I mean when. To you this must feel like the atmosphere of your own Earth. The stars surrounding us would represent something like space. But we are not in the place your mind tells you. Just because you inhale and exhale does not mean there is oxygen, and we are not in the when we left.
“Then what am I breathing, exactly? And if we’re not a where, then when are we?” I asked.
You are breathing in the light of the stars, and I don’t mean the stars in your universe. Stars have a different meaning here. To answer the second part of your question, we are Between Time.
“That’s why you called it a Land Between. You didn’t mean between places; you meant between times.”
Yes. That’s right.
I sensed Nebu was pleased with my ability to understand what he was saying.
Tia was no longer listening. Her brain couldn’t process metaphysical discussions such as this. She was a huntress. A warrior. Her instincts told her something was very wrong and she didn’t belong in the place we were. A cat needed to feel the ground beneath her paws. She needed to tread known paths and terrain. She had no desire to discover anything about the realm we’d found ourselves in.
Curious, I asked him, “Is this how Anubis travels as well? He journeys between time?”
Yes. All the gods travel in this manner.
“But not the Sons of Egypt, right?”
The Sons of Egypt do have the ability to manipulate time, but to travel in the dark space Between takes a physical toll on them. The gods are not affected in the same way.
“That brings up a question I’ve been meaning to ask for quite a while. Why don’t the gods do their own dirty work? I mean, why give Amon and his brothers the responsibility for something that the gods caused to happen in the first place? They’re the ones who banished Seth. They should clean up their own messes.”
Nebu’s wings twitched and he shook his head as if he were uncomfortable. I dare not speculate on the why. I have my theories on the subject, of course, but it’s not my place to say anything.
“Well, you can bet I’m planning on saying something. It’s unfair what they expect. Their so-called gifts are really just cop-outs.”
Feeling chilled again, I rubbed my hands together and blew on them to warm them up.
The discomfort you feel at this time is nothing compared to the physical challenges you will face in the netherworld, you know, Nebu said.
“Now you tell me,” I murmured.
Surely you didn’t think this journey would be easy.
“No. I guess my human side is showing, isn’t it? I’m feeling a little too much like Lily Young and not enough like a sphinx at the moment.”
Perhaps you should ask your lioness for help.
“What? How?”
She can help you regulate your body temperature.
“Really?”
Tia heard his suggestion and her presence bubbled up to fill my frame. A blessed warmth came with it, as if she’d wrapped me in the fur coat of a lion. I was still in charge of my body, but she stayed with me now, right below the surface, despite her fear of being airborne.
Thank you, I said to her silently.
I apologize for allowing your suffering to continue. I was not aware that I could stop it.
It’s okay. We’re learning as we go.
“Thank you,” I said to the stallion. “We’re feeling much better now.”
You’re welcome. Just remember that anytime you need to access the power of the sphinx, you will need to do it together. To harness it requires you to be unified in your desires.
“That’s good to know.”
Are you ready, Lady Sphinx? Nebu asked.
“Ready? For what?”
To enter Duat.
“Oh, that. Umm, sure?”
The unicorn banked and then pressed forward slowly. It looked as if we were entering a horizontal black pool of water. The stars remained fixed but the space between them shimmered like liquid vinyl. Nebu’s head and chest disappeared, encompassed by the opaque sludge. It reminded me of being absorbed into the giant worm’s mountain where Dr. Hassan had stored Asten’s sarcophagus.
As the liquid closed over my legs and flowed up the rest of my body, I couldn’t help taking a deep breath and closing my eyes. I’d been absorbed and/or crushed by one too many things since I’d met Amon. Between quicksand, a suffocating lioness, mountains, a stone box, and now the gateway to Duat, I was surprised that I didn’t have a worse problem with claustrophobia