A thousand needles pierced me. This time, as the sandstorm ripped my body apart, I was fairly certain that nothing could put me back together again.
But, as before, I was remade. Knit together with knives. I was sure there was not one part of me that wasn’t throbbing. We’d materialized in a dark cave. Amon had doused his light, and I could make out nothing but his eerie glowing eyes.
He whispered, “Can you stand?”
Unable to trust myself to speak without whimpering, I nodded and took a step away from him. His arms trembled as he held me, and I remembered then that he was suffering alongside me. When he was satisfied that I could stand on my own, he said, “Rest here. The errant shabti is in the next cavern.” He took my hand and pointed toward the right. “Can you see it?”
My eyes adjusted, and I saw a faint, unsteady light outlining the dark edges of the opening. “Yes.”
“Stay hidden behind this boulder. I will return for you when I have completed the spell to send him back to the afterlife.”
“Okay.” Amon started to move away, but I caught his hand. “Amon?”
“Yes, Lily?”
Standing on tiptoes, I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Be careful.”
He put his arms around my waist and squeezed. Some of his energy seeped back into me then, steadying me and keeping nausea at bay. Then he moved away. I could just make out his form as he disappeared through the antechamber opening. My body trembled, feeling the absence of his steadying arms.
Sweat trickled down my temples as I hid, and I wondered if Amon’s cooling kiss on my throat had worn off. The idea that I’d soon need another wasn’t an unpleasant notion, and I distracted myself from the pain by imagining just how I’d ask him. Just then I heard the sound of pottery breaking and Amon’s cry.
I didn’t know how to help him, but I knew I needed to try. On shaky legs, I quietly moved to the opening and peered inside. The sounds of a struggle were obvious, though the two men fought in utter darkness. Suddenly, the sound of clashing swords filled the air. I was able to make out a red streak of light circling a dark form, and when the green glow of the form’s eyes confirmed it was Amon, I crept closer.
Spotting me with his night vision, Amon called out as he grappled with his enemy, “Save the jars, Lily!”
“Where?” I cried. “Where are they?”
“On the right wall!”
Blindly, I stuck out my hands and carefully made my way to my right until I came in contact with a gritty wall. A swirl of fresh air hit me, and I sensed that we were in a much larger space than I had originally thought. If this was where Amon’s jars were, then it was likely that his body had been discovered here as well. Which meant there was an opening somewhere that led aboveground, although it was too dark to make anything out.
I felt my way along the wall. As I progressed, I heard Amon chanting spells, which seemed to be having no effect on the shabti servant. From the sound of things, the servant was stronger than Amon, which made no sense. Amon was powerfully built, even without his sun god attributes, while the shabti was small and round, surely no match for Amon.
Something was very wrong.
I progressed farther and was finally rewarded with a hollowed-out place in the wall, a partially unearthed rough rectangle about one foot wide and two feet high. Stumbling over a mound of dirt, I heard a crack as my boot crushed something tiny and fragile.
“Hope that wasn’t a priceless artifact,” I murmured as I fumbled in the darkness.