by Edward Eck
Meagan fell silent in thought before continuing. “My Lady, you know of the Circle on Midgard. You know what we represent. If your trust in the dwarves has faded, I beseech you to trust us. We seek only to protect Midgard and the other realms from the creatures of the Nightmare Realm. Fenrir may be free on Midgard for now, but there is no limit to the lust for power of the dark sorcerers. They will eventually make their way to Alfheim, Nidavellir and the other realms.”
The Lady of the Sacred Wood studied Meagan. “Daughter of Alayla Tu’ Lam, while your words have merit, I fear I cannot help you. Our feud with the dwarves has grown strong. Allow them to use their own magic. We dare not share any of ours for fear they would use it against us.” The Lady placed her hands on the table. “And now, the evening has grown late. I will turn in. And you will depart in the morning.”
A guard rushed into the clearing.
The Lady gave him an angered look. “Why do you disrupt us?”
“My Lady.” The guard quickly bowed then stood at attention. “One of our scouts reported a fire has been started along the north woods near the tomb of the elders. The wind currents are carrying it in this direction. We must evacuate you to safety.”
“How is this possible?”
The guard looked at Meagan and Amber. “Two creatures of stone were spotted moving in the woods near the fire. We have dispatched one of the stone abominations, my lady. The other has escaped. We suspect it is the work of dwarven mystics.”
Amber rose to her feet. “That’s a lie.”
She was about to say more when Meagan placed a hand on her shoulder. “My apologies, my Lady. What my friend meant to say is that we saw no evidence of mystical powers among the dwarves. In fact, it is for that very reason we have come here. They no longer possess the mystical powers to create Gleipnir, so I doubt they have the power to create earth automatons. In fact the only ones I know who can create such monsters are the dark sorcerers of Midgard.”
The Lady rose from her chair. “And why would they attack us here? Unless they followed you.”
Amber brushed Meagan’s hand aside. “Perhaps they did, but if so it was to keep us from getting the spells we need to create Gleipnir. Don’t you see? Anyone with power is a threat to them. They won’t stop until everyone—including the elves—bow at their feet.”
Meagan stepped away from the table and slowly walked around to face the elven queen. “My Lady. The dark sorcerer’s war will affect humans, dwarves and elves alike if they are not stopped. The release of Fenrir and the creation of these stone automatons are only the beginning of their attacks into the nine realms. We need your help. Please.”
The lady sighed. “The scrolls you seek are no more. They were hidden in the tomb of the elders in the northern woods. I fear the dwarves will not be able to find a way to recreate Gleipnir.”
Amber rose from her chair and darted around the table to face Meagan and the elf. “No! There has to be a way. Someone created the spell before. That means there has to be a way to create it again. There’s gotta be someone who can come up with a new spell!”
The Lady of the Sacred Wood observed Amber coolly. Meagan wasn’t sure if she was furious or just shocked.
When the lady finally responded, she placed a gentle hand on Amber’s shoulder. “My child, you are brave and boisterous. I know of no other way to re-create the spell.” She paused a few seconds before continuing. Her eyes drifted off into the distance like a thought had occurred to her. “Perhaps there is a way. Odin once drank from the Well of Urd and was gifted with great wisdom, but the price he paid was great as well. It cost him an eye. If someone were to drink from the well… it is possible to ask for the knowledge to re-create the spell to make Gleipnir. However, that person will also be required to pay a price. Be warned, the well can be greedy.”
34 Journey of the Dead
Max descended the stone stairs preceded by his orb of light. Taryn and Radimir followed right behind him. The wet limestone walls had eroded badly after thousands of years of water seepage. The damp floor squished beneath their feet with each step they took. The passage went a hundred feet before splitting off into three directions, each new corridor as badly worn as the next. They stood at the intersection evaluating their options.
“This isn’t right,” said Max. “Ra was king of the Egyptian gods. Why would he hide so far underground beneath a tomb for thousands of years?” Max looked back the way they had come. As soon as he took a step back toward the Tomb of Osiris, a loud grinding noise could be heard. They looked at one another for a brief second then sprinted through the muck back to the tomb.
As they neared the stairs, they saw it. A huge stone slab had lowered, blocking their escape.
Max ran up to it and slapped it with an open hand. The stone slab was solid and thick. He knew they weren’t going to move it with brute strength. He stepped back a few paces and pointed an open palm facing the slab. “Pug nona se ton.”
An energy wave shot from his palm toward the stone slab and rebounded back at Max, knocking him and the others flat on their backs in the wet muck.
Taryn was the first to sit up and look around. “That worked well. Any other bright ideas?”
Radimir stood and shook the wet dirt from his arms. “No back, go forward.”
Max raised himself on all fours before pushing up from one knee. “Radimir’s right. We can’t go back. The problem is, we have three choices to move forward.”
“I wouldn’t recommend splittin’ up, not in this darkness.” Taryn lit a flame around her body to burn off all the dampness. The flame died and left her standing in dirty, but dry clothes.
Max looked at his arms and legs and then at Radimir. With a flick of his wrist, the moisture fell from their clothes and returned to the ground, leaving them in roughly the same condition as Taryn.
Max headed back to the intersection and stopped in the center of a ten-foot circular area. He examined their options once again. They could continue forward, go left or go right. “We’re gonna need to pick a direction. Any suggestions?”
Radimir looked back then forward again. “No back, go forward.” He pointed straight ahead.
“It’s as good an option as any.” Max took the lead with his glowing orb right above his head.
They walked for a hundred feet and came to yet another intersection. This time, their options were left or right only. Max sighed. “I can see this is gonna be fun.”
Radimir looked at Max. “Fun?”
“Sorry, Radimir. Bad joke.”
“Right now, I wish we had a Book of the Dead.” Taryn examined the walls near the intersection. When she looked back at Max and Radimir, she noticed they had gone silent and were staring at her. “The ancient Egyptians buried a papyrus scroll with the deceased called the Book of the Dead… at least those who could afford it. It contained many magic spells intended to aide in the dead person’s journey through the Egyptian underworld, also known as the Duat.” Smiling she added, “I know a little about Egyptian history too, ye know.”
Radimir looked at Max. “No Egypt history.”
Max placed a hand on his shoulder. “That’s okay, big guy. I’m not even sure what I know about Egyptian history, or Greek history or any history for that matter.” Max took one more look in each direction. “I say we go left.”
“Why left?” questioned Taryn.
“Why not? We have to go some direction. Left is as good as any.”
They walked fifty feet and arrived at yet another intersection. This time they were presented with four choices. Left, right, forward or down. Next to the passage going straight was a set of stairs leading down.
“This is not good.” Max examined the stairs. “Our labyrinth just became multi-layered. Who knows how far down this goes? Right about now I wish Meagan were here—we could use an Earth elemental sorceress to help guide us through this maze.”
“What?”
Max looked around in confusion. “Who said that?” He thought for sure he hea
rd another voice.
“Who said what?” questioned Taryn.
“Never mind.” Max shook his head.
As they continued their inspection of the intersection choices, a noise echoed through the tunnel system. Halfway between an empty stomach and a lion’s roar, it was enough to draw the attention of the dirt-covered trio back the way they had come.
“I don’t think we’re alone down here.” Taryn lit a fireball in her right hand and held it there. After a few moments of no sound, she extinguished the flame. “We need to keep movin’.”
They turned back to their multiple choices to find they only had two. The options to go left, right or forward were now gone. They could only go back the way they had come or take the stairs downward.
“What just happened here?” asked Max. “I’d swear there were four choices—five, if you count going back the way we came—and now there are only two. Am I losing my mind?” Even in the dim light, Max couldn’t miss Taryn’s smirk. “I mean… more than normal?”
“Nah, there were four choices before. Now it looks like we go back or go down. Neither seems promisin’.”
“No back, go forward.” Radimir pointed to the stairs.
“Wait, there must be a pattern here somewhere,” said Taryn. “This can’t just be random passages. Do ye remember anythin’ about a labyrinth in Egyptian mythology?”
Max stood there searching his thoughts. “Sorry, I can’t remember anything. Just that Osiris was the Egyptian god of the dead and Anubis guided the deceased on their journey to the underworld.” Max thought about what he had said for a moment then glanced at Radimir. “Big guy, I know you can change into animals, but what about partial transformations?”
Radimir scrunched his eyebrows for a moment. With a quick look at Taryn and then back to Max, he said, “Never try. What you think?”
“Max?” questioned Taryn.
Holding up a hand to forestall her questions while locking his gaze on Radimir, he asked, “Can you transform your head only? Many of the ancient Egyptians had the head of an animal and the body of a human. They practiced partial transformations. That’s how they did it. Maybe if you can transform your head into a jackal and keep your body human, you might look like Anubis.”
“What good will that do us?” Taryn stepped next to Radimir. “Even if he looks like Anubis, that doesn’t mean he can lead us through this maze.”
“No, but whatever made that noise might think he is Anubis and hold off on attacking.”
“What would be down here to attack us?” Taryn looked from the stairs to the solitary passage back the way they had come.
Max paused, trying to piece together what memories he could. “We went through the tomb of Osiris… Anubis guided the dead to the underworld to be judged. If the person was judged to be unworthy, their heart was fed to Ammut—a creature with the hind end of a hippo, the body of a lion and the head of a crocodile. If this is the journey to the underworld, then at the end of our journey, we should find Ammut.”
Taryn sighed. “Don’t ye ever think of any good news?”
“I don’t know, but what I do know is even more concerning.” Max looked past his friends into the darkness. “Odin told us where to find Ra. So… either Ra is now in the Egyptian underworld… or Odin sent us to the wrong place.”
35 Ammut
The roar echoed through the tunnels again, but they couldn’t determine the direction of its source. Was it behind them or down the stairs? The air was musty and the walls were damp. Max was no longer sure how deep they had gone… but he was certain it was too deep. This was definitely not the way to Ra. The only problem was they couldn’t go back the way they had come.
Radimir stood in the middle of the intersection and concentrated on transforming just his head into a jackal. He worked at it for many minutes. First his entire body became a dog, but when reversed only his hands had turned into paws. On his second attempt, he grew long shaggy hair all over his body. After a third failed attempt where he grew pointed ears and a tail, he collapsed to the floor.
Taryn and Max ran to his side. They propped him up between them and saw he was still breathing.
“Sorry, tired.” Radimir was breathing heavy, but he was still conscious. “Not easy. Lot of work. Try again.”
“No.” Max placed a hand on his shoulder. “The Egyptians had years to practice this transformation. For now, save your strength.”
Radimir nodded. “Maybe try later.”
They lifted him to his feet. Radimir continued to lean on Max for a few more minutes while Taryn led the way down the stairs. They descended fifty steps before reaching the next level. A long corridor stretched out before them.
A scraping noise from behind drew their attention. Max turned and immediately cast a fireball spell, “Magna fir-tor loma.”
Taryn lit a fireball in each hand. Two men covered with dirt in torn black trench coats stepped out of the darkness.
Their faces were thin and the bags under their eyes revealed they had little sleep recently. They quickly approached the trio and fell to their knees. “Help us, please.”
Max carefully shifted Radimir to lean against a wall. “Who are you? You look like dark sorcerers, kind of.”
“I’m Dakat and this is Turner. We’ve been wandering these tunnels for days trying to find and release Ammut, but the passages… They keep changing. There’s no way out. Please, do you have any water?”
Max pulled a bottle from his pack. The two men quickly grabbed for it. Dakat greedily consumed most of the water before Turner swiped it from his mouth, fighting for every last drop.
Max stood with his arms crossed. “We’re members of the New Circle.”
“We figured as much,” responded Dakat wiping the excess water from his lips. “You’d be the only ones dumb enough to follow us into the Egyptian underworld to prevent the release of Ammut.” He shifted his jaw side to side as he lowered his gaze.
“Honestly, we’re looking for Ra. But since you mentioned it, we can’t exactly let you release Ammut either.”
Dakat smiled. “If you get us out of here, we’ll never make another attempt at releasing the devourer of the dead.”
Max studied the grimy dark sorcerer. “And we have your word on that?”
“I promise.”
“Ye’ll understand if we don’t trust ye,” replied Taryn. Turning to Max she offered, “I say we tie them up and leave them for Ammut.”
Max considered the idea. Bringing them along would require their constant supervision, but leaving them behind could be dangerous too. “While I’m sure Ammut would enjoy a little snack, I don’t trust leaving them out of our sight. At least not until we get out of this place. We can always turn them over to Ra at that point.” Max looked at Taryn and Radimir who each shrugged their shoulders before returning his attention to Dakat and Turner. “Fine, you can come along. Unfortunately, we don’t know where we’re going any better than you.”
Taryn faced the dark sorcerers. “Ye wouldn’t happen to have a Book of the Dead, would ye?”
The two men exchanged looks before Dakat pulled a slightly crushed scroll from his pack. “It’s basically worthless. What looks like a map doesn’t seem to match up with any passages we’ve seen so far.”
Taryn examined the scroll. “Can ye read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics?”
Both men shook their heads as their gaze fell to the floor.
Taryn handed the scroll to Max. “Unfortunately, neither can I. Max, what about ye?”
Max looked at the pictorial writing and without thought began to read out loud in ancient Egyptian the directions and spells to navigate the tunnel system.
Once he reached the end, he looked up to find the others staring at him. Looking down at the scroll again, the hieroglyphics appeared as unmeaning pictures and symbols. “How did I just do that?”
With a perplexed look, Taryn asked, “Better question is, did ye understand a single word of what ye just said? And if so, how do we get o
utta here?”
Max considered the questions a moment. “These are instructions to aid a recently deceased person through the twelve regions of the Duat on Ra’s barque.”
With a furrowed brow Radimir interrupted, “What is do hot? Why he bark?”
Max corrected him. “The Duat is kind of like a river running through the Egyptian underworld. Ra made the journey every night when the sun set, and he would return the next morning with the rising sun. Unfortunately, this is not the Duat. We’re in some kind of maze beneath the tomb of Osiris. With any luck it will take us to Osiris’ judgment chamber along the Duat. If we can find that, then we should be able to follow the underground river back to the surface.”
The two dark sorcerers exchanged a glance drawing Max’s attention. “The judgment chamber is most likely where we’ll also find Ammut. We should get through that section as quickly as possible, no stopping. If I think for one second you’re going to turn on us, I’ll feed the both of you to the monster.”
Dakat raised his hands. “We just want out of here. We’ll do whatever you say.”
Radimir called to the others. “Look! Find pictures on wall.”
Max and Taryn joined Radimir to discover more hieroglyphics. They examined the writing with little luck, until Max noticed a section he understood. “There are statues to Osiris, Anubis, Thoth, Horus, and Hathor in the underworld. The statue of Thoth may provide some help.”
Max turned to Dakat and Turner. “Have either of you seen any statues down here? Or a river?”
Turner nodded. “There’s one statue on this level and another about two levels down. But I don’t know who’s who. As for a river, if we’d found that we would’ve swam our way out of this Egyptian hole in the ground.”
Max examined the writing again and spotted another section he could make out. “It says, ‘Never look back or your options will change’. Apparently Radimir’s idea of not going back and only going forward makes sense.”
