It bolted forward and I felt the boy tighten his arms around my waist. I bent my head down low over the horse's neck and held on for dear life. The sounds of chaos and fighting receded into the distance. Even so, I kept riding, not slowing down until we reached the Temple of Mut.
As we passed the sacred lake, the horse shied at a shadow in front of us. It checked itself and changed directions, veering left toward the temple.
Two more shadows stepped out in front of us, this time causing the horse to rear up and nearly pitch us out of our seat. "Hang on!" I shouted, praying we wouldn't fall and break our necks. Or be trampled by flailing hooves.
But one of the shadowed figures darted forward and grabbed the horse's bridle. As he quieted the horse, the others closed in on us. With a sinking feeling, I recognized the black robes of the wedjadeen.
A dozen more men mounted on horseback poured out of the darkness, encircling us. With a wedjadeen on either side of my horse, they began leading us toward the Temple of Mut.
My mind was a jumble of panic and potential explanations.
As soon as we reached the temple, they pulled the horse behind one of the remaining walls so it wouldn't be seen from the road. Bother. There went my hope of Major Grindle's spotting us on his way back to Luxor.
But wait—he had the detecting device from Dr. Quillings! He would be able to find me.
Comforted by that thought, I looked down at my wrist and switched the knob to the correct position.
After that realization, my spirits rallied and I slipped my hand into my pocket for the Babel stone. I would learn all I could from the wedjadeen before Major Grindle arrived.
One of the men reached up, gently lifted me from the saddle, and placed me on the ground. I recognized Khalfani from our meeting at the Luxor Temple.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him.
"There is great magic afoot tonight."
"And you thought of me?" I was flattered in spite of the events of the evening.
"We thought of our pharaoh," he corrected. "Of his safety."
I should have thought more, weighed the true implications of my next words, but I was overset. "He's been taken," I blurted out.
Khalfani stared back up at the boy on the horse. "Who is this?" he asked.
"Their decoy," I said. "They used him to trick us."
"And who is this they?"
"The Serpents of Chaos."
He frowned at the name, then turned and spoke to the other men in Arabic, before looking back at me. "Who are these serpents?"
"Honestly, what do you do all day? You've never heard of them?"
He glared at me. "I would watch my tongue if I were you."
"Sorry. They are followers of Seth, very interested in getting all the powerful artifacts they can lay their hands on in order to bring chaos fully into the world, then seize power."
He nodded. "The followers of Set, I know." He turned to the boy. "You are tired," he said. "Very sleepy. All that you have experienced, all that you have heard and seen tonight, is but a very bad dream." Then he made a snatching sign at the boy's forehead and snapped his fingers. The boy blinked, then turned and ran.
"See that he gets home safely," Khalfani told one of the others. "You!" he said to the wedjadeen still mounted. "Go back to the temple. Pick up the trail of Set and collect our pharaoh!"
As one, the men wheeled their horses around and galloped back the way we'd come.
Khalfani turned back to me. "And how did they learn of our pharaoh?" His voice was low, almost a purr, but the purr of a panther rather than a cat.
"I don't know," I whispered. "I certainly didn't tell them. They are my sworn enemy."
He studied me a moment longer. "And my enemy's enemy is my friend, yes? You are in luck, young miss. Our high priest wishes to see you. We will save the harder questioning for him."
"Just so you know, I have to be back before morning. My mother has no idea I'm gone."
Khalfani gave me an unreadable look.
"I won't be back before morning, will I?" I asked in a small voice.
"No, young miss. I do not know when you will come back here." He motioned with his arm, and a phalanx of wedjadeen drew in around me and my horse, boxing me in on all sides.
"My mother is not going to be happy about this," I said. "You've no idea how big a fuss she can raise."
Khalfani ignored my threats and offered a few of his own. "If you try to scream or attempt to escape in any way, we will have to tie you up and silence you. We would prefer not to do this, but we will need your word that you will not hinder our progress."
The stark image of Awi Bubu's assistant and his missing tongue filled my head. "I give my word," I said.
A surge of power bumped up against me, probing to see if I was telling the truth. "I gave my word," I said, annoyed.
Khalfani shrugged. "You cannot blame me for needing to test the strength of that word, young miss. Now come. Hashim will control your horse for you."
"Major Grindle will come for me, you know." I said it as much to reassure myself as to warn them.
Hashim exchanged a weighted glance with Khalfani. "The man with you back at the temple?"
"Yes."
Khalfani shook his head, and a sense of deep foreboding filled me. "No, young miss, your major will not be coming for you. By the time the criosphinxes we have awakened are done, there will be nothing left in the temple."
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Qerert Ihy
WE PLODDED ON THROUGH THE NIGHT, the taste of failure bitter on my tongue. I was tired and heart weary and wondered if I would ever see Gadji or Mother or Isis again.
Just when I was certain I would tumble off my horse with fatigue, the wedjadeen turned off the road and headed to a small Roman ruin, just barely visible in the faint light from the setting moon. Khalfani helped me dismount and steered me to a clear spot on the floor. "Wait here," he said.
That was the last thing I remembered before tumbling headlong into an exhausted sleep.
It seemed like only seconds later that voices were calling at me to wake up. I yawned and stretched, wincing at the soreness in my legs. I noticed that someone had put something soft underneath my head and covered me with a blanket of some sort. Touched by this kindness, I blinked the sleep from my eyes and sat up.
"Good morning."
The surprise of hearing Major Grindle's deep voice brought me full awake. "You're not dead!"
"No," he said dryly. "I'm not."
I glanced quickly around, wondering if the others had seen him. "Are you here to save me?" I whispered.
"I'm afraid not." His tone was even drier, and he jerked his arms, which I saw were tied behind him. "Although that was my original plan. But these men are devilishly hard to sneak up on."
"Oh." My heart sank as dreams of being rescued quickly evaporated. "Well, I'm sorry they captured you, but I'm awfully glad you're not dead."
"And I you," he said. He turned his gaze to where the wedjadeen were breaking camp, his eyes hard. "Have they harmed you?"
"No, not really. Aside from a saddle sore or two."
He looked almost disappointed, as if he had been hoping for a bone to pick with them. Although I supposed being kidnapped was bone enough. I scooted closer. "How did you survive the criosphinxes?" I asked.
His head whipped back around to me, his eyes alight with a strange fire. "Saw that, did you?"