Alex turned back to Jabir ibn Hayyan. The Eli monstrosity had shuffled a few steps closer. It towered above Alex, standing mute as it gently raised the twisted little being higher until it was at Alex’s eye level.
It grinned, and a small putrid tongue licked blackened lips. “We will make a fine team, Alex Hunter.” It closed its eyes and inhaled, drawing in the very essence of Alex as if it was a delicious aroma. It eased back, looking pleased.
“I call tell you are already destined for a very long life. You have been… changed somehow. Something inside you is different to other men.” The yellow eyes closed momentarily as if in ecstasy. “You will be, peeerfect.”
“Tell me something,” Alex asked.
“Of course.” Jabir ibn Hayyan sighed.
“I know who you are, but how are you, you? What are you?”
The ancient alchemist exhaled long and slow, and seemed to draw on favored memories. “I was like you — human, once. But through my studies I found that there were spells, recipes if you like, that could open doorways. There were things you could call to, and then partner with, that would keep your intellect robust, no, more than robust, magnificently expanded.” It sighed again. “But too late, I realized that while the mind was blossoming, the body was shriveling around it.”
The giant Eli moved forward a few more inches.
“There’s something inside you.” Alex tried to step back, but felt his legs rooted.
“Ye-eees.” The yellow eyes looked deep into Alex’s face. “It is what I will pass to you. The devil’s kiss, you might call it.”
Jabir ibn Hayyan was lifted higher, and Alex tugged again, then harder. He began to strain at the invisible bonds that now even encircled his arms. He felt no fear or revulsion, just a growing fury at the thing trying to overwhelm him. A storm was growing in Alex’s mind. As if sensing the conflict within him, Jabir ibn Hayyan was pulled back a few inches by the monstrous figure of Eli.
“Calm yourself, Alex Hunter, or I can have your friend here constrain you.”
“I wouldn’t try it.” Alex’s words hissed from between his teeth like steam. “You might not like the result.”
“Really? I don’t fear you, Arcadian.” It laughed cruelly. “Did you know that the Arcadians were made to fight by the Spartans? They were savages, brutes, who were treated like attack dogs by the warrior Spartans. Who do you fight and kill for now, Arcadian?” Eli lifted the yellow eyes even closer. “I have nothing to fear, as you have all been my puppets for centuries.”
“It’s not me… you need to… fear.” Alex strained even harder.
“But it is me you need to fear.” The huge figure shuffled forward, lifting Jabir ibn Hayyan higher, and then leaning him out toward Alex. The yellow eyes were glowing in their intensity, and Alex could smell the stink of breath that told of age-old corruption.
“Open your mouth, Alex Hunter.” Alex’s mind burned, not from the powers of the small being, but from the force of the Other One, caged in his mind, refusing to submit to the monster. He strained again, not against the invisible bonds that held him, but instead now trying to keep the Other at bay, long enough to give his team time to get out.
The vile, crumpled little thing held up at his face opened its mouth. Jabir ibn Hayyan’s grin split wider, and then the dark hole of its mouth gaped. There were no teeth in the maw, but Alex could see what he assumed was a pale tongue moving languidly at the back.
The glistening tongue wormed forward, and Alex tried to jerk away, revolted. It wasn’t a tongue at all, but something living that squirmed toward him.
“Open your mouth, Alex Hunter, and… receive me.” The pale grub-like thing, half an inch thick, with multiple arms and tiny black eyes, quested in the maw, waiting.
Alex now knew that this was the great alchemist’s secret to eternal life. To somehow have conjured, or called, to some sort of “thing” that had arrived from the heavens or hell, or from some other madness, to take him as its host. Perhaps Jabir ibn Hayyan was the latest vessel that it had occupied, and now, as the body shriveled down to nothing, it wanted another vehicle to take it out of the pit where it had existed for too many centuries.
Alex kept his teeth clamped, speaking through his grimace. “What… is… that thing?”
“It is beauty incarnate, Alex Hunter. Perhaps it is a god. Perhaps it is a Traveler that has been trapped here since before mankind even climbed from the ooze. Its lifespan is measured in millions of years, not like us feral insects that are here and gone within the blink of an eye. It needed protection, and in turn it gives us, gives me, greatness. And it will give you that same greatness. You ask what it is, Alex Hunter? It is a gift; receive it willingly.”
“A gift? I’ve heard that before.” Alex strained with every ounce of his being. His teeth remained clamped shut, and he tried to turn his head away. The thought of the thing climbing into his mouth and worming its way down his throat threatened to make him vomit. His body strained, but in his mind something fought against its bonds even harder.
“It is normal to resist at first. The unknown is frightening. I will help.”
Another layer of pressure wrapped around his mind, and then Jabir ibn Hayyan reached out tiny withered arms to embrace Alex’s jaw. The sharp little claws dug into his skin, and the yellow eyes burned into him. The gummed mouth creaked open another fraction as his head tilted back. The thing in his mouth started to extend, its multiple tiny arms also reaching out to him.
Jabir ibn Hayyan clung onto Alex’s face, suspended there, and the huge Eli figure reached forward to grip Alex by the shoulders, holding him firmly in place. Alex could feel the colossal strength in the hands that enfolded him, pinning his own arms flat to his body.
“No.” Alex felt perspiration break out on his face.
“Don’t fight me. I will hurt you and your friends. I have called hundreds of guards, and they wait for your friends above. Only if you submit, will I allow them to pass, unmolested.” Jabir ibn Hayyan’s small, sharp hands pulled at his lips.
A knot of pain started to burn in Alex’s mind, but the reaction was not one of crushing submission or even surrender. It was an urge to fight, to kill. Alex’s body flooded with adrenalin and natural steroids, and his frame felt like it hummed with a furious energy.
“You are not immortal.” Alex’s words hissed from between clamped teeth. “You are mortal, and you can die.”
“What is this?” Jabir ibn Hayyan’s tiny blackened brow furrowed, and his small claws now scrabbled at his flesh, trying to furiously tear his mouth open. “If I need to hurt you, break your body, then I will. Hurry now.”
The huge Eli being started to exert enormous pressure on Alex, and he felt the bones in his arms and shoulders begin to creak. A rib popped in his chest, stabbing him like a dagger. Then another. Finally the pain, frustration and fury became too much. Alex opened his mouth to scream his rage. He could chain the beast no longer, and it burst free like an animal in all its primal fury.
His own monster was now free, the Other One, and it wanted nothing but blood. Alex felt he could only watch as his body seemed to act of its own accord, not in his control anymore. It swung itself one way, and then the other, harder and faster, becoming ever more violent. The giant’s hands were rapidly losing their hold on him. Jabir ibn Hayyan squealed like a small animal and the creature in his mouth snapped back, as if on a spring. The tiny, withered alchemist threw himself from Eli’s arms, and crawled across the floor to one of the dark alcoves, looking back briefly to cast Alex a murderous glare.