by Hall, Linsey
I waved at the sphinx, who growled, then turned to Del and raised my hand. The magic in my lightstone ring flared to life, shedding a golden glow over the dark tunnel. It sloped down, into the depths of the massive structure.
“Ready?” Del asked.
“As I’ll ever be.”
Del turned to start down the corridor as my light glinted off a razor wire stretched at neck level right ahead of her.
“Stop!” I lunged for her and grabbed the bag strapped to her back, dragging her to a halt. She stopped abruptly.
“Razor wire.” I raised my light to shine on it, but the wire was imperceptible again. It was only visible in the perfect light from the perfect angle. I pulled Righty, one of my trusty daggers, from my thigh sheath and held it out, waving it slowly till it tapped against the wire. “Thin enough you can’t see it most times. I got lucky with the lightstone.”
“Yeah.” A shuddery breath escaped Del. “I forgot about those. I’ve read how the Egyptians liked them for boobytraps, but completely forgot.”
“It’s cool. You don’t do this as much as me. Too busy killing demons.”
“True. But I’m glad you’ve got my back,” Del said.
Most of the time, Del was a bounty hunter who worked on commission for the Order of the Magica, the government body overseeing all magic users. They’d toss her in jail if they knew she was a FireSoul, totally uncaring that she’d never use her abilities to kill and steal another Magica’s powers. Getting tossed in the Prison for Magical Miscreants was pretty much all our worst nightmares.
Fortunately, the Order didn’t bother communicating directly with lowly bounty hunters. She never had to come into direct contact with them.
“I’ll lead.” I shined my light ahead and held Righty out at neck level, hoping it would catch on a wire before it could slit my throat.
It caught on three, and I was grateful as hell each time. As we walked, we passed by walls painted with tall, elegant figures. This would have been a burial place for a king or queen, the paintings telling the story of their life. Every now and then, statues stood lined up along the wall, ancient figures who’d been guarding this passage for millennia.
I’d have liked to have spent more time looking, but I wanted to get my hands on the dampener charm and see if it worked to suppress my nullifying powers enough that my normal gifts could be used.
We came to a split in the path, one leading down and the other continuing up.
“What do you think?” I asked Del. I wished I could use my own dragon sense to determine the way, but that wasn’t an option until I got the charm.
She closed her eyes, and her magic swelled on the air, the scent of clean cotton driving away the dusty aroma.
“Both could possibly work, but I think up,” she said.
“Up,” I said. “More important royalty were buried higher in the pyramid, so I bet it’s the shorter route.”
“Agreed.”
We veered right and started up the sloped path. After a few yards, the ground ahead turned white.
“Weird,” I said. A thick powder coated the entire path for the next several yards.
Del grabbed my shoulder, and I jerked to a halt.
“Retreat,” she whispered. “Don’t breathe.”
The seriousness in her voice froze my muscles. I stopped breathing and stepped back. We turned and hurried away.
When we reached the crossroads where we’d split off, I gasped in a breath and asked, “What was that?”
“Hematite powder. It’s super tiny granules but super sharp. If it gets into our lungs, it’ll kill us slowly.”
“Ouch.” Slow death was a big no-go area in my life plan. “Okay. Let’s go down and see if we can get around.”
We followed the sloped path down, checking out two false chambers on the way. Both had contained boxes full of treasure, but not the dampener charm. I’d seen diagrams of pyramids in which there were chambers deep under the desert. I was starting to lose track of how deep we’d gotten, but it felt like we’d left reality behind. It was deadly silent, dark, and the place shimmered with all kinds of threatening magic.
The air became more stale and the feel of the magic stronger as we descended. Supernaturals could usually only feel other living supernaturals’ signatures. But this place was different, and in all likelihood, haunted.
“I think the booby traps are about to get a lot harder,” I muttered.
“Yep.”
A moment later, the path opened up into a room. It was mostly empty with the exception of a statue of a seated god. The body was human, the head that of a jackal.
“Anubis,” Del said. “God of the dead.”
Around him, the walls were decorated with hieroglyphs. Every inch of stone was carved to tell a story that I couldn’t interpret.
“The door will be behind Anubis,” I guessed.
We approached slowly, our footsteps silent on the stone floor. I kept my gaze trained on Anubis’s face, waiting for any sign of life. Just because he was stone now didn’t mean he wouldn’t hop up and curse us.
I was so intent on his face that I almost missed the hieroglyph to the left side of his head starting to glow. It looked like a bird, which could mean just about anything. The symbol shined bright, then peeled itself away from the wall.
It shot toward us, quick as flame, and I threw myself to the side, pushing Del out of the way. As it flew by, the magic smelled like decay. Sick and dark.
“Curses!” I said. “Don’t let them hit you.”
There was no way to fight cursed hieroglyphs. Swords would do nothing, and neither of us had any kind of manipulation magic. If that would even work. If they hit us, they’d impart whatever curse they carried.
I did not want one of those.
Another glowing hieroglyph shot from the wall. I lunged left, avoiding it by a hair’s breadth.
Shit, shit, shit.
I called upon my nullification power, praying that it would work. Disempowering the magic that fueled the hieroglyphs was our only hope.
Normally, my innate magic felt distinct—the burn of flame or the chill of ice. But the nullification power felt like nothing. I reached for it anyway, praying I could get ahold of it and actually use it to my advantage.
On a stretch of mad luck, the nullification power surged, making my insides hollow out. I envisioned the cursed hieroglyphs falling to the ground and disappearing.
Two of them did just that, their glowing forms fizzling out as my nullification power dampened their magic. The dampening charm we were looking for was similar to my new power. But I hoped to use it against my new power.
Del looked around warily. “I think you’ve done it.”
“Yeah. Don’t know why it worked this time when it didn’t with the sphinx.”
“Practice, maybe.”
I glanced around warily, in case any other curses decided to jump off the wall. “I don’t think so. I never feel like I’m in control. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.” And I’d never been very successful with the few times I’d tried to practice.
“Well, whatever it is, let’s get out of here before you can’t hold them at bay.”
“Agreed.”
We walked to Anubis and peered around the back of his stone chair. There was a small passage. The exit was so easy. There wasn’t even a door. I swallowed hard, shivering.
“If it’s this easy to get out, those curses we dodged were definitely deadly,” I said. They’d planned to drop us in our tracks before we could even hope to get through this unguarded exit.
“Yep.” Del ducked and went through.
I followed, holding my light out ahead.
The passage on the other side was narrower than the one we’d been traveling down, but we could at least stand upright.
“It leads up,” Del said.
I raised my ring to reveal the path that tilted sharply upward. “We’re getting close.”
I led the way up the path, keeping my li
ght and my blade raised high to find any razor wires.
“Watch the ground at my feet,” I said, thinking back to a time five years ago when Del and I had been raiding a tomb in Southeast Asia. I hadn’t watched the ground ahead and had almost fallen into a pit of spiders. Del had caught me just in time, but I didn’t want to count on her doing it again.
Fortunately, she didn’t find any trap holes, and I didn’t fall into any. By the time we reached the room at the end of the hall, I was vibrating with the tension of waiting for the next boobytrap.
“This is weird,” Del said.
I looked at the piles of wood that were laid out neatly on the floor. Coils of rope were piled next to the wood. The walls were decorated with carved reliefs and hieroglyphs, but no door.
“Yeah,” I said. “Definitely odd.”
“At least the hieroglyphs aren’t coming alive,” Del said.
“Small mercies. But I don’t know what the hell we’re supposed to do with this wood.”
“Light a fire?”
I looked up, searching for holes in the wall. I caught sight of one in the ceiling. “Doubtful. There’s only one small air shaft in here. A fire would suck up all the oxygen in a heartbeat.”
I studied the carvings on the wall. There were hundreds, every inch covered with a story I couldn’t decipher. Del paced the edges of the room.
“No hidden doors,” she said.
My gaze roved the wall, looking for the beginning of the story. Maybe that would help me understand what we were supposed to do to get out of this weird room. The Egyptians wrote from right to left, in columns, so I started in the upper right corner of each wall.
“I can’t find the start,” I told Del.
“Well, it’s about a boat.” She pointed to one wall where a long, low boat was depicted on many of the carvings. Depending on the scene, the boat was loaded with goods or people. In the final scene, only one person rode upon the boat, standing at the bow.
I glanced at the piles of wood and rope. “Shit.”
“What?” Del asked.
“We have to build the boat.”
She laughed. “Build a boat?”
I crouched near one of the piles of wood while scouring the surface for clues. I found them near the edges of the wood. “Yeah. Look here. There’s holes all along the edges of the wood. And these little dash marks near the edge are a key.”
“A key?”
“Yep. We’re basically working with eighteenth dynasty Ikea furniture here. The four dashes on this piece of wood correspond with the four dashes on that piece.” I pointed to the long board right next to the one I was studying. “These two boards go next to each other. We just follow the directions. And the boards are jagged on the edges.” They actually looked a bit like very fat lightning bolts rather than your normal rectangular boards. “So they kinda fit together like a puzzle anyway.”
“Wow, you’re right,” Del said.
“Except we have no nails,” I said. “Or a hammer.”
Del’s face lit up. “We don’t need them. The Egyptians lashed their boats together with rope. I read that once.”
I glanced at the coils of rope, the last piece of the puzzle and the one I hadn’t quite understood. “Of course. There’s the rope.”
Del high-fived me. “Good work, Sherlock.”
“Let’s just hope we can build the thing.”
“At least it’s not a big boat,” Del said.
“Just pray it’s not a real river we’re going to be traveling upon.” But I didn’t think so. I didn’t see any caulking material, for one. And this was the desert. I’d bet money that the boat, when fully constructed, ignited a spell. We might travel down a magical river, but there’d be no real water.
“Let’s get started then,” Del said.
It took us a solid four hours and a whole lot of cursing, but we managed to get the small boat built. It was about twelve feet long and narrow. The jagged-edged planking had made it easier to assemble than I’d expected. Just like building a giant jigsaw puzzle. There were a few small spare chips of wood left over that we hadn’t been able to figure out, but it looked like a boat.
To finish the job, we wedged some larger pieces of wood next to the curved bottom of the boat to keep it sitting upright. They were too bulky to be pieces of the boat, so we assumed that was their purpose.
We stood next to our creation, our hands on our hips.
“So now what?” Del asked.
“I guess we should get in it.”
Gingerly, we climbed into the boat. As soon as my foot left the ground, the air shimmered with magic. It sparkled with a bright light and tingled against my skin.
In front of us, the ground turned to a shimmering blue, like a river. The boat moved, creaking forward on the river of magic.
Del gasped. I held on tight.
We drifted along the floor. When the bow touched the wall, I clenched my fists.
Come on.
The bow pierced the wall, gliding through effortlessly. The boat flowed forward. When I was nose to nose with the wall, I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to help myself.
When I didn’t feel the rough scrape of stone on my nose or the feeling of being shoved backward, I opened my eyes.
And stared straight into the black gaze of a mummy. A golden mask of a bird was propped over his face, and thin strips of dusty white fabric wrapped around his whole body.
I shrieked and lunged left, tumbling out of the boat.
You’ve got to be kidding me. I’d raided over half a dozen pyramids and the mummy was never awake. I scrambled away from him, my frantic gaze taking in the elaborate furniture, the ornately decorated boxes, and the food that sat out on golden platters.
The mummy’s sarcophagus sat in the center of the room, the heavy stone top pushed all the way off.
Del appeared as the boat finished drifting through. She screamed and tumbled out of the boat, too.
“He’s not supposed to be awake!” she shouted as she crab-walked backward, away from the mummy.
His beaked face was turned toward her. I had no idea if there was a bird head in there, but I didn’t want to find out.
He lumbered toward her, his arms outstretched. He moved slowly, in that comical way of old horror movies, but I’d heard mummies were damned strong if you had the misfortune to run across one who was alive.
“Gimme a sec! I’ll figure it out!” Frantically, I searched the room, feeling out all the magical signatures.
I didn’t want to hurt the mummy. Of all the historical treasures in this room, he was number one. And he was technically a person. Or he had been. Now he was a soul who couldn’t cross over. But if I wasn’t going to hurt him, I needed something to incapacitate him.
Egyptian royalty had traveled to the afterlife in their boat, like the one we’d ridden on, equipped with spells and magic that could ward off any bad things they might encounter on the other side.
There had to be something in here to help me.
“Cass! Hurry!” Del dodged the mummy, trying to stay out of his grasp.
There were weapons stacked against the walls, but she ignored them, likely knowing how much I wanted to avoid hurting him. I might raid tombs for a living, but I tried not to do much damage.
“Hold him off, Del,” I yelled. “I’m working on it!”
I raced around the room, feeling out the magical signatures of the artifacts. Only some had power, but most were indecipherable. That was normal—I didn’t usually even think about objects’ signatures because I couldn’t often tell what they were. But I needed abnormal now.
The mummy made a weird rasping noise as he chased Del. The sound made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“I think he’s upset!” Del yelled.
“Yep!” I hesitated near a golden vial. The magic that radiated from it made my skin tingle.
I shook my head and moved on. Too much energy in that one.
“Watch out!” Del shouted.
&
nbsp; I looked up. The mummy was coming straight at me, hands outstretched in classic mummy pose. It would have been funny if I weren’t so freaked out.
I dodged to the left, but he grabbed my arm.
“Shit!” I tried to yank away, but his grip was strong as steel. And cold. Way too cold for a mummy in this heat. His black gaze burned into me as I pulled away. Before I raced across the room, I got a feel for his magic and caught the slightest whiff of decay. That scent usually accompanied dark magic. Beneath it was the smell of fresh fruit.
It hit me then. The mummy had been cursed. The fruity smell was his normal magic. The decay was the scent of the curse lingering over him. I’d smelled the like before, on people who were wearing slave collars that poisoned them with dark magic. Aaron, the only other FireSoul I’d ever met besides my deirfiúr, had smelled like that.
The mummy made a rasping noise and whirled to face me.
“He’s cursed,” I said. “That’s why he’s awake.”
“So let’s put him to sleep.”
The mummy lumbered toward us, creepy as hell with his dead-looking eyes peering out through the golden mask. Maybe I could nullify the curse that kept him awake.
“Distract him while I try something,” I said.
Del gave a little whoop that attracted the mummy’s attention. When his head swung toward her, she raced toward him, then dodged away. He followed.
I focused on the Nullifier’s magic, trying to draw it out of myself and propel it toward the mummy.
But I got nothing but crickets. Whatever nullifying gift I had lay dormant inside me. Except for the fact that it screwed with my own magic.
Damn it.
“Find a charm or potion that might put him to sleep,” I said. “There might be something here to help him in the afterlife.”
Del and I began to search, feeling for the magical signature on the enchanted artifacts and potions. The mummy raced after us, hot on our heels as we dodged him.
I plucked a blue vial off the top of a box when the mummy’s cold hand gripped my arm again. I yanked away, shuddering, and the desperate noise that rattled through his throat made my hair stand on end. I darted to the other side of the room, trying to focus on the feel of the magic in the blue vial I clutched.