CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
October 31, 1940, London, top of Shooters Hill (entryway to and on the outskirts of London) and the Brits note the day is overcast and wet...
"Luftwaffe airplanes have been spotted over Kent!" Alex cried out as he used a pair of binoculars to scan the horizon. "One, two, five, eight, fifteen! Fifteen bombers in wing tip to wing tip formation," he confirmed, lowering the binoculars a moment in order to look at Ardeth before raising the binoculars again.
Alex gasped, and said, "No! There's more. Nine...uhm, fifteen, thirty, no, forty, forty five, sixty, seventy. There's seventy? Seventy...seventy biplanes? Dad! Seventy biplanes!"
"Biplanes?" a surprised Rick and Jonathan asked in unison.
"Biplanes," Alex confirmed. "Painted pale green and bright blue. Looks like they're from the first war," Alex said as Ardeth's voice called,
"Now." Ardeth commanded and Martin, though his eyes were closed and his brow furrowed from concentration, nodded and deepened his trance.
An eerie silence had fallen over London in the past twenty four hours as the wet weather cleared the smoke trails from the burnt-out skyline of London. Yesterday, the 30th, had dawned wet and darkly cloudy, and there had been virtually nil bombings by the Luftwaffe.
Today, Londoners had been hopeful another day would pass without bombings, for the bombings two days earlier had been intense and the stress was eating away at London's resolve.
But Hitler, it appeared had something else in mind.
"Pale green and bright blue biplanes?" Evie asked her son, coming up behind him and placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Uh-huh," he replied, still looking through the binoculars.
"Hitler must have teamed up with Mussolini. That's the Regia Aeronautica heading towards us. Guess they wanted a piece of the action," she commented sarcastically.
"Do you think Hitler's too much of a coward to send his planes and lose more men and so he sent Mussolini's men?" Alex questioned his mother.
"Possibly," she replied. "That might explain the Regia's belated appearance over London."
Despite their preoccupation with their task, the small group men on the hill--plus Evie and Cuppy, the lone females--could see the citizens of London looking towards the sky as planespotters located on London's remaining high points called out, "Luftwaffe--no! That's the Regia Aeronautica--spotted! Fifteen bombers and seventy biplanes headed to London from Kent!"
Relays had been set up to carry the message from the planespotters. Soon, the remaining streets of London were filled with echoes of "Fifteen bombers and seventy biplanes headed towards London!"
"The Spell of Osiris has been incanted by Taita," Thoth's voice now boomed out over the small group of people huddled together on top of Shooters Hill. Evie and Alex had frozen in time, another question showing on Alex's lips but unasked.
Jonathan couldn't figure out if the sheen on Martin's face was sweat or rain or a mixture of the two. Martin's brow was furrowed deeper and Jonathan thought Martin's skull would crack as Martin concentrated deeply to maintain the link with the Crossroads of Time--and Taita.
"Ardeth Bey, if you and your companions will stand as the shadow of the pyramid around the Keeper and raise the links of the Bracelet towards the sky, you will then watch when Seth's former Chosen One screams as he sees the beginning of the end for the Third Reich," Thoth continued.
Ardeth and Jonathan stood next to each other yet stood three yards apart. Rick formed the top of the pyramid around Martin. Each man raised his link of the Bracelet of Lostris towards the sky.
A blinding flash of golden light shot forth from the links of the Bracelet and headed towards the sky in a small whirlwind and hovered over the destroyed city, growing larger and rotating faster with each clockwise rotation as the power of every living thing on earth, and the power of the Gods themselves was amassed in the swirling golden light.
Spotters Hill and the small group of people were flooded with the warmth and they involuntarily gasped.
In the light, four figures stepped forward. As they came closer, the three men standing in a pyramid shape on Spotters Hill could see the first figure was a handsome, tall man with reddish gold hair and kohled, sky blue eyes dressed in a loincloth. Hanging around his neck was the thick Gold of Praise.
Walking next to this first figure was a slender, raven haired, green eyed woman who rivalled Nefertiti's beauty. In addition to full Egyptian makeup, she was wearing a feathery light linen shift dress dyed an unusual pale blue and she was holding the hand of another handsome man with flaming red hair and kohled blue eyes dressed in a white linen loincloth.
The fourth figure was taller than the other three by three inches and his stunning physical beauty was enhanced by the Double Crown of Egypt upon his brow. Kohled dark green eyes smiled at the four men and his eyes proclaimed him the woman's son.
Ardeth was the first to speak. "Taita. Queen Lostris. Tanus and the Pharaoh Tamose, former Prince of Thebes."
"Greetings, Commander! I see you know your history," Tamose spoke. "Taita was indeed clever when constructing the Bracelet and Martin was just as clever in figuring out his puzzle. Even Thoth and Isis were impressed when Taita told them he devised a spell which required the speaker to jump through several hurdles before gaining access to the words of the Spell of Osiris."
"A gateway," Queen Lostris put in, and taking Taita's hand, she looked up at him with her dark green eyes. "He constructed a gateway."
"The most powerful words in Egyptian magic needed a protective gateway. Taita, your puzzle was most elaborate. First in writing the opening spell using a dead language, and then requiring the power of the pyramids. But in order to gain access to the opening spell, the Bracelet had to be broken into three parts. Clever," Ardeth replied as his eyes grew accustomed to the golden light.
"Even Evie had trouble deciphering the language," Rick told Taita, looking at Evie and Alex. They appeared frozen in time, Evie's hand on Alex's shoulder and the binoculars still raised to Alex's eyes as mother and son stood on Shooters Hill overlooking London.
Taita inclined his head towards Ardeth and Rick and replied, "Circles within circles. Such was my life, and the lives of those in Egypt during Queen Lostris's time. So I constructed the puzzle in circles. Still, had the Bracelet not been thrown against the floor, you would not have been able to break open the Bracelet for the first time."
"Gemstones and metals are mined from stone, and only against stone shall their souls be freed," Jonathan intoned, then looked around in surprise. "Where did that come from?" he asked Taita, who laughed.
"My friend, it seems you have had a former life you don't know about! One of the royal jewelers went by the name of Re-Habeb and he used to say that phrase when I was a young man learning how to carve a lapis lazuli pendant. Before using any gemstone or precious metal, he tapped the specimen three times against a white limestone Aten disk. His words are what gave me the idea for the puzzle."
Ardeth's eyes were adjusting, and Ardeth saw the shadowy figures growing larger--and he realized these were the souls of those living in the Afterlife. Two of the smaller shadows broke off from a large group and started to run towards Ardeth.
"There are times when I regret writing down the Spell in the my Book. Many were the times a power hungry Egyptian tried to use the Spell to gain material wealth," Thoth now commented.
Taita completed Thoth's statement, "And many were the times they received sorrow instead of the hoped-for wealth."
"Much like a story we read today, called The Monkey's Paw. In that tale, a dried monkey's hand will grant the owner three wishes. But the wishes never turn out as the wishers quite imagined, and disastrous results entailed," Jonathan commented as he watched the swirling golden light cover the remains of the London skyline from horizon to horizon, then start growing past the edges of London, rotating faster as more shadows joined the growing crowd.
"That indeed sounds like our myth about the Book of Thoth! Always be careful of what you wish for, for you just might get your wish in a form you never expected," Taita and Thoth both replied. The two men, one the creator of magic and the other, a master magician, looked at each other and smiled.
"I do have a question," Rick said, looking worried. "If the spell uses the power of every living thing, will Hitler and his minions be included in that?"
Thoth shook his head, then smoothed his linen loincloth. "The spell weeds out those living beings with evil residing in their hearts. When I wrote the spell, I enlisted Ma'at to weigh the souls against the feather as the spell was being incanted."
"Mixing evil with good is never a good idea," Taita now said. "Another protective element," he grinned at Thoth, who smiled back.
"Whew!" Jonathan now said. "Now, where do the nasty souls go while the spell is activated?"
Thoth laughed. "They visit the Underworld and see their own deaths and transformation into demons."
"Ardeth Bey! Ardeth Bey!" a four year old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes shouted as she and a six year old boy, who was a carbon copy of his sister, ran up to him.
"Hildred! Ewan!" Ardeth greeted them. His tone was sad, and somewhat hollow. "I am sorry I did not arrive sooner."
"We were already dead by the time you heard our mummy scream. She'd been lying on the banks of the Thames, dazed from her head wound and she wasn't able to think for a few minutes." Ewan told Ardeth.
"But we were already dead," Hildred told Ardeth again. "We died a few minutes after the auto fell into the water. Mummy wouldn't have been able to save us even if her head hadn't been hurt."
"It was very quick," Ewan repeated, knowing that Ardeth was feeling responsible for not arriving in time to save him and his sister. "Our deaths, I mean. We didn't feel anything except cold."
"The water was too cold," Hildred piped up. "The auto slid on some ice. But we're warm now."
"We wanted to thank you for saving our mummy. Had you not arrived, she too would have died from being in the cold water too long, and our unborn brother would be here with us," Ewan said. "We watched you try to save us."
For a long moment, Ardeth didn't know how to reply. "Your mum wanted you to live, as did I. But you are welcome. I did what was necessary." Ardeth wasn't sure if those words were appropriate. But the children seemed happy with his response, for they hugged him.
When Ardeth hugged them back, he discovered that he had become a shadow of himself, and that he could watch his body holding up to the sky his link of the Bracelet of Lostris.
Looking around, he saw that Evie, Alex, Jonathan, Rick, Martin and even Cuppy were also shadows of themselves and each was looking around in surprise and asking questions of each other.
"It's only temporary. Your spirit is being amassed for the Bracelet. Just a moment longer, then the bombers will be thrown back to Berlin, even though they are Mussolini's," Tanus told Ardeth as a female voice called,
"Hildred! Ewan! Come! We need your spirits to use in the power of the Bracelet so that nasty man will stop bombing London!"
"Coming, grandmum! Thank you again, Ardeth!" both of the children said before disentangling themselves from Ardeth's embrace and ran to join the large group of people gathering in the Afterlife.
Two more shadows detached themselves from the huge crowd and stepped closer to Evie and Jonathan. Even without the pith helmets, trousers and boots, Ardeth would have recognized the couple in a heartbeat, for they looked enough like Jonathan and Evie for Ardeth to realize the older couple were their parents.
"Mum! Dad!" both Jonathan and Evie cried as they ran forward like young children to first hug and then join their parents in the large crowd, Alex and Rick trailing along. Cuppy was at a loss as to with whom she was to remain. She finally settled down near Ardeth's feet and barked as other shadows started appearing.
"Watch!" a deep voice boomed out over the massed people. "I am Osiris and now London shall be relieved of the daily bombings!"
Ardeth looked down and saw the swirling golden light covering the entire sky from horizon to horizon.
The fifteen bomber planes and seventy biplanes were now being tumbled nose over tail towards Berlin where the planes were being turned upside down, their pilots being violently shaken out of the planes. Once the pilots were out, the planes reared up, then hurtled towards the ground.
Upon impact, large belches of thick black smoke filled the air and Berliners ran for cover, trying to cover their noses but choking in the thick black smoke.
Thoth now addressed the massed crowd. "You will not remember this event," he said as the golden light began to disperse and the crowds thinned. In a heartbeat, only a few souls remained in the fading golden light.
Thoth turned to Ardeth. "Except for you and Martin. Your next task is to place the Bracelet under guard," Ardeth nodded as he watched Evie, Alex, Rick, Jonathan and even Cuppy regain solid form.
"I am a guardian of the City of Hamunaptra," he told Thoth. "My people have guarded against evil for over three thousand years."
"Then you know what will be required," Thoth stated and Ardeth nodded and the Afterlife began to fade.
As he slowly regained his own body, Ardeth heard Thoth tell Taita, "Make sure Martin and Ardeth know where to safeguard the Bracelet."
"I will do as you command," Taita's voice echoed in Ardeth's ears.
---------------------
A few minutes later...
"Where did the bombers go?" Alex asked, as he peered through the binoculars. "Mum? Dad? Didn't I just say there were fifteen bombers and seventy biplanes heading towards London?"
"Yes, you said the Regia Aeronautica were coming. Where did they go? I know they were just here for the bombers seemed to be heading straight towards us. I thought I could see the whites of their eyes."
Rick blinked his eyes and lowered his hand. The electrum link he held in his hand glowed faintly, then winked out. "Yes. I heard you say that, Alex. They dropped only a few bombs when they disappeared over Ramsgate."
Faint voices were heard from the planespotters.
"Hey! Where did the Regia go?"
"The Regia squadron just disappeared from the sky! One second they were there and the next, blam! Gone!"
"I they disappeared over Ramsgate. Not many bombs were dropped."
Other faint voices echoed the words of the planespotters and Londoners came outside, looking at the horizon.
Jonathan and Ardeth lowered their hands and each man handed his electrum link to Ardeth, who put the Bracelet back together, then placed the Bracelet in the leather pouch he carried.
Martin now blinked then wiped his brow. "Did we do it?"
Ardeth replied, "Yes. Look. There are no smoke trails today."
Martin smiled. "That took a lot of effort but the results were worth it, don't you think?"
"Gemstones and metals are mined from stone, and only against stone shall their souls be freed" Jonathan said, then looked surprised. "I think I've said that before but I can't be sure," he finished as the four men, followed by Cuppy at Ardeth's heels, walked over to where Evie and Alex were watching as Londoners came outside, looking up at the sky.
The only smoke visible was the smoke rising in wavering columns from the still-burning sections of London. There were no smoke trails in the sky from RAF fighters chasing Luftwaffe or Regia Aeronautica bombers.
Another eerie calm filled the city: the sound of silence stretched for a minute, then two, then five and finally the sound of silence filled the city for an hour and still the six mortals and one canine stood, along with dozens of Londoners, and watched the horizon.
After the sun set, and neither the Luftwaffe nor the Regia had re-appeared, Evie put her arm around her son and said, "Come, let's go home." Rick leaned down and kissed his wife as Evie and Alex started walking down Shooters Hill.
Rick, Jonathan, Martin and Ardeth started to follow, but the figure of a man rose in front of them.
"Watch," Taita told the four men before disappearing into a shimmer. And the four men watched the window which appeared.
October 31, 1940, London, top of Shooters Hill (entryway to and on the outskirts of London) and the Brits note the day is overcast and wet...
"Luftwaffe airplanes have been spotted over Kent!" Alex cried out as he used a pair of binoculars to scan the horizon. "One, two, five, eight, fifteen! Fifteen bombers in wing tip to wing tip formation," he confirmed, lowering the binoculars a moment in order to look at Ardeth before raising the binoculars again.
Alex gasped, and said, "No! There's more. Nine...uhm, fifteen, thirty, no, forty, forty five, sixty, seventy. There's seventy? Seventy...seventy biplanes? Dad! Seventy biplanes!"
"Biplanes?" a surprised Rick and Jonathan asked in unison.
"Biplanes," Alex confirmed. "Painted pale green and bright blue. Looks like they're from the first war," Alex said as Ardeth's voice called,
"Now." Ardeth commanded and Martin, though his eyes were closed and his brow furrowed from concentration, nodded and deepened his trance.
An eerie silence had fallen over London in the past twenty four hours as the wet weather cleared the smoke trails from the burnt-out skyline of London. Yesterday, the 30th, had dawned wet and darkly cloudy, and there had been virtually nil bombings by the Luftwaffe.
Today, Londoners had been hopeful another day would pass without bombings, for the bombings two days earlier had been intense and the stress was eating away at London's resolve.
But Hitler, it appeared had something else in mind.
"Pale green and bright blue biplanes?" Evie asked her son, coming up behind him and placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Uh-huh," he replied, still looking through the binoculars.
"Hitler must have teamed up with Mussolini. That's the Regia Aeronautica heading towards us. Guess they wanted a piece of the action," she commented sarcastically.
"Do you think Hitler's too much of a coward to send his planes and lose more men and so he sent Mussolini's men?" Alex questioned his mother.
"Possibly," she replied. "That might explain the Regia's belated appearance over London."
Despite their preoccupation with their task, the small group men on the hill--plus Evie and Cuppy, the lone females--could see the citizens of London looking towards the sky as planespotters located on London's remaining high points called out, "Luftwaffe--no! That's the Regia Aeronautica--spotted! Fifteen bombers and seventy biplanes headed to London from Kent!"
Relays had been set up to carry the message from the planespotters. Soon, the remaining streets of London were filled with echoes of "Fifteen bombers and seventy biplanes headed towards London!"
"The Spell of Osiris has been incanted by Taita," Thoth's voice now boomed out over the small group of people huddled together on top of Shooters Hill. Evie and Alex had frozen in time, another question showing on Alex's lips but unasked.
Jonathan couldn't figure out if the sheen on Martin's face was sweat or rain or a mixture of the two. Martin's brow was furrowed deeper and Jonathan thought Martin's skull would crack as Martin concentrated deeply to maintain the link with the Crossroads of Time--and Taita.
"Ardeth Bey, if you and your companions will stand as the shadow of the pyramid around the Keeper and raise the links of the Bracelet towards the sky, you will then watch when Seth's former Chosen One screams as he sees the beginning of the end for the Third Reich," Thoth continued.
Ardeth and Jonathan stood next to each other yet stood three yards apart. Rick formed the top of the pyramid around Martin. Each man raised his link of the Bracelet of Lostris towards the sky.
A blinding flash of golden light shot forth from the links of the Bracelet and headed towards the sky in a small whirlwind and hovered over the destroyed city, growing larger and rotating faster with each clockwise rotation as the power of every living thing on earth, and the power of the Gods themselves was amassed in the swirling golden light.
Spotters Hill and the small group of people were flooded with the warmth and they involuntarily gasped.
In the light, four figures stepped forward. As they came closer, the three men standing in a pyramid shape on Spotters Hill could see the first figure was a handsome, tall man with reddish gold hair and kohled, sky blue eyes dressed in a loincloth. Hanging around his neck was the thick Gold of Praise.
Walking next to this first figure was a slender, raven haired, green eyed woman who rivalled Nefertiti's beauty. In addition to full Egyptian makeup, she was wearing a feathery light linen shift dress dyed an unusual pale blue and she was holding the hand of another handsome man with flaming red hair and kohled blue eyes dressed in a white linen loincloth.
The fourth figure was taller than the other three by three inches and his stunning physical beauty was enhanced by the Double Crown of Egypt upon his brow. Kohled dark green eyes smiled at the four men and his eyes proclaimed him the woman's son.
Ardeth was the first to speak. "Taita. Queen Lostris. Tanus and the Pharaoh Tamose, former Prince of Thebes."
"Greetings, Commander! I see you know your history," Tamose spoke. "Taita was indeed clever when constructing the Bracelet and Martin was just as clever in figuring out his puzzle. Even Thoth and Isis were impressed when Taita told them he devised a spell which required the speaker to jump through several hurdles before gaining access to the words of the Spell of Osiris."
"A gateway," Queen Lostris put in, and taking Taita's hand, she looked up at him with her dark green eyes. "He constructed a gateway."
"The most powerful words in Egyptian magic needed a protective gateway. Taita, your puzzle was most elaborate. First in writing the opening spell using a dead language, and then requiring the power of the pyramids. But in order to gain access to the opening spell, the Bracelet had to be broken into three parts. Clever," Ardeth replied as his eyes grew accustomed to the golden light.
"Even Evie had trouble deciphering the language," Rick told Taita, looking at Evie and Alex. They appeared frozen in time, Evie's hand on Alex's shoulder and the binoculars still raised to Alex's eyes as mother and son stood on Shooters Hill overlooking London.
Taita inclined his head towards Ardeth and Rick and replied, "Circles within circles. Such was my life, and the lives of those in Egypt during Queen Lostris's time. So I constructed the puzzle in circles. Still, had the Bracelet not been thrown against the floor, you would not have been able to break open the Bracelet for the first time."
"Gemstones and metals are mined from stone, and only against stone shall their souls be freed," Jonathan intoned, then looked around in surprise. "Where did that come from?" he asked Taita, who laughed.
"My friend, it seems you have had a former life you don't know about! One of the royal jewelers went by the name of Re-Habeb and he used to say that phrase when I was a young man learning how to carve a lapis lazuli pendant. Before using any gemstone or precious metal, he tapped the specimen three times against a white limestone Aten disk. His words are what gave me the idea for the puzzle."
Ardeth's eyes were adjusting, and Ardeth saw the shadowy figures growing larger--and he realized these were the souls of those living in the Afterlife. Two of the smaller shadows broke off from a large group and started to run towards Ardeth.
"There are times when I regret writing down the Spell in the my Book. Many were the times a power hungry Egyptian tried to use the Spell to gain material wealth," Thoth now commented.
Taita completed Thoth's statement, "And many were the times they received sorrow instead of the hoped-for wealth."
"Much like a story we read today, called The Monkey's Paw. In that tale, a dried monkey's hand will grant the owner three wishes. But the wishes never turn out as the wishers quite imagined, and disastrous results entailed," Jonathan commented as he watched the swirling golden light cover the remains of the London skyline from horizon to horizon, then start growing past the edges of London, rotating faster as more shadows joined the growing crowd.
"That indeed sounds like our myth about the Book of Thoth! Always be careful of what you wish for, for you just might get your wish in a form you never expected," Taita and Thoth both replied. The two men, one the creator of magic and the other, a master magician, looked at each other and smiled.
"I do have a question," Rick said, looking worried. "If the spell uses the power of every living thing, will Hitler and his minions be included in that?"
Thoth shook his head, then smoothed his linen loincloth. "The spell weeds out those living beings with evil residing in their hearts. When I wrote the spell, I enlisted Ma'at to weigh the souls against the feather as the spell was being incanted."
"Mixing evil with good is never a good idea," Taita now said. "Another protective element," he grinned at Thoth, who smiled back.
"Whew!" Jonathan now said. "Now, where do the nasty souls go while the spell is activated?"
Thoth laughed. "They visit the Underworld and see their own deaths and transformation into demons."
"Ardeth Bey! Ardeth Bey!" a four year old girl with blonde hair and blue eyes shouted as she and a six year old boy, who was a carbon copy of his sister, ran up to him.
"Hildred! Ewan!" Ardeth greeted them. His tone was sad, and somewhat hollow. "I am sorry I did not arrive sooner."
"We were already dead by the time you heard our mummy scream. She'd been lying on the banks of the Thames, dazed from her head wound and she wasn't able to think for a few minutes." Ewan told Ardeth.
"But we were already dead," Hildred told Ardeth again. "We died a few minutes after the auto fell into the water. Mummy wouldn't have been able to save us even if her head hadn't been hurt."
"It was very quick," Ewan repeated, knowing that Ardeth was feeling responsible for not arriving in time to save him and his sister. "Our deaths, I mean. We didn't feel anything except cold."
"The water was too cold," Hildred piped up. "The auto slid on some ice. But we're warm now."
"We wanted to thank you for saving our mummy. Had you not arrived, she too would have died from being in the cold water too long, and our unborn brother would be here with us," Ewan said. "We watched you try to save us."
For a long moment, Ardeth didn't know how to reply. "Your mum wanted you to live, as did I. But you are welcome. I did what was necessary." Ardeth wasn't sure if those words were appropriate. But the children seemed happy with his response, for they hugged him.
When Ardeth hugged them back, he discovered that he had become a shadow of himself, and that he could watch his body holding up to the sky his link of the Bracelet of Lostris.
Looking around, he saw that Evie, Alex, Jonathan, Rick, Martin and even Cuppy were also shadows of themselves and each was looking around in surprise and asking questions of each other.
"It's only temporary. Your spirit is being amassed for the Bracelet. Just a moment longer, then the bombers will be thrown back to Berlin, even though they are Mussolini's," Tanus told Ardeth as a female voice called,
"Hildred! Ewan! Come! We need your spirits to use in the power of the Bracelet so that nasty man will stop bombing London!"
"Coming, grandmum! Thank you again, Ardeth!" both of the children said before disentangling themselves from Ardeth's embrace and ran to join the large group of people gathering in the Afterlife.
Two more shadows detached themselves from the huge crowd and stepped closer to Evie and Jonathan. Even without the pith helmets, trousers and boots, Ardeth would have recognized the couple in a heartbeat, for they looked enough like Jonathan and Evie for Ardeth to realize the older couple were their parents.
"Mum! Dad!" both Jonathan and Evie cried as they ran forward like young children to first hug and then join their parents in the large crowd, Alex and Rick trailing along. Cuppy was at a loss as to with whom she was to remain. She finally settled down near Ardeth's feet and barked as other shadows started appearing.
"Watch!" a deep voice boomed out over the massed people. "I am Osiris and now London shall be relieved of the daily bombings!"
Ardeth looked down and saw the swirling golden light covering the entire sky from horizon to horizon.
The fifteen bomber planes and seventy biplanes were now being tumbled nose over tail towards Berlin where the planes were being turned upside down, their pilots being violently shaken out of the planes. Once the pilots were out, the planes reared up, then hurtled towards the ground.
Upon impact, large belches of thick black smoke filled the air and Berliners ran for cover, trying to cover their noses but choking in the thick black smoke.
Thoth now addressed the massed crowd. "You will not remember this event," he said as the golden light began to disperse and the crowds thinned. In a heartbeat, only a few souls remained in the fading golden light.
Thoth turned to Ardeth. "Except for you and Martin. Your next task is to place the Bracelet under guard," Ardeth nodded as he watched Evie, Alex, Rick, Jonathan and even Cuppy regain solid form.
"I am a guardian of the City of Hamunaptra," he told Thoth. "My people have guarded against evil for over three thousand years."
"Then you know what will be required," Thoth stated and Ardeth nodded and the Afterlife began to fade.
As he slowly regained his own body, Ardeth heard Thoth tell Taita, "Make sure Martin and Ardeth know where to safeguard the Bracelet."
"I will do as you command," Taita's voice echoed in Ardeth's ears.
---------------------
A few minutes later...
"Where did the bombers go?" Alex asked, as he peered through the binoculars. "Mum? Dad? Didn't I just say there were fifteen bombers and seventy biplanes heading towards London?"
"Yes, you said the Regia Aeronautica were coming. Where did they go? I know they were just here for the bombers seemed to be heading straight towards us. I thought I could see the whites of their eyes."
Rick blinked his eyes and lowered his hand. The electrum link he held in his hand glowed faintly, then winked out. "Yes. I heard you say that, Alex. They dropped only a few bombs when they disappeared over Ramsgate."
Faint voices were heard from the planespotters.
"Hey! Where did the Regia go?"
"The Regia squadron just disappeared from the sky! One second they were there and the next, blam! Gone!"
"I they disappeared over Ramsgate. Not many bombs were dropped."
Other faint voices echoed the words of the planespotters and Londoners came outside, looking at the horizon.
Jonathan and Ardeth lowered their hands and each man handed his electrum link to Ardeth, who put the Bracelet back together, then placed the Bracelet in the leather pouch he carried.
Martin now blinked then wiped his brow. "Did we do it?"
Ardeth replied, "Yes. Look. There are no smoke trails today."
Martin smiled. "That took a lot of effort but the results were worth it, don't you think?"
"Gemstones and metals are mined from stone, and only against stone shall their souls be freed" Jonathan said, then looked surprised. "I think I've said that before but I can't be sure," he finished as the four men, followed by Cuppy at Ardeth's heels, walked over to where Evie and Alex were watching as Londoners came outside, looking up at the sky.
The only smoke visible was the smoke rising in wavering columns from the still-burning sections of London. There were no smoke trails in the sky from RAF fighters chasing Luftwaffe or Regia Aeronautica bombers.
Another eerie calm filled the city: the sound of silence stretched for a minute, then two, then five and finally the sound of silence filled the city for an hour and still the six mortals and one canine stood, along with dozens of Londoners, and watched the horizon.
After the sun set, and neither the Luftwaffe nor the Regia had re-appeared, Evie put her arm around her son and said, "Come, let's go home." Rick leaned down and kissed his wife as Evie and Alex started walking down Shooters Hill.
Rick, Jonathan, Martin and Ardeth started to follow, but the figure of a man rose in front of them.
"Watch," Taita told the four men before disappearing into a shimmer. And the four men watched the window which appeared.
