“Then we don’t have much time. The forest and the pools are the only pure sources of drinking water in the netherworld,” I said.
“How do you know that?” Asten asked.
“I’m not sure. I just do. Have the two of you slept?”
“We don’t need much,” Ahmose said. “If you’re ready, we can move on.”
“Good.” I nodded, moving to stand on shaky legs, determination pushing my grief to the back of my mind. “It’s time to find Amon.”
We’d only traveled for a few hours when we discovered we were being followed. Reaching the summit of a jagged peak, we paused to take in the view of the wide valley below, and I spotted a dark herd of something on the horizon. “What’s that?” I asked. “Some kind of netherworld buffalo?”
Even though I’d asked the question, a part of me suspected—no, knew—it was wishful thinking. Still, I hoped I was wrong.
“No, they aren’t buffalo,” Asten said, finally ending the stony silence he’d maintained since we broke camp. He peered down, watching the moving animals for a time. “Is it what I think it is?” Asten asked his brother.
“I’m afraid so,” Ahmose replied.
“What do you think is it, then?” I asked, not really wanting them to confirm what my mind screamed was true.
“It’s the pack.”
No! We mustn’t let them overtake us! I felt Tia’s panic and tried to soothe her, but she wouldn’t listen.
“Are you sure?” I asked quietly.
He nodded. “They must’ve gotten themselves freed somehow.”
“And now they’re coming for us.” The three of us watched the pack of hellhound jackals, which I estimated were still a few miles off but they were closing in fast. If we’d been downwind, I would have already been able to smell them.
“The mountain will slow them down,” Asten said.
Ahmose rubbed his jaw. “Yes. But they’ll overtake us eventually.”
“Can we fight them?” I asked.
Asten shook his head. “No. There are too many. We could fight off a pack half that size, but all the hellhounds in the netherworld? It’s not possible.” He glanced up at his brother. “I say we make a run for it. Worst-case scenario, we take to the sky.”
Ahmose considered this and then nodded. “Agreed. It’s time to go, Lily. Let’s test your speed. See if you can outdistance us.”
I was eager, afraid, and hesitant all at the same time, but thinking of Amon drove me forward. Realizing that he and his suffering had not always been at the forefront of my mind racked me with guilt. When the descent from the mountain became treacherous, Asten picked me up, and the three of us floated down. I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck.
Flying felt more natural now than it had the other times. It was almost…instinctive. I wasn’t affected by dizziness or vertigo. I didn’t realize until we touched down that I’d been absentmindedly playing with Asten’s hair. All my concerns of before had lessened significantly just by being near him. He hadn’t said anything about my mood shift, and I flushed with embarrassment at my actions. What was going on with me?
I’d say acting like a bit of a hoyden, a voice whispered in my mind.
That sounds about right, I thought. To be fair, though, I wasn’t doing it on purpose.
A part of you was, the voice argued. A part of you wanted to.
Tia? I asked.
What? I heard her sullen, dull voice respond.
Tia, you know how I feel, I said.
It’s the same as before, she finally said after a tense silence. If you weren’t open to the idea, these feelings wouldn’t be there.
I sighed. How was I ever going to straighten this mess out? Still, I rationalized as I ran, the most important thing isn’t my love life; it is saving Amon. Everything else I could figure out later.
Are ya sure ya want to fight? my inner voice countered. A good run is better than a bad stand, ya know.
What was I saying?
Did a part of me fear standing up to the Devourer? We could win. I believed it. The gods must believe it, too; otherwise why would they have sent us here? When I first began to run, I staggered. My skin burned and sweat poured down my face. Something was wrong. I felt like I was in a three-legged race and my stride was strained and disjointed. The power and grace of the sphinx eluded me. Bending over, I panted and begged Tia for her help. We’ve got to regulate our temperature or we’ll burn up before we get there, I said.
I tried again, and it took a few minutes, but then something clicked into place once, twice, and I found my rhythm. My body cooled, and I ran faster than I ever had before. The speed I was capable of astounded both brothers, and I could have easily outdistanced them if it hadn’t been necessary to stick to Ahmose’s path.
We’d run for a couple of hours when Ahmose called for a halt. They were drained, and I knew it was because they were feeling the effects of Amon’s torture again. The three of us rested as we felt the energy leak out of us. When we came to our senses, I was famished and quickly scarfed down the meager remnants of the food the tree had given us after the brothers insisted that my living body needed the fuel more. Seeing Asten and Ahmose only drinking water didn’t sit right with me.
I offered to hunt for them, but they determined that hunting would take too much time, and I knew they were right. When I lifted my nose to scent the air, the wind now carried the stench of jackals. I shivered, and the part of me that wanted to kill every last one of them and rip them apart with my claws rose to the surface. I sneered. “Mangy beasts,” I hissed. “They don’t deserve a calm, simple second death. They should be killed over and over until there’s nothing left of them but a smear in the dust where they died.” Pausing, I tilted my head to the left and murmured, “Many a time a man’s mouth broke his nose.”
“What’s that?” Ahmose asked.
“Uh, nothing,” I replied. “I’m finished. Let’s get going.”
We ran and ran until I was certain that even the power of the sphinx couldn’t carry me forward another step. “We’ve got to rest,” I cried. “I’m shattered.”
“Shattered, are you?” Ahmose chuckled, then bent over, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. “I’ve never heard that term before,” he added.
I smiled. “Ya have a nice laugh. Me mother says, ‘A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures.’ ”
“And what do they cure?” he asked.
“Ach, everything. All the pains of the world disappear if you can find something to laugh about and, if not, things often look different in the mornin’.”
Ahmose was about to say something when a hand grabbed my arm. “What are you saying, Lily?” Asten demanded.
“What?” I replied, irritated that he would manhandle me so. “I’ll thank ya ta let me go now.”
He sucked in a breath and glanced briefly at Ahmose. “I think we need to talk. Alone,” he added with emphasis.
Now I was thoroughly upset. “No. Anythin’ ya need ta say, ya can say in front o’ him. I’ve got nothin’ to hide.”
“Nothing to hide?” Asten barked, running a hand through his hair. The cleft in his chin deepened and his eyes flashed dangerously. “You’re—” He gritted his teeth. “You’re not yourself, Lily.”
“Do ya mean ta traduce me, then? And in front of this lovely gentleman, too?” I said, jerking a thumb over my shoulder to indicate Ahmose. “Lily,” I spat, scoffing at his use of the name. “Who are you to judge what I am?” I asked, jabbing a finger into Asten’s chest. “Lily is a fragment of what we are. I am much more than Lily. When ya call me that, it diminishes the other parts o’ me. I do not appreciate it. Perhaps, mah friend”—I twitched my fingers, running them up his chest, over the cleft of his chin, and then tapped his nose—“ya should consider that it’s often better ta be found with good manners than good looks.”
Asten raised my wrist as if I were a fish at the market he was showing off and looked at Ahmose. “Do you see?” he
asked as I struggled against him to free myself. “She’s different. Even more so than when she appeared as the sphinx.”
“Let. Me. Go!” I insisted, and Asten finally released me. I rubbed my wrist and glared at him all the while a part of me yearned to feel his arms around me.
Ahmose cautiously approached me, exuding tenderness and compassion from his gray gleaming eyes.
I sniffled and scrubbed my palms against my eyes. They itched. My brain did, too. I pressed my hand against the stela but didn’t feel any surge of energy.
Gently, Ahmose took hold of my shoulders.
“You don’t wish to be called Lily any longer?” he asked.
I shook my head no but felt confused as to why I did so.
“Then what should we call you? Sphinx?” he asked.
“Yes. I mean, no.” I let out a breath and pressed my palms against my temples, squeezing to stop the pain. “I guess it’s the best thing to do for now.”
I could feel Ahmose’s eyes on me. “Does your head hurt?”
Wincing, I nodded.
“Will the stela heal you?”
“We’ve been tryin’,” I said. “It doesn’t seem ta work.”
“We can try to help you, if you’ll let us. I’m a healer. Remember?”
“Yes,” I murmured quietly. “I remember.”
“Then close your eyes and try to relax. Breathe deeply.”
Obediently, I did what he asked and took in a cleansing breath. Ahmose gently took my hands from my head and began massaging my temples. “Ach, that’s lovely,” I said, feeling the tension in my body ease for the first time in what felt like forever.
A lilting hum intertwined with a purr filled my mind.
Asten came close and spoke softly in my ear. “Do you recognize me?”
“Yes,” I answered, feeling as if someone else was communicating for me. “You are Asten.” My cheeks tensed briefly as I felt myself smile. “A handsome and brave warrior. One who sends my heart to the stars.”
There was a pause. “Ah, yes. When I speak, you will answer me truthfully. To do otherwise would bring you great sorrow. Do you understand?”
“Are you sure this is necessary?” I heard Ahmose ask. His voice sounded distorted like I was eavesdropping from underwater.
I never heard Asten’s reply.
“Tell me,” Asten demanded. “Who are you?”
I worked my jaw back and forth, my mouth forming words that seemed to be lifted directly from my mind. In a trancelike voice, almost unrecognizable to me, I said, “I am Lily.” A rumble echoed deep from my chest and I turned my head to the right with my eyes still closed and heard a silky, yet powerful voice announce, “I am Tia.” I sensed Asten preparing to ask another question but I wasn’t finished. I cocked my head to the left side and a third voice, one with a halting Irish lilt, said, “And I…am Ashleigh.” After the third voice spoke, something ruptured inside my brain, and if Asten hadn’t caught me, I would have hit the ground, hard.
When I woke, it was to the sight of Asten and Ahmose staring at me with concern but there was something else in their eyes, too. Something I didn’t think I’d ever seen before, not even when they’d faced a giant zombie army. It was pure fear. “What is it?” I gasped. “Have the jackals found us?”
“No. We are safe enough for now,” Ahmose answered softly.
I glanced around and saw we were atop a steep and narrow butte. The area we sat on was flat and just big enough for the three of us if only one of us slept at a time. Just behind me the vertical drop-off plummeted straight to the ground below and it appeared that this was true all the way around the formation. In fact, the only possible way we could have gotten to the top would have been to fly there. Dark forms circled our tiny perch far below.
“They’ve overtaken us,” I said.
“Yes,” Asten answered, “but that is the least of our concerns at the moment.”
“The least of your concerns? I’d say it’s a pretty big concern, especially since the Devourer likely knows where we are. What else could possibly be concerning you at present?”
Asten frowned and opened his mouth but seemed hesitant to speak. Instead, he looked to Ahmose, who furrowed his brow before finally saying what was on his mind. “How are you feeling, Lily?” he asked watchfully.
I folded my arms across my chest. “Fine. Considering everything. Why?”
“Where are you from?”
“New York.”
“What’s Dr. Hassan’s first name?”
“Oscar.”
“Why are we here?”
“To save Amon.” I threw my arms up. “What’s with the twenty questions?”
“We just wanted to make sure you’re you,” Asten said.
“Who else would I be?” I asked testily.
Ahmose sighed. “We did a spell on you and”—he seemed uncomfortable—“we discovered that you’re not alone in your mind.”
“What are you two talking about? You know I have Tia, too. Though she has been extremely quiet as of late. It’s like pulling teeth to get her to talk.”
“That’s just it, Lily. She has been quiet but now another voice is taking over.”
“Another?”
Ahmose nodded. “You’re still there, which is a relief, but there’s Tia and now…Ashleigh.”
“Hold on. Are you saying the fairy is in my mind, too?”
“The spell confirmed it,” Asten said. “We aren’t sure how it happened. Perhaps it had something to do with the tree?”
“Or fairy magic?” Ahmose suggested.
A humming sound started to fill my brain again. “No. No. This isn’t possible. How is this possible?” I started rocking back and forth, my arms clasped around my knees. “I’m going crazy, aren’t I? This happened to the other sphinx. She went crazy. Asked to be killed. What am I going to do?” Reaching out, I grabbed Asten’s arm and took hold of Ahmose’s hand with my other one, shaking them both. “You’ve got to help me. Isn’t there something you can do?”
Ahmose shook his head sadly. “We’ve never encountered anything like this before. What’s…disturbing is that there are times when you don’t seem to be aware that you’re not in control.”
“What?” I gasped. “Are you sure?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Asten said. “Do you remember…dreaming with me?”
“Dreaming? What specifically are you talking about?”
“There was a shooting star, a grassy hillside?”
“No.” I shook my head. “The last dream I remember was seeing Amon being tortured.”
Asten nodded curtly. “That proves it, then. It wasn’t you.”
“Wasn’t me? You saw me, but I wasn’t me?”
“It was you, in body, but not in mind. Did Hassan say anything about the merging of your consciousness or about one of you disappearing?”
I thought for a moment. “Hassan said that because I didn’t kill Tia, our minds would fight for control over my body. And Horus said something about the power of the sphinx working when the two of us agreed on what we were doing and that the only time we could be fully ourselves was when the other—or, I guess, others now—acquiesces or sleeps.”
“So it was Tia who dreamed with me,” Asten mused thoughtfully.
I pressed my hands against my face. “This is really confusing.” Taking a deep breath, I looked up at the netherworld sky and wondered what was going to become of me. Then I realized it didn’t matter. What did matter was finishing what I set out to do. Crazy or not, possessed by a lioness and a fairy or not, I was going to save Amon.
Standing up, I dusted my hands on my leggings and assumed control, silencing every other voice in my mind. “Let’s put these multiple personalities-slash-psychosomatic issues of mine in the parking lot and decide what to do about that at another time. For the moment, we’ve got bigger fish to fry. Let’s hope we’ll find a solution later on down the road. If either of the other girls comes out to play, I trust the two of you
will keep them aimed in the right direction.”
Asten and Ahmose looked at each other and then nodded.
“Good. Shall we go, then?”
Asten handed me my weapons and I noticed that his fingers lingered over my hand for just a moment longer than necessary, but I ignored the gesture. When he offered to carry me, I purposely went to Ahmose instead, attempting to pay no attention to Asten’s clenched jaw and how it made the cleft in his chin deepen. I itched to question Tia about what she’d been doing while in control of my body, but I tamped down those thoughts, which smacked of betrayal. The truth was, I needed her and I knew it.
Ahmose seemed willing and happy to help and didn’t appear to notice how quiet his brother was. Pressing my hand against Amon’s heart scarab, I felt the thump of it against my palm and turned in a slow circle until I knew the direction we should take. The feel of it steadied me. “That way.” I pointed, and as we rose into the air, I heard the cries of jackals far below. Though I knew they followed us, we soon outdistanced the pack.
A few hours later, I spied something that looked very familiar. It was the iron wall my dream self had climbed when I first saw the Devourer. I wasn’t sure if she was there, but I knew Amon was. His heart called to me. It was so much weaker now than it had been before, but at least I knew he was alive.
We touched down on a lip where we could crouch and peer into the stone theater beneath us. There was no sign of the woman I’d seen before, but I knew that didn’t mean much. I scanned the area, and though the pole Amon had been chained to previously was still there, he wasn’t. The iron chains that had held him hung limply, clinking softly against each other as they stirred in the breeze.
“Where is he?” I whispered.
“Does your heart tell you he’s here?” Asten asked.
“Yes.”
“Perhaps it is a trick,” Ahmose suggested.
“I suppose it’s possible,” I agreed. “Let’s try to get down there.”
I was about to reach for my weapons when I paused. “She’ll suck us dry sure as I’m talkin’ to ya right now. Fightin’ this many is like tryin’ ta empty a pond with a pail. I think it’s best we leave. If we’re real quiet-like, she may not even notice us at all.”
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