48 and counting

18.03.2015, 19:30pm, Alexandria

Carter Kane

Tomorrow - only two more days until the equinox and the end of the world. Only 48 hours to save everybody and everything we care about, everything humans had worked to build for thousands of years.

What will the end of the world even look like? Years ago, Dad did a lecture in Italy on the Egyptian end of the world myths. He said the destruction of the world was treated as something to be avoided, actively fought against, instead of an inevitable faith. Should the Serpent escape its bonds and swallow the sun, however, the Sea of Isfet shall flood the world.

Would it be normal water, everyone drowning in what resembles a bloodier version of the Biblical flood? Would it be like a dam breaking, a sudden destructive tsunami crashing into the Earth, the seas turning to swallow the land? Would humanity die, knowing in its last moments that its efforts were hopeless, that the Chaos was too much, the Earth too hot, the Damage irreversible? The water and air too poisonous for even the marine life to survive?

Or is the Sea's water red like blood? Does it matter, if it turns red regardless after it takes enough victims? The amount of monuments, houses, lives, memories just gone in an instant. A purple stuffed giraffe floating aimlessly in the nothingness next to a small wooden hippo, the only indication that humans lived and died, were ever even here.

Ever since Dad's lecture I'd replayed the end of the world in my head again and again and again. It was one of the few memories I could put a location to for the stupidest reason. That same day we went to this small restaurant and tried genuine Italian tiramisu for the first time. It was good but something was missing. Mum would always put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the top and draw a smiley face on it with sprinkles. I had thoughtlessly mentioned that to Dad and immediately regretted it when I saw his smile disappear.

At least he doesn't miss her anymore. I bet they eat tiramisu in Aaru. That they draw faces in the ice cream. That he hugs her all the more tighter for us. My parents, finally happy after so many years. If we fail, those would be their last 48 hours together.

If we succeed, they would be frozen in time in our old apartment, living in their own little paradise for eternity. That future was easier to think about. Yet somehow it made my eyes water more. It took me almost dying to realize I'd always been ready for it, always been prepared for the end of my life, the end of the world. I'd grown up with the weird knowing that I wouldn't grow old, that something would happen, that the world is too far gone.

It took faith dangling humanity's future in front of me like a dog's bone for me to realize I had never allowed myself to imagine it, to have hope. It felt cruel to prepare yourself for flying cars when entire regions don't have water. So unbelievably hard to imagine a future where you could be happy, to let yourself have hope, when your entire childhood has been surrounded by images and messages about how it's too hot, too toxic, too late. But maybe I could hope for water. Hope for healing. Believe that all humanity needs, is a second chance. Believe people can change.

All those thoughts were fighting around my head and for the first time in months I had the space to actually observe them. I wasn't sure whether that was a good thing quite yet, but Bes had said I have to rest until the following morning. He warned that if I exerted myself physically or magically any sooner after being poisoned, it might well kill me. Personally, I thought that was bullshit, but Sadie looked genuinely worried and I didn't have the heart to disagree.

With all of the responsibilities on our shoulders, Sadie Kane had been an unstoppable force. It had been a long time since she last allowed me to see my little sister through the façade of courage and confidence. Maybe because she had seen such a vulnerable part of me, it made her more comfortable to be vulnerable, too. Or maybe she had just reached her breaking point.

Either way, she needed me. The reason didn't matter, I was her brother.

Sadie cried on my shoulder till the exhaustion of the spell took over. I left her sleep on the couch and pretended I didn't hear when she whispered "I thought I'd lost you, too". A respectable leader doesn't cry while ordering room service.

Hours later, we sat on the deck, with our backs leaning on the door, watching the sunrise like when we were kids. Bes sat across from us, sighing.

"This makes me feel even shorter."

"Floor time." Sadie mumbled, mouth full of whatever was left of Lenin's head.

"But there are chairs right there!" The dwarf protested.

"Uh-huh. Floor time."

The breeze from the Mediterranean was cool and pleasant. Alexandria stretched out to our left, showered in the soft orange of the retiring day. From our penthouse suite, it all seemed a bit unreal-the raw energy of the city, the bustle and congestion below -while we sat on our veranda in the sky eating fresh fruit.

"I wonder if this is how gods feel when they look at world from above." Sadie whispered.

"I don't know," I whispered back. "I don't think I've ever felt more human."

Sometimes I think this is what humans were supposed to do, rest and fill their lives with the joys of slow existence, the comfort of nature.

Sadie set the two scrolls from the Book of Ra on the patio table.

She caught me up on everything that had happened after I was poisoned.

"So I may or may not have agreed to return Set's name."

I stared at her. "Can I choose the not?"

"Carter, please. We have the location now: some place called Bahariya."

"Bahariya…" I looked at Bes. "I know that name. Why do I know that name?"

Bes scratched his beard. The name Bahariya seemed especially to bother him.

"It's an oasis," he said, "way out in the desert. The mummies buried there were a secret until 1996. Then some fool donkey put its leg through a hole in the ground and broke open the top of a tomb."

"Right!" You know those 'I Know This' moments where you can't help but share your knowledge? Like the teacher version of opening a present. "It's called the Valley of the Golden Mummies! Actually," I shifted into a half-crouch, sitting back on my heels.

"That's just one of its names. During the Middle Kingdom it was called Desdes and then later the Romans called it The Small Oasis. In Latin, of course. The burial site was a huge discovery, and not just materially. Many of the mummies there are of high-ranking Roman Egyptians, many wearing gold masks –"

"I like gold," Sadie said. "Mummies-not so much."

"And their mummification gave so much more context to the syncretism of culture and religion during that period of Egypt's history which in and of itself opens up the conversation of how culture, religion and language get shaped, exchanged and evolve throughout history and-"

"There were actually these really cute golden earrings I was thinking of getting yesterday, but, you know, shit show of a birthday. Wait, imagine if one of the mummies there got golden earrings for a birthday present! I mean that's a fairly common birthday present to get. In fact, it's kind of a cliché, like, do people have no imagination?"

"So the last scroll is hidden there." Bes jumped in, stirring the conversation back to its original point. "It would make sense. The oasis is out of the way. Wasn't found until recently."

"Recently?" Sadie asked. "96 is like, 20 years ago."

Bes frowned. "And I'm a deity, during my 20th birthday the pyramids didn't even exist yet and Set got so drunk, he accidently became the adoptive mother of a mammoth."

I almost spat out the ginger ale I was sipping on. "I'm sorry what?!"

"That's beside the point, there are also powerful curses in place to prevent portal travel. The mortal archaeologists have excavated some of the tombs, but there's still a huge network of tunnels and chambers no one's opened in thousands of years. Lots of mummies."

"When you say lots of mummies," Sadie ventured, "how many is lots?"

"They've uncovered a few hundred," Bes said, "out of maybe ten thousand."

"Ten thousand?"

"Sadie," I sighed, "it's not like they're going to come to life and kill you."

"No," Bes agreed. "Probably not. Almost for sure not."

"Thanks. I feel much better."

"Anyway," Bes said, "With two parts of the Book of Ra, you should be able to track down the third part once you get close enough."

"How, exactly?" I asked.

Bes shrugged. "When magic items get broken up, the pieces are like magnets. The closer they get, the more they attract each other."

"Right," Sadie said. "So all we have to do is creep through a network of tombs past ten thousand golden mummies, who probably, almost for sure, won't come to life and kill us."

"Yeah," Bes said. "Well, they're not really solid gold. Most of them are just painted with gold. But, yeah."

"That makes a huge difference."

"Then it's decided." I said. "We can leave in the morning. How far is it?"

"A little over two hundred miles," Bes said, "but the roads are iffy. And portals... well, like I said, the oasis is cursed against them. And even if it wasn't, we're back in the First Nome. It would be wise to use as little magic as possible. If you're discovered in Desjardins' home territory..."

He didn't have to finish the sentence. If that was to happen, death would be the kinder option.

Sadie seemed to get distant, her gaze following the skyline of Alexandria curving along the shore of the glittering Mediterranean.

"Carter… there's something else. Set wanted you to know. Zia's village was named Makan al-Ramal al-Hamrah."

Suddenly, the world crumbled under me. A mixture of thousands of emotions began to rise up my throat, yet I couldn't name a single one of them. My brain was blank, my entire focus on the overwhelming, confusing, suffocating wave wrapping itself around my heart and squeezing it so hard, I was convinced I might actually choke on my own blood.

Zia's village. That's the biggest lead we'd had in months. Such a tiny, seemingly random peace of information, and still…

"You just forgot to mention this?"

"Remember, Set is a liar. He wasn't being helpful. He volunteered the information because he wanted to cause chaos between us."

Sadie spoke so calmly and rationally, as if I was the reckless one. Maybe. But, deep inside, I knew I could never forgive myself if I don't at least try. The same way that no matter how hard I try, no matter how much I want to, no matter how guilty it makes me feel, I cannot forgive my father for failing to save our mum. I don't care if it was some unavoidable faith. He is- was, a Kane, he could have figured something out. I simply could not fail Zia in the same way, no matter what the stakes.

I thought back to our conversation in the front of the truck last Christmas. Zia had lost everybody. I'd promised her she had me. I mean, us, me and Sadie. And with Zia everything was so easy. She made me believe I can be more than a scared kid. She gave me the courage and confidence I needed. She saw something in me that I hadn't yet, that I couldn't yet even fathom.

Zia was, even back then, the sun in my life. My light, my hope. So powerful, so warm, so steady and grounded when my entire world was shifting and changing. The voice of reason during hardship. The first rays of sunlight peeking through after a storm. This is who Zia Rashid was to the world. This is who she was to me. I couldn't fathom how neither the world, nor I, could survive without her.

"Makan al-Ramal al-Hamrah..." he said. "My Arabic isn't very good. But Hamrah is red."

"Yes," Bes agreed. "Al-Ramal means 'the sands.'"

My eyes widened. "The Place of Red Sands! The voice at the Brooklyn Museum said Zia was asleep at the Place of Red Sands." I looked at Sadie pleadingly. "Sadie, it's the ruins of her home village. That's where Iskandar hid her. We have to find her."

"It's a bad idea." That's all she said. I knew Sadie would never want to hurt me, so I pushed aside the pain from her words and tried to read her face. For the first time ever, my sister looked away.

That's fine. She just needed to be convinced. I turned to Bes. "Could you find this village?"

The dwarf god tugged at his Hawaiian shirt. "Maybe, but it would take time. You've got a little more than two days left. The equinox starts the day after tomorrow at sunset. Getting to the oasis of Bahariya is a full day of travel. Finding this ruined village-easily another day-and if it's on the Nile, it's in the opposite direction. Once you've got the Book of Ra, you'll need to allow another day at least to figure out how to use it. I guarantee awakening Ra will mean a trip into the Duat, where time is always unpredictable. You'll have to be back with Ra at dawn on the equinox-"

"We don't have enough time," Sadie summed up. "It's either the Book of Ra, or Zia."

Even if it meant going against faith, against reason, against order. I was going to find Zia Rashid. I had decided. There was nothing anyone could do to change that.

"I can't leave her." I looked at the last traces of the sun as it fully disappeared below the horizon. "She's got a part to play, Sadie. I don't know what it is, but she's important. We can't lose her."

Sadie took a deep breath. "We'll have to separate. You go after Zia. I'll track down the scroll."

Bes coughed. "Speaking of bad ideas."

The world or Zia, that I could deal with. But if it meant putting on the line my sister…

"I can't let you go alone into the desert."

She unclasped her shen necklace. "Lucky for us, we're Kane. We never have to be alone again. It would do Zia good to see a familiar face in case she doesn't remember you, so Aya can come with you. And I'll take Walt. He promised to help, didn't he?"

"He can't," Bes said.

"But you won't tell me why."

"I-" Bes faltered. "Look, I promised Bast I'd watch you, keep you safe."

"And I expect you to watch my family very well. As for me, Walt and I can manage."

"But-"

"Whatever Walt's bloody secret is, whatever you're trying to protect him from, it's making him miserable. He wants to help. And I'm going to let him."

The dwarf glared at her. I, for one, was relieved. Walt would keep my sister safe. He was rational, he thought things through, he was our best initiate. They would be fine.

Bes sighed in resignation. "Two young people traveling alone through Egypt, a boy and a girl. It'll look strange."

"I'll just say Walt's my brother."

Sadie must have noticed me wince, because she said firmly "Go. Save Zia."

"How will we find each other?"

"Let's meet back here," she suggested. "We'll leave at dawn. Allow ourselves twenty-four hours, no longer, for me to find the scroll, you to find Zia's village, and both of us get back to Alexandria."

Bes grunted. "Not enough time. Even if everything goes perfectly, that'll leave you about twelve hours to put together the Book of Ra and use it before the eve of the equinox."

Yet I found myself nodding. "It's our only chance. We have to try."

I looked at Sadie hopefully, but I think we both knew even then that we wouldn't meet in Alexandria. We were Kane, which meant everything would go wrong.