by Scott Peters
The medjay had sharp ears, for he turned and glared. Zet knew a number of local medjay. He even had a friend in the police force after helping solve several crimes. This man, dressed in an animal skin kilt with a club fastened at his waist, was unfamiliar, however.
"Move along," the medjay warned, hand on his club. "Both of you."
"But we—" Zet was cut off as Kat pulled his arm.
"This is official business," the medjay said. "Keep walking."
"Come on!" Kat said, pulling even harder. "Let's go!"
"I want to tell him I saw the mummy," Zet hissed.
"No. We have customers waiting. Last thing we need are tongues wagging because we can't open our stall on time. The market owner can kick us out, remember? Are you trying to get us in trouble?"
She was right. He groaned out loud.
Then he started to run. "Last one there is a rotten goose egg," he shouted.
He could picture her rolling her eyes. Still, she got there nearly as fast as he did.
"Only because you had a head start," she panted, hands on both knees.
They went to work as usual. She seemed distracted, though. He could tell she, too, was obsessed about the mummy mystery. But when faced with a problem, Kat liked to puzzle things out. She liked to take her time before investigating—unlike Zet who always leaped into action without thinking things through. She'd talk when she was ready.
Zet frowned. If only he could have listened in on the priest and the medjay. Did the priest know something? A holy man would know all about mummies. That man might even know what it had been chanting. Recalling the awful sound made Zet's stomach clench.
Standing, he shouted, "Pots for sale! Clay pots! Come and get your pots!"
Nothing could banish his worries, though.
The morning wore on. To Zet and Kat's dismay, not a single person came to buy their wares. Customers crowded the date vendor's tent across the way. Grumpy old Salatis practically crowed with glee. Women bartered over lengths of linen at the next stall. Others bought spices from Geb, the gnarled spice-vendor. Everyone, however, completely avoided the pottery stall. They seemed to stay as far away as possible while still shopping in the market.
"Is it just me, or are people avoiding us?" Kat said.
It was midday. They sat in the shade behind stacks of wares to eat lunch.
"Definitely avoiding us," Zet said, shoveling chickpea salad into his mouth.
"Why? This is awful! I'm not expecting people to buy fancy plates. Even with the Wag Festival coming. It's not that sort of event. But cooking pots break all the time. Water jugs do, too. And clay bread loaf pans, we sell those all day long."
Zet took a drink from his favorite cup. He wiped his mouth, sat back and sighed. "I don't know. Could it have to do with the mummy?"
Kat's forehead wrinkled under her dark bangs. "Don't be silly."
Standing, Zet wiped breadcrumbs from his linen kilt.
"Wait," she whispered, and her face paled. "Do you think the mummy cursed us?"
"No," he muttered, feeling silly for even thinking it. He tried to push all thoughts of Pharaoh's cousin, Aziza, from his mind. "It's probably just a coincidence. We did nothing wrong! Let's get back to work."
Lunch over, they stepped back out front. Neither felt very cheerful.
Then Kat grabbed Zet's arm. Her fingers dug in hard.
"Ow!" Zet said.
"Look!" She pointed. "The stack of plates. Someone returned all of their dinnerware."
Zet stared in shock at the stacked dishes in front of the stall. "Strange. They paid for them. Don't they want them anymore?"
As if in answer, a couple scuttled toward them with their arms full of pottery. The man had his wig pulled low to cover his eyes. The woman held a clay jug in front of her face. She'd bought it only last week. Zet remembered selling it to her.
"You're bringing those back?" Zet said, baffled. "Is something wrong?"
They made no reply. Instead, they set them down and scurried off.
"Wait!" Zet called after them. "Let me give you some deben coins!"
The couple hurried away without even turning around.
Zet sat heavily on an upside-down urn. He grabbed his head in both hands. "I have a bad feeling about this."
Kat began to tremble. "I was right! We are cursed! And everyone knows!"
"We're not cursed," Zet tried to insist.
At that moment, a woman inched up to the tent. She crouched to abandon a beautiful serving dish. Before she got away, Kat caught the woman by her shawl.
"Please," Kat begged. "Don't leave."
"I must. Let go of me!"
"At least explain why you're leaving that here," Kat begged.
The woman's face flushed scarlet. "My husband says it's unsafe to keep your platter in our house."
"Why?"
"Because of Aziza." She tried to disentangle her shawl from Kat's fingers.
Kat was nearly in tears. She held the woman fast. "But what does Aziza have to do with your platter?"
"Don't play coy. We both know Aziza fell face first into his breakfast and died! He was eating from one of your fanciest plates. They say it cost him a fortune."
Kat colored. "That plate was commissioned from a famous potter!"
The woman's lips pinched in disapproval as though fancy plates were somehow shameful. "Be that as it may, Aziza's plate cracked in two. And Aziza went kaput. So much for having the best of everything!"
"I'm very sorry about that," Kat said earnestly. "But his death wasn't our fault."
"As to that, I can't say," the woman sniffed. "But I'm sure Aziza doesn't like being remembered as the man who died with egg on his face."
"That egg was his," Kat said. "Not ours."
The woman ignored this. "Aziza was a powerful man. Pharaoh's cousin, as you well know. I hear he came to curse you in the night. With Anubis, god of the Underworld, at his heels. I have no intention of crossing him!"
"But—" Zet protested, "That doesn’t make sense! Mummies don't return from the dead. That's not how it works!"
Zet's words fell on deaf ears. The woman yanked her shawl free.
"Wait," Zet said. "Let us pay you for the platter, at least!" If they had to pay everyone who brought their wares back, they'd soon be poor. But what choice did he have?
The woman shook her head as though even Zet's deben coins were cursed. She hurried off at a half-run.
Kat moaned. "Oh Zet, we're in huge trouble."
"But don't you see?" Zet said. "This makes no sense. Aziza died. He faced his judgment. He either moved on to the Underworld, or the gods destroyed his heart forever. He couldn't turn back. No one can."
More people were approaching with their pottery.
Kat looked at Zet. "You really think so?"
He set his jaw. "Yes. I do. So we'd better stash this pottery in a safe place. Because when this mess blows over, I'll make sure every owner gets their wares back. Even if we have to cart it all home and store it on the roof."
Kat blinked back tears. "We're cursed, Zet. This won't blow over."
"This is a mystery. Not a curse. And like any mystery, it can be solved." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't worry. We'll get to the bottom of this."
She scrubbed her eyes with her sleeve. "What will we tell mother?"
Chapter 4
Trouble on the Nile
Mummies don't haunt people," Zet said with more force than he intended.
"You sure about that?" asked Hui, Zet's best friend.
"Of course I'm sure! Only the gods can disturb the peace of the living."
Zet sat next to Hui on a large raft. Ibis birds floated alongside, their white feathers gleaming in the sunlight. A few feet away, Kat lounged next to Princess Meritamen. Everyone felt glad to see the Princess again. Months ago, Zet and Hui had rescued her from kidnappers. The four children had become unlikely yet fast friends.
Today was supposed to be a celebration. Their first sail. After all, i
t had taken ages to make the raft out of tightly-lashed reeds.
But it was impossible to feel excited. Back at the stall, the stacks of returned pottery had grown into a mountain. They'd have to tell their mother soon. But they didn't want to worry her, especially since Apu hadn't stopped crying. She said it was growing pains. But what if their baby brother was cursed?
Zet had to solve the mystery. Fast.
Yesterday, Zet and Kat had scoured the street in front of their house for clues. They'd walked the path the creatures had taken. They'd searched high and low for signs of a trick. Without luck.
Before long their mother would wonder why money was running low. And Zet and Kat would have to cart the abandoned wares home to store on the roof. The stall was overflowing. They'd have to tell Mother.
Soon.
What a disaster.
Zet glanced at Princess Merit. A large cloak hid her from head to toe. These days she rarely escaped the palace and her retainers. But this morning, she'd climbed over a palace wall, and the children had hustled her onto the raft. If anyone had inside information on burial curses, Merit would. She was Pharaoh's daughter, after all.
Merit scrunched her almond-shaped eyes in thought. "So the people of Thebes think Aziza, my father's cousin, is haunting you?"
Kat nodded, braids bobbing, her face grim. "Yes. And everyone's bringing back their pottery!"
"I'm so sorry. This is terrible."
Zet dug his paddle into the water and steered the raft along with the current. "It can't be Aziza. He died. He took his judgment test before the gods. Maat, goddess of truth and justice, met him months ago at the doors to the afterlife with her big pair of measuring scales. Just like everyone who wants to get through to the great beyond."
"We know that," Kat said. "But—"
Zet wasn't finished. "So Maat must have tested him. She would have placed her feather on one side of her scales," he said, motioning with his right hand. "And his heart on the other." He motioned with his left hand. "And you know how that works. If your heart is heavy with sins—if you're bad and it weighs more than her feather—you're in big trouble."
Hui rubbed his hands together. "That's for sure!" In a spooky voice, he said, "Maat tosses your blackened heart to Ammit. Devourer of the Dead. A monster with the legs of a hippo, the front paws of a lion, and the head of a crocodile. Ammit snatches your heart in her jaws. She chews your heart up and swallows it. And then poof, it's all over. No afterlife for you."
Kat made a face. "Gruesome."
Hui waggled his brows at her. "Really? Are you scared?"
She crossed her arms. "Of course I'm not scared."
Zet rolled his eyes. Merit snickered. Kat and Hui were always going at it. You'd never know they had huge crushes on each other.
Water lapped at the raft's edges. Zet pushed off the bottom again with the paddle. He stayed close to shore, keeping an eye out for dangers like crocodiles and hippos.
"Can we get back to the topic?" Zet said. "What I'm trying to say is that, either the monster devoured Aziza's heart like Hui said. Or Aziza walked on to the afterlife. Either way, he couldn't come back."
"True." Hui rubbed his shaved scalp. "Mummies don't wander around tormenting their enemies. Good thing. Thebes would be a mess!"
Kat said, "Just because you're an apprentice jeweler in the royal foundry, Hui, and you make ceremonial pieces for Pharaoh, doesn't make you a mummy expert."
Merit chewed her lip, looking very much like her father's daughter.
Zet said, "What's up?"
"I shouldn't tell you this because it's secret knowledge. But my ancestors have curses written on their tomb walls," Merit said. "They're spells made to strike down their enemies."
Hui sat forward, his eyes wide. He loved juicy secrets more than most. "Really? Do tell!"
Merit trailed her hand in the water, looking more like a regular girl than a royal daughter. Finally, she said, "All right. One spell can actually kill a mummy's enemies."
Kat visibly shivered.
Zet said, "But we weren't Aziza's enemies."
Hui ignored Zet. "What does the spell say?"
Merit pulled her knees to her chest. "It states: I shall seize his neck like that of a goose. I shall make him miserable. I shall make him die from hunger and thirst."
A spooked silence fell.
Kat had turned pale.
Zet spoke up. "But that's for people who disturb the mummy's tomb. We didn't disturb Aziza's tomb. I don't even know where it is," he said, trying to look braver than he felt.
"Yes . . . but disturbing the tomb isn't exactly necessary," Merit said.
Hui nodded. "Maybe Aziza put a curse in there as a safeguard—in case he had enemies when he died. He could have added it years ago. Painting a tomb takes a long time." Being an artist, Hui knew such things. "Maybe he added the spell in case of murder—so he could get back at whoever killed him."
Zet and Kat spoke at once. "But WE didn't kill him!"
Making a face, Hui said. "Yes, well, you know Aziza. He wouldn't see it that way."
"Plus," Merit said pointedly. "You embarrassed him with the egg on the face bit."
Zet groaned. "Please stop with the egg on the face!"
"Sorry." Merit dried her fingers on her light cloak. "There's another problem."
Now it was Kat's turn to groan. Moan more like. "Another problem?" she asked in a high, worried voice.
"You said the mummy had a jackal for a guard. Anubis himself, god of the Underworld. That doesn't bode well, I'm afraid."
Zet tried to swallow the lump in his throat. "Oh?"
"If this mummy has returned to the living, it has done so with the blessing of Anubis."
Hui got unsteadily to his bare feet as if he could sit still no longer. The raft had drifted into a fast-moving current. It rocked under him as they sped along. He scratched his neck. "So what are you saying?"
"The god of death walks amongst us. People are right to be afraid. Egypt is in danger. You all know we're at war in the north. We can't afford any more trouble."
Zet thought of his father, a soldier on the front lines. His chest tightened. He glanced at Kat and knew she felt equally worried. Hui's father was up there fighting, too.
Merit's ringed fingers tugged at one another in turn.
They'd reached a quiet bend in the river, away from the noisy watersteps where fishermen unloaded their catches. Here reeds grew tall along the shore. The fast-moving current gurgled and slapped against the plants. One could still glimpse city buildings that loomed up beyond a mud-brick wall. The nearest one, the Royal Treasury, rose higher than the rest.
Merit nodded at it. "Wars are expensive. I overheard my father say funds are running low. And now, if the god of death has come to Thebes . . . I'm afraid this terrible trouble is one we can ill afford."
Zet had a hard time finding his voice. "And yet—even though everyone in the marketplace says we're cursed, you're here with us."
"I am a royal daughter." Her hood fell back and her eyes flashed. "I will never stand down when Egypt's people are in trouble. Let alone abandon my friends."
Zet started to thank her, to tell her he'd get to the bottom of this. He never got the chance. The raft slammed into some unmoving object. What if it was a hippo? One of the deadliest animals on the river? If its jaws didn't crush you, it would drown you underfoot.
The force threw Hui flat on his face next to Kat. Hui's hands shot out and Kat grabbed them. They held on to each other to keep from falling over the edge.
The jarring halt sent Zet flying. He shouted in horror as Princess Meritamen tumbled off the raft.
With an awful splash, Merit hit the water and disappeared beneath the brown, swirling surface.
Chapter 5
A Strange Pair
Merit!" Zet shouted.
He dove in after her. So did the others.
"Merit!" Zet shouted again, searching desperately for signs of the princess.
Nothing.
>
Suddenly there came a splash as Merit popped up a dozen paces away. She coughed and sputtered. Rising to her feet, she stood unsteadily in the rushing stream. Zet found he could stand, too. He was surprised to find the river so shallow. His skin prickled as he pictured crocodiles closing in.
"Quick, back on the raft, everyone!" he cried.
They clambered up, dripping. The paddle lay on its side, caught in the lashings. Zet raised it and pushed off. The raft stayed stuck.
"What's happening?" Kat cried.
Bending, Zet reached cautiously into the water, praying no snakes lingered below the surface. His fingers touched stone. "We're caught on a rock."
Merit wiped her face. She pointed to a sandbank that stretched from the shore out into the stream. "That's odd," she said. "How did that sandbank get there? I boated here last week in the royal barge and the river was deep."
"Weird. I don't know, but sitting here is a bad idea." Zet looked around. It was a great responsibility to have Merit out here and he was growing wary. "We'd better get back."
They were going to have to get off the raft to push it free. After scanning the river for hidden creatures, the four children slid into the river. They shoved hard, but the raft was waterlogged and heavy. The lashings were stuck firm.
Movement from the riverbank caught Zet's eye. On shore, a rough-skinned woman with long hair and dark eyes stood partially hidden by deep grasses and palm trees. She held a fishing net. Instead of helping them, she threw her net into the water.
"Hey!" Zet called to her. "We need help!"
The woman gave him the evil eye and waved the children away.
"Please help us!" Kat called to the woman.
Zet spotted a small hut in the overgrown jungle behind her. The door flew open. A huge man thrust his way outside. His muscular arms held a giant, heavy looking basket. An enormous blade gleamed at his waist. The blade looked sharp and deadly.
"Here now," growled the man. "What's all this shouting?"
"It's those noisy children." The woman made a sour face. "Get rid of them."
