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Harsh sunlight blinded me as Inese sat the car on the roof of the museum in Cairo. Behind the skyscrapers and crowded streets, three great pyramids rose from the desert in a distant haze. “Look!” I perked up from the daze of traveling and leaned against the window. “The pyramids!” Seeing the towering works in person was better than any picture a textbook could show me. It was enough to ease the tension in my shoulders from sitting next to Lance this whole time.
“Great,” Lily muttered. “Statues.”
I grinned. There did seem to be a plethora of statues below, even for a front entrance. Across the lawn—which was surprisingly green for being in a desert—on either side of the parking lot, were two large statues. One of a woman, and the other of a man with a falcon’s head. Both had large disks precariously balanced above their heads like upright, granite suns. Rows of hedges had been clipped into stout jackals. Children pointed, dancing between their parents and the elaborately shaped bushes. I reached out to the plants with my powers and a thrill ran through me. These held their shape through the use of powers and clipping combined. They were so alive. Even my own vines, hidden under my sleeves, trembled with excitement.
I pressed my nose against the invisible glass. “So, how do we get in?” Sure, it was a mission, but Lily and I had the best part. All I had to do was not let the crowds get to me.
“While the rest of us are going through a portal, you and Lily will enter from the front door,” Inese said. “I’ll lead the others to the stone, and you’ll serve as backup.”
“Are you sure you don’t want help with that?” Lily asked.
“No.”
“It’ll be fun,” I said, still excited. A miniature pyramid stood in the center of the path with kids scrambling over it while their parents took pictures. “What about the portal? Can you make it invisible, too?”
“No,” Inese said. “That’s why we’re going through the back. Less chance someone will see us. It’s why we scoped out that alley behind the museum. That way no one will see how you got here.”
A moment later we assembled in an invisible human chain outside the car. I licked my lips. The air was dry, but not nearly as hot as I’d imagined. Comfortable, really. If it wasn’t for going in the museum, I’d have preferred to stick with the camisole, or maybe the smiling tree shirt.
A purple mass swirled in front of us and Lily pulled me through. We landed in a small, shaded alley a couple streets from the museum. My skin prickled with anticipation. A new place with new sights... “Come on!” I yanked on Lily’s hand and dragged her along, careful not to use my speed power.
Lily yipped and rubbed her wrist. “Geesh, Jenna. I know you’re excited, but if you want to make this look authentic...”
“Pyramids... museum... awesome exhibits...” I flashed her a smile. “I don’t have to fake this.”
Lily scoffed. “No. No you don’t. Wish we could have gone straight in, though. Wouldn’t cost as much.”
I rolled my eyes, but nothing could bring down my mood. After all those years of useless textbooks, I was getting information right at the site of ancient history! As long as I pictured what was coming—all the exhibits and the info plaques—I could distract myself from the crowds.
If I couldn’t, well, I had the flower charm.
Lily and I paid at the entrance and followed the crowd inside. Though the lighting was about the same as Community efficiency lights and there were giant windows along the walls, the indoor light was dim compared to the glare coming from outside.
“Now, if you don’t mind...” Lily took a sharp turn to the nearest bathroom, pushed it open, and guided me in past the attendant. She paused, handing me a stash of tissues before peering under the stalls for feet and vanishing into an empty one. For a moment I was too stunned to react. Then I followed her example and waited by the sinks until she was done.
Business complete, Lily held her hands under the automated dryer, and then finally opened the door for an old lady and followed her out. “I can’t believe you,” I said, unable to contain my smile. “We’re in Egypt and the first thing you want to do is use the restroom?”
She scoffed. “I forgot to go before we left.” She peered outside the bathroom, eyeing a statue beside the door suspiciously. “Since you’re the one who actually wants to be here, where to first?”
So many options. Glass cases lined the walkways. Crowds of people wearing everything from t-shirts and shorts, to those whose faces were covered with veils, passed between the exhibits, pointing and chatting amongst themselves. Half of the wall was covered in a piece of stone decorated with engraved hieroglyphs, while the other had giant murals with explanations in multiple languages.
I bounced on my feet, nervous. What if I had a memory attack? What if I didn’t? Lily was right—statues were everywhere. Most had a thick red rope and metal posts separating them from the walkway, while others stood in watchful silence. One had a copper-painted man with short black hair throwing a spear, his legs spread shoulder-width apart. It reminded me of a life-size version of the miniatures, frozen in battle.
I shivered, my excitement starting to fade. The statues did remind me of the miniatures, as if this was some kind of life-sized game, frozen in stone. “You know, I think I see why you don’t like...” —I frowned, turning in place— “...statues,” I finished, trying to make myself small. People bumped into me as they passed, but none of them were Lily.
She was gone.
My chest clenched. “Lily?”
She had to be here somewhere. I’d just seen her a minute ago. I pushed through the crowd, mumbling apologies, tension mounting in my stomach and threatening to make me sick. I needed to find her before a memory attack started, or our team called us for help, or beasties attacked us—
My shoulder bumped through a museum curator’s shoulder. I spun around, my heart racing.
There was that same spiky red hair I’d seen before, back on the boat in Japan and after the airship was attacked.
“Spectator?” I whispered, stunned.
The man turned and smiled, inclining his head as he continued walking the opposite direction. Community... not here! When I suggested we could draw him out, I hadn’t expected to draw him out in the middle of a museum.
What if Jim was right? Whenever Spectator showed up, something had gone wrong. He had showed up when the dragon guardian attacked us in Japan, after the airship attack, and when I was escaping from the security center in the Community. It probably wasn’t his fault; correlation wasn’t causation, but the fact that he was here suggested that something wasn’t going to go as planned. He had shown up and been helpful before, so he wasn’t technically a bad omen, but still—
“Lily!” I hurried onward, panic rising in my throat. I spotted Lily’s black braid and shot toward her. “Lily!” She stood beside a long glass case. I grabbed her elbow. “Why’d you run off like that?”
She looked at me, surprised. “Run off? I thought you were right behind me.”
“You weren’t. I saw Spectator. He’s—”
He was gone. Nowhere to be found. Not one of the curators had spiky red hair, and most of the people around here had dark hair. My shoulders sagged.
Lily raised an eyebrow. “You saw Spectator?”
“Maybe,” I murmured. “Or maybe I was just panicking. I’m sorry. It’s just—”
“No need to apologize,” she said, her expression forgiving. “I understand.”
“You do?” I wasn’t sure I understood. What if I was going crazy, like the tales of people who had theophrenia? Sure, theophrenia wasn’t real, but memory attacks were about the closest thing to having the plague.
I reached for the charm, the noise around me roaring in my ears, and then forced my hand to point to the exhibit instead. I could do this. I could act normal. The exhibit in question was a glass case, laid out horizontally. Underneath the glass was a mummy, shorter than I’d imagined the Egyptians, wrapped in stiff, dark tan strips of fabric. “What’s this?”
After a moment of eyeing me with concern, Lily said, “Creepy, that’s what. Quin loves these things.”
“Seems like an inefficient way to bury the dead,” I mused after reading the display beside the case. I adjusted my turtleneck self-consciously. I looked fine. No one but Lily knew I was having these memory attacks.
Not unless there was a telepath in the room.
My heart skipped a beat, but Lily snorted, bringing me back to reality. “At least they aren’t statues. They were actually living at one point.”
“I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.” I moved on to the next exhibit, a statue of a person with a jackal’s head.
“That’d be Anubis,” Lily said. “One of Quin’s favorites. I think he likes the whole ‘weigh the heart, determine if they’re worthy of going into the afterlife’ thing. He used to wear an ankh necklace until he lost it on one of our not-so-successful missions. Granted, he also likes Ma’at, but you don’t see as much of her around museums.”
“Who?”
Lily pulled me toward the next exhibit. “Goddess of justice and harmony. Has an ostrich feather. You’d probably like her, actually.”
“Uh-huh.” I caught Lily’s wrist before she could pass by a clay model of a boat and more people. We both froze. I quickly dropped her hand, heat spreading through my fingers. I chuckled nervously. “They did like their statues, didn’t they?”
Lily’s shoulders drooped. “Yes. Now can we avoid them, please? I’m hoping Inese finds that stone before anyone notices us.”
“Sure. But why don’t you like statues?”
“They’re so... lifelike. Like they were living, and then got frozen in stone. It’s just—it’s creepy, okay?”
“I know what you mean. Try going to a game shop.”
She winced. “Please don’t ruin miniatures for me. At least they’re too tiny to be real.”
“Yeah...” I grimaced. “I’m not sure fourthwallers would agree.”‘
She stuck out her tongue in a grimace. “Enough talk about statues. Keep an eye out for a moment, will ya? I’m going to see if I can sense that time stone.” She glanced around the room before sticking her hand out and brushing her fingers against another jackal-headed statue.
She shrieked, nearly stumbling into a group of men behind us. They gave her a funny look, and then laughed amongst themselves and continued on. She stared at the statue, her eyes wide and her hands clutched to her chest.
I glanced at the statue, confused. “What’s wrong?”
Lily bit her lip. “It told me to go away.”
“Statues don’t talk.”
She pointed at the statue behind her. “That one did!”
I sighed. So much for the enjoyable mission. If she was having her own version of a memory attack, this wasn’t going to be good for either of us. “Maybe we can go to a part of the museum without statues,” I suggested. “Are there any maps around here?”
“What are you asking me for? Do I look like I’ve been here before?”
Crack.
She paused. “What was that?”
I stared at the statue behind her. It turned its head toward a service hall.
Crack.
The flail in the statue’s hand dropped into a fighting position and the statue stepped forward. Lily paled. I grabbed her by the waist, yanking us both from its path. We tumbled to the ground. A patron above us screamed and ran. More statues came to life. I gasped, trying to breathe. Lily had her arms wrapped around me and wasn’t letting go.
“It’s moving,” Lily whispered, shaking.
“I noticed.” I pried her arms loose and took a deep breath. “I think that’s our cue.”
She groaned. “Why statues? Why couldn’t it be snakes? I actually like snakes!”
“Are you going to be able to handle this?” I hissed. At least ten statues were making stilted motions toward the hallway. There were probably more hidden by the mob that was screaming and charging for the door.
“Yeah...” Lily murmured. “I’m just going to have nightmares for the next month.”
“Ditto.”
Half of the curators were leading people out and trying to wrangle the crying and curious kids, while the others went after the statues. Shrill alarms blared as bright lights flashed overhead. Someone had pulled the fire alarm. Clanking, whirring fire barriers dropped from the ceiling, forcing the screaming civilians to take side doors. One curator flew into the air, hovering above the scene and shouting at her coworkers. She pointed at a statue with a lioness’s head. A nearby man wrapped his arms around it, trying to restrain the thing.
The statue stopped struggling and thrust the man back with the flat of its palm to his head. The man crashed to the ground and another curator rushed after him. The others didn’t look sure what to do about the living stone.
“Ready to move?” I asked.
Lily nodded, her eyes wide.
“In that case,” I grunted, “I need you to get off me.”
She blinked, looked down, and realized she was still pinning me to the floor. She blushed as she hurriedly pushed herself up.
“Thanks. Come on!” I sprinted through the now-empty exhibits, using my speed to surpass the skirmish between statues and curators. I rolled up my sleeves to let my vines escape. One of the boatmen statues turned on a curator who was helping an injured man. It raised its spear, aiming at the guy’s back. I flung my vines at it. The vines twisted around the spear shaft. I yanked. The statue toppled backward in midstride.
I jumped out of the way as the statue hit the floor. The stone head broke at the neck, and the spear snapped at the statue’s wrist. It didn’t move anymore, but now the other statues nearby turned toward me instead of the hall.
My heart pounded in my ears. I unraveled my vine, backtracking toward our entrance.
“Uh, Lily?”
There was a gunshot, and then a cracking of glass as the bullet ricocheted. Lily cursed as she backed away from the statue she had tried to shoot. “Of course shooting them doesn’t work. That would be too easy.” She scanned the room and her eyes lit up at the sight of a water fountain. She raced to it and jabbed the lever until water spilled out, pooling into a glob around her free hand.
She threw the globules at the Anubis statue. Water splashed against its face and the statue stopped, turning mechanically toward her.
“And water would be too easy, too. Well then—” The statue raised its flail. She backed away, then shrieked and ran after me. “Let’s get out of here!”
“Can you make them slip?” I shouted.
She turned her body toward the statues, her hand outstretched. The water streamed across the floor like miniature snakes and pooled at the statue’s feet. The statue took two strides forward, planting its feet firmly in the water... and then continued toward us as if nothing was wrong.
“I think I’d need more water,” Lily said, dismayed.
I grabbed the radio from my pocket. “Inese? Where are—”
A portal appeared in front of us with Inese, Dad, and Lance tumbling through. The portal closed and Inese—with the stone—skidded to a halt, staring at the statues. “Here, too?” Her eyes widened. She clutched the stone to the black body armor of her chest with one hand, her pistol in the other.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Lance,” Inese snapped, “portal to the car, now!”
“Sure thing.” Lance wiped perspiration from his forehead as another portal swirled in front of us. “Let’s go before that mummy comes back.”
“Mummy?” Lily yipped. “The mummies are alive, too?”
“They’re not exactly living,” Lance muttered.
“They’re spirits,” Dad clarified, breathing hard. Dark purple rings colored the underside of his eyes. Inese disappeared through the portal. The rest of us followed them to the museum roof. Dust swirled around us, revealing the location of the car in faint, shifting sand. I yanked the edge of my turtleneck shirt over my nose. Inese slammed the driver’s door shut behind her and the car went visible. I hopped in. Lily dived in behind me and yanked the door shut. Outside, trees bent against the wind, leaves whipping across the roof as the sky turned a deep, rouge red. Dark yellow dust clouds rolled in the sky, crackling with electricity.
“Inese...” Dad pointed into the distance. “That’s not a statue.”
Bright, white light traced the outline of a giant lion with the face of a man. It stepped through the cityscape, purple lightning wrapping around it and flaring in bright streaks.
Lily’s jaw dropped. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Lance shook his head. “After the mummies, nope. Not kidding.”
A deep, resounding voice pounded through my head, overriding my thoughts.
Return the stone.
