Now that she mentioned it, I had felt something. A kind of current that ran through me the moment my intention to draw the weapon entered my mind. Distracting me from my thoughts, she asked impatiently, The other one?
I gestured to the other form protruding from his bag. “You have a bow, too, I see.”
“Yes,” Dr. Hassan said as he snapped out of his awe-filled stare and crouched down next to the boulder.
He brought me a gleaming bow carved with images I didn’t understand. I ran my fingertip along each groove, wondering what they meant. When I showed them to Oscar, he shrugged and said, “I have never seen them before and I hesitate to guess. I would imagine this is what Isis meant about learning along the journey.”
The quiver was full of arrows tipped with gleaming white feathers edged in gold. He saw me fingering one. “They are the feathers of Isis,” he explained. “Their aim is always true, but as you can see, there are a limited number of them. Use them wisely.”
With my weapons strapped on, Dr. Hassan paused. He looked at me with a strange mixture of sympathy and as if I were one of the gods he revered. Finally, he sighed. “I wish I knew how to better assist you.” He paced a few steps off. “If only I could accompany you.”
“If it helps, I wish you could go with me, too.”
He crushed his fedora in his hands. “It’s simply not possible. I asked Isis. I begged her to the point of risking her wrath as I waited here for you, and the only answer I received is that I’d never make it through. Only you are meant to do this. Only you can save Amon. All I can do is prepare you for your journey to the beyond, and to do that I must seal upon you the Heart of the Sphinx, the final piece of the spell.” When I nodded, he said, “Repeat after me.”
As he spoke, each word seemed to latch on to my being, as if each piece of me that he listed in such a way manifested itself physically.
“My hair flows as a lion’s mane. It is my shield.
My face is comely and shines with the brightness of the sun
My eyes see into dark places and open secret caverns
My ears can locate a scarab buried in a desert
My nose can scent a flower petal sunk in the depths of the ocean
My voice is mellifluous and imperils all who listen
My lips are drawn wide to swallow the souls of the evil
My teeth are sharpened weapons aimed for the cruel and crookbacked
My muscles are warmed and ready for battle
My belly is not soft but is as rigid as a boulder
My body is lissome; my form dangerous and enticing
My feet are ready to carry me past hidden doorways
My claws seek your demise and will unravel you utterly
My wings will ward off evil and triumph over my enemies.”
As he finished the last part of the spell, a sharp pain shot up my back that nearly ground me into the dust at my feet. Slowly, I arose and knew that I would never be the same person, the same woman, the same creature again. I was not human. I was not lioness. I was sphinx. I lifted my arm, and though it looked the same, I knew there was an increased hardness in my muscles. My skin tingled from the roots of my hair down to my toes.
My being, the core of who I was, had changed, and yet, from what I could see, I still looked like me. I wondered if I stared into a mirror would I see the same eyes staring back at me or would I see a stranger? Would Amon even view me the same when I saw him? Could he learn to care for the being I’d become? I steeled my shoulders, knowing that it didn’t matter. He needed to be saved and I—no, we were the only ones who could do it.
Dr. Hassan, who now looked at me with even more veneration, quickly explained, “The place you are seeking is called Duat. It is the home of Amun-Ra. You can only access it during the day and discover the entrance to it through a tomb. I can take you to one that’s only a few hours away.”
I lifted my nose and closed my eyes. Tia’s mind joined with