“I am sorry, Lily, but I need you.”
“It’s okay, I’m here. What do you—” I cried out midsentence as Amon drew energy from me. This time it was very different. Before, it felt like a gradual draining, but now the pull was sharp and painful, like someone was vacuuming out my insides with a steel wool attachment.
After a moment of agony, Amon let go, though he was still panting. “Lily?” he called. “How do you fare?”
Little twinges of aftershocks rippled under my skin. Being pretty much blind didn’t help, and I began experiencing extreme claustrophobia as well. “Not good,” I gasped, feeling like I was going to throw up. “A little warning next time would be nice.”
“But I did warn—”
“Never mind. Oh, boy, it hurts.” I ached all over. “Is that normal?”
“The longer we are connected, the worse the pain will be for you when I borrow energy.”
“Well, that’s just fan-freaking-tastic.” My head began to pound at the base of my neck.
“I will try to spare you as much as possible.”
“Thanks,” I murmured dryly. Fishing sightlessly in my bag, I found a small bottle of ibuprofen and popped a few, downing them with water. Amon groaned. “Are you in pain, too?” I asked.
He blew out a breath as he leaned back against the wall. “Yes. I experience pain when I expend a great amount of energy without having absorbed the power found in my canopic jars. Our connection is such that I experience your pain also.”
“Talk about a double whammy. Here, hold out your hand.” I stretched my hand out and bumped into his chest. Moving my palm up to his shoulder, I skimmed it down his arm and took his hand, opening it and holding it in place. I shook some tablets into his palm, counted, took back the three extra ones, and then handed him the bottle of water, placing it in his other hand.
“What is this?” Amon asked.
“Medicine from my world. It will help with the headache.”
Grunting, Amon popped the pills and chewed. “The taste is abhorrent,” he spat.
“You’re not supposed to chew them. You swallow them whole. So,” I asked as I put the ibuprofen back in my bag and felt for his arm, “what exactly are we going to do now with no light?”
“We will go down the shaft.”
“How? I can’t see a thing.”
“I can see in the darkness.” Amon turned toward me and two shimmery lights materialized in the pitch black just about where his eyes would be. It reminded me of the reflective eyes of animals at night.
“That’s a little creepy. So you have night vision?”
“I call it eyeshine.”
“Right, so I’m just supposed to follow you? Blindly?”
Amon’s glowing eyes turned away from me and then returned. The effect was eerie. I felt like I was being haunted. “Perhaps it is not the most effective way,” he admitted reluctantly.
“Will it be steep?” I asked.
“Possibly. It depends on what the intended use of the shaft was.” Amon slowly turned, tucking my arm in his.
“I thought it was for air,” I said as I walked beside him tentatively, testing out how to move in absolute darkness in a strange place. I clutched his muscular arm like a lifeline.
“Some of them are. Often there were secret shafts built for the priests who tended to our resting places. They kept funerary lamps lit and left behind food and other items they thought we might need should we awaken.”
The heel of my boot rolled over a round stone and I staggered. Amon pulled me upright, placing one arm around my shoulders. His other arm was now in front of me so I could hold on to it like a safety bar on a roller coaster.
“Didn’t the priests know that you rose just once every thousand years?” I asked as we started walking again.