Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,63
a good meal. There are half a dozen of us, and we have to remain out of human reach. If we were discovered, the humans would kill us.”
“You murder innocent people,” I said.
“No,” Sobek said with a smile. “I murder those who would murder me. Who would rape and steal from their own kind, who would do harm to children. I bring them down here to be given the punishment they deserve. I hunt them at night through the city.”
“You’re a vigilante?” Remy asked. “Do you wear a cape? Have a big light pointing into the sky at night?”
“No,” Sobek said with a straight face. “Do I need one?”
“So you bring people here to kill; you kill the occasional smuggler; you kill animals,” I said. “You want to stay here without anything happening to you and your family. You want peace. You want to be left alone. But we need that realm gate.”
“Do you think you can force me?” Sobek asked, a hard edge to his voice for the first time.
“Yes,” I said. “If I remember correctly, you’re near on immortal. You just resurrect yourself when you die. Your family, I assume, do not.”
Sobek’s eyes narrowed.
“I do not wish you or them harm,” I continued before Sobek could take too much offense. “But we both know that a fight between our groups will get some of them killed. You do not want that.”
“What do you propose?” he asked grudgingly.
“We use the gate,” I said. “We do so on the understanding that we make it known that this gate has then been destroyed. And we also arrange a regular delivery of food. Not people. There are few who deserve to be torn apart by crocodiles.”
“Pigs, horses, sheep,” Sobek said. “Not cows, though—they are not as pleasant as you humans seem to believe they are.”
“Done,” Isis said.
“Then we can do business,” Sobek said.
“Also,” Lucifer said, “you’re not going to tell anyone we were here.”
Sobek smiled. “Yes, I can keep a secret.”
“Who else knows you’re here?” Isis asked.
“Some of Avalon’s minions who tried to get through and were seen off.”
“Who?” Lucifer asked.
“I don’t know,” Sobek said. “I only recognized one: Megaera.”
“The Furies?” Remy asked.
I immediately looked up the tunnel. “You think anyone might have been keeping eyes on this place? We should hurry this up.”
“These realm gates are meant to be hidden,” Sobek said, ignoring my concern. “Hera knew about this particular one centuries ago, but no one could get it to work, so it was deemed useless. There’s writing on the gate that says Duat. The writing isn’t Egyptian.”
“What is it?” Zamek asked.
“Elvish,” Sobek said. “Shadow Elvish, to be exact.”
Everyone looked at Tarron. “Show me, please.”
“If you swim over there with all that blood in the water, my family will attack you,” Sobek said. “Without the blood, I could make sure they leave you alone, but with it, they are too caught up in their bloodlust to obey me in such matters.”
“We can create a bridge of air,” Isis said to me. “I think that would ensure we got over in one piece.”
There was a small splash in the pool, and I looked over as something else landed in the water. I glanced up at the ceiling of the cavern, expecting to see pieces of it falling down, just as the pool exploded. The water drenched us all, and there were two more splashes, followed by another explosion. I created a shield of air, wrapping it around us, as more water rained down, this time mixed with large amounts of crocodile blood. The head and partial torso of one crocodile dropped onto the sand beside us.
“No,” Sobek shouted.
I was about to drop the shield when it was hit by gunfire, forcing all of us back around the corner toward the entrance. Bullets poured down into the water as Sobek screamed in rage and pain.
“You still down there, Sobek?” a voice asked.
“Megaera,” Sobek said, his voice barely recognizable as human. “I told you not to come back.”
“We need to get across that water,” Lucifer said.
“I will give you time,” Sobek said. “These interlopers will pay for what they’ve done.”
Before anyone could stop him, Sobek ran toward the entrance to the cavern, changing into his gigantic crocodile form before he reached it. The growl that left his jaws as he ran up the slope toward the attackers was drowned out by the sound of gunfire.
Isis and I created a bridge of air, turning it solid enough that everyone could run across it.