with raised eyebrows. “Just between us girls, you’re not looking your best. Why, you’re bloated as a mattress left out in the rain.”
Wrinkling my nose, I added, “There’s a particular odor about you, too. It’s a bit like mildew. Maybe mold. Whatever it is makes the eyes water.” I pointed my spear-knife, angling it from her head to her toes, part insult, part threat. “Probably comes from consuming more than your fair share of rotten hearts. But I imagine that comes with the territory. You know what they say—garbage in, garbage out. All things considered, I think my chances are good.”
The Devourer’s red-tinged mouth fell open and I grinned like the Cheshire Cat—that is, until she turned to Amon and ran her now-green-painted fingertip down his bare chest. “Amon?” she asked sweetly.
“Yes, my queen?” he answered in a monotone voice.
“Would you mind teaching this slip of a girl a lesson in respect?”
Amon blinked once, twice, and then sucked in a breath and headed toward me, arms raised, ready to destroy.
“Amon?” I called out. “Amon, stop!” He grabbed for me, arms flailing, but I easily spun out of his reach and darted away. He fell against the bubbling cauldron like a broken toy and I heard the hiss of burning flesh. He didn’t cry out, despite the injury, and when he turned back to me, I saw a huge red welt along his side, pocked with angry blisters. “What have you done to him?” I cried. I stowed my spear-knives and raised my bare hands, afraid I’d injure him further.
“It’s a simple thing, really,” she said as she watched Amon cornering me, a jubilant expression on her face. “His mind is broken, which means he’s easily controlled. You see, when I take his energy, I replace it with the bile of the damned—a scourge that poisons what little remains of him. It makes him easier to digest,” she added as an afterthought, then frowned. “It’s been terribly difficult to siphon off what’s left of his energy. Boiling him is a last resort and carries with it the risk that what remains of him will be lost. Ah, well. Now that you’re here it doesn’t matter much anymore.”
That she’d been unable to finish him off was likely due to Amon’s having the Eye of Horus. Long ago Amon had told me that the symbol of the Eye was a sign of protection. Having possession of the real thing must have kept him alive. I glared at her with all the hatred I could muster. It should have been enough to light the woman on fire, but she wasn’t even looking at me. The Devourer was biting her thumbnail and studying Amon as he lunged toward me again like a drunken man.
“Perhaps I’ll keep him around a bit longer,” she said. “His presence should motivate you to cooperate. And Amon is under my thrall, after all, mind lost in the Caverns of the Dead, until such time as I release him to a second death, anyway. Which is what I was about to do until you showed up. Lucky for you, I decided to wait. To think, you might’ve been too late to save the one you love. Even now I can hear how your heart beats for him. The sound of it…diverts me. Such deep emotions. They taste like the richest dessert.”
Amon lunged and I leapt to the side, throwing a leg out to trip him. He tumbled to the ground, loose-limbed and sprawling. I was grateful that he wasn’t at full strength. Otherwise he would have been a formidable opponent and I’d have no other recourse but to defend myself. Already I sensed the Devourer tiring of the display. The jackals stood nearby, watchful, stretching out their necks surreptitiously to snap when they thought the Devourer wasn’t paying attention.
I roughly kicked one of them and the jackal tumbled into his brothers, knocking several others over. They rolled to their feet and snarled. I took the opportunity then to move back into the more open area in the center. Even though it was too close to the hot cauldron, I deemed it safer than being in the midst of the pack.
Amon summoned his weapons from the sand, but his weakness made them unstable. He struck me with a sword that gleamed one moment and then turned to sand when it hit me. Ducking his next swing, I grabbed him from behind, trapping his arms.
Part of me reveled at being able to physically