Ben decided maybe he needed to pray to Sobek. Perhaps his familiar had ego issues. Realising that the ancient Egyptian prayers had been ritualistic and full of sacred offerings, Ben decided he'd have to do a more modern take on the process. He imagined wafting incense around the room and the laying down of valuable scented oils and colour pigments in offering to Sobek. He bowed low and walked backwards, away from the centre of the room, where the statue of Sobek would have once stood, whilst praying for his help.
Nothing. Silence.
He glanced around to make certain no one had been watching him, then walked towards Horus the Elder's sanctuary, where Ellie was chatting in Arabic. Gerhard was nodding as if following Ellie's endless jabber. Even Ben had difficulty following the Saudi dialect that Ellie was using. She appeared to be on a tirade about the Ancient Egyptians following false Gods.
She turned to Ben and asked in Arabic, "We thought we'd lost you, brother. Anything worth seeing over there?"
Ben shook his head and replied, "Nothing different to here, little sister." He gestured for them to leave the sanctuary and took a path out towards the external courtyards.
The ancient Egyptians had mastered acoustics, and Ben knew that conversations within the walls were projected, almost as if by loudspeaker, to other areas of the temple. The high priests had used this facility to listen in on the private prayers and confessions of Egypt's high society. When they were back at the front of the complex, they huddled around Ellie as she pretended to show them her photos and whispered to each other.
"What the hell can we do now? There was nothing in the Sanctuary. This isn't the right place! I'm sure," Ben confided to the group.
"You told us last night about the museum dedicated to the mummified crocodiles - that might be worth checking out. Oh, and I just saw a sign for a crocodile pit - just over there." Ellie said, pointing towards a key-shaped structure cut down into the sand to their side.
Some Egyptian visitors walked towards them, so Ellie again reverted to Arabic. "This is a lovely shot of you, Papa. Look at the sun just lighting your face," she said, pointing at the camera screen. They were edging towards the crocodile pit when Ellie spotted something. She lifted her camera. "I'm taking a panorama to show Mama tonight. I hope she's feeling better."
She rotated, holding the camera in front of her so she had a full view of the surroundings, her peripheral vision being impaired by the headdress. Every person in the panorama was Egyptian, and most appeared to be watching them. There wasn't a foreign visitor in sight.
She stopped and showed the guys the image, whispering, "We have a problem. We're surrounded!"
Ben flicked his eyes around, estimating forty people in the immediate vicinity. He scanned the area, searching for cover. They were standing in a huge, open area with just a tiny temple building far in the back, columns left over from a long-vanished building, and a couple of oddly shaped pits. Nothing that would offer any cover, and the only clear exit was blocked by a tour group of Egyptians. They were trapped.
The flight or fight instinct kicked into gear. He felt the energy surge from his core, powering his muscles for action. His mind flicked through ways to protect his friends. The options were limited, and none appeared to have a favourable outcome. The group was becoming encircled by the pseudo-tourists when Ben finally felt the spark of Sobek and saw the faintest wisp of blue energy radiating from the belly of the crocodile pit.
Ben closed his eyes to centre himself and took a large breath. "To the pit - RUN!"
Gerhard and Ellie didn't stop to question Ben's instructions and instead picked up the hems on their gowns and sprinted. The wisps of energy unfurled like a fern leaf, reaching out towards the trio as they hurtled towards the key-shaped pit. The Egyptians surrounding them reached into pockets, jackets, and bags and withdrew weapons.
Time slowed as they raised the guns. Ben glanced sideways to see Ellie stumble and fall, tripped by the Abaya. He twisted to go back and help her, his arms pumping to propel him. He saw the puff of sand as she hit the floor and the other where the bullet sank into the gritty ground just to her left. He reached her side, tugging her to her feet and pulling her with him towards their goal.
The blue wisp grew larger and formed into a tentacle that swept some the gunmen off their feet. Gerhard had reached the barrier around the pit and hurdled it, like a man possessed, and ran down the steps before he wobbled to a complete halt at the sheer drop.
Ben pushed Ellie over barrier before climbing it himself. A hand grabbed him and pulled him backwards. As he toppled, he shot his head back and hit his assailant with a brutal headbutt. The man fell back, clutching his nose, out of the fight temporarily, but there were others right behind him. Ben jumped to his feet, preparing to face the assembled firing squad. Then the tentacle wrapped around him, lifting him clear of the barrier and throwing him into the bottom of the pit, knocking both Ellie and Gerhard to the base.
They lay in a jumble of arms and legs, winded and frightened, looking up at an array of weaponry that would have made Al Qaeda proud. Every gun pointed straight at them, and as they wriggled around, searching for an escape route, they realised they were trapped at the bottom of a deep pit. The first click of the safety release echoed around the chamber, amplified and sounding like the last death rattle. This was it. They were about to be killed, having no clue why they'd even been targeted.
Ellie crawled onto her hands and knees and pulled herself upright. "Wait! Tell me why you are targeting us! What the hell have we done to be hunted down? Why us? Tell me, in the name of all that is merciful!" she beseeched them in Arabic, turning and looking them all in the eye. "Cat got your tongues? Brave enough to chase me with a gun but not to tell me the truth before killing me?"
A dark man with leathered skin and a dusty turban rolled around his head spat down at her. "It's not what you've done but what you can do in the future. It's who you are - filthy infidels. The House of Scarabs will not rise - so help me, God."
The man jerked as another man hit him around the head whilst shouting, "Khalas, enough. Fire!"
The pit amplified the sound of each shot to a level of rolling thunder, which deafened the three trapped within it. A barrage of fire concentrated into one small area. Each bullet slowed and hovered in midair until there appeared to be a spherical umbrella of bullets floating over Ben, Ellie, and Gerhard's heads. The gunmen couldn't believe their eyes and continued to open rounds into the shaft, unable to see the protective sphere thrown up by the three deities who stood next to their hosts.
Ben turned to Sobek, who had taken a human-sized form. "Okay, you've got me here. Let's get this over with, so we can get back to normal life."
Sobek lifted his crocodile head, stared Ben in the eye, and with a nod, grabbed Ben's hand. The other deities gestured that the trio should form a circle with Sobek, linked by hands. When the circle was completed, the trio felt their bodies fall to the dusty floor. When they looked down, they realised they were no longer in their bodies. Just a sheer silk thread of energy tied them to the motionless forms.
Sobek pulled their hands, and they floated up the shaft, through the sphere, and over the heads of their attackers, leaving their unconscious bodies protected by Bastet and Khepri. Like balloons with trailing strings, they floated up and away - over the dusty roofs and streets, over the patchwork of emerald fields, over the sandy plains and crumbling mountains, ever farther from their empty bodies.
The Meld
Sobek landed in a sandy valley two miles south of Kom Ombo. As they touched down, they tried to stand, but without the weight of their bodies, gravity could not anchor them to the ground, so they floated in the breeze.
"That was amazing. It was like being a bird but with none of the effort of flying. Did you see the views?" Ellie said, buzzing with excitement.
Bent doubled, with his hands on his knees, Ben looked green around the gills. He grated out, "Never again."
Gerhard studied their surroundings for any indication of
where they'd been taken and why. They'd touched down in a dry desert basin with nothing but sand and crumbling rock formations, the largest of which had a large rectangular doorway carved into it, through which was a room. The cruise ship-shaped rock stood, like an iceberg in open water, anchored on the basin floor.
Finally, he said, "Ben, can you sense from Sobek if our bodies are safe with Bastet and Khepri?"
Ben raised himself up and peered at his familiar. "He's oozing tranquility at me, so I guess so," he answered before fixing a hard stare at the crocodile-headed man in front of him. "Dude, no more astral projections or whatever the hell that freaky journey was. Not cool, man. Not cool at all."
Sobek nodded slightly and turned to walk towards the formation. The trio sighed and followed him. Although the hill appeared small from a distance, it towered above them as they moved closer. The doorway was halfway up the side and a sheer climb up crumbling stone that would have been hazardous if they'd been on foot. Their ethereal forms made the ascent easier, allowing them to float up behind Sobek.
As they reached the door, Sobek gestured for them to wait as he entered and was swallowed by the darkness. After a few moments, he reappeared in the doorway and gestured for them to follow him.
They entered a room lit only at the opening by a golden rectangle of sunlight. The pitch-black room was pockmarked with deep vaults cut into the sides, long enough to hold fifteen-foot coffins. Each of the burial chambers was illuminated by a phosphorescent green glow. Four further passages were carved deeper into the hillside, and they each emitted the same light. In the centre of the room was a slightly raised plinth, which Sobek approached. As he walked up and centred himself on it, a shaft of light shot in from the doorway, illuminating his features. His crocodilian head was both fearsome and awe-inspiring. Ellie shuddered and turned to study the deep vaults more closely.
Some chambers still contained the wrapped mummies of long-dead crocodiles, preserved by the skill of the pharaohs’ priests. Inside every chamber was a small, transparent crocodile that appeared to be curled in sleep. It was these forms that emitted the eerie green glow. It struck Ellie that these were the souls of the crocodiles held in stasis within their burial place.
As she turned to share her findings with Ben and Gerhard, the light that illuminated Sobek fractured into hundreds of individual rays. Each flowed to a chamber, merging with the glow of the occupant before transforming into a bright blue energy that washed the crocodile in its healing warmth. Each of the crocodiles awakened, yawned, and then turned to face the exit of their vaults. As Ellie watched, they grew, some reaching twelve feet and more. She jumped back as one yawned, showing a mouthful of dagger-like teeth.
One by one, each of the crocodiles slithered out of their holes, snapping at each other as they made their way to the foot of Sobek's plinth. Pandemonium broke out. The larger crocodiles consumed the smaller ones with just a bite. Many scuffles between equal-sized individuals ended with one ripping the other limb from limb and consuming their spoils. The room became a bloodbath as a battle for supremacy broke out within the enclosed environment. From the sounds echoing down the passages, the same thing was happening throughout the Necropolis.
Ellie leapt into one of the vacated chambers, and Ben and Gerhard followed suit. None of them wanted to risk their ethereal forms. Sobek watched on with the same tranquility he'd projected to Ben earlier.
The room grew quiet as the winners from the four passages joined the main room's victor to have a final fight for supremacy. As each crocodile had won a fight and consumed its opponent, it had taken on their strength and the strengths the adversary had won in their own battles. So, the final five were monstrous in both size and strength. Each wore the scars of victory like medals on a general's chest.
The walls shook as tails whipped into them, causing huge structural cracks. Bloody limbs freshly ripped from their owners splattered against the walls. The sound of hisses and snarls shook dust from the old, carved-out ceiling, raining debris down onto the dueling monsters. Gerhard averted his eyes, unable to stomach the sight of more bloodshed and injury.
Finally, the room was empty except for one huge monster of a crocodile, battered and scarred but the final survivor of an epic battle. It padded over to Sobek, favouring its left leg and with part of its tail missing, its victory determined but not without significant personal cost.
Sobek bent to the crocodile and touched its head in a gesture like the knighting of a lord. As he stepped back, his form morphed into a full, twenty-foot-long Nile crocodile. Sobek opened his gaping maw and bowed down low. The other crocodile looked around the now vacant room before stepping into Sobek's mouth to be the final victim of the great sacrifice.
The trio remained fixed in place, stunned by what they'd witnessed, before scrambling out of the burial chamber and walking, somewhat hesitantly, towards Sobek, the God of Crocodiles.
"That is a spectacle I never wish to experience again," Gerhard murmured, taking cautious steps to avoid the blood pools and body parts that covered the chamber's floor. "Quite horrifying."
"Jeez, Gerhard, the understatement of the century. My stomach threatened to revisit breakfast more than once."
Ellie and Gerhard woke, heavy in their bodies. They stared up from the bottom of the shaft, able to see the Egyptians peering down at them but unable to move their bodies. Ben's soul hadn't rejoined his body and stood to its side. Sobek, in his vast form, took up most of the bottom of the pit.
Ben glanced down and saw water gurgling in from a hole in the wall and rising fast. He struggled to help his friends, but without the use of his body, he couldn't do anything. Ellie and Gerhard strained to break free of the paralysis to warn Ben about Sobek's approach, for the crocodile was prowling up behind him. Too late, Ben turned and saw Sobek's open mouth descend on him. Ben's soul was consumed within the essence that was Sobek.
The crocodile, in an almost perfunctory manner, turned to dine on Ben's body, swallowing him whole.
Gerhard called upon Bastet to break free of his binds. He bent down and scooped Ellie into his arms, shaking a little under her weight. There was nowhere to go, no way to escape the shaft. They had a heavily armed militia above them and their friend's killer behind them. He circled the pit, keeping his back to the wall and his eyes upon Sobek, who was undergoing a rapid growth spurt. His body now encircled the entire shaft, nose to tail. Gerhard realised this made the crocodile far less agile in the small space, which could give them a chance to outrun him. Ellie, still locked in her body, stared up at Gerhard with huge eyes.
The energy in the pit changed, amplified by the souls of Sobek's sacred crocodiles. Sobek pulsed with light, which grew brighter and intensified into a dazzling ring around the bottom of the shaft. The light gave a final blinding pulse before exploding upwards with tremendous force. The explosion blew out the top of the pit and everything near it, killing many of the Egyptians instantaneously and injuring most of the rest.
Gerhard had thrown himself to the floor, using his body to protect Ellie, and as most of the force of the explosion had gone up, they were unhurt. Ellie pushed free of him as soon as the rubble settled. Blinded by the light, they rubbed their eyes, blinking furiously. As their eyesight returned, they saw Ben standing quietly in the epicentre of the explosion, staring into space.
His meld with Sobek was complete.
Ellie and Gerhard ran to him, staring in awe. Unlike Gerhard, Ben had limited physical changes. The meld had enhanced his musculature, so he appeared stronger, and he had a few grey hairs at his temple, but his transformation was at a personality level. He projected a gravitas that had eluded him prior to the meld.
He stood. "Let's go while the going's good."
The Guardians of the Ankh
Tjati lowered the phone onto its receiver and stared into the distance. There was an inevitability to the call. Yet again, his plan had failed. He removed his glasses and rubbed the indentations on his nose. The weight of his task felt heavy on his s
houlders.
He remembered the conversation he'd had with his predecessor when the role was passed to him. The old man had been so sad that he hadn't been able to fulfil his duty and end the House of Scarabs. He'd told Tjati of all the things he'd done to find the members of The House of Bastet and The House of Sobek, and how they'd always slipped through his widely flung nets. The only solid lead he'd found was the location of the members of the House of Khepri. He'd deployed a policy of observation as he believed, as did their seers, that the House of Khepri would attract the other houses like bees to honey.
Tjati had considered his predecessor's counsel wise and followed the same approach. He stayed close to the family members of the House of Khepri, deploying undercover spies to ferret out intelligence on their plans. Yet, in the thirty years he'd headed the Guardians of the Ankh, he'd come to believe the Westons knew nothing of their heritage or great power. That belief comforted him. Still, he'd remained vigilant, always employing tactics to isolate and marginalise them.
He exhaled. Maybe this was all his fault. If he'd taken less notice of the advice, he'd have received and just obliterated the family earlier. The House of Scarabs wouldn't be so close to fulfilling the role outlined for it over three thousand years before.
I can't be the Tjati that failed. I can't be the one to allow this monstrosity to occur. The good Lord knows I've tried my hardest to be His true and loyal soldier.
He fell to his knees, a solitary tear trailing a path down his freckled cheek, and prayed as he'd never prayed before.
House of Scarabs Page 19