Thursday, May 9, 2013

The Demon of Death--From the Journal of the Sorcerer Gaumata


Now I wanted Rustem to see his handiwork. The way he had killed his wife and daughter, for I heard nothing coming from the bleeding hut now. They had to be dead. The boy Mihr finally got up and ran to the nearby village for help. He returned with two village women, for women were the only ones who could approach the bleeding hut. They soon left, but I saw that the boy sprawled on his behind weeping. They had to be dead.
Soon a small crowd appeared, headed by two men joined to each other by a cotton rope. Two black and brown dogs, the ones they called “four-eyed dogs” were likewise joined. They were the corpse handlers and their sacred dogs. The dogs were believed to be able to sniff out the Corpse Demon and force it to leave the body. If they did not do this, the demon would enter a living body, usually through the mouth or anus. 
I watched as they broke down the door of the hut and removed a body. It was the body of the Sorceress Anahita. They did not go back in. A chill passed through me. The girl must have escaped. It should not have concerned me, for the mother was the real danger, but somehow I was frightened. Something was surely amiss. 
Suddenly, I felt Rustem’s mind snap. He no longer needed me to harass him. The sight of his dead wife caused him to give in to his insanity fully. He approached the crowd and began to shake hands with people, commenting genially on the fine weather. He acted as if they were gathered for a party at his home. People whispered, “He is mad. Yes, he is a madman. Avoid looking at his eyes.” Others said, “Perhaps the Corpse Demon has already infected him.”
I laughed heartily, but my fun with Rustem was over for the most part. I stayed with him as he wandered to the stream and took up the stick he used for killing xrafstars. I produced a vision of crabs with red bodies. Their shells were spiked with sharp, thorn-like protrusions that exuded poison. I added scorpion-like tails that moved menacingly over their backs. At first, I produced a few. He stuck at them in a frenzy as their guts splashed onto his face and arms. More and more of them erupted from the stream until an army of clattering claws filled the air. Rustem struck madly until, stepping on a large crab that burst open producing copious slime, he slipped. His head hit a large river rock and he died. As his soul left his body, I struggled to escape.
I found myself in my own body. The pain was excruciating. My body was stiff from having been curled up in the hollow of the tree. Insects had feasted on it, and mice had chewed my exposed nails, despite the protective spells I used. I screamed long and hard as my own agony tore through me. I had also felt the sharp pain when Rustem’s head had struck the stone, and I had bitten my own tongue in the agony. Still, I had succeeded. I had not only punished my enemy, but I had also honed my skill of possession. Now I knew where I wanted to go next. I would find that Cyrus the Great and teach him that he was not so great after all.
http://www.extasybooks.com/sorcerer-in-egypt/

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