“Oh. Is that all? Yeah. No reason at all to feel distressed.” I lifted my fingertips to my mouth to nibble nervously on my nails. They still hadn’t returned to their meticulously manicured shape since my last adventure with Amon.
Seeing my sorry state, Dr. Hassan intervened. “The next step is the spell, then, is it not?”
“Yes. Once the spell is pronounced over her head, she will become both the huntress and the hunted. You will wait for her here. If she survives, you will bestow upon her the weapons taken from the Room of Riddles. Remember, Wasret is a sphinx, but not all sphinxes are Wasret. Even if she is not the one the stars spoke of, she might still be able to save the one she loves. But if she does not return—”
“Then we are all lost,” Oscar finished.
“Yes,” Isis replied quietly. Her stormy eyes shifted to me.
“How will we know if she is the one foretold of?” Dr. Hassan asked.
The goddess smiled. “Time will tell. May luck be with you, Lily. For your sake, I wish you success.”
I could only nod in return as I tried to squelch the grimace that crossed my face in place of a smile. Isis shook out her wings, but just before taking off said, “Oh. I almost forgot.”
Stretching her wing around her body, she blinked rapidly, her beautiful eyes filling with tears, which she then caught with the edge of her wing. The motion seemed purposeful and not at all emotional. When she was done, she grabbed hold of a glistening feather and yanked, pulling it out and whispering an enchantment over it.
“Hold on to this,” she said, before handing it to me, “while the vizier pronounces the incantation. I’ve made a little improvement over the last time the spell was used. The tears will protect you from any creature I am able to command, but once they are used up, you’ll have my shield no longer and will need to depend upon your own strength. Use the tears sparingly. As for the rest…” She smiled. “I’m saving it for a surprise.”
She then turned to Dr. Hassan. “I assume you will be fully able to instruct her in the ways of the sphinx. Let us pray that her mind proves steady.”
“I will do my best, Goddess.”
“See that you do.”
With that, Isis raised her arms to the east, where the sun was just peeking over the horizon, and her entire body filled with light. I felt a stiff breeze stir the grass around us as her form rose into the sky. Though I shaded my eyes to watch her, her path aligned with the sun, and soon I could no longer tell the difference between them. She was gone.
I twirled the gleaming feather she’d left behind between my fingers. “There are a whole lot of ifs before I get to Amon, aren’t there?” I asked.
“Yes. This journey does seem somewhat complicated, doesn’t it?”
“You can say that again.”
Dr. Hassan cleared his throat. “Shall we begin?”
“I suppose we should. There’s some terrible beast of an unknown description out there waiting to hunt me.” Oscar made a sound as he ran his palm over his neck. He was worried. “Hey,” I said. “Despite my obvious levels of discomfort, I volunteered. Remember? I want to do this. I’ll be okay. Especially if you’re the one training me.”
He gave me a doubtful look but dutifully picked up his notebook and began the spell. As he chanted, he walked in a circle around me:
“Here on the Sacred Grounds of the Sphinx we offer a petition.
Lilliana Young comes by day after walking in the footsteps of the gods.
Her feats are mighty and have been recorded in the annals of the cosmos.
She is the Hunted and approaches armed with strength and purity,
Seeking the Huntress who awaits with tooth and claw bared,
The one who Dances in Blood and Takes Hearts for Food…”
This wasn’t sounding too good. Why couldn’t Egyptian spells talk about puppies and chocolate and unicorns? Every spell I’d encountered since I met Amon had to do with blood and mummies and death. Granted, I was technically in love with a mummy, so some of that was to be expected, but why couldn’t any of my Egyptian Indiana Jones adventures be fun? Something I could write about in a college essay.
Dr. Hassan droned on and I managed to refocus my attention.