It was about noon, the sun riding high in the hot blue-white sky, and it was agreed among the travelers that it was time for a rest--away from the undead bodies on the deck of the ship. They were still discussing whether they wanted to keep the boat, burn it, or sell it.
Sitefnut was in favor of selling the thing, or burning it. But for the moment, as they retreated to a handy copse of trees, her thoughts were on the hyena who padded at her side, his head low. He moved as if he were feeling very old, so much unlike his usual self that she was quite worried about him.
She took a seat a little ways away from the others, her back against a tree. Usi came to her and lay his head on her lower legs. She bent forward and stroked his mane. "You all right?"
Just tired. I'll recover. Ay took much from me.
She raised her eyebrows. "Just your life, or something more?"
He gave his strange shrug, and replied, Memories. He stole memories from me. If not for Mayet, he would have killed me.
Sitefnut froze, and she thought about this. "I suppose it's useless to ask what memories he took. What the hell kind of creature can steal life and memories? And what happens if you die?"
I have no idea what he has become. Powerful, in a word. She could feel his slow breath on her legs. If I die, there is no more Rememberer and no more Chosen. All the hyenas who carry the blood will wither and die.
"Oh, no." Something inside of Sitefnut twisted. She tried to find a name for what she was feeling, and finally put a name to it. Fear. She was afraid--afraid for Usi, afraid of the idea of living without him, afraid of following him into death. Afraid for Mayet, who would die as well. And underneath her fear a slow, vast anger was beginning to burn. Ay had struck out at them both, and she found herself turning over ways she might bring about his demise in her mind. She asked, "Was it your memories he took? Or those of the souls in the collar?"
It is hard to tell. Both, I think. His mental voice was dulled by exhaustion, and she found herself missing the sardonic laughter that was so often directed at her. I imagine he found a way to breach Khafre's shield. Still a mage after all these years.
"Which would explain why he was on the boat. So he hung out here, knowing we would return for Khafre eventually. I am liking this person less and less as time goes on, and I started out not liking him one bit. It's probably only a matter of time until he tries it again."
Every time one of us is alone, he will be there. Waiting.
She sighed. "No more going off by ourselves at this point, likely. I should probably tell the rest that we're being stalked by a scary undead. Not that he seems to care about any of us but you and me, and possibly Mayet. This could go on for a very long time, if he's patient. If he's not so patient, we could all be in grave danger, not just the three of us." She began to scratch underneath Usi's mane, and she saw him shut his eyes--in pleasure, or exhaustion, she could not tell.
He is extremely patient.
"You know that much from experience, eh? It makes sense. Patient and willing to wait a long time for a good opportunity to come by. The man's a leopard."
And we are the gazelles.
"In this case, yes. it seems like he'll play it safe as much as possible. Both an advantage and a disadvantage for us. I have in my head some ideas for ambushing him, but all of them are pretty flawed so far."
Usi opened his eyes again. Talk to the ranger. He might know the answer. He might be even able to identify the creature that Ay has become. We are nearing Heliopolis, the main Temple of Osiris is located there. They can answer some questions.
She nodded. "That's a possibility. He might be able to come up with something better than I can." In the leaf-filtered sunlight, the bracelet on her right wrist caught her eye once more. She ran her thumb across the smooth leather, looking at it as she so often had in the last month. "And then I have another mystery, this one permanently attached to my wrist. Imhotep did excellent work. Maybe too good. Nothing I can do tells me what this is or what it does."
Seems others have an interest in you as well. Now the gods are using you. Sitefnut frowned. She would have expected the edge of a laugh in that statement, but she didn't hear it.
She replied, "Damn gods. Never asked any of them to interfere in my life."
Careful what you say. You are damning yourself, really.
"Hmph. I don't know, I think the gods have better things to do than to listen to what one old lady has to say."
Again that shrug. But she thought she could hear the slow return of his laugh, behind his mental voice, and she was immeasurably cheered. But, you see, you are part of the hyena god, and are you not damning what you yourself are?
She thought about it, and gave him a wry smile. "You possibly have a point. I certainly don't feel like a god, really."
He lifted his head and gave an audible cackle, one that caused the rest to glance over at them briefly. You aren't, that's for sure.
Sitefnut snorted at him, grinning. "All too mortal, that's me."
Yes, but you are gaining power. Lightning is impressive magic. He lay his head back down across her knees. She noticed that it effectively kept her from getting up. Not that she wanted to, but...
She ignored it. "My new favorite spell. Fireball's going to be fun, too. It's no more than any reasonably experienced mage could do. I could be any one of thousands of other mages, if it weren't for the hyena thing."
You could be. But you aren't. Same with the rest of you. You could be average but you aren't.
She shrugged. "I have a feeling I'm not the only one who qualifies for the name Chosen. But I still don't know who chose us, or why." Reaching forward again, she scratched behind his ears, smoothing down the unruly fur there. "The idea of gods being mixed up in this one makes me a bit twitchy, really."
He opened his eyes and looked up at her. I think it safe to say that you can twitch. You don't have to look much farther than your wrist to know that to be true.
She remembered the feeling of the spikes driving into her wrist and nodded. "You know, I was about to say that they're rather rude for not asking, but the thought suddenly occurred to me that they did ask, and we all misinterpreted the question. Ah, well. At this point, I'm rather used to having things happen to me that I can't control."
And how did they ask, really?
"We could have declined to go after the longsword, any of us. We could have left Imhotep's things where they were. I could have chosen to not call a familiar. Perhaps they have asked, and perhaps they keep asking, and perhaps we keep saying yes without knowing that's what we're saying."
Usi shifted so he was stretched out a bit more, taking his head from her legs and rolling so he lay beside her. And perhaps taking those items from the pyramid was another form of saying, yes we are your servants.
"If the artifacts were questions, then our answers were all yes. I wonder what, exactly, we've agreed to in that case? Probably committed ourselves to this fight, but we were already pretty committed to it." She leaned her head back against the tree and said, "Damn, I'm never going to get to leave Egypt, am I?"
The hyena was laughing again, and she smiled. You have been to Morocco. What more can you ask?
"The rest of the world. I have to admit it, I'm greedy for new places. Though we've seen quite a few of them so far." She shifted, her hip bothering her more today than it had for a while. Perhaps it was going to start raining, soon. "That's the problem with magic items. We always forget that there's a price, somewhere in there."
Things like what you got from the pyramid always have a price. Sometimes too high to pay.
"Like your collar carries a price. I don't know what price I'm going to pay for this bracelet, but then I don't even know what it does yet. The Osirean longsword's price is that it calls greater undead."
It keeps calling them. There has to be a way to dampen that effect. I'd start looking, if I were you. "There may be a way to dampen it, or amplify and diffuse it to some extent so it wouldn't reveal our precise location." She paused, thinking. "Like you said, we're near Heliopolis. Perhaps the people at the Osiris temple could help."
Might be worth a look. Otherwise they are going to keep coming. If you could install an on/off switch so that when you were ready for the next one to come, they would and not before. Have you thought about some sort of nondetection spell?
"I did, but that sword is an artifact. They tend to overwhelm any spell that I or one of the priests could cast."
Might work, might not. Worth the effort to find out, though. Usi flicked his ear, brushing away a fly that had landed on it.
Sitefnut brightened, thinking about it. "Very likely. Research and experimentation, my favorite things."
See, there you go. Nothing is as hopeless as it seems. For once, he seemed to be quite sincere.
She smiled at him. "And perhaps whatever Ay is has some convenient weaknesses. I can only hope."
At Ay's name, Usi put his head down on the ground, closing his eyes. She was immediately sorry she had mentioned the undead pharaoh as she felt a wave of hopelessness wash over them both. Slowly, he said, Maybe. He wasn't one to show weaknesses much.
"From the sound of it, he wasn't much of one to show much of anything." Curious, she asked, "How much do you remember now of your time with him?"
Much less than before I think. He is just a vague memory, really. But evidently a vague memory with a lot of sorrow attached to it. She could feel his sadness in her mind, and reached over to him, trying to send her own bright strength into him.
"Yes, you seemed to remember him quite well, last time we spoke of him. It's not a bad bet that was what he was after. Do you remember any of your spells?"
Ear-flick again from Usi. I do, I think.
"So he didn't take that--not entirely, at least." She tried to imagine having someone rummaging through her mind removing her memories, and shuddered. Even the bad memories were her own, and precious because of it.
No, but a lot of time when were joined is gone. That seems to have been his focus.
She stroked his neck, feeling the short, slick fur that lay over his warm hide. She looked at the place where his skin had been burned, and shivered despite the heat. "You obviously knew something that he didn't want us to know. Which almost argues for him not actually intending to kill you--or he thought he might be interrupted at any moment, which is more likely the case."
His tail thumped once. I think he got interrupted. He would have killed me if he could, I think.
"I have a feeling that he wasn't very happy when he found out he was a hyena." She blew an irritated breath out of her nose. "He seems to have taken it personally. Psychotically personally."
His reign as pharaoh was probably much like that.
"My parents told me of his time, I was too young to remember. He was the power behind the throne through the reigns of Akhenaten, when all the gods were abolished, and Tutankhamun, who some think Ay murdered. There was a sad story about Ankhesenamun, Tutankhamun's widow--she sent to the Hittites for a husband after hers died, but the boy they sent died on the way to Thebes. She ended up marrying Ay, her grandfather, when he rose to power. Then Horemheb rose to pharaoh and destroyed all of Ay's monuments--and his tomb. My parents never spoke his name without making a sign against evil." A breeze was stirring, and she folded back her veil to allow it to cool her neck. "Tell, me, Usi. When you saw Ay...what did he look like? What form was he wearing when he touched you?"
He lifted his head and looked into her eyes, catching her gaze with his own intelligent, feral one. Mine. He was wearing my shape.
Sitefnut's skin crawled. To have someone of such evil walking around in your skin... She bowed her head. Quietly, she said, "I'm sorry, Usi."
She felt him silently accept the sentiment, and then they simply sat together in the noonday heat, waiting--for the day to cool, for the night to return.
