Draiks and Angels: Deity

23 - River

The temple of Hatmehit was next. The items she, Khait and Asani had placed on the pedestals were still there, flowers wilted and black. Choosing the stone stand with the pineapple, Satiya sat on the ground with her back to the pillar and meditated.

A woman with a crown of fish appeared and said, "To borrow my power, I require you to find my token."

She raised her hand and a green stone fish that looked a lot like a dolphin appeared above it. It turned slowly until Satiya had seen all sides. Then Hatmehit and the fish faded and the image of a river rolling down a rocky bed replaced them. The water flowed toward her, and she could see a railing, as though she stood on a bridge and looked up at the river as it came down.

"Find my token. Return here again and I will grant you my gift."

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Husani figured that for the river she saw to be running over so many rocks, they would have to find a small tributary to the Iteru. Then they could start at the place where it joined and fly up its length, stopping at the bridges until they found the right one. Husani only knew of one tributary small enough, and so they flew there.

The first bridge was too deep and there were not enough rocks. The second bridge was more of the same. By the time they reached the fifth bridge, however, things were looking up. The rocks were the right color, and the water was shallower in places. The sixth bridge was not it either.

The seventh bridge had a group of five human men fishing from it. The side that faced downstream was deep, which is what the men were aiming for. There were beer cans all over the bridge, and the men were quite drunk. They called and whistled at the Angels as they landed on the other side of the bridge, but Husani and Satiya ignored them.

"This is it!" Satiya whispered.

She thought she could see something glinting in the river, and started toward the bank, when Husani stopped her.

"I'll go get it. You stay here and point me to it."

Husani carefully picked his way into the river.

"Just a little more. More. There!" Satiya called, and Husani started fishing around in the water.

One of the fishermen yelled at Satiya, and she turned. He came toward her, swaying, speaking Kemetian in a slurred voice.

"I can't understand you," she said, calmly.

"Ay!" Husani called from the river, and started yelling in Kemetian at the fisherman. The human walked to the railing and started yelling back. A couple more fishermen had gotten up and were moving toward Satiya.

"Satiya! Fly!"

It took Satiya a moment to understand that Husani had yelled at her, through the stream of Kemetian, but she crouched down and spread her wings to take off when she felt a strong pain in her left wing. One of the fishermen had come up behind her, grabbed the edge of her wing and was wrenching hard, threatening to pull out large pinion feathers. She leaned into the wing in pain, almost down to one knee.

Another fisherman came toward her, talking in Kemetian, swaying, with a roll of duct tape in his grip. He ripped an eight-inch piece off the roll and held it in one hand. He shot out and stuck the tape to the small feathers at the top of her wing, then ripped it off, pulling out several feathers. Satiya screamed.

Husani flew up to the bridge in a rush, but the three remaining fishermen had grabbed their fishing rods and whipped them at Husani, driving him back.

Satiya reached around and punched the man with the tape in the side of the head as hard as she could, throwing him back several steps. If she had her magic, she would have knocked him out, she thought ruefully. Being drunk must be like being punched in the head for this man because he recovered quickly.

The man holding her wing punched her in the back, knocking the wind out of her, and she collapsed to her hands and knees. He let go of her wing and she folded them tightly to protect them. She heard the ripping of duct tape and turned her head to look, when the man who punched her stepped over her, grabbed both arms from under her, and yanked them behind her back, slamming her to her chest on the ground. She felt tape around her wrists as the man held her arms.

The two men picked her up by the arms and marched her over to the side of the bridge where they had been fishing. They threw her back-first against the rail, then each grabbed an arm and picked her up under a thigh. They hoisted her up and over the railing so that she fell on her back into the water.

"Satiya!"

Satiya hit the water and was surprised how cold it was. She hadn't been cold since arriving in Kemet. The water was just deep enough that she was completely submerged. She pushed off the bottom and got her face above the water. She heard a splash as her head went under again, and felt Husani grab her around the waist. He lifted her until she could breathe again and started swimming them to shore.

He helped Satiya stand when the water got shallow enough, to the chorus of drunk laughter on the bridge. They carefully picked their way through the rocks on the shore until they were on dry land. Husani untaped Satiya's hands, and they decided to walk down the road to get away from the fishermen still taunting them.

They found a place to sit, and Husani handed the stone fish to Satiya. Then he insisted on inspecting her left wing. It wasn't like they could leave yet, with their wet wings, so she let him. He could see the place where the feathers had been ripped out, but they were not necessary for flying.

"They seemed awfully experienced in preventing an Angel from flying," Satiya observed.

"I bet they've done that before. Assaulted an Angel, I mean." Husani noted, sitting down and spreading his wings so they would dry faster.

"What were they saying?"

"Oh, uh, things that are not appropriate for a lady's company," Husani said, hurriedly.

"Uh, huh. And what were you saying?"

Husani turned red and refused to answer.

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It was once again dark by the time they returned to Hatmehit's temple. It had taken a long time to dry as far from the desert heat as they had gone. Satiya meditated once again, with the stone fish in her lap.

Hatmehit appeared and said, "You have done as I asked, and so I bestow the power of Hatmehit upon the ring around your neck."

A grey, sparkling gem appeared and revolved several times before it swooped down toward her neck.

Satiya opened her eyes and wished she had her magic so she could conjure a mirror.

"Another night in an empty temple, I guess," she said ruefully to Husani.