A low, rumbling, growl issued forth from the man’s throat. He stepped toward her before she could move. His walking stick swung around, the snake head aimed at her face.
She ducked, then scrambled on her hands and knees through the puddles back toward Dalila and Meri, too terrified to scream. She managed to stand, then ran, skidding once on the wet, oil-slick pavement.
The man seized her with unimaginable strength and lifted her, using only one hand. She sensed he was going to fling her to the ground. She tried to hold on to his back. Her palm slid up his shoulder, through the mass of black hair to the back of his head.
She felt no seam, no break, and where there should have been a dividing point between his body and the headdress, unless the man actually had a dog’s head. She refused to accept what her mind was thinking, what she knew was fact.
The man yanked her forward. When she felt him start to throw her down, she grabbed the snout of his mask. Her hand slipped into his mouth. Her fingers traced over a warm, slippery tongue and teeth, but worse was the carrion stench of his panting breath and the sticky saliva that clung to her skin.
He hurled her to the ground, and she landed hard on her side.
“Don’t let him point the walking stick at you!” Dalila shouted, charging toward her. The red scarf had slipped, revealing her royal birthmark.
Sudi let her head fall back on the pavement. “Right,” she moaned, struggling to get away as the man reached for her again and started to pick her up.
“Stop!” Meri screamed and ran at him. Her feet splashed water into Sudi’s face as she charged the creature.
Sudi jumped up in spite of the pain and dizziness. She struggled forward and caught Meri, pulling her back.
“He’s real,” Sudi said jaggedly. “He’s not a man wearing a costume.”
Meri whipped around, her head bumping into Sudi’s chin, and she stared up at Sudi, her eyes widening and terror-struck.
“He’s the jackal-headed god Anubis,” Dalila explained.
Anubis turned his attention away from Sudi and regarded Dalila, seeming to stare at the birthmark on her scalp. He snarled threateningly.
The three girls eased back, then stood, huddled together, in front of Anubis. Meri’s teeth chattered. Dalila raised the papyrus in front of them. “We’ll call forth the magical protection of the goddess Ipy,” Dalila explained and pointed to a line of hieroglyphs. “The goddess Ipet.”
“Ipy or Ipet?” Meri asked.
“It’s the same goddess,” Dalila answered. “Different names.”
Rain splattered the papyrus, and the colors began to run together.
“Other gods fall down in terror before Anubis,” Dalila said. “But Ipy will stand against Anubis and protect us.”
“How are you going to call a god?” Sudi asked, unable to control the trembling in her knees.
“Medu neter,” Dalila said.
“What?” Meri asked.
“Divine words,” Dalila said and pointed to the hieroglyphs again. “We’ll use the words that our ancestors spoke.” She cleared her throat and began, “Mistress of magical protection, Ipet-weret, the great Ipet, we call you forward.”
Meri spoke the spell with her.
Anubis started toward them again. His yellow eyes focused on Sudi.
Sudi pinched the edge of the scroll and tried to work her tongue around the foreign words. Terror made her speak louder than both Meri and Dalila combined. “Thy hidden name we use,” Sudi said. Her throat and mouth burned as she spoke the secret name of Ra, and then at the end of the incantation she added, “To call forth Ihy.”
Dalila turned, her eyes stricken with horror. “You spoke the wrong name.”
“I said Itchy or Ithy,” Sudi said defensively. “Whatever you said, that’s what I said.”
“No, you didn’t,” Dalila argued. “You said Ihy, not Ipy or Ipet.”
“Are we going to argue about that now?” Meri asked. “Find another spell, and hurry.”
A rattling sound made Sudi look behind her. She saw nothing. Maybe it had only been her nerves, but the short, sharp jangle repeated, and something touched the back of her jeans. She looked down.
A naked boy stood behind her, shaking a sistrum. He waved the wooden handle, and the metal rods slid from side to side, making a tinkling noise. His head had been shaved except for one black lock, and he was sucking his free thumb.
“That’s the god we summoned to protect us?” Sudi asked, dismayed.
“That’s the one you called forth,” Dalila answered. “Not us. That’s the child-god Ihy. His musical instruments make people fall in love. He can’t fight a death god.”
The boy looked up at Sudi with a naughty sparkle in his eyes and rattled his sistrum, before he gazed behind her and saw Anubis. He screamed and ran off, his bare feet smacking against the rain-slick pavement.
Sudi turned as Anubis lifted the walking stick and pointed it at her. She sensed something dreadful building in the air. The rain stopped falling around the tip and slid to the sides as if the power circling it were too dense for even water to penetrate.
“What’s he doing with his walking stick?” Sudi asked.
“It’s not a walking stick,” Dalila corrected. “It’s a magic wand. Ancient Egyptians used wands to command malevolent spirits and demons.”
“Is that what he thinks we are?” Meri asked, clutching Sudi’s arm.
“Of course not,” Dalila answered, her head bent over the soggy scroll, trying to find another spell. “He’s going to use magic to destroy us.”
The earth rumbled, and the pavement cracked. Bricks snapped beneath Sudi’s feet. She lost her balance, and as she started to fall, a deep, steep-sided hole opened in front of her. She remained suspended on the edge, and then the alley tilted and she plummeted into the abyss, her stomach turning from the rapid fall.
Meri and Dalila spun after her, their screams rising along with Sudi’s piercing shriek. Clods of dirt and broken bricks tumbled over them, and then the ground overhead closed, sealing them in the dark chasm.
Soon moist, sticky-cold air gave way to intense heat, and just when Sudi thought she’d pass out, the free fall ended and her feet came down, settling on whitewashed limestone.
She blinked at the sudden brightness, and as her eyes adjusted, she saw shadows scampering about and hiding.
“Where are we?” she asked, her voice echoing around her as if she were in a vast, empty tunnel.
“Surely not under the earth,” Meri said.
“We’re standing at the entrance to—” Dalila started to answer, but before she could finish, another force washed over them, tightening its hold.
They shot forward.
In front of them, two monumental lions were joined back to back, guarding a gateway. The head of one giant statue faced east, the other, west.
“It’s the first hour,” Dalila screamed, and the red scarf that had been tied around her head whipped free.
“What?” Sudi yelled back.
“We passed the gate which swallows all,” Dalila answered, clutching the papyrus close to her body with one hand and trying to grab on to the wall with the other. Her fingers thumped against the next gateway, but the pain didn’t stop her from trying again.
“Where are we?” Sudi repeated her question.
“We passed the entrance to Duat,” Dalila warned. “We’re in the other world.”
“Do you mean hell?” Meri shouted.
“We have to stop whatever is dragging us through the gates,” Dalila said. “Once we pass the last pylon we’ll enter eternity, and we won’t be able to return.”
Sudi flung her hands out and tried to hold on, hoping to catch a ledge, or protruding stone. Her fingernails scraped along the wall, and then the nail bed on her pinkie tore.
Unexpectedly, they stopped again, their feet landing softly on the stone floor.
“What now?” Sudi asked, and braced herself against the wall.
Dalila placed her hand a
gainst Sudi’s mouth and looked around, her eyes alert.
Then Sudi heard the scuffing sound. Something large scraped furtively across the floor, coming toward them.
“What is it?” Meri said in a soft voice.
“Did we pass the seventh gate?” Dalila whispered anxiously. “I should have counted, but I didn’t.”
Sudi and Meri shrugged, and together they stepped away from the wall, Dalila between them, and stopped.
A huge snake slid toward them, leaving a frothy track of scum on either side of its massive body. It slithered forward, eyes filled with a killer’s lust. Sudi couldn’t see an end to its long, cylindrical body. It curled around column after column, seeming to fill the room.
“The fiend of darkness,” Dalila whispered. “It’s the soul-hunting demon, Apep. He’ll take our souls.”
An aura of evil pulsed from the serpent, and Sudi could feel its hatred for her. Even so, she couldn’t pull her eyes away. Its gaze held her spellbound, tugging her forward, entrancing her and inviting her in to its widening mouth.
“Do something,” Meri said. “Find a spell.”
Dalila held up the dripping papyrus and unrolled the mushy scroll. The colors had run together, and the hieroglyphs now looked like blotches in a finger painting.
The giant serpent squirmed closer, its underbelly slipping over the steps with a wet, plopping sound.
Tears filled Sudi’s eyes as all of her dreams fell away; she had never thought she would die so young.
“Don’t cry,” Meri said and pinched Sudi. “You have to help get us out of here. I’m not ready to die. I haven’t even kissed a guy yet, and half my friends back home are seriously discussing birth control.”
Sudi’s head whipped around. “You haven’t been kissed?” she asked, breaking out of her trance. “Never?”
“Would I lie to you, now?” Meri asked.
“A bird can escape,” Dalila said and clasped Sudi’s arm. “I’m sure that’s what my uncle told me. A bird can fly out of Duat, because it can rise above Apep. Turn into the Bennu-bird, and you’ll have the strength to carry us out.”
“Fly out of here?” Sudi asked. “How? We’re sealed underground.”
“Just try,” Meri pleaded.
Apep roared as if it understood what Sudi was about to do. It pulled its head back, ready to strike.
Sudi spoke the incantation three times and began flapping her arms, as feathers sprouted through her skin. Soon, huge, graceful wings stirred the air, but she didn’t fly. She needed the help of the wind.
Dalila seemed to understand and began spinning. She raised one hand above her head, leaving the other down, and continued circling. “The breath of the gods, comforting and warm,” Dalila spoke. “Bring your gift to lift Sudi’s wings.”
Suddenly, a breeze fluttered, following the direction of Dalila’s dance. Meri joined her, clumsily at first, and then with grace, and they twirled together.
The wind lifted Sudi’s wings. Dalila and Meri ran after her and grabbed on to her tail feathers, but Sudi didn’t feel pain the way she had when her sister Nicole had stepped on her wing. She felt strong.
“Neteri kua. I am strong,” she chirped.
Apep struck, but missed, then pulled back to strike again, and bellowed when Sudi soared away.
Sudi glided through the gateway, the tailwinds pushing her forward. She flew past the lion statues and then ascended with incredible speed, blindly flapping her wings.
Without warning, they burst through into the muggy night, landing back in Washington, D.C., on the steps of the FBI building.
Sudi moaned, a girl again, but racked with pain, unable to move. She lay on the concrete, smelling the rain and staring up at the night, watching the ragged low clouds skating across the sky beneath the larger and darker thunderheads.
“They probably caught all that on closed-circuit TV,” Sudi said. “But I’d rather face an FBI agent than that snake.”
“At least it wasn’t a giant insect. I would have died,” Meri exclaimed. “I hate bugs more than anything in the world.”
Dalila sighed. “This is worse than I ever could have imagined,” she said solemnly. “I probably won’t even live long enough to become a bride.”
“But we’re okay right now,” Meri said, sitting up.
“Because Dalila saved us with her dance,” Sudi said. “How did you do that?”
“It’s simple,” Dalila explained. “All natural phenomena are manifestations of the divine, and if you concentrate hard enough, and the gods bless you for your devotion, the wind will come to you.”
“Dalila, you’re the perfect Descendant,” Sudi said, slowly pulling herself up. “But I don’t think I have a chance. It’s not like the Book of Thoth makes us invincible and calling forth the protection of an ancient god is hard.”
“I know,” Dalila agreed sadly. “Egyptians worshipped hundreds of deities, and a slip of the tongue can summon the wrong one, as we found out when we called forth the child-god Ihy, instead of the protector goddess Ipy.”
“You also called her Ipet-weret,” Meri said. “Why did you use the other name?”
“That’s just one more problem,” Dalila explained “Even the names of the gods are confusing, because they have the Greek name, the Egyptian name, and the Roman name, and probably names I don’t even know, because some were worshipped in Mesopotamia.”
Dalila became silent, staring down at the scrapes and cuts on her right hand. The bruised knuckles were swelling.
“What is it?” Sudi asked with renewed apprehension.
“I was thinking about the jackal-headed god,” she said. “Anubis was once the most important Egyptian funerary god. That is, until his cult was taken over by the priests devoted to Osiris; but some of the priests who served Anubis didn’t want to lose their power, so they desecrated the temple and used Anubis and the Book of Gates in unholy ways to call forth demons and resurrect the dead.”
“Did your uncle tell you that?” Meri asked.
“Many times,” Dalila replied, “but until now I thought it was only part of mythology, not history.”
Sudi edged closer to Dalila and put her hand on her shoulder, sensing that fear was making Dalila hold back something important. “What else did your uncle tell you?”
For a long time Dalila stared at the leaves skittering across the street, and then she spoke. “The Cult of Anubis wants to return the universe to the chaos from which it came, and now they worship the ancient god Seth.” She looked from Sudi to Meri and back to Sudi again. “I don’t see how we can survive.”
“We’ll spend the night together at my house,” Sudi said firmly. “Then, tomorrow, we’ll find Abdel and tell him we want out.”
“You’ve got to see this,” Dalila yelled the next morning as Sudi entered the bedroom, carefully balancing three cups of hot cocoa on a tray.
Meri and Dalila were already dressed in clothes they had borrowed from Sudi’s closet. They stood at her window, watching Pie. The old yellow tomcat stretched in the sunlight, his back paws on the windowsill, forepaws wrapped around the lock.
“Pie thinks you’ve been careless,” Meri said. “You need to lock your window at night, because evil things have been hanging out in your backyard.”
Sudi set the tray down and grabbed Pie, rolling him into a ball and rubbing her nose against his. “Are you part of the feline underground?” she joked.
Pie looked at her with a slight nod of his head, and for the briefest moment Sudi felt that her pet had understood her. She set him down on the floor, and just when she decided that she had only imagined him nodding, Patty Pie meowed.
Meri took her cup of cocoa and poked at the marshmallow with her finger, watching Pie. “He says the cherry-vanilla ice cream you’ve been feeding him is too sweet and he wants you to buy chocolate next time.”
Sudi paused. “You really are communicating with Pie,” she said in wonder.
Meri nodded.
Dalila glanced at her w
atch. “We’d better get going.”
The girls finished their cocoa, and then they headed downstairs, stealing past the kitchen. Sudi glanced into the room. Nicole was crushing potato chips between two slices of white bread covered with globs of mayonnaise. Their mother stood next to Nicole, staring out the kitchen window and drinking her morning coffee.
Sudi hurried outside and didn’t turn back when her mother called after her. She was determined to end whatever it was that Abdel had started.
Six blocks later, Dalila, Meri, and Sudi stood on a cobblestone street in Georgetown, staring up through red maple leaves at a yellow row house.
“This is where my uncle brought me,” Dalila said. “He told me Abdel belonged to a secret society called the Hour priests. I had never seen my uncle so excited to meet anyone before, and he’s met a lot of famous people.”
Sudi walked up the iron steps, the metal clanging beneath her boots, and knocked on the door.
Abdel opened it.
“You’re here,” he whispered, seeming surprised. “I’ve been trying to find all three of you.”
“We want out,” Sudi said, barging inside. She turned to face him. “You need to find someone more mature, someone with military training. Maybe the whole U.S. Marine Corps!”
“No way are we doing this,” Meri added, joining Sudi.
Dalila shut the door behind her. “How can I fight demons?” she demanded. “I don’t even know how to ride the Metro.”
“There’s nothing I can do to change your fate,” Abdel answered calmly.
“It’s never too late,” Meri said. “Besides, you had the responsibility to explain everything to us and you failed.”
“You failed big-time,” Sudi added.
“I’m probably not the best priest to advise you in this battle,” Abdel confessed, “but I am the only one you have.”
“Battle?” Dalila looked suddenly pale. “I learned the proper way to bow to kings,” she went on in a thin voice. “I know how to receive diplomats, but I never learned how to fight.”
“Please,” Sudi said. Her throat burned as anger rose to cover her feelings of helplessness. Her sisters were probably the ones he wanted anyway, but she definitely wasn’t going to mention that and put the twins in danger. They were too careless as it was.