Anubis Nights (4 page)

“I could have sworn I heard the gunshot while I was standing.”

“Maybe.”

“Was I hit?” she asked touching her forehead.

“No, Sharon’s a shitty shot. Look.” I pointed at a bullet hole in the wall at the back of the dojo.

Kelly fumed. She shot a dirty look at Sharon. “You’re paying for that.”

***

Half an hour later, Rayna arrived, looking radiant, having spent the morning working out. Her dark hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she wore shorts and a T-shirt that read
The Steam Room: No Pain, Still Gain.
She was the sole owner of the spa in Boulder because her entire family had been killed a few months ago. She kissed me and when she pulled back, she took hold of my hand. We were still in the new, and I looked forward to every moment we could spend together. She had some rough nights when the grief hit her, but most of the time, she was all smiles. I suspect it helped that she was from another place where death was always a part of life and not pushed into the darkness. So yes, she missed her family, but she didn’t seem as broken up about it as I was after my folks were killed.

Brand and Esther joined us a few minutes later. Before they arrived, Kelly and I set up folding chairs so we could all sit down in a nice circle like a support group. We could call ourselves
Slayers of Evil Anonymous.
Didn’t work well as an acronym, but it was good enough for me.

I made introductions where necessary.

Once we were all seated, Sharon explained the situation. “Henry Winslow stole a scroll from the Forbidden Texts. The scroll had a spell inscribed on it which opened time portals to the past, and—”

“Time out,” Brand said. “Who’s Henry Winslow?”

“A man who died more than eighty years ago. He liked to say he was Thrice-Born.”

“Sounds painful,” Brand said.

“Cute. Are you familiar with multiple personality disorder?” Sharon asked.

Brand nodded. “I read
Sybil.
”

“You can read?” Kelly asked with a grin.

“I tend to move my lips, and I have to sound out some of the longer words.”

“This is serious,” Sharon said.

“Right,” Brand said. “Sorry.”

“Winslow is a powerful sorcerer, and he has multiple personages, or aspects of himself. He literally split himself into three separate people to make good on his claim of being Thrice-Born. Winslow entered the world in 1877 and died in 1926. He was a member of The Golden Dawn, a secret society that included Aleister Crowley among its members. He and Crowley were friends.”

Rayna squeezed my hand to get my attention. “Is this the same Aleister Crowley from that loud CD you play in the car all the time?”

“Ozzy rocks,” I said. “And yes, it’s the same guy.”

“He seems creepy.”

“He looked like Uncle Fester from
The Addams Family,
” I said. “But constipated.”

Sharon glared at me. “Are you done?”

Rayna bit her lip and tried not to laugh.

Sharon shook her head. “As I was saying, Winslow used the spell from the scroll to open portals to the past. He couldn’t go to the years when he was actually living, but after reading up on him, we learned that he was one messed-up sorcerer. He believed he was his own father, so we know he sent one of his aspects to the 1870s in order to seduce his mother, though we believe he has another goal there too. Unfortunately we don’t know what that is. We also know he sent an aspect to 1926 because he wanted to hunt down and slay the man who killed him. Again, he may have another goal there too.”

“And the third aspect?” I asked.

“He was obsessed with the Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean.”

“Atlantean?” I asked. “As in Atlantis?”

“That’s right.”

“Does he look like Patrick Duffy?”

“Who?”

“
The Man from Atlantis,
” I said. “TV show from the seventies?” Blank stare. “Come on, it was released on DVD.”

Sharon shook her head. “You need to focus, Jonathan. This is not a joking matter. The fate of the world may rest in your hands.”

“Okay, I’ll drop the TV references. But seriously, Atlantis? I thought that was a myth. There’s no historical evidence of the place aside from a few passages in Plato.”

“Yes, Jonathan, Atlantis was real, but it wasn’t called that in its day. They were the Minoans and their seat of power was Santorini, though it was called Thera at the time. It was destroyed in a catastrophic volcanic eruption, though the residents had plenty of notice, so they all survived.”

“Okay, whatever. So Sybil the Sorcerer went back to Atlantis or Thera?”

“No. He wants the Emerald Tablets.”

“And those aren’t in Atlantis?”

“Thoth put them in the Great Pyramid in Egypt.”

“So we’re going to Egypt? I don’t speak Arabic.”

“He went back to ancient Egypt, but you won’t be able to speak archaic Egyptian either.”

“I got a cool poster with my name done up in hieroglyphics when I was a kid. My name was even in one of those bullet-shaped things.”

“A cartouche,” Kelly said. “Those were reserved for the pharaohs, and as it happens, the French named them because they looked like the cartridges for their guns.”

“This is hopeless,” Sharon said. “This is serious business, and you should behave that way.”

“We’ll be serious when it’s time,” I said. “Regardless, we have a slight problem here, Sharon. None of us can speak Egyptian. Kelly knows a lot more about Egypt than I do.” I leaned out and looked at Kelly. “Who was that female pharaoh you like so much?”

“Hatshepsut,” Kelly said. “I would love to meet her.”

“We’re sending you to 1323 BCE,” Sharon said.

“That’s not Hatshepsut’s time,” Kelly said. “Thirteen hundreds would be . . . Akhenaten? Oh, don’t tell me Winslow is really Akhenaten, the heretic pharaoh!”

“Heretic pharaoh?” Brand asked.

“He started the first monotheistic religion.”

“Before Zoroastrianism?” Brand asked.

“Zorro had a religion?” Rayna asked.

“Not Zorro,” I said with a grin. “Zoroaster was a guy in the middle east, Persia, if memory serves. He started a monotheistic religion—very much like Christianity, actually. Holy Spirit, one god, savior with a virgin birth, resurrection, heaven, hell, angels, et cetera. On the bad side, their god is named Ahura Mazda, so it sounds like a car dealership.”

“It’s like dealing with children,” Sharon said, her voice tense. “You’re not going to the time of Akhenaten. We’re sending you to the time of Tutankhamun.”

“King Tut! Cool,” I said. And because I knew it would piss off Sharon, I started singing Steve Martin’s “King Tut” song.

“I can kill you with a snap of my fingers,” Sharon said.

I grinned at her. “Yeah, but you need us.” I looked over at Brand. “Dude, we get to meet King Tut!”

Brand grinned and gave me a fist bump. “Hell yeah!”

Sharon shook her head. “You can’t all go back to ancient Egypt. We need to send you all through at once but to different times. Chronos, can you explain it? Because if I have to keep talking to them, I’m going to kill someone.”

“I shall handle it,” Chronos said.

“I’m stepping outside for a few minutes,” Sharon said.

“Was it something I said?” I asked.

She glared at me, rose, and headed for the exit.

Chronos took a deep breath and looked askance at me. “You wanted to kill Charon for what I assume is a valid reason, but as you are incapable of achieving said goal, you’re going out of your way to annoy him.” He hesitated. “Her. In any case, you will show me some respect, or I will freeze time and do things to you that you
really
don’t want me to do.”

Rather than point out that his magic wouldn’t work on me, I held up my hands, palms out. “It’s cool. Tell us how this is going to work.”

“Very well. As you are immune to magic, the spells I’ll be casting will affect only your friends. I’m going to link Kelly, Brand, and Rayna with a bond that will automatically activate once you achieve each goal because I’ll infuse the link with Winslow’s DNA. I’ll send you back with Kelly to Egypt circa 1323 before the Common Era. I’ll send Brand to 1877, and I’ll send Rayna to 1926.”

“To be clear, are we going back to kill Winslow?”

He shook his head. “He’s already dead, Jonathan, so you won’t be killing him exactly. You’ll need to find his aspect in ancient Egypt first. His magic will be weakest back then because he’ll be at one-third power. When you eliminate him back then—kill his aspect, that is—his energy will flow forward in time to his next aspect in the 1870s. As soon as that happens, Kelly will be pulled forward to Brand, so you’ll need to be in physical contact with her or you’ll be stuck in ancient Egypt.”

“Question,” Kelly said.

“Please,” Chronos said and gave her a nod.

“What if I die in ancient Egypt? What happens to Jonathan then?”

“He will be trapped there, and all will be lost. As you’re a Sekutar, I don’t think you’ll need to worry much about dying.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“When I go to the 1870s, if Kelly and Jonathan are with me right away, that means they succeeded in Egypt, right?” Brand asked.

“You will be linked to Kelly and to Rayna, so however long it takes them to find and kill Winslow in Egypt is the amount of time you’ll be on your own in the 1870s. That means that for Rayna, it’s the time in Egypt plus the time in the 1870s.”

“So what do I do in the 1870s before Kelly and Jonathan join me?” Brand asked.

“You’ll find Henry Winslow’s aspect there.”

“How do I do that?”

“His mother was named Mary, and his father was Elvin,” Chronos said.

“And that helps me how?”

“You’ll just need to investigate and find them.”

I shook my head. “It will be easier to do now,” I said. “Just hop online and check the census for 1870. You should be able to get an address. You might check 1880 too in case they moved. That will make things a lot easier.”

“Excellent idea. What if I have a chance to take him out? Do I do that?”

Chronos shook his head. “No. If you kill his aspect before Kelly and Jonathan reach you, they might not be able to come forward to you. I’m using genetic material from Henry’s bones to form part of the bond, so his aspect needs to be alive for the spell to work. It’s possible that Kelly would be pulled to Rayna in the 1920s, as would you, but this is a delicate spell, so don’t take any chances. If this is done in the correct order, I know it will work.”

“Okay. I was just asking because if I’m understanding what you’re telling us, Winslow will be even stronger when we face his second aspect.”

“You are correct. And after you kill him in the 1870s, he will be at full strength in the 1920s when you face him there.”

“Fun times,” Brand said. He excused himself and went to Kelly’s office to research Winslow’s parents’ address.

Rayna raised her hand as if she were in school.

Chronos pointed at her. “Question?”

“Am I supposed to track Henry Winslow down in the twenties? Just keep tabs on him until everyone reaches me?”

“Yes.”

“What if they don’t reach me?”

“What do you mean?”

“What if . . . okay, I don’t even want to say this out loud, but . . .”

“What if Jonathan, Brand, and Kelly lose to Henry in the past?”

Rayna nodded.

“If they lose, you won’t exist.”

“Um, actually, I will. I was born on the other side of the Dragon Gate.”

“Oh, well, that could prove interesting.” He rubbed his chin. “You may see the world change around you, in which case, you’ll be trapped there.”

Rayna looked at me. “You’re not allowed to lose.”

“I’ll have Kelly. I’m good.”

Kelly looked away for a moment, but before her face was turned, I noticed a look of concern. I chalked it up to my imagination. Kelly was the most stable person I knew. She wasn’t prone to worrying because she tackled every problem head-on.

“What do I do?” Esther asked.

Chronos looked at her. “You, my dear, will go to the Old West, but once that’s done, you’ll be pulled forward to the present.”

“But I want to go to Egypt, and I know the twenties. I can be helpful then.”

“I can’t send you back to ancient Egypt. I might be able to send you up to eighty-five years prior to your birth because you’ve existed that long after death. I’ve never tried to send a spirit anywhere before, so I’m not sure it will work. I do know that I can’t send you to the twenties because you were alive then.”

“So? I’m just a ghost; I can’t change anything.”

“You are correct. Your spirit isn’t the problem. Your typewriter is the wrench in the machine. Rayna won’t be able to take a typewriter key with her, so you won’t be able to go there. And before Jonathan, Kelly, and Brand move forward to the twenties, they’ll need to destroy their typewriter keys because the keys can’t physically exist at the same time in two places in the same form. Also, while it may seem instantaneous to you, spirits travel much slower through the portal than physical beings, so Brand will be alone for a time before you arrive.”

“Not fair,” Esther said and crossed her arms.

“Is Esther upset?” Rayna asked. Rayna didn’t have any magic, so she couldn’t see or hear Esther.

“She’ll be all right,” I said. “Leave your keychain here.”

She nodded. One of Esther’s typewriter keys was attached to her key chain too.

Sharon came back inside carrying a black canvas gym bag and strode over to the circle of chairs. She dropped the bag on the floor. “Are we up to speed?”

“Almost,” Chronos said. “We just need to give them the devices.”

“We get toys?” Brand asked as he returned from the office. “We’re going to be like James Bond!”

“You don’t,” Sharon said. “Jonathan and Kelly do.”

“That’s not fair,” Brand said. He had several pieces of paper in his hand. “Jonathan, Kelly, Rayna, you might want to have a look at this.” He held up the paper, which had a black and white picture of a man in his forties standing with one leg up on a bench. He wore a nice old-style suit, and his hair was slicked back. “This is a picture of Henry Winslow. I pulled it from Wikipedia.”