Amon gave me a long, sad look before turning to his brother. Dr. Hassan dutifully guided me away and then crouched to take a look at my bandages.
“This will need to be re-dressed. Will you take a seat, my dear?”
Taking my hand he steadied me as I hopped to a large rock and sat down. While I handed him the roll of bandages he’d packed, I quizzed him on what was going on. He seemed reluctant to share and kept glancing back at the two men who stood far behind us.
“I believe we are going to the Kom Ombo temple, the crocodile temple.”
“That’s where Ahmose was taken?”
“If the messenger spoke the truth, which I believe he did.”
“How do you know?”
“Because this area of the country was not always the wasteland you see today. When I hid Ahmose here, there was an oasis similar to the one where I hid Asten. He was buried in the hollow of the tallest tree and was also guarded by immortal creatures. The touch of the Dark One—”
“Brings death?” I swallowed.
“No.” Dr. Hassan shook his head as he secured my new bandage. “He causes much worse than death.”
“How can something be worse?”
Dr. Hassan stared unblinkingly over my shoulder for a moment. His eyes took on a glassy sheen as he seemed to be considering my question. “Ah,” he said, as if someone were whispering the answer in his ear. Finally, he refocused on my face and smiled. “You see, even in death there is the memory of a life lived. The person or animal who passes on continues to nourish the earth, and generations are influenced by the lives of their ancestors. What Seth does is more than simple destruction. He unmakes.”
“Unmakes?”
“Rewinds. Takes away every aspect of living until there is nothing left”—Dr. Hassan dug his fingers into the sand and let it trickle between them—“but barren ground. Even the footprints of those who have gone before are erased. This is what he wanted to do to Ahmose, Asten, and Amon centuries ago. He wanted more than a mere sacrifice; he wanted to unmake them.
“It would have been as if they’d never existed, and all the good that had happened because of them, all the lives they’d touched, would be erased. Their people would have suffered terribly, and the unmaking would have weakened the gods to the point of overpowering them.”
“He can do that?”
“Oh, yes. You see, to defeat evil is to spread the light of goodness. This is what gives the gods their strength. In creating something good, as when Seth used his power to heal the land and bless the people of Egypt, he achieved a certain level of power.”
“Because the people worshipped him?”
“In part, but it is not as simple as that. Their worship served to put Seth’s fellow gods at ease. He fooled everyone, mortal and immortal, and seemed to be serving humanity when in fact he was setting it up for a terrible fall. The power he achieved in the making and serving of humankind was a fraction of the power he would have gotten from unmaking them. But to unmake requires time, and it’s much easier to unmake someone who is already dead than someone who is living. This is why Seth asked his loyal priest to sacrifice the brothers.”
“So when he tried to kill Osiris, he was attempting to unmake him?”
“Very good, Lily. You are correct. But before Seth could complete his work, Isis discovered the body of her husband, and she and Anubis remade him. Unfortunately, parts of him were missing and he could no longer live upon Earth.”
“Which is why he now resides in the afterlife.”