Spellslinger (Spellslinger #1)(49)

Maybe that was why, when I punched her in the face, it was with the hand that wasn’t holding the rock.

‘Stop him,’ Panahsi said, clutching his leg. I could see him trying to concentrate but the pain was too much.

I had to keep them all off balance. My people aren’t used to physical pain. We’re not violent. Or rather, we don’t usually like to get our own hands dirty. A Jan’Tep man is supposed to be calm and collected, reserved and, when he speaks, full of brilliant insights and wit. I was screaming like a lunatic at all of them, at the very world around us. ‘How do you like my magic now?’ I shouted. ‘How do you like it now, you bastard –’

Something struck me hard on the back of the legs. Panahsi had found a stick and had hit me with it even as he lay on his side. I went down, but twisted away just in time to avoid the stick landing on my head. Someone kicked me in the ribs. It was Tennat. He kicked me again. I tried to kick him back, but I was stuck like an overturned turtle. At first I couldn’t get a solid connection, but when I did I pushed back with both feet, sliding myself back along the sand towards the cage. I felt something grab at my hair and thought the nekhek might be clawing at me, so I pulled my head away. It would serve me right if, after throwing my life away for it, the little monster ended up killing me.

Glancing back, I realised it was trying to grab at the latch of the cage. There was a lock that kept it from opening, but I still had the rock in my hand. I rolled around and got my knees under me, taking a kick in the middle of my back from Tennat in order to have my chance. I slammed the rock down hard on the lock. Once, twice. On the third try it broke, and the door swung open.

The others were all on their feet now, coming towards me. Nephenia, bless her heart, actually had a hand on Panahsi’s arm as he limped towards me, as if she might hold him back. They all stopped in their tracks when they saw the nekhek emerge. No, not a nekhek. It’s called a squirrel cat.

The creature growled, a thin, almost feathery sound that was full of rage. Panahsi and Tennat stumbled back from it. I looked at the little monster, its furry face only a foot away from my own. It moved closer, its eyes catching mine. For a second I thought it might be trying to protect me. It understands, I thought. It knows what I did.

Two things happened just then, both of which I guess I deserved. The first was, the squirrel cat bit my hand so hard it drew blood. The second was that the little monster ran away, out past the edge of the colonnades and away from the oasis, leaving me with the three people I’d just assaulted in order to free it.

‘A bind!’ Panahsi shouted. ‘Someone use a binding spell on the damned nekhek!’

‘The creature’s too far away,’ Tennat replied.

‘Then go after it!’ Panahsi punctuated his words with a kick to my stomach.

I saw Tennat run past me after it, but he came back a moment later. ‘It’s gone. It’s too damned fast.’

I felt another kick to the gut. I grabbed at the leg, wrestling it and using it to pull myself into a sitting position. I should have stayed down. Panahsi grasped my hair with one hand and drove his fist into my face with the other. Blood exploded from my nose, the droplets falling slowly and glowing in the soft light, like the petals from summer blossoms picked up by the wind. It’s like a magic spell, I thought, the idea striking me as incredibly funny despite the ensuing waves of pain.

‘You think this was a joke?’ Tennat said, kicking me in the side while Panahsi held my head up by its hair. ‘You think you’re going to laugh your way out of this?’

‘Stop it! Just stop it!’ Nephenia cried.

I looked up to see her face full of tears and uncertain anger. Why was she so angry with me? Maybe because you punched her in the face, idiot. And yet here she was, trying to pull Panahsi away from me. Twin bruises were forming around the eyes of my one-time friend, painting dark, uneven circles. You’d make an ugly squirrel cat, Panahsi, I thought absently.

‘Stop laughing,’ he said, slapping me across the face. It seemed like a sissy thing to do, but then I realised his hand must be hurting from punching me. That sent me into more spasms of laughter.

Tennat kicked me again. I heard something crack. ‘What’s so funny, you stupid, magic-less piece of crap?’

‘Don’t you get it?’ I asked. ‘I do have magic. I just made a squirrel cat disappear.’

I don’t know if anyone but me thought that was funny, because at this point Panahsi and Tennat were taking turns kicking me and then someone’s foot connected with my head, snapping it back so that it collided with the corner of the cage.

The light of the moon winked in and out, the world alternating between harsh reality and perfect, peaceful darkness, blacker than any shadow.

‘Ancestors!’ Panahsi said. ‘What is that?’

I thought he was looking at me and wondered just how much blood was leaking out of my head, but as my vision came back I followed the line of his sight towards the other side of the colonnade. A shadowy form was scurrying along the ground towards us. No, not a shadow. Many shadows.

As the dark shapes came closer, throwing up sand as they raced towards us, the light from the lantern revealed colours ranging from every shade of brown to the deepest black, their fur almost matching the darkness around them. Nekheks, I thought, absurdly still not sure what to call them even as I felt myself start to panic at the sight of more than a dozen of the creatures. Finally they stopped, half encircling Tennat and the others, growling and chittering furiously. One of the creatures, which I recognised as the one I’d freed from the cage, the one that had bitten my hand so hard it was bleeding even now, rose up on its haunches. It growled and chittered too, only something about the noises he made was different.