—
“Got it!” I yelled.
“Got what?” Ray demanded, looking at me over his shoulder. “What is that thing?”
“Horus.”
“What?”
“The king of the gods!” I yelled, as a huge falcon tore off the side of the minaret, its wingspan big enough to threaten to block out the sky. I don’t know how large it actually was; I was kind of distracted. But I’d poured the rest of our magic into it, and I guess that reservoir had been worth the money. Because in that place and at that moment, it looked like a jumbo jet.
It soared into the air, then matched speed with us, the mighty wings knocking over a shop stall or two in the process.
“What the hell?” Ray demanded, staring at it.
“We just pulled rank!” I pointed at Louis-Cesare, and saw the bird's great head turn with my movement. “Save him!”
And Horus did.
Ray and I landed in a nearby alley to watch the show, because our ride was running out of juice. Sort of like the fey, I thought, watching the giant beak savage the no-longer-huge-looking creatures. It was a bloody slaughter, and I had no idea how we were going to explain this to Hassani, assuming he hadn’t engineered the whole thing, not to mention cover it up. But when I saw Louis-Cesare running toward me across the square, slicing and dicing fey as he went, it suddenly didn’t matter anymore.
Love . . . is a strange emotion, Dorina commented.
Couldn’t argue with that.
“You owe me an Omega for this,” Ray piped up, from behind me.
“What?”
“You know, the watch? The kind James Bond wears.”
I glanced back at him. “What about it?”
“I been thinking, and that’s what I want as a master’s gift.”
“Come again?”
“Masters always give their Seconds a gift, something to show off, only you haven’t ponied up yet.”
“I’m not much of a master,” I pointed out, watching Louis-Cesare decapitate two fey at one time without breaking stride.
“But I’m a great second.”
Yeah, I thought. He kind of was.
“What kind of Omega?” I asked, glancing back again—