Forsaken: The World of Nightwalkers Read Online Free Page A

sure you’re at full strength and skill first. Docia needs training as well. And Marissa makes three. I’m the only one whose been Blended with my host for more than a month. Frankly that makes us far weaker and far more vulnerable than I would like. Especially in light of this new danger Kamenwati says we are facing. If he is to be believed at all.”
    “Agreed. Do you disbelieve him?” Jackson asked.
    “No. Unfortunately I do not.”
    “It would take something quite radical to make Kamenwati switch allegiance away from Odjit after so many lifetimes of being her first general. I often wondered if they were lovers, connected together like Hatshepsut and I. I suppose this absolves me of that notion.”
    “I never thought I would see the day when he would leave her side in order to join us on ours,” Ram said.
    “I did.”
    Ram raised a brow. His short laugh was obviously incredulous.
    “Truly, I did,” Jackson assured him. “There was always something…feverish to the way he sought his battles with us. And I don’t mean feverish in the way that Odjit was, high with the fever of fanaticism. There was a part of that aspect, but I always thought it was to different ends. Odjit was like any bewitching cult leader, alluring and promising the true path…spouting that we, the enemy, were the reason why we would be kept from the light of the sun, should Amun ever rise again. But in the end she was simply hungry for power, as so many people are. But for Kamen…” Jackson tapped a thoughtful finger against the wood of the chair arm. “Kamen was seeking something. I can’t quite put my finger on it. But I always thought that if I could just get him in a room, face-to-face, that he might listen to a voice of reason.”
    “Then you thought more of him than I did. The only reason he is here is because this thing he has awakened has him terrified. The enemy of my enemy is my friend sort of thing.”
    “Perhaps. But I suspect far more depth to him than just the shallow image of a man hiding in defeat. At the very least, we can take from this that he believes Odjit is truly gone from her body…or from any control of it. This god of bad mischief is in control of her now and that…I’m afraid that leaves us at a frightening disadvantage. At least we knew what to expect from Odjit. All we know about Apep comes from distant memories of vague stories of a long-dead version of our religious beliefs. This is going to take a great deal of research by minds far more attuned to this sort of thing than either of us.”
    “And I suppose you have someone in mind.”
    “As a matter of fact.” Jackson smiled with wicked arrogance and Ram answered with a smile of his own. The intent in that expression was everything Menes. There were just some things that never changed about Menes, no matter how many lifetimes and no matter who his host was, there was always going to be that smile of utter, casual confidence. “I was thinking of whistling up SingSing, your new Djynn friend.”
    “SingSing?” Ram’s tone was every bit loaded with the disbelief and incredulousness he felt. “She’s an absolute child bouncing around in a Djynn’s costume. If you bring SingSing into this mix you’re asking for a can of crazy. And between you and me, nothing about her screamed scholar to me.”
    “Perhaps not,” Jackson allowed with a nod. “But I’m willing to bet she knows quite a few other Djynn, some of whom might be thousands of years old, and who might know about things that took place thousands of years ago, if indeed she doesn’t know for herself.”
    “Even if she did know it’d be like trying to get information out of a six-year-old,” Ram muttered.
    “She’s lost her filter, no doubt. It’s a blessing of the very old and the very young. The young are too innocent to know better. The old no longer care what people think about what they say or do.”
    “I suppose. Is she going to move in as well?” Not that they didn’t have