my face, and even though I felt slightly nauseated, I wasn’t going to back down.
“You will this time,” I replied as confidently as I could.
He tilted his head, considering me, then turned around and busied himself at a table. I heard the sound of liquid sloshing into a cup and the man took a deep draught. With his back turned, he said, “It’s a one-way trip on the barque of the sun and it’s not safe, even for those with nothing to lose.”
“I don’t care. I’ve come this far and I need to keep going.”
Refilling his cup, he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “Did ya bring an obol?”
“An obol?” I echoed.
“An obol.” He sighed. “An offering?” He stared at me expectantly, his heavy brows drawing together, and then his shoulders fell and he moved back into the darkness. “I’m not taking ya anywhere without my obol.”
An object fell to the floor at my feet. It rolled around in circles before stopping. The glint of gold shone in the darkness. The man froze as I leaned down to pick it up. It was a golden coin stamped with the image of the benu bird I’d seen carved on the boat and on the tile of the tub in Amun-Ra’s home.
“Will this do?” I asked, and tossed it in his direction, still unwilling to step out of the bright light of the doorway and into the dark space of his home.
Though he didn’t seem agile enough, the man stretched out his bulbous, vein-covered hand and snatched the coin out of the air. He looked at it, turning it over carefully, and then his eyes darted over to me. “Who are ya?” he asked suspiciously.
“I told you. I’m Lily.”
He frowned. “I don’t mean yer name. You need to tell me who ya are.”
“Well, I’m a mortal, a human, or I was once. Now I’m a sphinx. Horus has arranged for me to meet you so that I might travel to the afterlife. My boyfriend, Amon, is one of the Sons of Egypt, and he’s stuck in the netherworld. I need to save him so Seth doesn’t break free of his bonds and rain chaos down on Earth. Does that suffice?”
The man blinked. Once. Twice. Then he spat another gob of mucus at his feet. “A sphinx, is it?” He rubbed the coin between his fingers, studying me, as if trying to figure out if I was speaking the truth. “And when exactly would ya be wanting ta leave, girlie?”
“Immediately.”
He shifted, grunting, and stroked his beard. “Are you sure ya wish ta go?”
“Yes.”
Shuffling closer, the man looked up at the darkening sky. “Then I suppose we’d better make haste. Best you board Mesektet immediately. I’ll join you shortly. It’s going ta be a long night, girlie. Ya have no idea what you’re in for, but I accept ur payment.” His brows lowered. “And it’s too late ta back out now that I’ve accepted the job,” he warned. “Yer just lucky this obol is of such high value. Otherwise I wouldn’t even consider takin’ a kicker at all, let alone one so late in the day.”
“A kicker?”
“A living soul. A lion/girl like you who’s still alive and kicking. Now stop distracting me and get a move on or we’ll miss the gate and make this conversation as pointless as a dead man begging ta live.”
“Right.”
Spinning, I headed outside and glanced up at the house to see the benu bird singing a final mournful tune before he flapped his wings and headed back to Heliopolis. The sun was nearly down. Only a sliver of it still remained above the water. I’d just climbed on board and found a place near the back of the boat that looked secure enough that I wouldn’t simply fall overboard, when the large man stomped down the dock.
Our boatman released the knot securing the boat and as we began moving away from the dock, I noticed a carving in the wooden post.
“It’s the sunrise,” I murmured. “Dr. Hassan said to watch out for it. It leads to life.”
“Close,” the man said as he plucked an oar from it fastenings and threaded it through the oarlock. “That image has a dual meaning. In this case, it’s the sunset, not the sunrise.”
Where does the sunset lead? Tia asked.
Dread filled my frame as I clung helplessly to the ropes of the ship. “The sunset,” I said, “leads to death.”
“Now,” he warned as he unfurled the sail, which immediately caught