Hazel watched the waves pass. She had her cloak bundled around her. Human skin was not the fur of her wolf form. Enid was still unconscious. The sun had set hours ago. Her mother had gone from passed out drunk to sleeping. The full moon was low on the horizon and shining across the water. She had not been able to find any legitimate passage. Apparently, the fishermen on the shores of the Red Sea were not comfortable with a six-foot-tall Nordic woman on their boats. Especially when she was carrying another woman over her shoulder. She almost had one, but Lucius had mistranslated something, and she ended up insulting the man’s sexual prowess instead of asking for more details about the crossing. Finally, she found some smugglers. They were pleased with the gold coin and the captain was a woman. Taxes were so brutally punishing that enterprising businessman would sometimes pay to have their goods smuggled into and out of different kingdoms. The boat was loaded with goods. It was a three-man crew, two of which were women, and one was a eunuch, all were escaped Egyptian slaves. Hazel still wasn’t sure what a eunuch was and for some reason Lucius wouldn’t explain. The man seemed nice.

The captain came and sat down beside her. The other woman was at the rudder. Hazel glanced down at her sleeping mother.

“I try not to ask questions, but I have never seen such fair skin before. The desert will not be kind to you, is this really a journey you must take? I have other boats I could use strong women to crew them.”

Hazel nodded.

“We are trying to get home, well to my mother’s home.”

“Where is she from?”

“We are trying to get to Akkadia.”

“That is a long journey over land, much of it is desert.”

“Are you prepared?”

“I do not know I have never been in a desert before.”

The woman looked her up and down.

“You are still young; You will be alright your mother may not be so lucky. The desert is not easy on anyone, but it is least kind to the old.”

“My mother is a strong woman; She is the strongest person I have ever met. She has had twenty-five children.”

The woman’s eyes went wide.

“Herself?”

Hazel nodded.

“I am her youngest.”

“How old is she?”

“She was married to my father for sixty seasons. He was a strong man too.”

The woman glanced down at Enid’ sleeping form. The cloak concealed her face, but she was such a tiny thing.

“If she has seen that many seasons, I would not take her into the desert.”

“We must it is not safe for us here.”

The pair rode in silence the boat cutting through the water with only the flap of the sails to accompany them. The other two had taken this time to sleep. The woman looked over at Hazel then the blade strapped to her back.

“You carry a weapon like you are used to it.”

“So do you.”

Hazel motioned to the knife on the captain’s belt.

“This is for cutting ropes yours is for cutting people.”

Hazel nodded.

“My mother taught me the ways of war.”

“Not your father?”

“No, he died before I was born. My mother raised me herself. She made this sword for me.”

“She can bend metal to her will?”

“Yes, she’s forged all my weapons, well except one, which I made that broke. Didn’t listen like I should have.”

“It must be a strange land where you come from, here women do not pick up weapons of war.”

“They rarely do where I am from either. Mother though, she was raised with a sword in her hand. But she doesn’t need a sword. I’ve seen her put down four men herself, no weapon, just her hands. Threw them around like they were bolts of cloth.”

“Really? But she is such a small thing.”

Is this really a conversation we should be having, Hazel?

Hazel ignored Lucius, she loved bragging about her mother’s prowess.

“With her bare hands she is a menacing opponent. With a blade in her hand, she’s unstoppable.”

“Yet she married a man.”

“My father was a king, a man worthy of such a woman.”

“Then why are you out here, surely you would want for nothing in the halls of a king.”

“My mother wanted to go home. She was leaving me with my brothers and sisters. I snuck along. Because she’s, my mother.”

The woman smiled.

“I miss my mother. She is still in Egypt. She said she was too old to flee, but that she could give me a better life and got me out.”

“Is that why you’re a smuggler? Are you earning money to buy her freedom?”

“That and there is not much for an escaped slave to do that doesn’t involve spreading her legs. So, I fixed up a boat and I started moving things under the noses of the Egyptians.”

She spit.

“May the Gods send birds to peck out their eyes.”

“They didn’t like us much either.”

“Did they try to make slaves of you? Exotic women like you…”

“Yes. They died.”

The woman looked at Hazel who shrugged.

“You come at me with a sword no matter what shape it is, I’m going to end you. My mother thinks the same way.”

“They will put a price on your heads for such a thing.”

“Then more people will die.”

“You are so confident.”

“I know who my mother is. When she is near, I don’t fear anyone or anything.”

“She has been sleeping for a while are you sure she is alright?”

Hazel laughed.

“She is sleeping off a lot of wine. She had a lover before we left for Egypt, and she’s upset he is no longer around.”

The captain laughed.

“She seems like quite the woman; I hope she wakes so I can meet her.”

“We will see, it was a lot of wine. I have never seen her drink so much before.”

“She will regret that choice in the morning.”

“Maybe.”

They rode in silence for a long while looking up at the stars. Both looked down at Enid when she began to stir. She looked to both sides of her and saw two sets of shoes and looked up to see who they belonged too. It was Hazel looking down at her and another woman, who appeared to be in her twenties.

“Looks like she is alive.”

Enid spoke to her in Hazel’s native tongue.

“Where are we?”

“On our way to the middle east. We’re crossing the Red Sea.”

Hazel switched to the local dialect, Lucius still translating for her.

“This is Captain Inaros, transporter of fine goods. Captain Inaros, this is my mother, Enid.”

Enid rubbed her eyes and avoided standing, she wasn’t feeling hung over, her body rarely did if she hit dark before the alcohol wore off. She vaguely remembered rum.

“Wait you can’t speak Aramaic.”

“Lucius can.”

“Oh.”

Enid sat down between the two women and Inaros gasped audibly when she pulled down her hood. She had been expecting a wizened grey haired old woman. Not a teenage girl. Enid stretched.

“Mother I’m going to get some sleep I’ve been up for over a day.”

“Go ahead.”

Hazel settled down on the bottom of the boat and leaned against Enid’s legs, then pulled her cloak tight. Enid wrapped her hand around her daughter’s head and ran her fingers across her scalp gently. It never failed to calm her enough to sleep. She kissed Hazel on the top of her head. It didn’t take her long to fall into a fitful slumber. The girl could sleep anywhere Enid mused silently. Inaros watched the mother and daughter. She could not deny Enid had the way of a mother tending to her child.

There was a long uncomfortable silence, at least on Inaro’s side. Enid was so old she could sit in silence for days. Inaros had seen men and women like Enid before. Pale, graceful predators. Gods of night. Never one so young, or so human. She didn’t know them to have children or associate with mortals each demanded blood sacrifice. She thought perhaps if she was silent and left the night goddess be, the journey would end, and they would go their separate ways and that would be all of it. She regretted not asking more questions before accepting the heavy pouch of strange gold coins.

The second woman on the ships crew tripped over Hazel in the dark and almost fell over the side, Enid grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the edge. Hemi thanked Enid profusely. Enid smiled at her. Inaros’s breath caught in her throat. The smiles of the gods of night hid fangs. Enid’s mouth had no such thing and the two chatted for a moment before Hemi went back to checking lines. Inaros did not catch the conversation as they had spoken quietly. Inaros continued to watch Enid cautiously. It would be midday before they reached the transfer point. If Enid was a god of night, she would seek shelter before sun rise.

Hemi approached Inaros.

“You should get some sleep.”

“No, you go ahead.”

“Why are you so worried? We have done this a hundred times before. They are no threat.”

She motioned towards Enid and Hazel. Inaros lowed her voice to a whisper.

“She is a night god, a blood drinker. Do you not see the skin? Like Isis.”

“Nonsense, why would one of them use our boat? They are gods, they have rivers of riches.”

“I do not know, but if we all sleep, she will devour our souls by dawn.”

“You are being paranoid Inaros. They boarded the boat during the day. The night gods can’t go out in the sun.”

“But she was wrapped in a heavy cloth the whole time. Not a bit of skin showing.”

“She was probably cold.”

Hemi shook her head and curled up and drifted off. Inaros kept a watchful eye on Enid. She tried to look busy when Enid turned to look at her. She swore the woman’s eyes were reflecting the moonlight strangely. Enid let Hazel down gently. She stirred slightly then snuggled into her cloak. Enid walked towards Inaros. Inaros watched her approach. She had to be a god of night. The gracefulness of her moments. Unnatural beauty. She was sitting by the rudder and looked up at Enid. Who could clearly see the fear in her eyes. Enid looked at Inaros.

“Have I done something to cause you concern?”

“You are a night god. Like Isis and her children.”

“I am not one of your night gods. I will bring no harm to you or your crew.”

“You are, you move like them, you have their skin I beg you to leave us be. I will give your gold back.”

Enid sighed and sat in front of Inaros.

“I am a night god, but I am not like Isis. She is who we are fleeing.”

Inaros shrunk away from Enid. Enid pondered just using her mental control the calm the woman, or make her forget, she pushed the thought away.

“What can I do to prove to you that no harm will come to you while we are here?”

“Is she truly your daughter or have you just made her think she is and enslaved her mind with your blood?”

“She is my daughter. She is mortal. The night gods you have seen, they are…not human anymore. They are monsters. Even to me.”

“How can you say that if you are one.”

“Because I am younger than they are, and I have refused to give up the part of me that is human. They have cast it aside and embraced the…monster in themselves.”

Inaros was still paralyzed with fear her eyes never leaving Enid.

“So, you were a slave of Isis, I have only met her briefly in council. We have heard stories of her. What is she like?”

“She looks like the alabaster of her throne. Unmoving, demanding blood with her mind forcing us to crawl in her presence. Her…the others move like cats they toy with us.”

“I am not her, nor am I one of her brood. She would kill me if she were to lay eyes on me. Or send her children.”

Inaros looked to Hazel.

“She was conceived and birthed in the same way you were, and I was before.”

“But you are dead.”

“I am different, in an hour you will see that the sun will do me harm, that I eat food and drink water just like you. I suppose all I can do is give you my word that I will do no harm to your crew and that until we part ways, I will protect them to the best of my ability.”

Enid gave up and walked back to Hazel and with her being outed as a vampire she pulled out her Atlantean tablet. There was no rule against being in the open yet, so technically she was fine. She began to go through what it recorded on the trip through the doorway. Inaros kept her vigil. Eyes never leaving Enid who was never motionless enough to look like the stone skin of Isis. Enid eyes never left the glowing blue thing in front of her. Every so often she would tap it, or slide her finger along its surface. Inaros peaked a few times, but she did not understand what she saw. When day dawned Enid yawned and put the tablet away and looked out to the sunrise elbows on her knees. She smiled.

I will never get tired of seeing sunrises again.

“You took the words out of my mouth.”

Enid sat like that for a few hours. She eventually glanced down at Hazel who had shifted her cloak to cover her face. Likely to block out the light. Enid shook her head.

That child has never known a world without you in it. I can’t believe you tried to leave her behind.

“She was better off there than here Lucius. I don’t know if she is going to make it through tomorrow.”

If she doesn’t, then she will still die happy because she is with her mother. Who has only ever shown her love. You remind me of mother. I never felt alone when she was alive because I knew she was somewhere out there and if I needed her, she would come.

“She would have had a chance to grow up, and be her own woman, Lucius. Like my Eyre did. Instead, she is just stagnating.”

She will grow up when she is ready. What is that on the docks?

Inaros watched Enid having a conversation with no one, then her eyes went wide when Enid pulled out a dark green object and put it up to her face. She put it down and looked back to Inaros, then back through the binoculars. She looked back at Inaros.

“Are you expecting armed men there to pick this stuff up?”

Inaros shook her head.

“What are you talking about?”

Enid slung her bag over her shoulder and moved towards Inaros and offered her the binoculars. Inaros mimicked Enid’s actions and was waving her hand in front of them. She shoved them into Enid’s chest and started rushing to drop the sail she kicked awake her crew.

“So, you aren’t expecting them?”

“No those are thieves. If not for your magic thing we would have been enslaved.”

The boat was slowing enough and was going to reach landfall close enough to them that a conflict was inevitable. Enid kicked Hazel awake.

“Fight.”

Hazel rubbed her eyes and sat up she looked at the quickly approaching docks. Enid called out to Inaros.

“Save the boat, then get your crew down we’ll handle this.”

The crew were scrambling to push out a pole to stop the boat from colliding with the docks. The thieves as Inaros had called them had stopped milling about and were hiding. They rushed the boat as soon as it hit the dock. Enid and Hazel were ready and four died right there. A couple others fell into the water beside the boat as they tried to stop themselves from being cut down by the two women. That left three on the docks, two were trying to scramble away and the other was literally picking his nails while he watched two men who were bound. Hazel lunged at one of the fleeing men and stabbed him in the back. Enid beheaded hers and both approached the last of the assailants who had heard the gurgled death throws of his companions. He started to run but Hazel was already on top of him. He found himself slammed down on his back when she grabbed the back of his tunic and yanked. The whole thing was over before the crew had finished securing the boat. The two other thieves were trying to swim away. Enid reached into her bag and pulled out a pistol and shot them both in the head. The crew drove for cover at the loud noise and the one that Hazel had her sword pointed at flinched. Hazel flinched too; She had never seen the strange device her mother had just used. Enid put the weapon away. She looked at the crew who were cowering behind boxes.

“They’re all dead or subdued.”

Hazel was looking at her mother with a what the fuck look. Enid shrugged

“I didn’t want to get wet and it was quicker than a bow.”

“They were running away.”

“So, I should let them swim down shore, get out tell the rest of their gang that hey we need reinforcements and come back when we’re gone and Inaros and her crew have no protection?”

Hazel nodded looking slightly chastised.

“Its okay hon, I’ve been dealing with people like this for a lot longer than you have. I know how they think. Tie him up. I’ll have questions.”

Enid sliced the bonds off of the two men on the ground.

“You are free to take your cargo and go, provided you pay the lady.”

“They stole the payment.”

Enid nodded. She walked over to the last living member of the gang, at least the ones that came. She kneeled down in the grass and grabbed him by the ear.

“Where is the money you stole?”

He laughed.

“You…you’re a kid.”

Enid punched him, not using the suits strength but she was a trained martial artist so it still hurt. She also avoided doing any real damage.

“Try again. And please, resist some more. I love beating up slavers.”

“I don’t k- ”

Enid raised her fist again and he pointed his hands towards a sack. Enid walked over to it and looked inside. There was a snake that tried to bite her but ended up getting a mouthful of Atlantean armor its teeth couldn’t pierce. The man laughed and Hazel backhanded him. Unlike her mother she didn’t hold back and she broke some of his teeth. His mouth was a mess of blood. Enid grabbed the snake close to its head and pulled out a heavy pouch of coins. She threw the pouch at Inaros.

“Take what you’re owed and give the rest to these men for their inconvenience.”

Enid carried the snake back to the man and smiled at him. She pulled his pants out looked down them, laughed.

“I was going to say here is a snake for a snake, but let’s face it, that’s a worm at best.”

She dropped the snake down his breeches. Everyone but her looked surprised. Neither the snake nor the man enjoyed it. He ran and finally fell over twitching and the snake slithered away.

“What was that mom?”

“A female carpet viper. Very poisonous.”

“So, he’s dead?”

“He will be by late afternoon, maybe sooner. Right now, his legs are probably seized. He can’t move them, but they can feel the pain. Slowly it will spread, and his chest will stop being able to move and he will feel himself try to breath but not be able too. I mean if the snake bit him once he would probably live, but I’d say he got at least five or six bites. That’s a lot of venom.”

“Mom, he was our prisoner.”

“We don’t have time for prisoners. We don’t have the water for prisoners, and we certainly don’t want to be two women, alone in the middle east dragging a tied-up man behind us. Any kingdom would execute him for his crimes. Oh, and he put the snake in the pouch, so he wanted it to bite me and kill me.”

Hazel kept seeing new sides to her mother she wasn’t sure she entirely liked. All of the points her mother made seemed valid. Lucius was laughing, he seemed to think Enid had done the right thing. None of the others that were present seemed overly concerned that she had killed an unarmed and bound man. Inaros took her payment and had offered the pouch back to the men. One of them walked to Enid and offered it.

“I do not know what manner of woman you are, but we owe you a debt we can never pay.”

Enid shook her head.

“I am honored at the offer of this gift but please keep it. Provide for the families of the men who were killed before we arrived if you do not wish to have it. We don’t need to be rewarded for doing the right thing.”

Hazel had her arms crossed and she nodded. Inaros and her crew were offloading the crates and ceramic jugs now. Enid and Hazel began to help Inaros tried to stop them. But gave up. Hazel shook her head. It took them a half the time it would have. The men started along the rarely traveled road with their cart and Inaros’s crew was getting their boat ready to sail. Inaros stood on the dock with Enid and Hazel.

“I am sorry I doubted your word. You are no night goddess. You are a light bringer. An incarnation of justice.”

Enid offered her hand, but Inaros hugged her tightly and pounded her on the back.

“If you need a boat, I am your woman. May the desert winds carry you to your home swiftly.”

Enid smiled.

“May the wind always be in your sails.”

Inaros pushed off shortly after there were waves of farewell all around. The man whom Enid had assaulted with the snake was still breathing and twitching on the ground. He wasn’t able to speak loudly. He motioned Enid closer.

“Please mercy, goddess, please I did not know. I beg you.”

Enid glanced at Hazel her shrugged. Enid looked to the horizon and the shimmering heat of the desert in the distance. And she sat down beside the man.

“I cannot cure you, but I am not without mercy I will wait with you while the end comes. I will not let you die alone. Should you last until nightfall I will do what I can to pull you back from death.”

She took the man’s hand in hers and sat in the grass. Hazel bunched her cloak up and used it to support her head and closed her eyes. The man’s breathing was weak, but steady. Enid could hear him still drawing breath. He looked up to her often and she would look down and give him a sad smile. She noticed his lips starting to crack in the heat of the day, so she pulled him across her lap and pulled a cloth and water out of her pack. The water was half frozen when she put it in, so it was half frozen when she pulled it out. She poured someone to the cloth and squeezed it onto his lips which he swallowed she did that until he looked sated. She poured more water on the cloth and wiped his face down. Cleaning it off. She then started drinking the water. She was a mortal currently for all intents and purposes and the afternoon sun was starting to wear on her. Her hair was soaked with sweat, at least on her neck. The armor was keeping most of her cool. He coughed a few times seeming to clear his throat and looked up at her. His voice was raspy now, but more than a whisper.

“Why do you waste water on a dying enemy?”

“Because it is the right thing to do.”

“You stay and I could have men heading here right now.”

“Do you?”

He coughed.

“No.”

“I didn’t think so. If you did have more men, they would have been here before the boat was offloaded.”

“There are no more men. Just us.”

“If there were more men you wouldn’t have had so many coins, they would have been back at your camp. Bringing extra money would be foolish.”

He coughed his breathing was becoming more difficult.

“It is starting to affect your chest, isn’t it? Breathing is getting harder.”

“You know much of snake venom.”

“I do. Your mind.”

She touched his forehead.

“Tells your chest to move and thus you take air in.”

She placed her hand on his chest gently.

“That snake’s venom stops your mind from talking to your body. Your heart pumps it everywhere and slowly it breaks the connections. There are worse venoms. There are spider bites that will eat away at your flesh so you will see bone and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Other snakes it feels like your blood is on fire you can do nothing but scream as you die over the ensuring hours. This one is mostly painless beside the bite. You just stop feeling your limbs and eventually your chest and then you die.”

“I don’t want to die.”

Enid touched the top of his head.

“No one does my friend. What is your name?”

“Aln.”

“I am Enid.”

“What are you?”

“I am a vampire and I am two thousand years old.”

“Are you going to devour my soul?”

“No, your soul is safe.”

She took his hand and held it once again.

“Do you have any a wife? Children?”

He shook his head.

“Who will miss you when you are gone?”

“I am alone. I am alone.”

“I am here. You are not alone.”

She squeezed his hand as he lost consciousness again and she looked out over the Red Sea. She The sun was getting low. He still drew breath. It was near nightfall when he woke again, he was struggling to breath now she could tell by the look in his eyes. He couldn’t form words the toxin had gotten to his jaw and throat. His breaths were very short and quick as his diaphragm struggled against the paralytic toxin.

“Hold on for just a bit longer please.”

His body fought to breathe, then, silence. She closed his eyes with her fingers. Tears started to fall down her cheeks.

“I am sorry Aln. If I had been a better person today, you would still be alive.”

She placed his head down gently. She shook Hazel gently. She woke with a start.

“Its time to go, he’s gone.”