Guardians Inc.:Thundersword (Guardians Incorporated #2) (28 page)

One of them, Obadiah, allowed himself a wicked smile and his perfectly white teeth contrasted deeply with his dark, ebony skin.

“The moment we die,” the Doctor said calmly, “the moment this place blows up, and even if you escape the Keep, there's nowhere to go.”

Isaurus laughed. “Death comes to everyone, Doctor,” he said while a dark patch, almost like an oil spill, formed in the sea behind him and began to approach, rising like a wave.

A dark-winged form rose in front of the wave, its leathery wings spread wide and a dark cloud of energy trailed from her hands.

It was Tasha, coming to free the Namtarii.

“Too long have we waited!” Isaurus yelled and a scythe materialized in his hand. Immediately, scythes appeared in the hands of the other Namtarii.

The first to react was Bolswaithe; as the scythe was materializing in the hands of Lejka, he jumped at her, grasping for the weapon. Henri and Jean Luc jumped at their own enemies, while Elise threw Thomas back and hit one of the Namtarii with a spell.

Tony pushed Thomas to the floor, then drew his two swords and began to exchange strikes with two Namtarii.

There was a thunderous roar, and Thomas saw through the broken window two streaks of smoke rising from the front of the Keep, aiming toward Tasha. He realized that the Namtarii Keep wasn't only a prison, but also a fortress, and that its defenses were reacting to her threat.

Tasha launched two dark magical streaks of her own, and the first two missiles exploded mid-air. The gap in front of her became filled with the flashes of tracing ammo coming from gun turrets on the sides of the fortress.

Tasha's shield was peppered with bullets, and she actually knelt over her dark wave, recoiling from the attack, but she kept approaching.

Unearthly shrieks filled the room as the Namtarii assumed their true form, their elegant clothes transformed into a dark, tattered shroud, and their arms and faces melted away leaving only emaciated visages behind—sunken eyes and putrid skin barely covering their bones.

The Namtarii, whose faces had inspired the Grim Reaper legend, walked the Earth again.

In the front of the room, Vincent grabbed the closest Namtarii by the throat, and after a sickening crunch, the grotesque broke the Namtarii’s neck on his knee. 

Isaurus, still in human form, struck Henri’s brother’s head with his scythe. The wicked blade carved a deep gash on the side of Vincent, from head to chest, and as Isaurus pulled away his weapon, the grotesque crumbled into large pieces of granite.

“Run Thomas!” Tony said as he locked his swords with a Namtarii’s scythe. “If you get away, we can blow this place up!”

Thomas ran, but not toward the exit. He couldn't leave all of his friends to die. He pulled out his sword and ran toward the Namtarii who had Elise pinned against the wall. The creature had been too close to her for her to use Magic without hurting her friends, so she had resorted to her sword, which the Namtarii slapped easily from her hand. The Namtarii tore the Graangu tusk necklace away, then grazed her neck with its claw-like hands.

Elise screamed as boils of sickness began to appear on her skin.    

Thomas struck the Namtarii from the back, his blade slicing deep into the creature. It shrieked in pain and turned around to face Thomas with its claws. Instead of trying to block the creature, Thomas jumped back and rolled away as the Namtarii brought down the scythe again and again.

Outside, Tasha was kept at bay by the Keep’s weapons, and she tried to strike back at the guns and missiles, but she couldn't keep her shield and aim at the same time. Instead, a tendril of dark material extended from the wave toward the Keep—a bridge for the Namtarii to use to escape.

Thomas had never seen the Doctor fight. Even in Ormagra he had only used the power of his cane to keep the Wraith at bay. He caught glances of the Doctor's battle while he faced his own adversary.

The Doctor used his cane as a mace. He deflected the scythe of one Namtarii and struck another by sticking his cane in its face. The head of the creature exploded into a ball of pure, white light. Its headless corpse bounced against a wall.

The tide on Thomas’s side of the room turned in favor of the Guardians. Henri grabbed the Namtarii he was fighting and pushed him against a wall with such force that the granite wall cracked on impact and the Namtarii's broken body fell to the ground.

Henri then bore down on Thomas’s attacker. The Namtarii tried to impale Henri as he approached, but Henri stayed out from the scythe’s reach. “Duck,” Henri told Thomas, and as Thomas knelt, Henri pivoted in front of the Namtarii, extending his wings. The side of his wing caught the Namtarii in the head, and the creature did a pivot of its own before falling to the ground.

On the other side of the room, the Doctor and Charles were barely holding their own against Isaurus and the other two Namtarii. Again, Isaurus sacrificed one of his brethren by pushing him against Charles and waited until the grotesque had killed him. This time his scythe opened the grotesque from chest to neck, and another of Henri's brothers died in a crumbling heap. His body froze in a scream of pain as the Magic left the stone that made up his body.

Tasha’s bridge was almost complete, and the Namtarii Elise had battled with a Magical attack made a run for it, the creature seemed to glide as it crossed through the room.

“Stop them!” Tony yelled. He threw one of his swords at the fleeing Namtarii, but he missed and the sword hit the wall. 

A shriek came from the Namtarii battling Bolswaithe as the robot grabbed its arms around its back and pressed it against the floor. The Namtarii fought back, and Thomas heard the crunch of its arms breaking under Bolswaithe’s grip, and then it stopped resisting.

Tony blocked the scythe of one of his attackers with his remaining sword. “Is it you, Tsikiko?” he taunted, and the Namtarii shrieked in anger. The creature raised its scythe to strike again, and Tony stepped forward. He lifted his sword as the Namtarii brought down its scythe, and he cut off both arms. Then, using both hands on the sword, he struck the Namtarii’s torso, and the entire blade sunk in.  “I hope it’s you,” he told the creature before it expired.

The other Namtarii attacking Tony tried to run, but Jean Luc grabbed its tunic, then its head from behind. The grotesque lifted the Namtarii up, then closed his hand into a fist, releasing the lifeless corpse that sprawled on the ground.

The last Namtarii embedded its blade into Jean Luc’s folded wing, then his shoulder, but Henri grabbed him from behind and broke the shaft of the scythe before he could destroy his brother. The Namtarii clawed at Henri’s arms and face until Henri broke its back with a loud crunch.

Jean Luc fell in one knee, the blade still sticking from his back.

A flash of light came from the other side of the room; the transformed Namtarii had grabbed the Doctor’s cane and the Doctor and suddenly the Namtarii’s hand disintegrated in a flash of white as the Doctor activated his cane.

Isaurus struck the Doctor in the mandible with the shaft of his scythe, and the Doctor fell back as one of the fleeing Namtarii jumped over the bridge Tasha had created.

“Go!” Isaurus told the handless Namtarii, and it too, jumped on the bridge.

Isaurus then bore down on the Doctor, striking him with the flat end of his scythe. The Doctor dropped his cane, blood trickling from his mouth. 

“Come here.” Isaurus dropped his blade and picked the Doctor up by his armpit. “See there?” he said, pointing at the two Namtarii who had already reached Tasha’s protective shield. “We will be the new four horsemen. We will raze the world again, but you won't be there to see it.”

“Sword!” Tony yelled, extending a hand toward Thomas. Thomas quickly pitched him his sword, and Tony began to run toward the Doctor.

Doctor Franco yelled in pain. His body was wracked by spasms and his muscles contracted. Thomas saw the Doctor’s knuckles and fingers deforming while Isaurus laughed in the Doctor’s face.

“Hey!” Tony yelled, and Isaurus lowered the Doctor to look at him.

Isaurus twitched.

Surprise filled Isaurus’s face as he released the Doctor.  He looked down, the pommel of Bianca's Vendetta jutting out from his body just below his neck.

Tony had timed his yell perfectly. Had Isaurus not lowered the Doctor, Tony’s family's blade would have struck the Doctor in the back of his head.

Isaurus wobbled and assumed his true form with a shriek. He turned toward Tasha and the other Namtarii by her side. Thomas heard Tasha's guttural howl above the weapons’ fire as Isaurus fell to his knees.

The bridge collapsed in a goo of dark water, and Tasha began to retreat away and down into the ocean.

Isaurus extended a hand toward Tasha and shrieked again as Tony approached.

“Isaurus of Troy,” Tony said, standing in front of the fallen Namtarii. He grabbed the sword in one hand. “For your crimes against humanity and my house vendetta I claim you… May you rot in Hell.” In one swift movement, Tony pulled the sword from Isaurus’s body and decapitated him in one swift move.

The wave Tasha was riding became a sphere around them, and it sank beneath the surface of the sea as two newly arrived fighter planes released their missiles against her. The explosions created two tall geysers, but Thomas doubted that they hit Tasha.

Tony kneeled by the Doctor, who was curled in fetal position, his hands little more than claws.

“I thought you promised not to bring the sword,” the Doctor said.

“I didn't bring it, Doc,” Tony said. “Thomas did, just in case.”

The Doctor managed a weak smile. “My cane,” he said, and Tony picked it up. The Doctor then fell uncouncious in his arms, the cane glowing softly in his decrepit hands.

On the other side of the room Thomas approached Elise, who was sweating and twitching with fever, her skin pockmarked with pustules, blood and saliva trickled from her mouth.

“Don't touch her,” Henri said. “I've seen this before in France. It's smallpox.”

“I don't care what it is!” Thomas yelled. “We need to get her out of here.”

“The Doctor can help her, Thomas,” Bolswaithe said, still holding the Namtarii against the ground.

“The Doctor is out.” Tony gently handed the Doctor to Henri. Jean Luc was kneeling on the floor, the scythe still embedded on his back. “Isaurus got to him.”

“Then we need to take them to the Mansion!” Thomas yelled, reaching out for Elise, but Tony grabbed his arm.

“You can't touch her, Thomas.” Tony said. “We might have been exposed already.” 

“We need to help her!” 

Elise started convulsing on the floor, her body writhing, her mouth foaming.

“We can't!” Bolswaithe yelled. “She's dying, Thomas. She won't make it out from the Keep. Our medicine can't help her.”

Elise fell to her side as short spasms wracked through her body.

“Then maybe we can help,” a voice said from behind them. They turned to see the remaining female Namtarii helping Shahrukh from under the billiards table.

Bolswaithe's prisoner shrieked and he put pressure on its arm. “Quiet!” he said, and the Namtarii stopped yelling.

Tony drew his sword. “You want to finish the job?” he said to the Namtarii helping Shahrukh. “I know who you are, Thawaret of Abydos. You founded Egypt with your husband Menes, and forty-four centuries later you tried to kill your own people.”

Thawaret drew in a long breath and raised her head. “Then you know I was a Guardian too before becoming this monster. I can’t change who I am, or what I’ve done, but I can try and make amends.”

“How can you help her?” Thomas asked as Elise breaths became shallower.

“We have a way,” Thawaret said, “if you give us a chance.”

“Stop!” Tony walked toward Jean Luc. Shahrukh had left Thawaret’s side and was ready to grasp the scythe on Jean Luc's back. Tony placed his sword on the Namtarii's neck.

“He wants to help,” Thawaret told them.

Shahrukh reached again for the scythe, and Tony pressed the sword directly to his throat. Shahrukh looked at Tony, and Thomas could swear that his eyes were softer than when they had first met him.

“If he hurts the Golem,” Thawaret said, “you can kill us both.”

Shahrukh leaned forward, and Tony had to release the pressure on his sword or risk cutting the Namtarii's neck. Shahrukh touched the scythe and it disappeared in a knot of black tendrils.

Jean Luc moved his shoulder and his wing.

“Never again,” Shahrukh said softly as he walked toward Elise. Tony interposed himself with his sword, ready to impale him.

The Namtarii under Bolswaithe suddenly transformed into a human female. “Traitors!” she yelled, Thomas recognized her face—it was Lejka. Her beautiful Mediterranean face was contorted in pain and anger. She spat at Thawaret and Shahruk. “We are death incarnate! We will kill you along with the world. All of you! Once I'm free I...” There was a soft crackling sound, and the Namtarii stopped talking as her eyes lost the light of life. Bolswaithe released her neck and pressed her eyelids closed.

“Bolswaithe?”  Thomas was shocked. Bolswaithe had just killed his prisoner by breaking her neck. Even Tony looked surprised.

Bolswaithe stood up from the body. “Later,” he told Thomas, and then knelt beside Elise, checking her wrist for pulse. “She's fading,” he said.

Thomas pushed Bianca's Vendetta down with a hand. “Let him try,” he said, looking at Elise. Tony moved away and allowed Shahrukh to kneel by Elise.

Shahrukh placed his hands on her neck. Elise twitched, and then the pustules dried out before their eyes and formed scabs. Shahrukh smiled as he released her. Some of the scabs began to fall off her skin, leaving a pockmark behind. Elise went from feverish convulsions to sleep under Shahrukh's hands.

“She's stable,” Bolswaithe said, “and not contagious anymore.”

“What did you do to her?” Thomas asked, but Shahrukh didn't answer.

“He killed the sickness,” Thawaret said, “and accelerated its course. It is within our domain.”

Thomas knelt beside Shahrukh. “Now, the Doctor, please,” he said.

Shahrukh stood up and placed his hands on the Doctor's face, but after a couple of seconds he retired them. The Doctor's body remained the same, wrecked.