In a sibilant voice, very different from the shabti’s, words streamed from his mouth, and it took me a moment to make sense of them.
You come here seeking the power of the moon,
But he has been hidden in a dark cloud, his power vanquished.
You who weep will be cast into a devouring fire,
Where you will wail and gnaw upon your fingers,
For you will be unable to hold back the tide of darkness.
Already it swirls around you, snapping and ripping you asunder.
Flies fester and maggots tear the flesh from his bones.
But he can be liberated from his rotting prison.
The price? It is small. A trinket. A trifle.
All I seek is an eye.
But no ordinary eye will suffice to release one so great.
The Eye of Horus is the requisite payment.
It will be swallowed whole, devoured by chomping beasts.
Only then may you reunite with your lost brother
In the realms of the dead.
If you do not come for him,
Then I’ll retort with a hellish deluge.
I will blacken the glory of the sun,
Squeeze bloody tears from the moon,
And shake the foundation of the cosmos
Until every last star in heaven shall fall,
And humankind will dwindle to utter nothingness.
The shabti’s head swung back and hung loosely as he fell silent. Slowly, his body lowered onto the sand, which crept over him as if burying him alive. Soon only his head stuck out, and the sand on top of him solidified into a highly detailed structure that resembled an ancient Egyptian building.
I pressed my hands against my mouth, horrified. “Does that…? Did he mean that he has Ahmose and wants to trade him for Amon’s…eye?” I gasped, barely able to get the words out.
Staring at the empty socket where the shabti’s eye had once been made me sick, especially as I imagined the pain of losing it. It couldn’t happen to Amon. It just couldn’t.
Amon and Asten didn’t answer, and when I glanced up at Dr. Hassan, he removed his hat and hung his head. This was not good. I hoped that maybe I had misunderstood, that something had been lost in translation. That Amon was not considering trading his eye for his brother.
Amon and Asten studied the structure atop the shabti for a moment and then exchanged a long look. The sun god knelt at the head of the dying servant and passed his hand over the man’s face. “You have assisted me well,” Amon murmured. “You are released from your servitude. May your faithful service render you a blessed afterlife.” With a deep sigh, the man’s life force escaped from his mouth and hovered in the air for a moment before collapsing in on itself and disappearing with a burst of light.
The body resting under the sand shivered. Thin beams of golden light whipped around it in a whirlwind, and then the form shrank, destroying the sand building in the process. Amon dug his hand into the pile of sand and felt around until he found what he was looking for. Slowly, he pulled out the shabti’s stone carving and handed it to Dr. Hassan, who dusted it off soberly and placed it in his knapsack.
“We are headed to the temple, then?” Dr. Hassan asked after he’d secured the bag.
Asten nodded. “The structure still stands?”
“Yes. Though it is slowly returning to dust.”
“As are we all,” Amon replied gravely. He and Asten drew Dr. Hassan aside, moving away several feet until I could no longer make out what they were saying, especially because they were conferring in Egyptian. I was irritated at being left out. When their conversation was finished, Amon asked, “Dr. Hassan, if you would be kind enough to escort Lily a bit farther down the valley? Asten and I must speak with one another alone.”
“Of course.”
Amon wrapped his hands around my waist and helped me to my feet. “And perhaps you could also see to her injuries?” he added as Dr. Hassan put an arm around my shoulder.
“Wait.” I turned back to Amon. “I don’t understand. What building was that in the sand? You’re not planning to do something drastic, are you?”