Chapter III - Fall of the Akharu
A wraith of black rags and wrinkled, diseased flesh, the akharu rose up and floated over to them. It did not walk, but literally floated, and those that had been watching Rachab, envious of the affection she showed the strangers, fled at once from the inn, while a few remained frozen in dread.
The sisters and brothers did nothing but stand still in terror, as the wraith moved and the oil lamps flickered. It avoided sunlight from the windows, and stayed in the darkness, while making it seem darker in its passage.
With their hostess unconscious suddenly, Rammu rolled her gently off of him, and composed himself quickly. Ashamed of his actions, and his weakness before the innkeeper, he rose with fury to confront this demon.
Gabri was by his side, and put a hand on the hilt of his dagger, and together they stood their ground.
"Who are you? And what magic is this that I sense from the innkeeper?" the creature said in the most ancient form of their language, which they barely comprehended.
But the men were educated in the history of their people, and they did know the old languages, from Akkad and Ur alike, and Rammu spoke it to the akharu with authority.
"The hostess we know not. But you, we know you, and your wretched kind!" he said.
The few that were frozen in terror gaped in disbelief at such disrespect to the servants of their malik and adons.
"You have no power here," Gabri added. "Akharu, created from the days of Enheduana! From the abyss you came, and to the abyss you shall return!"
Enraged, the creature shrieked, and pushed Gabri backwards with great force.
Rammu pulled his dagger and stabbed it, and metal made a sickening scraping sound as if against the bones, and the wraith shrieked at a higher pitch.
Gabri was knocked against a wall, the very walls of the mighty fortress city of Yareah.
The akharu fell to the ground, and thrashed amongst the wool rugs and twisted them.
"Spies! Spies!" the wraith said, and turning to the other people with its fierce, gray face and fanged teeth, it commanded. "Go and summon the Anakim, for the spies of the enemy are here!"
"Fear? Do any of you know real fear?" Rammu told the witnesses. "For indeed we are spies from the Mhannat of Joshua, from the Pillar of Smoke and Flame that thunder and roar in the east! Who do you fear more? Those that walk with the Adon of Hosts, or these wretched creatures that cannot even contend with two servants of the True God? Tell anyone of us, an you will not only die, but your soul will be torn asunder, and burn forever!"
The confidence in Rammu's voice gave them pause, and he sneered at them, and then looked down at the akharu.
"You should not have come during the daylight, when you are weak," he said as he leaned over the creature. "But even if it were night, and the moon full, and the full measure of your power brought against us, you would not prevail!"
With his palm towards the wraith on the ground, the air shimmered with some new power, and the black creature was gripped by it, and lifted up before Rammu.
At this Rachab had awakened, and stared in horror at this scene of a mortal and beautiful man making the very air shimmer, and causing an akharu much distress.
"No!" the creature said. "This cannot be! Humans cannot use magic!"
"Indeed, we can," Rammu sneered. "As my kin made seas part, and staffs turn into snakes to consume the magic of the most powerful magicians in all Kemet! Hark to the legends you hear from the Black Lands of the South, from the Great River of Rivers, for they are true!"
Rammu turned his wrist and his hand, and the akharu went from standing tall, to hovering sideways. Then Rammu lifted his hand and smashed it against the wooden ceiling, a hard knock against the flooring of the rooms above that made dust shower down on them all. Then Rammu dropped his hand and the creature was smashed into the floor with crash.
The creature turned on its back and into a beam of sunlight, and its gray skin began to smoke and sizzle before them all, and its black blood from the neck of its wound was like acid upon the floor.