Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,80

Morse code. Imposter?

I nodded once. “Hey, Athena,” I said as we reached the outside area of the palace.

“Yes?” Athena asked, turning to me.

“Maybe I should get Judgement to take you to Lucifer; I can go with Jinayca then. Judgement is around somewhere nearby—shouldn’t take a second to find her.”

“I’d rather not bother her just yet,” Athena said. “She’d only worry about me.”

“Of course,” I said as we descended the steps. “Must be hard work to be apart from your sister for so long. I wonder, Lamashtu, do you have a sister?”

Athena stopped walking, continuing to face away from me. “How long have you known?”

“The bullshit about Athena being here for centuries was a big clue. I last saw Athena about fifty years ago. She looked pretty good,” I said. “The monster at the mountain was you just wanting people out of the city. You were going to kill me, I assume.”

“Yes,” Lamashtu said, her eyes blazing red. “Killing you was always in the cards.”

“You used a sorcerer’s band to get here, but then it all kicked off here, and you escaped with a bunch of fleeing prisoners,” I said. “Unfortunately, you tried to get to the mountain, to use the gates there, I presume, and you were discovered by more soldiers, these on our side. Sound about right?”

“Pretty much.”

“How were you going to get out of here?” I asked her.

“I’ll become someone else and walk out,” Lamashtu said. The Athena mask slithered off her face. Her skin was dark, her eyes blazing hot, and a red tongue—long and snakelike—slithered over sharp teeth. She pointed a bony hand at me. “I am Lamashtu,” she said, her voice making my skin crawl. “You are my prey.”

“You couldn’t kill me earlier,” I said.

“Too many around.”

“And the real Athena?”

Lamashtu shrugged. “Dead. She was Arthur’s prisoner for many years. I do not think she died well.” Lamashtu laughed as she glanced around at the large number of soldiers who were moving toward us, weapons drawn.

“I assume you won’t be coming with us quietly,” I said.

“Your mind isn’t very receptive to control from others,” Lamashtu said. “I tried with Mordred, too, but his brain was having none of it. You weapons are quite powerful little wizards.”

“Wizards?” I asked. “Did you just call me a fucking wizard?”

I blasted Lamashtu in the chest with a bolt of lightning, and she flew back across the square, smashing into the side of a building.

I walked over to her as she slowly got back to her feet. “Does it look like I need a fucking wand?” I threw another bolt of lightning, but Lamashtu dived aside, drawing the blade on her belt and throwing it at me. I saw it coming and knew what it was. I sank down into the shadows and came up next to Lamashtu, who threw a punch at me that I blocked. I locked her wrist and pushed back hard enough to take her off her feet and dump her on the ground.

“Basilisk blade,” I said. “I wondered when you were going to use it.”

“That wasn’t the blade,” Lamashtu said, striking me in the throat and kicking up. She drew the basilisk blade and tried for my groin, but I dodged back, and two whips of fire trailed from my hands. Lamashtu smiled, turned, and sprinted into the maze of alleyways that made up the center of the city. The guards chased after her before I could say anything. I looked back at Jinayca, who was sitting on the floor, a blade sticking out of her chest.

“Shit! Jinayca . . .” I ran over to help her.

“Well, fuck,” she said. “Nate, you need to find her.”

“I will,” I said. “What the hell happened?”

“She dived into the way,” a male soldier said. “She just pushed me aside and took the blade.”

“I’ve always been an idiot,” Jinayca said.

I pulled the blade out, and thankfully, it wasn’t a basilisk. Just a decoy. “This didn’t go into your heart,” I told her after examining the damage. “It’s just a normal dagger.”

“No shit,” Jinayca said, removing her leather armor and dropping it on the floor. She had silver chain mail underneath that blazed with red runes. “Good job, too, or that bastard thing would have cut right through me. Now go find that bitch before she kills someone.”

I ran after Lamashtu, using my heat vision to track the footsteps of the soldiers chasing her. I found two dead at the end of a long twisty alley and another dead a hundred