Who Is She? | Jaz Anderson

• fifteen •

The Hall of Judgment had changed since Ayden's last visit. The room tended to mirror the thoughts of Osiris, so it often looked like a ghostly replica of her family's old apartment in Los Angeles, from the happier times when they all lived together.

Now, possibly because Julius was on duty, the place was fully Egyptian. The circular chamber was lined with stone pillars carved in lotus flower designs. Braziers of magic fire washed the walls in green and blue light. In the center of the room stood the scales of justice, two large golden saucers balanced from an iron T.

Kneeling before the scales was the ghost of a man in a pinstriped suit, nervously reciting from a scroll. Ayden understood why he was tense. On either side of him stood a large reptilian demon with green skin, a cobra head, and a wicked-looking pole arm poised over the ghost's head.

Julius sat at the far end of the room on a golden dais, with a Bueskinned Egyptian attendant at his side. Seeing her father in the Duat was always disorienting, because he appeared to be two people at once. On one level, he looked like he had in like — a handsome, muscular man with chocolate brown skin, a bald scalp, and a neatly trimmed goatee. He wore an elegant silk suit and a dark traveling coat, like a businessman about to board a private jet.

On a deeper level of reality, however, he appeared as Osiris, god of the dead. He was dressed as a pharaoh in sandals, an enbroidered linen kilt, and rows of gold and coral neckbands on his bare chest. His skin was the color of a summer sky.

Across his lap lay a crook and flail — the symbols of Egyptian kingship.

As strange as it was seeing her father with blue skin and a din, Ayden was so happy to be near him again, she nearly forgot about the court proceedings.

She steeled herself at the last minute, standing back with Carter.

"Dad!" Sadie raced toward him.

She was halfway across when the snake demons crossed their pole arms and blocked her path. Ayden moved forward cautiously.

"It's all right," Julius said, looking a bit startled. "Let her through."

Sadie flew into his arms, knocking the crook and flail out of his lap.

He hugged her warmly, chuckling with affection. Then he held her at arm's length, and Ayden could see how weary he was. He had bags under his eyes. His face was gaunt. Even the powerful blue aura of Osiris, which normally surrounded him like the corona of a star, flickered weakly.

"Sadie, my love," he said in a strained voice. "Why have you come? I'm working."

"But, Dad, this is important!" Sadie argued.

Ayden, Carter, Walt, and Zia approached the dais.

"Hey, Dad," Ayden mumbled. She gave him a quick hug, then moved back.

Her father's expression turned grim.

"I see," he said. "First let me finish this trial. Children, stand here on my right. And please, don't interrupt."

Her dad's attendant stamped his foot. "My lord, this is most irregular!"

He was a little strange-looking — an elderly blue Egyptian man with a huge scroll in his arms. Too solid to be a ghost, too blue to be human, he was almost as decrepit as Ra, wearing nothing but a loincloth, sandals, and an ill-fitting wig. I suppose that glossy black wedge of fake hair was meant to look manly in an Ancient Egyptian sort of way, but along with the kohl eyeliner and the rouge on his cheeks, he looked like a grotesque Cleopatra impersonator.

The roll of papyrus he held was enormous. It was maybe the width of Ayden's palm and she had large hands, almost bigger than Carter's.

"It's all right, Disturber," her father told him. "We may continue ow."