pressed my cheek against the rough fabric of his denim jacket. “Close your eyes,” he encouraged while cradling me as if I were extremely fragile. Maybe to him I was. I closed them, expecting to hear the familiar release of sand just before I felt the brush of grains against my skin, but then I remembered that travel by sand couldn’t happen over large bodies of water.
I wondered for a moment if Dr. Hassan wasn’t in Egypt after all and if Anubis traveled in a different way from Amon. Just as I was about to ask him, I felt the floor disappear beneath us and we sank into a blackness so complete, I was sure that there was nothing left of me.
Though I was conscious, I felt like I had no form. I couldn’t feel my limbs. I wasn’t breathing. I was just…aware. Like a disembodied spirit. If I could’ve screamed, I would have. It felt like an endless sort of suffocation.
Panic set in, though there was no way to physically express it. If this was the way Anubis returned me to New York after he’d mummified Amon, I was glad that I couldn’t remember it. We popped into the light like a bubble rising from the ocean, and a burst of sensations came at me all at once. I had form and substance. I could feel. I could see and hear. Actually, I was so grateful just to be alive that when the journey ended, I held tightly to Anubis with trembling limbs.
Anubis wrapped his arms around me in a way that had nothing to do with keeping me upright, his lips grazing my temple, when he suddenly growled and set me aside. Though I wobbled, he made no attempt to come closer and glared at me like I’d tricked him somehow. Recovering somewhat, I leaned on a nearby table.
We’d materialized inside a room full of dusty artifacts. It was a place I didn’t recognize. “Vizier!” Anubis called impatiently while keeping a careful distance from me. “Vizier, come here at once!”
I heard the unmistakable sound of pottery shattering on the packed dirt floor. “Oh my!” a familiar voice exclaimed as shuffling footsteps came closer. A figure rounded the corner. He lifted his white fedora and wrung it in his hands as he looked at Anubis with wide eyes. The man wet his lips. “Can I…can I help you?” he asked warily.
“Do you know who I am?”
Dr. Hassan tilted his head, narrowing his brown eyes. “I hesitate to guess,” he finally answered.
“Perhaps you need a refresher course in your own studies, Doctor.” Anubis threw out his arm, gesturing to me as if in accusation. “If you don’t know me, then surely you remember this one.”
Anubis moved and Dr. Hassan turned his startled gaze in my direction and gasped. “Lily?”
“Hello, Oscar,” I addressed him with a warm smile. “It’s good to see you.”
“And you.” He moved a few steps closer, unwittingly inserting himself between me and the tall, intimidating man glowering at us, perhaps a means of protecting me, though both of us knew there was no protecting either of us if Anubis wanted to cause harm. Attempting to placate the irritable god, I decided to help.
“Oscar, meet Anubis. Anubis, this is Dr. Hassan, one of your most devoted followers.”
Anubis folded his arms across his chest and harrumphed. “You’d think someone claiming devotion would at least recognize the one he professed to worship.”
“Just ignore him,” I said to Oscar. “He’s a little testy today. Besides, he’s all bark and no bite, just like his dog.”
Dr. Hassan glanced up at the god, more than a little worried about my choice of words. “Lily, I don’t think—”
“It’s all right,” I interrupted. “We’re doing him a huge favor. So he owes us. Right, Anubis?”
The god frowned, but his lip twitched in a way that made me think he wasn’t really as upset as he professed to be. “Are you familiar with the Medinet Habu Temple in Luxor?” he asked Oscar.
“Of course.” Hassan took a step forward and placed his hat back on his head.
“Hidden within the court depicting the Seven Scenes of War with the People of the Sea there is a secret doorway located just beyond the second pylon. Seek the mark of the sphinx and turn the stone counterclockwise. Follow the passageway to the Room of Riddles. There you will find inscribed upon the walls all the information you should need to complete the transformation ritual known as Rite of Wasret.”