The Rise of the Goddess by E A Carter

Author:E A Carter [Carter, E A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781641841733
Publisher: Arundel House Press
Published: 2019-11-30T22:00:00+00:00

PART II

RELIC

CHAPTER 1

* * *

Sethi leaned against the wall and folded his bloodstained arms over his chest, eyeing Perev's intruder from under his brow. Marduk had worked over—with methodical, cold, vengeful mercilessness—the one who claimed to have once been the husband of Ninsunu. Yet despite the one who called himself Ahmen suffering the most exquisite of agonies, he remained silent, stubborn, defiant.

Marduk turned, the dagger in his grip grisly with blood and gore, and cast a baleful look at Sethi. The muscles on his jaw spasmed, once, twice, three times. Sethi knew that tell. Despite his outward appearance of cool, Marduk was furious. Sethi pushed himself free of the wall and picked Ahmen up by his blood-soaked throat, holding him dangling, choking, mid-air. He flung him across the room. Ahmen slammed against the opposite wall and slid to the floor, leaving a thick smear of blood in his wake. He gasped for air, an ugly gurgle.

Sethi followed him and sank into a crouch. He leaned toward the broken, flayed face of the one who held the answer he sought. "Where is Istara?" he asked, conversational.

Ahmen glared at him, mutinous, burning with hate, the whites of his eyes brilliant against his exposed facial muscles gelatinous with congealed blood. He spat. A tooth bounced off Sethi's cheek. It skidded across the floor, trailing slimy tendrils of bloody tissue.

Sethi cut a look over his shoulder at Marduk. "The jihn will make him talk."

Marduk's lips thinned. "I prefer to let him suffer." He turned and headed for the door, still holding the blood-soaked dagger. "For now, you may do as you please with him. When you are done, put him in the device. Once he is sufficiently rejuvenated, he will tell us what we want to know, whether he wishes to or not." He lifted the door's handle and glanced back, fury sheathing him. "After that, the jihn may have him."

Sethi nodded. He turned back to his latest amusement. "So, what do you want to do?" he asked, casual, as the door closed behind Marduk, its quiet click promising on his return more pain would follow. Much more pain. In the ensuing silence, the ragged, wet breathing of Perev's stubborn prisoner ricocheted against the chamber's raw, bleak walls.

"Sethi," Ahmen rasped, his face ugly, contorting as his muscles moved, no longer contained within their cocoon of skin. "How can you not remember me?"

Sethi eyed the mess before him. "Why would I remember you? I am a god. You are no one."

"You were not always a god," Ahmen answered. "Before you came to Elati, you were the commander of Egypt's armies. You were mortal, and my friend." He clenched his jaw, suppressing a spasm of agony. His gaze fell to Sethi's fractals, stuttering through their rotations. "You may be a god, but this is not who you are meant to be."

Sethi followed his gaze to the broken fractals, their suffering plain against his flesh. Though he knew he hid it well, doubt had begun to plague him.

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