The demon bird couldn't have been happier. He pumped his wings even more furiously. His eyes bulged with anticipation of the treat that was about to drop into his gullet. The bird cranked open its enormous beak, so wide I could see right down his throat. That was the moment I wanted.
I hurled the knife downward, using every muscle in my body to zing it fast and true. It disappeared into the demon's throat. A direct hit. A few seconds later, I did the same thing.
It's not easy to describe the sensation that followed. For a moment, I slid down the slick tube of the bird's throat. I heard its beak snap shut with a crash, and for the briefest moment, I landed in the sopping, gooky blackness of its stomach. I can say with certainty that I know exactly what it feels like to get swallowed by a giant flying demon. It wasn't the first time something had swallowed me. The giant serpent Apep had me in his cavernous tummy for a while that time I had to save . . .
But that's a different story. I really should stay on topic.
So, I was swallowed by the beast, but only for a moment. My knife had done its work. It struck home to the creature's heart. As it died, the demon burst into a cloud of green smoke and then vanished. I was free. And in midair.
This time, I'll admit I didn't fall in a terribly graceful manner. I screamed bloody murder and slashed at the air with my arms and legs, as if I could somehow swim on the air. I couldn't. The world rushed up toward me. I picked out the exact spot I was going to get pulped, just a bit of barren ground, not a remarkable spot at all. I closed my eyes and awaited the impact.
There certainly was an impact, but it wasn't between me and the ground. Something slammed into my back with so much force it knocked the wind out of me. Six thin arms clamped around my chest. The beetle! He'd caught me! If I'd had the breath to, I would've shouted for joy. Instead, I just panted.
The beetle still flew in his chaotic style, but I didn't mind anymore. We were safe for the moment.
He skimmed over the palm trees and brought us in for a landing on the wide, smooth stones in front of the temple. My feet touched down, running. We gradually came to a stop. The beetle released me. I dropped to my knees, and then to all fours. The beetle flopped down on his back, arms limp, gasping for breath. For a time, neither of us did anything else.
I took stock of the situation. One bau down. One demon bird out of the picture. I was two for two so far. Only the magician himself remained, and I knew where he was. He was obviously the type of scoundrel that liked for others to do his dirty work. Even if he knew more magic than me--which I assumed he did--my combat magic would give him a run for his money. That was my specialty. I figured my chances were at least fifty-fifty. I could work with that. I'm the optimistic type.
When I had my breath back, I stood. The sun had just begun to emerge out of the eastern horizon. "Lord Ra," I said, thankful for the magic his rising brought with it. I slipped my stylus from my belt and held it up to catch the first rays of the sun. I felt the life ignite in it.
I helped the beetle up with my free hand. "All right," I said, "you got me here. You caught me. Saved my life. Thanks for all that. Do me one last favor. If I don't make it out alive, take word of my death back to the palace."
"Great," he said, with more sarcasm than I thought insects were capable of. "I love delivering happy news to royalty. You're not seriously considering going in there, are you?"
"I have to go after him and finish this up properly. The last thing I want is for him to get away. He'd only plot another, more deadly, attack. I don't really have any choice."
"It's your funeral," the beetle said. He sat down, looking dejected. He began caressing his bent antenna.
I started for the temple but hesitated a moment. The little guy was pretty down. "Hey, beetle," I asked, "what's your name?"
"Babbel, messenger beetle, second class," he recited. "It would be first class, except for . . ." He exhaled. "You know already. The tenny. Can't fly straight, as you experienced."
"No, you flew wonderfully. Wouldn't have had it any other way. Your evasive maneuvers were . . ." What was the right word? ". . . special. If things work out, I'll put in a good word for you. Maybe get you bumped up to first class."
He looked up, hopefully. "Really?"
Starting for the temple entrance, I called back, "It's a promise, Babbel." I meant it too. I keep my promises. Of course, if I didn't come out alive I wouldn't be able to, but that was just one of those unavoidably troublesome details.
I jogged between the massive, imposing statues of Anubis, the jackal-headed god, and into the dim interior of the temple. I drew an illumination glyph with glowing lines of crackling energy. They hung in the air in front of me. It didn't glow as brightly as I wished because the thick stone walls sheltered it from sunlight. Still, there was enough for the spell to work. I circled the glyph in a cartouche and then slashed it into life. A candle-like flame sprung from the tip of my stylus. It would have to do.
Like all temples dedicated to gods of the underworld, this one was pretty grim. Lots of shadowy corridors, black stone pillars. Not an actual person in sight, but everywhere I turned, statues of Anubis and his servants lurked as if waiting to pounce. Long, pointy ears, canine snouts, glimmering white teeth, and large red eyes. It all made me a bit jittery. I kept moving, holding the stylus high as I did.
I wondered why the magician had come here. Anubis was an underworld god, but that didn't mean he was evil or anything. He was pretty well respected, really. Chances are the magician didn't have anything to do with Anubis. Maybe he'd just fled for the first structure he saw out here, hoping to lose me in the maze of dark corridors. I wasn't going to let that happen.
I explored the main level of the temple carefully, looking behind every statue, down each spooky hallway. Nothing. I kept checking the main entrance as well, to make sure he didn't sneak out and run for it. I would've spotted him if he tried. No, after my thorough search, I concluded there was only one place left for him to be hiding in. The sacred vault.
Pretty poor hiding spot, I thought.
If there was one thing I knew about sacred vaults it's that there was only one way in or out. One stone door opened on to a ramp leading down into it. Once I had him cornered there, he'd have to deal with me. Even better, he wouldn't be able to use magic in there. It was too far away from the sun, too deep in the temple, embedded in solid rock. I wouldn't be able to use magic either, but that wasn't a problem. I could take out one old magician with my bare hands.
I slipped my stylus back under my belt and descended the ramp into the dank, dim chamber.
* * * * *
A voice spoke out of the dimness. It sounded sinister, condescending. And disturbingly calm.
"I'm disappointed," the voice said. "I had expected you to be bigger. It appears you are hard to kill. Judging by the scrawny look of you, I can't figure out why."
The magician stood in the center of the room. He circled around the altar to Anubis, the centerpiece of the vault. A faint illumination from above highlighted him. I couldn't quite tell where it came from, but it wasn't magic. It looked like sunlight. Faint as it was, it wouldn't be enough to a power stylus.
The way the light fell down on him exaggerated his features, his sunken cheeks and heavy brow. No one would call him handsome. He looked the part of an evil magician, though. The dark cloak that draped his shoulders was classic. He said, "How underwhelming. You're just like any other boy."
"Says who?" I asked.
"Oh, my name isn't important. Not to you, at least."
"Embarrassed to give your name? I would be too if I was a magician that summoned demons to do his dirty work. You'll notice I've defeated both of them. I barely broke a sweat while doing it." I felt smug and didn't mind showing it. "You'll be the easiest yet. It's just you and me now. No magic for either of us."
"True enough," the man said. He glanced up. "Down here, there is but this faint glimmer from the world above. Beneath it, we are equally powerless. This is not going to give
you the advantage that you think it is, I'm afraid. You really are a rash little boy."
A rash little . . . The nerve of this guy!
I moved closer. "I would've expected a powerful magician to be smarter than you are. Next time you make an attempt on the prince's life, make sure that he's actually in the city. Your target was never in danger. I'm not the prince! I'm his Shadow."
There, that should put a wet blanket on his attitude. When he realized that I had the fighting skills to wipe the tiles with him, he'd probably beg for mercy. That wasn't quite what happened.
He grinned and looked more confident than ever. "That's where you are mistaken, boy. I wasn't trying to kill the prince. He's worth more to me alive in any event."
A sense of dread got hold of my toes and began creeping up my body. This guy really should be looking more worried. I defeated his bau. I made a pincushion of the winged spirit. I'd tracked him down with ease. Why didn't he seem a bit more concerned?
As I circled around the altar table, he did the same. He kept the stone surface between us. "You still don't get it, do you?" he asked. "It was you I was after all along."
"Me?"
"Yes, yes. You. Ash. The Shadow of the Prince. Khufu's protector and close friend. You, young man, are a nuisance, one that I intend to remove. Once I have, the prince will be easily manipulated for my purposes. And I will have stopped you from achieving your destiny."
I must've looked as confounded by that as I felt.
"This is better than I thought!" the magician said. He was having a grand time. "You really don't know how important you are. You don't even know who you are! Even better, you're going to die without knowing."
In a way, he was right about some of that. I knew what I was--the Shadow of the Prince. That's pretty much the thing that defined my life. It's what I'd trained for up until my twelfth birthday. At that point, I was summoned to the palace. I went through a rigorous testing--along with other kids that had been trained as I had. We even had to fight demons. By the end of a week of trials, I was the only one to make it through. Because of it, I became the prince's bodyguard. More than that, I became his friend.
So that was what I was. And proud of it! What I didn't know was who I would've been if I hadn't been a shadow. I was taken from my parents at birth to begin my candidacy. I never knew them. By tradition, I never would. Only my role as Shadow mattered now. I sometimes wished I knew about my parents, and about where I'd come from, whether or not I had any brothers or sisters. All that stuff. But most of the time my job was enough. I didn't know what the magician was up to, but I wasn't going to let him play mind tricks on me.
Our circling around the table had put me in the position the magician had been in when I entered. He, on the other hand, now had the exit ramp to his back. I didn't like that. He might be trying to confuse me, waiting for the right moment to bolt out of here. I jumped up onto the table. No need to circle it when I could go over it.
"You can ramble all you want," I said. "I'm not falling for it. You tried to kill Prince Khufu but got me instead. Don't think you can talk your way out of it."
He cackled. Literally, he threw back his head and cackled. He began backing toward the exit. He was trying to hide it, but he was definitely moving that way. I balled my hands into fists, leaped down, and moved toward him. Enough talk. It was time for action.
"Ravenous One!" he called. "I have need of you!"
That stopped me in my tracks. "What did you just say?"
"You thought I lured you here to fight me?" the magician asked, still inching backward. "No, that would be beneath me. There is someone else who is keen to rip you to pieces. You know her. She goes by many names."
I realized, to my horror, that something was descending the ramp toward us. Judging by the heavy crunch of its footfalls, it was something big.
"You can call her the Devourer of the Dead," the magician continued.
The foulest reek I'd ever smelled wafted down into the chamber. It smelled of dead things. Rotten things. Evil things.
"She is sometimes called the Eater of Hearts."
A shape lumbered into view behind the magician. It towered over him.
"She'll even answer to She Who Is Great of Death." He moved to one side, to allow the creature to step past him. The evil thing came into view, its eyes and teeth and claws all glimmering. "Surely, you know by now to whom I refer."
I did. "Ammut . . ." As I whispered the demon's name, I realized just how big a fool I'd been.
* * * * *
The magician backed away, saying, "I will leave you to it, Ammut. Enjoy." He turned and disappeared up the ramp. A moment later, I heard the stone door grind shut. And that was it. I was trapped.
With Ammut.
The problem with Ammut was that she combined the strengths of the three deadliest creatures in Egypt. The demon had the head and jaws of a Nile crocodile. Her midsection was that of a lion, including the savage claws. And her lower portion . . . well, she's got the rump of a hippopotamus. Her victims could be swallowed whole, ripped to shreds, or sat upon. Simply put, there were no good options with Ammut.
As she strode toward me, several things occurred to me all at once. I was alone, without magic to call on and weaponless. In fighting the bau I'd lost my spear. With the demon bird I'd given up my daggers. Trapped as I was in a subterranean room, my stylus was useless. Maybe the magician had done his homework after all. He had managed to deprive me of all of my weapons.
Ammut came at me with her hippo legs stomping, her lion arms spread wide, her jaws open and slathering. She was all stampeding rage. The old girl was faster than she looked. Not as quick as me, though.
I faked to the right, just enough to get her to turn that way. Then I dove low and to the left. I grasped one of her ankles as her foot crashed down. The idea was to trip her. Didn't work. Ammut just walked forward a few more steps, me hugging her chubby leg, getting yanked up and down. When she realized where I was, she lashed at me with a paw bristling with long claws. I released her leg and rolled behind her. That got me away from the claws, but it put me in the line of fire of her rump. I scrabbled away just as her heavy bottom crashed down on the stones.
Before she could rise, I ran up her back. I reached over her head and got a grip on both her eyelids. She bellowed and thrashed about. Hauling myself up to the crown of her alligator head, I let go with one hand long enough to plant a stiff-handed chop right between her eyes. Then I grabbed both lids again and hauled back with all my weight. I let go when I couldn't hold down anymore. Her eyelids slapped back against her eyes. She howled with pain and fury.
I landed on my feet, feeling pretty impressed with that little move. The feeling didn't last long. Ammut was on me in no time, just angrier than before. Going toe to toe with her, I punched and kicked, ducked and dived. She slashed at me. She tried to stomp me. Her neck shot forward at unexpected moments. Her jaws slammed shut so near me I felt the heat of her breath. Her spittle sprayed my face.
It wasn't an even contest and we both knew it. I landed blows every now and then, but they hardly fazed her. Punching Ammut in the gut was like driving your fist into a furry stone wall. I did no real damage. She, on the other hand, did. Hitting her hurt me; my knuckles grew swollen and bloody. Once, when I didn't dodge fast enough, she slashed her claws down my leg. She even stepped on my toe. That left me limping and off-balance. It was only a matter of time before her claws sunk into me and held. Then it would all be over. So I did what I'd done in similar circumstances in the past.
I ran. I darted and dodged. I slipped between Anubis statues and slid under the altar table. I even dashed up the ramp once to check the door, just in case I could budge it. No chance. Maybe if I had time to work at it slowly, but I couldn't open it in a rush, that's for sure. Before long, I'd crisscrossed the entire chamber, touching each of the four corners of it. Ammut lumbered behind me the entire time. Truth was, I was going to get tired before she did. We both knew it.
When I
leaped up onto the table, it wasn't so much that I had a plan in mind. It was more just that I hadn't been there for a while, so I figured why not? As Ammut shoved a statue of Anubis out of the way, sending it crashing into jagged pieces, I scanned the room. I couldn't see any place that I hadn't been already. Nothing I could use as a weapon. I looked up into the narrow opening that let that faint light in. It was just a long chute that stretched upward. I couldn't say how far up it went, but it ended in a pinprick of light. Daylight. It drew me like a moth to a flame.
Ammut barreled toward me. I bent my knees and jumped straight up.
* * * * *
For an awful moment, I dangled from the narrow rim that ran along the inside edge of the chute. That was as high up as I could leap. Ammut appeared beneath my feet. She climbed up onto the table, rose, and reached for me. I planted one of my feet on the tip of her snout and pushed off. It gave me enough upward motion to jam my body into the chute. I had to press my back against one side and my feet against the other. By putting force against both sides, I managed to stay crammed between them, just out of Ammut's reach.
She was a bit too close for comfort, though. As the demon raged beneath me, I worked my way toward that pinpoint of light. It offered hope. Maybe it was a way out.
It was hard going. I had to inch my feet up one by one, and then press back with my arms to scoot my body a little higher. Then I had to do it all again and again. The chute stayed uniformly narrow all the way up. The stone was so smooth there was nothing to hold on to, no ledges to get purchase on. Keeping up the pressure on the walls was a constant strain. By the time I reached the top, I didn't have much left in me. What I did have left nearly drained out of me when I saw what the light was.
The chute narrowed in the last few feet. The opening was a small triangle, just wide enough to fit a hand through. There was no way I could squeeze my whole body through it. I could see the morning sky clearly, bright blue and beautiful. So close, and yet I was still trapped, and growing weaker every second. I wasn't getting out of here this way, but maybe if I could reach into the light . . .
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