Chapter 10: All Aboard the Chicken Frisbee!

The room became tense. Everyone was looking to Anubis waiting for his reply.

"The immortal magician… you mean Se-Osiris?"

Isis nodded.

"I last reaped his soul in Belgium of 1879. The sky was a murky white that day."

I titled my head at the remark about the sky, but Isis seemed unfazed by the pointless remark. "You haven't encountered him in the last century?"

Anubis shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't been performing my duties as much. You should ask Kebechet."

"I have, but she doesn't know how to recognize his soul." The table fell silent.

"Excuse me," I interrupted, "but how can the magician be immortal if he's human?"

"We don't have time for explanations," Horus retorted.

"No, I think it's better if she knows," Isis countered. She turned to her brother and smiled sugary. "Since you're so pressed on time, how about you give us a quick summary?"

Horus looked shocked. His sister's expectant smile made his cheeks burn, whether from anger or embarrassment I couldn't tell. "I'm not good at that sort of stuff. Anubis is the expert on souls."

Isis didn't push Horus but turned to Anubis. "Could you explain then?"

"Yeah." He turned away from them to face me. "You remember what I said about the ba and ka, right?"

"Yeah."

"As you know, it is my duty to ensure the ba and ka of the dead are released. When these two souls reunite in the duat, they join together to form a new type of soul. We call it the ankh.

"An ankh forms naturally in the duat, but not on Earth. Se-Osiris was a powerful magician and sought to live forever. He used his magic to bend nature and force his souls to become an ankh."

"Then how is it that you've reaped his soul if he is immortal"

"He's not immortal as we are," Isis said.

Anubis nodded. "He can die. He has died many times. But I can't send his soul to the duat. His soul is not a perfect ankh. In fact, it is quite grotesque. Something so flawed can't pass into the next life. So he is reborn over and over again."

When I tried to imagine dying over and over, a shiver went down my spine. It was like being the Incan warrior again, but knowing that even after death that suffering would have to be met again. "Why did he do it?"

"In his first life, he was the chief magician for the pharaoh of that time. He was powerful, but there was another magician of Ethiopia who also held power. This magician served under his king, but he was a fool. In the night, he kidnapped the pharaoh and beat him brutally to show his nation had greater power than Egypt.

"Se-Osiris was called upon to protect the pharaoh while he slept so this wouldn't happen again, and it never did. His magical barriers were able to keep the pharaoh safe from the magician."

"I remember when that happened," Isis said. "Thoth was the one who gave Se-Osiris the knowledge to make those barriers, am I right?"

Anubis nodded. "Little Horus begged him for his help for hours. It was annoying."

"Why? What did Little Horus have to do with it?"

"He was the pharaoh."

At this, Big Horus' booming laughter filled the small café. "That guy warped his soul to protect an immortal god? What an idiot!"

"It isn't funny, Horus," Isis said in disapproval. "He did not know my son was serving as pharaoh."

"Which makes him an even greater fool. What's the point of being immortal for someone who will die eventually anyway?"

"Revenge."

Horus stopped laughing. In the deadly silence, Anubis continued. "I can't understand his emotions for wanting revenge, but I know he acted out against the king of Ethiopia. Three times he kidnapped him and beat him during the night. His magician wasn't powerful enough to protect his king, so he went to Egypt to face Se-Osiris. He lost and swore never to harm Egypt again. After that, I'm not sure what else happened. All I know is that 500 years later, Se-Osiris arrived once again to protect another Pharaoh from a magician of Ethiopia."

Anubis sighed and thumbed through the photos. "Now that he has no pharaoh to protect, I don't know what his motives are. He has lived in many parts of the world. If there is a war, I usually find him amongst the remains. I'm not even sure if he still uses magic. He would need a sa for that."

"What's a sa?" I asked before I could stop myself. Horus gave a large sigh and leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling. Isis pretended she couldn't hear him.

"It is a sixth soul only gods have. It is our source of magical power. Since our souls can exist in more than one place, we can lend our sa to a mortal to use. Even a magician is powerless if a god does not lend them their sa."

"Oh yeah," Horus said as he straightened in his chair. "See? I told you Set would be involved in this. I bet that human got a sa from him!"

Isis replied, "I already said it's possible, but we can't rule out that it could be someone else."

"You should get a hold of Little Horus," Anubis said without looking up from the photos. "He's with Wadjet following Set's trail."

"Really?" Horus exclaimed. His eyes shined with deep desire. He stood from his seat saying, "I really should go help him. He could get hurt and –"

"No you don't." Isis grabbed his arm. Even with the force she must have been using to stop him, she didn't show any strain. "You promised to help figure this out with me. You're staying here."

"Oh come on, Isis! That magician could be in Antarctica or something by now. Finding him would be faster if you let me beat Set till he tells us what he knows."

"Actually, there's a better way." She held up the paper that held the spell. "If he was sloppy enough to leave behind the spell, then he was sloppy enough to leave a trail."

"Anubis! If you can't keep your human alive yourself, then you shouldn't take her with us!"

Horus the Elder shot me scathing glared after he stopped yet another piece of rubble from crushing me to death. He wasn't being fair. When Horus had once again told Anubis that Paws and I shouldn't come along, I sided with him. I didn't want to come. I knew I would only slow them down and, frankly, staying around Horus didn't seem healthy for my sense of self-worth. Anubis, however, insisted I stayed for reasons that are beyond me. So now I had to deal with the snide comments Horus shot me as he saved my life from the Opera house that was determined to kill me.

"I didn't ask to have my magic sealed," replied the zombie boy.

"And I didn't ask for babysitting duties!"

"Horus, could you please respect Anubis' wishes," Isis said with a sigh. "Anubis wouldn't bring Nakia here for no reason."

I don't know about that, I thought but didn't dare say it. I wasn't in the mood to speak. I was beginning to feel ashamed of my mortality. Paws, however, was easily weaving through the piles of debris. Since the building hadn't labeled him as its next murder victim, Paws managed to stay out of Horus' notice.

We made our way to the center of the explosion, descending deeper into the rubble into the basement. It was a bit creepy being around half melted mannequins and soot covered props.

"It's just over here," Horus said. We came to a stop in a large clearing. Everything that had been in the room had been blown into the surrounding walls. It was amazing the roof hadn't given in at all. The room was dark with no light but the blue flames that came to life in Isis' hand. In the center of the room, there was a spot in the floor that hadn't been scorched during the explosion. It was just large enough for a person to stand in.

"The spell itself I found underneath the electrical equipment over there, but he was probably standing here when he used it."

"Good work, Horus." Isis knelt to the ground at the clear circle on the ground speaking words I couldn't hear. Nothing happened for a while. Then a figure made of red light bathed the room in a crimson glow. The figure was shorter than me, its head reaching my chest. It turned its head and looked at Anubis. It held out his hand, his finger beckoning him forward. Then it vanished.

"Well, that was creepy," Horus said sounding more bored than disturbed. "What do we do now?"

Isis straightened up. "His magic trail has been covered. It could take me a week to sift through it to find it again."

"He wanted me to come alone," Anubis said.

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"I wouldn't be able to follow his trail with magic. There's another way, possibly one only I could think of."

Horus clapped his hands together. "I got it. You can use that trick with the shadows."

Anubis shook his head. "That uses magic."

"Ah, well," Horus faltered but quickly regained his vigor. "At least my theory was proven. His magic is red."

"The color of Set," Isis whispered though it managed to ring loud in the deserted space.

"Isis, can you keep the human alive? I'm going to send a message to Little Me." Isis nodded absently staring at the space the glowing figure had been before.

When Horus left, she said, "I'm glad he came to help out with this. The situation is more serious than I thought."

"Do you think Set is in on this?" Anubis asked. I almost didn't catch him. Paws had surprised me by prodding me with his wet nose.

"I can't say for sure if this his bidding or the magician is acting on his own designs. Not when you're the target. Has Set acted against you before?" Paws was whimpering at me, his eyes pleading.

"No, but Sobek attacked me a couple of weeks ago." Paws was gesturing his muzzle to the spot on the floor and pleaded in his whine.

"Sobek attacked you? One of the three evils… that's very troubling. He doesn't always do Set's bidding, but if he attacked you, I cannot think he did it out of impulse."

"Um, I think Paws is trying to say something, Anubis." They both pulled out of their conversation. Immediately, Paws ran to Anubis barking his head off.

"Slow down. I hear you." He paused, contemplating to himself. He turned to Isis and said, "Can I see that spell?"

"Sure." She pulled it from her beaded bag and gave it to Anubis, who let Paws sniff it. A moment later he was sniffing at the ground. His nose stayed pressed to the floor. Finally, he gave an excited bark, his tail wagging.

"Paws has his scent. We can follow that."

"A way only you could think of," Isis mused. Anubis shrugged. I almost wanted to laugh but didn't. In a case where the gods couldn't use their magic could they really think of no other solutions? And yet one of the first things a human would think of would be a search dog. I wondered how much the gap between humans and gods thoughts were, and whether Se-Osiris was aware of it.

I survived the journey out of the Opera house. It felt very bright outside after crawling out of the darkness. Paws leapt out and had his nose to the ground. He had to abandon the trail as we maneuvered through the rubble. Isis followed after me.

"I hope he isn't in the city. Perhaps we should find his location before we approach. We would have a better chance of luring him away."

Anubis nodded. Without any warning, Anubis let out an earsplitting howl. I quickly covered my ears but it did nothing to help. The sound shook my bones, making it difficult to keep myself standing. The howl faded then died. I glimpsed at the surrounding police and media but they didn't show any sign of having their ears blown out.

"Ow, my eardrums..."

"Huh? Oh, sorry." Anubis replied. I thought I heard Paws laughing in his way, but I looked over to see him snarling, his eyes fixed to a point in the park. My eyes found what he was growling at. Coming from the shadows of the trees was a large pack of dogs. It took a moment for me to pin a name to the tan fur and pointed ears. There were about twenty or so dingoes approaching us. They came slowly at first, and then broke into a run. They all came at Anubis and nearly knocked him down. They acted like a bunch of puppies competing for attention. Not quite the vicious attack I was expecting.

"Okay, settle down. I have a scent I need you to follow," Anubis said. He had them all sniff the spell and soon they ran off following their noses. Paws was taking this as a personal insult and would not even look at Anubis. We left through the police line and broke into the trees. We found some benches surrounding a water fountain that we sat at while we waited. Paws was drinking out of the fountain. I watched him not really focusing. I was queasy. The last time we faced danger it sprang up out of nowhere. I was beginning to think that way was better than walking into it. It gave you way more time to think than needed.

My feelings must have showed, because Isis laid her hand on my shoulder. "You don't have to come if you don't want to."

I didn't want to. I might as well be honest. "I… I'm going if Anubis is."

Anubis glanced at me from where he sat but said nothing. I felt a bit stunned at myself. I wasn't going to say that. As I spoke, I caught sight of the hieroglyphs moving across Anubis' skin. Something rose in me. Maybe it was the natural liar thing Anubis thinks I am. No, it was more like someone else had answered for me. It was creepy.

"Your lesser name suits you, Nakia," Isis answered.

"Paws! Don't jump in there!" Anubis shouted. Paws turned up his nose and jumped in the water. Anubis went after him, his face blank.

When he was further away, Isis said, "If you don't mind me asking, why did you decide to help Anubis? You didn't feel obligated because of your ability did you?"

I paused, thinking back to my last days as a high school student. Slowly, I responded, "I would be lying if I said I didn't feel a little obligated. At that time, there was this boy I knew. I didn't know him well, but you could tell his life was rough. He was bullied because of it. My friend told me I should stay out of it, so I did. He committed suicide." I paused, looking up at Anubis standing on the fountain rim.

"Anubis reminded me of him. There's sadness in him I don't really understand. I knew that I couldn't make the same mistake with him that I made with Andrew."

"Do you regret it?" she asked with a soft voice.

I smiled despite myself. "Helping Anubis I don't regret, but I regret leaving my family. If I had stayed, I would regret not helping him. I had no easy choices."

"The most important ones never do. I'm glad you choose to help him. He's been lost long enough."

"Horus said the same thing. Little Horus, I mean. I'm glad there are some gods that don't mind I'm around." I sighed.

"Don't let my brother deter you. Sad to say, many gods keep themselves out of human affairs. They forget how much our kind relies on each other."

"What good are we to gods?"

"You give us purpose." I looked at her as she gave me a warm smile. I would have asked what purpose, but Paws came back and was shaking water on us.

"Enough, Paws!" I scolded. He was grinning, his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth. Anubis was behind him soaking wet.

"Could you?" he asked Isis in a flat tone.

"Of course," she replied. She said some inaudible words with her hand out to him. Next moment, Anubis was dry with no shiny flashes or great gusts of wind. Just one moment he's wet and then he was dry. Magic was turning out to be less dramatic in appearance than I thought it would be. Isis stood and said, "He's back."

In the sky past the trees came a golden object. I couldn't make out what it was until it came closer.

"Is that a … chicken frisbee?"

"It is the Winged Disk; another form of Horus," Isis corrected. Coming to us was, I kid you not, a gold disk with flapping wings. It had looked like a frisbee from far away (well, I still think it looks like a frisbee) but it was very massive. It would probably be taller than the water fountain. The wings came out of it at each side. They must have been huge as well, but they were a blur beating fast like hummingbird wings. A moment later, the disk was gone and Horus fell out of the sky. He landed gracefully but looked incredibly grumpy.

"Welcome back." Isis' voice was pleasant despite the negative aura Horus was exuding.

"Yeah," he grunted. "Are we having a picnic now?"

"Anubis sent some dogs to follow the magician's scent. We are waiting on their return before we decade on what to do next."

"Good." He didn't seem to be listening. He plopped down onto a separate bench, looking very hostile.

Anubis said to him, "Little Horus didn't like being interrupter, did he?"

"Yes!" Horus burst out as though he were a bomb that was just set off. "I ask him what he's doing with Set and he tells me to butt out! He acts like I'm trying to fight his battles for him."

"You usually are."

"Only when it's Set. Anyway, I got the message to him to interrogate him while he's at it. Hopefully he'll win this fight. His winning streak has been getting pretty long."

"He may not," Isis said bluntly. "We may be able to extract Set's purpose from the magician."

"Hmph, he better win…" Horus mumbled.

A soft patter could be heard in the distance. The sound grew louder, the pounding of their paws bringing them closer. The group of wild dingoes came to a halt before Anubis. The largest of them gave a loud bark and Anubis nodded. "They're outside the city in a barren field. They're waiting for us."

"They?" Isis asked.

He nodded. "They said a woman is with him. Probably a goddess."

Isis and Horus exchanged glances. It was apparent that they had not expected others to be involved. Isis sighed. "Let us not delay then. Could you ride us there, Horus?"

Of course his first reaction was to glare in my direction. Maybe I would have glared back too if I hadn't been caught off guard by Isis' implication of Horus giving us a ride. "I'm not taking you all! I have a passenger limit, you know!"

Now I was very concerned about our ride. "Paws doesn't have to come with us," Anubis replied. Paws whined in protest, but Anubis turned to him and said, "No, you don't. The place we're going is far outside the city. Get to the boat and make sure it's there for when we leave." Paws turned to me, his eyes pleading. When my silence confirmed there was nothing I could do, he whimpered and sauntered off in defeat.

"And what about the human?" Horus grumbled/

"She comes with us," Anubis said.

"Onto a battle field?" Horus grinned in a mocking way. "Is that why you keep dragging her along with you? Hoping she'll die sooner?"

Suddenly, Anubis hand grabbed at my shoulder a moment before he fell to his knees. His hold pulled me to the ground with him.

"Enough!"

The high voice of Isis could not be more commanding. Her sweet demeanor was replaced with a cold authority. I knew in that moment Isis wasn't someone to cross. I pulled my gaze away from her to check on Anubis. His face was like stone except for his eyes. They looked to be struggling to focus on something. I could only guess his heart was searching for a feeling it lacked.

"Horus," Isis voice rang, "whatever hard feeling you have about Anubis' decision to bring Nakia you can keep to yourself." Horus grunted but didn't protest against her. She turned on Anubis and for a moment I feared she would give him a stern lecture as well. However, she knelt down to meet his eyes and said in a soft voice, "Anubis, Horus does have a point. It would be safer if she stayed behind."

Although I didn't like them deciding for me whether I should go I kept it to myself. I knew I would do whatever Anubis decided regardless. As for him, as his eyes focused on Isis, any emptiness of emotion vanished. In fact, the look he gave her I had never seen before. Whenever I looked into his eyes, there was always something in his gaze that was off. In this instance, the look of regret mingled with a fierce determination was so clearly written on his face, there was no trace of that off look.

"I won't let her out of my sight," he stated.

I didn't understand it, but Isis looked hurt from what he said. The tension in the air brought my hair on end. I had a feeling this tension was something beyond what Anubis said.

Horus' booming laughter broke through the tension. He approached us, still chuckling. "So that's how it is. You don't change at all, kid." Horus patted his shoulder as Anubis stood up again. He avoided looking at me. While stretching his arms he said, "Let's just get this over with. I want to meet up with Little Me as soon as possible."

Then the chicken frisbee returned. Its golden disk hovered for a moment and then landed on the ground with a metallic clang. The white wings as long as three people spun in a circle like a helicopter until it folded into the disk and out of sight. When Isis stepped onto the giant frisbee, I felt my body lock up. Anubis had tugged at my wrist but I didn't move.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"No, just no," my voiced squeaked as I protested. "I can't… I can't fly on that. There are no seat belts or edges…"

"It's fine, Nakia. You won't fall, and if you do I'll catch you," Isis called out.

"You have always been fine on the boat. This is no different."

"This is completely different!" I exclaimed.

Anubis sized me up and his cold demeanor loosened. "Do you want to stay behind?"

Yes. "No."

He sighed. With strength that didn't fit his size, he threw me over his shoulders like I was lighter than cotton.

"Hey! Put me down! Stop it!" I complained all the way to Horus' chicken frisbee. Anubis plopped me in the middle with no effort. His lax expression only jarred my anger.

Isis reprimanded, "That was insensitive, Anubis. You'll only scare her more."

"It was faster."

As though responding to the word 'fast', the frisbee uncurled its wings and shot into the sky. My stomach didn't come with me. I covered my eyes and curled my head between my knees. My heart was hammering in my chest and I fought back images of us slipping off. It didn't stop a short scream escaping as I felt the world flip over us.

"Is that really necessary, Horus?" Isis said. The world righted itself but the disk was shaking slightly. I could imagine the sound of Horus roaring with laughter in my head.

Of course, we fell.

There was a screeching sound like when Anubis was sealed. The sky cackled with red static and the chicken frisbee vanished beneath us. I wish I could say I kept my cool, but I screamed through the whole fall. Someone grabbed me from under my arms and slowed my fall. It wasn't until I was on the ground that I opened my eyes.

Miles and miles of arid dirt stretched out as far as the horizon. We were inside a giant red circle that glowed red energy. Hieroglyphs spiraled inside it. Isis stood over me and I saw the red words were slipping over her skin. It was the same for Horus, now in his human form. The black hieroglyphs on Anubis had an added red gleam.

In the center of this circle some ways away were two figures. The tallest was a woman who looked like a biker. She wore a black leather jacket and a tight fitting biker suit. Her black hair was cut short in an angle so it was longer in the front. Her eyes were as black as her hair. The red hieroglyphs also snaked across her skin. She didn't look happy to be here.

Next to her was a boy that looked to be twelve. He wore what looked like the sort of uniform you would wear at a private boarding school. His black hair was neatly pulled back. He had the sort of eyes that didn't belong on a young boy's face. Like me, he didn't have the glowing words crossing over his body.

He was the immortal magician.