Chapter One hundred and nineteen: Seth
Kiya ignored Ogjeno’s plea for her to return and scrambled up the slope, her feet slipping on the loose surface. The sparse vegetation stabilised her ascent and, when she reached the top, she hid behind a bush and peered through its branches at a horrid scene.
Before her was a deep, flat-bottomed pit. Kiya realised that the hill which surrounded it, and up which she had climbed, was nothing more than a gigantic spoil tip. She gazed down to where a hoard of creatures laboured beneath the flickering shadows of the circling clouds.
Red fires glowed beneath the many furnaces on the pit floor, Each was a centre of activity as chippings were poured in at the top and logs pushed into the fires at the base. Kiya stared at the toiling masses that surrounded the furnaces. Never had she seen such beings. Many were hideous parodies of men or showed their animal essences in wings and hooves and horns. More monsters worked around the edges of the pit, using hammers and chisels to dig into the walls. Others smashed at the rocks with mallets, or gathered the broken rocks into baskets and carried them to the furnaces.
Kiya’s eyes were drawn to her father, who sat in the centre of the mine on a mighty throne. He was in the guise of a young man but had grown to huge proportions. He sat hunched and brooding, a frown upon his face. Beside him stood a horned creature with a huge body borne on stocky legs. His eyes were glowering, his ears tiny, his nose broad and his mouth? Kiya blinked at the horrid sight, for where his mouth should be was an empty expanse of bristly skin. She stared at a gaping hole in his chest and saw that it had lips and, when it gaped open, teeth and a tongue. She knew she was looking at Molloch, the master of the mine. Bes completed the triumvirate and Kiya felt contempt for the dwarf, who capered like a baboon in his attempts to curry favour with the two lords of the pit.
Molloch shouted something and Kiya looked in the direction he was staring to see that a goblin had laid down its hammer and chisel. The unfortunate creature rose to its feet, clutched its hands to its back and turned away from the hole it had been digging. Molloch shouted at it again and the goblin tried to run away, its huge feet flapping like flat-fish. With a few strides Molloch caught it. He rested a hand upon its shoulder and the goblin screamed. It was the merest touch but even from this distance Kiya could see the victim’s agony. The smell of singeing flash wafted into her nostrils and she realised that Molloch had the power to raise his body heat enough to burn others.
Kiya remembered Anubis telling her that the immortals had mercy on their monstrous kin by allowing them to work in the mine. Surely this suffering was not what they had in mind? The unfortunate monsters may be without human intelligence, but they deserved to be treated with kindness.
In her distress at the goblin’s suffering she had forgotten to remain concealed. She heard a cry and saw Bes, point in her direction. Seth raised his head and stared at her. With a roar he rose from his throne and started to expand. Larger and larger he grew until his head was level with hers. He had become almost transparent and Kiya could see the other side of the pit through his glowering features.
“How dare you, venture into my headquarters!” he snarled and the wind from his mouth was like a hurricane.
“I have come to beg you to stop,” Kiya said. She felt her knees tremble and forced herself to stand upright and confront him bravely.
The clouds above Seth’s head ceased their whirling and began to condense into a towering thundercloud.
“You, of all people!” He gave an angry laugh. “You, my hated daughter, who gave birth to that miracle child. How I have been punished for my moment of passion with your mother.”
“Meri?” Kiya stared at the enormous face of her father in amazement. “What has your grandson got to do with this?”
“Grandson?” He spat out the words. “That child carries no blood of mine. No! And no blood of yours either, you stupid girl. He is not human, although he wears the shell of humanity. He has come into this world to thwart me. He gives bread to those who should be starving.”
Seth shook his fist at the sky. “You think you can intervene against me? You want to save the spawn of mankind who crawl over the earth polluting the waters and destroying the forests?”
Kiya realised he was not addressing her but was challenging the unknowable god. She stared at her father, half in awe of his magnificent defiance and half in dread of what he might do next.
“Love will not save them from their fate,” he snarled.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I will release my monstrous hoard upon Egypt.”
“The way you treat them, those poor monsters will be happy to escape from the mine,” she said.
He frowned at her and lightning crackled in the clouds above his head. “In the caverns below this pit dwell monsters that are the stuff of your nightmares. You think you can sneer at me, daughter? You are destined for death along with the rest of Egypt.”
He gave summoning cry and the ground shook as a huge bird arose from the pit. As it soared into the air its feathers rattled together in a terrifying roaring noise. It had the head of an eagle and stared at Kiya with mad, angry eyes.
“Have mercy, Father,” screamed Kiya.
“Attack her!” commanded Seth.
Kiya flung herself down the slope in a cascade of falling sand. She felt the claws of the bird brush her shoulder as it tried to grab her. She hit a bush. The force of her fall uprooted it and she hurtled down the slope rolling over and over in an avalanche of debris. There was a whistling noise and she heard what sounded like knives hitting all around her. Then she stopped rolling, picked herself up and dived for the shelter of the forest.
She heard the roar of the bird and the sound of knives hissing through the leaves and thudding into branches.
“This way, Kiya!” came Ogjeno’s urgent voice. He hauled her behind the tree which sheltered him. Gasping for breath, she watched him fire arrow after arrow at the bird. Most bounced harmlessly off the shiny black feathers, but one penetrated below the bird’s eye and with a scream it flew back to the mine.
“We must flee,” cried Ana, who was standing behind a nearby tree. Yidini stood beside her, his sword drawn ready to do battle with any who might attack his mistress.
“Wait.” Ogjeno ran into the open and started gathering feathers from the ground.
“What are you doing?” screamed Ana.
“These are the metal feathers I have been searching for,” he said.
The earth shook again. Kiya looked towards the top of the hill and saw a huge winged snake fly upwards, shining red against the black clouds. Gouts of flame emerged from its mouth as it twisted this way and that, trying to locate them.
“Hurry!” she shouted as the snake veered round in Ogjeno’s direction.
He ran back to the tree, stuffing feathers into his waist pouch. “Never before has a warrior gathered such a hoard,” he said, his eyes shining.
There was a whoosh of flame and the forest around them caught fire.