Silent Song, Motionless Dance
Nefret tossed in her sleep, beads of sweat dotted her face. Suddenly her eyes flew open and she sat up, becoming aware that the strange song that had haunted her dreams had followed her into the waking world. It was a long wailing tune, something that seemed to cut right though her and wisp around her body like smoky fingers. Nefret rose and walked to the window. A scream stuck in her throat and she repelled back at what she saw, but it was to Late
***
“Nefret! Nefret!” Mozenrath called from the doorway of his lab. His voice echoed throughout the long halls of the Citadel. “Nefret, get in here!” He held a strange key in one hand and a small vile in the other, he would need Nefret to turn the key while he poured the liquid into the contraption he was building. Mozenrath listened as the last echo died, but didn’t hear her coming.
“I turn key master!” Xerxes voiced hopefully, he would do anything to gain his master’s favor.
“No Xerxes, it is too hard to turn, and Nefret is stronger than you. Nefret! Oh for the love of…” Mozenrath slammed the items down on the nearest table and began a search. He went through ever room his palace but found neither hide nor hair of her. He cursed under his breath as he entered the stable and saddled a horse.
“Master leave?” Xerxes inquired.
“Not for long. I’m going to search the desert. Curse her, if she is trying to escape again…” His words were cut off as he swung his leg over his mount. He wiped up the horse and vanished as the hooves kicked up a cloud of black sand. Mozenrath halted the horse and scanned the dark desert floor in the dim light. The sky was churning above him and Mozenrath knew a storm was coming. Storms in the deserts of this land were cruel and unrelenting; if she were out here she wouldn’t last long. The wind was picking up ahead of him and mists of dark sands were rising off the ground. Mozenrath squinted; he thought he saw something, a dark silhouette in the storm, so dream-like it could have been a mirage. Slowly as it approached it became clearer, her hair and clothes wiped around her, but she was walked calmly, not blocking the harsh wind with her arms as Mozenrath did. Now sure of what he saw he wiped the horse and raced toward the apparition.
Mozenrath dismounted at the door of the Citadel. Turning he held onto Nefret’s waist helping her down. Together they rushed indoors, knowing the storm was moving fast. Now that they were safe Mozenrath turned to his slave.
“What in the name of Allah were you doing out there?” He asked angrily
“Taking a walk.” Nefret said with a shrug.
“What?! A walk, out there? What were you thinking? No don’t tell me, I probably wont understand anyway. Come we have work to do. Important work I had to postpone to look for your foolish self.” Mozenrath lead the way up the stairs and into the lab. Anubis, who had been napping in the corner, rose and sauntered towards them, but stopped as he saw Nefret. The hound took a defensive pose and drew his lips back in a hideous growl.
“Oh, what’s wrong with my little ANubis?” Nefret asked. She petted the dog on the head, but Anubis whimpered and snuck back to the corner.
“What did you call him?” Mozenrath asked.
“ANubis, what else?”
“You have always pronounced it AnUbis.”
“It can be either. What of it?”
“Nothing, it is not important.” Mozenrath said pondering as he picked up the items he had left on the table.
They worked late into the night to make up for lost time. It was very late when Mozenrath retired. It would only be a few hours before dawn, but he instructed Nefret to wake him as soon as the sun rose.
“Mozenrath” Nefret whispered into his ear. Mozenrath turned over and open his eyes. Nefret was smiling down at him. “The sun is up! So should you be!” she giggled and whipped the covers off of him. “Come on, breakfast is ready!” She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek, but skipped out the door before he could say anything. Mozenrath looked at the place she had been standing for a long time, Nefret had been acting very strangely. Mozenrath ate in silence, keeping his eye on Nefret. She was in the process of offering the best portion of her meal to Xerxces. A thought was forming in his mind, but he couldn’t be sure of it yet. It was later in the lab when he was positive.
“Nefret, go to the study and bring me back the book on the desk.” Mozenrath ordered as he looked confused at the machine he had been building. He had started it up, but it only seemed to know how to clank and produce smoke.
“By Allah! Must I do everything?” Nefret sighed and headed to the door.
“Oh, and one more thing girl.” Mozenrath called after he.
“Yes?” Nefret asked without turning around.
“Who are you?” Moze asked. Nefret turned around with a confused look on her face.
“Why, you know me, I’m Nefret!”
“No.” Mozenrath slowly walked toward her, dragging his eyes up and down her body as he did. “The physical appearance is flawless, but you have made several mistakes.” Mozenrath stopped. He was now very close to her and he looked down into her eyes.
“I don’t know what you’re taking about.” Nefret said with a shake of her head.
“The way you say the name of Nefret’s dog, the kiss you gave me this morning, you gave your morning meal to Xerxes, Nefret hates Xerxces. And just now, you called upon Allah, Nefret is a priestess of Hathor, Allah is a foreign god to her. Besides there are unseen forces between her and I. I can sense her presence in the most crowded room, I know what she feels and thinks most times. It is like a silent song, a motionless dance between her and I. Forces none of us will ever understand. I don’t feel these things from you, so tell me…who are you?” Mozenrath looked deep into her eyes, trying to measure her every reaction. Nefret broke the stare, looking down and side to side, searching for something to say. Suddenly she leapt away and sent out a blast from the ring. Of course Mozenrath absorbed it without so much as flinching. He had been the one who gave Nefret the ring, and he had taken precautions to make sure that it could not be used against him. Nefret knew this, but this person, whoever she was, was ignorant of that fact. Seeing the Lord of the Black Sand still stood the girl took off running. She raced down the hall. Looking back she could not see Mozenrath following her, maybe she could get away. The mysterious girl rounded a corner only to see Mozenrath there waiting for her. It was to late to stop and he had her in his grasp.
“We meet again!” Mozenrath hissed. The girl laughed and a look Moze had never seen on Nefret spread across her face.
“You are cleverer than my mistress gave you credit for.” The girl mused as she pried the mans hands from her arms.
“Show yourself!” Mozenrath ordered as he released the girl but kept her pined close to the wall.
“Very well.” The girl said with a sigh. She reached inside her top and pulled out a small round stone. She brought it close to he face softly kissing it, and then with a sad look she hurled it down. It cracked into fourths and Nefret’s face and youthful skin dissolved away like dust leaving behind a wrinkled old hag. “It’s really too bad, I was starting to like that body.”
Mozenrath curled his lip in disgust at the thing before him. “Don’t fret, where your going you wont need a body.”
“You can’t kill me.” She said with conviction. “If you get rid of me, you’ll never know where your precious Nefret is, or even if she is alive.”
“That’s were your wrong, I know who your mistress is and I know where she is.” Mozenrath grinned.
“You wouldn’t kill me, I was only following orders! Even you couldn’t be that cruel! You wouldn’t, would you?” The old woman’s eyes grew fearful.
“In a Gomorra minute.” He held up his gauntlet. “Don’t worry, it will be quick.” She screamed as the blast of blue-black magic buried it’s self deep into her chest. Mozenrath stood over her; he crouched down and started to examine her jewelry. They weren’t reproductions; they were Nefret’s own. He slid the rings off her bony fingers and ripped the barrette from her hair. Then he started to unclasp the anklet, but as he did he noticed something. On the original anklet he had given her to keep her in his land the ruby was encircled by two asps, but this one had cobras. It was a clever reproduction. He hadn’t expected it to be real; the original could only be taken off with a special combination only he knew. He placed the jewelry in his robes and stood. “Yes, I’m coming for you mother. And when I get my hands on you, fur will fly!”
***
A small pinprick of blue and black opened in the endless netherworld of Mirage. Slowly it grew, becoming a portal framed by blue-black flames. Mozenrath stepped through and stood in front of the sphinx shaped building. Two stone sphinxes guarded the entrance and they became animated. Turning their heads they growled, ready to strike.
“Bad kitty!” Mozenrath growled equally fierce. He shot each one with magic. They roared, but knowing he was a stronger force they became statues once more. He stepped into this mother’s home. It was a place he hardly remembered. He had been thrown out into the world almost as soon as he could walk. It had been hard and cruel and he had almost died, but it had given him strength, and an angry heart. He had learned to live on the streets, taking what he needed, and even what he didn’t. Until he was caught slipping coins out of a man’s bag. That man had been Destain, Lord of the Black Sand. Destain had nearly cut off his head, but then he sensed the boys power, the only real gift Mirage had ever given her son. He took Mozenrath in, making the boy his apprentice, but he treated the young Moze horribly, and the hate planted in his heart by his mother was fed by his abuse, until one day it grew too strong. That day Destain made a mistake, he introduced the boy to the gauntlet, a relic he was never able to wear, but this boy was strong, of both mind and body, he could wield it! Mozenrath used his newfound power to destroy his mentor, taking his palace, his Kingdome, and even his humanity. Mozenrath’s thoughts were cut short as a sharp voice ran out.
“Ah, my son has come for a visit!” Mozenrath spun around to face Mirage. She was a strange creature, the body of a woman, but the head of a cat. His mother, Mirage Evil Incarnate. “That is why you have come isn’t it?”
“Do you really have to ask? You know why I am here MOTHER.” The last word escaped Mozenrath’s lips with a bitter taste and full of hatred.
“Why it really pains my mother’s heart to hear you speak to me like that.” Mirage said, a look of mock hurt on her face.
“I want Nefret, and I mean now!”
“Ah, so you know. I hadn’t expected you find out so quickly.”
“Yes, well this mirage wasn’t up to you normal standards. She may have looked nice, but she made too many mistakes. What’s wrong mother? Losing your touch?” Mozenrath inquired. Mirage growled lowly.
“She is quite stubborn your Nefret. You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to get information out of her! She has a high threshold for pain, did you know that.” Mirage said with coolness of the cat kind. Mozenrath balled his fists but remained calm.
“And she still didn’t give you quite the right info did she? What is it you want mother? Why did you feel it necessary to spy on me with a decoy?”
“I just want to know what my precious son is up to. Can you really blame me? I hear through the grape vine your making a machine. This wouldn’t happen be a machine capable of producing the fabled staff of Zazamanankh? You know, the one with the power to part water?”
“It might be, it might not.” Mozenrath said with a wave of his hand. “Take me to Nefret and I may tell you.”
“It would be easier to bring her to you.” Mirage snapped her clawed fingers and Nefret slowly materialized held vertically in midair by unseen hands. She was wearing the finest linen robes, a broad collar covered her chest, bracelets and armlets covered her arms, and a fine headdress completed the ensemble. She stayed completely still, her eyes were closed.
“What have you done to her?”
“Why nothing son. She is only asleep. She was such a bother when she was awake, she just kept yelling and cursing. It was really getting on my nerves. She is much better this way, don’t you think?”
“And how do I know this is really Nefret?”
“I don’t know? Do what you must.” Mirage said with a catty grin. Mozenrath approached the girl and took a hold of her ankle, carefully examining the anklet. It was the same one he had clasp around her ankle the day they had met, the one only he could remove, this was Nefret.
“Ah, yes, the anklet. I must say you do have a good security system. No matter how may times I tried to push her through to the other side of those cursed poles, she just bounced back! I finally had to drag her through by her arms, screaming and kicking all the way!” This sent Mozenrath over the edge.
“How dare you do this to me! Don’t you think you have hurt me enough in my life! Now this? Why? You want the staff, is that it?’
“Bingo!” Mirage exclaimed. “All I want is the staff. But now you must ask yourself, what is more important to you the power or the girl?” She asked making a weighing motion with her hands.
“You shall have your staff in the morning” then Mozenrath was gone, vanished behind his cloak.
***
Mozenrath worked feverishly into the night, and by the dawns light his work was completed. He then returned to the Netherworld. His mother was waiting outside for him. Mirage eyed the long clear staff Mozenrath carried.
“Oh a present for me, you shouldn’t have!” She held out her hands greedily.
“No, not until I have Nefret.”
“I tell you what,” Mirage said motioning to a cot where Nefret lay “you set the staff on the ground, you can go get her and I’ll pick up the staff.”
“No, wake her first.”
“Oh, but then she’ll just start yelling at me again and it will give me such a headache!” Mirage held her hand to her head pitifully, but Mozenrath wasn’t buying it. “Oh alright, have it you way.” She walked over to the sleeping Nefret and placed her hand upon the girl’s forehead. Nefret’s eyes flew open. She jumped and took her stance, ready to fight the evil incarnate.
“It’s alright now girl, you master has come to save you. Now son, throw me the staff and she will come to you.” Mirage walked away from Nefret so Mozenrath wouldn’t think she would harm her once she got the staff. Mozenrath tossed her the staff and Mirage caught it. She ran her hands over the staff thinking about all the destruction she could cause. Nefret had joined Mozenrath.
“I hope you enjoy your new toy mother.” He opened a portal to the Citadel and followed Nefret though it.
Nefret and Mozenrath sat at in the study. Mozenrath had returned Nefret’s jewelry and she happily put them into place.
“It was rather clever of you to give Mirage the wrong information, so I would know.” Mozenrath said and took another sip of wine.
“I managed to slip a few falsehoods in the story, she would have known if I lied about everything. Is she really your mother?”
“She gave birth to me.” Mozenrath said without emotion.
“And you father?”
“I don’t know, most likely Mirage doesn’t either.” Mozenrath grinned.
“Well, one thing I know is she’s going do a lot of damage with that staff.” Nefret said with a sigh.
“Oh I don’t know about that.” Mozenrath said with a strange twisted smile.
***
Mirage stood over a large basin of water and held the staff over it summoning the power it held. Nothing happened, not so much as a ripple. Confused she hit the staff’s end on the floor, just to wake it up. She tried again, but this attempt was just as the last.
“No, it can’t be!” She slammed the staff down hard; it shattered into a million pieces. Splinters stuck in her hand. “Glass! Glass! Nothing but Glass?!” Mirage let out an unearthly cry. “I WILL GET YOU FOR THIS MOZENRATH!”
Mozenrath’s laughter rang throughout the Citadel and reverberated from every corner of the netherworld.