Chapter Nine:

The Gates of the Underworld

Try as I might, I could not escape the man in the cell. We were camping in the desert, not far from Giza, when I was told I needed to guard him while the rest of the prisoners were moved around.

I tried to get a fire started when night fell, as the desert became unbearably cold, but couldn't seem to hit the flint just right to get a spark. The man looked at me strangely, and then smiled at me, almost mockingly.

"Why don't you do it the old-fashioned way?" he asked.

I struck the flint again. "This is the old-fashioned way."

"I mean the way you always started fires."

I glanced at him. "You don't even know me. Don't pretend."

He smirked. "I know you better than myself."

"Prove it."

He tapped a finger on his chin, and then snapped his fingers decisively. "Got it! You love hot chocolate!"

"Everyone knows that," I said drearily. "Try again."

He smiled at me. "I know that you have a birthmark on your left hip that's shaped like a flower."

I raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "You could have seen that at any time my shirt wasn't totally going over my pants. Last chance."

"Whenever you're thinking, you bite your lower lip and constantly tap your thigh with your fingers. You love Japanese food, hate cold weather, can't stand reading in loud places, and your favourite movie is Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back."

I ignored him. "What was this, 'old-fashioned way' you spoke of?"

Tentatively, he got up and sat beside me, then took my wrist and made my hand face palm-up.

"You used to say that it felt like you were letting all of your feelings out, without making it too dramatic." He grinned. "But it was easy to tell if you were angry, hiding it or not." He grabbed the sleeve of my jacket. "May I?"

I didn't know why, but I nodded. He took my jacket off and then took my wrist again.

"What you want to do is try to express how you feel, and focus that into your hand," he told me.

I shook my head. "I don't know how I feel."

"I'll help with that."

"How the hell could you? I just don't—." Suddenly, the man pressed his lips against mine. My eyes, wide at first in surprise, closed and relaxed. His hand slowly snaked up my neck and held my head in place, as my own hands moved automatically to his face and pulled him even closer. There was something about him; his smell, his movements, his deep blue eyes—something made me want to be near him at all times. I felt him start to move, and before I knew it we were both lying on the sand, enjoying ourselves too much to come up for air.

And then I felt it. In my hand, the warm sensation had started to spread and travel down my shoulder blades until they met at the small of my back. As he pulled away for a quick breath, it felt duller, but as he came close again it brightened.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, he pulled away and smiled. "Told ya," he said. "Looks like you can feel emotions still."

I stared up at him, and then focused on my hand. Fire curled around my fingers from my palm, and extended up my arm. My other arm mirrored the flames exactly.

I studied them, almost in disbelief. "How did you…?"

I heard a sound behind me, and before I even knew it I was reacting. My nodachi was in my hand, and sliced the weapon from the person behind me. The frying pan flew from Twelve's hand and landed in the sand, cut in half with one side melting.

"What's the meaning of this?" I snapped.

He held up his hands. "Just checking your reactions, Thirteen."

I glared at him, the flames on my body rising higher. "If you were checking my reactions, you would have used the weapon on your back, not a friggin' frying pan!"

Twelve was staring at me in disbelief. "Are… you angry?"

"Of course I am!" I sliced the nodachi again, and Twelve jumped back. "How could I not be? You could've knocked me out!"

We fought for a few minutes, my shouting carrying over the camp. When I finally calmed down, the fire was gone, but the place where I'd originally wanted to start a fire had one going. Twelve left my camp, taking the prisoner with him.

The next day, I ignored everyone as we went to the next location; the Sphinx, which wasn't far away. We were looking for a secret passage inside of it, leading to some sort of gate.

"Thirteen!" the Senator exclaimed as he called for me. "Come here!"

I approached him and saw some of the hieroglyphics that were recently uncovered. It had the same pictures as the book.

"We're close!" he said excitedly. "Keep an eye out!"

I nodded and searched. My eyes scanned the ancient pictures, but I was immediately attracted to a few that had a warrior wielding a strange blade (strange to the Egyptians, at least) and fighting another warrior. From the looks of it, the second one was more skilled than the first. Then the sword glowed, and seven others stood behind the first warrior. It ended with the defeat of the second warrior, and the death of both. I moved on to the next picture, only to find it incomplete. I touched the pictures and tried to imagine what happened all those years ago, but I couldn't picture it.

"I found it!" someone yelled. "I found it!"

Everyone rushed to the screaming man, who was pointing excitedly to a wall that'd just opened up. Beyond was a dark hall that had torches on the walls, but they'd obviously been snuffed for a few thousand years.

The Senator grinned. "Let's go! No time to waste!"

We headed further into the Sphinx, our group wasting no time with being cautious. I had a bad feeling, but I wasn't going to voice it. If the time came that we had to confront that feeling, we'd confront it.

Unfortunately, the word "feeling" made me think of last night, with the prisoner. Without meaning to, I looked up at him, as he was in front of me, and stared at his back. He was familiar, and he claimed to have known me… but I didn't know him. What if he was telling the truth?

He winked at me. I felt my face go about as red as the Egyptian sun and quickly looked away from him, pretending to examine the barren walls. Was the Senator sure he wasn't a Conduit? He seemed to have something over me that made me act strangely. Even so…

We entered a chamber that actually had the torches lit. At the other end of the chamber was a gate about ten feet tall, with strange hieroglyphics covering it.

The prisoners were about to take a step forward when I heard a whistling sound. I lunged forward and drew my nodachi, swinging it in a wide arc. I hit something, and as I replaced my nodachi I realized it was an arrow.

Eleven crouched to the ground and examined it. "It's trap time," he said. "Keep close everyone. Thirteen, you take point."

I nodded and moved ahead of the prisoners, the Senator falling behind them. I carefully looked around for any holes that could be used for arrows, or any stones on the ground that would trigger a trap. I stepped forward until we reached the gates without another incident.

Or so it'd seemed.

Two of the workers started to scream at the top of their lungs as the ground fell from underneath their feet. But it was three people who started to fall.

"KAYCE!" the male prisoner screamed.

I was already leaping into the hole after them. My nodachi in hand, I grabbed the little prisoner girl's shirt and yanked her up into my arms as I stabbed my nodachi into the wall. We slowed to a stop, and heard an ugly crunching sound as the two workers stopped screaming. The girl was sobbing out of terror.

"Hold onto me," I told her.

She managed to stop the tears enough to listen, and latched her arms around my neck. I started to climb, using any handholds or footholds I could, with the help of my nodachi, of course.

We reached the top in record time. I heaved us out of the hole and laid on the ground, my arms feeling like lead. The man quickly came over and scooped Kayce into his arms, holding her tightly.

I guess that the Senator had just gone forward and opened the gigantic gates. He looked back, and the big grin on his face disappeared.

"You saved… the girl?" he cried as he marched over to me.

I shakily got to my feet. "She was the only one I could reach."

"Bullshit!" The Senator pointed to the hole. "We lost workers! You should've grabbed them!"

The man handed Kayce to one of the women—the woman looked strangely like Kayce and me—and took a threatening step forward. Three and Five had his arms before he could get too close to the Senator.

"You bastard! She's your grandchild!" he bellowed. "She's my daughter!"

Wait a sec—they're related? I studied them both, but the few similarities I found were eclipsed by the differences.

"Lance, Lance, Lance," the Senator cooed. "It doesn't matter to me. Anyone who stands in my way is killed." He looked at me. "And you just made the biggest mistake of your life!"

I felt it before I heard it. Something hit me in the back of the head, in the sweet spot, and knocked me out.