2

WHERE I TALK TO THE GODS

I fell to the ground, vaguely aware of Horemheb falling to the ground across from me. The world slowed down. Giant drops of blood fell onto the scrolls of the Book of the Dead.

This was it. I was too late. I was going to die, and my only consolation was that Horemheb was going to die also. As I stared up at the painted ceiling, black mist filled the air, and words from the Book of the Dead twisted around in my mind. Days passed in that moment. Years. Time had no meaning. My body separated from reality and drifted.

The god Osiris glided up to me. I knew it was him because his skin was dark green and he had a funny pointed hat with some ostrich feathers perched on his head. The two harvesting tools he was always holding were tucked under one arm. At his feet, palm fronds and flowers sprouted from the ground, and insects trailed after him by the thousands. They swarmed me just as he reached down with one hand and pulled me to my feet.

“I can’t be dead,” I said. Horemheb was back in my tomb. What if he wasn’t dead? He’d rule Egypt and get away with his crimes. “You have to send me back.”

“You assume I can,” Osiris said.

“You’re a god. Can’t you do that?”

“You tell me, Tutankhamun. Do you think I have the power?”

I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t been the most reverent pharaoh. The gods had done nothing for me so far in life except take away my family. But here was Osiris in front of me. And if there was a chance that he was real, I had to take it.

“I think you have the power,” I said.

Osiris grinned, so I figured it was the right answer.

“I knew you believed in me,” Osiris said. “Horus always said you were a good kid. Said there was something special about you.”

I highly doubted the gods were spending much time discussing me. I nodded so Osiris wouldn’t think I was being rude and so he would get on with making me alive again.

“Are you ready for your future?” Osiris asked, waving his crook and flail in the air in front of him like some sort of witch doctor.

“I’m ready.”

No sooner were the words out of my mouth than Osiris began chanting. A glowing orb appeared on his palm. It pulsed light like the beating of a heart. I couldn’t stop staring at it, not even when he thrust his hands forward and shoved the object deep inside my chest.

I snapped back to reality. I was in the tomb, on the floor. Light poured from my chest, illuminating the ceiling above me. Energy filled me. The pain where Horemheb had stabbed me was gone. I touched my stomach, but the blood was gone, too. There was no wound. Osiris had healed me. He’d put the glowing object inside me.

I jumped to my feet. Horemheb was still on his back, and black mist pooled in the air above him. But the place where I’d stabbed him was gone, too. And just like me, there was a light coming from his chest. Maybe Osiris had healed me, but Set must have healed Horemheb also.

The black mist grew and filled the air, making the light coming from my chest bounce around everywhere. Horemheb got to his feet.

I ran for him, knife back in my hand, but this time, when my knife cut into his flesh, it healed over instantly. Horemheb started laughing. And then he took his knife and retaliated. My chest pounded, but not on the left where I usually felt my heart beating after running. This was in the center, where Osiris had put the glowing object. I pushed Horemheb away. Not only was there no pain in my side, I healed as quickly as Horemheb had. That stopped Horemheb’s laughter.

It seemed that, thanks to the will of the gods, I couldn’t kill Horemheb. The good part seemed to be that he couldn’t kill me, either. Horemheb looked as shocked as I did. His hands covered his own chest, but light exploded around his fingers. And then he started praying.

“Great Set, you have granted me your favor. Curse my enemy and this tomb forever. Grant my freedom. Allow me, your humble servant, to rule the world in your name.”

At his words, the black mist thickened and spread everywhere like it was alive and a thick sulfur smell filled the air, almost making me gag.

I felt a tug on my sandal and looked down.

“Osiris has granted you a way out,” the shabti leader said.

“Out! I can’t leave Horemheb here alive.”

But the shabti leader wrung his little hands. “You must. He’s invoked the wrath of Set. You heard the prayers. The gods have cursed these walls.”

I shot one last look behind me. I could come back for Horemheb. Bring some help with me. He could have lied about the palace guard being dead. About the whole revolution thing. Even if he couldn’t die, he could be arrested and tortured for the rest of eternity for what he’d done.

The leader of the shabtis took my silence for a yes.

“This way,” he said, rushing for a tunnel.

“Where are we going?” I ran behind him, making sure I didn’t step on his battalion. Given that they were only six inches tall, shabtis could run fast. And they did seem to stay out from underfoot.

“A door shown to us by Osiris himself,” the leader said, stopping when we reached the end of the tunnel. “It’s here.”

“Set is answering my prayers, Tutankhamun,” Horemheb said from what sounded like only steps behind me. “Soon you will be dead!”

I glanced down. “If you don’t mind hurrying—”

The leader moved aside. “You must pass through.”

The tomb was solid stone. This was nothing but a dead end. “How?”

The shabti leader only bowed to the ground. “Please, Great Pharaoh. You don’t have much time.”

I felt the wall. It was solid rock. But the little shabti was insistent. So I closed my mind to sanity and remembered what Osiris had said.

“I have faith, Osiris,” I prayed. “Show me the way out.”

The thing in my chest pounded. I stepped forward, ignoring the fact that I was trying to step into solid limestone blocks. And something amazing happened. I passed right through.

“Gods be praised!” I was halfway through the limestone, but I turned to look at Horemheb tearing down the tunnel after me. There was no way in all the realm of Anubis that Horemheb could be allowed to be free.

“Tut, this is not over. Do not leave like a coward,” Horemheb said.

“This is over,” I said. “You can rot in here for eternity!”

I launched myself the rest of the way through the stone wall and looked at Horemheb one last time. There was no sign of him. Or the tomb. The whole thing had vanished, like it had been covered up by decades of sandstorms. I scanned the horizon, looking for the palace, the capital city, anything. But my Egypt had disappeared, and with it, my future.