Dr. Hassan had disappeared and I was halfway up a pyramid, facing down a crocodile demon all on my own. I had no weapon. No plan. No powers. Then I realized that Sebak’s obsession with me had allowed Dr. Hassan to escape. If I could distract Sebak enough, then perhaps the brothers could complete the ceremony.
“It must have been very hard for you to submit to being someone’s assistant,” I said. “A man of your ability having to grovel to another with less talent is a shame.”
His eyelids blinking sideways, the creature lowered his big head and snapped his jaws shut not a foot from where I stood. “So easily frightened,” he said, laughing.
“I’m not frightened,” I lied. “In fact, the biggest emotion I feel for you is pity.”
“Pity?” he spat. “You pity me? I am the most powerful creature the world has ever known! Even your pathetic sun god cannot best me.”
“Yes.” I nodded my head. “That is true. But don’t you see? You’ve traded one overseer for another. You cannot deny that your yearnings and your gifts were given to you by Apophis.”
“Speaking of yearnings”—Sebak’s new head drifted closer, his tongue darting out and tasting the air around my body—“I’ve long denied myself the opportunity to sample you for myself. The biloko demons left me…hungry.” The fleshy probe made contact with my arm, which, thankfully, was covered with too many layers for me to feel it, but then it touched my face.
The sensation was not unlike being licked by a dog—that is, if the dog were actually an anaconda with saliva that stung like little knives. My cheek felt like it had been scrubbed with a razor blade. I wiped it with my gloved hand and it came away smeared with blood.
“Ah, you are delicious, my dear. I will enjoy having you all to myself once I dispose of the others.”
“See, that’s not really you talking. That is Apophis. Even now he influences you. He is the one giving you these feelings.”
The monster shifted closer. “Apophis gave me nothing. I stole his power for myself.”
“Even if that were true, when you allow the gateway to open, Seth will come.”
“So?”
“So you’ll just be under the thumb again of someone who holds more power than you. I guess I just don’t get why you’d want that to happen. Do you want the world to view you as inferior? As a lesser god?”
“Seth will reward me. I will be as great as he. Together we will darken the force of the sun, cause the stars to recede in the heavens, and make the moon as blood. Once we have defeated the other gods, I will steal his power as well. I will rule all.”
“Frankly, I doubt it. How often does a man in power give it up? They have to be forcibly removed from the position.”
“Then I will remove him.”
“Wouldn’t it just be easier to let the brothers do their job? Prevent Seth from coming at all? Then they’ll go away and you would be all that remains.”
He blinked as if considering my words, and then dismissed them. “It won’t even matter once I have the all-powerful Eye. Speaking of which…”
Wrenching his large body closer to me, Sebak slammed a limb past me, the claw digging into the side of the pyramid, effectively trapping me.
“Incarnation of the sun!” the creature called out, his voice carrying through the desert night. “If you want to see your young woman again, I suggest you bring me the item I seek!”
After a tense moment, I heard Amon’s voice cry back from far below. “You cannot deceive me, vile creature! Lily is safely on her way home. Come to me and fight so that I may return the favor you recently offered me!”
I finally saw Osahar. While I’d been keeping Sebak occupied, he’d managed to hook the chain around Sebak’s hind claw. With a cry, Dr. Hassan leapt off the pyramid holding on to the chain, his body flying over the dangling limb. The croc monster roared and twisted to see what was going on. Dr. Hassan hung from the bottom of the chain and chanted:
We who would see you bound fetter you!