Chapter Ten
I woke the next day with Ra shining brightly in my eyes, I looked at the clock beside the bed, it was almost noon. I looked over at Peter, he was still fast asleep.
I turned on the TV and flipped to a news channel, I turned the volume down so I wouldn't wake Peter.
It took only a short while before I saw Frank and Jack in what appeared to be a makeshift press conference, they looked uncomfortable and kind of frantic.
The network had overdubbed their conversation in Swedish but I could understand the gist of it, they were saying they had been duped... by a magical being... that magic was real, but just not in the way their paper had described.
I could tell from the expressions on the faces of the reporters questioning them, that they did not believe any of it.
In an effort to save their careers both of them were just making it worse.
I had successfully relegated sorcery to the realm of faeries and monsters, I doubted if Rand or any other legitimate organization would ever research it from now on.
I only had the Brutes shadowy organization to worry about from now on.
I took the Brutes wallet out of my handbag, there was an identification card amongst his credit cards, it was for a company I had never heard of, General Importers, there was nothing else of any interest.
I threw the wallet back into my handbag, I would research his credit cards later.
Peter woke up then.
"So what next?" Peter was rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"We find Imhotep's tomb."
"Why?"
"We must hide it better, in case someone else stumbles onto it."
"How will we find it?"
I started flipping the squares on my bracelet, a wooden box appeared, floating in air, it was open on the side facing me, the box was stuffed with rolls of papyri.
I had found the archives of the City of magic a few months before, or more accurately it had been discovered by the archeologist I had hired to catalogue the city, Harry Camp.
I pulled out the papyri one by one and quickly scanned their contents.
Imhotep had arrived in the City of Magic at the age of twelve, his novice spell, the spell he was judged upon by the cities sorcerers to determine his fitness to become an apprentice, had been the stone moving spell Peter had used.
He had had an interest in architecture and medicine and he had died in his late fifties, old for his time, he had located his tomb in the Great desert ten days march from Memphis.
I conjured up a modern map of Egypt complete with ancient cities and monuments, I found the location of Memphis, then using the clues from the papyri I soon had a good idea where the tomb was located.
I put all the papyri back into the box and dispelled it. I jumped out of bed and walked over to the bathroom, it was time for a shower.
Peter and I were standing in the Sahara desert, the sun was high in the sky blasting us with an intense heat.
"Jesus... people live in this heat?" Peter said.
"It can get much hotter, make sure you drink lots of water."
I looked around at the rocks and sand, I could not see anything unusual. I knew the tomb had to be very close.
I used a spell to scan underneath the surface to a depth of about ten feet, again I found nothing.
"Sampson spent weeks trying to find it again, he said he had marked the site," Peter said.
I walked over to one of the boulders protruding out of the sand, I saw a crudely chiselled X, I also noticed a small cairn of rocks nearby, obviously man made.
"This must be it then, there must be some kind of trigger," I said.
"Like a magic word?"
"Ya... it could be."
"What kind of man was Imhotep?" Peter asked.
"Hard to say... kinda nerdy I think."
"Was he compassionate?"
"I would assume so... he was a powerful sorcerer and there are no historical records of any megalomania."
Peter hobbled up next to me.
"Fall down onto all fours, act like you're dying of thirst," Peter said.
I looked at him curiously, then got down on all fours and did my best impression of someone dying in the desert, Peter laid down his crutches did the same.
I heard an odd noise, I looked up and saw that two stone pillars had appeared, there was a lintel placed across their tops, I looked at the space between them and saw an antechamber.
"How did you know?" I asked Peter.
"Just a guess... Sampson talked about a fountain, Imhotep must have had a use for it."
I stood up and examined the gate, there was a hieroglyphic phrase written on the lintel, it said: Welcome poor soul.
I walked into the tombs antechamber, Peter followed behind me, the tomb appeared to be open to the sky, I reached up to the ceiling and felt resistance, it was just an enchantment.
The room was full of furniture and decorative boxes, they would hold the things he would need in the afterlife.
I saw another entrance on the antechambers far wall, I walked through it and entered Imhotep's tomb.
There was a large granite sarcophagus in the center of the room, it had no decoration, the walls were decorated with beautiful paintings, I saw the City of Magic, Imhotep's wife and children and what must have been various scenes from his life.
There was a bubbling fountain in one corner of the room.
I saw an entrance to another part of the tomb, I walked through it and into a huge room, the walls were covered in hieroglyphs and paintings.
I started reading the hieroglyphs, they appeared to document his life and accomplishments, I looked at another wall and saw the book of the dead transcribed.
I walked around the room, I saw some spells written in between the hieroglyphs, I recognized a copier spell and Peter's stone moving spell.
"Wow look at her," I heard Peter exclaim.
I turned and looked, I saw him standing in front of a life-sized portrait of a young woman, I walked over to where he was standing and examined it.
"She's beautiful," Peter said.
I felt my eye's narrow, I looked at Peter.
Peter looked back at me.
"Um... I mean... almost as beautiful as you," he said.
I looked back at the painting, it was not the typical stiff wooden profile characteristic of most ancient Egyptian portraiture, someone had put in a considerable amount of effort to make her lifelike, I suspected they must have used magic.
Peter was right, she was beautiful, and exotic, she had light skin and long black wavy hair, she was wearing a dress that would have been risqué even in antiquity.
I stared at her large dark eyes, they seemed to stare right back, the artist had managed to capture a sinister coldness in her gaze. I felt myself shudder a little.
"It's Semiramis, Imhotep's nemesis," I said.
"Who was she?" Peter asked.
"There are numerous historical references to a goddess with her name, I don't think she was a fun person."
"She was a sorcerer?" Peter asked.
"Yes... thankfully she is long dead."
Peter looked at me, "is there no spell for immortality?" he asked.
"I can think of a way to do it now... but it would not have been possible in her time."
I looked at Peter.
"It would not be good for your soul to do it."
Peter smiled, "one go around is more than enough, is that what the gods were, ancient sorcerers?"
"I think not... being a god sounds pretty dull... worrying about the petty grievances of people."
"Ya... not to mention all the killing ya gotta do... floods... destroying cities... you'd have to have a pretty hard heart."
"I think gods are what we make them," I said.
I saw the story that Sampson had made a rubbing of beside the portrait of Semiramis , when I read it again I got the feeling that Imhotep was not just infatuated with her but had been under her spell, like an addict to a drug.
/> Peter hobbled and I walked around the large room, Peter looking at the art and I reading all the texts. I soon found the spell that controlled Imhotep's disappearing entrance, it was nestled in between the other texts, it was quite easy for me to disable it.
Peter and I left the tomb through the main entrance, we both turned and stared at the two stone pillars.
I used my bracelet to make them it disappear, for eternity this time.
"Rest in peace Imhotep," I said.
"What about his fountain?" Peter asked.
I flipped the squares on my bracelet again, a small stream of water emerged from the ground, then a small stele covered with hieroglyphs appeared in front of it.
"What's it say?" Peter asked.
"This is Imhotep's stream," I replied.
"Won't people find out it's magical?"
"It will bear out any scrutiny."
"What do we do now?"
"I think I would like to see the pyramids," I said.
Peter and I spent the next three days looking at the ancient ruins around Cairo, I even found the site of the temple of Atum where I had learned to read and write. There was nothing left, just an obelisk from a much later era.
I thought about all the people who had lived and died in the thousands of years since I had been born, all forgotten, all these people who had worked and worried, how important the things they did must have seemed to them, and now they were all gone.
I wondered what it was all about, what was our purpose here, hopefully my god Sobek would tell me when my heart was weighed, if he had really existed.
"You look sad Kem," Peter had a concerned look on his face.
"Every single thing from my past is gone, kinda depressing."
"Maybe you're looking in the wrong place."
"What do you mean?"
"Is this your real home... where you grew up."
I thought for a moment, I had never been back to my village, I had never even thought about it. I knew the area it had been in was now a dangerous place.
I pulled Peter with me into a secluded spot, I still had the position of the village bookmarked in my bracelet for when I had visited my family in the past, I now activated my transport spell.
We were in the desert, the Nile was nowhere to be seen, there was no vegetation or buildings, we were completely alone.
"The river used to be here," I said.
"River's move," Peter replied.
I walked to where I thought my family's house had been, I found nothing, Peter leaned on his crutches and used his good foot to kick the sand away making a small trench.
"Look a foundation," he said.
The two of us soon cleared away the outline of a small building, I couldn't be sure it was my family's house but it looked very familiar.
I thought for a moment then walked over to a specific spot, my secret place, it was where I had hid my things so my siblings wouldn't steal them.
I conjured up a small trowel and used it to dig, I had a hole about a foot deep when I found them, the cloth I had used to wrap them had long ago rotted away but the shells had survived.
I picked them up and showed Peter.
"What are they?"
"They were pretty shells I had collected, I was going to make a necklace out of them."
I felt tears rolling down my cheeks.
Peter put his arm around my shoulders and kissed my cheek.
"We all leave our mark on this world Kem," he said.
I looked at the shells, they were dull now stained by the dirt, I carefully put them back in the hole and covered them up.
I felt better, my past had not completely disappeared, as well the land here was not arable, the ruins of my ancient village would probably not be disturbed for another six thousand years. I could always go home now.