by Lynne Ewing
“No,” Sudi lied.
“The cat told me you needed help,” Meri said and broke eye contact. Still not looking at Sudi, she added, “and that’s not the strangest thing that’s happened to me since Abdel did whatever he did.”
“Do you think he gave us some kind of posthypnotic suggestion?” Sudi asked.
“I thought of that,” Meri replied. “Until a few seconds ago.”
“What happened then?” Sudi asked.
“I wasn’t the only one who saw an exotic bird fly over our school and fall from the sky,” Meri challenged. “I don’t think Abdel could have infected all the kids in the school yard with some kind of group hysteria.”
“He doesn’t go to your school?” Sudi asked, struggling to hold on to the thinnest hope that he did, and that he had been able to hypnotize the student body, like a teenage Svengali.
Meri shook her head.
In spite of the warm morning air, Sudi began to shiver. “Can you get me something to wear?”
“Wait here,” Meri ordered.
Sudi edged back against the wall and wondered why she didn’t have the courage to tell Meri everything. But she couldn’t tell her what had happened when she didn’t believe it yet herself.
Moments later, Meri returned, carrying a faded pair of jeans and an oversize purple sweater. The sneakers clutched in her hands looked as if they had belonged to a boy who climbed trees and ran through mud.
“I stole these from the clothes we’re collecting for our charity drive,” Meri said and sat down on the crate, watching Sudi. “I hope the shoes fit. They were the best I could find.”
“Thanks,” Sudi answered and glanced behind Meri, expecting her bodyguards to round the corner.
“Where are your guards?” Sudi asked.
“Gone,” Meri answered. “When weird things started happening, I knew I couldn’t have those two following me everywhere. They were like barnacles.”
“How’d you convince your mom?” Sudi said, letting the newspaper fall to the ground. Gray newsprint covered her thighs, and she didn’t even want to consider what the black smudges were across her stomach. She tugged on the jeans.
Meri picked at her lavender fingernail polish. “I think they were hired to watch me, more than protect me,” she confessed at last. “To make sure I didn’t do something stupid that could embarrass my mom and ruin her chances.”
Sudi stared at Meri, suddenly understanding how difficult Meri’s life must be. Meri shrugged as if Sudi’s pity made her uncomfortable. “You get used to it,” Meri said, and then she asked, “So when did you realize that what Abdel told us was real?”
“I still don’t believe it,” Sudi said firmly and leaned over to roll up the cuffs. Then she slipped into the sweater. It smelled heavily of the last wearer’s sharp perfume. She lifted her hair from underneath the turtleneck and let it hang loosely over her shoulders.
“I keep denying the truth, too,” Meri confessed. “It’s common. People convince themselves that unpleasant things aren’t true so that they don’t have to face their problems. Just watch the evening news. Politicians are always accusing each other of doing something wrong, when they should really be examining their own actions.”
“There has to be a logical explanation,” Sudi countered as she tied the shoelaces. “I just haven’t found it yet.” Sudi stood and tested the sneakers. They were a tad too large, and the insides felt grungy against her toes, but she was grateful to have something on her feet.
“I read a spell for transforming into a cat,” Meri said at last. “Then I fell asleep, or at least I think I did, and when I woke up I was licking the back of my hand and rubbing it over my face.”
Sudi looked up at the rectangle of blue sky between the office building and the school. This can’t be real, she prayed. Please don’t let it be.
“I think we should find Dalila,” Meri said.
By the time Sudi and Meri had located Dalila, through the Egyptian Cultural Center, the sun had set behind storm clouds. Dalila had agreed to meet them in an hour, but two had passed already. Sudi looked down the street. The traffic lights changed from red to green, the pedestrian signal counting down the seconds left to cross the street.
“She’s still not answering.” Meri closed her cell phone. “I hope she didn’t change her mind.”
“I wish she’d hurry,” Sudi mumbled and brushed a yellow leaf from her wind-tangled hair.
This section of the District was crowded during the day, but it emptied after the offices closed. Even the eateries had turned out their lights. Still, Sudi didn’t understand why she felt so uneasy. She had been there at night before, with Sara, when they had snuck out to go to an underground club called the Breeze.
“Scott likes you, you know?” Meri said abruptly, surprising Sudi.
“Scott?” Sudi stuttered. “I didn’t know you knew him.”
“We hang out,” Meri said. “He was really bummed when you started going out with Brian, because he thought you liked him.”
“I do like Scott,” Sudi answered and started to explain, but stopped. “I see Dalila.”
Dalila ran through tumbling leaves, her long coat flapping behind her. She held the rolled papyrus close to her chest as she joined them.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” Dalila said. Her fingers plucked at the red scarf wrapped around her head, pulling it forward, as if she were afraid to reveal her royal birthmark. “I couldn’t figure out how to work the machine to buy a ticket for the Metro, so I had to walk.”
“Why didn’t you just ask someone for help?” Meri said.
“Because, since my uncle told me that everything Abdel said was true, I’ve been too afraid to trust anyone,” Dalila confessed.
“Who is your uncle?” Sudi asked.
“Anwar Serenptah,” Dalila answered.
“Jeez, maybe he’s the one we need to talk to,” Meri said. “He’s about the most famous Egyptologist in the world.”
“Exactly,” Dalila went on. “But he’s misled me. He must have known that I didn’t understand what it meant to be a Descendant. He swore that he thought my parents had told me. How could he believe that? I’m always looking through bridal magazines and planning my royal wedding. If I had any notion that I was going to be a warrior, I would have been learning how to fire a gun. He let me believe my fantasy. Why did he deceive me?”
Her face crumpled, the lines expressing terrible loss, and for a moment Sudi thought Dalila was going to cry, but she remained stubbornly strong.
“I understood that I was being groomed for something special,” Dalila continued, “because I live such a sheltered life. But I thought I was destined to marry a prince. I imagined myself becoming like Queen Noor of Jordan, not a soldier fighting ancient gods. I can’t do this.”
Sudi put her arm around Dalila and hugged her. She was the only fifteen-year-old girl Sudi knew who really believed she’d marry a prince.
“My uncle taught me the ancient ways in magic and religion,” Dalila said. “But I thought he was only sharing his love for Egypt with me, not training me.”
“Has anything bizarre happened to you?” Sudi asked.
“No,” Dalila answered, obviously lying. She tightened her grip on the papyrus. “Why do you ask?”
“Because,” Sudi hesitated, then decided the best way to begin was to tell Dalila everything. Recalling the night she had awakened and found herself on the front porch, Sudi began. She told Dalila about the invitation she had found in her locker and ended with her time spent trapped inside the museum.
When Sudi finished, she expected Dalila to give her a rush of possibilities to explain away what had happened, but she didn’t.
“Maybe it was the Noble Lady,” Dalila offered. “The demon Shepeset is like a fairy godmother. She was obviously protecting you. Demons can be good or bad; some offer protection, some don’t.”
“The Noble Lady,” Meri repeated, eyeing Dalila quizzically. “You think the woman was a demon called Shep
eset and not a creation of Sudi’s overactive imagination?”
“Maybe hallucinations are just another reality that we don’t see most of the time.” Dalila shrugged.
“You believe everything I told you, don’t you?” Sudi asked, mystified. This was not the reaction she had anticipated. Dalila’s ability to believe her was making Sudi uncomfortable.
“Perhaps good forces sealed the elevator as a way to protect you,” Dalila explained. “What if the woman wanted to stop you from sleepwalking outside again, and trapping you in the museum was the only way she knew to keep you safe?”
“You accept this so easily,” Meri put in.
“An unseen world surrounds us,” Dalila said, “and it became visible to Sudi last night.”
Warm rain splattered their faces, but they didn’t run for shelter. They stayed in the downpour, staring at each other. Sudi pressed her lips together, feeling a sudden overwhelming sadness. Her future was going to be far different from the one she had planned. Already she could feel her friendship with Sara drifting into the past, and that loss made her chest ache.
At school, Sudi basically ignored the goodie girls, because she had nothing in common with them, and now she was stuck with two of them. Meri had probably never even tasted beer, and she looked too serious to fall into a goofy giggling spell the way Sudi and Sara did. Dalila was gorgeous, but seemed too bookish, and she had lived isolated from kids her own age, content with imagining the desert kingdom she would rule one day.
Sudi wondered if they ever even thought about boyfriends and dating or sex—things Sudi spent most of her time thinking about. She’d have to watch what she said in front of them. No more squealing over some good-looking guy’s butt. She missed Sara already.
Then she realized that Dalila and Meri had become strangely quiet and were looking at her.
“I’m smart,” Sudi blurted out defensively. She hated being stereotyped, even when she knew she was guilty of judging them.
“Why did you say that?” Meri asked, wiping the rain from her face.
“Of course you’re smart,” Dalila answered. “You’re a Descendant.”
They watched Sudi, and another awkward silence settled over the three girls.
“This is not the way to start off,” Sudi said at last. “Let’s just forget I said anything.”
Dalila smiled pleasantly, but Meri frowned.
“Things like this don’t happen,” Sudi went on. “There has to be a reasonable explanation. We’ll find it, and then we can separate and go back to our normal lives.”
“Assume it’s real,” Meri said.
“I can’t,” Sudi answered in a low voice and licked at the rain on her lips.
“Just assume,” Meri said, “if it’s real, then we have to tell Abdel we’re not going to take on this job as Descendants. He can’t force us to fight against our will.”
The idea had never occurred to Sudi. “You’re right!” she shouted. Her chest expanded as the anxiety that had been holding her eased. “We’ll just tell him we want out.”
Dalila brightened. “I know where he lives. Let’s go there right now and be done with this.”
They linked arms and ran across the street. As they passed an alley, Meri stopped and looked around, cupping her hands around her forehead to shield her eyes from the rain.
“What’s wrong?” Sudi asked, and felt the peculiar drop in her stomach that she got before tests.
“I don’t know, I just…” Meri stared across the street at an empty black sedan. The raindrops on her face sparkled red, reflecting the light from the neon sign buzzing overhead. “Ever since my mother declared herself a candidate for president I’ve had photographers stalking me.”
“Did you hear that?” Dalila asked and hooked her arm around Sudi’s elbow.
“What?” Sudi listened to the pattering rain, and then, over the burble of water, came a sharp howl, followed by two longer cries.
“The cry of the jackal,” Dalila whispered, pressing closer to Sudi. “We heard the jackals calling to each other when we camped on the west bank of the Nile. Jackals always howl before they begin their hunt.”
“This is Washington, D.C.,” Meri countered.
“The jackals cried the evening my parents were killed in the cave-in,” Dalila went on. “My parents were excavating a tomb, and a tunnel collapsed on them.”
“Maybe we should go back the other way,” Meri suggested, nervously scanning the alleyway.
“It’s just a dog,” Sudi said, trying to reassure them. “It’s probably lost and hungry.” She started forward, intending to rescue the poor animal, but Meri latched on to her arm and pulled her back.
“The howls sound human,” Meri said. “Maybe it’s some guy—”
Another wail interrupted her. The mournful cry seemed closer, but with the noise from the rain, Sudi couldn’t be sure.
“I’ve got a creepy feeling it’s someone from the homeless shelter who’s having a breakdown,” Meri whispered.
“No,” Dalila muttered and stepped back.
“What now?” Sudi asked, and brushed her hair from her eyes. She couldn’t see what held Dalila’s frightened gaze.
Meri pointed. “There!”
A shadow darted from behind a forklift stacked high with pallets and disappeared again, hidden by darkness and rain.
“That was Anubis, Neb-ta-djeser, lord of the sacred land,” Dalila said. Her fingers fumbled with the papyrus as she tried to open it. “He has power over evildoers and the underworld enemies of the dead.” She unrolled the scroll. “Help me find a spell.”
“Don’t be so panicked,” Sudi said, not understanding her friends’ fear. “It’s just a dog, and I bet it’s more afraid of us than we are of it.”
Sudi tried to see the animal, but the falling rain reflected the light cast from a security lamp, and the glistening drops acted as a shield, hiding the deeper shadows at the end of the alley.
This time Sudi ignored Dalila and Meri when they tried to stop her. She stepped forward until the brightness was behind her. Then she waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark, but before the moment came, a low growl filled the air and she realized her mistake. She was backlit by the security light, a silhouette easily spotted.
She hadn’t thought this through; she had failed to consider that the dog might be rabid, or worse; maybe it was a military animal, one trained to kill, that had escaped its handlers. She imagined sharp teeth biting into her skin and instinctively pulled her sweater collar up around her neck.
Another howl pierced the night, and then, without warning, something splashed through water at a quickening pace, charging toward her.
Sudi darted forward. Her fingers brushed over the rough bricks in the building as she ran through the runoff water. The insides of her shoes became uncomfortably soggy.
She edged against the wall, her heart pounding painfully. Her shoulder slipped into a recess, and she quickly eased into the alcove behind her, then squatted against the door, trying to make herself small and less noticeable.
Through the pelting rain came another sound. She listened intently, trying to make sense of the tap-tapping. Perhaps a cane, or a baseball bat, was hitting the pavement with a repeated beat. A dog couldn’t do that. Maybe Meri had been right after all, and the howls had come from a man.
Sudi’s eyes had adjusted to the gloom, and she looked frantically around for another hiding place. Beyond the veil of water, a short ladder led to a loading deck. She ran to it and climbed up, her shoes slipping on the rungs. She caught movement in her peripheral vision, and dived behind crates that were stacked high. She prayed that whoever was pursuing her hadn’t seen her hide, but she wasn’t taking any chances. She crawled to the other side of the platform, then waited, shivering and terrified.
The tapping stopped, as if the person had paused, listening, waiting for her to make another sound.
She held her breath, her heartbeat thudding in her ears.
Moments passed with
only the pulse of the rain and her heart, and then a scraping sound followed; someone was moving the crates aside, trying to locate her.
Any remaining illusion that a dog was hunting her vanished as she watched three crates topple. The person had to be high on PCP to have such strength. She rolled to the edge of the platform, dangled her feet over the side, and jumped, then crouched low.
Gushing waters swirled around her ankles before gurgling down a drain. She looked around and then ran across the alley to a truck. She slid under the front bumper, scraping her stomach on grit and dirt. She cowered behind the front wheel and hoped it hid her.
Within moments, the tapping started again, but the constant patter of the rain made it difficult for her to know how close her stalker was. She started to peer out.
The tip of a rod came down in front of her, barely missing her face. It hit the pavement with a loud bang.
She jerked back and waited, unable to breathe.
A bare foot splashed into a puddle, sending grimy water over her face. The person continued around to the side of the truck.
She pulled herself forward until she was under the bumper, then cautiously crawled out and, holding on to the front grille, peered around the truck.
A huge man stood in the rain. His legs were bare up to his knees. A soggy white skirt clung to his thighs, but nothing covered his back. He carried a large walking stick that looked like the snake she had found on her bed.
She brushed the rain from her face, certain her vision had deceived her, and looked again. Sudden intense terror shot through her. Her stomach tightened, and in spite of the water everywhere, her throat became too dry to swallow. She held her breath, transfixed, unmindful of the rain pelting her eyes.
The man was wearing a headdress—a full head mask of a black dog with slender, alert ears and a long, pointed snout like that of the canine that had gazed back at her through the kitchen window. A thick mane of black hair covered his shoulders.
Slowly, the head turned, as if the man had become aware of her watching him.
Sudi sucked in air and let it out in a mumbled prayer.
