Read 24 Bones for Free Online Page B

“Few, however, can control the Void. What strength rage gives is lost in a lack of self-restraint. Very few can harness rage and the primal energy of nature in a useful manner. It is a great power even if the companions do not recognize it as such.”
    Faris’s jaw relaxed. He had always been able to see rage, as if it were a malleable object. He could allow his body to act while his mind remained controlled, free of pain and exploiting the adrenaline and power that rage instilled. Filled with Void he could run like the desert sands could blow.
    “If both the Fullness and the Void are psychic powers and both allow us to move objects and communicate, then what is the difference?”
    “Concience, my friend, to use the Void requires no conscience.”
    Faris wasn’t sure he understood but his stomach rumbled, echoing in the chamber.
    “I’ll take that fork now.”
    They laughed and, in the shadows of the walls and before they stepped into the sight of carrion, the laughter healed.

    Faris sat cross-legged in the courtyard’s dust, eating a thick round of bread. He was surrounded by as many living companions as dead. Chewing allowed the angry spasms of his jaw to go unnoticed. The three remaining high priests—Michael, Jamal, and Rushdy—clustered near the altar. The stone surface was now clear of eyes, but stank.
    “We must wait to assemble the backbone,” Jamal advised.
    Haidar stood three paces from Faris and did not attempt to hide his ire.
    What remained of the Shemsu Hor was encamped inside the Deir Abd-al-Aziz’s walls. At the last Akhet, their canvas tents had formed a mobile village that stretched the mile to the monastery’s hermetic caves. Many had not attended this year; instead they tended to the funeral rituals.
    If the attack was meant to disrupt the Shemsu Hor, it had been successful. One-half to two-thirds of the companions lay dead. Only one youth survived, Katle, a twenty-something from Deir Abd-al-Malik. Today was to be his ordination and branding. His father had been a companion, one of the slaughtered. Katle knelt at the front of the audience, gray bags beneath his eyes, hair a tangled mass of curls. He had forsaken ritual by neglecting to spend the forty days required to mourn and mummify his father.
    “How do we rebuild the backbone when already four pieces of twelve are confirmed missing?” Haidar demanded.
    In the past hour, more envoys had arrived and each delivered sad news: Two detailed the loss of their deir’s vertebra; the others delivered their piece; all told a story of mass murder. Askari took up the vertebrae, being the keeper of Deir Abd-al-Aziz’s relic.
    “Respectfully,” Askari began and ignored a glare from Haidar; “Haidar is correct, we need to respond. Even notify the police.”
    “Police? The police?” High Priest Jamal’s voice cracked. “Tell them who we are? Where the riches of Osiris remain? Egypt’s new government will not stand for the resurrection of our religion, nor accept our claim to our antiquities. If you tell one secret, the rest cascades. No, we cannot involve the police, Askari.”
    “Then—” Askari started, but Michael, another high priest, raised his hand. Askari fell silent.
    “We have suffered a terrible affront,” Michael said, addressing them all, “but we have also suffered a terrible loss. Let us give our fallen companions their due so that they may pass under and be reborn to us. Askari and Haidar, prepare for battle, but the battle will wait until all accessible pieces of the spine have been reclaimed. Our priority is to fulfill the prophecy.”
    “Michael,” Askari replied, “we must discover their purpose. The Shemsu Seth are not willingly going to return the stolen vertebrae, nor will they give up their own. For all we know their purpose was to ensure the prophecy would not be fulfilled. I suggest we send scouts to the Temple of Seth.”
    Michael shook his head, but before he could speak, a burly high priest stood. He had