It was with a certain amount of amusement that Horus stopped Ardeth, and slipped him the letter with his seal on it. Ardeth waited a bit before he read it and cursed so well that several of his group stared at him in surprise.
Halfway into the next night, Evy started to read the book one of the Americans found...(opening a cursed chest which Akefia and Horus had felt all the way one floor below)...Horus felt the hairs on the back of his neck go up.
"Brother, pack for trouble. I'm renewing that spell to keep the scarabs out. Locusts as well, come to think of it."
"Locusts?"
"One of the side effects of the ritual used on the Priest was an arrival of the Ten wherever he went."
Akefia nodded. There was a story about the Ten plagues hitting Egypt, but it was years after their time and the pharaohs after it had headed the warning and left those who were descended from that line alone.
Just because they had different gods did not make them any less dangerous. It was the same reasoning for why they gave note to Allah, and any pantheon that crossed their path.
They might follow a different set of gods, but Bast never took offense to being polite to the others.
Once they were separated (it was very easy with all the confusion) Akefia and Horus ran into the mummy himself after he got his hands on one of the Americans who were dumb enough to open the chest.
"Greetings High Priest. I must say you could do with an illusion charm or two," said Horus amused. The man looked like something Bast had chewed on and spit out.
"You speak the ancient tongue!" Imhotep said in surprise.
"We outdate you. I am Horus of the Desert and this is my brother Akefia Ba-Ku-Ra, the King of Thieves."
Imhotep had heard of them. They were the reason Hamunaptra had been built after all. The pharaohs feared that someone else of their unique skills would come and break into the tombs.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting the Thief King and the Mage of Bastet?" asked Imhotep.
"We aren't going to interfere. We were sent by Bastet due to a group of 'wizards' (Horus spat out the term in disgust) getting their hands on a spell to send them into the past and set you lose. You're bad enough when confined to Egypt and the lands surrounding it. We don't need you loose on the entire world. We could be persuaded to look away while the Medjai try to clean up the mess if you would be kind enough to give us directions to the treasure room."
Imhotep looked amused, well as amused as a corpse could. He gave them directions and the locations of the Jeweled Scarabs. The free roaming ones would avoid them anyway. They parted, both amused and interested to see how this would play out.
Since Imhotep knew the two wouldn't interfere directly (they had told him rather clearly he wasn't their problem) he didn't have to worry about the ancient sorcerer spoken of in fear bothering him. He went back to find a proper sacrifice to revive his lover when Evy almost literally dropped in his lap. The amount of magic in her was perfect for what he had in mind.
"How many scarabs did they pilfer from your collection?" asked Akefia in surprise. This was the fourth series of twenty they had come across.
"Last time I did inventory, roughly a hundred and forty had gone missing. And I place a spell to alert me which ones broke free of the shell, and only twenty have. So we still have a few more to retrieve."
"I swear, I would love to know why you like these things."
"I love them because you can give them to an enemy and he won't know what hit him until after his heart is being eaten. Very few people would even recognize what it is unless they went to Egypt. And you should have seen the look on the goblin's faces when they heard I collect them as a hobby!"
"So which way to the treasure room?"
"Three corridors down and take a left, and it's on the first right after the second one. He also gave us directions to the ritual room where he got caught."
"Good. Let's go there next. Hey wait, isn't that..."
"I think so. And I happen to know the spell to wake them up. How fun! We can set them on the idiots in England if they keep pissing me off!"
There was a little known loophole in the spell that kept ordinary mages from memorizing the spells in the sacred books. It was set that only a High Priest could remember them without the book on hand.
However it never actually said what kind of High Priest was required. Chosen of the Gods fell into this category, as Horus was the High Priest of Bastet.
He had borrowed the Book before Evelyn had read it aloud and memorized a few spells. One of which was how to awaken the Pharaoh's bodyguards.
Horus had Maha Vialo place the jars in with the rest of the loot, with a note on what they were.
Soon the two were positively drooling at the sight of all the gold, and Horus had his Ka enlarge the treasure space twice over. They then started to throw gold into bags and handing them off to the Charmers to put in the appropriate places. They left the cursed stuff alone, and some of the other pieces.
The Medjai weren't like the Tomb Keepers. They would and did spend any caches of gold found in tombs. Their duty had shifted over the years from Pharaoh's Bodyguards to the Guardians of all the magic in the desert. They weren't honor bound to serve any of the leaders of Egypt, but rather Egypt herself.
That was the main reason why Akefia and Horus had initially contacted them with offers of friendship and help with some curses that the counters had been lost to.
Once they got over their initial reactions to the fact that two who hadn't been painted very well by the pharaohs (who were beyond miffed that the two stole from the graves without caring) the two groups got along famously
By the time they finished with half of the treasure, they went above ground to find an unamused Ardeth.
"I felt that there were still people here. Who exactly are you two?"
Horus removed his usual covering of the Medjai mark and said the usual greeting. Ardeth and the other rather cranky Medjai straightened in shock.
"I am Akefia Ba-Ku-Ra. This is my brother Horus of the Desert. We aren't about to side with Imhotep, and our reasons for being here don't involve putting him back to sleep. A group of wizards have found a spell and seek to unleash the Creature on those they deem unworthy, and we have been sent to stop them."
Ardeth listened to Akefia, and from what he could tell they were telling the truth.
"Do you require any assistance?" he asked finally. It surprised some of his group, but even they could see the mark on Horus.
"Not particularly, we only need you not to interfere when a large mass of scarabs eat the wizards alive," said Horus cheerfully.
"Scarabs?" asked Ardeth faintly.
Akefia snorted.
"My idiot brother has an affinity with the damn things, and he collects the ones that aren't opened yet. Don't ask me why, because I haven't a damn clue why he handles the open ones with only a single spell to keep them from killing his ass," snorted Akefia.
Ardeth stared at Horus.
"You...collect...scarabs?"
"I like them. And since I show them proper respect they tend not to eat me on the rare times I forget the spell," he chirped.
Ardeth was about to ask if they needed horses when the heard a shout. Someone had come across Maha Vialo and attempted to control him.
Horus ran to his Ka beast, and was highly amused. The wizards had stumbled across Maha and assumed he was the creature, unaware that Imhotep was currently dodging a few Medjai three floors down.
Horus laughed coldly at the wizards...and it only took a few seconds to identify them as Death Eaters.
"Well, well, well. Tom Riddle's little troopers are the ones we were sent to kill. How...ironic."
One of them noticed the lightning scar and in a rare show of intelligence, put two and two together.
"So the famous Harry Potter finally shows up," he sneered.
"Hardly. I haven't gone by that name in thousands of years. My name is Horus now. Now, little Death Eaters, you have two choices. I can either give you a quick death which will involve my Ka here sending you into a den of Man Eater Bugs...or the slow death of dealing with my...pets...as it were. Which will it be?"
"Like a filthy half blood could kill us!" sneered the other Death Eaters.
"Slow and painful it is then. Akefia, do you want to watch?"
"Hell yes! These guys are jokes to the profession!"
Horus sneered at the Death Eaters, and snapped his fingers. Within seconds a shield appeared and covered them, making it impossible for them to escape. They started to sputter in denial, claiming he shouldn't be able to use magic without one of their paltry sticks. And then the real screams started.
Horus had found to his surprise that some of his collection had 'hatched', for lack of a better term, and breed into a sizable hoard. The scarabs remembered him, despite it being so long ago. As such they were willing to listen to his commands within reason.
Even bugs will show affection if a person is willing to put forth the effort. And Horus always shined the scarab's sealed form whenever he had the chance. The remembered the magic, even if they didn't recognize the person.
The Death Eaters screamed in pain as the scarabs devoured them and left only bones. The Medjai winced.
"Was that really necessary?"
"Yes. They either haven't started or are still unknown, but these are rapists, killers and murderers. These...wizards...are worse than those who steal from your tribes, because they do not see any innocents, only future victims," said Horus coldly.
Ardeth paused when he heard the fact that Horus knew someone had been stealing from their tribe. Young children were being kidnapped and they had no idea who did it.
"You...know of who steals the children?"
"Someone has bound the children of Ra into taking those touched by gods to wield magic. Bastet might be willing to place an earlier protection on the tribes if only to one up the Sun God," said Horus amused.
A loud yowl was heard, and everyone but Horus and Akefia tensed. A feline appeared on his shoulder looking highly amused.
"It seems my protection towards the Medjai had an unexpected side effect. It has been extended through time and space. Phoenixes will no longer be able to find your tribes, let alone the children. Ra is rather angry about that," she said smugly.
"He shouldn't have allowed his children to kidnap the young ones," snapped Horus.
"Quite true, which is the only reason I haven't been called up by Osiris. I found it rather amusing that for someone who is supposedly Evil according to the children of Ra, you bear the mark of the Medjai and are favored by at least two gods of Light, one Neutral and one Chaotic Good."
"Horus, which goddess is this?"
"How rude of me. I am Bastet of the Moon, the Goddess of Lower Egypt. Horus is my Chosen, and friend to all who truly love Egypt."
"Which reminds me. You might want to get in touch with the Curator and tell him Imhotep will be making an appearance soon. Our only task was to keep the wizards from controlling the Creature."
"You have one more to kill before the task is complete. Unfortunately he is not in the city at the moment."
"A pity. Still, I should have expected it was his flunkies sent to control the Creature," said Horus amused.
"Then you will enjoy this even more. The last one who came with them is the traitor who killed your birth parents! Capture him and you can help the one called Sirius earn his freedom!" cackled Bastet.
"And from what I remember the man can turn into a rat. Shall I give him to you later Bastet?"
Bastet's laughter surprised the Medjai there. Akefia and Horus left for Cairo so they could meet up with Evy. Imhotep was already heading in that direction anyway.
The arrangement was simple enough. Akefia and Horus would ignore the former Priest so long as he left them alone.
Horus didn't bother to hide his laughter when he saw Imhotep chased from the room (and by extension Evelyn who had been sleeping) by her pet cat. Bastet often helped Anubis find spirits who had escaped the afterlife to drag them back.
He was about to exit the room when he saw the rat. And it didn't fit at all.
He snatched it up off the street, ignoring the cry of disgust from Evy at the sight of the thing and held a knife to it's neck.
"Now little traitor, shall I kill you now and drop your wretched body off with your master or would you prefer to end up in prison where you belong?" purred Horus.
The rat squeaked, but wisely didn't try to bite him in attempt to escape. Then again it might have been because of the odd bugs that had been following him for the past two days.
An hour later Horus was in the museum with the rat already under strict guard in the room with all the treasure and a threat to undo the spell should he try to escape.
Peter Pettrigrew was a traitor and a coward, but a complete idiot he was not. He knew better than to piss off someone who collected Jeweled Scarabs of all things and had them lining his treasure room.
With the wizards taken care of, Bastet offered to let them go home early. Horus felt like sticking around, if only to have a second go at the treasure room. They had to cut their raid of the place short because the Medjai had come too close.
Even so, Horus borrowed one of Bastet's special bags to put enough gold for Ardeth and his tribes to live well for the next few years. Some of it came from his stash.
It wasn't like they stole gold because they were greedy. They did it for the thrill. It was part of the reason Bastet sometimes helped them. And the fact that Horus and Akefia parted with it to the less fortunate without a second thought (often giving it to children who's parents were suffering under the pharaoh's taxes) only endeared them to the lighter gods.
Well, except for Ra, but who cared what he thought?