The only thing holding the creature on the post now was the tape securing its ankles.
“Lilliana,” the creature said, “you’ve returned. Come and let me peer into your beautiful eyes,” it hissed, dragging out the s with a flick of its tongue.
“It’s no use,” I replied as bravely as I could. “I don’t have what you’re looking for.”
“Yes, you do,” the monster affirmed.
“I don’t. Amon didn’t give me the Eye. I never had it.”
It laughed, the sound making every nerve in my body stand on edge. “I am not a fool. I know you do not have the Eye. But it matters not. The incarnation of the sun god will do anything for you. Including giving me the power I seek.”
“You’re mistaken,” I answered, mustering all the bravery I could. “He left me behind. He doesn’t even know I’m here.”
A clicking noise came from the creature’s throat in a mocking sort of sympathy. “Then perhaps he should,” it said, with a dangerous leer.
As it spoke, its eyes rolled to the back of its head and a red mist circled its body.
“No!” Dr. Hassan yelled. “No!”
The body shook in great convulsions like it was being electrocuted, before it slumped lifeless and empty. When the red mist cleared, the form had returned to its original state, except that the clothing and pillows were now ripped apart.
“What is it? What just happened?” I cried.
“Quickly, Lily, the chain!”
Approaching the effigy, Dr. Hassan passed the chain to me around the form and then I handed it back. We went back and forth until we had wrapped the chain around the effigy several times. Then Dr. Hassan said:
We who would see you bound fetter you.
Nothing happened. He looked out over the edge of the building toward the distant pyramid where the creature that was Sebak had rallied.
Again, he cried out:
We who would see you bound fetter you!
“Why isn’t it working?” I asked.
“I thought as much. It is too late. He has called forth his essence.”
“But can’t we, you know, call it back?”
Dr. Hassan shook his head. “The ceremony must be completed. We will have to go to the creature itself.”
“Are you serious? There’s no time! They’re barely holding back the zombies as it is.”
“We must go! Quickly, put on these clothes!”
Dr. Hassan yanked open the remaining bag, which contained clothes that I at first thought were meant for the effigy. There wasn’t time to ask why he wanted me to dress in a cargo vest and pants, and the items were big enough that I could easily slip them on over my other clothes. As Dr. Hassan approached me, with the chain wrapped around his wrist, he took the box, placed a lighter and what I now recognized as a small ax into one of his vest pockets, and jammed the fedora I’d scooped out of the bag onto my head.
Placing his hands on my shoulder, Dr. Haasan looked me square in the eyes and said, “When the time comes, you must pretend that you are me and lead Amon to the top of the great pyramid. Do not speak to him. Wear these gloves so he does not feel the smallness of your hands. Here, take my jacket, too.”
He thrust my arms into the sleeves of his jacket, yanking it up and over my shoulders as I fussed with the drawstring cargo pants.
“This is important, Lily!” he went on. “If he knows it is you, he will not complete the ceremony. The god of chaos must not be allowed to return. I know it is a hard thing to ask, but when you feel the pull on your energy, you need to open yourself to it. Allow Amon to take what he needs. Do you understand? Tell me you understand!”
Numbly, I nodded. A million questions flew through my mind, but I couldn’t seem to focus on a single one. Standing on the edge of the building, Dr. Hassan cried out in Egyptian, and far below, a tremor shook a group of zombies, throwing them away from the thing they focused on as if a bomb had gone off. The starlit ibis rose in the air with a powerful flap of his wings and zoomed toward us.
He landed and changed to human form.
“Asten?” I took a step closer. He was bleeding heavily and bruised. Cuts and deep slashes leaked red rivulets over his chest and arms; his shirt hung in tatters. The dark hair he’d seemed so proud of was drenched with sweat, and locks of it hung over his eyes.
Asten took a deep shuddering breath, glanced at me, and then turned toward Dr. Hassan. “Does she know what to do?” he asked, exhaustion emanating from his entire body.
“She does. She is ready.”
“Then climb upon my back.” He added, “The battle is a sore one, Hassan.”
Dr. Hassan patted his shoulder. “The ritual is nearly complete. There is just a minor complication.”
I was about to make a comment about the complication not actually being minor, but then I looked at Asten and couldn’t bring myself to say it. Instead, I said, “Take care of yourself, Asten.”
He gave me a weak smile. “My initial assessment of you was entirely inaccurate,” he said.
“Oh?”
“Yes.” Reaching out his fingertips, he grazed my cheek and my skin tingled. “I have never met a more dedicated devotee,” he said quietly, “Goodbye, Lily.” Dropping his hand, Asten burst into his starlit ibis form.
After Dr. Hassan and I climbed on, Asten rose into the air. I felt a rush of wind as he headed directly toward the largest pyramid, where the great crocodile god who was Sebak hovered, watching in monstrous delight as his zombie army held back the sons of Egypt from completing their work.
The moon was so large and close that I felt as if we were flying directly into it. I couldn’t be sure, but it seemed to me as if it hung directly over the pyramid. It was possible that I’d miscalculated a bit, but I knew that if the three brothers didn’t complete the ceremony before the moon passed over the pyramid, it would be too late.
The ibis cried out and Sebak turned his head toward us. With a scream he surged upward, tearing Asten’s white wing with a scaly claw. The wing broke with a snap and we plummeted. Asten broke our fall with his body. We landed on the far side of the pyramid and Asten changed back to human form, panting as he cradled his arm.
“Go! Go!” Asten said. He gave me a small smile as Dr. Hassan grabbed my arm and led me around the side of the pyramid. Before we turned the corner, I saw Asten take a running leap off the pyramid, somersaulting in the air before landing in the horde, an arrow in each hand despite the break. He thrust the arrows into the eyes of two zombies, who both exploded in a cloud of dust.
Dr. Hassan led me down the length of the pyramid. My feet constantly slipped as I tripped on loose rocks. Before we got to the end, a horrible claw sank into the side of the pyramid directly in front of us. Sebak’s transformed body rounded the corner. The sight of his ghastly grin was enough to stop me in my tracks and make me run in the other direction, but Dr. Hassan paused for only a moment and then kept running, leaving me behind.
“Dr. Hassan, wait!” I called as I scrambled after him.
“Ah, Lilliana,” the creature said, working a giant tongue over sharp teeth the size of stalactites. “I thought I’d have to seek you out. How appropriate it is that you should come to me of your own volition.”
Dr. Hassan had disappeared and I was halfway up a pyramid, facing down a crocodile demon all on my own. I had no weapon. No plan. No powers. Then I realized that Sebak’s obsession with me had allowed Dr. Hassan to escape. If I could distract Sebak enough, then perhaps the brothers could complete the ceremony.
“It must have been very hard for you to submit to being someone’s assistant,” I said. “A man of your ability having to grovel to another with less talent is a shame.”
His eyelids blinking sideways, the creature lowered his big head and snapped his jaws shut not a foot from where I stood. “So easily frightened,” he said, laughing.
“I’m not frightened,” I lied. “In fact, the biggest emotion I feel for you is pity.”
“Pity?” he spat. “
You pity me? I am the most powerful creature the world has ever known! Even your pathetic sun god cannot best me.”
“Yes.” I nodded my head. “That is true. But don’t you see? You’ve traded one overseer for another. You cannot deny that your yearnings and your gifts were given to you by Apophis.”
“Speaking of yearnings”—Sebak’s new head drifted closer, his tongue darting out and tasting the air around my body—“I’ve long denied myself the opportunity to sample you for myself. The biloko demons left me…hungry.” The fleshy probe made contact with my arm, which, thankfully, was covered with too many layers for me to feel it, but then it touched my face.
The sensation was not unlike being licked by a dog—that is, if the dog were actually an anaconda with saliva that stung like little knives. My cheek felt like it had been scrubbed with a razor blade. I wiped it with my gloved hand and it came away smeared with blood.
“Ah, you are delicious, my dear. I will enjoy having you all to myself once I dispose of the others.”
“See, that’s not really you talking. That is Apophis. Even now he influences you. He is the one giving you these feelings.”
The monster shifted closer. “Apophis gave me nothing. I stole his power for myself.”
“Even if that were true, when you allow the gateway to open, Seth will come.”
“So?”
“So you’ll just be under the thumb again of someone who holds more power than you. I guess I just don’t get why you’d want that to happen. Do you want the world to view you as inferior? As a lesser god?”
“Seth will reward me. I will be as great as he. Together we will darken the force of the sun, cause the stars to recede in the heavens, and make the moon as blood. Once we have defeated the other gods, I will steal his power as well. I will rule all.”
“Frankly, I doubt it. How often does a man in power give it up? They have to be forcibly removed from the position.”
“Then I will remove him.”
“Wouldn’t it just be easier to let the brothers do their job? Prevent Seth from coming at all? Then they’ll go away and you would be all that remains.”
He blinked as if considering my words, and then dismissed them. “It won’t even matter once I have the all-powerful Eye. Speaking of which…”
Wrenching his large body closer to me, Sebak slammed a limb past me, the claw digging into the side of the pyramid, effectively trapping me.
“Incarnation of the sun!” the creature called out, his voice carrying through the desert night. “If you want to see your young woman again, I suggest you bring me the item I seek!”
After a tense moment, I heard Amon’s voice cry back from far below. “You cannot deceive me, vile creature! Lily is safely on her way home. Come to me and fight so that I may return the favor you recently offered me!”
I finally saw Osahar. While I’d been keeping Sebak occupied, he’d managed to hook the chain around Sebak’s hind claw. With a cry, Dr. Hassan leapt off the pyramid holding on to the chain, his body flying over the dangling limb. The croc monster roared and twisted to see what was going on. Dr. Hassan hung from the bottom of the chain and chanted:
We who would see you bound fetter you!
Sebak screamed, crashing into the side of the pyramid, and then froze, pinning me in place. At the same time the zombie army froze. With a burst of silver light, bodies flew in every direction. The silver crane rose in the air and headed toward the top of the second pyramid. I spied Asten’s human form running toward the smallest pyramid. Dr. Hassan let go of the chain and dropped, rolling to a stop several levels down from me. Wincing, he got to his feet and started climbing up to where I stood.
Sebak’s eyes followed us, but his body remained immobile. When Dr. Hassan reached me, he tried in vain to free me from the monster’s grip. When he was thwarted, he climbed farther, until he could reach the demon’s head.
“Sebak,” Dr. Hassan said, “do not throw away your life in this way. You are the most talented archaeologist I’ve ever worked with. Give up the power you have stolen and we will spare your life.”
“If you truly understood power, you would know that I would rather die a thousand deaths than give it up,” the beast replied. “No. The sun god is weak. He will not be able to complete the ceremony. The god of chaos will come, and when he does, he will raise me up and reconstruct the body you have damaged, and I will return to take my revenge upon you”—he paused and gave me a crocodile smile—“and on her.”
“I am truly sorry, my colleague. Sorry that you were deceived so utterly and that your lust for power has resulted in such devastation and the loss of a brilliant mind. Goodbye, Sebak.”
Dr. Hassan took a deep breath and cried:
We who will defeat you defile your body!
He pulled the ax out from his jacket and lifted it over his head, ready to swing it into Sebak’s giant demon eye, when I heard an achingly familiar voice.
“Stop!”
Amon blindly made his way up the side of the pyramid toward us. I sucked in a breath and pressed my free hand to my lips to contain a sob. His skin, where it wasn’t bleeding, was gray-tinged, and the sunglasses covering his eyes were gone. The empty sockets where his eyes should have been made my heart hurt. He was missing some fingers on one hand, and bites covered his shoulders, face, and neck.
“Hassan?” he called.
“I am here, Master,” Dr. Hassan cried out. “What is it? Why do you want me to stop?”
“Was he…? Is he speaking the truth? Is Lily here? Was she captured?”
“Of course she is here,” Sebak taunted. “She is not even damaged…much.”
There was a pause, and then Dr. Hassan addressed Amon. “You must believe me when I say that Lily is safe. Sebak has lost his mind.”
Amon’s head lowered for a moment, but then the muscles of his arms tightened. “Very well.” He reached out a hand and Osahar grabbed it, pulling him up the last few steps. Gripping the doctor’s shoulder, Amon asked, “Will you allow me to slay the vile beast?”
Dr. Hassan searched Amon’s face. “Of course,” he said, understanding Amon’s nonverbal communication, and placed the ax in his hand. “Do you need me to guide you there?”
Amon shook his head. “No. I will use the Eye.”
Seeing Amon approach, Sebak panted, “She is here! I am telling you the truth!”
“I cannot measure the truth of your words since you stole the power contained in my jars of death. As it is, I trust that my grand vizier would not deceive me,” Amon said quietly.
Dr. Hassan lowered his head regretfully while Sebak laughed. “Ah, I see you intend to turn a blind eye to the situation. How appropriate.” Amon’s grip on the ax tightened. “I suppose it doesn’t matter if you believe me or not. You will fail and I will rise again. I have served my master well and will be rewarded generously for my efforts.”
Angling his head toward the giant monster as if looking directly at him, Amon leaned closer to the frozen creature and said grimly, “Speaking of turning a blind eye, I believe I must return the favor.” With a dangerous smile, Amon raised the ax, leapt onto the crocodile head, and sank the blade into its blinking eye. When he had done the same thing to the other yellow eye, Amon dropped the bloody ax. “I wish for this rising to be finished.”
“Yes,” Dr. Hassan said. “I will be with you momentarily.”
Amon carefully moved to the side and sat down on a pyramid step a few feet from where I was pinned. Propping his elbows on his knees, he lowered his head into his hands, his body shaking.
How horrible this whole experience must have been for him. All I wanted to do was comfort him. Put his head in my lap and stroke his hair. Try to make him forget the pain and the suffering that he had known. If I could have stolen him away from this horrible duty, the terrible responsibility that he insisted upon fulfilling, I would have. But I couldn’t even let him know I was there.
Dr. Hassan lit the body of the inert Sebak on fire and then fin
ished the rite.
We who would see you burn scorch you.
The scream of a thousand deaths filled the air as the giant body of Sebak, the incarnation of Apophis, burned alive.
The sons of Egypt are noble.
The gods of the sun, the moon, and the stars are braced.
The points of the Impossible Triangle are imbued with power.
You cannot defeat us,
For we will not be moved.
Depart Apophis,
Ye cursed crocodile!
After the last phrase, Sebak’s body shook, causing the area surrounding the pyramids to rumble. Rank vapors of black smoke rose from the body and the fire burned brighter and hotter until Sebak’s entire being was consumed in a flash of red.
When his body disappeared, the ashes blowing away in a soft breeze, I stood, testing my limbs, and then heaved a sigh of relief that I was still in one piece. I stepped forward, looking down at the valley, and saw a dissipating red mist, the only sign that there had ever been a tremendous battle between zombies and mummies.
Tiredly, Amon rose from his seated position and said, “Come, Hassan. It is time to end this work.”
“Yes, Master. I will now take you to the top of the temple, and when the ceremony is complete I will recover your bodies.”
Amon said nothing, his face angled away from the pyramid as if he was looking for something in the distance. “Do as you will,” he said quietly.
Dr. Hassan beckoned me to Amon, putting a finger over his lips to make sure I knew to be quiet. When I was standing in front of Amon, Dr. Hassan said, “If you would put your hand on my shoulder, I will lead you.”
Amon stretched out his arm and brushed his hand against the fedora before finding my shoulder. He nodded. “I am ready.”
With a shooing motion, Dr. Hassan waved me forward. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep up the ruse, and I was fairly certain that Amon would notice I wasn’t Dr. Hassan, but he didn’t say a word. He just placidly followed me until we reached the top of the pyramid. I went slowly, careful lest he should fall.
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