THE SUMMONED

By Vincent Darlage

            The summons came as the student studied in his dim chamber late into a moonless evening.  The student's mind reeled with possibilities as he stood to follow the shadowy servant to their mutual master.  It was quite unusual for his master, Sappanema Kherit, High Priest of Set and God-King of Khemt, to summon minor acolytes to his Divine Presence.  This was an honor of an impressive magnitude.  He felt pride and joy, tinged with fear, merged inseparably into one overpowering emotion.  He wanted to run, but he controlled himself and simply padded through the silent halls toward his frightful lord, following the ever-silent servant.  Finally, after an eternity of solemn corridors, his destination was reached.  Somehow, perhaps while he was lost in his own thoughts, the servant had departed unseen, leaving him quite alone before the huge oak and iron doors.

            Ponderously, the doors creaked open.  The air in the room was choked with heavy incense fumes mingled with the powerful stench of embalming fluids.  His master, Kherit, sat veiled behind the thick fogs, surrounded by papyrus scrolls and documents, reading from a tome of monstrous repute.  With a hideous creak, the horrible head of his dread master looked up, and the glowing red pin-pricks of light that served as Kherit's eyes pierced brightly through the haze, sending unaccountable shivers of terror through the young student.  The student had never before seen his master's true form before.  He had never before beheld the blazing red lights that floated in the otherwise empty sockets of Kherit's leathery skull.  He had never looked upon the thin, wispy hair that straggled out beneath the heavy crown of Khemt.  He had never eyed the cracked, dried, bloodless skin that was tightly adhered to the unbreathing skeletal frame.  The student trembled uncontrollably before this horrific visage.  He fell to his knees as fear gnawed at his gut.

            As Kherit opened his mouth to speak, a charnel vapor issued from his corrupted innards.  The student fought an overwhelming need to retch.

            "You have been chosen for a singular honor," intoned Kherit's sepulchral voice.  "You will die to further my research."  The God-King lifted his bony hand and the fires of his eyes brightened briefly.  The student felt his body begin to decompose.  He felt his cheeks tighten and fall in, his lips curling back on his teeth.  He watched in mounting terror as his arms rotted before his failing eyesight.  He tried to scream, but his soft flesh of his tongue and the cartilage of his throat had all but disintegrated.  His flesh fell from his bones as he tossed back and forth on the floor.  Death finally overtook him when his brain rotted into a foul slush.

            Kherit nodded, thought briefly, and jotted down a few notes.