With the flourish of her hand, she summoned a dozen or so of the wailing multitude who stood on the sidelines. Their cries of protests intensified as they compulsively marched forward clearly against their will. When the mass of ghostly forms drew near, they trembled, and though the chosen one fought against her power, he finally wrenched his face toward her and bowed his head.
“Eat,” she commanded.
Eat? I thought she was the one doing the eating. What’s going on? I wondered. It was only then I noticed that each ghost held a gleaming orb in their hands—their hearts.
The specter shook violently and then screamed as if his entire body were being ripped apart. His mouth opened wider and wider, and when it hung, gaping loosely enough that he could have swallowed a suckling pig whole, his eyes changed from frightened to feral. The ghost swallowed his own heart, then jumped on the ghost nearest him and bit into his ethereal form.
The second ghost wailed miserably, and it wasn’t long before he was entirely consumed; then he ate the next, each one scrambling over each other to escape the horror.
I stood there like I was trapped on a haunted house ride that I had no control over and no way to escape from. I wanted to put my hands over my eyes and scream until the nightmarish scene was done, but I also needed to know exactly what the Devourer could do so we could find a way to defeat her.
Horrified, I pushed my fear into a tiny part inside me. In the same way that my emotions regarding Amon were suppressed, my feelings about what was taking place were ignored. I wasn’t in charge. Tia wasn’t in charge. The sphinx was in control, and she wanted to witness this.
When only one shade remained, he stood in place, engorged and trembling. The menacing gleam in his eyes dimmed to fear once again, fat tears dripping down his face as he coughed and spat, trying to rid himself of the glut he’d ingested.
“There, there,” the Devourer said with the cluck of her tongue. “It’s almost over, Luscious. Let’s put an end to your suffering, shall we?” She held out her hand in a gesture that approximated warmth, but a chilling menace clearly lay beneath it.
The ghost fell back in a panic, scrambling toward the invisible wall and attempting to claw his way up the side. While he did so, the evil queen’s mouth fell open, and though it didn’t unhinge as far as the specter’s had, it still appeared unnaturally wide. Green light flowed from her toward him, folding over him like an arctic fog over an iceberg.
She reached out and took hold, wrapping the shuddering soul of the man tightly in her arms, molding his essence to hers. Her caress was almost tender—that is, until her hair rose around their forms and the barbs shot into the ghostly being, finding painful purchase. The wraith shrieked with the sound of a thousand braking trains, and it was almost a relief when the ghost began to lose cohesion before she sucked him up completely and the grating noise ceased.
Turning to us, she licked her lips, using her finger to tuck the little fluttery ribbons of gray that hung from them into her mouth. “Mmm,” she said as her calculating eyes looked us over, her lips stained as crimson as heartbreak. “Delicious.” Delicately, she smoothed the ruffled creatures hanging on her cape. “Now then, where were we?” she asked. “Ah, yes. Come here, little one. Put your trust in my shadow and I will devour you.”
“Lily!” Amon cried. “Wake up!”
“What?” I looked in his direction, confused, but then my attention was once again riveted on the Devourer, who was creeping closer. That she could move as indiscernibly as a vampire was unsettling.
“Wake up, Lily!” Amon shouted again.
Wake up? I echoed in my mind, my brain foggy.
“Wake! Up!”
I fainted instead.
“Wake up, Lily!” a different voice cried.
I opened my eyes to find a concerned Asten and Ahmose hovering over me. The fire had turned to embers. “What…what happened?” I asked.
“We couldn’t wake you,” Ahmose said.
“You were crying out in your sleep,” Asten added.
Nodding, I sat up and took each brother’s hand in mine. “I have some terrible news.”
“What is it?” Asten asked as he helped me rise. He didn’t let go, even after I was standing, which I found both distressing and comforting.
“Amon’s been captured by the Devourer. She’s…she’s torturing him.”
Ahmose took the announcement in stride, nodding, as if he’d expected as much. “We’ve felt it. She cannot kill him, Lily. At least not until his energy along with ours is fully drained.”
“Yes,” Asten echoed. “There’s still time. We can save him.”
I looked from one to the other. “You already knew this?”
Uncomfortably, Ahmose met my eyes. “From the moment we arrived in the netherworld,” he said.
“You feel his pain. Just like when his eyes were removed.”
“It’s bearable,” Asten said. “Dividing the pain between the three of us diminishes his.”
“But…the wounds on his back.” Quickly, I let go of Asten’s hand and moved behind him. Before he could protest, I lifted his tunic to ascertain the damage. Dried blood and welts covered the smooth golden skin like someone had used his flesh to sharpen their scissors. The sight of it caused me as much anguish as when I’d seen Amon abused. The Devourer would pay for what she’d done.
“But I felt his wounds, too. Why aren’t mine as severe as yours?” I demanded.
Ahmose sighed uneasily. “The three of us have been shielding you. And Amon uses the Eye of Horus to protect you from the worst of it. As he weakens, you may begin to feel the effects. Disorientation comes first and will be followed by physical pain in increasing degrees, the result of which may even lead to your death. This we cannot allow. For you to die a first death in the netherworld would mean you would be permanently trapped here.”
“What do you mean by ‘first death’?”
“Those who come to the netherworld, with the exception of yourself, have all died either as mortals or as an immortal whose power was ripped away. When we encounter these beings, Ahmose and I have the power to dispatch them, offering them a second and permanent death, one that sends their essence to a place even we have no stories of.”
“Maybe back to the Waters of Chaos?” I suggested. “Amun-Ra told me a bit about it.”
Asten cocked his head. “The gods have not seen fit to share everything with us. Apparently you know more than we do.”
“I’m not saying we all go there. He just talked about energy returning when…” I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter now. What’s important at this moment is that you let me share the load—”
Raising his hand, he cut me off. “We are immortals, Lily. We can bear the pain more easily. Just as we are not as sensitive to touch, we are not as sensitive to pain. For you, a mortal, to bear it”—he shook his head—“it would debilitate you.”
“But I’m a sphinx now. I can handle it. There are worse things than pain.”
“That is true, but you need to understand, Lily, that your bond with Amon is much more powerful than ours. You sustain him. We need to keep you strong, if not to shield you, then to aid him. You must allow us to protect you in this way,” he finished.
Gently, I settled Asten’s shirt and turned to Ahmose. His lips were in a thin line as he bobbed his head to acknowledge my unspoken question.
“We’ll be all right, Lily,” Asten said as he took my hand again, squeezing it in reassurance. “The injuries of the body are temporary. It is the draining of Amon’s life energies that is the more serious concern. We just need to rescue him before more damage is done.”
I nodded, then suddenly realized that my hand was clasped in Asten’s and that he was absentmindedly rubbing his thumb in little circles over the flesh between my thumb and forefinger. When I looked up at him, he let go and turned away, a flush creeping up his neck. I frowned and decided to ignore the tingle on my skin where he had touched me.
For the first time sin
ce Amon and I were separated, I wished the brothers were mortal again so they could bond with me as well and take some of my energy. Becoming a sphinx and wearing the Stela of Horus seemed to have invigorated me with energy to spare. Even though I hadn’t slept, my body was strong enough to run for hours. I’d willingly give up some of my strength so they could heal.
But for now, there was nothing I could do—at least, nothing I knew of—so I decided that the best course of action was to work on saving Amon. “There’s more I haven’t told you,” I murmured. “The Devourer knows that I’m here. If Amon hadn’t warned me to wake up…” I paused. “It just felt like she might’ve had the power to do something to me, even in a waking dream.”
“Is it possible, Asten?” Ahmose asked. “Can her dream connection be that powerful?”
Blowing out a breath, Asten rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. There’s no precedent. The only link similar to this is between Isis and Osiris. And that bond is strong, even in dreams. It enables them to communicate across vast distances. But neither of them has ever come face to face with the Devourer or entered the netherworld, that I am aware of. We just don’t have enough information to safely guess.”
Ahmose grunted. “Then we’ll just have to assume the worst and hope for the best.”
Glancing over my head, Ahmose frowned slightly to Asten, then raised an eyebrow.
“I can’t,” Asten said. “Don’t ask it of me.”
Turning to him, I asked, “You can’t what?”
He sighed, looking to his brother for help, but Ahmose just folded his arms across his chest and stared Asten down.
Finally, he answered my question. “It is possible for me to monitor your dreams.”
“That seems like a good solution. So you could help me fight the Devourer when I see her again?”
“No. That’s not how it works. You can’t fight the Devourer in your dreams, not truly.”
“It felt like I could.”
“Well, you can’t. Or, at least, you shouldn’t. The dream world is full of vague possibilities and hints of what could be, but it’s also colored by what we want. And sometimes, when it learns what we desire most, it snatches that very thing away from us. It’s a tricky business, and one should never trust while in one’s dreams. Time and time again I’ve seen people get lost, never to reenter the waking world.
“Even I, who has been gifted the power over dreams, have been susceptible to it. Keep in mind that even assuming it is possible to defeat the Devourer while in a dream state doesn’t mean it would happen in reality. And with your connection to Amon, all you might accomplish is tipping her off to your strengths and fighting skills. Already she might have been able to access your true whereabouts by following your dream self back to our camp.”
“Which means we should be departing this place soon,” Ahmose said.
“Yes. We should,” Asten answered, and made like he was ready to leave.
“Hold on a moment,” I said, placing my hand on his arm to stop him. “None of that explains why you wouldn’t want to help me.” Asten glanced down at my hand and then slowly, shakily, placed his on top. When his eyes met mine, I saw hidden secrets and sorrow in their depths. Curious, I instinctively triggered my power to discover the truth, but before I could work the magic, he broke our connection.
His fingertip tucked under my chin, tilting my face to look up at him. “Don’t,” he said plainly. “I know you want answers but, please, I ask you not to probe further. Not about this.”
The pain that filled his eyes moved me in such a way that I nodded, ashamed I’d tried to see what he clearly didn’t want to share. I lowered my head, tears filling my eyes.
His warm voice stole quietly across the space between us, and though his words were simple, I knew there were layers of things left unsaid seeded between each word. “Please, don’t cry. I’m sorry, Lily.”
There was something about the way he drew out my name. It made me feel uneasy and hopeful and alert all at the same time. Something was happening. I became confused, but my sensitivity was heightened. My heart leapt in a staccato rhythm, and a discernible hitch in my breathing was echoed in his. At the same time, anguish swelled between us, spilling over and drowning the emotions like milk poured into a glass too full.
Asten blinked and shifted, breaking eye contact. Without a word, he turned away and headed off, leaving me and Ahmose alone, the trail of his footprints the only thing left to mark his path.
“What’s wrong with him?” I asked Ahmose as I wiped away an errant tear. I should have probably asked myself the same question. When I’d looked at Asten just now, I’d felt something, and it was much more than the affection for a brother.
Am I going crazy? I asked Tia. Do you think I’m starting to fall for Asten, too?
There was a long moment before Tia answered. Asten is a worthy choice. Is he not?
Yes. But that’s not the point.
Do you blame him for his past errors?
No.
I wanted her to tell me that some strange sphinx thing was guiding my actions, that I wasn’t being disloyal to the man I loved. The man I wanted. The man I was here to save.
She knew what I needed to hear, but instead said something that made the blood freeze in my veins and my heart sink with sorrow.
Feelings can change.
With that cryptic response, Tia stopped talking. It was the first time I suspected that Tia was hiding something from me. I didn’t like the feeling. Not one bit. Having someone else in your mind was bad enough without suspecting them of sabotaging your thoughts or manipulating your emotions.
Shaking me slightly, Ahmose brought me out of the world inside my head. “What’s wrong, Lily?” he asked.
What isn’t wrong? I thought.
“What isn’t Asten telling me?” I asked. “About the dreams, I mean.”
“Connecting to another’s dreams is a very…intimate experience,” Ahmose said, placing his hand on my back to guide me in the direction of Asten’s tracks. “Your thoughts and desires will become clear to him, and his to you. I would imagine it’s not unlike your relationship with Tia.”
Great. It was bad enough to have a lioness with me. How would it feel trying to separate the thoughts, feelings, and dreams of three different individuals? I realized in that moment how susceptible I was to losing my identity and becoming lost, not only to Tia but also to the persona of the sphinx. If I ever got out of this, I was going to need some serious therapy.
“How would connecting to Asten like that help me, then?”
“Asten’s presence would effectively replace Amon’s. Instead of going to his dream world, you’d be entering Asten’s.”
“I see,” I said, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable with the idea of sharing dreams with Asten.
“Is Asten concerned about sharing my thoughts on such a level?”
His silver eyes met mine. “I’d say he’s more worried about you knowing him,” Ahmose answered softly.
That was something I wasn’t concerned about at all. If I had one talent of my very own, something that was purely Lily and not something I’d acquired in becoming a sphinx, it was that I was an excellent judge of character.
“Ahmose?” I bit my lip.
“Yes?”
“Are you upset with Asten for not telling you who he really was?” I asked.
Shrugging slightly, Ahmose answered, “Asten has always been my brother. The other one, the queen’s birth son, was never a part of my life. The circumstances of Asten’s birth do not matter to me in the slightest.”
“But what about the part where he seduced the girl you liked? What was her name?”
“Tiombe,” Ahmose said with a catch in his voice.
“Yes. You…you’ve forgiven him, haven’t you?”
Ahmose sighed. “In truth, I forgave him decades ago. I never told him as much. I let him suffer, thinking I still resented his involvement, but had I known how much pain he was holding on to…
well, let’s just say I regret not offering my forgiveness earlier. I’ve had a long time to think about what happened. If I’d had more time, I would have discovered Tiombe’s true nature eventually on my own. That it was quickly revealed when Asten pursued her made the parting that much easier. At the time, I thought I’d never speak to him again. But even then I could tell that Asten wasn’t doing it to hurt me. He thought he was helping.”
“So you don’t blame him, then? Not for any of the things he confessed?”
“All of us have secrets, Lily. That his were made public doesn’t diminish my opinion of him. I know and love my brother. Also, knowing that Anubis was aware about all of it and still granted him power makes Asten even more exceptional in my eyes. What saddens me is that he didn’t think he could tell us. After our first deaths, our positions as princes were no longer of import.”
“Maybe he didn’t want you to think less of him.”
“We could have shared his burden. Asten has allowed his mistakes to weary his heart, and he fears our affection for him will shift as easily as the sand. Amon and I are made of more solid stuff.”
I nodded, agreeing with him, and then asked, “If you know he’s a good man and I know he’s a good man, then why was his heart banished?”
“That’s a very good question. I suspect it has less to do with Asten’s choices in mortality and more with the need to send us here. It’s a subject I plan to take up with the gods in earnest once we return.”
We navigated around a large hill to a wide plain. Asten stood peering across it. Though he didn’t turn to acknowledge our presence, he addressed us the moment we came up behind him. “It’s the Field of Fears.”
“Begone!” a wheezing voice said. A little hunchbacked man peeked out from behind a large rock. Blistering bubbles stood out on his nose and arms. One of them popped, oozing yellow pus. I noticed a screeching monkey on his back that held a gleaming orb similar to Asten’s heart.