Amon considered this for a moment. It was clear that he didn’t like the options. Finally, he said, “Very well. We shall awaken Asten first, but make haste, Doctor.”
“Indeed.”
Within a matter of moments we were out the door and speeding down the highway in Dr. Hassan’s small car, which was about as dusty as the objects in his living room. We were headed toward the mysterious Oasis of the Sacred Stones, which Dr. Hassan said was only accessible to those brave enough to pass the sentinels and who understood how to access it.
I rolled down the car window and let the night air caress my cheeks, which had felt overheated since the demon attack. Though Dr. Hassan assured me there was no venom in the bite, the stinging throb hadn’t let up, and despite the painkillers I’d taken, there was a definite achy feeling circulating my body.
Amon fluctuated between blaming himself and cursing the shabti and, finally, cursing the guy, whoever he was, who had summoned the demons. Frankly, his concern was starting to affect me. I constantly felt his eyes on me, and not in the way I would have preferred.
Finally, I said, “Stop looking at me like I’m at death’s door.”
“I cannot help my concern for you.”
“You’re freaking me out.”
“I do not understand ‘freaking.’ ”
“It’s making me nervous. And can you turn down your internal thermometer? It’s toasting me from the inside out.”
“The heat that comes from my body increases as it nears time for the ceremony. I apologize if it causes you discomfort.”
Amon removed his arm from my shoulders and clasped his hands in his lap, angling his body away from mine and as close to the door as possible. The space around me cooled quickly, though my head and shoulders still felt hot. I reached for his hand. “I’m sorry. Normally I like your arm around me, it’s just—”
“Do not be concerned, Young Lily. When I am around you, I sometimes forget what I am, and because of that I have grown careless.”
“You aren’t careless. In fact, you’re one of the most caring people I know.”
Amon seemed appeased by my comment and squeezed my hand. He settled his head against the car seat and closed his eyes. I was glad, since he was likely exhausted.
We drove west for several hours, and as Amon passed the time sleeping, I quietly questioned Dr. Hassan, trying to discover what he knew about the ceremony and what would happen to Amon. He said he didn’t know much more than I did, though I got the impression that he was holding back some information.
Sometime before dawn Dr. Hassan pulled the car off the road and drove behind some brush. “We must continue from here on foot,” he announced.
“How far is it?” I asked.
“A few miles through the desert.”
“I don’t think she can walk a few miles,” Amon countered.
“Perhaps she can wait in the car,” the doctor suggested.
“No, she will remain at my side.”
“Can we go by sandstorm?” I asked.
“No. To transport the three of us would require too much energy.” Amon stared at a nearby dune for a moment and then said, “I have an idea.”
Stretching out his hand, he murmured softly, and the dunes in front of us began to shift. Grains of sand twisted and writhed, and suddenly three horses burst from the dunes in a blast of shimmering powder. They approached us, nodding their heads and blowing steam from their nostrils.
“They’re…they’re gorgeous!” I exclaimed as Amon beckoned me closer. The horses were the color of the sand, and they glittered as if little flecks of minerals were mixed into their coats. Their tails and manes were flaxen cream-colored, several shades lighter than their coats. Their large eyes sparkled like polished amber gemstones, and their hooves looked like they had been dipped in gold glitter. “Where did they come from?”
Amon stroked the neck of the mare and asked, “Do you remember the story I told you about Nebu, the golden stallion of the desert?”
“Yes.”
“These are from his herd.”
“You mean Horus eventually found him?”
“Not exactly. It was more like Nebu found Horus. They formed a bond, and whenever Horus, or in this case, a son of Egypt, has need, Nebu will send his sons and daughters to help.” Amon backed up. “You will ride the mare. Let me give you a boost.”
Grabbing hold of my waist, Amon lifted me high enough so that I could throw my injured leg over the horse’s back. Once seated, I started to panic. “I’ve ridden only a couple of times before, and never bareback. What if I fall off?”
“Hold tight to the mane,” Amon admonished. “She will not let you fall.”
Threading my fingers through the silky strands, I leaned over to whisper into the mare’s ear, “I’ll try not to rock the boat too much. You’re in charge. I’m just along for the ride.”
The mare responded with a shake of her head and a musical neigh as she took a few steps closer to Amon’s horse, a handsome stallion a few hands taller than my mare.
“Are you ready?” Amon asked.
When I nodded, he turned to the doctor. “Ready, Dr. Hassan?”
“Yes, yes.” The Egyptologist waved his hand as he settled on the back of his horse.
“Then please lead the way, Doctor,” Amon encouraged.
At a hearty “Ha!” from Dr. Hassan, his horse leapt forward and ours followed. Though they walked, it was a fast walk that occasionally turned into a trot, which was a bit jarring on my backside but for the most part was comfortable.
I noticed that something jutted up from the dunes in the distance, making black shadows against the night sky. “Is that where we’re headed?” I asked Dr. Hassan as my horse trotted closer to his.
“Yes. That is the oasis at the base of those mountains. We must get there before sunrise.”
“What happens at sunrise?”
“The stones will show us the path, but only at a precise time.”
Encouraged by Dr. Hassan, the horses moved a bit more quickly. The sky was lightening, and I could tell by the way Dr. Hassan kept glancing at the horizon that he was worried. Tall palm trees swayed in the predawn darkness, their heavy leaves rustling in the breeze. Suddenly, a larger animal cried out, its hooting echoed by others, and soon the desert was full of sound.
“What is it?” I cried.
“Baboons!” Amon shouted over the din. “They greet the dawn with howls.”
I grimaced. “I think I prefer the morning song of birds. Are they dangerous?”
“To the wrongdoer, yes,” Dr. Hassan answered.
“Uh, how would they know if I was a wrongdoer or not?”
“Normal baboons wouldn’t,” he said. “But these are guardians who serve Babi, the alpha male of all baboons. He is a sentinel in the afterlife. You see, all baboons are aggressive, omnivorous, and territorial, but these ones are doubly so. They have been summoned to protect the resting place where I hid Amon’s brother. They will allow no one to pass who means him harm. I decided to take this precaution when Amon’s body was stolen. It is said that Babi will eat the entrails of the wicked, and these baboons are just as dangerous. We will proceed with caution, but each of us must present ourselves for judging.”
“And I thought college interviews were hard,” I mumbled.
Our horses stopped at the edge of the oasis, and the cacophony coming from the baboons suddenly ceased. Tree limbs jolted and dark shapes moved over the ground and through the brush until mounds of living flesh settled before us. Teeth, shiny and sharp, were bared and glistening eyes winked like little flashlights in the darkness.
“We must hurry,” Dr. Hassan said. “I will go first.”
Amon helped me dismount and dismissed the horses with a bow of gratitude. With a mighty leap into the desert, they were enveloped by sand, the only proof that they’d ever been there the hoofprints they left behind.
Dr. Hassan had arrived at the border of the oasis, where the horde waited for him. A
large male raised himself up and hooted softly. Others returned the call, and as Dr. Hassan stepped onto the grass beneath a palm tree, several of the creatures darted back and forth, circling him. They pushed against his shoes and his legs and tugged on his pants. A baby climbed his arm and picked through his hair, then leapt off and clambered onto its mother’s back.
After this strange animal court was over, the noise died away and the doctor stepped through the mass to the other side. “Come, Lady Lily,” he called over the backs of the baboons, which now stood observing me silently.
Amon clutched my arm and whispered, “I will allow nothing to happen to you. Do not be afraid.”
I stepped into the horde feeling like a coward, and closed my eyes as the howling began. Heavy bodies shifted past me and I grimaced when one touched my injured leg, but gentle fingers brushed across the bandage, and when one reached out a hand, I took it. The sounds of the animals ceased abruptly, and a baboon pulled me with the lightest of tugs toward Dr. Hassan.
When Amon stepped into the oasis, the baboons stood transfixed and then, almost as one, they rushed forward and patted his legs and arms. After every primate had touched Amon, the big male gave a deep cry and all the creatures slinked back into the trees, disappearing as if they had never even existed.
Now that we’d been given clearance by the baboon guardians, we wandered deeper into the oasis, heading toward the sound of water. Dr. Hassan had begun running as soon as Amon had been let go by the troop. Amon helped me along so I wouldn’t get too far behind, and just when I was about to protest that my leg needed a rest, Dr. Hassan slid to a stop at a deep pool fed by a waterfall.
Circling the pool were stones of every shape and size, which wouldn’t have been that unusual except each stone had a hole bored through it. What perplexed me even more was when Dr. Hassan scooped up handfuls of the stones and began throwing them in the water.
“Quickly! Help me!” he shouted.
Amon bent down and gathered several stones, cupping them in his hands and then tossing them.
“What are we doing?” I asked as I tossed my own handful.
“Watch for one that floats,” Dr. Hassan said as he worked. “A true adder stone will float in water.”
“Adder stone?”
“An adder stone is used to protect a person from evil charms or nightmares. Since it is formed from the venom of adders, it can also prevent death from snakebite,” Amon explained.
“There’s one!” Dr. Hassan cried. “We need one for each of us, so keep searching,” he added as Amon fished the floating rock from the pool.
Several handfuls later, we had a second stone, which Dr. Hassan told me to keep in my pocket. The sun would be up any moment, and the Egyptologist was throwing handfuls in a frenzy. Finally, a third rock rose from the depths, and Dr. Hassan leapt into the pool like a cat scooping up a fat fish for dinner.
Staggering out of the pool, he led us to a clearing, where he held his rock up to the rising sun. As dawn broke over the horizon, light shone through the hole in the stone and a pinprick of white light hit the water, angling up slowly as the sun rose higher in the sky. When the ray of light hit the mountain, I looked at Dr. Hassan.
All of his attention was focused on the mountain. “Come on now,” he whispered. “We must find the opening.” A few seconds later, he shouted triumphantly, “There! There it is!”
I saw a flash on the stony hill on the other side of the pool, as if a mirror were reflecting the light cast by the hole in Dr. Hassan’s adder stone. The mountain rumbled, and I waited for something strange to happen—a skeleton army to appear, a mass of scurrying scarab beetles looking for someone to devour, some kind of sign of the Egyptian apocalypse—but the mountain settled and nothing happened. I peered across the water, but the shimmering light was gone. Pocketing his adder stone, the doctor stumbled down to the pool and started making his way around it.
“Why did we each need a stone if yours did the trick?” I asked him as we carefully made our way across the slick stones.
“You’ll see,” he answered cryptically.
Before long, we arrived at the foot of the mountain. A waterfall cascaded down the steep rocks, its spray wetting our skin. Dr Hassan came to a stop and lifted his stone to his eye. “Here we are, at last,” he declared.
“Uh, where would that be?” I asked.
“Use your stone,” he answered. “Look through it and you will see our path.”
Pulling my stone from my pocket, I peered through the tiny hole and gasped when I saw an opening in the mountain. When I looked at the mountain without the stone, I saw nothing. Taking a step forward, I patted the mountain and found it as hard and impenetrable as it appeared, but then Dr. Hassan, stone still to his eye, stepped right through it and called out for us to follow.
I took a deep breath, positioning the adder stone so I could see through its hole, and murmured sarcastically, “What could possibly go wrong?” as I walked through a mountain.
Absolute silence descended. Stone as thick and as solid as a tombstone pressed against me on all sides. Above was a rocky ceiling that seemed to lower with every step I took. The horror of being buried alive wasn’t even the worst part. What really freaked me out was that I wasn’t in a secret cave hidden within a mountain, I was passing through solid rock.
Mineral formations slowly moved over me as if my body was seeping into the rock itself, and there was a heaviness, like I was wading in a strong current. The only explanation I could come up with was that I had moved into a different phase or dimension from the one the rock existed in. My fingers pressing the stone to my eye shook, and I closed the other eye so I didn’t have to see the mountain as I passed through it. My pulse felt thick as my heart beat in a noisy rhythm.
The taste of copper and salt hit the back of my throat, and though I tried to keep my mouth closed, I constantly gave in to the temptation to wet my lips. Unfortunately, there was no relief found in the process; my tongue only ended up coated with a thin layer of grit and minerals.
No matter which direction I looked, Amon and Dr. Hassan weren’t visible, so I pressed forward, following the strange flash of light that appeared to be coming from the stone every so often and illuminating the area directly around me. Unlike a lighthouse, which helps guide boats and warns of hidden rocks, the illumination felt to me like it was drawing unwanted attention, and I fully expected a monstrous creature with a gaping maw to find me because of it.
Each time my surroundings lit up, I stopped breathing until I was sure there was no immediate danger. I began to sense little vibrations in the area that became more pronounced every time the beam turned off.
I pressed on until the blinking light vanished and I was left in the dark root of the mountain without a guide. Blindly, I took one step forward, then another. I began hyperventilating, wondering if the mountain would ever end, when suddenly I emerged from the rock.
Though it was still dark, there was an immediate, recognizable difference in the atmosphere. The weight that had been dragging on my limbs was gone; I felt a wisp of air brush my cheek and my ears popped. My hand came into contact with the solid rock behind me and I turned, touching nothing but empty space until my fingers found the wall again. Scuffling sounds echoed in the darkness. Then I heard Dr. Hassan. “Lily!” he cried. “Over here.”
I stretched out my free hand and took a few cautious steps forward. “Where are you?” I called.
There was the sound of movement nearby, and I listened carefully, trying to make sense of the noises. Someone, or something, had emerged from the rock behind me. When I turned toward it, I saw its green orbs flashing in the darkness.
“Lily,” Amon said as he closed the distance between us, “are you all right?”
“I’m…I’m fine. I think.” Amon ran his hand over my arm and a light powdery dust as fine as talc slid and then settled on my skin, making me cough. I patted my clothing, trying to get rid of some of it. Apparently my brief hiatus into the world o
f being clean was over. Amon didn’t seem to care that I was coated with grit. He took my hand in his and lit his body enough for me to see where we were—in a large cavern.
“Dr. Hassan?” I called as I spotted his form. He was on his hands and knees patting the dirt.
“Another foot and I would have had it,” he announced as he got up.
“What were you looking for?” I asked as Amon and I made our way over to him.
“This.” He lifted a thick, blackened stick and began fussing with one end.
“A torch?”
“Yes.” He glanced at Amon and was momentarily awed by his natural light. “Unfortunately, those of us who are mortal are not born with inner flashlights.” He raised the torch. “Shall I?” he asked Amon.
“If you would.”
“Of course.”
“Where are we?” I whispered nervously.
“We are still in the Oasis of the Sacred Stones, but we are deep within the mountain,” Dr. Hassan said. “If you listen carefully, you can hear the waterfall. I hid Amon’s brother behind it.” He lit the end of the torch and Amon immediately turned off his light, which I assumed helped him conserve his energy.
“What was that strange light in the mountain?” I asked as Amon guided me around a large cluster of stalagmites.
“The light can be seen only with a true adder stone,” Dr. Hassan said. “It allows passage into the mountain. The flash you saw was activated by the sun shining through the stone.”
“A path forged by the sun god,” Amon mused.
“Yes, in a way. It’s a little trick passed down by grand viziers through the centuries. To direct the light we had to be in the right spot at the right time.”
“Does it work like the Egyptian mirror trick in the movies?” I continued, curious to know if there was any science going on behind the magic.
“Not exactly. Creating a pathway was no mere reflection of light. You see, scientists believe the adder stone to be any rock that is naturally hollowed out by water. The superstitious believe it is created by a snake’s saliva and that possessing one offers various protections. But I know its true nature. Do you know it, Great One?” At a look from Amon, the doctor stammered, “F-forgive me. I mean, Amon.”
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