Chapter
8
The
Curse is Broken
You
told them their destinies. Now tell me mine. I want to be the fourth side of
the pyramid. Tell me my task.
No man
can tell another his destiny.
In his dream, Rick and Evy and Alex had walked on the
globe, each bearing their destiny, made a part of the world through the shared
burden and privilege of their task. In his dream, he had watched from above,
longing to be with them.
Now
what do you think my dream means?
I
think it means you were there. You were the Med-jai who cursed Imhotep.
Ardeth ruled the Med-jai, a king without a title, a man
who was intimately connected with destiny. For three thousand years the Med-jai
had fought to keep the world safe from the evil that was Imhotep. They were a
part of things in a way no one else could begin to understand.
So
tell me. What am I supposed to do?
Jonathan stared at the diamond and knew exactly what he
had to do.
****
"Get back, Rick!" She ducked, and felt the air from the
passage of the sai stir the hair on top of her head.
The temple was the same as it had been just before its
destruction. There was no time to marvel upon this. Evy simply darted into the
chamber beyond and seized the sais laying on the ground, exactly where she had
dropped them three years ago. She remembered it clearly, how Anck-su-namun had
shoved her against the wall, preventing her from running to Rick's side and
helping him battle the Scorpion King. How she hated the woman then!
Anck-su-namun followed her in, and from behind her,
Imhotep shouted his love's name.
****
Rick watched it all with a curious detachment. He felt
like a spectator watching a play evolve before him, something he observed, but
did not participate in.
Did
the others, for instance, even notice that the gun battle between the Med-jai
and the cult members had ended, that individual fights now raged among the
enemies? Their ammunition gone, the men who were left alive attacked each other
with knives and fists and swords, and paid no attention to anything else.
Did they notice that Ardeth and Khalid Hassan fought in
grim silence in the corner?
Did they see that the Book of the Dead was cast aside on
the floor, forgotten by everyone?
He walked cautiously into the chamber, holding his
pistol, keeping close to the wall. Ahead of him, Evy and Anck-su-namun battled
with the sais, their dark hair whipping furiously about them.
Further ahead, Jonathan was sidling toward the chasm
leading to the Underworld. He was very pale and kept nervously licking his
lips.
Imhotep, High Priest of Seti I, had eyes only for his
lost love. He cried her name a second time.
A well-placed kick knocked Evelyn backward, and
Anck-su-namun whirled around.
****
"You!"
Over the sounds of battle, Imhotep could be heard quite
clearly.
"I did everything for you! I would have given you the
world!" The grief and enraged betrayal in the Creature's voice was
heartrending.
For a moment, the fight was forgotten. Ardeth turned
toward Imhotep, mesmerized by the hatred in the Creature's eyes. Only a foot
away, Khalid Hassan stared at his Lord, swordpoint resting on the stone.
Evelyn was backing up, moving stealthily toward
O'Connell, who stood just within the doorway, looking at everything
uncertainly.
Unseen by them all, Jonathan Carnahan vaulted over the abyss
of the Underworld and began running for the Book.
Anck-su-namun dropped the sais. They clattered on the
stone and she accidentally kicked one as she began to back away.
"You betrayed me!" bellowed Imhotep. He raised his
hands, and let his power flow.
The cult members and Med-jai were flung off their feet
and hurled into the chasm of the Underworld. Some of them tried to pull
themselves up, but grasping hands dragged them down. Their screams became
muffled and indistinct, then disappeared altogether. Ardeth felt nothing for
the red-robed members of the cult, but he had to choke back a cry as he watched
men he had known since childhood vanish into the abyss.
"Forgive me, Imhotep!" Anck-su-namun fell to her knees,
terror whitening her face. "I did not mean to leave you." She held out her
hands imploringly. "I beg of you, spare my life."
The Creature lifted his hands again, and there was no
mercy in his arrogant features. "You are less than nothing," he said coldly.
"You are dead to me, for all eternity!"
Anck-su-namun began to scream as fire consumed her. The
flames were an unholy blue, and they smoked a sinuous black. She fell to the
stone, writhing in mortal agony.
Satisfied vengeance burned in Imhotep's eyes.
****
None of them saw him.
Jonathan seized the Book of Amun-Ra with a silent shout
of jubilation. He had it!
****
Imhotep raised his arms and threw back his head, voicing
a deep lament to the heavens. The entire temple began to quake, and Evy reeled
back into Rick's chest. He wrapped his good arm around her, and together they
watched the mummy's grief.
She found it in herself to feel pity for him. She had
never forgotten the devastated anguish in his eyes when Anck-su-namun had
betrayed him and his love by running away. Sometimes she wondered what might
have happened, had Imhotep not willingly cast himself into the Underworld.
Might she have tried to save him, too?
Directly ahead of her, the blue fire ran out of fuel and
burned itself out. A black, smoking husk was revealed on the stone, all that
remained of Anck-su-namun.
Imhotep lowered his arms and the shaking that had
wracked the pyramid came to a halt. He stared at them. "You cannot stop me," he
said.
Evy lifted her chin. "Kadeesh mal. Kadeesh mal."
In the corner, Ardeth dropped his sword. The noise was
astonishingly loud in the large chamber, and Imhotep whirled to his right to
face the Med-jai.
****
When the pyramid began to tremble, everything on those
golden shelves tumbled to the floor. Jonathan, who had been kneeling on the
stone, crouched over the Book of Amun-Ra, flung his arms over his head to
protect himself. Cups and bowls fell about him; something struck his shoulder.
The diamond of Ahm Shere fell in front of him and landed
on the Book of Amun-Ra.
Jonathan grabbed the diamond impatiently.
The shaking stopped and Imhotep spoke. Evy began the
incantation yet again.
In the corner to his right, Ardeth dropped his sword,
gaining Imhotep's attention.
Taking advantage of yet another reprieve, Jonathan bent
over the Book again. He picked up the diamond, and then froze.
The firelight shone through the diamond, casting an
eerie golden light on the pages. He had been reading the symbols in the moments
before the tremors had begun, and he knew that what he was seeing now had not
been there before.
There were new symbols on the page.
Shocked, he moved the diamond aside, and the glyphs
disappeared. He blinked in astonishment. Where had they gone? Had he been
seeing things?
****
Ardeth felt sick with self-hatred. He had seen his own
desires, and they were the same as the Creature's.
Thoughts of revenge had consumed him. In his desperate
quest for vengeance, he had blindly led men to their deaths. He had brought the
O'Connells to this place, knowing that only death would result. He had turned
his back on Jonathan's attempts to make him see the truth, and focused only on
his anger and thirst for revenge.
He was no better than the Creature.
The rage that had shone in Imhotep's eyes was his own.
The Creature's satisfied arrogance upon seeing what he had wrought -- this,
too, was something Ardeth knew, for hadn't he been viciously glad of the
killing he had already done today?
There could be no more killing. The sword fell from his
hand and he stumbled forward.
Apparently
even after three thousand years, he is still in love with her.
I did
everything for you! I would have given you the world!
For three thousand years the Med-jai had feared Imhotep,
and rightfully so. But not once had they stopped to consider why. The curse that
had been bestowed on the High Priest bound him to consummate it. Imhotep,
doomed to spend eternity in the hellish limbo of the undead, had never had a
choice. The Med-jai themselves had brought down their own fate, for in cursing
Imhotep, they had forced someone to watch over the Creature's resting place.
"Finish it!" O'Connell shouted, urging his wife to end
it all.
"Wait!" He held up his hand, making Evelyn fall silent
again.
Imhotep snarled in hatred. "Do you seek to stop me,
Med-jai?"
"Amun Ra, Amun Dei." Ardeth spoke calmly, the ancient
words coming easily to him, although he had never uttered them aloud.
Three years ago, he had told Jonathan Carnahan about his
dream. At one end of the room is a
powerful man, handsome and strong. He looks at me, and I at him, and I speak
the words of the curse, the hom-dai
that makes him forever an undead, evil Creature.
He knew the words, knew them well. Three thousand years
ago he had pronounced them with dread finality.
Imhotep's eyes widened and he blanched. "You!" he
breathed.
Ardeth looked at Imhotep, the High Priest whose only
crime had been to fall in love. With quiet deliberation, he finished speaking
the words of the hom-dai, breaking
the ancient curse.
From every flame in the room rose a ghostly white light.
The beams arrowed for Imhotep and pierced him through. He cried out loudly,
writhing in the light's grip. When it had passed through him and returned to
the fires, he staggered, but remained on his feet.
In his eyes was an immense relief.
****
"What just happened?" Rick demanded in a low voice.
"He is no longer undead," Evy breathed.
"Is he mortal now?"
"No."
"Then say it!"
****
There was no need. For the second time, Imhotep left
this world willingly. He went with a smile on his face, and gratitude in his
eyes. He cast himself into the Underworld, and sank into its abyss with relief.
At last he could rest. At last he could die.
********