Tut

by P. J. Hoover

  My mouth opened, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to say. Here she was talking about mummification, and she still wanted me to steal some stinking scepter for her.

  “Fine.” I stood up. The pain was gone, and I doubted it would be able to push past my anger and return. I glared up at the glistening teeth of the statue. Yes, Set was still scary. But I’d had about as much of this as I could take.

  Set was six times as tall as me. But I was immortal. And I had no time to waste. I squatted down and sprang straight up, landing on Set’s lower hand, the one he had clasped around the handle of the sickle. I scaled my way up the handle to his shoulder. From his shoulder, I climbed across his chest and out onto the arm that held the scepter. When I reached his upraised palm, I wrapped my fingers around the cold metal of the scepter.

  The world around me turned to chaos.

  Alarms began to blare, sounding like hyenas on steroids. Lights began to flash. I catapulted off Set’s palm and landed on the ground.

  “Give yourselves up to Great Set or face his terrible wrath!” an intercom voice boomed above the sound of the shrieking hyena alarms. Tia was already halfway out the door. Behind me was the sound of feet running on hard limestone. Great Osiris, the priests would be here any second.

  “Run, Tut!” Tia said.

  I didn’t have to be told twice. The threats coming over the intercom of execution by dismemberment were enough to make me not want to get caught. My skin broke into a rash of goose bumps. It was one thing to live forever. It was another entirely to live forever cut into numerous pieces.

  I tore after Tia. No way was I going to get caught now.

  “Where do I find Horemheb?” I yelled as we ran. Now that I had the knife, I had to complete the job.

  “You have to get out of here, Tut,” Tia said, leading us left and then right and then left again. “Everyone’s going to be looking for you.”

  “But I need to kill Horemheb.”

  “Not now. You got the knife. Horemheb will come to you.”

  Tia made a valid point. This place was pandemonium. At every turn, guards searched for us. I’d leave, and when Horemheb came looking for the knife, I’d kill him then.

  “How do I get out? The river?”

  “I’ll show you. But you need to hide until things calm down.”

  “I don’t want to hide like a coward. I want to fight Horemheb.”

  “Will you fight the entire Cult of Set?” Tia asked.

  Another good point. Horemheb I could handle with the knife. But an entire security force added unneeded complications. My backpack full of supplies wasn’t going to put much of a dent in them.

  Tia shoved open a door. We ran inside and locked it. I could still hear the sirens, though they were dulled by the thick wooden door.

  “Give me the scepter.” She dropped my backpack to the ground and held her other hand out.

  “You forgot to say please,” I said, holding the scepter out of her reach.

  “Now, Tut,” she said. “Before someone decides to look in here.”

  I started to hand the scepter over to her but stopped. It was pretty—all shiny and gold. Would taking it away really weaken Set? Maybe I should keep it. Horus would think he’d gone to kitty heaven if I brought this thing home.

  Tia reached out for it, but I pulled it back so her fingers closed over empty air.

  “Not so fast.” I turned it over to see the hieroglyphic engravings. “Chaos,” I read, turning it to see some more. “Power. Storms.”

  “Now, Tut.”

  “The magic word?”

  “Please?” Tia gritted her teeth like it pained her to lower herself to that level.

  “Fine.” I handed it over. Sure, Horus would like it, but I wasn’t going to betray Tia. She’d trusted me. And I was not a betrayer like Horemheb.

  The second Tia’s hands grabbed it, I swear she glowed. But then the glow went away just as quickly.

  “Happy now?” I asked. “Forget it—I don’t care. What did you mean about the mummification?”

  “I meant what I said.” She tucked the scepter into a deep side pocket of her cargo pants. “If you get caught, they’re going to mummify you. Some ceremonial thing. Great Anubis, they’re even planning on building that gaudy golden pyramid to put your mummified body in.”

  “You think it’s gaudy?” Maybe it was a stupid thing to ask, but the pyramid was actually way cool.

  “Yes,” Tia said. “But for what it’s worth, I hope you escape.”

  I started to respond, but voices caught my attention. The guards weren’t far away.

  “Me, too,” I said. “How do I get out?”

  “Once things quiet down, sneak out,” Tia said. “If you turn left three times, go up two flights of steps and through the set of glass doors, you’ll find a storage closet. Behind all the junk inside is a ladder to the surface. Climb it and it will lead you out.”

  My heart pounded. I was really going to get out of here with the knife. Gil probably hadn’t even noticed I was gone yet. I’d show up at the town house with the knife, and then he’d have no choice but to help me get my revenge on Horemheb. And then, once I’d gotten my vengeance, we could both be guardians of the knife. We could hide it away forever.

  “What about you?” I asked.

  “I’m leaving now,” Tia said, patting the pocket of her cargo pants where she’d put the scepter. “The last thing I need is me being caught in here with you.”

  Actually, the last thing we needed was me being caught at all.

  “Will I see you again?” I said, hoping I didn’t sound too much like a puppy dog.

  “A girl can only hope,” Tia said. And then she leaned over, and before I knew what was happening, her lips were on mine, and she was kissing me. And not just some regular, plain-papyrus kind of friend kiss like you might see in some cheesy mummy movie. This was a full-on, scarab-heart-glowing-bright-red kind of kiss. The kind I hadn’t had in centuries.

  I knew my scarab heart was glowing; it had basically stopped in place. I felt like it was going to burn a hole in my chest. But just as quickly as the kiss had happened, Tia pulled back.

  “Catch you later.” She cracked the door open and slipped through.

  I pulled the door closed but, not five seconds later, it burst back open. Ten guards filed into the room. I wanted to grab my backpack, but they surrounded me. And then Seti 142-A, complete in his loincloth getup, pushed his way through the guards and sauntered up to me.

  I tried to act casual, like I was supposed to be here even though this was not part of any good plan. “Oh, hey, Seti 142-A. Long time, no see. What’s going on?”

  “Oh, Former Ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt,” he said. “You have decided to join us after all.”

  I pretended to laugh. “Funny about that. I was just on my way out. So if you’ll clear your guards out of here, I’ll leave you to whatever crazy cult business you have planned.”

  Seti 142-A pretended to laugh, too. “But Tutankhamun, you are an integral part of our plans. We can’t allow you to leave.”

  “What is it you have planned, exactly?” I prayed he didn’t say the word mummy in his response.

  “Great Horemheb himself will cut your heart out,” he said. “And then our finest craftsmen will mummify your body and provide a path for your entry into the Fields of the Blessed. It will be the dawn of a new dynasty. The people will rejoice. The world will once again be set in order.”

  I scooted backward—straight into a guard. When had he snuck up on me?

  “I’m not so crazy about that plan,” I said.

  “That is irrelevant.” Seti 142-A nodded at the guards.

  They grabbed me.

  “Now if my heretical pharaoh would follow me this way. The final preparations for your ceremony have been made.”

  Blood rushed to my head. “What is it with you guys and mummification? Do you think that’s the solution to everything? If someone doesn’t fit into the equation, you just mummify
them?”

  “Mummification provides eternal life,” Seti 142-A said, as if I’d just questioned the sun rising each morning.

  “But I’m already immortal.”

  “True,” Seti 142-A said. “But Great Horemheb insists upon cutting your heart out and devouring it, ensuring you will never reach the afterworld.”

  It was a horrible visual image. I wanted no part in it.

  The guards yanked me down the hallway. Seti 142-A said nothing, and before I knew it, we were back in the tunnel leading to the underground river. My stomach knotted and I yanked against the guards, but there were too many. My feet felt like limestone blocks as I followed Seti 142-A. I was pretty sure I was going to throw up. Tia was nowhere to be found, but I did see Seti 142-B and Seth nearby. Seth made a giant L with his fingers on his forehead. I would have shot him the bird if guards weren’t holding my arms.

  Then I saw Horemheb. He stood next to the sarcophagus, dressed in a red tunic. Around him were three priests, just like I’d seen so long ago in ancient Egypt. It was like history was repeating itself. On the altar beside them sat the giant golden bowl.

  Wait. Maybe they didn’t know I had the knife. Maybe they thought it was still in there, submerged below the golden liquid. If I played everything right, I might actually be able to get out of this without my heart in Horemheb’s stomach.

  Tia strolled into the cavern then, moving over to Seth and whispering something in his ear. He laughed in response and actually smiled at her, like she’d done something right.

  I opened my mouth to yell to her, but I was breathing too hard to get anything out. And then pain tore through my side, crippling me with agony. I fell to my knees, trying to fight off the pain. The guards dragged me up the steps then, because there was no way I was walking up there myself.

  They lay me on the altar and held my hands and feet. Sweet incense burned all around me.

  Horemheb bowed forward and started chanting all sorts of crazy things about fate and destiny and his immortal right to be the ruler of Egypt. I looked up into his ugly face—a face I’d had nightmares about for three thousand years. I had to think of something fast. If only I’d brought the scrolls from the Book of the Dead with me, I could use my final spell for something. But nothing was coming to mind.

  “Boy King,” Horemheb said once he’d finished chanting. “I have waited an eternity for this day to come.”

  So had I. And I was going to come out victorious. I had the knife, not him. I struggled again.

  Horemheb reached toward the bowl. But instead of plunging his hand into the golden liquid, he stopped and chuckled under his breath.

  “No god will help you this day, Tutankhamun,” he said. And then he lifted my shirt and reached for the knife.

  21

  WHERE FIREBALLS AND NATRON EXPLODE

  I admit it—the situation looked pretty grim. I tried to work out a plan. It involved escaping, but that was as far as I got, because something landed on Horemheb’s head. It wrapped four limbs around him and started clawing into his scalp.

  “Horus!”

  Horus didn’t look my way. But what in the name of Amun Ra was he doing here? It was the new moon. Horus was crazy during new moons. Dangerous.

  I struggled against the hands that held me and broke free. I jumped off the table and dashed down the stairs.

  “Fight, Tut!” Gil said. He must’ve come with Horus.

  I didn’t stop to think. Gil was knocking out crazy cult members, throwing balls of fire and blasting heat waves at them. I tried to keep up, calling upon swarms of killer bees and fire ants to do my bidding. Gil and I fought next to each other, just like back in the old days. Our opponents kept coming. Ten. Twenty. Fifty. They were relentless.

  We kept fighting until every single one lay defeated on the ground.

  On the altar Horemheb and Horus still struggled. Gil summoned his most awesome power. Fire bolts flew from his fingertips: pure fire that streaked like a laser. The sarcophagus exploded. Natron and granite flew everywhere. Horus jumped away from Horemheb’s head, out of the way of the flying debris. Horemheb was not so lucky. He tumbled down the stairs and a giant piece of granite landed on top of him.

  I yanked the knife from my belt. Now was my chance. Horemheb would die.

  But hands grabbed me from behind.

  “You can’t kill him,” Gil said, holding me back.

  I fought against Gil. I had to get to Horemheb before he got away. “Yes, I can. Of course I can.”

  The harder I struggled, the tighter Gil held me. “No, Tut. I’m not kidding. You can’t kill him with the knife.”

  Obviously Gil and I had completely different views on the matter. Horemheb had to be destroyed. It was almost all I’d thought about for three thousand years. I had the upper hand. I had the knife, and Horemheb lay helpless under the lid of the sarcophagus.

  “Let me go!” I said. “I may never have this chance again.”

  But Gil didn’t let go. Instead he pried the knife from my hands. I clawed and kicked at him to stop, but it was no use.

  “Don’t you get it, Tut?” Gil said. “This is why the gods gave me the knife in the first place. It can’t be used for vengeance. If anyone—god, immortal, or mortal—uses the knife with negative emotion in their heart, the wrath of the gods will descend upon them. They’ll be cursed. Destroyed. You can’t do it.”

  “But I have to kill him,” I said. Gil’s words couldn’t be true. I refused to believe them. This had to be some lie the gods fed him back when they’d given him the knife.

  Gil kept the knife out of my reach even though I still struggled.

  “Even if you kill him, it’s not going to bring your family back,” Gil said. “Nothing you do will bring them back.”

  “It will make me feel better.” I grabbed again for the knife, hoping to catch him off guard. “You have no right to take it from me.”

  Gil fixed his eyes on me, and I was hypnotized under their power. “I have every right, Tut. I’m the protector.”

  And I knew that no matter what I said, Gil would never give in. Gil had no intention of ever letting me have it.

  From behind me, granite flew into the air and Horemheb jumped to his feet. Torches toppled over from the impact, smoke filled the air, and within seconds, the whole underground cavern was immersed in flames. Something exploded across the river. The flames must have reached the torch oil. The impact and heat hit me at the same time, sending me flying forward into a wall. Stars filled my vision, but I shook my head clear.

  Horus landed on the ground in front of me. His remaining eye looked feral, exactly like the time he’d tried to rip me to shreds.

  “Leave now, Tut,” Horus said under his breath.

  “But Horemheb…,” I said. Horus would understand. He was the one who’d told me about the knife in the first place.

  Horus advanced on me. “Leave. Now.”

  I didn’t need to be told a third time. I’d gotten this far once. I could do it again. And next time, I wouldn’t tell anyone where I was going.

  “Set better prepare to die!” Horus yelled amid the crackling flames.

  The only response was a shrieking like a hyena.

  “Show yourself, Set!” Horus howled. “How dare you encroach on Tut?” He transformed from a cat into a giant falcon. And without another word he flew into the flames and straight for Horemheb.

  “That’s our cue to leave,” Gil said.

  “But Horus—” I started, taking a step in Horus’s direction.

  “Will be fine.” Gil yanked my arm, pulling me back. “Now run.”

  We ran.

  Behind us, I heard the most horrendous hissing sound in the world. Millennia of rage filled the air. Fear tore at the lining of my stomach. This was way worse than stealing the scepter from Set. This battle went beyond thrones and pharaohs. It was feral and fatal and had nothing to do with me or Horemheb. This battle was the reason for the curse. It was a battle of the gods.

  �
�What will happen to Horus?” I asked as we ran. I thought about finding the way out that Tia had told me about, but all these hallways looked the same. I could only hope Gil knew where he was going.

  “Horus coming here at all violated some kind of unwritten treaty between the two of them,” Gil said as he blasted through closed doors with fireballs when they blocked our way. “Their strongholds are sacred.”

  “Horus has a stronghold?” I asked. Gil couldn’t possibly be referring to our town house.

  “All the gods have strongholds. They’re supposed to be sacred. But now Horus is here, thanks to you.”

  “What did you expect me to do? Sit around the town house like a worthless loser?”

  “I expected you to think before jumping into things and creating a disaster,” Gil said, throwing another fireball through a door that looked a lot like a storage closet. It might have been the one Tia had been talking about, because at the back of it was a ladder. When we reached the ladder, we started climbing.

  Gil didn’t take a breath from his lecture. “And if you think I’m upset that you’re here, you should have seen how Horus reacted when he found out. I’m pretty sure he’s going to flail you later.”

  It was better than what the Cult of Set had planned for me. Given a choice between having my heart cut out and devoured, and then being mummified, or facing Horus’s wrath, I’d choose Horus any day.

  We climbed to the top of the ladder and Gil pushed open a stone door that looked like it belonged at the entrance to a spooky haunted house crypt. When we came out into the evening, we were halfway across D.C., all the way over at Meridian Hill Park, near the waterfall steps.

  I almost felt the ground shaking under our feet. People were walking around D.C. completely oblivious to everything going on below them. The Cult of Set had a metropolis down there. They had schemes to take over the world, yet the world above remained clueless.

  “Don’t you ever do something like that again,” Gil said once he’d resealed our escape route. And then, before I could respond, Gil did something he hadn’t done in decades. He grabbed me in a giant hug. And then he let go. And hugged me again.