Author's Note: This is changed a bit because I've changed Sylvpeak's appearance, and to help improve the story overall.
Disclaimer: Do not own The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, or anything else from them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter 2
Sacr-Tair cried loudly. Ardeth Bay reached up a hand to hush him, but the falcon flapped his wings impatiently. He plucked at his jesses. Ardeth's eyebrows puckered, and he reached towards the bird's restraints.
"Ardeth!" A messenger galloped into the camp, his mare snorting as they halted beside the Med-jai leader. "There is something going on at Hamunaptra. Lightning struck not ten minutes ago. We could not see what happened, because it formed a bright light. It moved towards the city."
"We sealed off Hamunaptra completely. No one can enter."
"No human, we agree, but might this not be human?"
Ardeth nodded and turned to a boy. "Bring me Sh'an," he said. The boy ran away, and soon he returned with the dark-brown mare, her tasseled bridle and saddle in place. Ardeth swung into place, and the boy lifted Sacr-Tair up to him. "Rest, Istinn. Hamon, send the elders after me."
"Yes, master." The boy led Istinn and his horse away. Ardeth turned to the west and urged his horse to a trot.
They soon reached the Sentinel Ridge. The black-robed guards parted to let him to the front, and one pointed down to a fallen pillar. "That is where the light vanished. We already checked the area; there is an open tunnel in to the secondary corridor to the sanache. There are no signs of what it was, but there were some peculiar marks in the sand, where the lightning struck. Circular wind marks."
Ardeth pursed his lips. "We will go down." He turned Sh'an towards the steep path down the ridge. He released Sacr-Tair, and the bird flapped away. Silently, the other Med-jai followed him.
Sylv removed her hands from over the dry corpse. She looked at Pyr and nodded. Pyr moved over to the corpse, and Sylv walked hesitantly to a stone ledge. She collapsed onto it, her back against the wall. Pyr looked sharply at her. "Are you all right?"
Sylv wiped the sheen of sweat off her ebony brow. "I'll be fine. I've restored the organs, muscle, and skin, as you can see. The blood really took it out of me, though." She laughed shortly. "It's in a powder form, so it should be easily refreshed by Quel."
Pyr walked over to Sylv and crouched down beside her. Pyr touched her sister's dark face. "You're sweating."
"I'll be fine. Really. I think I'll just get a drink." Sylv and Pyr stood, and Sylv swayed slightly. Pyr held out a hand. Sylv waved her away and pulled a staff out of the ground. "You'd better take care of him."
Pyr nodded, her eyes still on Sylv's face; then she turned and went back to the byre. "Right. Quel and Phyri should be here soon. Zephryn is still keeping an eye on those tornadoes in the West."
Sylv nodded as she walked to the entrance of the chamber. She stopped.
"What is it?" Pyr asked.
"People. I'll go check it out."
Pyr was silent. Sylv glanced back; her sister was examining the Book of the Dead. Sylv left the chamber. She stopped at a trickle of water coming from a small crevice, and she drank deeply. Refreshed, she dismissed the staff and followed the tunnel of rock, her sensitive ears picking out the sound of footsteps from the echoes, until she stopped. She peeked around the corner of the hall, and she saw dark-robed men moving down the passageway, their torches shining brightly. Sylv frowned. She tapped the wall at her side and stepped back. Rocks broke loose from the ceiling, tumbling down to fill in the passageway, the resulting roar ringing throughout the caves.
Alex sat up suddenly in his bed, his eyes wide with fear. He raised a trembling hand to his face; his forehead was covered in a cold sweat. "What? Why did I wake up?" he asked the night softly. The dieing fire in the hearth flickered, and Alex's eyes lit upon a picture painted on stone, resting on a shelf. He shook himself and got out of bed, going over the stone painting. Four people looked out at him, one man, three women, all smiling, situated around an Egyptian hieroglyph. 'Strange. They don't look Egyptian. Especially with their hair,' Alex thought idly. Two of the women seemed to be staring straight at him despite their faces being painted in profile. He leaned closer, staring back at their eyes, the one's green-brown, the others changing from yellow, through orange, to red. His gaze flicked to the hieroglyph in the center of the portraits. Suddenly images rushed into his mind.
"Mum! Dad!" Alex ran out of his bedroom and towards his parents' room. As he reached the door, it flew open to reveal his father. He grabbed Alex up.
"Whoa, kid. Easy."
Alex clutched his father, sobbing wildly. His dad patted his back soothingly, and he felt himself being carried into the room. His dad sat down, and his mum moved closer beside them. "What is it, Alex?" she asked softly.
"I had a dream, a terrible dream, it was awful, I was just standing there and I couldn't do anything, I couldn't stop them from waking him up, and he was there, and they stopped the Med-jai from getting there in time, and he was just looking at me, and he came towards me, and- and—" Alex's voice broke up as he coughed, still sobbing.
Both of his parents hugged him close. "Easy, Alex. It's okay," his dad said. Alex continued crying, his tears pouring out. In his mind he saw them, staring at him. The two women with the strange hair and eyes, and the Creature.
Finally Alex's sobs grew softer, and he was able to sit up. Evie gently wiped the tears off his cheeks. "Are you all right?" she asked.
Alex drew himself upright and nodded. "Of course, Mum. I'm fine."
"Good. Do you want to talk about it?" she asked. Alex's lip trembled, but he blinked his eyes and nodded. "Did you have a nightmare?"
Alex swallowed, but shrugged nonchalantly. "I was standing in this huge cavern and there were two women in the center. They-they—"
Rick smoothed Alex's hair. "What, sweetheart?" Evie said softly.
The boy breathed deeply. "There was a stone table or something in the cave, and there was a body on it. There were two women—the women from that painting in my room—and one of them told the body to rise. It was Imhotep, Mum!"
A chill coursed through Evie's body. 'Imhotep?'
Alex was sitting up straighter now, moving his hands where possible to illustrate his words. "And the Med-jai came and tried to stop him from waking up, but the second woman stopped them. She . . . she waved her hand and the rocks collapsed on top of the Med-jai, and Ardeth Bay! And then they all saw me, and Imhotep started coming toward me, and he was in his black robes, and they got larger and larger, until I could only see him—" Alex's voice died. "And then I woke up."
Evie shuddered slightly. "It was only a dream, buddy," Rick said.
"Dad, you don't understand. They were the women from the painting in my room, and the hieroglyph said: 'Beware them.' They look so nice in the painting, Dad, but they were terrible. They were watching me in my dream, too, and the one could just make the rocks move by waving her hand." His voice quieted again. "She killed Ardeth Bay."
Rick hugged Alex, and Evie wrapped her arms around them both. "It'll be okay, Alex. Everything is just fine," Rick said.
Evie shuddered and held her husband and son more tightly than before. 'But . . . Imhotep?'
Evie gently tucked Alex in, and he looked up at her, his eyes still troubled. "It was that picture over there, Mum." He pointed to a piece of stone on one of his shelves. Rick picked it up to look at it, and Evie kissed Alex's forehead.
"All right, honey. We'll look at it; you get back to sleep."
Alex nodded, shut his eyes, and rolled onto his side. Evie smoothed his hair, and she joined Rick over by the shelf. Quietly they left the room, easing the door shut behind them. Rick turned to Evelyn, the stone still in his hand.
"I'm afraid, Rick. Alex went through everything with Imhotep and the Scorpion King last year and was so brave. He admitted he was afraid at times, but he kept going."
Rick nodded. "And yet this dream terrified him. I know. What do you make of these?"
Evie took the stone and examined the painting. Three women and one man grouped around the hieroglyph. "'Beware them.'" Evie studied the people. "This hieroglyph is definitely ancient Egyptian, at least as old as Imhotep. But these people . . . An Egyptian with orange hair, an African with green hair, an Asian with blue hair, and a European with white?"
"Pale blue, I think. Is Egyptian artwork usually this detailed?"
"There are paintings of Africans, but I've never seen Europeans, at least not in anything this old. I don't understand, Rick. I've never seen anything like these people before; I don't even remember this piece of stone."
Rick frowned. "That doesn't sound right. Shouldn't there be something, some story behind them?"
"I don't know. I've never seen them before, or heard of Egyptians that looked anything like this."
"But Evie, this is your own house, your parents' house. This was in our kid's own room, and you don't remember it?" Rick asked impatiently.
"Do you remember it?" Evie snapped back. "He's your child, too. Surely you've been in there as much as I have."
"Hey, I have been. I spend just as much time with him as you do, and you know it."
Evie breathed in, ready to retort, when their cat ran out of their bedroom. Evie jumped back, and she ran into the railing. She stumbled, going backwards, over the railing. Rick caught her, and the stone painting went sailing, landing on the marble floor below.
Rick pulled Evie close to him, and she shook in his embrace. "Oh, Rick, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it; I'm sorry." She clasped her arms around him, and he embraced her.
"I know, honey; I know. And I'm sorry, too."
They stood for a long moment, holding each other, all anger gone. Evie buried her face in Rick's shirt, her breath steadying, her limbs no longer shaking. Rick spoke softly. "You okay?"
Evie nodded, and she pulled back slightly. "I haven't gone through fighting mummies, pygmies, and three-thousand year old corpses with you, just to be scared by a little slip." She smiled, and Rick grinned. He looked over the railing, and his face fell. Evie followed his gaze.
On the floor below, the slender stone piece was intact.
Evie and Rick looked at each other. "I don't like this," Evie said.
Rick frowned. "Neither do I."
