Who Is She? | Jaz Anderson

• seven •

Ayden screamed. The portal had spit them out roughly a hundred meters above Cairo. She found herself free-falling through the cool night air toward the city lights below.

She was the only one freaking out. Then Leonid grabbed her hand.

The direction of the wind changed. Suddenly they were gliding over the city in a controlled descent. They set down softly in the desert just outside the city limits near a cluster of ruins that Ayden knew from experience hid an entrance to the First Nome.

She looked at Leonid in amazement. "You summoned the power of Shu!"

"Shu," he said grimly. "Yes. Necessary. I do... forbidden."

Sadie smiled with delight. "You clever boy! You learned the path of the gods on your own? I knew there was a reason I didn't turn you into a banana slug."

Leonid's eyes widened. "No banana slug! Please!"

"It was a compliment, silly," Sadie said. "Forbidden is good! Sadie likes forbidden!"

"Come on!" Ayden urged, taking off her blazer. "You need to meet our uncle. Now."

They started their decent in the dark. Ayden shook her hand a couple times, then her fire amulet lit up and she clutched her fist, holding the golden fire upright to show their way.

At the bottom of the entry tunnel, they crossed a stone bridge over a chasm, where Sadie was challenged by a ba. The glowing bird spirit (with the head of a famous Egyptian Ayden probably should've recognized) asked Sadie a question: What color are the eyes of Anubis?

She answered, "Brown."

The ba let them pass into the city. She hadn't visited in six or more months, and she was distressed to see how few magicians were about. The First Nome had never been crowded. Egyptian magic had withered over the centuries as fewer and fewer young initiates learned the arts. But now most shops in the central cavern were closed. At the market stalls, no one was haggling over the price of ankhs or scorpion venom. A familiar, bored-looking amulet salesman perked up as they approached, then slumped as they passed by.

Their footsteps echoed in the silent tunnels. They crossed one of the subterranean rivers, then wound their way through the library quarter and the Chamber of Birds.

They brought Leonid down a long corridor, past a sealed tunnel that had once led up to the Great Sphinx of Giza, and finally to the bronze doors of the Hall of Ages. Ayden paused, but Sadie walked right in.

Impressive place? Certainly. If you filled it with water, the hall would've been large enough for a pod of whales. Running down the middle, a long blue carpet glittered like the River Nile. Along either side marched rows of columns, and between them shimmered curtains of light displaying scenes from Egypt's past — all sorts of horrible, wonderful, or heart-wrenching events.

Ayden tried to avoid looking at them. She knew from witnessing that those images could be dangerously absorbing.

The first section of light was gold — the Age of the Gods. Farther along, the Old Kingdom glowed silver, then the Middle Kingdom in coppery brown, and so on.

Several times as they walked, Ayden had to pull Leonid or Sadie back from scenes that caught their eyes.

They passed the bronze curtain of light for the New Kingdom. Sadie stopped abruptly and Ayden banged into her younger sister. In the shifting mirage, a thin man in priestly robes held a wand and a knife over a black bull. The man muttered as if blessing the animal. She couldn't tell much about the scene, except for his face and the twisted grin as he sliced the animals throat.