Fight of the Falcon God

by Dan Hunter

  Just for a second, uncertainty showed on Sokar’s arrogant face.

  Then, with a snarl, he smashed his sword down where Akori stood.

  Akori dived out of the way just in time and gave Sokar’s arm a powerful whack with his stone club.

  The God moaned in surprise and pain. He dealt out two-handed blows to this side and that, pounding the earth with his sword like a blacksmith bashing the dents out of a piece of metal. But no matter how hard he tried to slice Akori in two, Akori was quicker on his feet and always ducked away at the last moment.

  I have to even the odds, Akori thought desperately, as he dodged yet another ringing blow. I can’t keep jumping about like a gazelle for ever – he’ll tire me out!

  Then he saw his bravery was catching. Manu, determined to help, had circled around to Sokar’s side and was tugging at his bandages! The God was ignoring Manu completely, as if he wasn’t even worth his attention. His gaze was fixed on Akori as he readied another blow.

  Sokar’s huge sword crashed into the ground near Akori, spattering him with sand and churned earth. That was too close!

  Akori was panting heavily now, worn out by the effort of dodging Sokar’s blows. Sokar, on the other hand, wasn’t flagging at all. The God was just too strong! That sword of his could split solid stone!

  An idea came into Akori’s mind. He glanced around, and found what he was looking for almost instantly – a thick stone slab a short distance behind him, fallen from a forgotten tomb.

  Now he just had to time his leaps perfectly, so Sokar wouldn’t suspect anything.

  He sidestepped Sokar’s next blow, then stepped cautiously backwards, hoping Sokar would think he was losing the will to fight.

  The God took the bait and stepped forwards, grinning. Manu was still tugging at Sokar’s loose bandages, gradually unravelling them, exposing his putrid flesh.

  Sokar struck out again. Akori jumped backwards. Again – and now Akori was standing on the stone slab.

  This would be the hardest part of all. He’d have to pretend he’d given up.

  He stood still, his club by his side, and waited for Sokar’s final blow.

  “You face your death bravely,” Sokar hissed, readying his sword. “I admit, you have been a worthy foe. But you will be just as dead for all that!”

  Akori said nothing. He set his jaw and glared defiantly into Sokar’s hideous face.

  Sokar swung his sword with all his might.

  At the crucial last moment, Akori dodged. Sokar’s blade sliced deep into the stone. Akori could only hope it was deep enough…

  “So, a coward after all,” Sokar sneered.

  He tugged at his sword, trying to pull it free from the stone, but it was stuck fast.

  “No!” he bellowed. “Wretch! You dare deceive me?”

  Now, Akori thought, while he’s good and angry.

  Akori ran back to the edge of the chasm. Sokar abandoned his trapped sword and came lumbering after him, a maddened giant.

  Manu caught Akori’s eye and gave him a quick nod to say he was ready. As Sokar came charging past, Manu grabbed the end of a loose bandage and ran around the base of a statue, pulling it taut.

  Now he just needed Ebe to do her part. There she was, in giant cat form once again, bounding silently behind Sokar.

  As the God roared and charged, Ebe launched herself through the air and knocked the God off his feet. Manu hauled on Sokar’s bandage at the same time.

  The God stumbled, staggered, and with a dreadful yell went tumbling into the open chasm. Hundreds of mummified arms clutched at him as he fell. A violent crash shook the earth as he hit the bottom.

  “He’s down!” Akori shouted. “Now we just have to make sure he stays that way!”

  They looked down. Sokar lay groaning, far beneath them. He was stunned now, but soon he’d recover. Then he would be on their heels again.

  “Sokar’s magic opened up that chasm,” Manu said. “Maybe one God can break the magic of another. Or…a Goddess?”

  Ebe nodded her tawny head. She laid a paw on the edge of the pit and her eyes blazed with a fierce golden light. A deep grinding rumble sounded and the chasm closed, trapping the groaning Sokar in its depths like a mummy in a walled-up tomb.

  Akori glanced quickly at the horizon. The fight had taken up valuable time. Already the sky was darkening and night was creeping ever closer. They had to reach the Valley of the Kings before sunset, or else they would fail in their quest to save Egypt.

  “No time to celebrate,” Akori warned them. “All this was for nothing unless we can make it to my tomb before the sun comes up.”

  Akori quickly retrieved his khopesh before Manu led them back to the path and pointed up to the hills ahead. “We should make it, but we’ll have to hurry.”

  “Shame Ebe can’t carry us!” Akori said.

  “She has to conserve her power. A God in mortal form is limited in what they can do,” Manu reminded him.

  Ebe, shrunk to small size again, went racing ahead of them with her tail held high. As Akori set off after her, a deep groan resounded from below the earth. Sokar was clearly angry, and trying to dig his way out! Akori put on a fresh burst of speed.

  The three of them ran as fast as they could. They passed sprawling tomb complexes where families had lain interred for hundreds of years and humble graves that were nothing more than a mound of dirt with a wooden marker.

  Again and again, Akori looked back over his shoulder at the western horizon, certain that he would soon see the sun disappear completely, spelling total disaster. They had to get to the tomb before nightfall, Horus had said.

  Eventually, winded and footsore, they reached the rocky slope-sided region that Manu had called the Valley of the Kings. Dark cave mouths gaped up on the hillsides, the entrances to royal tombs from before Akori’s time.

  “They’re…high up…to discourage tomb robbers,” Manu panted, answering a question that nobody had asked.

  There was nothing for it but to climb – a wearying, punishing climb that left Akori’s limbs aching. Even the sight of his own tomb’s entrance, when at last it came into view beyond a bulge of rock, hardly troubled him now. He was so worn out, he wondered if he would fall asleep in his own coffin.

  It was strange to think that when he’d woken up this morning, it had seemed like an ordinary day – as ordinary as being Pharaoh would ever be, that is. Now here he was, about to enter the Underworld.

  Ebe wasn’t bothered by the climb at all. She hopped from rock to rock, looked back at them anxiously and climbed further. Akori remembered how easily she’d climbed up the sheer rock face on their very first quest. They should have guessed there was something of the cat about her a lot sooner…

  “Hurry!” Manu yelled from behind him. “We need to get inside!”

  Akori scrambled up the last ledge and walked warily into the open tomb. Ebe came with him, swishing her tail impatiently. Lights were glimmering from inside. He froze. Facing him from the other end of the hallway was – his own face! It was a carved stone bust of him wearing the Double Crown. Its blank, empty eyes stared at him like a foretaste of his own death. At least I have the right tomb, he thought.

  “Akori!” came the panicked cry from outside. “The sun’s setting!”

  Akori didn’t want to go anywhere near that creepy stone face, but he took a deep breath and pushed past it into the main burial chamber.

  Light came from flickering oil lamps on little ledges in the wall. Akori’s sarcophagus awaited him. Mysterious-looking hieroglyphs covered its sides. On the top was an image of Akori himself; he shuddered at the sight of it. Akori tried to shove the lid off. Manu came to help him, and between them they shifted the massive slab enough to expose what lay within.

  Inside the stone sarcophagus was a second coffin, this one a mummy case made from wood. It gleamed with gold leaf and bright blue lapis lazuli.

  Akori was relieved to see the face wasn’t a very good likeness this time, but it still gave him the c
reeps to see it. Climbing into your own coffin seemed too much like inviting death to come and claim you. Outside it was growing ever darker. The sun was sinking below the horizon…

  Akori heaved the coffin open. “Everyone get inside,” he said. “It’s going to be cramped, but it’s what Horus said to do.”

  He clambered unsteadily into the open mummy case. Manu followed, pressed up against him, breathing heavily. His flesh felt clammy and cold against Akori’s skin. Akori realized he must be terrified. Ebe nestled at their feet, a comforting warm presence. He lowered the lid of the coffin on top of them. They lay together in darkness for a few moments. There was no sound but their breathing.

  “Now what?” whispered Manu.

  “I don’t know,” Akori whispered back. “I guess we just wait.”

  But no sooner had he said that than a dim blue light began to appear. Glowing hieroglyphs were appearing on the inside of the casket lid, as if an invisible stylus was scratching the darkness away.

  “Can you read that?” Manu asked, awed. “It’s a bit beyond what we’ve been practising with.”

  Manu was right. This was way beyond Ankhesenamun likes the dog and See Tuthmose run. But Akori was determined to try. His lips moved as he read the symbols.

  “It’s a coffin text!” he burst out. “You told me about these!”

  “That’s right,” Manu said. “A magical verse, to help the dead Pharaoh’s soul make it through the challenges of the Underworld. They’re meant for dead people to read, but this one looks like it’s meant for us.”

  Akori hesitated. “Should I read it out? It…won’t pull my soul out of my body, will it?”

  “We’ll read it together,” Manu said firmly. “That way, whatever happens will happen to us both.”

  “Ready?”

  “Let’s do this.”

  Together, they began to read the ominous-looking text. Even in that tiny, cramped space, the words seemed to echo. From somewhere, a whispering inhuman voice was reading the words along with them:

  “I shall sail rightly in my vessel, I am Lord of Eternity in the crossing of the sky…”

  As they read the coffin text, the writing blazed brighter, the unseen stylus wrote faster and faster, and the whole coffin suddenly began to tremble…

  Akori badly wanted to ask Manu if he knew what was going on, but he didn’t dare stop chanting. They were halfway through the coffin text, and the more they read, the more the coffin shook and shuddered around them.

  Bump, rattle, bump. It felt as if the flimsy wooden coffin was sliding down the side of a rocky mountain, about to fly off into space. The very next second, Akori’s heart lurched as a rushing sensation took over from the bumps and rattles. Maybe we have flown off the edge of a cliff, he thought. His mouth was dry with fear, but he forced himself to keep chanting. Beside him, Manu nervously accompanied him. Was that whistling wind he could hear? The coffin was definitely falling through space now. Akori felt weightless – that horrid feeling of having missed a step, just before you jar your leg.

  His mind raced with images as he tried to imagine what was happening to them. Maybe a hidden panel had opened in the tomb, sending the coffin and its three frightened occupants hurtling down a rocky chute before ejecting them in some unknown underground cavern. Or maybe – it almost stopped Akori’s heart with fear to think about it – Sokar had found them, picked the coffin up, shaken it furiously and hurled it high into the sky.

  Whatever was happening to them, one thing was for sure. It couldn’t go on for ever. Any fall, no matter how unexpected, always had to end in a landing. And it seemed horribly likely that this would be a crash landing.

  They were coming to the very end of the coffin text. Akori knew, by some deep instinct, that it would also mark the end of their strange journey. He braced himself for the impact.

  They read the last syllable. Akori closed his eyes. Soon there would be splintering wood, screams and agony.

  But the crash never came.

  There was a new sound, a rhythmic, splashing noise. It sounded like someone washing clothes on the bank of the Nile, or like something dipping into the water and coming out again.

  Akori had to see where they were. Very cautiously, he lifted the lid of the coffin. What he saw nearly made him drop the lid in fright. The tomb walls that had surrounded them had vanished. They were on board a boat. Only a flaming torch at the bow gave any light. They were being rowed through darkness.

  This must be the land of the dead, he thought. Everything I’ve ever known – fields, houses, the palace – is now far beyond our reach. This is it. We’re in the Underworld.

  The splashing sound was coming from two long jet-black oars that propelled the boat along. The man holding the oars was tall and muscular. But although his body faced the coffin, his head was twisted completely in the opposite direction.

  “We’re on Aken’s barge,” Akori told the others breathlessly. Ebe mewed her assent.

  Akori had encountered Aken before. He was the ferryman of Anubis, who took the souls of the dead down into the Underworld. He couldn’t be reasoned with, and no threat would make him turn his boat around. He only ever made one journey – and those he brought with him, as Akori knew all too well, never returned.

  Akori had tricked him once. He’d used the Talisman of Ra to make Aken think it was still daylight, cleverly keeping the barge from descending into the Underworld and taking Manu, Akori and Ebe down with it.

  “Pray he doesn’t recognize you,” Manu said. “He might not be happy about the way we deceived him before…”

  But Aken didn’t turn around. He didn’t even act like he remembered Akori from before. He just kept rowing and rowing, as if he was in a trance.

  “There’s no going back now,” Akori whispered. “Aken’s barge has sunk down into the Underworld and taken us with it.”

  Aken was rowing his barge down a bubbling black river. It was the same size and shape as the Nile, but seemed to be made of liquid darkness. The burning torch cast no reflection in its troubled surface. Akori could only just make out the riverbank, far in the distance.

  “Horus said we have to follow the path taken by the dead,” said Manu. “The first caverns of the Underworld are horrible enough at the best of times. But with Set in charge? It’s going to be like a nightmare come true.”

  Akori clenched his jaw and tried not to think about it.

  “I’ve read about the worst parts of the Underworld in the scrolls,” Manu kept on. “Monstrous beasts, waiting to tear you to pieces and devour you. Lakes of scorching fire; terrible tortures too terrifying to imagine.”

  Akori tensed all over, unable to drive the horrible images from his mind. “Please shut up!” he groaned.

  “And you know what’s waiting at the end of it all, don’t you?” Manu said, ignoring Akori’s pleas. “Ammit, the Eater of Souls. A horrendous hybrid monster that can devour the soul of any being in creation. I expect even a God would never come back if Ammit swallowed them up—”

  Ebe hissed furiously. She doesn’t want to listen to him any more than I do, Akori thought.

  Finally the message seemed to sink in. Manu fell silent. He didn’t speak again for a long time.

  Akori suddenly noticed the riverbank was much closer now. “Follow me,” he said, cautiously leading Manu and Ebe out of the coffin.

  “Do we swim?” Manu said fearfully.

  Ebe gave a yowl of protest at the idea.

  Akori looked at the bank. “I don’t think we’ll have to,” he said excitedly. “Aken’s coming close to the land. When we get near enough, we’ll jump.”

  Aken showed no sign of having heard them. Still, Akori didn’t want to alert him to their escape. They were his cargo, after all, and he might not appreciate it…

  “Ready?” Akori said as the bank drew closer. “Now!”

  One after the other, they leaped onto the shore.

  Off in the distance, Akori could just make out the shape of a gigantic archway clos
ed off by an enormous gate.

  “That must be the Gate we need to open,” he said. “Manu? What do you think?”

  “I don’t know, Akori,” Manu said, sounding completely lost. “Everything seems completely different from the ancient guides.”

  “Maybe Set’s made some changes since he’s been in charge,” Akori said grimly. “The Underworld is supposed to be a place where the dead are judged fairly, right? I can see why Set would want to change that.”

  “Oh, I think there have been some changes all right,” Manu stammered. “Akori, look…”

  Lumbering towards them was a terrifyingly familiar sight. The gigantic figure of Sokar, his mouth flaming, was charging at them.

  Even worse was the monster that followed behind Sokar, beside which he looked like a small child. It was a scaled, hideous creature as large as a house, with the body of a crocodile and the head of a hippopotamus. The mouth gaped wide, wide enough to swallow all three of them whole…

  “Trespassers!” Sokar roared. “You have entered the domain of Set!”

  “The domain of Osiris!” Akori yelled back defiantly.

  Sokar gave a sinister laugh and stood with his arms folded. “Not any longer. The old order has been destroyed. My master and his champion are Lords of the Underworld now.”

  “I gave his so-called champion something to remember me by, last time we met,” snarled Akori, brandishing his khopesh dangerously. “Does it still sting?”

  Sokar snorted in contempt. “Enough of this foolishness. There is a sacrifice to be made.” He beckoned, and the immense monster behind him came thundering forwards.

  “What is that thing?” Akori whispered to Manu.

  “Its name is secret,” Manu said. He was shaking so hard he could hardly get the words out. “It’s the Guardian of the Gate.”

  “So what did he mean by a sacrifice?”

  With astounding speed for something so huge, the Guardian lunged its open mouth at Ebe.

  “No!” Akori yelled and flung himself at her.

  He snatched up the terrified cat just in time. The huge mouth slammed shut only a hair’s breadth away from him. A stench of putrid meat came from the huge flared nostrils, making Akori feel sick.