Modern Day, Chapter 7, Egypt
Train, Egypt (two days have passed in travel at this point):
Imhotep looked around his temporary, mobile surroundings. The walls were made of rough wooden planks that allowed wisping air through the slats, but covering them were ornate golden statues, (now ancient) artworks, hanging black cloth inscribed with golden threaded glyphs and windows that currently was just starting to let in light. Torches, candles and incense filled the room.
He walked around the interior slowly, feeling the gentle lurches of the ground beneath him as the train rolled over the tracks. It was much smoother than any chariot ride.
Imhotep's face was covered by a black mask and his body was robed in lightweight, black fabric. The material hid his body from any citizen who might glance upon him while he was brought to the first train, the boat, and now the second train. Beneath it was a decayed, grotesque body.
Imhotep hardly noticed nor cared what he looked like now, but it was wise to cover his temporary features so as not to alert the masses.
Hafez, the man who had woken him from the underworld, told him he was working on acquiring the box that held Anck-su-Namun's canopic jars and contained the curse which would restore him. The curse was of great importance to regain his body but the jars no longer held the same appeal to him as they once did, now that the reincarnated form of Anck-su-Namun was aboard this very train.
Soon he would look as he once did, back in ancient times. The face that had once won him Anck-su-Namun would be his to please her eyes again. Not that it seemed to much disturb her earlier that night when he kissed her, still, it would be his gift to her.
There was a knock on the door.
Imhotep turned. The door opened and in came Hafez and Lock-nah, the two servants Anck-su-Namun's reincarnation had hired. They came in to his compartment hesitantly. Hafez, the elderly one, bowed as Lock-nah took a knee. Imhotep watched them.
"My lord," Hafez began, "we have the bracelet of anubis."
Imhotep smiled, pleased. With the bracelet he could become pharaoh over all the world, Anck-su-Namun at his side, for all eternity.
"There is… a small problem." Hafez continued, hesitantly. Imhotep took a slow step forward, smile fading. He did not enjoy a crooked answer. His head tilted slightly to the side, his Egyptian sounded deeper and rougher in this body than it would have in his restored one, but he didn't quite mind the effect, "What problem?"
"The boy, O'Connell's son, he has put the bracelet on." Hafez said. "The bracelet shows the way but we do not know the location we are supposed to go to next. He is on board the train but we cannot get the bracelet off."
"Hmph." Imhotep smiled beneath the mask again. This was no problem.
"Do not take it off, it is good he wears it. Bring him to me." Imhotep ordered.
"As you command." Hafez said, bowing. He got up, giving Lock-nah a look. Lock-nah understood it's meaning and rose readily to retrieve the boy.
…
"Get up." Lock-nah ordered, hand grabbing Alex's jacket and hoisting him up.
Kat stood quickly, grabbing the other side of Alex's jacket. Lock-nah opened his mouth, a warning was about to come up when Kat interjected, "-If he has to go anywhere, I go with."
Lock-nah's face twitched, whether in humor or annoyance, it was hard to tell, "It is lord Imhotep's wish to see only the boy."
Kat stood her ground, hand still on Alex, who was watching her with widened eyes but a stiff upper lip, "Then he didn't wish not to see me? Until he doesn't wish to see me, we'll be going together."
Lock-nah huffed a breath through his nose, a small corner of his mouth turned upwards, "You desire to meet him? That would be entertaining."
"Surely it would be easier to keep us together than have us struggle to keep from being separated?" Kat said, feeling her heart start to speed up in her chest. Her knees and hands began to feel jittery as she grasped Alex's jacket with white knuckles. They had endured an entire day of being dragged from trains boats together, to be separated now would be more than cruel.
Lock-nah looked her over, eyes lingering a moment on her slightly shaking white hands, he smirked, "Let's go, both of you."
Kat kept her hand on Alex's shoulder as they walked out into the aisle, Lock-nah's hand planted itself on her upper back, keeping Kat and Alex moving down the aisle towards the door. He walked them out of the compartment into the outer whistling air as dawn lit up the open platform with rushing ground on all sides. They were outside, between train compartments, watching the landscape whisk by. Kat's hand tightened on Alex, the open ground beneath them whirred by so quickly, to fall off it would not bode well for anyone.
Crossing the open air between railcars they quickly entered the door into the next compartment. This section looked much like the other, it too held a few red men inside it, sitting in seats. Lock-nah kept them moving and they crossed out into another open platform with chilly wind nipping at them as stepped across to the next railcar. Lock-nah lead them through a dining car with simple, two seated tables. They crossed out into the open another time to get to the next railcar. This one was a more elaborately decorated car and inside the seats were not only red men, but the man both Alex and Kat recognized from their many trips to the museum.
"Mr. Hafez." Kat said without a second thought. Ardeth had been right, this man was involved in whatever this mess was. A beautiful, long, black-haired woman was beside him.
"Hey I know what that is," Alex said, watching the interaction between the woman and Hafez, there was a black object between them, "that's the book of the dead."
"What a bright little child." The woman said, standing up.
She crouched down in front of Alex, stroking his hair, head to one side, "Your mother must be missing you terribly. If you wish to see her again you better behave."
The mock-maternal instinct coming off this woman nearly made Kat scoff, and with no small degree of satisfaction she heard Alex reply, unaffected by her tone, "Lady, I don't behave for my parents, what makes you think I'm going to do it for you?"
"Silence." Lock-nah growled.
"Because your mother wouldn't put poisonous snakes in your bed," The woman replied, lifting Alex's chin with a hand and kissing his cheek, "while you were sleeping."
Kat's eyes flared, hand tightening on Alex's shoulder. This woman was within hitting range and dangerously close to pushing it too far with Kat's charge. The woman withdrew her hand then and something glinted from it. Kat's growing temper was quickly replaced with a strange sensation.
On the woman's finger was a snake-like golden ring, one that Kat suddenly could see being dropped gently into an ornate bowl by male fingers. There was a warm glow everywhere, like torchlight on golden walls.
"Who is this again?" Hafez asked, "The boy's nanny you were telling us about?"
"Yes, sir." Lock-nah replied behind them. "She insisted to stay with the boy. She wants to meet lord Imhotep as well."
Hafez frowned, about to reply before the lady interrupted. "She can go."
Everyone looked at the beautiful woman, Hafez raising an eyebrow, "But why, lord Imhotep wishes to meet the boy."
"Do you think they pose any danger to him? If anything, it would be quite funny." She answered with a small smile on her face. The woman turned her head to steady her almond eyes on Kat, "Of course you will get your chance to see-"
At that moment Kat could see a remarkable change occur. In an instant the woman's makeup changed and her skin darkened and her hair straightened perfectly down the sides of her face with golden jewelry cascading down it. Kat blinked and it all disappeared, the woman looking at her with a startled expression. She too was staring as if having seen something just as unsettling.
"Meela?" Hafez asked. "Is something the matter?
The woman, Meela, looked over at him, blinking, "…no."
Suddenly Kat felt pressure on her back as Lock-nah pressed his hand against her, moving her and Alex forward again, "Now we will see how brave you really are."
He pushed them through the rest of the car, across the open platform outside, to the next railcar. Immediately upon entering through the door they saw a lay out that was very different from the one of the previous cars. This room was shaded and lit only by burning flames reflecting off large golden artifacts that lined the walls and floors.
Kat immediately smelled the thin veil of incense that crept through the air. A scent much like something familiar she had smelled before, a musky one. She couldn't put her finger on it.
A black-robed figure stood, back facing them, in the middle of the room.
Lock-nah pushed them up then with a hand grasping their shoulders he forced them down to their knees.
Kat's knees hit the wooden slotted floor roughly beside Alex. She grimaced but did not make a sound. Lock-nah's hand left and the figure turned around.
A man in black robes, with a black hood over his head, wearing a black mask stood before them. He took slow easy strides up to them. His deep voice spoke. He was speaking ancient Egyptian and as Kat listened, suddenly and unexpectedly the words drifted in and out of her ears to make as much sense as if he were speaking English.
"-It is you who are the chosen one. You who will take me to Ahm Shere." He spoke.
Kat's eyes widened, and she stared down hard at the floor. How was she understanding this?
"What if I don't?" Alex replied defiantly, having been taught by his mother ancient Egyptian. "What if I get a little…lost?"
The black-covered man laughed softly, deeply. Amused. "You have strength little one, you are your father's son."
He bent down to Alex's height, who now stood before the dark man.
"But I know something you don't." He waved a black gloved hand and Alex grunted as his wrist bearing the bracelet lifted, obviously against his will, though the hand never touched him. "This bracelet is a gift… and a curse."
With his other hand, the man lifted up an hour glass and tipped it, "The sands of time have already begun to pour against you."
"Yeah yeah we already heard this part." Alex responded, unimpressed. "From the minute I put the bracelet on I only have a few days before the scorpion king wakes up."
"Did you also hear that if you do not enter the tomb before the sun strikes it on the seventh day that very morning the bracelet will suck the life out of you?" The man said, leaning in closer for emphasis.
Kat's head shot up, no.
No. no. no. no. no. no. no. no.
Alex's eyes popped, "That part I missed. Hey wait a minute, that means I've only got five days left!"
"I believe it would be nice not to get lost then, don't you?" He cocked his black-covered head to one side.
"My dad is going to kick your ass." Alex replied, his face defiant.
Kat resisted the urge to correct the foul language, as she was thinking along similar words herself.
"Hmm." The man reached a gloved hand up to his mask, grasping it. Slowly he pulled it away.
"Ah!" Alex shouted, backstepping right into Lock-nah.
A grinning, rotted brown and wrinkled face with no skin, sinew or blood in it was revealed, "I do not think so."
It looked like a living, talking mummy.
Despite its hollowed-in cheeks and grotesquely inhuman appearance it had fully open and formed eyes.
Kat stared at it, those eyes…
They were dark and shining. Her heart skipped and every moment of every forgotten deep dream those eyes had ever been in since she was eleven was re-lived in intensity. Instead of recoiling at the features as Alex did, she felt herself freeze. The creature, lord Imhotep, raised his hand for them to depart and Lock-nah quickly grabbed Alex. A moment later Kat was vaguely aware of a hand on her shoulder, but she did not heed it.
Lock-nah then forced her up with a jolt of strength, "Get up!"
Imhotep looked over at the commotion, not before having taken much notice of the woman until now. Suddenly his mummified forehead furrowed deeply, looking down at Kat as she sunk back to the floor, Lock-nah getting angry. Imhotep took a step and stood before her, raising a hand for Lock-nah to stop yanking on her arm.
Kat knelt on the ground weakly, staring with fixed eyes on Imhotep. Alex was on the other side of Lock-nah, watching Kat with wide, uncertain eyes. Slowly, Imhotep lowered himself down to her level and leaned in, studying her face inches from his own.
"…can it be?" He said, shining eyes roving across Kat's face.
Writer's Note: A big thank you to WitchoftheWilds for my first review on this story!
