“Are you prepared?” he asked.
“I am,” Alyssa replied.
“Who comes before me?”
“Alyssa, daughter of Kaden and Anja,” she replied.
Bes lifted his arms. “Alyssa, daughter of Kaden and Anja,” he called out, “this day marks the last day of your life as a child. From this day forth, you shall live your life as a woman, blessed with the gift of your sentinel.”
Paul’s skin prickled at the words.
“Have you chosen?” Bes continued.
“I have,” Alyssa answered.
“What is to be your sentinel?”
Alyssa’s body twitched. She remained silent.
Bes waited for several moments before he asked again, “What is to be your sentinel?”
Paul felt a shiver run down his back.
Without warning, Alyssa collapsed to the ground, writhing. Paul’s brain seized for an instant, then he screamed and leaped up the stairs, taking three steps at a time.
“Paul!” Tef called out and raced after him.
Paul reached Alyssa and dropped to the ground beside her.
“What did you do to her?” he screamed at Bes.
Tef knelt by her other side. She pressed her fingers against Alyssa’s neck.
“We need to get her to a hospital!” Paul yelled.
Bes bent down and placed his palms on Alyssa’s head.
“A hospital will not be able to help her,” he said.
Alyssa’s eyelids began to flutter erratically.
“We’re losing her,” Tef said, her voice trembling.
“No, we are not!” Paul slid his arms under Alyssa, ready to lift her up.
He froze and turned at the murmur behind him. The Hybrids below the pyramid parted and knelt reverently before a tall, hooded figure. The man moved swiftly up the stairs.
“Who are—?” Paul rose and placed himself between Alyssa and the approaching figure.
Tef put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him back. “Be still, Paul!” she commanded, her tone leaving no room for dissent. She sank to one knee and bowed her head. The man moved to Alyssa.
“What are you going…?” Paul started.
The man removed his hood and faced Paul, a single eye burning bright amber, deep lines lining his face. Paul fell silent under his gaze and bowed his head.
The man knelt next to Alyssa and placed his palms on her forehead. Alyssa’s body was still, her chest unmoving.
The darkness is complete, and I am content.
Then it begins to lift.
I beg for it to stay, but it does not obey me. I shiver, not from the cold, but from the knowledge that this is wrong. This should not be.
Sand pours into my body and courses through my veins. It pushes against me from the inside until I fear my skin will break. I try to scream, but sand fills my throat.
The grinding sound of stone on stone reaches my ears, chilling me to the core. My senses are overwhelmed, hyperaware. I struggle to open my eye, but even that simple task is beyond me as my body fails me, defying my command. My eyelid is a metal plate, fused shut with fire.
I try again.
And again.
Finally, my body relents, and my eye opens. A flash of light assails my brain. The veil of a shadow. A face. A woman.
Nephthys.
Her lips move close as if to bestow a lover’s kiss, but her face is cold, her eyes even colder.
“I have missed you—brother,” she whispers and presses the dagger against my throat.
Alyssa gasped. Paul cried out, dizzy with relief. Alyssa twitched, her eyelids fluttered. Her chest rose and fell in shallow breaths.
“Alyssa!” Paul leaped to her. He fell to his knees and grasped Alyssa’s head.
She opened her eyes and moved them from Paul to the figure standing above him. Recognition flooded her face.
“How…?”
18 Hong Kong
Nephthys stood on the summit of Victoria Peak, overlooking Hong Kong island. The high collar and long sleeves of her black dress held back the chill of the wind. The countless high-rises on the island blended into their counterparts across Causeway Bay, forming a sea of lights. A single building rose above them. Nephthys’s body filled with an electricity she hadn’t felt in decades. Even at this distance his presence was unmistakable.
“The ancient bioweapon will activate in five minutes time,” Yuri Korzo said, interrupting her thoughts, his voice filled with the tremor of pride.
Nephthys nodded, her thoughts far away. Ancient bioweapon… Horus virus… Thoth’s curse… Her jaw tightened. No matter the name, tonight, there would be retribution. Their own weapon, Thoth’s lethal creation that had ravaged so many Pure Ones, would be used against the Rathadi. Using the knowledge she bestowed on him, Korzo altered it, bypassing the natural immunity the Rathadi blood offered against it. But his true genius, and what would bring her victory tonight, lay in how they had delivered it to the Rathadi.
Her lips curved into a smile as she imagined the bodies of the Rathadi, ravaged by their own weapon, wrapped in a biological Trojan horse designed by Korzo. It was brought inside by the girl he infected and lay dormant as it spread, only to activate in every one of them at exactly the same time.
Yuri continued his nervous rambling. “They will be most vulnerable during the initial phase of the active infection. Their bodies will be overwhelmed as they try to mount an immune response against the pathogen.”
She nodded silently, not chastising him for the nervous chatter.
Most importantly, Alyssa Morgan continued to be immune to it. Nephthys did not want to risk damaging her spoils. Not when she was so close to her goal. Tonight, she would celebrate two victories. She would defeat the Rathadi and secure her prize.
Behind her, four military transport helicopters stood in formation, her men on board, awaiting her command for liftoff. Nephthys’s connection within the Chinese government facilitated the introduction between her and the top brass of the People’s Liberation Army. But it was Yuri Korzo’s biologically synthesized timer that captured their interest and convinced them to grant her the use of the choppers and freedom to operate in their airspace in exchange for his technology.
She raised her hand and watched three of the helicopters lift off. She and Yuri entered the fourth one as its blades spun up.
“It is time for a family reunion,” she said as the helicopter rose into the air and set course for the building.
Alyssa gazed out of the tall window. On any other night, the view of the cityscape from the tallest of the seven Rathadi towers would be the most spectacular sight she could hope to behold. Tonight, it was a distant second. She shifted her focus to the reflection of the figure standing behind her. Even though she had never laid eyes on his face, she knew it was him. He held himself with a stillness that reminded her of carved stone.
She turned.
“Are you a god?”
He held her gaze for several moments, the yellow iris in his single eye reflecting thousands of distant pinpoints of light. His mouth twitched, the first crack in his perfect, sculpted face, then he gave her a small, amused laugh.
“What makes a god?” he asked, his voice low, almost hypnotic. “I have been worshiped as one. Temples have been built to idolize me. Wars have been waged and more lives lost in my name than even I can count.” He paused. “But if you are asking whether I am immortal or omnipotent—” he fixed his gaze on Alyssa—“I fear my answer shall leave you disillusioned.”
“Then how… how can you be alive? After so many years? I saw you. I was you. And now, thousands of years later…?”
“We are blessed with long life,” he said, “but not that long.”
“Then you’re not Horus?”
“I am Horus,” he said.
Alyssa blinked. “I don’t understand.”
He took a deep breath, as if searching for a place to begin. He was silent for so long Alyssa thought he would never answer the question.
“Your consciousness?” Alyssa asked. “The crystal?”
“The sacred stone is but a window into our minds. It holds memories and thoughts, but cannot be used to pass down a full consciousness.” He approached her. “That feat can only be accomplished by linking two living minds.”
A wave of heat rushed through Alyssa. So many questions splintered her mind that she couldn’t keep them straight.
“When I am ready to cross over, my son shall take my place,” Horus continued. “Just as I did two centuries ago, when I myself ceased to be Heru-pa and became Horus.”
“Heru-pa?” Alyssa managed to ask, finally finding her voice. “The Rathadi I met? He is your son?”
“Heru-pa-kaat—Horus the Child—is as much a name as it is a title for Horus’s vessel. As countless generations before him and before me, Heru-pa has been groomed from before the day he was born to serve as Horus’s vessel. His birthright and his duty are to carry forward the legacy of our people, and the legacy of our first ancestor.”
“Ra,” Alyssa whispered.
Horus nodded. “Once he takes my place, Heru-pa’s transcendence shall be complete.”
She brought a shaky hand to her temple, rubbing it. She focused on the one thing she thought she understood.
“I thought that to transcend meant to join with your sentinel,” she said.
“All Rathadi join with their sentinel during the Rite of Transcendence, the most sacred of our liturgies. I—the first Horus—transcended millennia ago when I joined with my falcon. Heru-pa must remain free of a sentinel until my consciousness is passed down to him. It is but one price we all must pay to serve as Horus’s vessel.” His hand drifted to the ornate eyepatch.
Alyssa moved to a black leather armchair and sagged into it, absorbing what she heard.
“What happened four months ago? Did you know the Hall would be opened?”
Horus stared at her. “Nephthys,” he said.
“The woman I met in Nepal?”
Horus nodded.
“Nephthys… she is your—”
“Sister,” Horus completed. “Half-sister, actually.” He took a deep, steadying breath. “She has suffered greatly. At the hands of the Pureans… and the Rathadi.” A pained expression crossed his face. “I did not know she existed until it was too late…”
“I thought your family…”
“The night my grandfather and I escaped the island, my mother was captured. Young Set saved her life.”
“Set? The same Set you killed?”
Horus’s gaze turned inward, as if reliving that night. “We grew up as brothers,” he said. “Set, Prince of the Pureans. I, Prince of the Hybrids. Had we been able to produce offspring, we would have been married to seal the peace between our people. I loved him like my own brother, my mother loved him like her own son.”
“But the Pureans were your enemies!”
“It was not always that way. The attack on our people was as stunning to him as it was to the Hybrids. When the Pureans captured my mother, she was to follow my father into death. Young Set begged for her life until his father relented and allowed her to live.”
“What happened to her?”
“My mother… became pregnant in captivity. Her daughter, my half-sister, Nephthys, was raised among the Pureans. Set’s love for my mother spilled over to Nephthys. He felt responsible for her, protected her. They fell in love. It was a forbidden love, full of danger. When it was discovered, she was forced to join with a sentinel and forced to leave the island.” Horus’s mouth twisted. “An abomination of the cruelest kind…”
“That is horrible,” Alyssa whispered.
“When Nephthys returned and learned that I had killed Set and destroyed the only home she had ever known, she vowed to make me suffer as I had made her suffer.”
“So all these years of fighting…”
“It is a war fueled by revenge—and pain,” Horus completed her thought. “Pain that I inflicted.”
Alyssa stood in sullen silence. “Nephthys, is she like you? I mean, her consciousness and memories?”
“Her life among the Pureans has diluted her Rathadi bloodline, weakened it.” Horus stepped closer. “You are important to her. More important than you could—”
The door to the room burst open. Dharr rushed in, pale and breathless, clutching a bundle in his arms.
“We were betrayed,” he uttered between heavy gasps.
Alyssa stared at the bundle, her brain slowly registering it as a child. No. She willed it not to be, but the face was one she knew. Wen. A thin trickle of blood flowed from his right eye down his cheek, like a red tear.
“The infection,” Dharr said, “it is here.” He staggered.
Horus rushed to him and caught him before he and Wen could fall to the ground. He eased them down gently then turned to Alyssa.
An icy terror blossomed in her chest, expanding like a tumor.
The crushing pressure was there before she realized Horus had moved across the room and lifted her up by her throat like a rag doll.
“Did you know?” he growled, his face contorted in a snarl.
Alyssa struggled to breathe. She tried to pry his fingers away from her throat, but his grip was like a vise, sucking the air in the room from her lungs.
“No,” she cried. “I would never…” She gasped for breath, her vision closing in.
Horus fixed his eye on Alyssa, burning through her, as if probing her soul. Two unimaginably long heartbeats later, he lowered her to the ground. She collapsed, sobbing, heaving in great gulps of air.
Horus’s face twisted with sudden realization. He faced Dharr.
“Go on high alert. Activate the—”
Bursting glass. Short thumping sounds. Alyssa screamed as everything around her exploded at once.
Paul staggered along the corridor past the elevator, the alarm blaring in his ears, the air thick with smoke. His vision swam, and his head threatened to explode. Without warning, the body appeared in his path. He crashed into it, grunting. Before he knew what happened, he was flat on his back, staring into a muzzle, a knee grinding his gut into the hard floor. Tasha’s feral eyes glared at him from behind the pistol.
“Paul!” she cried. “I’m sorry!” She lowered the weapon.
She sprang up and held out her hand, helping him to his feet. He winced while the organs in his gut rearranged themselves into their anatomically correct positions. A hundred words surged through his mind, but he kept his mouth shut. She still has the gun.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“We’re under attack!”
“Who?”
“Does it matter?” She looked around. “Where is Alyssa?”
“She was with… Horus.” He shook his head, still in disbelief at his own words. “We need to find them!” He turned, ready to take off, and staggered.
Tasha caught him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah… I think so.” It’s just the smoke.
Tasha grasped his shoulder and handed him the pistol. “Do you know how to use it?”
Paul took the weapon and nodded. He looked at her empty hand. “What about you?”
“I’ll manage,” she said and took off down the corridor.
No doubt, Paul thought, rubbing his gut as he staggered after her, trying to keep up.
My ears ring as I lie face down, stunned and blinded. I shake my head, trying to see through the haze.
Slowly my vision returns. I roll to my side. The men who guarded my left flank are gone, their mangled bodies strewn across the marble grounds of the palace courtyard. Their shields and bodies protected me from the force of the explosion.
Black powder? But Thoth—
Alyssa snapped back as strong hands lifted her to her feet. Horus’s face was marred with dirt and blood, his eye fierce.
“Are you injure
d?” he asked.
She shook her head.
Horus moved to Dharr. His body lay on the ground, covering Wen and shielding him from the blast. Dharr stirred when Horus touched him. He slowly gained his feet. Horus knelt next to Wen and placed a palm on his head.
Horus tapped his bracelet, and a three-dimensional diagram of the building appeared above it. He studied it for several seconds. He tapped it again, and a shimmering image of Heru-pa’s face replaced the building.
“She is here,” Horus said.
“The link has been disabled!” Heru-pa cried.
Horus’s jaw tightened. “I shall restore the transmitter. Be ready to send the signal.”
“Let me go, instead,” Heru-pa pleaded. “You cannot risk—”
“Do not question me!” Horus warned, his voice tense. “They waited until we were vulnerable,” Horus said. “The access from below will be blocked, so they will attempt to breach from above. Gather those who can fight and protect the high levels until all are safe.”
He tapped the bracelet again, and Heru-pa’s face disappeared.
He lifted Wen and put him into Dharr’s arms. “Get him to safety.”
“My Lord…” Dharr started then staggered and slumped.
Horus caught him before he could fall and grasped Dharr’s head between his palms. They stood, frozen, until Dharr’s eyes began to clear. Horus spoke to him in the Rathadi tongue. Dharr tensed, his eyes shifting to Alyssa.
“Evacuate to the safe zones,” Horus commanded before Dharr had a chance to reply. “Protect her with your life.” He sped out of the room.
“Wait!” Alyssa called after him. “Don’t leave!”
Dharr stepped in her way. “You will obey his command. We must hurry.” He rushed into the corridor.
A second detonation tore through the room, catching her in mid-step. The blast lifted her off her feet and tossed her backward as a wave of heat washed over her.
She tumbled across the floor, stone and fiery debris showering her, cutting and burning flesh. She crabbed back, fleeing the onslaught until her back pressed against the floor-to-ceiling window.
Daughter of Ra Page 21
