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Kemamonit

Copyright © 2011 Paul Edwards

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### Kemamonit

### Chapter one

"God this is hot," Professor Smith thought as he took a long drink from his water bottle. He surveyed the empty desert before him, all he saw was sand and the odd outcrop of rock and boulders.

He turned around and watched the Egyptian laborers hauling up dirt and rubble from a large trench.

"Publish or don't come back. Publish what? A thesis on mummified cats," he thought about his recent meeting with the Minister of Antiquities. The meeting had not gone well, the Minister had found out about the small bits of pottery he had unearthed at his dig last season.

The pottery shards had not seemed very important at the time until one of his eager students had noticed the partial seal of Pharaoh Khufu on one of them.

"If only the stupid shit had kept his mouth shut," a bolt of anger shot through him.

That was all that had turned up at the dig, that and a pile of mummified cats.

"If I wrote a paper on a pottery shard I'd be a laughingstock," he thought," I didn't become an archaeologist to waste my time with minutia nobody gives shit about."

The professor thought about his favorite movie as a child, the main character a swashbuckling archaeologist had inspired him to become what he was now.

He had not been naïve enough to think that his career would mirror the films main character, but he had been shocked to find out just how uninspired his peers would be.

"No sense of adventure, just want to argue about minutia, whole careers wasted writing about nothing," he thought.

He had tried to hide the pottery shards by miscataloging them when he prepared them for shipment to Cairo. Unfortunately one of his students had gotten drunk and blabbed about what they had found when they had returned to the city.

The Minister had rewarded him by sending him to a new dig site in the middle of the desert. It was miles from any known ancient settlements.

"It looks good from orbit," the Minister had said showing him a satellite photo.

The photo had shown a bunch of random lines etched into the desert. The professor was pretty sure that if there were anything to find here this would have been the last place he would've been sent.

"I'll do my penance," he thought.

He walked back to the large trench the laborers had cleared out, he saw his foreman Mohammad talking to one his student volunteers a few feet away. Mohammad knew more about ancient Egyptian archaeology then anyone he had ever met.

"If he had had the same opportunities as me, he could have been anything," the professor thought to himself.

"Find anything interesting?"

"Good sand easy to dig, the Minister will be quite happy with our fine hole, inshallah. "

"He's probably looking at the satellite photos as we speak. You haven't found the tip of a pyramid yet have you?"

Mohammad laughed.

So far they had found absolutely nothing, not even the usual cigarette butts and garbage that turned up in most sites. The ground gave every indication of having never been inhabited in any era.

"Lets shut it down for the day, no sense killing ourselves for nothing," the Professor told Mohammad.

"Ok Charlie," Mohammad replied.

The group sat around the cooking fire drinking bottled beer and eating their meal of canned food. The beer was still cold since this was their first day digging and the ice they had packed it in hadn't melted completely.

Charlie didn't usually bring alcohol on digs, he new from experience that it caused more problems then it solved. He also tried to be sensitive to the laws and customs of the countries he was working in, alcohol was tolerated in Egypt but being a Muslim country it was frowned upon.

"We're not gonna find anything anyway, so who cares if we're half cut," he had said to Mohammad when they were loading the vehicles.

"The Egyptian gods would be pleased, but you disappoint the prophet," he had replied in his enigmatic way.

Charlie had always thought it must be difficult to be Egyptian, following a foreign religion while being surrounded by the ruins of their own spectacular heritage.

"So professor what are we looking for here?" this from an eager young female student who had never been on a dig before.

"I'm personally looking for redemption, but failing that there is a small chance of finding some remnants of the battles between ancient Egypt and Libya."

"Do you think we'll find skeletons?" The eager student had an excited look on her face.

Charlie envied her, he had been like her once. He would wake up early in the morning with the hope of finding something new and spectacular, and never be disappointed when nothing was found.

He had found many interesting things and had started to get a small inkling of what humanity must have been like in ancient times. He had even had epiphanies when he had discovered things that still influenced people to this day.

He had never found anything spectacular though, and as he had gotten older he started to realize that he was becoming much the same as the archaeologists he had disliked in his youth.

He now knew that archaeology was a collective effort and that every small discovery was important in the whole scheme of things, but that had not been the reason he had picked this career.

"Shelly isn't it?"

"Yes," she replied.

"Well Shelly I don't know what we'll find, but you have a good attitude. If in a few years you're wondering whether to do this for a career, remember how you feel right now, that's why we do it."

Shelly blushed and smiled an embarrassed smile.

The group chatted some more for an hour or so before they crawled into their tents and went to sleep.

Charlie stayed, staring at the embers of the dying fire for another hour while drinking more beer.

He lay down on the sand and stared upwards at the stars with a beer bottle balanced on his chest. It was a moonless night and the stars were exceptionally bright, for an instant he felt as if he was an ancient person oblivious to the knowledge of modern man.

"They are so profound, no wonder they have influenced us since the dawn of mankind," he thought.

Charlie stood up and put the empty bottle back into the beer cooler, he then walked to his tent crawled in and went to sleep.

Charlie woke up to the sound of yelling, he had a mild hangover and was a bit disoriented.

He listened closely trying to discern what was being said, he heard Mohammad's voice talking hurriedly in Arabic. He spoke Arabic very badly so he was only able to discern the gist of what was being said.

"Get the professor! Get the professor!" is what he heard.

Mohammad never called him professor, Mohammad never sounded excited either for that matter.

"God I hope its not bandits," he thought as he searched for his ancient revolver.

"I don't even have bullets."

He had never fired the gun, it was a navy colt from the American civil war, and he had found that he was able to get it past most countries customs inspectors as a collector's item because of its age.

It used paper cartridges, which he had never gotten around to purchasing.

"Don't even know if they still make them," he thought as he found the guns decorative box under a pile of books.

He pulled the gun out of the box as he heard his tent flap being pulled open. He turned and saw Mohammad's head sticking inside.

Mohammad looked at the revolver in his hand and started grinning.

"You will cause the bandits to laugh themselves to death," he said.

"Hey, I can't get an AK through customs. Is it bandits?"

"Bandits? Here? No one comes here its just sand and us."

"What's with all the yelling then?"

"We have found something professor, something marvelous."

Charlie put the revolver back into its box and piled the books back on top. He stood up and pulled his boots on. He noticed his hands were shaking visibly.

"What is it? A settlement?"

"You'll see, hurry up."

Charlie followed Mohammad as he walked back to the trench, he noticed the whole crew was standing around the far edge talking excitedly and pointing to a particular spot in the trench.

When he got closer was able to see what they were pointing at, it was the edge of a large granite block jutting out from the side of the trench. It was about two feet below ground level.

Mohammad pushed his way through the crowd and jumped into the trench, Charlie followed him.

"It looks like an entire building buried in the sand, this is a top corner." Mohammad said.

Charlie examined the granite block closely running his hand over the surface.

"The carving is exquisite, I can't feel any tool marks," Charlie said.

"We dug around the perimeter, It's about twenty feet square."

"What period do you think? Amarna?"

"I have never seen carving like this, look at the top corner it's perfectly square." Mohammad touched his index finger to the corner and turned it to show Charlie. There was a drop of blood on it.

"It's not some kind of modern secret military bunker or something?" Charlie asked.

Mohammad looked at Charlie with an odd expression on his face, "Only if it's Israeli or Libyan, there is no way we would be digging here if there was an Egyptian military anything within a hundred miles."

"The sand is very loose so we should be able to clear it in a day or so." Charlie turned to the watching crowd, "let's be careful, we don't know what it is so follow the rules."

Mohammad turned and addressed the workers.

"Ok, we'll break into teams and work from each corner, Charlie and I will clear off the top," He started organizing the teams as Charlie walked back to his tent to get his digging tools.

Everyone worked in a frenzied silence to clear the building. The excitement was almost palatable. The sand was loose and easy to move and now with a specific goal in mind the crew moved with a singular purpose. They did not even break when the Egyptian sun reached its zenith baking everyone with its brutal heat.

The building was finally completely exposed as the sun started to set on the horizon.

Charlie stared at the monolithic block of granite, Mohammad had broken out the electric spot lights and the small diesel generator. The lights seemed to make the building look even darker.

"It's a solid block of granite, unbelievable," Charlie said as much to himself as to Mohammad.

"There is no foundation, it's just sitting on the sand, we probed underneath," Mohammad replied.

"How did they move it? Why a solid block? It makes no sense."

"Professor! Professor! Over here, there's Hieroglyphs!"

Charlie turned and saw an excited Shelly waving and pointing to a spot on the building.

"I'll bet she's going to be an archaeologist after this," he thought as he looked at her face flushed bright red with excitement.

Charlie walked over to were Shelly was pointing, the electric lights had highlighted the hieroglyphs.

"Why didn't we see these before?" he thought.

When he examined them more closely he understood, they weren't carved, they were inlaid with a slightly different kind of granite.

Charlie looked even closer with a magnifying glass and a flashlight and then gasped. The inlay was perfect, it was as if someone had somehow changed the colour and texture of the rock rather then inlay a different stone.

"It's Hieratic, that's odd," Mohammad said over his shoulder.

"The writing looks almost pre-dynastic too. I've also never seen anything carved this well before the fourth or fifth dynasties. Do you think it's fake?"

"I've never seen anything carved this well period. If it is fake it must have cost someone a fortune, this is not Egyptian granite," Mohammad said.

Charlie stood back and tried to read the message, it was hard to see clearly because of the shadows cast by the electric lights, it looked like instructions of some sort. He was able to make out what looked like a name in the body of the text, Kemamonit.

"Let's get some sleep, it's too dark for now" Charlie said

The lights surrounding the block dimmed to a small glow as Mohammad shut off the electric generator.

Charlie walked back to his tent crawled in and fell into an exhausted sleep the second his head hit the pillow.

### Chapter two

Professor Smith woke up with a start, his sleep had been filled with vivid dreams of Egyptian gods and pharaohs fighting epic battles complete with lightning bolts and violent windstorms.

He could see the sun coming over the horizon through the flaps in his tent. He shook out his boots before putting them on then grabbed the case with his digital camera in it and walked back towards the monument.

The morning light illuminated the large dark granite block, it looked like it was glowing in a dark almost radioactive shimmer.

He could see the hieroglyphs clearly now and noticed that the rest of the block was almost completely devoid of decoration other then some inlaid lines trimming the edge of each face.

Charlie set up the tripod for the camera and then placed the digital camera on top of it. He pointed it at the hieroglyphic script and snapped a picture.

He stood up from behind the camera and noticed Mohammad walking towards him with two cups of coffee in his hands.

Mohammad handed him a cup.

"Have you translated it yet?"

"No, I wanted to get a few pictures and take it back to my laptop. This is old Hieratic so it may have some subtle differences," Charlie said.

Mohammad looked at the text, Charlie could see his lips moving as he sounded out the writing in his mind.

"It's odd all right, there aren't any titles or salutations."

Charlie looked at the text himself and read it for himself, "So much for the laptop," he thought to himself.

He was beginning to understand what Howard Carter must have felt when he discovered Tutankhamen's tomb.

Pepi was a young boy who played with his toys in the sand near his parent's home. One day while mighty Ra was high in the sky Kemamonit appeared before Pepi scaring him and making him stand up.

"Pepi I have a duty for you to perform," Kemamonit said is a soft voice. She gave Pepi a wooden box covered in magical writings.

"What? Oh great magician."

"Before the call from your mother for your next meal you must listen for my name. If you hear it spoken three times by the wind you must move the lever on the magic box. That is all you must do. I will reward you with a measure of honey flavored with dark spice"

Kemamonit disappeared in a flash of light.

Pepi held the powerful box fearful but determined and listened carefully.

"Pepi it's time to eat!" He heard his mother call.

Pepi dropped the box in the desert sand and ran to his mother.

"That makes no sense," Charlie said.

"Dark spice? Is that right? I've never seen that description before. Kemamonit is a woman's name too isn't it?"

"What's it say?"

Charlie turned and looked at an excited Shelley standing next to him. She had large dark circles under her eyes.

Mohammad read out the text out loud to Shelley.

"Your translation is basically the same as mine, but it still doesn't make any sense, "Charlie said.

"It's like a parable but without the punch line," Shelley said.

"It's not written like a spell, but that's the impression I get," said Mohammad.

"She was a wizard then?' Shelley asked.

"I don't know," Charlie replied, "let's get the cameras out and document the whole thing, we might have missed something."

The whole crew soon joined them after eating their breakfasts. The entire block was painstakingly dusted off and photographed. Charlie and Mohammad examined each digital photograph looking for anything that looked like writing.

They used software to enhance the photographs in different frequencies of light to see if anything was carefully hidden. They found nothing, not even graffiti, the only markings were Kemamonit's poem and the simple line decorations.

Charlie looked up from his laptop as a worker entered the crude shelter they had built to examine artefacts. It was basically a tarp held up with four poles sheltering a decrepit table surrounded by chairs.

"Here are the measurements professor," the worker handed him a small piece of paper.

Charlie studied the numbers written on the paper.

"These are approximations?"

"No it is perfectly square, to a fraction of a millimeter, we can't measure it anymore accurately unless we get better equipment."

The block measured six meters twelve point three eight centimeters square.

"How is this possible? They had good stone masons back then but this is something a mason would have a tough time doing today."

"There's more professor, we used a pen laser to see if there were any protrusions, there aren't its perfectly flat."

"So it's modern then, a hoax," Mohammad said.

"It must be I guess," the professor looked at his watch, it was almost noon.

"Get the professor!!" he heard someone yell in the distance.

For the second time in two days the professor heard the familiar commotion of a new discovery.

"Professor, come quick," panted Shelley as she ran under the shelter, "there's more.

Charlie had a feeling of disappointment building up in him as he got up and walked towards the block. He knew there was no way pre-dynastic Egyptians had the skill or techniques to build something like this.

This must be an elaborate hoax probably the minister of antiquities idea to humiliate him even further.

Charlie looked at where Shelley was pointing excitedly, "It just appeared, like magic," she said.

Charlie gasped. He saw a pictograph of a young Egyptian boy standing erect, his hands holding a small box, it had appeared next to the poem. It was inscribed the same way as the poem had been, with inlaid granite of a different color and grain.

Charlie stared intently at the pictograph running his hand across its surface, it was completely smooth.

Then it faded away and disappeared.

Charlie stepped back as his mouth fell open. He was stunned.

"How? How is this possible?" He muttered to himself.

"Did anyone photograph it?" He heard Mohammad yell.

"I did, I have it," one of the laborers yelled back.

"What's going on Mohammad? This is crazy, if it's a hoax how do you fake what just happened?"

"I don't know Charlie, I don't know..."

Mohammad and Charlie both stared at the image of the young boy on the laptops screen.

"It's looks pre-dynastic as well doesn't it?"

"Whoever made this must be an Egyptologist, all the subtleties of the period are perfectly rendered," Charlie said.

"What if it isn't fake?"

Charlie stared at Mohammad," it has to be, there's no such thing as magic."

"If we follow the poem, it says to say Kemamonits name three times when Pepi appears."

"This is ridiculous, there must be some kind of projecting device inside the block we should just crack it open," said Charlie.

"Humor me, let's wait until noon tomorrow and see if Pepi reappears, if he does I'll say Kemamonit three times, and then if nothing happens we'll dynamite it."

Charlie thought for a moment, "Ok, we'll try it."

Charlie spent the rest of the day researching what he could find about an ancient Egyptian magician named Kemamonit. He had a very expensive satellite phone that was capable of connecting to the Internet. It wasn't very fast but was usable.

Normally because of the cost he used the phone only to send emails once a week or for emergencies, now he didn't care.

He had subscriptions to numerous online libraries and periodicals as well as being able to email his peers. If this person existed in antiquity he should be able to find her.

After hours of reading and emailing he had come up with virtually nothing, the only scrap of information was a photograph of a small stone statue of a woman with a partial name written on its broken base.

Charlie enlarged the picture of the statue and examined it.

"She looks Nubian," Mohammad was looking over his shoulder.

"The inscription isn't complete, besides Kemamonit is a pretty run of the mill name," Charlie zoomed in on the statues face.

"There is no meaningful jewellery or markings either."

"Yes but this is of a very young woman, she may not have been of any importance yet," Mohammad said.

"It is pre-dynastic for sure, it was found in the rubble of what they think was a higher ranking nobleman's dwelling."

"This is all you've found?" Mohammad asked.

"That's why I think the block is fake," Charlie said as he closed the laptop, "I'm going to bed."

The next morning after he got up Charlie dug out a large sledgehammer that they used for breaking large pieces of rubble they occasionally found that interfered with a dig.

He had no dynamite and he had second thoughts about using it now if he did. If the block was a fake he was going to shut the dig down and report his findings to the minister.

He decided to have his crew start another trench ninety degrees to the first trench, which had unearthed the block. The earth and sand around the block had not produced any other artifacts.

While the crew dug Charlie used an old stethoscope to see if he could hear anything inside the block. If it was a fake there had to be some kind of cooling unit inside, it was the Egyptian winter but the temperatures still hovered around the hundred-degree mark during the day.

He listened carefully straining to hear the vibration of an electric motor. He thought he could hear something just on the edge of his perception, he closed his eyes trying to block out the sound of his heart beating.

The sound increased in volume for an instant like it was being carried on a gust of wind. It was a child laughing.

Charlie jumped back startled, "now I'm hearing things," he thought.

He put the stethoscope against the block once more but heard nothing this time.

"It's time Charlie," Mohammad was tapping on his shoulder.

Charlie turned around and took the stethoscope out of his ears, "Ok," he said as he looked at his watch. It was eleven forty-five.

Charlie followed Mohammad around the block to the inscribed text. Shelley was standing there staring intently with her hands on her hips.

Mohammad walked up next to her, Charlie then stood behind them both.

"What do you expect to happen professor?" Shelley asked.

"I expect we're going to be breaking this thing open with a sledgehammer shortly."

"Oh..." Shelley said as her expression turned glum.

The sound of trumpet suddenly echoed next to the block, it played two mournful notes.

"I think I heard that yesterday," said Shelley, excited again.

The image of Pepi slowly emerged again on the granite. Charlie moved next to the block and ran his hand over the stone as the pictograph emerged to see if he could feel something. He could only feel the smoothness of the granite. The picture seemed to grow almost organically.

Mohammad spoke behind him, "Here goes... Kemamonit, Kemamonit... Kemamonit."

There was a blinding flash that almost felt like a close lightning strike. Charlie staggered backwards away from the block temporarily blinded. He bumped into Shelley and Mohammad.

He put both his hands to his face then rubbed his eyes as his vision slowly returned.

"Holy shit!" he heard Shelley exclaim behind him.

Charlie looked around ignoring the pinpricks of light in his field of vision, the three of them were standing in a large well lit stone room.

"I guess there's magic after all Mohammad."

The room had a ceiling that must have been twenty feet high it was well lit by what seemed to be square light panels embedded in the ceiling, the rooms shape was rectangular maybe forty feet wide and sixty feet long. The walls were covered in large colorful murals of animals, plants and stiffly drawn people.

There was a large sarcophagus against one wall flanked by what looked like bookshelves stuffed with papyrus scrolls. The air smelled dusty and old.

Mohammad walked over to the closest mural and touched it lightly, a small flake of paint fell to the floor.

"These murals are at least three or four thousand years old judging from their condition."

Charlie started to walk over to the sarcophagus, he noticed it had no lid. It also had no hieroglyphs on its sides something typical of the earlier dynasties.

He leaned over to look inside fully expecting to see an ancient mummy shriveled up with age.

"Oh my god!" He said as he looked.

Shelley ran over to see what caused Charlie's outburst and looked inside the sarcophagus herself.

There was a young woman floating about eighteen inches from the bottom of the sarcophagus. She was perfectly still and had a look of deep pain on her face.

The woman was wearing a delicate almost translucent white dress, it was tightly wrapped outlining her figure.

"She was Nubian all right," Mohammad had joined them.

"The statue was of her after all," Charlie said, immediately seeing the resemblance to the picture of the statue he had had on his laptop.

"She's older here maybe twenty-five," Mohammad said.

"Look at her bracelet," Shelley pointed to an amazingly intricate bracelet on her left wrist. It was about six inches long and made up of small squares. They were in a checkerboard pattern some of the squares were larger some smaller, all the squares had intricate writing carved into them.

Shelley put her hand in the sarcophagus and tried to touch her with her index finger.

"Stop!" Charlie blurted out.

"I can't touch her anyway, there's some kind of force stopping my finger."

Charlie tentatively probed with his own finger and was met with a force as well, it was smooth like glass but completely invisible.

"What are we going to do now?" Mohammad asked, "I don't think there are any archaeologist's on earth trained for this."

"Well we're both trained to read ancient Egyptian, let's start with the papyri," Charlie said as he walked over to one of the bookshelves.

"Look the shelves are numbered," Shelley said as she followed behind Charlie.

"Yes... but they're not Egyptian numbers, they're unlike like any number's I've ever seen," Charlie peered closer at a number.

"Very primitive, like a child would make up I, II, III, IIII then a line through the four, like a prisoner would use to keep track of days," Mohammad said.

"Maybe she wanted to make sure everyone would understand them," replied Shelley.

Charlie and Mohammad both turned and looked at Shelley with expressions of mild amazement.

"Yes exactly what I was thinking," they both said in chorus.

Charlie reached up and picked up a papyrus on shelf I, someone had written an I overtop of another I on the outside.

"Shelf one papyrus one I assume," he said.

Charlie carefully rolled out the sheet onto the floor then used his notebook, jackknife and other objects to weigh down the corners.

"Will you read it out loud professor?" Shelley asked, her face blushing with excitement.

"I guess I can."

"Wait! What if they're magic, that's how Egyptian spells are supposed to work you read them," Mohammad blurted out.

"Normally I'd argue the whole rational scientist thing with you Mohammad but I think you've already won that argument, I'll be careful.

"That sounds fair."

"Here goes, stop me if I grow a tail or something."

### Chapter three

I am the sorceress Kemamonit.

I was born between the fifth and sixth cataracts of one of the great rivers that run through all our lives.

I grew up on the shores of Holy River much like any child of Kush, I helped my family catch fish to sell at the market and played with my friends fighting and screaming on its shore.

It was only much later in my life that I discovered that my river was only one of many great rivers that shepherded all the people of the shining blue pearl we live upon.

My father was not a clever man, he was weak to all the desires of men and spent much of what we made gambling and drinking palm wine.

I would catch him sometimes staring at me when he had drunk himself into a stupor, his eyes betraying some evil scheme involving me. I would stare back at him defiantly until he would guiltily look away.

In the fifteenth year of my life my father finally put his evil plan into motion, my mother, who had always saved us all from the worst of his abuses, was deathly ill and spoke only in delirium. My father had abstained from wine for three days, always a dangerous sign for me and my siblings.

His opportunity came when a group of light skinned strangers arrived from the Black land far to the north. They had traveled in a long extravagantly decorated boat which was manned by a crew of well-armed servants.

I watched them with my friends as they walked down the gangplank from the boat to the shore daintily lifting their feet as if they feared the water.

They wore many metal bracelets and collars studded with precious stones, their heads bore elaborate headdresses. They struck me as soft and effeminate, their arms were slender and their belly's stood out like a bird's chest.

One of them looked in my direction and I could see the expression on his face turn from mild distaste to what I learned later was one of naked lust. He turned to one of the men on the shore helping to tie down the vessel and started an animated conversation constantly pointing in my direction.

I was young and naïve and knew not of the passions which drive all men, I had looked at my reflection in the river many times and always saw a skinny wild haired child staring back.

That I could be an object of someone's desire seemed impossible and unbelievable.

I should have run then and hid in the marshes until the men had left. I was like all the children of the river, I could swim like a crocodile and fish like the great stilted birds. I would have been well fed and impossible to find.

Instead I foolishly went home and into my father's waiting trap.

It was over in an instant, I was seized, then bound and gagged the second I walked into our house, my father had sent my siblings away with some fish to trade for honey at the market so there was no one to help me fight.

I was put into a large sack but not before I saw one of the fair skinned men give my father a small leather pouch with something in it.

I hoped it was sand, and that my father would be too stupid to look first. I could tell from his eyes that he would be into the wine before my shadow crossed the threshold of the door.

I was thrown into the boat like a sack of onions, it was only when the boat was under sail for half a day that the crew took me out of the sack and removed the gag from my mouth.

My hands and feet were still tied but they were retied with softer ropes, "to prevent blemishes on my skin," I was told by a cheerful servant. I shuddered when I realized why I needed to be unblemished.

I sat on the deck of the boat for many days as it sailed down the river to the mysterious Black land, it shamed me that in between the heartsickness and tears at the loss of my siblings and friends a raging curiosity and excitement would flare up.

I had never left our small village, the only excitement I had ever really had was running from a hungry crocodile.

I had heard stories of cities with buildings that stretched into the sky peopled by thousands. The stories talked of temples so beautiful that the gods would come from the stars to talk to the great priests and magicians that resided in them.

My family had worshipped Sobek the crocodile god, I had often wondered why, for all the sacrifices we had made to him the crocodiles still stared at me with hunger, their cold eyes hiding some cunning plan to seize me in their jaws.

It was as I sat in the boat that I realized that Sobek had protected me from the crocodiles, but it wasn't the crocodiles that I should have feared.

I had lost count of the days we had sailed when the great boat finally pulled into a long stone pier next to a large stone building.

We had arrived at the city of Lunu, I was finally untied, for my captures knew I had nowhere to run too as I could not have found my way back home.

I had been surprised that the fair skinned man that had purchased me had never tried to sample the merchandise during our trip. He had not even talked to me, I could see him stare at me out of the corner of my eye when I would sit next to the rail looking at the water moving by, if I looked in his direction he would always turn away and feign disinterest.

I had noticed the same behavior from some of the young boys of my village, I had been as confused by it then as I was now. I had a moment of panic thinking that his disinterest was because I was going to be some kind of human sacrifice for a particularly nasty god with large teeth.

It would be interesting to see a real god I thought in my panic.

The light skinned man who had purchased me disappeared almost immediately after the boat had been tied up. The servants stayed behind and unloaded what little cargo there was and removed anything of value.

I was taken by two large armed servants and led through one of the gates in the cities walls. I was almost knocked over by the smell once we emerged through the gate and past the bored looking guard posted next to it.

The stench was almost palatable, a mix of excrement, smoke and body odour accented with numerous other scents I could not recognize.

I started to cough as the fetid air entered my lungs, my two escorts turned and looked at me smiling slightly.

"You get used to it," one of them said.

"It's not as bad at the temple," the other chimed in.

"Temple... am I to be sacrificed?" I started to shake and I felt tears roll down my cheeks.

They both laughed out loud.

"Only if Ahmes wife finds out about you," one of them said.

"Ahmes? Is he the one who bought me."

"No more questions pretty one," he replied, a stern expression on his face.

I walked in between my two escorts in silence looking at the people and buildings we passed by.

The buildings all seemed to be impossibly large and exotic, they towered over the rubbish strewn street. There were endless crowds of people dressed in many different costumes some so brightly colored it mesmerized me.

I almost gasped when I saw people with skin so white it was as if they were made of linen. I saw men with fierce curly beards that jutted from their jaws like a spearheads.

There were also men and women with shaven heads that gleamed in the sun and I glimpsed a white skinned woman surrounded by servants with long straight hair the color of honey.

We walked for a small amount of time more until we entered an enormous flat space which surrounded the largest building I had ever seen. It was dominated by two columns separated by about fifteen cubits. The sides facing each other were straight while the opposite sides sloped at a slight angle.

The columns stretched to the sky the height of ten men.

"Here you are pretty one, the temple of Atum you're new home," said one of my escorts.

They walked me towards the large columns, I noticed a large wooden door between them.

Once we were in front of the door one of my escorts banged his fist against it in an irregular pattern, a secret code I thought. The door opened inward and an attractive middle aged woman walked out.

"You must be Kemamonit, we've been expecting you," she said as she saw me, she held out her hand.

I tentatively put my hand in hers.

"She's all yours," I heard one of my escorts say. I turned my head and watched them start to walk back to the city. I looked back at the woman who held my hand, she seemed to have kind eyes.

"Come, you must be tired and hungry," she led me through the great door.

"Why did you stop reading professor?" Shelley said.

"The scroll is almost done, and the only thing left on it looks like a spell," Charlie replied

"It's getting late and we haven't found a way out," Mohammad said.

They all looked around the chamber, there were no doors or openings.

"I guess this is one of the drawbacks of magic," Shelley said, Charlie could sense a small amount of panic in her voice.

"Don't worry if all else fails we still have the sledge hammer," Charlie pointed to it on the floor. He had not let it go when Mohammad had said Kemamonit's name.

"She sure is a good writer, I've read translations of other papyri and they don't sound anything like this one," Shelley said.

"To be honest I'm kinda filling in the blanks. The reason most ancient documents sound so boring and at times confusing is they lack context. The people who translate them tend to be really conservative to the point of taking words right out of any context and just doing a straight substitution of an English word for the ancient one."

"What's wrong with that?"

"That's one of the reason's computer translators were so bad when they first came out, everything we say is in some kind of context, take a phrase like "don't have a bird," you can use it when someone's angry, or you can use that same phrase at a pet store. They have completely different meanings depending on the context."

"Oh, I see," Shelley said.

"What are we going to do next?' Mohammad said.

"I think I should read the spell," Charlie said.

"Won't that be dangerous?" replied Shelley

"I think if Kemamonit wanted to kill us she would have done it by now."

Charlie looked back at the papyrus and put his index finger under the first word of the last paragraph.

"Ok here I go," Charlie started to read.

Pepi had grown into a man and had become a master carpenter much sought after in the city of Lunu.

Kemamonit appeared before Pepi during the hot summer months with a task for him.

"I will bring you to a far off land Pepi and you will build a small house for some guests I will have."

Pepi knew not to argue with the powerful magician and retrieved his tools and one of sons to help him with the construction.

Pepi built the house in a green land of grass and trees he had never seen before, Kemamonit paid him handsomely and set about sending him and his son back to Lunu.

"How will you're guests get here?" He asked as Kemamonit prepared to her spell.

"When they get their invitation they will know to turn it over and fold it."

Pepi disappeared in a flash of light.

"Well nothing happened," Mohammad said.

Charlie grabbed the objects holding down the corners of the papyrus and put them back in his pockets then he turned it over.

"Looky here," Charlie pointed to some arcane looking writing.

"It's not ancient Egyptian, I've never seen this type of writing before," said Mohammad.

The writing was written in two columns separated by a three inch gap, there was a line running down the right side of the first column and the left side of the second column.

"Did you ever read Mad magazine?" Shelley asked Charlie.

"Ya, a couple of times when I was a kid. Why?"

"The foldy thing they did with the cover.

"Ah..."

Charlie took the papyrus and folded it so the columns were exactly side by side, it took a minute to get it to line up just right.

He was rewarded with a blinding flash of light.

"Jesus Christ!" Charlie rubbed his eyes, the now familiar pinpricks of light filled his field of vision.

"I wish she'd tone down the fireworks," he heard Shelley say.

"I suspect it's to show us how powerful she is, and maybe to distract us to what's really going on,' said Mohammad.

Charlie's vision returned after a few seconds and looked around. The three of them were sitting in a beautiful meadow surrounded by a large forest made up of both coniferous and deciduous trees. He could see a large range of mountains far in the distance.

Charlie followed Shelley and Mohammad's gaze behind him, he saw a square wooden building about thirty feet wide, it had a flat roof.

He also saw a large wooden table in front of the building it had four chairs around it two on each side. It appeared to have food and utensils on its surface.

Charlie looked down at the ground to see if the papyrus with the spell was still there, it wasn't.

They got to their feet and walked towards the building.

As the three of them got closer to the table they could see there were four large platters in the middle of the table with two plates on each side. The plates had a small round loaf of bread on them.

There were also cups and little saucers filled with water.

Two of the platters had some large cooked fowl on them, it looked to Charlie like duck, one had a large fish complete with its head and the last was piled with various dates and melons.

"God that smells good," Shelley said as they stood next to the table.

"Look there's wine," Mohammad pointed to a large clay jar standing next to the table.

Charlie bent over to examine the Hieroglyphic's on the jar.

"Hmm... it's the good stuff, three times good," Charlie pointed to a series of Hieroglyphic's that repeated three times, "imported from Canaan."

"What's that," Shelley pointed to a broken piece of pottery sitting next to one of the plates. It had what appeared to be writing on it.

Mohammad walked over and picked it up.

"Ostraca, it's a note from Kemamonit. It says enjoy your meal mysterious guests."

"Why would she write it on a pottery shard?" Shelley asked.

"That's the post it note of antiquity, half of what we know about ancient times comes from these things," Mohammad replied.

Charlie looked more closely at the table and noticed a knife beside each plate, they appeared to be made of obsidian.

Charlie picked one up and examined it, "Wow, look at these knives."

The knife was perfect, the blade looked like it had been cut with a laser, there were no chip marks and it was perfectly symmetrical.

"This woman is sure an enigma, she writes notes on pottery shards but creates an obsidian knife we would have a tough time recreating today," Charlie said.

"Are we going to eat? I'm starving," Shelley said.

Charlie and Mohammad looked at each other, "I guess so, don't use the finger dishes though," Charlie said pointing to the little saucers full of water.

"Or eat the fruit, the cooked stuff should be safe," Mohammad continued.

"I have a two bottles of water anyway," Shelley replied.

Charlie and Mohammad checked their own pockets and found their own bottles.

The three of them sat down and started eating the meal, Charlie picked up the clay wine jar opened it and filled Shelley and his cups.

"Don't I get any?" Mohammad asked.

Charlie looked at him with a surprised expression on his face.

"Its research, I'm sure the prophet would understand."

"I guess that makes sense, it's not often you get to drink five thousand year old wine."

The fish and duck were both steaming hot and were absolutely delicious. They were flavored with both familiar and unfamiliar spices. The wine was made of grape and as far as a Charlie's beer palate could tell of exceptional quality.

"My God, they sure could cook back then," Shelley said in between bites.

They were all using multi-tools to eat.

"I don't think this is typical ancient food, there aren't a lot of fat mummies," Charlie replied.

"The bread's got some kind of grit in it though," Shelley made a face as she bit into it.

Charlie and Mohammad grabbed their own loaves and took a bite, "Stone ground wheat, it's why they all had bad teeth. You've just confirmed a theory Shelley," Charlie said.

Shelley's face blushed a little, "really?"

"Yep, bread was one of their staples, and a lot of mummies have serious tooth abscesses. It was always thought the stone used to ground the wheat was the reason. Now we know for sure."

"Charlie did you notice the cups," Mohammad said.

"What about them?"

"They're exactly the same."

"Well they're probably a set," Charlie said a confused expression on his face.

"No I mean exactly, look even the irregularities and little cracks are the same."

Charlie picked up Shelley's cup and compared it to his, "You're right."

Charlie stood up and compared his chair to the extra chair at the table, it was exactly the same every knot and blemish.

"I guess we just learned something about magic."

"You know what else is weird, there are no jet contrails in the sky. Where do you think we are?" Shelley asked.

Mohammad took his cell phone out of his pocket, "No bars."

Charlie looked around to see if there were any recognizable landmarks, he thought the distant mountains looked familiar.

"It's not North America, we'd be eaten alive by black flies and mosquitoes in this type of environment," he said.

"There might be answers in the building, why don't we finish up and look," Mohammad said.

They finished the rest of their meal in silence.

The buildings entrance had no door, it was just an opening. Charlie walked through it cautiously and looked around. There was a door resting against the wall next to the entrance. It looked to work by being lifted into place and barred shut with two wooden ties.

"Hinges weren't invented yet," Charlie thought.

The room had no windows but was well lit by the same square light panels that had been in the tombs ceiling. Charlie immediately saw Kemamonits large sarcophagus against the far wall, the shelves with the papyri were there as well.

The walls of the room were not decorated and consisted of unpainted wood planks, the only furniture consisted of four odd looking beds complete with white linen and large pillows.

"I thought ancient Egyptians used headrests?" Shelley asked when she looked at one of the beds.

"They may have used pillows at first, but switched to headrests because of parasites. The climate started to change pretty dramatically in the Nile valley around eight thousand BC," Charlie replied.

"The wood smells like it was cut yesterday, it's cedar I think," Mohammad said.

"I guess the beds mean she expects us to stay a while," Shelley said, she walked over to a small entrance covered with a fabric curtain she had just noticed.

"Well the toilet's not magical, and it's been used."

"Really?" Charlie said, he walked over to the opening and looked over her shoulder, he saw a tiny room with a limestone bench against the far wall. The bench had a large hole cut in the middle of it. He could smell the faint odor of feces.

"I guess Pepi really did build this place, not that that makes any sense."

"I think we should start reading the papyri again, maybe it'll give us some answers," Mohammad said.

### Chapter four

Charlie walked over to the shelves beside the sarcophagus, he looked inside as he stood next to it. Kemamonit was still floating in it the look of pain on her face.

He turned and looked at the first shelf and saw the first papyrus back in its place, he picked it up and unrolled it looking at the back. The spell was gone.

"She can do that, but still uses an outhouse," he thought to himself.

Charlie picked up the next scroll, he noticed the papyrus of both scrolls seemed to be almost new now, and there was no musty smell or fragility to them.

"Let's read it outside, it's creepy in here with her floating there," Shelley said pointing to the sarcophagus.

"Sure, it's a nice outside and there's lots of day left," Charlie replied.

They walked over to the table together.

"I'll throw the leftovers down the toilet, I've had some bad experience's leaving food lying around in the wilderness," Shelley scraped all the leftovers onto one of the platters.

She walked back to the wooden building with the scraps and returned a few minutes later.

Charlie and Mohammad had piled all the dishes off to one side and had rolled the papyrus out onto the table. The wine cups weighed down the corners.

Shelley sat down on one of the chairs and took out a water bottle.

"Here we go again," Charlie said.

The temple of Atum was a very strange place, it was an enormous building with many rooms and secret places. I was given shared living quarters with a number of young women much like myself.

The women I was with were all from the city of Lunu most were there to pay off the debts of their parents.

"You must stay a virgin," one of them said to me giggling.

"Are you a virgin?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes at me in an enigmatic way. I suspected that virginity was defined the same way here as in my village, a virgin was someone who had no children.

I decided then I would stay away from men no matter what. I had no desire to spoil whatever Ahmes attraction to me was and destroy the tenuous existence I currently had.

I was told that we were to help perform all the temple rituals that were required over the course of a year, since I had no formal dance training I would help out only with the ceremony of creation performed during all the major festivals.

I was also to assist the temples principle scribe mixing his inks and making papyrus for him to write on.

I was never told why I was here in the temple but I soon learned that Ahmes was one of the principle architects for the King of Lunu. I also learned that he had risen to this position by the marrying one of the Kings daughters.

"She has the face of a hippopotamus, as well as the appetite," I was told by a young woman who had befriended me.

Isis was from a prominent family in Lunu, she had been sent to the temple by her parents in an attempt to curb her wild behavior. It hadn't worked as far as I could tell, she was constantly in trouble with the temple priests, either for sneaking out into the city at night or for pilfering the ceremonial wine which she would share with the rest of us during wild parties in our quarters.

Isis was awe inspiring to me, I had never met a woman so confident and fearless, she had long dark hair and large beautiful eyes which she made even more beautiful with the skilful use of makeup.

She could manipulate almost any man with her charm and subtle gazes. I was pretty sure I would have been sacrificed to Atum if I had even done half the things she had gotten away with.

Strangely the only person resistant to her charms was my new superior Danel the chief scribe of the temple.

Danel was a quiet man of middle age, he was balding with a carefully trimmed beard. He had come to Lunu from far off lands in the east when he was a young man and had worked his way up the temple hierarchy.

His facial features gave away his foreign ancestry he had a large nose and a tinge of red in his beard.

"He thinks he can divine my thoughts," Isis would always say angrily whenever I would talk of Danel.

I also noticed when his name was spoken her eyes would flash not only with anger but with an intensity that she only reserved for him.

My first day assisting Danel consisted of him teaching me how to mix the inks for his work. The ingredients were simple charcoal, tree sap, water and a bit of honey, but it was quite tricky to get the consistency just right.

Danel showed me how to use a little cup with lines on it to mark the exact amounts needed for each ingredient.

I mastered the process after working for a fair portion of the morning.

"Excellent, little one," Danel said as he tested my latest batch.

Danel then showed me how to mix the color red using ochre instead of charcoal.

"I will show you how to make papyrus tomorrow little one, we mustn't overwork your delicate hands and diminish their beauty."

I looked at my palms, they were covered in calluses from pulling on fishing nets and carrying baskets. I looked at Danel but could see no humor in his expression.

Danel showed me a small comfortable mat in one of the corners of his office.

"You can sleep here during midday, little one. I will return with some food when the temple wakes."

Danel's office was deep inside the temple, Ra's fierce beams could not penetrate easily making the room cooler then outside.

I curled up on the mat and fell asleep immediately.

I was standing on the banks of the great river. Ra stood on the horizon glowing a deep orange color preparing to sleep for the night.

I was by myself staring at the slowly moving water, looking at the odd branch or leaf as it drifted by. I heard a strange noise to my left, and turned with to look with a feeling of curiosity.

I felt my eyes widen with fear as panic gripped my body. It was the River Master running towards me, his long powerful body whipping back and forth in rhythm with his lightning quick stride.

I tried to move my feet to turn and run but they seemed to be stuck fast, I saw an expression of glee light up the River Masters eyes. He had me and he knew it, I saw the large jaws start to open as he prepared to snap them around my unmoving body.

I jerked awake, my mouth open preparing to scream.

"It was just a dream," I thought as relief flooded through my body.

I had had this dream a number of times, it seemed to afflict me more when I had misfortune enter my life.

The events of the dream were based on an actual event in my life. The River Master was what we called the largest and most devious of the crocodiles that lived near our village.

The River Master was as patient as a spider, as quick as lightning, and had the cunning of a jackal.

My friends and I had been playing next to the small stand of brush all day. The River Master must have waited in the midst of it motionless the whole time knowing how I liked to stand on the shore and look at the river flow by before darkness fell.

He must have watched me for days deducing my propensity for solitude at this particular spot at this time of the day.

It was luck that saved me, I had coincidently turned and looked at the brush just as he leaped towards me. I managed to stumble backwards as he snapped his jaws shut in the space I had just occupied.

I turned and ran as fast as I had ever run, I heard the River Master behind me as I zigged and zagged knowing he could not turn as fast as I.

I was finally able to scramble up a small tree and look back.

He stood about twenty cubits away panting, he raised his head and looked at me clinging to the tree, my body trembling with fear, and I could have sworn he had an expression of mirth on his long face.

He turned slowly, walked back to the river and slithered in disappearing into the black water.

I have had the nightmare ever since.

I lay awake on the mat in Danel's office staring at the high stone ceiling. What was to become of me?

Danel returned soon after I had wakened he carried a small basket filled with some dates a half a loaf of bread and a dried fish. He carried a jar of beer in his other hand.

"Let us eat little one," he put the basket in front of me and sat down on the floor across from me.

"What will I do this afternoon?" I asked.

"I thought I would start to teach you how to write. Would you like that?"

I was stunned, I looked at his face to see if he was in jest.

"Yes... I would like that, but why?" I said.

"I need an assistant that does more than mix ink. I will teach you every afternoon unless I have important duties to perform."

"Thank you, I will be in your debt forever," I replied.

"No you won't, always remember someone taught me too, thank the person who invented writing."

Danel started by showing how to hold the scribes brush properly and to dip it to get the right amount of ink. He then showed me a simple character and had me practise writing it on some on some pottery shards, he had a large basket of them in his office.

I was on my way.

"That's the end of the Papyrus," Charlie said.

"No spell?" Shelley asked.

"Nope."

"It's getting kind of dark, why don't we go to bed and start again in the morning," Mohammad said.

The three of them walked back to the wooden building, Charlie had rolled up the papyrus and carried it with him. Once inside Charlie put the papyrus back on the shelf.

Mohammad and Shelley put the door in place and barred it shut.

"How do we shut the lights off," Shelley pointed to the lighting panels embedded in the ceiling.

Mohammad examined one of the panels closely then grabbed a hold of a small handle connected to a wooden slider. He slid it to the other side of the grove it was in and the panel shut off.

Charlie looked at the other panels, they all had the same lever.

"I guess the whole light switch concept hadn't been developed yet." Charlie said.

"I don't think these use electricity," Shelley said.

"I wonder how you wire a house with magic?"

They all picked a bed, then Mohammad shut the final panel off and they went to sleep.

Shelley woke up feeling a slight breeze across her face. She was lying on her back and opened her eyes expecting to see sunlight shining through the cracks in the cedar cabins walls.

Shelley gasped when she looked up she saw the entire expanse of the night sky above her. It was beautiful. The spine of the Milky Way stretched across the sky shining so bright it almost hurt her eyes.

She looked around and saw the four other beds and the sarcophagus sitting on the buildings floor, the walls and roof of the structure had disappeared. The area beyond the wooden platform seemed to be the top of a large hill, it looked to be made of rock and was the size of a football field.

Charlie and Mohammad had also sat up in their beds too, the light breeze having wakened them as well.

"Where are we?" Shelley asked.

"I recognize this," Charlie said as he looked around, "I visited this years ago, we're on top of one of the buttes in Monument Valley."

"Where's that?" Mohammad asked.

"Utah, there should roads all around here and a major highway."

They all put their clothes on and then cautiously stepped off the platform and walked towards the eastern edge of the hilltop.

They stopped about five feet from the edge and looked out over the dark landscape, they could see other tall buttes in the distance as well as open flat areas. There were no roads visible.

"I don't see anything, maybe it's just too dark," Mohammad replied.

"Why did she bring us here?" Shelley asked.

Charlie looked up at the stars and pointed, "This maybe."

They stared at the stars for a few more minutes.

"They sure are beautiful, I'm beginning to see how they would be pretty important for a society that spent a lot of time outside," Shelley said.

A thin line of dark orange light started to spread along the east, they all turned and watched the sun slowly rise above the horizon.

"Wow, I should visit this place," Shelley said.

The combination of the early sunlight and the oranges and reds of the surrounding desert created a breathtaking panorama.

"I don't see any roads," Charlie was looking at the landscape below.

"Do you think maybe we're traveling in time as well," said Shelley.

"No bars on my phone again," Mohammad had his cell phone in his hand.

"It's all magic, who knows what she's doing, I'm just glad she didn't fry our eyeballs with a blinding flash this time," Charlie said.

They turned and walked back to the wooden platform that was all that remained of the cedar building. Charlie noticed that the shelves that held the papyrus next to the sarcophagus had disappeared.

Charlie stepped onto the platform and walked over to the sarcophagus to see it Kemamonit was still lying in it.

She was still there, motionless with the expression of pain on her face, he also noticed a folded papyrus held in place against the invisible field by a large smooth pebble.

Charlie picked up the papyrus and read it.

I hope you enjoyed your experience mysterious guests. I found this place in my many travels and loved the sunrise.

When you are ready to leave gather everyone around my melancholy corpse and say my name three times. Pepi is still listening.

Always stay together during this journey, it can be dangerous if you don't.

"That's ominous," Mohammad said over Charlie's shoulder.

"What's it say?" Shelley asked, a curious expression on her face.

"She says we should always stay together or else, and if we say her name three times the journey continues."

"Let's go then," Shelley said.

"I'm closing my eyes this time," Charlie said.

"Kemamonit, Kemamonit... Kemamonit."

Charlie didn't feel anything this time and opened his eyes after a few seconds. They were still on the butte.

"Oh shit," he said as the familiar flash of light blinded him.

Charlie heard the muffled sound of the ocean, he could make out the walls of the building as his sight slowly returned.

"The walls are back," he heard Shelley say.

Charlie also saw that the shelves with all the papyri had reappeared as well.

Mohammad walked over to the door removed the wooden ties holding the door shut, he lifted the door up and put it besides the opening.

The all walked outside.

They were on a beautiful pink coral sand beach, the water lapping against it was so clear as to be almost transparent. Charlie looked behind the cedar building and saw a dense tropical forest.

"Look over there," Shelley pointed to what looked like a large stone slab resting on two stone blocks, it had a variety of clay pots and reed baskets surrounding it.

Shelley walked over to the slab and picked up a pottery shard sitting on its top.

"More ostraca," she handed it to Mohammad.

"It says that cooking meals together is an important part of life and that the slab is some kind of stove, I think, and it's turned on by moving a leaver on the side."

Shelley found the lever and moved it, almost instantly the slab started to radiate heat. Shelley noticed there were lines etched into the slab making a series of concentric circles.

"I think the further you go from the center the cooler the slab is, the lines probably help gauge the distance," Mohammad said.

Charlie looked into the various baskets and clay jars, the baskets were full of various types of seafood including live crabs, the clay jars had various ingredients including flour, spices and a large amount of beer.

"No water," Charlie said to no one in particular.

"Look, over there," Shelley was pointed to a small shelf of rock protruding from the vegetation there was a steady stream of water cascading over top of it.

"I think I could use a shower," Shelley said walking towards it.

As she got closer to it she saw a screen made of two wooden poles with linen attached to the lengths, leaning against the rock..

Shelley pushed the poles into the soft sand stretching the linen between them blocking the view of the two men.

Like most people with experience working in remote places in foreign countries Shelley always carried soap, toilet paper and a toothbrush at all times. She quickly undressed fishing her plastic soap container and tooth brush from the surplus army pants she had been wearing.

The water was just the right temperature and felt wonderful.

"Kemamonit thinks of everything," she thought to herself, "wait, no towels."

Shelley waited for a few minutes to let the sun dry her off before dressing and re-joining the two men.

Charlie and Mohammad were sitting on the beach talking, Charlie had a cup of beer in his hand.

"Why do you think she is doing this," Shelley asked as she sat beside them.

"We were just talking about that, Mohammad thinks its Maat."

"What's Maat?"

"It's hard to translate, but it sort of means the cleanliness of your soul."

"We're cleaning her soul?' Shelley said confused.

Mohammad laughed, "She's dead. Ancient Egyptian theology says that when you die you are to be judged as you journey through the underworld, if your soul is too heavy you get eaten up by a nasty monster. I think we're the ones judging her and this journey we're on is a trip through the underworld."

"I thought the underworld was supposed to be a horrible place, this is like paradise," Shelley said.

"I think that maybe we are judging her for another reason, maybe her resurrection."

Shelley had a shocked look on her face, "resurrection?"

"This is all magic who knows what's possible, her body is over five thousand years old and hasn't aged, she can transport us thousands of miles in an instant. I don't think resurrection would be much of a stretch," Charlie said.

"If she can do all these things why would she need us?" Shelley asked.

"We'll just have to keep reading the papyri to find out."

They spent the rest of the morning getting cleaned up and attempting to cook a meal with their Bronze Age utensils.

Kemamonit had included a set of large obsidian knives and wooden spoons. The three of them had next to no experience cooking something that hadn't come out of a can. Mohammad had helped his mother cook when he had been younger and had a vague idea of what to do.

In the end they boiled the crabs and fried the fish in oil after dipping it in flour and some spices. It all tasted surprisingly good.

"I think if you have really good ingredients it's hard to screw things up unless you burn it," Shelley said.

Charlie thought back to his university days attempting to make pizza with his roommates. They had spent more in ingredients then it would have cost to get one delivered, and it had been inedible.

"I think if Mohammad hadn't been here we'd be pretty hungry," Charlie said.

Charlie got up from the meal and walked back into the wooden building he grabbed the next papyrus in the sequence and brought it back to the other two.

"I guess we should start reading some more," Charlie said as he sat on the sand leaning back against a large pot.

I really enjoyed learning how to write and Danel seemed to enjoy teaching me even more. Every night I would practice drawing characters with a stick against a small flat rock I had hidden under my sleeping mat.

When I was asleep I dreamed about writing, I wrote huge scrolls with many weighty and important passages.

It was one of the happiest times of my life, I began to realize what an unquenchable thirst for knowledge I had.

The only person who wasn't happy with me learning my new skill was Isis.

"Of what use is writing to a... a... peasant!!" she said angrily when I told her of Danel teaching me.

I was hurt and confused when she acted this way. Once I even offered to teach her everything I learned so she wouldn't feel left out.

"I know how to write!!" She said as she stormed away.

I was heartbroken, I would have felt better if I could fathom her anger and resentment. Isis had always been friendly and treated us all as equals, I had never heard her use the word peasant until I told her about my writing lessons.

It wasn't until weeks later that I finally deduced the real reason behind her anger.

I had decided I would not talk about writing since it bothered Isis so much. I thought that if I would just tell her about Danel teaching me to make papyrus, a very peasant sort of thing to do, she would be friendly again.

Isis sat haughtily as I tried to talk to her refusing to even look in my direction, I told her how hard it was to slit the papyrus plants and lay them down just right. I even embellished the difficulty and how demanding Danel had been, that he had grabbed my wrists roughly to show me the proper technique.

The moment I had said Danel had grabbed my wrists a shock went through Isis as if she had heard a loud noise. She snapped her head around and stared at me with such intensity and vehemence I unconsciously backed away.

"You stay away from him!!" She yelled at me.

Isis's odd behaviour suddenly came into perfect focus.

"Oh Isis, you love him," I said.

"No I don't," she wouldn't look at me again.

I sat beside her and put my arm around her shoulders. She let her head drop and I felt her body subtly shake as I saw tears fall into her lap.

"You've got nothing to worry about Isis, even if I was interested in Danel, which I'm not, I have Ahmes and Hippo face to worry about."

"Do you promise," she whispered.

"Let Sobek eat me alive if I'm lying."

Isis was civil to me once again after our conversation but I could now sense a slight melancholy in her voice and her gestures.

I did look at Danel with more interest during our lessons, but all I saw was a man with a big nose and a passion for teaching. Women were becoming as confusing to me as men.

After a few months I had become a serviceable writer, my handwriting was not as flawless and beautiful as Danel's but it was quite legible. Danel had given me some scroll's to read to increase my vocabulary.

They were mostly boring contracts about wheat and taxes but there were a few that were interesting stories about gods and hero's.

Danel asked me once why I would show up tired with dark circles under my eyes sometimes. I told him about my bad dreams with the River Master.

Danel thought for a moment then grabbed a sack of pottery shards and handed it to me.

"I want you to write down your dreams every morning, the descriptions don't have to be really detailed just good enough so you can understand them. The important part is to write them down. Will you do this?"

"Yes, but why?"

"There is chance nothing will happen, but sometimes the gods do strange things."

I did what he said and started writing down my dreams. I had never paid much attention to my dreams and usually forgot them before I had dressed myself, now that I started to write them down I began to remember more and more details, soon it took two or three shards to write one down.

I had been doing this for a few weeks when Danel's words came true. The gods really do strange things sometimes.

### Chapter five

I was standing on the bank of the Great river, Ra was starting to descend and I was watching the water flow by.

It suddenly occurred to me that this was a dream and I snapped awake, only I was still in my dream. I was amazed, it was as if I was back at my village but at the same time knew I was still fast asleep.

A thought popped into my head and I turned quickly to see if the River Master was hiding in the bushes waiting to jump at me. He was.

"I see you fearsome beast, but you cannot hurt me for this is but a dream."

The River Master slowly walked out of his hiding spot and stared at me.

"I see you have mastered the dream world little tasty one," the master said.

"You can talk?" I said stunned.

"Yes of course, why don't you come closer so I can hear you better."

I held my ground but watched him closely.

"What is your name?" I asked.

"You don't know? You always put a bit of honey in my meals."

Honey? I thought back wondering what he meant, then it came to me, I used to put a bit of honey on the family sacrifice to Sobek in the hope he would try a bit harder to keep me safe.

"You're Sobek?"

"Of course little one, who else would I be?"

"You tried to eat me!"

"You kept you're eyes open after that didn't you my toothsome appetizer."

"You were just scaring me?'

"You will never know, and that is why you will always be on your guard."

"Why don't you eat me now?"

"It's just a dream, right?" Sobek lunged at me.

I awoke on my sleeping mat but not before I heard him say, "I have big plans for you my little morsel."

I fell back asleep almost immediately and slept until morning.

The next day I told Danel about my meeting with Sobek in my dream.

"So you can sleep now?"

"Yes, but what of Sobek?" I asked.

"I don't know Kem, these are your dreams, by the way do you know what the matter with Isis is? She being pretty belligerent lately, even for her."

I thought for a moment.

"Um...she said that she's had enough of you, and um... that if you even try to see her alone in your office you'll be sorry."

Danel frowned.

"She's incorrigible. I don't like singling people out but this has to stop. I have no choice now but to talk with her in private."

After I had finished for the day and Danel had let me go I ran as fast as I could back to my quarters to find Isis.

I found her sitting in the hallway staring at one of the temples statues. I told her what I had just done.

"What! Why?" she gasped.

"This is your big chance Isis, just sit on his lap and kiss him. No man is going to say no to you."

"Are you sure?" she said hesitantly.

"Isis I'm sure, even if I wasn't sure you can't spend the rest of your life like this."

It wasn't long before Danel showed up, he looked at me suspiciously but I could tell he had no inkling of what I had done.

"Isis come with me now," he said in a stern voice.

Isis gave him an arrogant and indifferent expression, and then took an exceptionally long time to stand up. She followed him back to his office.

I didn't see Isis again until the next morning, she wasn't melancholy anymore.

"That's the end of the papyrus, I'll get the next one," Charlie said.

"Wait, so there really is a crocodile god?" Shelley said.

"I think she was just having a lucid dream."

"I would have believed that before I found out magic was real," Mohammad said.

Charlie thought for a moment,"Ya I guess you got a point there."

"I'd sure like to read all those shards with her dreams written on them," Shelley said.

Charlie got up and walked back to the cedar building, he put the papyrus back on the shelf and picked up the next one. It felt slightly heavier the previous one. Charlie looked down one end of the tube and saw something blocking it.

He unrolled the papyrus to see what it was, it was a small beautiful sculpted statuette with the body of a man and the head of a crocodile. The base had a name in hieroglyphics carved into it, it said Sobek.

Charlie brought the papyrus and statue back to the beach with him, he tossed the statue to Mohammad when he re-joined the other two.

"What do you think," he asked.

"Looks pre-dynastic, better quality then what usually comes from that era."

"She talked about the King of Lunu, Egypt was a bunch of loosely connected city states before it was unified."

"How long ago was that?" Shelley asked.

"Six thousand plus years," Charlie said.

"Wow."

Shelley grabbed the statue from Mohammad and examined it closely.

"Do you think it's magical?" she said.

"Don't say her name around it!" Charlie and Mohammad said in unison.

"I wonder if that's where the whole don't say the name of a god etcetera came from, people inadvertently setting off magical spells," Shelley said.

"Makes sense," Mohammad said.

"Let's start reading again, put the statue a good distance away just in case," said Charlie.

Shelley walked over to the stone grill and put the statue on one of the corners, she turned the crocodile head so that it was looking at Mohammad and Charlie.

Charlie rolled out the papyrus and weighted down the corners as Shelley walked back to their group.

"Here goes," he said as she sat down on the sand.

The time of one of the great festivals had come. The temple was a flurry of activity as the dancers and priests prepared to perform the creation ceremony.

What surprised me was the huge amount of work required for all the people who just prepared the show.

I was assisting the temple magician to prepare all the magical effects to amaze and humble the citizens of Lunu.

I was pretty disappointed when I found out the magic consisted of hidden trapdoors and cleverly concealed pockets and devices. It did however teach me a valuable lesson, my reality consisted of just what I could see and what I believed.

I had been awe struck as a young child when I had seen my first magician, he had made objects appear and disappear at will, and he had read the minds of numerous members of the crowd watching him.

The temple magician had now shown me how these tricks had been done, but not before he swore me to secrecy.

"Do you want me to swear to Sobek," I had asked.

"No I'll just strangle you if you say anything, this is how I make my living young Kem."

I can honestly say this experience taught me the first lessons on how to be a real sorcerer.

The performances went quite well, Isis was the most prominent dancer, she bounded, leapt and twirled in a flimsy translucent costume. The expression on her face was one of unbounded joy.

The audience stared at her intently, mesmerized by her beauty and grace. I even heard shouts of "Isis! Isis!" when she finished her performance.

It had been almost a year since I had arrived at the temple, I still missed my family desperately but I had started to feel a comfortableness here even occasional happiness.

Danel had given me some of his work to do, I wrote contracts and messages for the temple priests.

I spent many hours talking and laughing with Isis and the other women who shared our living quarters.

So it was a shock when I was shook awake early one morning by one of the temple priests.

"Two men are here for you, ftch your things you have to go," he said.

I felt panic rise in my stomach, had hippo face found out about me?

I woke up Isis and said a tearful goodbye.

"Don't worry Kem, it's probably nothing but I'll talk to my parents just in case," she said.

I grabbed my writing kit and the few clothes I had and followed the priest to the temples main doors. The door was opened and I was gently pushed outside. I saw the two servants that had led me here a year ago.

"Hello pretty one are you ready for your journey?"

"Yes... what has happened? Has Ahmes wife found out about me?"

They both laughed.

"You haven't heard I guess, she was eaten by a crocodile, Ahmes is a widower now."

"Really? How?"

"It was a huge motherfucker, jumped right out of the river while she was on her boat."

"Wait... I may not be an archaeologist, but there is no way they said motherfucker six thousand years ago," Shelley said.

"I know, but I've never seen this word before and I think that's what she meant," Charlie replied.

"Oh."

"Ya she didn't even have time to scream before it dragged her under, we didn't even find a scrap of clothing," the other one continued.

"So what happens now?'

"You're going to be a servant in Ahmes house, you're going to look after his bedroom."

They both smiled.

I could see the meaning hidden in his remark. Ahmes would finally be able to satisfy his lust for me.

It was along walk to Ahmes house, he lived near the king's palace in a large walled section of the city. We had to pass a guarded gate to get into the area, all the houses were large and opulent with landscaped yards.

Ahmes house was not the largest but it looked massive to someone who had grown up in a three room dwelling.

The servants handed me off to what I assumed was the head servant, she was a kindly looking old woman.

"We must get you cleaned up before our master returns," she said.

There were four servants in the house, they were all old and wore very thick and uncomfortable looking clothes.

I felt like a slain animal being butchered by a group of starving men in their hands. They scrubbed and washed me then they pulled and yanked my hair forming it into what I guessed was the latest style.

I was then told to sit perfectly still while they painted my eyes and lips, finally I was squeezed into a dress so tight it was a struggle to breathe.

They had me stand and turn slowly while they eyed me like a merchant looking at a cow he was thinking of purchasing. They would then dart in and smooth a wrinkle in my dress or touch up the paint on my face.

When they were satisfied they led me to a large bronze mirror, I looked at my reflection and could not believe that it was me looking back. I saw a complete stranger, it was someone who would have easily fit into any noble entourage.

They gave me a large cup of wine to sip and told me to wait in the receiving room for my master to return for his noon day meal.

I was thankful for the wine as I waited, I was tremendously nervous I had had almost no contact with the man who would now be my lover.

I had decided not to fight this thing that had happened to me, I could see no good outcome from resisting someone so much more powerful than me.

I would play the demure concubine and wait for my opportunity, whatever that would be, to escape.

Ahmes walked through the door after I had finished the wine, he stared when he saw me making no effort to conceal his desire.

He sat beside me putting his hand on my leg.

"You're even more beautiful than when I first seen you."

I smiled slightly trying not to show my distaste. He couldn't control himself, he threw himself onto me groping my body as he forced his mouth against mine.

He carried me to what was now our bedroom, he threw me onto the bed and roughly tore off my dress.

Sadly unlike most of the other girls in the temple I really was a virgin. I had only a vague idea of what was required of me. I prepared for the pain all the other girls had told me I would feel the first time.

Surprisingly I felt almost nothing, and it seemed to be over much more quickly than I expected.

Ahmes rolled over onto his back and I understood why, he had not been endowed with the stamina or the mighty stave the men my former roommates had had during their first experience.

A thought crossed my mind as I looked at Ahmes sleeping next to me, maybe I hadn't been the only virgin.

Strangely a feeling of unfulfillment disturbed my relief at getting the experience over with.

I started thinking of the two servants that had brought me here, I wondered where they lived. They both had such powerful arms, and how had they gotten the jagged scars on their faces.

I felt myself drifting to sleep. Are they married?

"I see you've returned to the dream world tasty one."

I looked at Sobek sunning himself on the river shore next to me.

"Did you eat her?" I asked.

Sobek started making a weird snuffling sound, which I assumed was a crocodile laugh.

"You must not ask me these things."

"If we must meet like this can't you turn into something else, I don't feel safe next to a crocodile."

A golden flash of light engulfed Sobek, when the light subsided a tall beautiful man stood in his place.

"Is this better tasty one?"

He walked behind me and grabbed my shoulders, I felt a thrill of desire run through my body.

Sobek lightly nibbled my neck.

"So tender, so succulent, your soft young bones would provide just the right amount of crunch," he whispered.

I pushed him away.

"Don't you ever stop thinking about eating me!" I yelled.

"I'm a crocodile tasty one, that's what crocodiles do. If you want something else you will have to find another way to satiate yourself."

I woke up.

I felt different, a fire of desire had been lit inside me. I realized now I had been suppressing my sexuality and Ahmes hurried and fumbling performance had uncorked it.

What was I to do?

"That's the end of the papyrus," Charlie said.

"I guess nothing ever changes," Shelley said.

"What do you mean?" replied Mohammad.

"I had a friend that married some old geezer for money and no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't resist whatever man candy came walking by. It was too bad, the old geezer was kinda nice."

"You know what's odd, she's this powerful sorcerer yet the only magic she has talked about was performed by a normal magician," Charlie said.

"Ya, in all the books I've read about wizards and sorcerer's there's always some kind of apprenticeship," Shelley replied.

"It's going to be dark soon, let's cook some more food and go to bed."

They all stood up and brushed the sand off their legs. Charlie rolled up the papyrus and headed back to the cedar building. Shelley and Mohammad walked back to the stone grill.

Shelley picked up the statue of Sobek sitting on the grill and studied it again.

"Who are you?" she murmured under her breath.

"Just a hungry crocodile."

Shelley yelped in shock and dropped the statue in the sand.

"Did you hear that?!" she blurted out to Mohammad.

"Hear what?" Mohammad replied.

"The statue, it spoke."

"What did it say?"

Shelley repeated the brief conversation.

"Let's put it back in the building, I've had enough magic for one day."

Shelley walked back to the building, she met Charlie coming out and gave the statue to him explaining what had just happened.

Charlie put the statue on a vacant spot on one of the shelves and walked back outside.

They cooked what was left of the food ate it and then went to bed. They made sure the door was barred shut before they slept.

Shelley was the first to wake up in the morning. She quietly unbarred the door and walked out onto the beautiful beach. The sun was still on the horizon.

"She didn't move us this time," she thought

All the foot prints they had left on the beach the day before were gone, she looked over at the stone grill, it was completely clean and all the clay pots and jars looked as if they had been refilled.

She also saw what looked like a large group of rectangular arches about a hundred feet past the grill. The sun had not left the horizon yet so the light was still bright enough to see clearly.

She heard one of the men wake up and start dressing.

"What do you see?" Charlie asked.

"There's something new on the beach."

Their voices woke up Mohammad, he sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Stay together, remember," he said.

They waited until Mohammad was completely dressed then they left the building together and walked towards the stone arches.

The sun was higher now and Shelley could make out the arches more clearly, she could see the shapes of people in them.

"They're people!"

They walked faster until they stood in front of the first arch. There was a very exotic looking very young Ancient Egyptian woman standing in it. She wasn't moving.

Shelley tried to touch her but was stopped by the same type of force that stopped her from touching Kemamonit in her sarcophagus.

"There's a name in hieroglyphics," Mohammad pointed at the top of the arch, "It says Isis."

Charlie walked over to another arch, "This is Ahmes."

Shelley walked over and stood beside Charlie, she saw a slightly pudgy man with beady eyes, he looked to be about thirty five years old.

Danel was there as well, he had a lighter complexion then the others, and looked almost European. Shelley could see the attraction Isis had had to him, he projected a quiet strength and had a kind face.

"These must be her version of photographs," Mohammad said.

There were also two large men in the arches, the names were not familiar but Shelley noticed their powerfully muscled forearms and scarred faces.

They looked like experienced foot soldiers.

"I guess we know who they are," Charlie said behind her.

The final arch showed an overweight middle aged woman wearing more makeup then the typical clown.

"Sobek's lunch, Ahmes departed wife" Shelley said.

The reverse side of each arch was solid stone. They seemed to have been carved from a solid block of limestone. They could also see a small part of the environment each person was standing in, part of Danel's desk was visible covered in papyri and reed styluses.

They walked back to the grill and looked into the clay pots and jars, there was a different variety of food in them. There were different types of red meat, eggs and a jar full of inch square dark pieces of what looked like fudge.

Shelley took one out and tasted it.

"Well I know how she got Pepi to operate her spell thingy. Its honey mixed with chocolate. This must have been like heroin to child of antiquity."

"So she's been to South America as well," Charlie said.

"No surprise there, I wouldn't be surprised if she's been to Mars," Mohammad said.

Charlie and Shelley helped Mohammad cook breakfast for them, he made sure everything was extremely welled cooked.

They sat and watched the ocean in silence as they ate. Charlie was the first to finish, he washed his hands in the small waterfall drying them on his pants. He then walked into the building and took the next papyrus off the shelf then walked back to the other two.

"I don't know about you two, but I'm starting to get home sick. Let's get this over with."

Charlie rolled out the papyrus and started reading.

### Chapter six

Ahmes would not let me be seen in public with him, he was still supposed to be in mourning for his wife and didn't want to alienate her father the King.

He wasn't able to temper his lust for me however, even though he was not able to perform like a lion.

He stationed one of the servants that had escorted me to and from the temple to keep an eye on me, his name was Akhom.

I found myself deeply attracted to Akhom, he was a large powerful man with a subtle sense of humor.

When we were alone together I would try staring at him the same way I seen Isis stare at men in order to manipulate them. I would also accidently brush up against him when I had to walk by.

I could see him look at me sometimes when he thought I wasn't paying attention. I could tell he wanted to be loyal to his employer but I was sure I would eventually prevail in bending his will.

Akhom's wife had died a few years before and he had never remarried, he had two young daughters that were being raised by his mother's family.

Unfortunately Ahmes started to become suspicious and very jealous, he soon replaced Akhom with his partner Bai.

I thought Bai was a more than suitable replacement, he also seemed to care a lot less about being loyal to Ahmes for he had no family to support.

It was only a few short weeks before he seized me roughly with his muscular arms and finally gave me the release I had been yearning for.

Ahmes seem to know immediately that something had happened, his jealousy became uncontrollable, he dismissed Bai and refused to let me out of his sight.

I had told him that I had learned how to write previously, he now used that knowledge against me. He appointed me as his official scribe so he could always watch me.

"Don't put on so much paint around your eyes," Ahmes had a small rag and he carefully wiped the kohl from my eyes.

"That dress, don't you have one a little less revealing."

"No! These were all bought by you," I replied angrily.

"Stop your insolence."

I stared at him my anger making my face warm.

Ahmes face also had an expression of anger, but I could also sense a tone of desperation in his voice.

"We mustn't fight Kem, in time you will be happy here."

I felt his hand grope my thigh hungrily.

"Aren't we going to be late for your meeting," I replied indifferently.

"Yes of course, let us go."

I allowed him to clasp my hand and we walked out of the house's main entrance.

It was a short walk to the Kings palace. I had been to a number of Ahmes meetings in the last week, at first I was met with stunned amazement by the other members but as soon as they saw my scribes pallet and obvious writing skill I just became a mild curiosity.

The King had been feeling his mortality lately this coinciding with the death of his daughter.

He had appointed Ahmes to construct a tomb to carry him to the afterlife. Ahmes had been conducting meetings with subordinate architects in order to come up with a floor plan and overall exterior design.

The typical nobleman's tomb was usually created by excavating a few rooms into the desert ground. Then the corpse of the deceased was then interned with all the items needed for the afterlife and then wooden planks or large stone slabs were laid on top creating a roof for the rooms.

The final procedure was to cover the complex with a large flat mound of earth, this to keep the tomb robbers at bay.

This seldom worked, the evidence of robbery was apparent in most of the tombs of Lunu's elite.

The King wanted another solution so that his tomb would be spared this fate, Ahmes and his subordinates had been unable to come up with a foolproof design.

"What if we make the mound bigger and out of stone, say to the height of a fifteen men."

This from Senbi, a young eager looking fellow, I was pretty sure he had poor eyesight from the way he would squint at me. I was also sure he was infatuated with me.

He would blurt out odd questions to me after spending many minutes deep in concentration. I suspected he was building up his courage.

Strangely he kept his styluses in a special linen sack he had made so the ink wouldn't stain the wooden box he carried them in.

"It would be hard to lift the blocks up after the first few levels," Ahmes replied.

"Um... um... we could slope the sides and... use ramps," said Squinty,"What do you think Kem?" he stared at me intensely.

"Well, what I think is that if we didn't bury the King with all the crap he wants there would be nothing to steal."

There was an uncomfortable silence, the group then carried on as if I had said nothing.

I was astounded when I had first started attending these meetings how much effort was going into something that would never work.

The King could easily walk to fifty plundered tombs a within half a day's journey from his palace yet his vanity would lead him to believe that only he alone would thwart the thieves.

I suspected most of the robberies were being done by the very same labourers who had help construct them begin with.

I noticed many strategically placed lintels and roof slabs that were made of defective rock, all of which enabled quick access to the tombs.

"I say we use blocks, but only to the height that is feasible and then put loose stone and dirt on top of that," said Ahmes second in command Horus.

He was a distinguished looking older man. Ahmes didn't trust him and suspected he had been trying to take over the project behind his back.

The fourth member of the team was the construction foreman Paser, who like I, had lost all patience.

"Yes, that's good perfect. I'll start the quarrying," he said.

"No wait... wait, we have to be sure," Ahmes replied.

This started a furious argument with the four of them yelling and pounding their fists on the table.

I noticed at times like this how similar small groups of men were to a pack of dogs. I looked at their mouths moving and snarling faces and could almost hear them bark, woof... woof woof!! WOOF!!! Woof woof... woof??

There was always the inevitable whining underling as the pack leader re-established his dominance.

"Yes... YES! I'll wait... yes. It's your responsibility," Paser said to Ahmes.

I realized that Ahmes was incapable of making a decision. He was petrified that he would make the wrong one and Horus would point this out to the King which in turn would get him booted off the project.

I wondered how anything had ever gotten built in Lunu.

"Damn that Horus, I can see in his eyes he conspires against me," Ahmes said as we walked back to our house.

"You must do something, the King expects a plan," I replied.

Ahmes thought for a minute, I could see a frenzied scared look in his eyes.

"I shall allow Horus take credit for the plan, you must put his name prominently on all the documents. Then if it fails the King will blame him."

"What if it succeeds?"

Ahmes smiled at me, "I will make sure he is not involved in the construction and then diminish the value of his drawings and instructions."

I didn't tell Ahmes that the King would have to die in order to see if the tomb was successful. I had met the son the King had chosen for his heir, he was arrogant and indifferent to everyone but his father whom he continually flattered.

I was pretty sure he would lose any interest in his father's corpse the moment it was interned.

As we neared the house Ahmes gripped my hand harder, "we have the afternoon off, and perhaps if you are feeling better we can go to the bedroom."

"I still have a searing pain in my head, I fear it is some terrible pestilence you must let me rest."

"You have been ill a long time," Ahmes whined.

I had no pain in my head but I had been able to use this ruse in order to keep him at bay. I knew that even a man with his tiny libido would soon grow impatient but for now I was free of his clumsy groping.

"Tomorrow you will work with Senbi and put down Horus's plan on papyrus," Ahmes said as we entered the house. He then called for one of the servants to cook him a large meal.

I lay down on a couch and went to sleep.

"It has been a while tasty one."

We were not on the shores of the great river this time but deep in the desert. Sobek had taken the form of an old man.

"I have not been dreaming," I replied.

"You must pay careful attention to Senbi, you must learn what he knows."

"Senbi? Why?"

"You must do this Kem, if you don't just remember, the river is full of crocodiles."

I drifted off into a deep sleep.

The next day Senbi started smiling uncontrollably when Ahmes told him that we were to work together to transcribe Horus's plan. Ahmes obviously did not feel threatened by Senbi's infatuation of me, or perhaps he didn't notice, for he allowed us to work together out of his sight.

For all his faults Senbi was a diligent and gracious co-worker. He never took credit for my work or refused to share his extensive knowledge.

"The idea is not enough Kem, we have to break it down so that lay people can do the actual work," he said when we first started.

Senbi first showed me how to create the drawings that would be needed by Paser to dig the proper sized rooms and quarry the stone blocks.

I paid rapt attention to everything he said. I had remembered Sobek's veiled threat. There was no way to survive in this land without spending time next to the great river and its crocodiles.

Senbi and I spent many weeks on the drawings, he showed me how to manipulate numbers in ingenious ways that seemed more amazing then magic had been to me as a child.

"When you divide a circle's circumference by its diameter you will always get this number Kem three and one seventh," he had said the first week.

"But why?"

"No one knows, that's what the gods decided."

I spent many nights reading scrolls Senbi had lent me by lamplight. I learned how to measure time by the passage of the stars as well as the start of seasons and the sacred directions.

One morning when we had almost completed all the drawings and descriptions Senbi brought a small chest with him to our little office. He set it on the table opened it and pulled out a scroll.

"I wanted to show you this before we had finished, it's an idea I had," he rolled out the scroll.

I saw the papyrus was covered in boxes and circles joined together with lines. The boxes and circles all had writing in them.

"What is it?"

"It's a way of planning these jobs so that anyone could do it, see it starts here," he pointed to a circle with start written in it, "Then it flows through each decision and what to do if problems are encountered."

I followed one of the lines to a box, it had "not enough blocks quarried?" written in it then two lines emerging one was labelled yes the other no. They went to other blocks with descriptions of what should be done.

"See if we used this we wouldn't need to rely on Paser's memory so much."

I examined the papyrus closely, it was interesting but I was skeptical of it use, Paser had a fantastic memory and was quick to make wise decisions.

"It's interesting," I said.

Senbi could sense my skepticism, "well... um... it still needs work," he said.

"Well in any case we're almost done," I said trying to cheer him up.

He became even more melancholy.

That night I had to finally relent and let Ahmes have his way with me, he had started to become mean and callous. Thankfully his stamina hadn't improved. When he had finished and rolled onto his back I fell asleep.

"Hello Kem," Sobek said.

We were in an impossibly large room, the walls were decorated with massive pictures so lifelike I wouldn't have been surprised if the creatures and men in them had jumped out from them and walked around.

The floor was made of blindingly bright stone so smooth and flawless I could see my reflection in it.

Sobek appeared in his god form, a man with the head of a crocodile.

I had never seen him like this and prostrated myself in fear.

"Stand up, I have something to show you."

Sobek created the first fissure I had ever seen.

"What is it?" I gasped looking at it slowly turning.

"It's what sorcerers use to create magic," he replied, "You must remember exactly what I say Kem and write it down when you wake up."

Sobek showed me how to create fissures, and explained what they were.

"How will I use this?"

"Just remember what you've learned in your life, remember what Senbi showed you."

I suddenly remembered Senbi's papyrus with its little blocks and a vague idea started to form in my mind.

"Kem, the next time you see me will be when Anubis weighs your heart."

"I'm going to die?"

"Not for a very long time Kem. You will be my last worshiper, but do not worry I will wait for you."

I felt a profound sadness in my heart.

"One more thing Kem, there are many gods, always remember their hearts are not weighed down with guilt like people's are and their actions are no more predictable then a roll of the dice."

I woke up with tears in my eyes, I brushed them away got up and hurriedly wrote down what Sobek had told me before I forgot.

"What's a fissure?" Shelley asked as Charlie rolled up the Papyrus.

"I don't know, I'm not even sure if that's the right translation it might be hole or something else I can't be sure."

"I guess we now know the guy who invented the flow chart," Shelley said.

"Yes, it's odd that it's never shown up in any dig," said Mohammad.

"Maybe they didn't have enough buzzwords to use it properly," Charlie said, "there's still plenty of daylight left I'll get another papyrus."

The mastery of sorcery is a combination of trial and error and near death experiences.

I went with Ahmes to the Kings palace the next morning to finish up the plans for the Kings tomb.

"Is Horus's name is prominent on all the documents?" Ahmes asked me.

"Yes I even used formal script."

"Excellent."

I left Ahmes and joined Senbi in his office.

"Well it should only take part of the morning to finish up," I said.

Senbi stared at me with a strange look in his eyes, then he walked up to me grabbed my hand and dropped to his knees. He started kissing my hand.

"I love you Kem, come away with me."

I had grown cynical about the desires of men and coldly pondered his request.

"You know I cannot do that...unless... there is one thing you could do for me."

I explained to Senbi that I needed time away from Ahmes and that if he could come up with an excuse for me to continue working in his quarters I would succumb to his will.

"Yes of course... of course," he pressed my hand against his face.

Senbi told Ahmes that he had wanted to design a temple and present the plans to the King to see if it could be built. He said he would like my assistance because of my skill as a scribe.

"Are you willing to work with Senbi," Ahmes asked me.

I feigned an expression of disgust, "If I must," I said resentfully.

Ahmes did not see Senbi as a threat and I could see that he thought he would be the perfect person to keep an eye on me.

"It will be good for you Kem," he said sternly.

So I began my study of sorcery. I was able to satisfy Senbi without giving all of myself, for I feared becoming pregnant. He seemed thankful of any attention that I gave him.

Then I would spend the rest of the day alone in his office writing and experimenting with magic. I soon learned how dangerous and powerful it was.

I had numerous accidents, such as creating a wind so powerful it almost blew me into oblivion, another time I summoned a mighty flow of water that almost destroyed his office and drowned me.

After four months of intense study and stifling Senbi's curiosity I became a functional if not gifted sorcerer. I knew it would take years to hone my new craft but for now I was still the most powerful mage in the land.

I immediately thought of a plan to secure my freedom from Ahmes then prepared the spells to accomplish it.

It was a week later during an afternoon in Ahmes house that I put my plan into action.

I had packed my meager possessions in a reed basket. I put on my most elegant dress and painted my face. I sat on the couch in the main living area drinking a large cup of wine.

Ahmes stumbled out of the bedroom groggily and looked at me.

"Why are you wearing that dress?" he said angrily, "and I have told you many times not to wear makeup!" he reached for a small rag.

There was a rustling sound that came from the main entrance, I saw the expression on Ahmes face change from anger to amazement to fear.

"Who is this whore?!" Hippo face screamed at Ahmes.

"Um... she is... scribe..."

"Get this slut out of here now or I will have her put to death!"

I downed the rest of my wine picked up the reed basket and walked out of the house. Hippo face didn't even notice me, her eyes blazed with fire and were locked onto her unfaithful husband.

I was free.

### Chapter seven

I walked for a long time until I was alone deep in the desert, I then summoned a small flying boat I had created, it had a small awning to shade me from Ra.

I climbed in and left the ground for the first time in my life, I flew as high as I dared then sped across the city until I was over the great river.

I had looked at Lunu's walls, temples, and buildings as they passed below me. They seemed small and insignificant to me now.

I turned my little boat and started to follow the river back to my home.

I soon learned my little boat could fly much faster than the fastest bird, unfortunately it would shake and rattle in the most fearful way. The flimsy awning would also catch the wind like a sail and start to tear.

I slowed down and kept the speed at a manageable level, I was still was moving faster than a sprinting man.

Watching the birds and crocodile's in the river below me was mesmerizing. I would swoop down to take closer looks and scare the crocodiles.

I felt a bit guilty when the crocodiles would dart into the water out of fear, but at least they would now know how I had felt.

It took only two days for me to travel back to my tiny village, I landed a good distance away and walked in so the villagers wouldn't be frightened.

I walked back to my parents' house. I would finally be able to confront my father with what he had done to me.

I walked in the door and saw my eldest brother Geb, he looked much older and had fine lines around his mouth and eyes.

"Oh Kem!" he ran to me and then hugged me so hard it hurt.

"What has happened, where are father and mother?"

Geb looked at me with a sad expression, "It was the pestilence, they are both gone Kem."

I felt my eyes fill with tears and my body shake with grief, "when?"

"It was a few months after you ran away."

"Is that what father told you?"

"Yes, but none of us believed him, you were gone and he suddenly had a lot of gold."

"I bet he just gambled it away," I said suddenly angry.

"Oh Kem," Geb hugged me again.

The pestilence had spared all my siblings but had devastated the village, many of my friends were now gone. I thought about using my new found power to resurrect them, but thought better of it.

I had the knowledge to resurrect people but had none of how to cure disease, I did not want them to die again inflicting even more suffering, sorcery was a fickle thing.

I spent the next week with my family but I soon realized that I had outgrown this place. I yearned to travel the land and unravel the mysteries of the world.

I wanted to see the monsters of the great ocean and travel to the edge of the earth.

I had conjured up a small bag of gold previously and chose now to give it to Geb, I told him I would be leaving and would be gone for many months.

"There is something very different about you Kem, I will not ask you where you got the gold but I will keep it hidden and use it with caution."

I kissed him on the cheek and then left for my little boat.

I took off from the desert and headed west, I had made some repairs to my craft so that it was sturdier and I could increase my speed. I had also written a spell so that if I was to get hopelessly lost I would always be able to find my way home.

I sped across the great desert and its endless shifting dunes, I tried flying as high as I could but found that the winds became so faint and cold that I started to lose my senses.

It was only after a few days that the desert ended and an enormous ocean appeared. It looked endless for even at my great height it still stretched to the horizon. I knew from the scrolls I had read that this must me the great ocean that surrounded the land that we all lived on.

I felt a great deal of trepidation leaving the land behind, even with my newfound skills I still feared the unknown.

I noticed large shapes moving in the waters below me. These must be the monsters I had read about.

I swooped down my heart beating wildly, I had a spell ready in case they tried to jump out of the water to attack me. I knew they would be vicious predators.

As I got closer I could see that they were actually immense fish, they were the length of ten men. I watched as they swam in a very unfish like way, they would skim the surface diving and surfacing.

I watched in amazement as large spouts of water emerged from their backs.

They didn't notice me as I circled around their little group, I'm sure I wouldn't have provided much of a meal to them.

I flew back up and pointed my boat back on its course, I was off to the edge of the world.

I soon became an expert in reading the winds on the ocean. I had blithely flown into a tempest and was immediately pelted with stinging raindrops and blinded by enormous streaks of lightning.

The wind had roared around me ripping my awning to shreds and shaking my little boat.

I quickly learned to recognize the clouds and the large ocean swells that accompanied a violent tempest.

I flew on for a few more days becoming cramped and sore in my small boat. I decided I would build a much bigger flying machine when I returned. I knew the edge of the world could not be much further.

I passed over a few small islands and decided to set down one of them. I landed my craft on an achingly beautiful beach covered in pink sand. The ocean water was so clear it was almost invisible.

I stayed on the beach for a few days recovering from my cramped journey. I had never been alone for so long at any time in my life and it was both unsettling and exhilarating.

I became too impatient to wait any longer and took off once again, the earth's edge being so close.

It was not even before half the morning had passed that I came upon a large land mass, it was covered with a dense forest.

I spent a whole week exploring it to see if was just a large island, all I was able to discern was that it was a thin long strip of land connecting two immense land masses.

I saw that the land was inhabited with dark haired men and women with broad faces and almond shaped eyes. I was not brave enough to land and meet them for the men appeared to be fearsome warriors, my flyer would just frighten them away anyway.

I again turned west and headed for the earths edge.

This time the ocean seemed endless, it was many times the size of the ocean I had just crossed, thankfully there where many small uninhabited islands along the way.

I was always careful to pick islands with little vegetation for some of the islands were occupied with the almond eyed people.

I passed a chain of islands that had tall mountains that spewed fire and smoke, I came as close as I dared. The immense rumbling sound and explosions of fire and smoke convinced me that it was very dangerous.

I knew now the edge of the earth was close for these mountains were obviously a warning to the foolish.

Again the ocean seemed endless, I flew around a tempest that was so large it took a whole day. I thought it must have been caused by the meeting of the wind and the void.

Exasperated, I started flying over land again, first large islands and archipelagos then a huge peninsula heavily populated with almond eyed people, they looked different though with thinner limbs.

I passed over a small ocean and then over another large land area, this time the people looked very similar to the people of the black land.

I saw many cows and idols of unfamiliar gods, I had a vague memory of a story about such a place, but it had been to the east so I dismissed it.

At last I came to another ocean, this had to be it, I had been voyaging for almost two months the end of the earth could not be any further.

I saw land once again, this time a large sandy desert that looked very similar to the great desert. I flew on.

A strange thought entered my mind. I dismissed it, I was too proud to believe it to be true. I had scoffed at the king's vanity but could not admit to my own.

It was only when the great river came into view that I could fool myself no longer. The gods had tricked me. They must have been laughing at me the whole journey, this silly child trying to travel to the worlds end.

I felt tears form in my eyes, I wiped them away and sat up straight in my little flying machine. I would not give them the satisfaction of seeing my disappointment.

It was many years later that I realized that my real vanity had been to think that the gods had any interest in me. That the earth was an immense blue pearl floating in a void so vast and terrifying as to be almost unimaginable was not something I would ever have believed.

"That's the end of the papyrus," Charlie said.

"She sure screwed over that Ahmes guy, and how can it be easier to resurrect someone than it is to cure an illness?" Shelley asked.

"I think her captor got off lightly, if it had been me I don't think I would have been so generous," said Mohammad.

"It's all magic, none of it makes sense. Let's go to bed its getting dark," Charlie said.

They woke up the next morning in a different room, the wooden floor was the same but the walls were all made of stone.

Shelley was the first to wake as usual and looked to see if Kemamonit's sarcophagus was still there. It was.

She quickly dressed herself and walked over to the room's entrance, the wooden door that had blocked it was gone.

"Oh my god!" she said as she looked out.

"What? What's going on?" Charlie said as he awakened.

"Look!" Shelley pointed emphatically out the entrance.

Charlie walked up behind her and looked over her shoulder.

"Wow."

He saw a panorama of temples, buildings and statues as far as the eye could see. He could see two large stone pyramids in the distance.

The buildings and statues were of a size and quality that he had never seen before in any of the ancient Egyptian ruins he had visited. The two pyramids looked to be a thousand feet high.

Mohammad woke up and got dressed as well, "what now?" he said.

"Why don't we walk around? I wonder if there are people?" said Shelley.

"I guess if we stick together it shouldn't hurt," said Charlie.

"We better not get lost..." Mohammad was looking out the doorway.

The three of them emerged from a small stone building, behind it the panorama continued. There were roads and walkways constructed of smooth granite stones between the buildings.

They started walking towards a nearby temple constructed of colossal limestone columns that must have been a hundred feet high. They walked between the columns and then through a massive entranceway.

They emerged into a gigantic room with huge lifelike murals on the walls. The floor was smooth marble.

"It's from one of her dreams," Shelley blurted out.

"Do you think this whole city is from her dreams?" said Charlie.

"I know one thing, what she's done with limestone is not physically possible. Limestone isn't strong enough to build something in this way," Mohammad said.

Shelley looked around the huge room,"ya it does have an unreal feeling about it."

"There's so much light in here too, but no windows," said Charlie.

A cacophony of popping sounds started echoing through the room startling the three of them. They all turned towards the origin of the sound and saw a snowstorm of small colored pottery shards floating down from the ceiling. Some of the shards had pieces of colored string or linen attached to them.

Shelley put out her hand and caught one of the shards, she turned it around examining it. It had an eye painted on it similar to ones see had seen on the faces in tomb paintings.

The shard suddenly flew out of her hand and she watched as it and the other shards started to arrange themselves into distinct forms.

They saw the shapes of four young women standing in front of them. The shards with the bits of string had formed their hair, the ones with linen their skirts.

Each of the women had faces made of shards with painted eyes, a nose and a mouth.

A strange and unfamiliar music filled the room, it had a heavy percussive beat. The pottery women started to move in a complicated synchronized dance.

They started to jump and spin around them moving their arms and legs in sync with the music. They seemed to be aware of the three of them for they danced around them whenever they came close.

Mohammad took out his cell phone and used the camera to film them.

"They're beautiful, they look almost alive," Shelley whispered.

The music's tempo started to increase and the women danced faster and faster until they were almost a blur. The shards then coalesced forming a small whirlwind in the center of the room, it disappeared the instant the music stopped.

The three were again standing in an empty room.

"That was interesting, "said Charlie.

They left the temple and walked to another building, it was also made of stone but looked more utilitarian, it resembled an aircraft hangar.

The entrance was many feet wide as they walked through they could see numerous wooden boat like structures of many different sizes.

They walked towards the closest boat, it was about a hundred feet long and had a gangplank leading to its deck. They carefully walked up the plank and soon stood on the large wooden deck.

They saw a wooden entranceway with a stair leading to the cabins below deck. They walked down the stairs and soon stood in a corridor with many rooms branching off from it.

Each room had a large stone heating grill similar to the one they had used to cook their meals. There was also a large opening covered in crosshatched wooden dowels there was a lever beside it. They could not see behind the dowels as it was dark.

Shelley moved the lever and a steady blast of air emerged.

"It's a spaceship, or her attempt to build one," Mohammad blurted out.

"Huh?' said Shelley.

"She doesn't know air is a gas or what a vacuum is, so she's trying to compensate for the cold and the low pressure using these devices."

"It wouldn't have worked, a hard vacuum is a pretty nasty thing," said Charlie.

"That's probably why there are so many ships here, she kept trying new designs."

They disembarked down the gangplank and boarded the next ship, it looked more sophisticated, with large sections made of bronze and the wooden planks fitted together with great precision.

The next ship was almost entirely bronze, there were many complicated unrecognizable devices made of wood stone and bronze in the cabins. The walls had small windows in them at regular intervals that looked to be made by using sliced naturally occurring transparent quartz rock.

"It's like ancient Egyptian steampunk," Shelley said.

"It still wouldn't have worked, the seals on the doors aren't good enough, and I wouldn't trust windows with big fractures in them." Mohammad said.

They exited the ship.

Shelley pointed to a ship that seemed to be made of mirrors, "look at that one."

They walked over to a ship that wouldn't have looked out of place in a Hollywood movie. It was curved like a symmetrical jelly bean and had a large window in the front.

The skin was perfectly reflective, as good as any mirror they had ever seen. Charlie touched the ship with his finger.

"Weird, it feels like I'm touching my own finger," he said.

Shelley touched it as well,"ya you're right."

There was a small set of wooden stairs in front of a wood framed entrance, the craft was hovering about two feet above the floor. They walked up the stairs and into the ship, they emerged into a large room crammed with ancient furniture and decorations. The interior was made of the same reflective material as the exterior.

Kem had done her best to cover the floors with carpets and hang paintings on the walls to give it a homier feel. Unfortunately the walls could not hold pegs so she had used wooden hat rack like apparatus's to hang the pictures.

Shelley walked up to one of the windows and touched it, it felt exactly like the force field in Kem's sarcophagus.

There was a large podium like device made of wood and bronze in front of the window. It was covered in levers labeled with mostly unfamiliar writing. One of the levers had door written in hieroglyphic under it.

Charlie pushed the lever watching the entrance way. The wood framed opening disappeared and was replaced with a new mirrored section.

"This ship would have worked," Charlie said.

"She abandoned material altogether and just used magic," Mohammad said looking at the ships control panel.

"I wonder what she did with it?"

"I smell a faint odor of vomit so I suspect she might have gone into orbit," Charlie said.

"Why vomit?" replied Shelley.

"Being weightless probably caused her to have motion sickness, plus if she wanted to go somewhere like the moon she would have had to withstand some pretty high g-forces which would have been almost as bad."

"She sure was fearless."

Charlie moved the door lever back to its original position and the wood framed opening reappeared. They exited the ship and then the hangar. They walked to another large building of similar shape and size.

The entrance to this building was much smaller about the size of a double set of doors. As they walked in they could see an aisle lined by on each side by wooden shelves.

They soon discovered the whole building was filled with thousands of different objects. There were numerous stone blocks in every conceivable shape, size, and material.

Charlie found an aisle with hundreds of plants and small trees all preserved in the same kind of stasis field that was in Kem's sarcophagus.

There were chests, musical instruments, furniture, gemstones, weird mechanical contraptions, the shelves seemed endless.

"This is like a time capsule," Shelley said.

"We have to stop this," Mohammad suddenly blurted out.

"Stop what?"

"Exploring the city, it's endless we could spend a lifetime here, we should finish reading the papyri first."

Charlie had a thoughtful look on his face, "Mohammad's right, we're wasting time."

"What if there's a library?" Shelley said excitedly.

"I'm sure there is, but there are miles of huge buildings, we would never find it."

The three of them left the warehouse and reluctantly walked back to the little building that held Kemamonit's body.

They found a small park like space close to the building, it had a stone table surrounded by three stone benches. There was a large statue of Sobek made of some sort of dark rock close by.

Charlie had retrieved the next papyrus, he now unrolled it on the table weighted down the corners and started to read.

I circled above the great river for many hours thinking about what I would do next.

I had been foiled in my attempt to find the edge of the earth and the great sea monsters that I had seen were interesting but had not been the fire breathing fierce brutes I had expected.

I did not want to go back to Lunu, I feared that my disdain for Ahmes and the King might turn into something worse. If I saw either one I worried I would lash out in an instance of anger then do something I would regret and weigh down my Ka.

I realized that I was still not a very good sorcerer. The temple magician had described a rival to me once when I had assisted him.

"He does the grand illusions well, but they are easy, the audience is far away and they are only able to see from one angle. It is the close-up sleights of hand that show the true professional."

This description fit me perfectly, I relied on simple brute force rather than finesse.

I decided I would build a secret place in a different cosmos and become a master at my new craft.

"What does that mean, different cosmos?" Shelley interrupted Charlie.

"I have never seen this word, that's my best guess."

This is where you are now, mysterious guests. This great city is the creation of nine years of practice and experimentation.

I learned many things here. I consulted wise men and women from all over the earth learning to speak many languages.

I traveled into the windless void trying to reach the moon, almost dying. I learned of the endless distances the gods had put the stars and planets making them unreachable.

I traveled the entire world finally realizing how stupid I had been thinking that the gods had somehow fooled me.

The world was like a child's ball and the top and bottom were covered in vast fields of snow and ice.

I had only seen small pellets of ice fall from the sky a few times in my life and had thought the desert at night in the winter was an unbearable cold.

I laugh now as I think of the brutal and harsh lands I had visited that could kill a man in minutes.

I became a great sorcerer, but I could not overcome the one thing that had killed more men and women then any war or vain brutal King.

A vile pestilence struck me in my twenty fifth year, it manifested itself with a sudden violent pain in my abdomen, soon I was with fever and unable to keep any food in my stomach.

Sobek had been wrong, I would not be his last worshipper.

I was no different than my countrymen when it came to my imminent demise. I had already prepared my tomb and the spells to preserve my body as so many had before.

So now you see me, mysterious strangers, waiting for Anubis to weigh my heart.

Oh great lord Anubis opener of the ways,

If it is you who has read my story

My spells can be circumvented with the help of Sobek

My heart awaits your scale

"That's it," Charlie said.

"What about the rest of the papyri," Mohammad said as he stood up.

The three of them walked back to the building, and over to the shelves of papyri, Mohammad grabbed one that they hadn't read.

"It's the book of the dead," he said after reading a few lines.

"That's unusual for a pre-dynastic tomb," Charlie said.

"She's unusual."

"There's an ostracon on her sarcophagus," Shelley pointed.

Charlie walked over and picked it up, "It says to return say my name three times."

"What do we do?"

Shelley rubbed her hand over the edge of the sarcophagus, her hand stopped on a square depression at the apex behind Kemamonit's head.

She absentmindedly ran her finger around the inside. It was about an inch deep and she felt uneven ridges inside like writing.

She looked at the wooden shelves and saw the statue of Sobek, it had a square base.

Charlie and Mohammad were busy reading the other papyri and didn't notice her walk over and pick up the statue.

She put the base of the statue in the depression, Sobek's crocodile snout was facing away from the sarcophagus.

Nothing happened.

Shelley lifted the statue up and turned it around so the head looked over Kem.

She heard a groan as if someone was in deep pain, she looked at Kem's body and yelped in shock as she saw her writhing in pain.

Mohammad and Charlie dropped the Papyri they were holding and stared at the writhing body in amazement.

Mohammad reached into the sarcophagus and picked Kemamonit up in his arms. She was surprising light.

"Kemamonit, Kemamonit, Kemamonit," Mohammad yelled.

There was a blinding flash of light.

### Chapter eight

I was being carried aloft by an immense bird. I could hear the noise of the powerful wings flapping at an incredible speed as I passed in and out of consciousness.

I knew death was near, the great bird must be flying me to the underworld.

Shouldn't the underworld be down? I thought as consciousness left me for what I assumed was the final time.

I awoke in a darkened room, I felt as if I had drunk too much wine for I was unable to concentrate and make sense of my surroundings. My pain was gone, a flood of relief flowed through me as I fell into a deep sleep.

I felt Ra shining on my cheek as I emerged out of my slumber. I opened my eyes and cautiously looked around just moving my eyes. I could feel a slight pain in my abdomen but it was tolerable.

I was lying on a bed in a strange room painted blindingly white, Ra was shining through a large window. There were shiny objects all around me that looked like a white highly polished bronze.

I notice shiny clear ropes strung around me, they appeared to be hollow with a liquid slowly travelling through them. The ropes originated from a clear sack made of the same material full of the liquid.

I followed the rope down to its other end, I felt panic rise in me as I saw it was attached to a shiny white bronze needle stuck in my arm.

I thought about pulling the needle out, but decided against it. The gods must have put it in for a reason perhaps to prepare my heart for its final weighing.

I fell back to sleep.

I heard voices, I kept my eyes closed hoping to hear Anubis and Sobek discussing my fate.

Instead I heard three distinct voices talking in a harsh unfamiliar language. I opened my eyes. I saw three people looking at me from the edge of my bed. One, a man looked to be from the Black land, the other two a man and woman must have come from the primitive tribes far to the north for they were white skinned.

They wore strange garb that looked to be made of the finest cloth I had ever seen.

"Kem are you well?" The white male asked me in an almost incomprehensible accent.

"Am I dead? Is this the underworld?" I replied in a voice so hoarse I did not recognize it as my own.

"No, you are alive," his accent had improved.

"Where..." my voice failed me.

"You are still in the Black land, but a very long time has passed. You must rest."

There was a small table in front of me ingeniously supported with a white bronze bracket device, it had a cup of some kind of juice and a bowl of a clear green colored substance.

The other man picked up an oddly shaped spoon and scooped up a portion of the green substance and held it in front of my mouth.

I noticed I was hungry so I tentatively tasted the substance. It was very sweet and had an odd taste and texture. I didn't have to chew it.

I took the spoon from the man and quietly ate the rest of the bowl washing it down with the orange colored juice in the cup.

"How long has it been?" I asked the three of them.

"Six um... six..." the white male took a beautiful red stylus from his pocket and a small stack of the finest papyrus I had ever seen and wrote something on it. He showed it to me.

It said six thousand years. I almost fainted, how had this happened?

I noticed my bracelet was not on my wrist and felt a surge of panic.

"My bracelet, where is it? It is very dangerous," I said urgently.

"We know. It's in a very safe place. My name is Mohammad this is Charlie and the young lady is Shelley. She can't speak your language."

Another man walked up beside my bed, he had a long cloak like outfit with an odd rope like device hanging around his neck.

"The physician would like to examine you," Charlie said, I noticed his accent had been improving by leaps and bounds.

I said it would be alright.

He poked and prodded me, then put the weird device in his ears and the other end against my chest. It suddenly occurred to me he was listening to the beats of my heart.

I thought it odd that after six thousand years physicians still did the exact same things.

The three of them held a long discussion with the physician after he was finished examining me.

Charlie turned to me and said, "you will be able to leave tomorrow."

The physician left.

"I have something for you," he gave me a large shiny sack that looked to be full of fine papyrus sheets, "you won't be able to read them but you can look at the pictures."

I reached in and pulled out a sheaf of pages, they were folded and bound with shiny bronze needles. I flipped through it curiously, the pictures were impossibly real and showed the most amazing things.

"We will be back tomorrow, be sure to rest," Charlie said.

The three of them left me alone.

I examined all the papyri intently, I couldn't read the language but noticed the words all had spaces in between them. I suddenly felt very stupid, this seemed like such a profoundly obvious way to write.

I had always gotten headaches reading in scarce light or when I was tired. These spaces would have made comprehension much easier.

The pictures showed cities so incredible as to defy belief, there were also massive flying machines and ships the size of small mountains.

I saw devices that were like small windowed cabins with circular black objects attached to each corner, they appeared to travel on wide gray roads.

It was all too fantastic for me to comprehend, I suddenly felt a profound exhaustion settle into my bones and I fell fast asleep.

It was morning. I ate the weird tasteless meal one of the strangely garbed people had left on my little movable table. I was happy the three strangers were going to pick me up soon. Even with all the ingenious devices and the interesting and unusual furniture I found this place very depressing for some reason.

It was not long before the three of them were beside my bed. They had brought a beautiful leather bag full of clothing. The two men left and Shelley stayed showing me how to put on the clothes properly.

I found them very restricting but the material was soft and fit me well.

When we were done dressing Charlie and Mohammad came back bringing a chair that seemed to glide across the floor, there were large round devices attached to each side and they seemed to turn as the chair moved.

I suddenly had an eruption of understanding, my mind spun with the concept. This was the idea of a profound genius, spinning disks to support and move a large weight.

A million thoughts roared through my heart, a device pulled by animals, putting a rope around it to lift weights.

I stared mesmerized rubbing my fingers over the black sticky substance that lined the outside edge.

The three of them looked at me with worried expressions.

"What's the matter Kem?" Charlie asked.

"What are these called? Who thought them up?" I said.

Shelley's face suddenly lit up and she started talking quickly in their harsh language.

The two men's expressions changed from worry to realization.

"They are called wheels, no one knows who invented them, it was over five thousand years ago," Mohammad said.

"They must have changed the course of history," I said.

Charlie had an odd expression on his face, "Yes... I guess they did."

I sat down in the wheeled chair as excited as a young child, Shelley stood behind me and started to push it.

"Faster! Faster!" I yelled, unable to control myself.

She seemed to understand me and increased the speed.

We emerged from a large building. I touched the transparent stone panels that had been inserted into the doors to let light in. They were of much higher quality than I had ever found.

I had only been able to find small boulders and they all had fractures running through them after I had sliced the rock into panels.

They led me to one of the wheeled cabins I had seen pictures of, I got in the back door and sat on a comfortable seat. Shelley put a large belt like device over me. I assumed it was to keep us in our seats as we flew along at incredible speeds.

"So I see that sorcery is common place now," I said trying not to look too impressed as the vehicle accelerated onto the road smoothly and almost soundlessly.

"It's not sorcery, you'll learn soon enough. We can't do the things you do, not even close," Charlie said.

"But the flying ships, the light panels in my room," I said confused.

"They do not work the same way.

We have another problem, things are kind of crazy here now. The people are rebelling against their government. We must leave but you have no documents to be able to board a flying ship."

"I can conjure us to appear somewhere else, It must be a place that I have been to before and hasn't changed." I said.

Charlie smiled, "The place where you sent us to see the sunrise."

"I can do that, I need my bracelet though."

"It is in a safe at the Inn we are staying at."

I noticed two enormous crumbling pyramids appear occasionally between the tall buildings we passed. I could tell they had been built in my era being made of large stone blocks.

The vanity of Kings was immeasurable, I knew in my heart these had to be tombs. They had never learned, they had just built bigger and better mounds.

"Those are plundered tombs?" I pointed to the edifices.

"How did you know?" Mohammad had a surprised expression on his face.

"If you bury valuable things and mark the spot so everyone can see, people will steal them, even six thousand years ago."

"Oh, so it was obvious even then."

"Did it ever work?" I asked, curious.

"The mounds and pyramids were all plundered, the Kings then switched to underground rooms. That worked three times, but two of the tombs were badly damaged by water. The one that survived was only partially plundered, we think a landslide hid the location afterwards."

"I'll bet its empty now," I said cynically.

Again Mohammad had a surprised look on his face, "it's complicated, the Kings body is still there but all his things have been moved for display. The government owns them."

"At least they are serving some useful purpose now," I replied.

The vehicle stopped in front of a towering building, there was a group of men in some kind of uniform in front of the doors.

"They are soldiers?" I asked.

Charlie and Mohammad laughed, "No, they will carry your luggage and open the door if you pay them."

"Oh. I will give them some money then," I said as I searched my clothes for a copper deben. I suddenly realized where I was and felt my face go warm in embarrassment.

Shelley gave me a colorful piece of papyrus.

"That's money here," Mohammad said.

"How does it last?" I remembered all the problems we had storing papyrus, it would rot if it was near water or got wet.

"It's not papyrus, it's made from a different kind of plant and it lasts a long time. We call it paper."

We left the vehicle, I carried my new leather bag, onto the side of the road. One of the men walked over and picked it up.

We followed behind him as he walked to the door of the building and opened it for us. I handed him the money and he gave me my bag back with a bright smile on his face.

We entered a small room with sliding doors, Charlie pressed one of the round buttons on the wall and I felt the room move upwards.

I suddenly remembered my idea of the wheel and rope to lift heavy weights. The button must signal a group of men to pull the rope, lifting us up!

I suddenly had an inkling of what Charlie meant when he said that they didn't use sorcery.

I followed the group into a large room that had an extremely large comfortable looking bed. There was also a variety of fine wooden furniture and chairs. I noticed a large rectangular device that looked like a picture frame with around a flat slate stone.

Charlie picked up a small device with colorful buttons all over it and pointed it at the framed slate and a bright picture suddenly appeared, It was of a large group of people rioting in a wide building lined street.

I looked closer and realized the people were moving. How could this not be sorcery?

"It's a revolution, it's happening all over the Middle East," Charlie said.

"What are they revolting against?"

"The government, they want democracy."

"What's democracy?"

"It's when everybody votes for their leader."

I contemplated this for a moment, obviously things had changed quite a bit. I had grown up in an era of callous and vain Kings who believed in their Devine right to rule. I knew they would have killed thousands without remorse to stay in power.

"Won't the king send soldiers to kill them all?" I said.

"The Black land is not a powerful kingdom anymore, he risks interference from much more powerful lands if he does this," Charlie said.

I heard a harsh sound like the ringing of a bell, Mohammad put a small instrument to his ear and started to talk in the harsh language.

He finished the conversation after a few seconds, and then started to talk to Charlie with a sense of urgency.

"We have to go now, the tomb master has gotten wind of you and is on his way," Mohammad said to me.

"The tomb master?"

"He looks after all the monuments for the government."

Charlie had opened up one of the doors on a large piece of furniture revealing another smaller sturdy looking door with a dial on it. He spun the dial in different directions then moved a small lever causing the door to open.

He reached inside and pulled out a small paper sack and tossed it to me. I looked inside and saw my bracelet.

I put it on my wrist. I suddenly had the same feeling I would get when I clothed in the morning. I had carried my little magical tool on my wrist for many years and would only take it off on rare occasions.

I was quite proud of it for it enabled me to cast many different types of spells effortlessly. I had spent months designing and perfecting it, it worked by flipping the little squares it was made of in different orders to get the desired spell.

The specific order was in a kind of language that was only known to me, however a curious person flipping the squares randomly could unwittingly summon disaster making it quite dangerous.

"We must gather our things in an open area and then stand close together," I said.

They pushed the bed to the wall and gathered all the luggage in a pile, Shelley and Charlie quickly checked the room to make sure they had missed nothing.

We gathered into a group around the luggage. I started flipping the squares on my bracelet to prepare the proper spell.

"Is there going to be a blinding flash?" Charlie asked with an annoyed expression on his face.

I felt a surge of anger rise in me, how dare he question me, I thought to myself, I am a powerful sorcerer.

I was about to remind him to whom he was talking to when I noticed the people on the moving picture device being assaulted by uniformed men with shields and large clubs.

A feeling of shame rose in my heart.

Ah... the vanity of sorcerers.

"The spell won't work without it," I said, lying to him.

I flipped the last square closing my eyes.

I opened my eyes and looked around, we were on the stone hill I had first visited many years ago. The landscape had hardly changed in six thousand years, the only difference appeared to be a few thin roads and small buildings in the distance.

"How are we going to get down?" Shelley asked.

I smiled to myself as my fingers danced over my bracelet.

"Look over there," I pointed to a black dot in the sky.

The dot became larger and larger until I could see the outline of my trusty little flying ship appear.

I had modified it quite a bit since my first journey around the earth, it was much larger now and had a sturdier awning.

The ship glided silently until it was beside me then it stopped hovering two cubits above the ground.

I walked over to the side and pulled down a small set of stairs, another one of my modifications.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked.

The three of them picked up the luggage and climbed the stairs boarding the ship. I followed behind them pulling up the stairs.

Charlie pulled out a device similar to what I had seen Mohammad talking into. He stared at it intently while moving his thumb over it in jerky movements.

"There's a town north of here with an airport, we should be able to rent a car," he said.

"Why can't we fly?" I said confused," I have seen many flying craft so mine shouldn't seem unusual."

"They don't work like yours, and they're incredibly noisy," he replied.

Shelley laughed and said a word that sounded like ewe ef owe.

I sat down in front of the ships control levers pulled the proper one and launched it into the sky, I turned north and accelerated.

The three of them seemed mesmerized as I flew across the landscape. I flew low about a hundred cubits above the ground and kept my speed low so that only a stiff breeze moved across my face.

It seemed unbelievable to me that people that had flown in mighty metal birds would be impressed by my ancient wooden flyer. They had all moved to the bow and had thrust their faces over the railing into the wind.

"Be careful," I yelled out nervously.

After a short time I saw a large city in the distance, to the south there was a group of large buildings which had winged flyers lined up beside of them.

I lowered my altitude until I was just a few cubits from the ground and slowed down to walking speed. I came as close to the flying complex as I could without someone seeing us then stopped.

We then dismounted my ship carrying our possessions, I used my bracelet to send my craft away.

"Where does it go?" Mohammad asked.

"It goes back to the city you all visited," I said.

"How?"

"It's magic."

I started to feel tremendously tired suddenly, and a dull pain started to radiate from my abdomen.

"I have to rest," I said, feeling my legs give away.

Mohammad dropped his bags and grabbed me before I fell. He then scooped me up in his arms carrying me.

Charlie and Shelley picked up his bags.

"We'll rent a room so you can rest," Charlie said.

"Is the pestilence coming back?" I said worried.

"No. It wasn't pestilence anyway, it was a piece of your intestine," he pronounced a long word I didn't understand," they cut it out and gave you powerful drugs for your fever. The physicians were very surprised the medicine worked, we think it's because the bugs inside you were so old they hadn't learned to outwit the drugs yet."

"What are these bugs?" I said alarmed. I started thinking of the large variety of flies that burrowed into human flesh.

"They are too small to see, they cause almost all illnesses," Charlie looked at me for a moment, "you are going to have an awful lot to learn Kem, don't be discouraged."

I was too tired to be discouraged. It was a only a short while later before I was lying on the most comfortable bed I had ever felt and was fast asleep.

I woke up the next morning with Ra shining through the window. I felt much better lying in the midst of all the soft blankets and pillows, I wondered how people waking in the midst of all this comfort could ever get out of bed.

I noticed a moving picture window hanging on the wall across from my bed, I saw the control device sitting on a small table beside the bed.

I picked it up and began pressing buttons randomly. I soon learned which button turned the device on and off and found that there were many different windows that could be accessed.

I flipped through the windows curious at what they would show. I stopped on one for a moment and was startled to see my name in hieroglyphs in a little square next to a woman who was staring at me while she was speaking.

The scene then changed showing the large black granite block sitting in the midst of a sandy desert. I realized with a shock that it was my tomb that they were showing.

The scene changed again showing a corpse that had been prepared for the afterlife and then it switched once more showing large flying machine leaving the ground.

I had thankfully designed all the spells used in my tomb to go dormant if my body was ever removed from my sarcophagus, and the block of granite would bear even the closest scrutiny.

I did wonder why anyone would have any interest in me though.

I checked some more windows and found another one that was showing my tomb, this time the scene changed to an angry middle aged man yelling and pointing in the midst of a group of people holding little sticks with balls on the end of them.

The tomb master? I thought.

He looked very familiar, with a jolt I realized he was the spitting image of Paser the construction foreman on the Kings tomb, even his gestures were the same.

I wondered for a moment if people lived many lives through the ages, I suddenly felt sad, if that was true this poor man was still stuck looking after the tombs of vain kings.

I heard a light knock at the room's door.

"Enter, I am not naked," I said.

When Shelley had dressed me the day before, I had gleaned from her gestures that nakedness was an appalling thing in this time. I had observed many strange customs in my travels and had learned through hard experience not to ignore them.

Charlie walked in to my room closing the door behind him.

"I see you've been watching the news," he said.

"What is happening?"

"The tomb master thinks we found your tomb and stole all the artifacts. The government here is looking for us."

"Do they know I'm alive?"

"I don't think so, I told my digging crew that you were a tomb robber and had been seriously hurt."

"Digging crew?"

"The three of us look for ancient artifacts, that's our job and that is how we found you."

"So what are we to do?" I asked.

"I will send you away with Shelley, they don't know about her yet. Then Mohammad and I will turn ourselves in. They have no evidence that we did anything wrong. We have to leave soon, I will send Shelley in to show you how the bathroom works."

With that Charlie left the room.

Shelley knocked on my door a few minutes later, she led me to the bathroom with its large basin and bowls.

I had already managed to figure out which bowl was the toilet, I had even tentatively pressed the lever on the strange backrest and watched as the water I had peed in disappear in a roaring swirling waterfall.

Shelley showed me a small soft bar and a bottle of orange liquid, she then turned the levers next to wall of the large basin causing a large flow of water to cascade down.

She helped me undress and peeled back the bandage over the wound in my abdomen.

I could see it had been closed by a skilled physician, the stitches were evenly sown neatly holding the skin together. There was no sign of pestilence either, I would have to pick up some honey to smear on it just to be careful.

Shelley put a thin transparent material over the wound and held it in place with sticky strips of linen, she then led me into the stream of water and handed me the small bar. The bar started to get slippery when it got wet.

I learned very quickly how to use the soap and shampoo, I was also starting to learn more and more words of English.

I was so clean I squeaked, when I was finished I wrapped myself in a large towel Shelley then gave me a little brush for my teeth and a tube of paste. I needed no instruction to use these, I normally used a wooden stick that had been chewed on one end to soften and separate the fibers into a small brush.

The paste was quite similar to the powder I normally used, it even had mint leaves in it although of a very poor quality.

### Chapter nine

The rest of the day was a spent traveling in the noisy uncomfortable flying machines of this era.

The first was extremely tiny and so noisy that we had to wear ear coverings. We flew to a larger flying center were we boarded another much larger flyer, it was quieter but had little space and only tiny windows to peer outside.

Shelley and I spent the long journey trying to learn each other's languages, we had little success but I managed to glean that we were going to a large city named Seattle.

It was very dark when we finally arrived at Shelley's home, she lived in three small rooms situated in a large building ten floors high.

I thought it would be very cramped so I used my bracelet to create an entrance to my quarters in the city of magic.

Shelley's eyes opened wide with shock when she seen it. I conjured a large curtain to hide the opening in case of visitors.

And so I started my education of the future.

I asked Shelley to hire a tutor for me to learn English. We had been living together for almost two weeks and I had learned enough English to be able to function in the city on my own but was still not fluent.

I conjured a heavy gold ring for her to sell for us to have money, I actually just used sleight of hand to make it appear. I had piles of gold baubles studded with precious stones in my quarters. I had no use for them.

There were many pawn shops in Seattle so she would have little trouble selling more of my jewellery when we needed more money.

Shelley was going to a school of higher learning so I had much time by myself, I spent most of my days walking around observing the people of this strange city. There were many small cafes and bookstores so I would purchase a magazine and attempt to read it while sipping coffee.

The tutor Shelley hired appeared at my door the following Monday. He was a serious looking young man who was a graduate student from the same university Shelley was attending.

I had a gift for learning languages, possibly because I had spent so many years traveling the earth trying to confer with its many peoples.

I soon settled into a routine of life, learning English three days a week and exploring the city the other days.

In the following months I started purchasing many items for our small apartment and my own quarters. I had been able to conjure up the many identification papers a person needed in this age and was able to pawn my jewellery on my own for money.

I had also made up a fictitious back story to tell people in case of their curiosity, I was Kem Smith a foreign student from South Africa.

It seemed that the following months passed in a blur, after I had learned English I enrolled in basic physics and math courses at Shelley's university. The courses were designed for people who lacked a high school education.

To say they were difficult was an understatement, the people that were in the course with me had no idea how much knowledge they already possessed, any one of them would have been great philosophers in my time.

I persevered and studied harder than I ever had in my life. I was able to master most of the concepts and even passed the grueling exams at the end of the course.

I had become a modern person, I could now function in this society. The things I had learned changed my sorcery immensely. I now knew how large the universe was and the basic physics and chemistry that made it function.

I had been awed to find out that men had finally traveled to the moon and walked on its surface.

I had tried and failed many times to do the same thing with sorcery. In my best effort I had only made it perhaps a third of the way, finally giving up because of blind fear and violent motion sickness.

I had a flurry of ideas of how to accomplish my original goal of travelling to the universes edge even though I now knew it had none.

I thought about preparing a large powerful ship full of the latest technology, I would then crew it with young brilliant minds from this era and journey to its farthest points.

Shelley and I were visited by Charlie and Mohammad twice. They had not stayed long for they were fearful that the authorities were watching them.

Charlie had been banned from digging in Egypt and had turned to teaching, he told me that my tomb had been pronounced an elaborate fake and had been dynamited to examine the insides.

They found nothing.

Mohammad was still working as a dig foreman for another archeologist. They gave me a parting gift on their last visit. It was a statue of a very young Nubian woman sitting on a chair.

It was me, Ahmes had had it made by a local artisan when I had first moved into his house. Hippo face must have thrown it down the toilet pit unintentionally preserving it.

"It was very hard to get, thank god it wasn't a statue of a pharaoh," Charlie said.

I turned it around in my hand. Was I ever this person? I had changed so much.

I thanked Charlie and Mohammad kissing them both on the cheek.

Shelley and I had gotten to be good friends in our year together, she had been studying ancient history at university and would sometimes ask me things about my era.

I was not much help, the courses she took concentrated mainly on the study of Kings and Queens using a minutia of ancient written material.

I knew reams about the day to day life of ordinary people but little about wars and the men who led the armies.

She asked me about the great pyramid on one occasion, I knew how they moved and cut the large stone blocks but I had lived millennia before it had been built.

"Why did they cut four shafts? And why do two of them stop before reaching the outside?"

"I don't know," I said frustrated, an idea suddenly popped into my head, "why don't we ask the guy who built it."

"You can do that?"

"Yes, I can."

I hadn't traveled back in time very much in my era, all I had found was very smelly groups of primitive people living a hard scrabble life. I hadn't thought much about time travel after that, but now I was six thousand years in the future.

"Can you travel to the future too?" Shelley asked.

"I just did, unintentionally," I laughed.

"Oh... right."

"How do you avoid all the paradox's when you go back?"

"Whenever you go back in time it starts another time line."

"So it creates another universe?"

I suddenly realized she was on the verge of understanding one of the most important concepts of sorcery.

"No... it's hard to explain... the... ah... magical energy swirls in a vortex..." I said.

Shelley narrowed her eyes at me in suspicion.

"I'm on to something there aren't I," she said.

"I have to go... I need to do some research to find out who the great pyramids architect was." I hurriedly left for my quarters.

My quarters had changed quite a bit in the past year, I had purchased many types of new technology and was attempting to integrate them into my spells.

I had a small network of servers and computers as well as numerous monitors and power generation devices

It had been fiendishly difficult to figure out how these devices worked, they had seemingly been designed by people who purposely obfuscated their configuration and use.

I had made some headway though. I also had a high speed internet connection sitting on a large modern desk which had a comfy leather chair.

It took me almost no time to find the architect name and the years he lived, I then used a spell to search the past and find an instance where he was alone and could be talked to without interruption.

I changed into a dress from my own era, I also painted my face with kohl. I called for Shelley to come into my quarters.

Shelley and I used each other's places as one, I had more room so we had put a large big screen TV and sofa in one of the rooms and watched programs together.

The city itself was now empty, I had had a large group of servants who assisted me in my studies. I had sent them home with a year's wages when I thought my death was imminent.

"Oh my god Kem, you look so different," Shelley exclaimed as she walked in.

"I'm going to pretend to be a god, that way he'll answer our questions faster."

"Can I dress up to?"

"Sure, I have another dress that should fit you."

Shelley looked ecstatic as I tugged the tight dress over her body, I then took out my cosmetics and painted her face.

She ran to the nearest mirror when I was finished, squealing with delight when she saw how she looked.

"We should go out on the town like this, it looks so cool," she said.

I gave her some ancient jewellery to put on then quickly pinned her hair in an ancient style.

She ran back into her room then returned with a camera, she set it down on my desk set the timer then stood beside me and waited for the flash to go off.

She showed me the result on the camera's LCD screen. I had to admit she was right we did look pretty cool.

"I guess we're ready, "I said as I flicked a square on my bracelet launching us into the past.

We appeared in front of a desk behind which sat a very tired looking middle aged man.

"Behold Hemon, I am Kem, the great god Seshat's chief inspector of buildings, bow to your master."

I had purchased a Tesla coil and had been able to incorporate its man-made lightning strikes into my magic. I let a few bolts fly.

Hemon looked at me with an exasperated expression on his face then prostrated himself over his desk.

"Yes great Kem what is your bidding," he said in an odd accent.

"Why are there two shafts that go nowhere in Khufu's pyramid?"

I noticed Hemon's jaw suddenly clench and a muscle start to tick in his face.

"Because great Khufu was not satisfied and the pyramid had to be redesigned."

"In what way, speak freely Hemon you do not have to bow anymore."

Hemon sat up and stared right at me, I could see anger in his expression, but I got the feeling it was not directed at myself.

"Khufu's father Snefru had a perfectly good design for a pyramid, we had all the detailed plans and drawings, all I had to do was enlarge the base a bit to make Khufu's higher. The construction went fabulously we were ahead of schedule and almost finished. The underground chamber still needed work and the casing stones had to be put on. Unfortunately that's when Khufu suddenly came under the spell of a two bit moron, Dedi the magician. Things went downhill from that point on."

"In what way," I asked.

"He convinced Khufu that he should change the slope from forty three degrees to fifty one degrees to make it much higher, and to make another room as well, abandoning the underground chamber."

"What about the shafts?"

"They weren't needed for the lower chamber anymore, they were open to the sky at the old exterior of forty three degrees, since the sarcophagus was now to be moved to the new upper chamber we had to make new shafts to point to the proper stars. We just blocked over the lower ones."

"I sense anger in your voice Hemon, why?"

"I'm an architect!" he yelled," I didn't want spend twenty years of my life organizing the piling of rocks. The fucking thing was done! Six maybe eight months to put the casing stones on and I could have started building something useful. Instead I spent ten more years working on it because of that idiot Dedi."

"What do you think of Khafre? I asked, curious to hear what he would say about Khufu's son.

Hemon's face softened, "he's a good boy, very sensible, I have drawn up plans for his tomb if he ever needs them."

"Is it the same as Khufu's?"

"I took out all the rooms and shafts, because of this its slope will be over fifty three degrees, I found a good spot to build it too, one that will give it almost twenty extra cubits of height. It will be higher than Khufu's but use less stone."

"So height is the important thing?"

Hemon looked at me like I was crazy, "of course."

"Thank you great architect, you have answered our questions satisfactorily," I looked at Shelley who had an expression of amazement frozen on her face.

I flipped a square on my bracelet activating a spell to send us back home. We reappeared in my quarters.

"Did you understand any of that?" I asked Shelley.

She had learned a large amount of ancient Egyptian just living with me.

"I think so, he had to rebuild it to make it bigger so they just covered up the first set of shafts because they weren't needed anymore."

Shelley walked back into her apartment then reappeared carrying a large coffee table book and a protractor.

She put the book down on my desk and opened it up to a large drawing of the great pyramids' interior. She then used the protractor to measure the angle the first set of shafts stopped at.

"Forty three degrees plus or minus, I'd write a paper about it but I don't have any proof," she said.

"You could have Hemon give a presentation," I said with a straight face.

"Sure, he could use PowerPoint and one of those laser pointy things."

We both started laughing.

Shelley looked at me with a serious expression suddenly.

"How does magic work?"

"I can't tell you... it's very dangerous, I've almost died many times," I replied.

"Are there others like you?"

"I don't know, I haven't met any," I said.

I did have my suspicions though, I had read some interesting things in the newspapers.

"Have you trained anyone else?"

"When I thought I was going to die I gave all my notes to Senbi as well as a map to the city of magic."

A curious thought suddenly crossed my mind.

"Let's get changed, I want to check something out," I said.

Shelley and I left my quarters dressed in jeans and t shirts. I had not walked around the city since I had moved in with Shelley.

The door to the stairs outside was covered in dust and it took both of us to move it, we walked down cautiously I carried a powerful flashlight.

The exterior door at the bottom of the stairs was even harder to open, I had to use a spell to force it open.

We walked out into bright sunshine. Six thousand years had not been kind to my city, some of the buildings had collapsed completely, others had been badly eroded by rain water.

"It was pristine when I was here," Shelley said confused.

"The city exists in many different times."

I walked quickly to the object of my curiosity a large badly corroded bronze door, again I needed a spell to open it.

We walked into a small hallway with three other doors, I almost ran down the corridor to the large room I knew to be at its end.

I emerged onto a set of stairs overlooking a room constructed entirely of marble, it had a large pattern made of inlaid with dark stone on the floor. I felt Shelley stop beside me.

"It looks like it was built yesterday," Shelley said.

"It was," I replied enigmatically.

I descended the stairs as I flipped the squares on my bracelet activating a hidden spell in the room. The sound of a trumpet suddenly blared out and then a sheet of papyrus appeared in the air.

I caught it as it floated down.

I looked at the writing on it.

"Oh my god!" I said as I stared at papyrus.

"What?" Shelley asked.

"There are over ten thousand worlds."

"What do you mean?"

"This place is just a large spell, it is used to create places like my magic city. I designed it so that each world would be accessible through a door in a corridor."

"There are only four doors," Shelley replied.

I used my bracelet to activate another spell.

I ran up the stairs and looked down the corridor, I saw doors as far as the eye could see.

"Oh, I see," I heard Shelley say behind me," what's behind the doors?"

"Everything, its six thousand years of collective magic," I replied.

"So there are many other sorcerers' then."

"We have to get out of here," I felt panic rising in my chest.

"Kem what's wrong? You look frightened."

I walked back down the stairs flicking the squares on my bracelet, I made sure Shelley was following me.

"These sorcerers have had a six thousand year head start on me, they would be fantastically powerful," I said.

"Magic isn't static then, it changes.'

"It is as variable as the people who practise it."

We climbed back up the stairs, we were back in my original corridor, I grabbed Shelley's hand and quickly walked through the large bronze door leading back to the city.

I forced the door closed and then sealed it with magic.

"So much for that, "I said.

Shelley looked at me with a slight smile on her face, "you are much too curious a person not to go back and start looking behind those doors Kem."

Sadly, Shelley was probably right.

We walked around the city some more, it had become quite beautiful in a way. The ruined buildings and crumbling statues looked very romantic.

"How did you build all this in just a few years," Shelley asked.

"Magic, plus I had a lot of servants to help me. Most of the stuff here is the result of spells I was trying to perfect."

"What about the dancing women made of broken pottery?"

"I'd forgotten about them. I just did that to see if I could, they had no practical purpose."

"What was the warehouse full of stuff for?" Shelley asked trying to act nonchalant.

"You are a crafty one Shelley, I fear you will deduce my secrets before too long."

"So a sorcerer needs a lot of crap to do magic."

"Some spells do, others don't," I said.

"Would you mind if I walked around the city on my own sometimes."

"No I wouldn't mind, just stay away from the corridors of worlds," I replied.

"You're not worried I'll find your spell books."

"Some things are hidden in time as well as space," I said smiling at her.

"What about Senbi, can you tell if he was ever here?"

I thought about the all the doors I had seen, "I'm pretty sure he and a lot of other people have been through here," I thought for a moment, "leave a note on my desk when you're in the city, and be careful, if you hear voices run."

We kept walking for another half hour. I kept my eyes open for footprints and rocks or doors that had been recently disturbed. I saw nothing, it appeared that no one had been here for millennia.

We were back in front of the entrance leading to my quarters, I used my bracelet to renew the broken door. In a flash it looked newly built.

"I will put a sturdy lock on it later," I said.

Shelley moved the door back and forth, she noticed it had no hinges and was just floating in air.

"Hinges hadn't been invented yet, every door here is magic," I said.

"So it's a variation of your flying craft spell," Shelley was watching me intently.

"Maybe... maybe not," I said as enigmatically as I could.

We walked up the stairs to my quarters. I had made sure the door was closed tightly behind us.

I have found that when one is perfectly happy with the predictable routine of life the gods conspire amongst themselves to destroy your tranquility.

I was alone in Shelley's apartment making breakfast when I heard a loud knock at the door.

I had modified the entrance to my quarters so that if I wanted too I could change its appearance to that of a large mirror imbedded into the wall.

I activated this feature as I walked towards the door to answer it.

I opened the door to see a tall thin middle aged man standing in the hall way. He wore a gray trench coat and his face sported a moustache and goatee.

"Can I help you?" I asked.

"Sorry to disturb you ma'am, I'm looking for someone named Kim or Kem."

A feeling of danger suddenly rose in my chest.

"Um... I don't know anybody with that name," I said lying to him.

"That's a beautiful bracelet you have there, is it antique?" He pointed to my wrist.

I subconsciously covered it with my other hand, "no I picked it up at a craft show."

"I'm Sam," he said reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a gold ring then held it in front of me on his palm, "I'm trying to find the original owner of this ring."

I looked closely at the ring, I knew almost instantly it was one of the ones I had pawned.

"I've never seen it before, it looks kind of cheap," I said.

"Actually it's ancient Egyptian, we've had it examined by professionals."

"Who are you?" I said suspiciously.

"Sam... Sam Clyver, I'm a detective with the Rand Corporation," he whipped out a leather wallet then opened it showing some kind of government I.D.

"Well Sam, I have a lot to do so if you don't mind..."I started to swing the door shut.

He put the ring back in his pocket and then pulled out a business card.

"Here's my card, oh and by the way what's your name."

"Um... Shelley." I said. I saw his eyes suddenly narrow.

I snatched the card from his hand as I swung the door shut.

I watched him through the peephole after I shut the door. He stood there for a few seconds deep in thought then turned and walked away.

My heart was beating wildly in my chest. I bolted the door shut then quickly ran back to my quarters. I used my high speed internet connection to find out what the Rand Corporation was.

It was some kind of think tank funded by the military.

My heart sank in my chest, I knew a little of the modern armies of today, that they used horrific weapons, the development of which was the impetus for a lot of modern scientific research.

Shelley had told me once that the military could not be trusted and operated in their own best interest sometimes.

I knew also that I had not fooled this Sam Clyver person. He seemed to possess a sinister intelligence.

I waited for Shelley to come home for lunch.

"What do you mean we have to leave?" Shelley said angrily.

"It's not safe, they will be back soon probably with warrants for our arrest," I replied.

"I can't just give up my life, I still have four months left before I get my degree."

"I'll teach you magic."

Shelley stared at me shocked expression on her face, "what about my friends, my family."

"I'll make a door to this world in one of the corridors, you'll be able to come back" I replied.

"You said it would be dangerous to walk around the corridors."

"You were right about me Shelley, I would have started examining them sooner or later so why not start now?"

"Ok... but you have to teach me everything... do you promise?"

"Let Sobek eat me alive if I'm lying."

The End
