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Kemamonit Returns

Copyright 2013 Paul Edwards

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Kemamonit Returns

Prologue

Harry lifted up his fedora and wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt, he jammed the hat back down hard making sure it wouldn't slip off. He held a Webley revolver in his other hand it was pointed at a closed door.

"Get ready!" he yelled at the two other men with him.

One of the men was standing directly in front of the door about fifteen feet away, he had a rope in his hand that was tied onto the doors handle, the other man was standing slightly in front of the rope holder to the side, he had an assault rifle pressed against his shoulder.

Harry stared at the large wooden door, it had been plastered over when they had first discovered it, there had been seals with cuneiform writing pressed into the plaster.

They had carefully photographed the seals before they had smashed the plaster off of the door, he had then translated the cuneiform writing in the seals, they had all said the same thing, here lie the quarters of the great and powerful Semiramis, sealed for eternity.

"Pull!" Harry yelled.

The rope went taught as the man holding it stared pulling, the door held for a few seconds then flew open.

There was silence for moment, then a roar as a large many toothed monster charged out of the dark interior.

Some kind of dinosaur, Harry thought to himself.

He felt the Webley jerk against his palm, a small red rose appeared on the monsters shoulder, he heard the AK start firing , the monster roared even louder charging towards the two men opposite him.

Harry emptied his revolver into the beast as he watched the creature crash into his compatriots, it turned unsteadily then collapsed onto the ground, it was dead.

"Reload!" Harry yelled as he emptied the spent cartridges from his gun and quickly inserted fresh bullets from his ammo belt.

He looked at the two men, the rope puller had injured his ankle and was still on the ground, the other still stood, he had already put a fresh mag into his AK.

They looked at each other then towards the dark space beyond the entrance.

Harry grabbed a flashlight out of the canvas bag slung over his shoulder, the bag had originally been designed to hold a gas mask, he switched it on and then carefully walked through the entrance, the other man was close behind.

"Looks clear," Harry muttered as he gripped the Webley harder.

Harry looked around the small antechamber they had entered.

"Definitely Assyrian," the man next to him said.

"She musta been a nasty chick... huh Dick," Harry replied.

"Ya... see any magic?"

Harry carefully swept the powerful flashlight over the antechambers walls, floor and ceiling.

"Oh shit... look at that," Harry exclaimed pointing.

"Always something weird... always... can't ever be just a pile of gold," Dick murmured.

"Gotta get one of the sorcerers," Harry said matter of factly.

Chapter one

I stared at the middle aged bespectacled man sitting across from me, he had an exasperated expression on his face, he was holding a large yellow legal pad in one hand and a fountain pen in the other.

"So you want to change the books plot for the movie... it was a bestseller," he said incredulously.

"I have procured the books rights, I have the authors permission to do what I want with it," I said forcefully.

"Mitchell agreed?" he had a look of amazement on his face.

"Call her up if you want," I pointed to an antique looking phone sitting on the table between us.

"No... that's all right, the lawyers will sort that out."

"And you want a colored actress for the lead... how is that going to work."

"Dark skinned actress," I said feeling my eyes narrow.

"But... um... the book... it... um... takes place during the civil war... what about the slavery stuff?"

"That's why we move it to the future," I felt like I was talking to a small child.

"Ya... the future... so the confederate army becomes this alliance of rebels."

"Yes and the North becomes the Empire."

"And everyone flies around in rockets and fights with..." he looked at his notes," swords made of light."

"Spaceships, not rockets."

"Ok... well maybe we should leave the plot for now... this Ford guy you want for the lead... I got Gable lined up guaranteed... why go for an unknown actor?"

"You'll see," I said smugly.

"And the female lead... Dorothy Dandridge... she's way to young... she's pretty good though... unlike the rest of this shit," he said under his breath.

"Careful Mr Selznick... we wouldn't want Mr. Hearst finding out about your little secret... right?"

Selznick stared at me his eyes black with hate.

"You'll destroy my career, or maybe that's what you want... this is crap, no-one's gonna watch this... spaceships? That's for little kids... hey why stop there, we could film a comic book... like Popeye... ya that'll fly," Selznick laughed derisively.

I stared at him for a moment about to say something, then thought better of it.

"You'll do it Mr Selznick, and be well paid for it... besides you can just blame everything on me, the meddling investor, isn't that what all producers do when their picture flops?"

"You won't be able to show it in the south," he said, changing the subject.

"Their loss."

"Do you have a sound stage yet?"

"I had one built, it's state of the art, you might not be familiar with some of the new equipment in it so I got you an adviser, he can help with the direction too," I looked down at my own notes," a Mr Bay... he'll meet you on the set, and don't worry about Miss Dandridge I have some special makeup to make her look older."

"It'll take a few weeks to get the script written... it'll cost, these writers they're all arteest's, you gotta give em a big check to turn them back into hacks."

"That won't be a problem."

Selznick stood up as he put his notes and pen into a leather satchel.

"If that's all Miss Smith," he said, I could see he was struggling keep a professional demeanor.

"Yes for now, I'll be in touch... oh and one more thing, make sure Miss Dandridge get's some sun, she looks kinda pale... and I want her hair longer and curly."

Selznick's expression changed, like he had just had a small epiphany. I saw his lips quiver slightly like he was trying to repress a sinister grin, then he turned and left.

I wondered what he was thinking.

I was not normally interested in making films, I loved watching them, sometimes three or four a week. It wasn't until I had come across a what was supposed to be a great film that the thought occurred to me.

The film had had a great premise, a young woman struggling against adversity in the midst of a great war, however the bizarre and disturbing depiction of slavery as well as dark skinned people had made it completely unwatchable.

I had been so disappointed in the film, it had such a promising plot, complete with a roguish leading man, It caused me to think about making a watchable version of it.

When I started to research the film making process It took me very little time to realize that the people making films tended to be very easy to coerce.

They all had deep dark secrets that they were terrified would come to light, as well as being obsessed with hedonistic pleasures.

It took me almost no time to arrange the production of the film, I just gave all the people I needed either their hearts desire or through sorcery found out their secrets and threatened them with exposure.

Mr Selznick need not worry about his career, the finished product would only be seen by me.

I heard a knock on the door behind me, I was currently located in an office situated in a large building in downtown Los Angeles, the year was nineteen thirty seven.

The door behind me was a gateway back to the place I normally lived, the City of Magic.

"Who is it?" I yelled.

"Is it safe to come through?" I heard a muffled reply.

"Ya... I'm alone."

The door swung open and a young blonde haired woman burst through, her cheeks were red with excitement.

"You have to come quick, Harry found something," she blurted out.

"Calm down Gwenny, what did he find?"

Gwen was a young apprentice sorcerer, she was currently being trained by my own former apprentice Shelley, she had a good aptitude for magic but was quite naive in the ways of the world.

"It's hard to explain... you got to see it."

"Where is it?"

"In the quarters of an ancient sorceress, it's about a mile from the city center."

"What's the sorceress's name?"

"Semiramis."

I felt a small chill go down my spine, I had done some research on her a few months ago, I had not found out much only that she did not appear to be a very nice person.

I walked over to the exterior door of my office and locked it, then turned and followed Gwen through the back door to the City of Magic. We emerged into a small room made with limestone blocks, there was a large wooden table against one wall the top was covered in levers and dials.

The room was a spell which enabled the user to create a door to any place in time and space, I did not normally use it, but for this purpose it made my trips more convenient because I could keep the gateway open continually enabling time to flow at the same speed on both sides.

We left the room through another door and ended up on a flagstone paved street covered in a layer of fine sand.

All around us were the ruins of a large city, there were numerous buildings lining each side of the street, some in near perfect condition others half collapsed. There was no one style of architecture, some buildings were clearly from ancient Egypt others looked Greek or far Eastern.

I had first built the original city six thousand years ago and it had been continuously inhabited for about four or five thousand years, then abandoned.

During the time of its existence, thousands of sorcerers had been trained and lived here, creating an unimaginable amount of magic.

The city was full of left over spells, gadgets and bizarre creatures, it was the most dangerous place I had ever known, I never walked around it without my trusty bronze sword.

I looked at the large bracelet on my left wrist, I normally used it to cast all my spells, it was about six inches long and covered in many small squares, the squares had writing on them in a language I had invented and only I understood. I would flip the squares over in certain specific orders to cast different spells.

I used in now to conjure up my bronze sword, I slung it over my shoulder.

Chapter two

I followed Gwen as she hurriedly walked in front of me, in a few minutes we were standing in front of an open doorway to a small house.

I saw Harry Camp, my chief archeologist and two members of his staff peering inside, there was some sort of bizarre looking creature lying lifeless about twenty feet in front of the door.

"What going on?" I asked.

"Look," Harry said as he moved out of the way.

I grabbed the flashlight out of his hand and looked through the door, I swept the flashlight around the dark room until I saw something unusual.

It was a spinning moving mass of fine loops of silver wire, it was hovering about three feet above the floor, the wires moved in an almost hypnotic way, slowly morphing into different shapes.

I focused on one wire and saw that it stretched and moved to many different lengths and to many different positions, then shrunk to nothingness only to be replaced by another wire.

"Is it art?" I asked Harry.

"Read the stele underneath it."

I looked underneath the writhing mass of wires and saw a small stone column that had hieroglyphs painted onto it.

I read the hieroglyphs.

A puzzle for you Imhotep, you who love numbers and geometry, as you once told me these tools solve all problems.

"There's music too," Gwen blurted out.

I shushed everyone and listened, I heard what sounded like a random string of notes being played mechanically on a flute, the tune paused for a second, then I heard two quick notes that had a musical quality to them then another pause and it started all over again.

"There's more writing on the back of the stele," Harry said.

I walked around to the other side of the stele to read the hieroglyphs.

The trap has been tripped now Imhotep, thirty days should be enough to solve it, of course if you don't there are always consequences.

"What consequences?" I murmured to myself.

"I honestly don't get this puzzle, just that it's looks really complicated," Harry said.

"Does anyone have any ideas?" I asked.

"Um... I know someone who is good at puzzles," Gwen said hesitantly.

"Who?"

"Professor Willow... from the university."

Gwen had been taking courses at one of the universities in Seattle, the city where her mentor Shelley was from.

"How good?"

"He worked at some super secret place during a really awful war, decrypting codes and stuff... Retchley something."

"Bletchley Park?" Harry said.

"Ya, that's it."

Gwen was like me it a way, I had come from a different time, she had come from a different place. The both of us were continually astonished by the marvels and the horrors of the modern world.

"Can he keep a secret?" I asked.

"Oh ya... someone found a picture of him on the internet at this Bletchley place, he said it was his twin brother Raul, we all started laughing but he just got mad and demanded to know where the picture came from."

"Geez... World War two was almost seventy years ago, how old is this guy?" Harry asked.

"He ain't young... but he still has his marbles."

"Send for him, the sooner we solve this the better... I don't want to find out what these consequences are," I said.

Gwen and I headed back towards our quarters leaving Harry and his assistants to do more investigating. I told them to be extra careful and not to disturb anything.

"Imhotep never tripped the trap I guess," Gwen said.

"Yes... very curious... I guess she must have expected him to enter her quarters."

"Why would she set a trap for him?"

"I don't know... hatred... maybe a bizarre sense of humor."

"Her quarters look very old."

"Imhotep lived here forty six hundred years ago, so it's probably from that time... he must have known about the trap somehow... had her quarters sealed."

It was all very puzzling, I had found Imhotep's tomb a few months ago, I knew that he and Semiramis had had some kind of enmity. I also knew that Imhotep had originally been smitten with Semiramis, she had been a breath-taking beauty in her time, and she had used his infatuation in order to manipulate him.

I guess he finally grew up, I thought to myself, stopped believing in a fantasy, beauty was the least important of a woman's charms, something most men eventually figured out.

Chapter three

Professor Willow was unbelievably old, he walked with the assistance of two wooden canes and had a small oxygen bottle slung over one shoulder a clear plastic mask over his nose and mouth.

He had been tall once, now he was stooped over with thinning white hair and thick lensed glasses. He did still have his faculties though, and a powerful voice, he stood in front of the spinning mass of silver wires studying it carefully, I heard him take a long deep breath from his oxygen bottle, an image of someone stoking a fire with a bellows came to mind.

"Von Stein Mueller algorithm I think... using the music as some kind of trapdoor function."

"Who's this Von Stein Mueller? Can we send for him?" I asked.

Willow looked at me raising an eyebrow.

"Very dead I'm afraid... thankfully... god I hated that prick," he said.

"What's a trapdoor function?" Gwen asked.

"Common way to do crypto... you combine two things in a special way, the special way becomes the key to decrypt it, like the product of multiplying two prime numbers, you can factor the product if you know one of primes and that they have been multiplied."

"Oh... so the music and the wires create something together."

"Yes... can I have a look at the mechanism? That is the simplest way to find the answer," Willow asked.

"Um... well there isn't one... it's magical," I said.

"Hmm... magic you say," Willow took another long breath of oxygen," quite simple then."

"Really?"

"Yes... yes... find the person who made it and start pulling fingernails."

"Hmm... really... what if we could say... hypothetically... resurrect this Stein Mueller character," I said cautiously.

Willow's face turned dark.

"I wouldn't resurrect that prick if the universe depended on it, besides it is doubtful he would be of any help... we already know the equation, a good cryptologist assumes his enemies will find his methods, they construct their algorithms so that it doesn't matter."

"Why did you hate him so much?" I asked, curious.

"He was responsible for the deaths of some friends of mine, plus he was an arrogant jerk."

"Can't we use a computer?" Gwen asked.

"It would take years to compute the solution, the music throws a wrench into things as well."

"We could um... make a super magic computer... right Kem?" Gwen said.

"That would take even longer," I said.

I only had a rudimentary knowledge of the way computers worked so I would have had to hire an engineering company to design it, which would be very dangerous, smart people tend to find out things they shouldn't.

"So what will you do?" Willow asked.

"I guess we will have to take your advice professor, start pulling fingernails."

Professor Willow turned and looked at me, a serious expression on his face.

"The person who made this... be careful," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"In the war, I spent months studying codes, cipher text... you start to get an insight into the people who created them. This thing...," he pointed to the wires," I get a bad feeling."

This was the last thing I needed, now I would have to go back into the past confront this crazy sorceress and try to get an answer to her puzzle.

I hated the past, everywhere there was death and disease and everything stunk. I also had two new apprentices to train, the first my lover Peter, the other a former FBI agent named Janet.

Janet and my former apprentice Shelley got along like oil and water, I was forever refereeing disputes between them.

I think Shelley felt threatened by Janet, worried that she would somehow displace her as my colleague.

Janet didn't help matters much, she was very clever and was used to being in charge of people, she had a hard time being told what to do.

The truth was there were simply too many women sorcerer's with not enough to do, I wanted to start a sorcery school and start training more people, but I needed instructors so I was rushing everyone's training.

Not a wise thing to do when teaching sorcery.

My lover Peter was also hopeless, he had learned only two spells in all the time we had known each other, an enchantment for moving large rocks and a copier spell. He had steadfastly resisted learning the principles and techniques for creating spells, even the stone moving spell had been written by someone else.

I loved him, so I put up with it, but I still wished he tried harder.

I knew that I could not take either Janet or Shelley with me to the past, one would immediately resent the other. I would have to take Peter, the only one of us who spoke absolutely no ancient Egyptian, something else he refused to learn.

Gwen and I had reached the section of the city that we were all currently living in, the buildings here were all repaired and there were lights lining the streets.

We walked into an impressive looking building complete with large columns and statues, it was part of the cities old university complex.

When we entered the large lobby I saw both Shelley and Janet standing opposite each other yelling, both had their index fingers fully cocked ready for pointing.

Janet was a tall attractive dark skinned woman in her forties, she had been an athlete in her youth and still had a fit and trim figure.

Shelley was much younger and shorter with pale freckled skin and long reddish blonde hair.

"God... can you both just shut up please!" I yelled.

They both put their fingers down, their angry expressions turning sulky.

"I gotta go for a while... with Peter... Shelley you're gonna have to take over Janet's training," I said.

"Where?" Shelley asked.

"Ancient Egypt, Gwen can fill you in, I'll use the transport room so you can follow me if you have too."

"Why aren't you taking me," Janet asked, an angry look on her face.

"I want to have some time alone with Peter, this is a perfect opportunity," I said, lying.

"Can't I just train on my own?"

"No... it's too dangerous... look you don't have to like each other to work together."

I noticed Shelley had smug look on her face.

Maybe getting away for a while wouldn't be so bad after all, I thought to myself.

"Gwen can you tell them what's going on, I'm gonna look for Peter," I said as I turned to leave.

Chapter four

I found Peter in our quarters, he was watching TV, or more accurately sleeping in front of one. I watched his chest rise and fall rhythmically as I listened to his quiet snores.

He was so particular about what programs he watched, usually sports or awful films of people chasing each other shooting guns. The odd thing was he slept through just about all of them, the only time he woke up was when the show ended, then he would change the channel.

I picked up the remote and shut off the TV.

"Hey... I was watching that," Peter said as he jerked awake.

"The blue team won," I said.

"Kansas?"

"Ya... Kansas, we gotta talk."

"Um... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to do that."

"Do what?"

"Whatever it is you're going to get mad at me for."

I felt a surge of anger, then I calmed myself, I had been losing my temper a lot lately. I had been getting fed up dealing with Shelley and Janet, I had started to realize I had been taking it out on Peter.

"We have to go on a trip."

"Where? Up North... we could rent a cottage on a lake... go fishing have barbeques."

I had to admit that sounded nice.

"Ancient Egypt, around twenty six hundred BC."

"Really? Isn't that when the pyramids were built?"

"The first ones, the bigger ones came about a hundred years later."

"Why?"

"I gotta talk to a dead sorceress, I don't want to go alone it's dangerous."

"Where in Egypt?"

I picked up a large coffee table book then flipped through the pages until I found a large map of ancient Egypt.

"There," I pointed to a city on the tip of the Nile delta.

"Hmm... Memphis."

"Well Men-nefer... actually it was called the City of the White Walls in the old kingdom."

"I'll stick with Memphis, wonder if we'll see Graceland," Peter said smiling.

I had heard of Graceland, I had seen part of a TV program about it once while I was flipping between channels, it was a large temple that pilgrims travelled to in order to pay homage to a long dead king.

There would be lots temples for him to see in Memphis, many of them dedicated to kings.

"We must get ready, we will leave immediately."

"Why?" Peter asked, a concerned look on his face.

"The sooner we solve the problem this sorcerer left us the better."

I did not tell Peter that I was fed up with Shelley and Janet's bickering and I just wanted to get away from them.

I did not know how long the both of us would be gone so I gave Gwen all my notes for the film that I was producing. I showed her a picture of Mr Selznick and told her that I had scheduled a meeting with him every week.

"You must be very forceful with him or he will change the script."

"Don't worry Kem... he will fear me."

Gwen clenched her fists and attempted to look intimidating, an image of a kitten pouncing on a piece of string popped into my head.

"Ya... and visit the sound stage... but do it unannounced then he won't be able to hide anything."

"I will be like a hawk and watch his every move," she said.

I was suddenly struck by how fearless she was, I had supervised people many times in my life, it was normally a chore to get someone to do something onerous.

"And try to keep Janet and Shelley from killing each other... if you can."

Gwen's posture changed suddenly, her shoulders became square and a look of fierce determination appeared on her face.

"I will deal with them," her voice was lower, for the first time I could see a tiny bit of flint in her eyes.

It occurred to me that Gwen was probably just as fed up with their behavior as I was.

Peter and I spent the next hour preparing our outfits and equipment for our journey into the past. We were going so far back in time that horses had not yet been domesticated in Egypt, we would have to walk and carry everything.

I wore a conservative dress and a large thick wig, I had previously doused my hair with anti-lousing powder. I was probably dramatically increasing my chances of getting cancer, but I preferred that to having filthy little bugs burrowing into my head.

I had dressed Peter up as a manservant, a perfect counterpoint to my costume as a minor noblewoman.

I conjured up a small vial of kohl and painted both our eyes in the distinctive eye of Horus pattern.

"Geez... even guys wore makeup?" Peter said, an annoyed expression on his face.

"Relax, the real reason people wore it was to keep the fly's away."

"Oh..."

"Ya... and don't drink or eat anything."

"It's that bad?"

"Hygiene hasn't been invented yet, just remember, when I was growing up half the people I knew were dead by the time I was fifteen, I personally think soap and the flush toilet are mankind's greatest inventions."

"So what are we going to eat?"

I tapped my magic bracelet.

"Whatever we want... do you have all your shots... tetanus... etcetera?" I asked.

"Ya, I had to, one of the launch sites I had to visit was in a tropical country, what about you?"

Before I had met Peter he had been running a company that manufactured a device that assisted large rockets to get into orbit using less fuel.

The device was just his stone moving spell disguised as a bolt on component.

"I have an obsessive compulsive disorder, I've been vaccinated against every illness possible."

The OCD had been the result of having viruses and bacteria explained to me when I had woken up in the future. I had had to see a psychologist for many weeks before I was able to stop washing my hands constantly.

"What about malaria?"

"Mosquito repellant for you, I'm probably immune having lived in the past, but I will use the repellant as well. Malarial drugs are almost as bad as the disease."

"Did you every catch it?" Peter asked, curious.

"Hmm... I don't know... I have had many horrible illnesses, we never really named them back then."

"What did you think caused them?"

"Bad luck... the gods... curses... honestly there was always a feeling that we were being punished for something, it sounds weird now."

"Not really... I've had bad things happen to me... that's the way I felt sometimes."

We walked together to the room with the doorway spell, Harry, Nancy, Janet and Gwen were in front of the entrance in order to see us off.

"I will send a message every day, if you don't hear from me for more than two days then I probably need some help," I said to the group.

The three girls came forward and hugged me, all of them telling me to be careful. I shook Harry's hand then grabbed Peter's elbow and walked inside the transport room.

I pulled out a piece of paper with the co-ordinates of the time and place we needed to travel to, I had researched it previously.

The transport spell in the room was not particularly well written and it took a bit time and some calculations to set the dials and levers properly.

I was always intending to rewrite it but never got around to it.

I pulled the final lever and a second door appeared on the wall, right beside the door to nineteen thirty seven Los Angeles.

The door was a non-descript metal door, the other side of which would be disguised as part of a limestone wall in a small temple. We were going so far back in time that unlike today, a random door might look suspicious.

There was a brass key in the doors lock, I turned it unlocking it then pulled the key out, I grabbed Peters hand as I pushed the door open and then we both walked through. I turned and waved to the everyone as we left.

Peter and I emerged into a small dimly lit temple, there was a life sized statue on one end with a small altar in front of it, at the other end there was a large open door leading out to a dusty street.

I closed the door behind us then used the key to lock it, the keyhole was just a small slit just large enough for the key. The door blended smoothly into the wall, only close inspection would reveal the small crack surrounding it.

The key had a leather cord tied to it which I used to hang it around my neck.

"I see Egypt was just as hot in the past as the future," Peter said, he was already starting to sweat.

I conjured up a small aerosol can of mosquito repellant, it was military grade, and started spraying Peter.

"Geez, that stinks, aren't people here gonna wonder what the weird smell is?"

"Just wait, then you'll understand," I said.

I sprayed myself down and then dispelled the can.

I told Peter to stay close to me then cautiously stepped through the door and out onto the street.

"Holy shit!" I heard Peter say behind me, I turned and looked at him, his eyes had started to water and he had shoved the back of his hand under his nose.

"Welcome to the past," I said laughing.

"How the hell do people stand this... it smells like a landfill... actually a landfill would be a big step up."

"Believe it or not you get used to it."

I looked back at the temple in order to get a mental picture of it, then I flipped a few squares on my bracelet using a spell to bookmark its spot. I would now be able to find my way back to it even if we got lost.

I looked up and down the street it was narrow and deserted. I had purposely transported us to an area off the beaten track.

"You gotta act kinda subservient, remember you're my servant," I said to Peter.

I saw his eyes narrow.

"How do I do that?"

"Just pretend I'm a celebrity and you're my assistant."

"Oh... that's it?"

"Yep... some things never change, self important jerks have been around for eons."

Peter and I started walking down the dusty street, we turned onto another larger street, I saw people for the first time. We did not seem to be out of place for they took no notice of us. We soon emerged into a large market square teeming with people and stalls full of merchandise.

I scanned the crowd looking for a for a particular type of person, I soon found him.

"We have to follow that guy," I said while surreptitiously pointing to him.

We slowly walked staying a few dozen yards behind a young man wearing a white kilt and carrying the hindquarter of some kind of grazing animal.

"Who is he?" Peter asked.

"Royal servant."

"How can you tell?"

"His headdress... that weird cap, only royal servants are allowed to wear it."

"So he'll lead us to the palace... then what?"

"Imhotep was the Kings right hand man."

Peter stopped suddenly, grabbing my arm.

I slapped his hand, and tried to stare at him as if I was angry.

"Don't do that!"

I looked around quickly, thankfully nobody noticed him touching me.

"Oops... sorry... were gonna meet Imhotep... the Imhotep?"

"Ya... sorry I guess I should have told you."

"He wrote my spell... made me millions... is the reason I met you."

I had forgotten Imhotep had originally written Peter's stone moving spell.

"I have met many Egyptologist's who feel the same way as you, but for different reasons, maybe I should organize a speaking tour for him, for a percentage of course," I said smiling.

"Why do you need to see him?"

I told Peter about the Semiramis and the spell in her quarters.

"Hmm... so I guess you don't just want to talk to her?" He said.

"Not until I figure out what's going on."

I turned back and looked at the royal servant we had been following, he was just turning into another street disappearing from view.

Peter and I quickened our pace then turned onto the same street, I caught sight of him and after a minute or two of walking at a quickened pace we were again just a few yards behind him.

It took us about fifteen minutes of walking before we saw the royal palace, we both stopped and surveyed it not following about the servant anymore.

"It looks like a bank... or a government building," Peter said.

"All buildings in this era are squarish with columns, the arch hasn't been invented yet, plus it is a government building, this is what the bureaucratic buildings of the future are gonna be based on."

"We just walk in?"

"A big chunk of any ancient palace is administrative buildings, I was a scribe once upon a time, I'm sure I can convince the guards to let us in."

We kept walking until we saw a large open entrance, I saw two guards, on one on each side of the entrance, both carrying spears and wearing royal headdress's.

There was a small trickle of people walking n and out of the entrance, I could tell that some were scribes, they carried pallets and rolls of papyrus.

I squared my shoulders and approached the entrance with confidence.

"Halt!" One of the guards barked.

"Yes?" I replied in ancient Egyptian, I stared at him insolently.

"State you name and purpose," he said mechanically.

"I am the scribe Kemamonit, I have come to research some precedents regarding a dispute I am presenting to the king."

"Who is he?" He pointed to Peter.

"My manservant."

"He looks so strange... he is so large and white, where is he from?"

I could tell the guard was just asking because he was curious.

"He comes from the far north, he was captured in battle."

"Does he not speak?"

"Only in grunts and gestures... the tribe he is from was very barbaric."

"Yes... I have heard of such people, they live in caves and eat their meat raw."

"Ya... so can we pass?"

"Carry on," he said sharply.
Chapter five

We both walked through the entrance and into a long wide corridor with doorways lining each side. The corridor had a few dozen people walking to and fro, all with expressions of great purpose.

"How do we find Imhotep?" Peter asked.

"We find the king?"

"So... how do we find him?"

"He'll be the guy with the most ridiculous looking hat."

"Hat?"

"Crown, whatever, Ancient Egyptians were obsessed with headdress, it was how everyone showed their status, the bigger and stupider looking it was, the more powerful the person."

"Oh... like the royalty of the late nineteenth century... ridiculous military uniforms with racks of meaningless medals."

"Yep... see how little some things change," I said.

"Nobody does that anymore."

"I think that's cause most leaders are elected, they don't need symbols to pump up their self esteem, the electorate does that for them."

"Will the king just be walking around?" Peter asked.

"I think so, this is a much different time, there are no guns or explosives to worry about plus if you actually tried something justice would be swift and brutal."

We walked down the corridor and then out into a courtyard, the bright light causing me to squint, I saw a small crowd of people facing a large man who was talking in a loud voice.

As my eyes adjusted I saw that he was wearing and enormous crown, it looked like a large bowling pin sitting on a small chair. I saw another man standing to his immediate right.

"Ah ha, the right hand man," I said pointing.

"How do you know?" Peter asked sceptically.

"He's standing on his right hand side."

"Really? He has to stand on the right?"

"Yep... that's where the phrase came from, I think it's because he protects the kings sword arm, so he can draw his weapon if attacked."

Peter shaded his eyes with his hand and studied the group.

"He doesn't have a hat," Peter said after a few seconds.

"Who?"

"Imhotep."

"He's a powerful sorcerer, I doubt he has self esteem problems."

I studied the large man with the enormous crown, he had thick limbs and a broad chest, I could see scars all over his body. His face caused me to shiver inwardly, it was sharp and angular with dark almost lifeless eyes. There was also a profound confidence in his stance and gestures, he looked like someone who had spent many years commanding men.

"The king... he's from the military?" I heard Peter whisper.

"I think so? How can you tell?"

"I spent a lot of time on military bases, you get so you can spot military people even when they're not in uniform."

I surreptitiously flipped some of the squares on my magic bracelet, I then whispered under my breath.

"Imhotep, I must talk to you."

I saw Imhotep stiffen suddenly then look around the courtyard, our eyes locked when he saw me.

"How did you do that?" Peter asked, looking impressed.

"Ventriloquism spell."

Imhotep turned to the king and spoke a few words, the king nodded his head quickly and turned back to the crowd he was addressing.

Imhotep walked over to Peter and I.

"Do I know you?" Imhotep said as he scrutinized Peter and me.

He was a skinny wiry man in his thirties, he had a shaved his head and wore a conservative white kilt and leather sandals.

"I am Kemamonit, you may have heard of me, I have some urgent business to discuss with you."

A confused expression appeared on Imhotep's face, he stared at me intently then looked at my left arm.

He took a step back in surprise, the confusion on his face changed to astonishment when he saw my bracelet, his eyes moved back up to stare at my face again.

"How... you've been dead for eon's... I have seen your tomb..."

"We must find a place to talk," I said.

"There is a restaurant near here, it is large and has many private places."

We were soon sitting at a rough wooden table on hard stone benches in a large airy restaurant. There were only a few people at the other tables, most looked like bureaucrats from the palace, Imhotep had gone to get a jug of wine and some cups.

The restaurant was beautifully decorated, the walls were covered in bright murals and there were potted plants and flowers everywhere.

We were sitting next to one of the many open windows, it looked over the Nile river.

"Man this is nice, the food looks great too," Peter said as he looked around.

"Well unless you want some new and original type of diarrhea I would stick to wine."

There was a musician playing a lute on a small raised platform against the far wall, he was handsome but had the same scurrilous demeanor common to most musicians.

Peter turned and looked at the musician as well, he cocked one eye when he saw him.

"That song he's playing, what's it about?"

I listened for a few seconds.

"It is a lament... for a lover I think, a man is arguing with a messenger about a letter from a girl he loves... he was told there was a tablet waiting for him... she is from the city of the White Walls... that is the chorus I think..."

I listened for a few more seconds.

"Wait... it's not from his lover but his daughter, his wife has left him and they no longer live together."

"What's the daughters name?" Peter asked.

I listened some more.

"It's a Canaanite name... I think... it would probably be pronounced Mary in English but I'm not sure."

"Hmm... interesting," Peter said.

Imhopet returned with a clay jug and three cups, he filled each cup up and then sat down across from us.

"That language you were speaking... I have not heard it before," he said.

"It is from the north," I replied, trying to keep my face expressionless.

Imhotep stared my collar for a few seconds.

"You are from the future... aren't you... the woman in your tomb, she is from another page in the cosmic scroll."

"What makes you think that?"

"The stitching on your dress... it's perfect, each knot exact, something even the best seamstress could not do, but done in such a way as to seem completely unimportant."

"You are right... we are from the future."

"Can I ask... the Imhotep from your page... what happened... Djoser... was there a war?"

"You are still known, mostly in scholarly circles, as a great architect and physician, Djoser is mostly forgotten, remembered only for his pyramid."

A look of relief appeared on his face.

"It worked then."

"What worked, and why are you, a sorcerer, assisting a king?"

Imhotep took a long swig from his wine cup and then banged it on the table, he grabbed the jug and topped it up.

"Djoser is a very scary man, he has all of Egypt under his spell, they would do anything for him, he is also the most cunning and ruthless person I have ever met, he was preparing to launch a massive campaign to conquer the world, it would have killed thousands."

"So you talked him out of it, in exchange for your services?"

"No... more like diverted his attention... he has one weakness a large vanity."

"The pyramid," I said, suddenly realising his plan.

"Yes... when I built his mastaba... he just went on and on about how big it was, how powerful it made him look... it gave me an idea... so I built a wall around it... made him furious... he raged for almost a day... so I said to him no problem, just put another one on top, make it even bigger."

"And then you'll put an obelisk in front of that."

"Yes... It is being carved as we speak... I figure I can keep it up for maybe six or seven levels, it should keep him occupied for many years... I'm amazed my plan worked."

I looked around the restaurant to make sure no one was watching, then used my bracelet to conjure up a book, I slid it to Imhotep.

He stared at it curiously then cautiously opened it.

"I see scrollwork has come a long way... these paintings are of an unbelievable quality, and the penmanship is remarkable."

Imhotep flipped through the pages, paying special attention to the great pyramids, he stopped suddenly when he spied his own creation, the step pyramid.

"It still stands? How long?" He asked.

I thought for a moment, the universe was like pages in a book, all magic really was, was moving things between the pages, if things changed on this page it wouldn't affect the others, so I decided to be honest with him.

"Forty six hundred years and counting."

Imhotep's mouth fell open in surprise.

"That long... amazing... the future... what's it like? You must tell me."

Peter nudged me suddenly.

"Don't forget to ask for his autograph," he said.

I used my bracelet to conjure up some papyrus, a reed stylus and a small container of ink.

"Umm... my manservant would like your autograph," I said pushing the papyrus over to him.

"Really? This is the custom in the future?"

I nodded my head.

Imhotep, took the stylus, dipped it's tip into the ink, then with great care wrote out his name in hieroglyphs on the papyrus, afterwards he took out a clay seal, dipped it into the ink and stamped the papyrus.

He slid it over to Peter.

"Your manservant huh... it always amazes me, the ability of a woman to lie while being right next to the evidence of her deceit."

"What do you mean?" I said, feeling my face go warm.

"Your hand is on his leg."

"Oh..."

"Again, the future, what is it like?"

"It would take hours to explain."

Imhotep looked around the restaurant then waved his hand while saying a word I did not recognize, suddenly everything went silent, I looked at the people around me, they were frozen in place.

"I've have stopped time, the others here cannot see anything, now show me."

I stared at him for a moment let out a sigh and then conjured up a window into the future.

The window next to us no longer looked out over the Nile, we were now looking at a busy street in New York city in the afternoon. There were pedestrians walking back and forth in front of the window, oddly there were only a few that seemed surprised to see us.

"Sorcery is commonplace now?" Imhotep asked, looking out.

"No... this is not sorcery."

"Really... this is extraordinary, those metal contraptions... stationary rollers... how?"

I ripped a piece of papyrus into a circle, then poked the stylus into its center and spun it.

"Oh... so simple... why have we not thought of that?"

"That's what a lot of the future is, simple tricks, if you have enough of them and combine them they are not simple anymore."

"Tell me one... please... just one, what could it matter?" Imhotep's expression reminded me of a young child begging for a sweet.

I conjured up a pad of paper and a pen, In a column I wrote the Egyptian numbers from one to ten, I wrote the ten with the Egyptian one and a modern zero. I then wrote the numbers eleven to thirty in the modern way, still using Egyptian numbers, in another column.

I showed them to Imhotep.

"What is this symbol?" Imhotep pointed to the zero.

"It stands for nothing, it is called a zero."

"I don't understand... nothing?"

"If you have a half of a loaf of bread, it is a half of one loaf, right?"

"Yes."

"If the bread has ten slices then half would be five slices."

"Yes... of course.

I wrote zero point five on the paper, then one point zero and two point zero.

"See, half a loaf, one loaf and two loaves," I pointed to the corresponding numbers.

"Yes... but what if the loaf has thirteen slices?"

"There are only ten numbers Imhotep."

Imhotep thought for a moment, then had a small epiphany.

"Oh... I see... this is important? It seems so trivial."

I smiled.

"Ten times ten is a hundred, times ten again is a thousand," I said, as I wrote it out on the paper using ones and zero's.

I showed Imhotep.

"Really... that works... you just add this... zero."

"It works in the opposite way as well, when you divide by ten."

Imhotep stared at me.

"Until it is one, then it stops."

"Nope," I said smugly.

"I don't understand..."

"You are a clever man Imhotep, you'll figure it all out."

I dispelled the window to New York and we were looking at the Nile again, I gave Imhotep the paper pad and the cheap plastic pen. He immediately picked up the pen and examined it closely.

"Magic?" He asked.

"A tube filled with ink spread out by a small metal ball, simple and yet surprisingly invented only recently."

"Hmm... more simple tricks."

Imhotep wrote the number a thousand on the pad, then one hundred underneath it, then ten, then one. He stared at the column for a minute, he looked at my notes, then he put a dot to the right of the one then a zero, he stared some more, he looked up at me, probing me like a poker player measuring up an opponent.

Imhotep looked down at the pad one more time and then showed Peter and I why history had remembered him as one of the smartest people who ever lived.

He wrote a zero a dot and then a one at the bottom of the column.

I clapped my hands and smiled at him.

"That makes no sense..." he said, when he saw my reaction.

"You doubt your own brilliance?"

"Doubting ones brilliance is the surest path to wisdom."

"Enough of this... we have come to ask you about a former colleague of yours," I said.

"Who?" He had a guarded expression on his face.

"Her name is Semiramis... you were students together.

An odd expression appeared on Imhotep's face a sort of wistful fear, he leaned back on his bench and took a swig from his wine cup.

"What do you need to know?"

"Where she is for one, and what is she like."

"I think she is in Nineveh... I have not seen her in years, she is someone to stay away from."

"Why?"

"She has a power over men... it is intoxicating to be around her, like a strong wine... but she is very different from other women... her beauty conceals a cold wickedness."

"If she created a puzzle, do you think you would know the answer," I asked.

"No... she was inscrutable, nothing she did ever made sense to me... I remember pointing out Saturn to her one night, she became fascinated... but then when I tried to discuss the other planets, she just became bored and dismissive."

"Why did she go to Nineveh?"

"Who knows... she enjoyed manipulating people, sometimes she would do it just for her own amusement... whatever the puzzle is, it will be an incomprehensible intrigue."

"Well this is a lot of help," I said exasperated," I guess you also wouldn't know that if she..... hypothetically say... set a trap for you what it would be?"

Imhotep stared at me, his eyes suddenly became very penetrating, I could see now that he would have been a formidable opponent for I saw an impressive steeliness.

"Trap?"

I explained the riddle we had found in her quarters, and the warning of nameless consequences if we didn't solve it.

"That I think I can help you with... have you ever heard of the sorcerer Seeris?"

"No... should I?"

"He had a brilliant but very short career, Semiramis became fascinated with him, she spent many days in the library reading his research notes. I was obsessed with her at the time, I'm sorry to admit, and tried in every way to assist her."

"What made Seeris so brilliant?"

Imhotep said a word I didn't understand while turning one of his palms up, a sphere about six inches in diameter appeared above his palm, it had a mirror like finish.

"You recognize this?"

"Yes... it is a spherical fissure with the entrance and exit reversed, it is impenetrable, why is it important?"

"Seeris started experimenting with these sphere's," Imhotep said pointing to the hovering globe.

"He did a number of things, including being inside one."

"That sounds dangerous," I said.

"Yes... but he discovered that he was weightless... and... this is difficult to explain, when you push a large stone it takes a lot of effort at first, then it's easier, that was gone to, a rock behaved like a piece of papyrus."

"No inertia... or gravity, interesting."

"eenercha... gravitee... what are these things?" Imhotep asked curious.

"Just words to describe those effects, gravity pulls you down inertia resists you from moving."

"Eenercha... I'll have to remember that."

"Seeris then started shrinking the spheres, then dispelling them."

Imhotep shrunk the sphere to half its size then dispelled it, I heard a loud pop.

"It compressed the air, then released it... like popping a balloon," Peter said.

I repeated this to Imhotep.

"Yes... very simple... except Seeris kept using bigger and bigger spheres and shrunk them to smaller and smaller sizes."

"He got bigger pops?"

"Yes, until one night, he had gone far into the desert to experiment, witnesses said there was a blinding flash on the horizon and he was never seen from again."

I had a vague notion of what might have happened.

"Semiramis was fascinated by this story... so she wanted to try it herself... she charmed me into helping her... she didn't want anybody to know, so one night we travelled far down the great river, past the second cataract, then we went due west, traveled over fifty rivers distance into the desert, we found a spot with a small mountain to the north.

We had Seeris's notes, so we knew roughly the size needed, we created a large sphere, one a hundred cubits in diameter, then we shrunk it down to the size of a poppy seed, we left the seed in the sand and retreated behind the mountain, then we dispelled it."

"What happened?"

"It was as if we had created Ra... it was as bright as the brightest day, then came an enormous roar and a wind so fierce it could not be believed.

I looked up over the mountain and I saw an enormous glowing cloud rising up... if there is evil in this world... that cloud... I can still see it.... we were terrified, we quickly transported ourselves back to the city... we never ever spoke of it again... but I remember, even with the fear in eyes, a look she had... it sent shivers up my spine."

"Did you ever go back?" I asked.

"Months later... I told no one, I found a large crater over a hundred cubits wide and half again as deep, I could not bring myself to go near it."

Imhotep dispelled the sphere and returned us to normal time, I heard voices talking and the clatter of plates and cups.

I sipped my wine.

"So you believe she has left one of these spheres in her quarters," I asked.

"I think so..."

"Why did you seal her quarters?"

"I didn't... yet... your visit feels me with trepidation, I had assumed I would not see her again."

"Well... you still may not... we may be the ones dealing with her this time around," I said.

"One more question Imhotep, how did you make a sphere out of a fissure?"

I had made many such enchantments, they were very useful being impenetrable, the secret was that instead of using one fissure, you used many side by side then rearranged the entrance or the exit fissures in the opposite direction.

That was the only way to get a mirror reflection on the surface rather than a photographic one, this was what was needed to enable the thing that was trying to penetrate to block itself.

I had never learned how to make a sphere though.

Imhotep started to explain the process.

"Well it a technique I developed when I was trying to find the area under a curve, you know... without using an approximation."

I watched him use the pen and pad of paper to sketch a curve, a thought suddenly popped into my head. I remembered sitting in the last class of the GED course I had taken, I was listening to the teacher describe future math classes that we might want to take when the woman sitting beside me had said something.

"My mom said she never ever needed no calculators."

No that wasn't it I thought... it was another plural...calcula... caculer... calculi! That was it, god English was a strange language, all those weird plurals.

Her mom musta been very clever... I had to use calculi all the time... or maybe she was just a good guesser.

I suddenly realized I hadn't being paying any attention to Imhotep, the weird things that pop into your head sometimes, I made a special effort to follow what he was saying.

"See how now I no longer need to draw rectangles under the curve," he continued.

I looked at all the diagrams and equations he had written, I was sure there was a simpler way to do this, his techniques had probably been replaced centuries ago.

It would be good for Gwen to learn something like this though... mold her young mind, get her to think about something other than young boys, or that awful music she listened too.

"And I call it appraising small infinites," Imhotep said as he finished, he tossed the pen down forcefully.

"Fascinating," I said, trying to look interested.

"I have a better explanation in a scroll that I wrote, It's called the Principles of Philosophy, I could summon a copy for you."

"That would be great."

Imhotep said a word and a scroll appeared in front of him, he made a big show of autographing it and stamping it with his seal.

I doubted his scroll would be of much use, he barely understood the concept of zero, I thought to myself.

Peter hungrily grabbed the scroll when Imhotep handed it over.

"Can you put this in our quarters, along with his autograph?" He asked, putting the papyrus with Imhoteps signature on top of it.

I dispelled them both, putting them on Peter's desk.

Imhotep stood up.

"I must go... if you need a place to stay I can arrange quarters at the palace," Imhotep said.

"Thank you, that would be great."

Imhotep said goodbye then left to return to the side of his king.

Chapter six

I described the conversation I had had with Imhotep to Peter.

"Oh great... a nuclear weapon," he said when I finished.

"You think that's what it was? I thought you needed plutonium or something for that."

"Well... I read an article in my science magazine a while ago, apparently NASA is developing a rocket that is using a similar principle, they crush a fuel pellet with a shrinking metal collar, it creates a small fusion explosion."

I was a bit sceptical, Peter's science magazine was a colorful glossy thing with page after page of articles about useless gadgets. There always seemed to be a picture of a flying car on the front cover whose production was imminent, but I had yet to see one.

"What about the lack of inertia and gravity?"

"Again... remember all the news a while ago about the Higgs boson?"

"Um... ya... it was an atom... or something."

"A particle, anyway it gives things mass by interacting with something called the Higgs field, like a stone thrown in water, I think that sphere cuts off everything inside it from the Higgs field."

I thought for a moment.

"That makes sense, it is impenetrable, it reflects everything, if you hit it with your fist your fist hits you back, it's an exit and an entrance reversed," I said.

"I can see how that would also be a very useful tool... as a shield or a reflector," Peter said.

"Or a nuclear bomb," I said.

I could see that would have to do some research on nuclear fusion.

"Why doesn't Imhotep just drop Djoser onto a deserted island somewhere, why is spending all this time diverting his attention?" Peter asked.

"Because things aren't that simple."

"Why? It's his idea to conquer the world, if you got rid of him the problem would be solved."

"Well... think about our previous emperor."

"You mean President."

"Sure... President... what if he had died and all his nefarious underlings had taken over, what would have happened?"

"I don't know. Nefarious? I don't think they were that bad."

"The thing is, a lot of what leadership is, is someone finding the path of least resistance, Djoser would not be thinking about conquest if there was not a lot of support for it, plus he is a strong king, people listen to him, if you control him you control the country."

"Why does Imhotep care? There has been horrible wars all throughout history,"

"He probably made the mistake of getting his conscience involved, I'll bet he has numerous friends and relatives that would be harmed. That is the problem being a sorcerer, you suddenly have the ability to make a difference in the world and all the guilt that comes with that. Remember when I told you about Soem and Gemer?"

"That's why you got involved... guilt?"

"Yes, because of the city next to them, I had many friends there, and they were a peaceful, tolerant and generous people."

"Does Imhotep know about what you did?"

"I wrote extensive notes about what happened and put them in the library, I suspect that is why he is behaving in this way."

"You tried the deserted island thing?"

"Something similar... it just made things worse, everything I tried that seemed logical, got the exact opposite reaction I expected, anger instead of fear, violence instead of retreat, near the end it was as if I had smashed open a wasps nest, I ran out of options."

"So you destroyed the cities."

"Except their children... it was the only smart thing I did, I was planning to take them, try to use them for blackmail... I couldn't do it... so I started drinking wine instead... bad idea... I ended up transporting all of them to the city I was protecting... then I destroyed the cities."

"What happened then?"

"Not surprisingly the people I had protected were not very happy... all those extra mouths to feed... I told them to look after the children or else... I had no friends there after that, but I could sleep at night."

"I'm starving, if I drink another cup of wine, I'll be half cut," Peter said.

I scanned the restaurant to make sure no one was looking in our direction then I conjured up two meals that resembled what the other patrons were eating.

It was beef stew and some large buttered roles, the stew was in wooden bowls, I had also conjured up wooden spoons for us to use.

"Won't the servers wonder where we got the food?" Peter asked as he dipped his spoon into the bowl.

"Server's?" I said.

"Hmm... something to remember for the temporal tourist, only bar service available in the past."

"Well... if I left you alone for a half an hour, I'm sure you would get some kind of server."

"Would she cook me a meal?"

"I don't think so... I've been to a few of your matinee performances."

Peter laughed.

After we finished eating we spent the rest of the day wondering around the city. Peter was amazed at how small it was and how easy it was to get lost.

"These old cities grow like plants, there is no planning, that's why the roads are so screwy," I said to Peter.

"Ya... guess they don't have to worry about water pipes or sewers, it's amazing though, all the temples and artwork for a town of maybe ten thousand people."

"Yes.. but I think it would have been better for them to spend all that time and money on sewers, I'm thankful that in the future someone finally figured that out."

"That's strange too, it would have been so simple for them to do, they already know how to build complicated irrigation ditches, and the river is only a few hundred feet away," Peter said.

"The leaders of this era made modern gangsters look like truant children, they're basically running a huge protection racket, only it's legal. They are so short-sighted that instead of trying to make things better all they worry about is screwing everyone over. The sad part is they have nothing to blow the cash on so they build endless temples, statues and tombs."

"No cocaine or Ferrari's."

"Or sixty inch plasma's, if you talk to them though, they think they're in the lap of luxury."

We soon came upon Djoser's funerary complex on the edge of the city. We saw hundreds of workers building scaffolds and moving blocks of stone. I could see men working on the second level of the step pyramid, as Imhotep had said the first level was obscured by a large wall.

"Oh my god, that's impressive," Peter said.

"Yep, all that for a corpse that was probably burned to power a steam engine in the nineteenth century."

"Really? They never found Djosers mummy?"

"Nope, I wonder though if in the end that's better than being a museum exhibit?"

"I think that being an exhibit would be kinda cool, spend eternity scaring little kids."

We turned around and then walked back to the palace, Ra was starting his trip down to the horizon.

Imhotep had sent word to the palace guard to have someone ready to escort us to our temporary quarters. We were led into a large airy room on the second floor, there were huge open windows looking out over the city.

I looked around the room, it was furnished with a large bed the headboard pressed against one wall, there was also a couch and numerous small tables and cabinets spread around. Someone had put fresh cut flowers in vases in the room corners.

"Looks comfy, no air conditioning though," Peter said.

I looked at the rooms walls, I noticed numerous carvings on the walls with small holes in them, they were conveniently located around the room, no doubt to give a spy a panoramic view.

I stood close to Peter and surreptitiously used my bracelet to activate a spell. The room became silent.

"What happened?" Peter asked.

"I stopped time, do not move."

Peter stood still, I turned around and then dispelled the bed, I summoned another one that looked very similar, except that it was a modern design. I turned and faced my original direction and then ended the time spell.

"What was that for?" Peter asked.

"We are being spied upon and I wanted to replace the bed."

"Why?"

"It is probably full of vermin, and the one I replaced it with has an invention of mine, an air conditioned blanket."

"Oh... so we'll be comfortable after all."

It was soon dark, Peter and I undressed and climbed into our bed. I felt the blanket cool my hot sticky skin, I felt quite smug in the thought that the most powerful king in the land was currently a few hundred feet away from us, sweating his ass off.

Chapter seven

The sun woke me up the next morning, it's bright light streaming through one of the open windows.

I had slept quite well other than being woken up by Peter in the middle of the night, he told me he was too hot. Thankfully I had put in separate temperature controls for each side of the blanket, I showed him how to turn his down.

Peter was still sleeping, I touched his side of the blanket, he must have boiling water running through his veins, I thought to myself, the blanket was freezing.

I felt someone watching me, no doubt one of Djoser's spies. I suspected this was just a routine invasion of privacy, Imhotep had probably told Djoser that I was just an old friend.

I rolled out of bed and walked over to my dress from yesterday, I had hung it over one of the small tables in the room. It stunk of sweat and mosquito repellant.

I gritted my teeth and put it on, then I put on my wig, the louse powder, thankfully, was odourless.

I walked over to one of the windows and looked out, I surreptitiously used my bracelet to send a message to everyone back at the City of Magic.

Possible nuclear bomb

Evacuate the city

Everything OK going to Nineveh

I had never updated my message spell, it simply made a trumpet noise next to the person I sent the message too, then a piece of papyrus would appear in midair with my message written on it.

I walked to the rooms entrance, the doorway's frame was over two feet thick, it enabled me to momentarily hide from the rooms many peepholes.

I turned myself ethereal then walked through the closed wooden door. I walked into the wide hallway next to our room, it was devoid of people.

I quickly walked towards where I thought Djoser's quarters might be, I knew I was on the right track when the doors started to be guarded by more and more elaborately costumed foot soldiers.

I entered one final door and emerged into the King's dressing room, there was Djoser and his queen being outfitted with all the paraphernalia needed by the typical narcissist.

I gasped involuntarily when I saw Djoser's queen, my god she was an ugly woman. I felt a bit guilty, beauty is in the eye of the beholder Kem, I thought to myself. I looked at her again, she reminded me of someone I had seen before, she had a protruding chin and her lower lip stuck out further then her upper lip.

I suddenly remembered a TV program I had watched about a powerful royal family in Europe, they had destroyed themselves by constantly inbreeding. They had shown a number of family portraits during the documentary, they all had the same features as her.

The things parents do to their kids.

I listened to the conversation the king and queen were having.

"You put too much faith in Imhotep... I do not trust him, that woman he has given quarters to, no one knows of her, I think she is a spy."

Djoser took a long swig from a cup he was holding, it was wine, I suspected this was his chosen method to try and beautify his wife.

"You think everyone's a spy... and Imhotep is the reason we were able to defeat the Canaanites so easily."

"He distracts you, there are other advisor's... replace him... then execute him."

Djoser could barely hide a look of absolute revulsion as he took another long drink from his wine cup.

"Sure... execute him, execute everyone, we can just sit here by ourselves."

"Mind your words Imhotep... remember you have your kingship because of me... my family wanted me to marry my brother."

"I have duties to perform, I must go," Djoser said as he stood up, he kissed his queen on the cheek then left the room. A servant walked into the room after Djoser left, he bent over to whisper into the queens ear. I leaned closer to hear what he said.

"She has disappeared my queen, she is like a cat, no one seen her leave her quarters."

"Hmm... she is like Imhotep, versed in the arcane arts."

"She sleeps with her manservant."

"And what did they speak off?" the queen asked, her eyes narrowing.

"They spoke in a language no one could understand."

"We must capture her, then torture her, she will reveal Imhotep's secrets, post a guard she will return for her manservant."

This woman was crazy, the result of all that inbreeding I guessed. I turned and ran back towards our room, I was soon standing next to the bed watching Peter sleep.

I activated the time stop spell then dispelled my etherealness.

"Peter wake up," I said as I shook him.

He rolled onto his back and rubbed his eyes.

"What's up?"

"They're going to try to capture us, we have to leave."

Peter got up and dressed, I dispelled our bed and replaced it with the original one. I arranged the pillows under the blanket to make it look as if Peter was still sleeping.

"Let's go," I said as I stood next to Peter.

I transported us back to the small temple we had arrived in while at the same time ending the time stop spell. They would talk about this for years, I thought with a smile.

"What now?" Peter asked.

"We travel to Nineveh," I replied.

"How?"

"We take a boat... I want to be careful not give ourselves away."

"I stick out like a sore thumb," Peter said.

"I will think of something, but first things first."

I walked up to the temples entrance then poked my head through it and looked both ways, the street was empty. I pushed the large wooden door shut then barred it, the temple grew dark.

I walked back to Peter, then conjured up a light and a large enclosed shower. Peter and I were soon stripped naked and cleaning ourselves in a luxurious stream of clean water.

Chapter eight

Peter and I were sitting in a small seedy bar next to Memphis's large harbor, we were dressed as foreign merchants. Peter wore a large fake beard and I had used makeup to darken his pale skin, I wore the clothing of a slave.

We sat drinking cups of thick dark beer, I heard a commotion at the bars entrance, I looked up and saw two palace guards walk in armed with spears. They surveyed the sparse crowd and then walked towards us.

"Names please," one of them asked sternly.

"We are not the people you are looking for," I said.

The guards stared at me for a moment then turned and walked away. It always amazed me that if you said something with great confidence and forcefulness people would generally believe you.

I looked around the bar, I saw two men sitting across from each other talking in loud voices, I realized they were arguing, one of them stood up suddenly he pointed his finger in a threatening manner at the other man and muttered something in a menacing voice, then he turned and walked away.

I grabbed Peter's sleeve signalling him to follow me, then I stood up and walked over to the now solitary man, Peter and I sat down across from him.

"You are a Captain... you have a ship?" I asked.

"That depends..." he said arrogantly.

"On what?"

"What are you willing to pay?"

"One hundred deben."

He laughed.

"You might have fooled those guards, but you can't fool me, the palace is looking for you... two hundred."

"I want to see your ship first... and we leave right away."

He downed his beer and then stood up, "follow me."

Peter and I were soon standing on a stone pier staring at a fifty foot long single masted wooden ship. I noticed the wood it was made of looked old and cracked.

"This is a piece of junk," I said.

"Looks aren't everything girly... she's a fast boat, I've made Crete in seven days."

"If it sinks, I want my money back," I said as Peter and I climbed aboard.

There was a large man with a full beard working on the boats rigging, the Captain whistled at him causing him to turn, he grunted something incomprehensible, then jumped onto the pier and started untying the boat.

The ship had a crew of ten people, they soon had the boat pushed away from the pier and were rowing out towards open water. We had gone only a few hundred yards when I noticed another ship leaving the pier as well.

It was a royal ship, I could tell from the insignia painted on the prow, it was headed in our direction.

"Drop the sail," I said to the Captain.

"There's no wind," he said derisively.

I used my bracelet to summon a stiff breeze, the rigging started to whip back and forth.

"How about now?"

The Captain stared at me, his eye's the size of saucers.

"How... how..." he stammered.

Thankfully the crew noticed the wind picking up and had started to unfurl the large square sail. We were soon leaving the pier and our tail far behind.

"Where are we going?" The Captain asked, he stood as far away from me as he possibly could.

"To the north, we want to travel down the Via Maris."

"I will stop at Dor... three days sail, you can join a caravan," the Captain said bruskly.

We were fortunate to have a strong wind that blew in the exact right direction, or so I told the Captain, from his expression I knew he didn't believe me. He was right or course, the wind had been conjured up by me, thankfully it cut our journey time down to two days.

We spent one uncomfortable night sleeping on the boat as it was anchored near the shore, people of this era did not sail at night unless they had no choice.

I was grateful when we finally pulled into the city of Dor.

Dor could only have been called a city in this time period, my eyes, which had been acclimated to the future, saw a small fortified village of about a thousand people. There were large fenced in areas near the cities walls which held hundreds of camels.

Peter and I jumped off the boat and onto the small pier that it had been tied up to, the Captain did not even wave goodbye. The entire crew had spent the whole voyage staring at us whilst occasionally making what I assumed were some sort of religious gestures.

"Geez get a lucky wind and everybody thinks you're a witch," I muttered to Peter.

"Aren't you worried they'll gossip?"

"It was a pretty underwhelming spell, it ain't gonna be much of a story."

"Ya... I guess... evil witch summons a wind, then leaves."

We walked towards the cities small gate, I saw archers on top of the walls keeping a close eye on the goings on below. We walked through the gate without incident, there were no guards, once inside we soon saw the only reason this city existed.

There were literally thousands of crates, bales, rolls and baskets of every kind of good imaginable. I saw spices, fine woods, carpets, clothing, I felt the same feeling I had when I would walk around the enormous warehouse stores of the future.

There was an enormous bustle of activity everywhere, men carrying bundles of leather harnesses, groups of people packing goods into baskets or carrying leather bags of water. I saw what looked like an administrative building in the distance. I grabbed Peters hand and pulled him along.

We were soon standing in front of an open window of the administrative building, there was a short bald officious looking man on the other side. He had a stylus cocked behind one ear.

"State your business," he said without looking up.

"We would like to join a caravan," I said.

"Goods?"

"No, just passage, two people."

"Two hundred deben, fifty deben administrative fee payable to me, it leaves tonight just before sunset."

I had conjured up a small sack of copper deben previously, I paid him fifty deben.

"Names?" He still hadn't looked up.

"Kem and Peter," I said.

He grabbed the stylus from behind his ear dipped it into an inkwell then wrote our names in a column on a piece of papyrus, he wrote the number twenty five beside each. He finally looked up examining us carefully.

"Fee of two hundred deben is to be paid to caravan chief Heb, no refunds... Next!" He yelled, waving us away.

Peter and I walked away.

"All those administrative records, kept meticulously for millennia, it seems like such a waste." I said.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the town and looking at all the goods. Everything was for sale, I bought some spices and bolts of cloth that I knew I would never be able to find in the present. I dispelled them back to my quarters surreptitiously after I had purchased them.

When night fell we walked outside the city walls and started looking for our caravan, it turned out to be an easy task, there was only one leaving.

The caravan was a long line of approximately fifty camels all had loads of cargo piled onto their backs. The camels were tied together with ropes and harnesses making them look like a decorative chain. There were ten animal handlers.

Peter and I walked up to the caravan's leader in order to pay our fee.

"Are you Heb?" I asked.

"You have your fee?" He said without looking, he was adjusting a harness on one of the animals head.

"Yes here," I handed him some small blocks of copper, he whipped out a small weigh scale and put them onto it.

"Two hundred... on the dot, perfect, remember keep near at all times we can't afford to wait."

"We're not going to ride?"

Heb's eyes grew wide.

"Ride?! An animal... are you crazy?"

"Well... um... they seem to carry cargo without a problem," I had forgotten we were so far back in the past animals had not been used for human transport yet.

"Don't let them fool you... you think they are dumb animals, they are evil dangerous beasts, look at this one's eyes, even now he is plotting a way to throw off his cargo and trample me to death."

I looked at the camels eyes, Heb was right, I could see a cunning wickedness, the camel licked it's lips and stared at me defiantly.

"The only thing more dangerous is a horse... thankfully they're only used for food," Geb said laughing.

Heb had made a strong argument, riding animals was dangerous and foolhardy, I had been feeling trepidation at just the thought of it, now I felt relieved.

"So which ones are we riding?" Peter asked.

"Um... we are too far back in the past, animals are just used to carry things."

"Well I can fix that, I've broken a few horses in my day, these camels shouldn't be very hard they're already trained to carry things," Peter had walked up to one of the treacherous beasts and was soon petting it's snout.

The feeling of trepidation started to come back.

"Well normally that would be true... but um... these are specially trained attack camels... they um... will trample anyone that touches their backs... um... you know... so nobody takes their stuff."

"Attack camels huh..." I could see Peter was trying to suppress a smile.

Somehow Peter had produced a handful of grain and was in the process of bewitching the horrible beast, Heb was staring at him with a look of amazement.

Peter undid the camels pack saddle and plucked it off putting in on the ground. The camel stared at him suspiciously, he grabbed the animals harness and tied makeshift reins onto it, then he produced another handful of grain. The camel munched the grain out of his hand while Peter whispered into the animals ear.

While I was looking at Peter and the camel an image of a confidence man bamboozling an overconfident mark popped into my head.

Peter let the harness go and in a quick graceful leap was on the animals back, he was very agile for a large man, I thought to myself.

The camel jerked its head up in surprise and started to stomp around in anger, in an instant Peter had jumped off and was standing next to it again with another handful of grain.

The camel stared at him, then slowly dipped his head to eat the grain all the while eyeing him suspiciously. Peter stroked the animals snout whispering into its ear, then he leaped onto it's back again. The camel stood stock still, it appeared be indecisive, not sure of what to do. Peter cautiously reached over and grabbed the reins then he gently tapped the animals sides with his heels.

The camel took off in an erratic gallop braying in anger, Peter clung to the animal like a predator to its prey. The animal ran at what I assumed, for a camel, was a blistering pace, this lasted for about a minute, then it stopped, it was breathing heavily.

Peter stroked its neck still holding onto the reins, he waited for a minute then lightly kicked it again, the animal brayed and then broke into a slow walk back towards the caravan.

Peter jumped off the camel when it returned to its spot in the caravan, he stroked it's neck as he tied a rope to its harness. I looked into the beast's dark eyes, I did not see the cunning wickedness anymore.

"How... it's not possible... how," Heb stammered.

"What should I tell him," I asked Peter.

"Tell him it's a herd animal, you can be like a pack of wolves and control them with fear, or you can join the herd."

I translated this to Heb.

"Hmm... join the herd, interesting, I would not have believed this possible."

"I don't want to ride them," I said to Peter.

"Good idea... attack camels can be tricky," he smiled at me, "we don't have proper saddles anyway, and they still have to be trained to respond to the reins."

"We will only walk for a day or two, then be on our own," I said.

"Why are we travelling this way anyway?" Peter asked, a curious expression on his face.

"In the city of Magic, I found a building full of surveillance devices, from what I could tell they were designed to spot magical effects, some of them were still on, they were monitoring most of the middle east and the Mediterranean, if Semiramis had access to them in this era we might give ourselves away."

"Magical effects?"

"Ya... things flying around or appearing out of nowhere... it wasn't super sophisticated."

I heard Heb yell suddenly, saying it was time to leave, the sun had finally dipped below the horizon lighting it up in a beautiful orange glow.

The camels shuffled a bit not wanting to start walking, Heb had a long thin whip in his hand and was preparing to whack the lead animal on the nose, he stopped suddenly. He put the whip down walked up to the camel and patted in on the snout, then adjusted it's pack.

The animal stared at him suspiciously, Heb grabbed its reins and said in a loud voice, let's go. The long train of animals slowly started to walk.

Chapter nine

The stars and the moon provided and amazing amount of light in the sparse rocky landscape, we walked at a comfortable pace while being careful to keep close to the caravan.

"How long are we going to walk?" Peter asked.

"Probably three or four hours, this is a very old route, there will be a place to stop at that's been there for hundreds of years."

"I have a bad knee... it'll start to ache in about an hour."

Peter had been an athlete in his youth, he had played a violent team game were the players beat each other with long wooden sticks while chasing a small rubber disk. It was a wonder it was just his knee that was bad.

I conjured up a small floating saddle for him to sit on, after he climbed onto it I positioned myself in such a way that I blocked the view of his now stationary legs from the men of the caravan.

I found the journey quite enjoyable, which surprised me, it had been years since I had walked a long distance. When I was a child everyone walked everywhere, the wheel had not been invented yet, but I did not remember being resentful about it.

I wondered if that was why it had taken so long for someone to think of the wheel.

After hours of walking we eventually stopped in front of the entrance of a large cave, someone had built rudimentary walls around it in order to make it more defensible. There was also a fenced in area for the camels, there was a long trough at one end which I assumed was for water.

The men of the caravan were soon busy unloading the animals, building a fire and hauling water from a deep well. Peter and I helped were we could, but mostly stayed out of the way.

We were soon all sitting around the fire eating a simple meal, thankfully it had been well cooked lessoning our chances of getting ill. I did not want to insult the men by refusing their food.

After the meal ended and we crawled into the cave to sleep on rough carpets covered by foul smelling blankets, I surreptitiously conjured up some pillows and foam rubber for me and Peter. The night was quite cool so we had no need of my air conditioned blanket.

We slept well into the morning, the men did as well, I noticed they had stationed a sentry at the cave's entrance during the night.

Watching for the scourge of every era, robbers, I thought to myself. I noticed all the men carried long curved swords and daggers.

Once we got up and walked outside the cave entrance I saw that there was a beehive of activity going on, the camels were being fed and watered, and they were closely examined for sores and injuries.

"What happens if a camel gets hurt?" I asked Heb who was standing nearby.

"It depends... we spread the load and have it walk unencumbered, or leave it and a man for the next caravan, or we have camel meat for a while."

The rest of the day was spent fixing up the area, the stone walls were repaired and added to, firewood was gathered and the well was examined.

At mid afternoon we crawled back into the cave and onto our carpets for a final snooze before we continued our journey.

The next night was similar to the first, excepting we walked for a longer time, almost five hours, we arrived at a small oasis complete with tree's and birds.

The routine was the same as the previous night except this time they set up a large tent that had been hidden in the desert previously.

We were soon eating our meal, the men seemed happier and more at ease.

"You seem to be relieved for some reason Heb," I said.

"The deeper we get into the desert the safer we are, robbers are a lazy bunch."

"When are we going to sneak away," Peter asked, he was sitting next to me.

"Tomorrow afternoon."

"Are we just going to run away?"

"Nope."

"What then?"

"You'll see."

I had concocted a special spell for our escape, one that would lead our companions to believe we had perished and one that would not show up as magical to an observer.

Chapter ten

It was midday and the men were getting ready to crawl onto their sleeping carpets when Peter and I saw a small dust devil take form about a hundred yards away. It started to come towards us, meandering back and forth.

The dust devil would fade and then grow stronger as it moved, the men around us stared at it as if mesmerized.

"It is a Jinn, we must stay clear," one of them muttered while making some sort of superstitious gesture with his hands.

I grabbed Peter's hand and pulled him with me as I walked towards the twister.

"Nonsense, it is just the wind," I said, trying to sound like an overconfident know it all.

The twister flared up suddenly becoming much larger, it made a sorrowful howling sound.

"Kem... Peter... no! You must run! It is a Jinn!" I heard Heb yell.

I turned and smiled at Heb, he and the men around him were frozen in fear, I could tell they wanted to try and stop us but could not bring themselves to confront the Jinn.

Peter and I were soon standing in front of the twister, it was a roaring tornado now, I turned and waved to the men for a final time then the Jinn pulled us in and carried us away.

"Hated the movie... loved the idea," I said to Peter as we were swept off our feet.

Peter and I were sitting in a cool transparent bubble in the midst of the large dust devil. I had designed the spell to make the twister rise and fall in intensity like a real one would, it also darted around erratically.

I looked up and saw a thick layer of dirt and dust resting on top of the transparent bubble, I had added this feature to hide us from any overhead observation when the twisters winds would subside.

"How long is this going to take?" Peter asked.

I flicked a few squares on my bracelet and the twister disappeared while at the same time we were transported forward about five hundred feet coinciding with another dust devil whipping to life to cover our arrival.

"I can do these jumps while we're alone, but once we have observers I'll have to stop and then keep the wind up to obscure us."

"Can you make me a pillow?"

I conjured up a thick pillow and gave it to Peter, he put it behind his head and went to sleep.

I started to make bigger and bigger jumps, the desert was relatively flat and I could see two or three miles ahead. I avoided the regular caravan routes so we wouldn't raise any suspicion.

I estimated we had made half the distance to our goal when the sun started to descend down the horizon. I had some used the travel time to send my daily message to everyone back home.

Gwen had sent a message back to me saying that they had left the city and had gone to my office in nineteen-thirty-seven Los Angeles for safety.

Gwen was using her time there to help Mr. Selznick in the production of my film. She said he could be quite difficult but she was still able to persuade him to follow the notes that I had laid out.

She also said Mr. Bay was quite helpful and had a lot of wonderful idea's about using enormous explosions to add excitement.

I felt my brows furrow, I had not watched the entire movie we were basing this on, but I had not remembered any large explosions, they must have come at the end, I thought to myself.

I had our twister vehicle drop us off near a large rocky hill when it started to get dark, I conjured up a small square building made up of the same colored stone as the landscape. Once Peter and I had entered we it were in a large comfortable room complete with a couch a bed and a full meal laid out on a small coffee table.

"There's a shower through there," I said pointing, I then closed and barred the cabin's door.

I plopped down on the couch as Peter walked over to the shower door. I picked up a large glass off the table and filled it with a pitcher of water and ice cubes.

I took a long drink, the water was flavored with a bit of lemon, I put the glass down and felt an enormous wave of exhaustion flow over me. I struggled to keep my eyes open for a few seconds then fell fast asleep.

I woke up in the darkness, I was in bed, I could feel Peter next to me breathing regularly. He had taken my clothes off and put me to bed.

I felt a surge of anger, both at Peter and myself, it would have been our first night together were we would have been truly alone. I felt my stomach grumble loudly, I had not eaten either.

I quietly slid out from under the covers and off the bed, the room was freezing, Peter must have found the temperature controls. There was enough light that I could dimly make out the rooms furniture. I walked over to the small coffee table and conjured up a small light, I saw a large pizza sitting on it. I picked up a piece and bit into it, it was cold but still quite delicious.

I quickly gobbled up three more pieces while drinking a bottle of beer, I was starting to shiver in the cold air, when I finished I climbed back in the large bed snuggling up against Peter in order to try to get warm. His body is like a furnace, I thought to myself, I was comfortable in no time.

The next day we left early in the morning in our twister mobile. I was getting quite good at making the huge jumps so we were making much better time than yesterday. We passed over the Euphrates river as a large water spout scaring the crew of a boat.

It was mid afternoon when the twister disappeared for the last time depositing us near one the farms lining the side of the Tigris river. I could see the walls of a large city far to the north.

"There is a small village on the river, we will hire a boat," I said.

Peter and I were now disguised as a laborer and his wife, we were on a well worn path that led towards the river. I grabbed Peter's hand and we started walking.

"What about my knee?" Peter asked.

"It's a fifteen minute walk," I replied.

We soon came upon a small wooden dock next to a cluster of two story white washed homes, there was an older man sitting next to a small skiff mending a net.

"Hey... we need a ride," I said as we got close.

He turned and looked at us, a long needle clenched between his teeth.

"What did you say?" He said.

I realized I was still speaking Egyptian, I had a small gift with languages and I had travelled all around this area in my younger days, so I understood him.

"Is that boat for rent?" I asked in Assyrian.

"Depends," he said in an offhand way.

The one thing I had really enjoyed about the modern era was that for the most part, for small purchase's, nobody haggled anymore. I remembered going grocery shopping for the first time and being done in under an hour.

In the past it would have taken three hours, most of it spent in pointless negotiations. The sad part was that for each item I was trying to purchase, both the merchant and I already knew exactly what the final price would be.

"Twenty deben copper, take it or leave it," I said brusquely.

He stared at me, I pulled Peter's hand as I turned to leave.

"Wait.... by the gods... I agree," he said standing up quickly.

"What was that about?" Peter asked as we walked towards the skiff.

"I gave him an offer he couldn't refuse."

Chapter eleven

We were soon gliding down the river in the long thin boat, the boat owner was standing in the stern and using a long pole to propel us forward.

Surprisingly it was quite romantic, the sun was setting and the river was calm, the water rippled like it was made of a thick syrup.

I looked at the walls of the city as we journeyed closer, they looked odd for some reason.

"Look at the lights, they don't flicker and they're so bright," Peter said.

I saw what he meant, the walls looked like they were lit up by modern spotlights, I also was able to see the tops of high buildings poking up behind the walls. They had bright squares of lights were the windows would have been.

"Magic... pretty brazen too," I said.

"Are there rules about using magic in front of the... proletariat?"

"No, just common sense, every era has their version of the NSA."

We sat in silence as we came closer and closer to the city, it was only about fifteen minutes later before we were climbing out of the boat and onto a stone pier. I paid the boat pilot and thanked him.

I looked around the large harbor and saw every manner of large luxurious yachts, some of them had no masts or ore locks, there was one that had a covered bow and a rakish almost modern look to it.

"Hmm... looks like a cigarette boat," Peter said as he noticed me staring.

"Yes... more magic... just floating there."

We started walking towards the city's large gates, I did not see any guards just two enormous statues, they were of a creature with the body of a bull and the head of a man, the heads had long beards.

We came within twenty feet of the statues when they jumped to life, their eyes glowed red, slowly flickering as if on fire.

"State your business," One of them asked, the other creature started slowly circling us, examining us closely, I saw that they both had folded wings on their backs.

"We are just farmers, we have come to purchase some goods," I said as I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

"Farmers huh... let me see your hands."

I motioned to Peter to turn his palms up, I did the same.

"Such soft hands, for a farmer," the creature said as he examined my palms.

The other creature was right behind us now, I had previously shrunk my bracelet into a small cheap looking bangle. I would have to lose precious seconds returning it to normal if I needed to use magic.

"Now these are a farmers hands," the creature said when he looked at Peter's palms.

I looked myself, I had never noticed it before but Peter's hands were a mass of callus's and scars, well he actually had grown up on a farm, I thought to myself.

"I guess your wife farms the bed sheets," both creatures started laughing uproariously while stomping their hooves.

"You may pass," one of them said.

I almost dragged Peter through the gates, I wanted to get as far away from these creatures as possible.

The first thing Peter and I saw when we entered the city, is what looked like the hanging gardens described in the seven wonders of the world. They were spectacular, they consisted of five enormous tiers of tree's, vines, and brilliantly colored flowers. They were lit up with powerful lights of different colors.

"Wow, isn't this the wrong city for that?" Peter said.

"Probably where the Babylonian's stole the idea from."

I looked around the city, I saw many large buildings, they seemed to be much too tall for stone buildings. Everywhere there was light, from the windows of the building's, from floating globes that lined the streets and from the open doors of the many business's.

"This is like Las Vegas," Peter said.

A flying carpet whizzed by us, there were two women and a man sitting on it, the women were scantily clad in translucent dresses.

"The thing to do is have chat with the locals," I said as I started leading Peter towards what looked like a pub.

We entered the pub through a brightly painted door and emerged into a bustling place, there was a band playing on a stage in front of which was a dance floor filled with gyrating women.

Peter and I pushed our way through the crowd until we were in front of a long bar, it was crowded with men and women drinking cups of wine and beer.

"What do ya want," an overworked bartender yelled impatiently.

"Two cups of beer," I said as I threw him a small piece of copper.

"Good for four," he said as he slammed down a clay pitcher and two cups.

I filled up both cups with beer and passed one to Peter, he sipped it cautiously.

"Busy place... must be the weekend," Peter said.

I looked next to me and saw a young woman, she looked slightly inebriated, her eye makeup was smeared and she was a bit unsteady.

"Is there a festival going on," I said loudly so I could be heard over the din.

"Festival... no... just celebrating... our armies are preparing to conquer the world."

She said it so matter-of-factly it astonished me.

"How can you be so sure of their success?"

"Our king Ninus... he has married a god," she held her cup above her head and yelled, "Semiramis!"

I heard others in the room echo her.

"When do they start marching?"

She looked at me suspiciously, "you ask a lot of questions."

"Just making conversation," I smiled at her.

She smiled back at me.

"Tomorrow, they leave for Babylon."

I turned to Peter and told him what I had just learned.

"The Babylonian's will be slaughtered, she's a sorcerer," he said.

I sipped some beer then put the cup on the bar, I pushed the pitcher next to the woman I had spoken to and then touched her arm while pointing to the pitcher, she smiled and then promptly poured herself a drink.

Peter and I pushed our way back through the crowd and out the door, we were back on the street.

"I think Ninus ended up conquering all of Mesopotamia... all because of her," I said to Peter.

"So what happened after that?"

"Nothing good I think... I only studied a bit of history from this era, I think she kills Ninus when she's doesn't need him anymore."

"I'll bet it was Imhotep who stopped them after Mesopotamia... the reason Egypt wasn't conquered," Peter said.

"That would mean the two of them battled each other eventually... that would be very bad... especially when they both know how to make nuclear weapons."

Peter and I walked down the busy street for a few blocks, there were many small groups of drunken revelers.

I stopped in front of a large building, it was an Inn.

"We need a room for the night," I said to Peter.

There was a single room left, it was the largest in the inn made for wealthy travellers and it was on the top floor, the fourth.

"It's nice, Peter," said when we closed the door behind us.

"Yes... and no spies," I said as I rubbed Peter's arm, the walls were devoid of decorative ornaments with convenient peep holes.

Peter and I were woken up the next morning by the sound of a single voice yelling some sort of commands. I listened carefully after I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

"Riiiiight turn!"

"Atteeeeention!"

"Preseeeent arms!"

I got out of the bed and walked over to one of the rooms windows, I cautiously peeked out. I saw a large company of foot soldiers on the road below, they were dressed in brightly colored uniforms and carried long spears. The spears were being held stiffly in front of them.

I saw the person calling out the commands in front of the soldier's, he had a helmet decorated with a brightly colored tassel.

"Oooorder arms!"

The spears were smartly brought back against the soldiers right shoulders, the leader spun around and stopped, he was now facing away from his troops.

"Quiiick march!"

The soldiers moved as if a single organism, each foot hitting the ground at the exact same time, I heard a rhythmic stomp stomp as they started marching.

"Snappy drill... not good," I heard Peter say beside me.

"Why?"

"Seen a few Air Force parades... like watching a flock of penguins walking around."

"So?"

"It's when I realized something, the better the drill the more repressive the government."

I thought for a moment, images of goose stepping soldiers suddenly popped into my mind.

"I think you're right... I never noticed that before."

Once the soldier's marched out of earshot, I heard other loud voices issuing commands, in the distance this time.

"They are forming up all the regiments in order to march to Babylon," I said.

"What are we going to do?" Peter asked.

"It's history... we can't stop them... I guess... we're just going to have to follow them in order to catch up with Semiramis."

I conjured up some modern toiletry and a shower, Peter and I started to go through our morning routine.

We had left the inn and were walking down the now empty street in front of the inn. I heard a whooshing sound from behind me and a large flying carpet slowed to a stop beside us. There were three young women sitting cross legged in the middle of it.

"Do you want a ride?" One of the young girls asked.

"Where to?"

"The battle silly," all three girls giggled.

"Won't it be a while before the soldiers reach Babylon?"

"Not when we have a god for a queen, she is going to use magic to transport them, the battle will be over before night fall."

I examined the magic carpet closely, it looked sound, I recognized the pattern of the weave from another carpet I had seen in the City of Magic, it must have been made with the same spell.

The carpet was controlled by touching different symbols in the weave.

"I think it's safe," I said to Peter as he helped me climb on board, Peter hopped on afterwards causing the carpet to flex slightly.

One of the girls touched a bright red flower near the front of the carpet and it started to smoothly accelerate as it gained altitude. We were soon flying at about a thousand feet high passing over the cities large walls.

I saw the two large beasts we had encountered the night before lazily walking around in front of the main gate.

I scanned the sky around us and saw dozens of other flying carpets all flying in the same direction.

The woman who was controlling our carpet increased its speed until the air made my hair whip and flutter like a flag in a strong wind. The other women were sharing an amphora of wine.

"It'll be a couple of hours till we get to Babylon... can you watch I don't fall off, I want to take a nap," I said to Peter.

He nodded then grabbed me around the waist and pulled me next to him. I fell asleep almost immediately.

Chapter twelve

I felt someone shaking me, I woke up groggily pushing the hair out of my face. I was lying curled up in the middle of the carpet, Peter was sitting beside me his hand on my hip.

"Wake up sleepy head... the shows about to start," he said.

I sat up and attempted to straighten my rebellious hair. I looked around, we were still in the air hovering about a hundred feet up. The other carpets were beside us stretching in a large semi-circle. It reminded me of an audience in the higher levels of a sports stadium.

I saw the high walls of Babylon before us, there were thousands of archers standing on the top of them. Semiramis's enormous army was arranged before it, there looked to be about ten thousand men all in perfect formation.

There was a young woman and a man standing on a floating platform in front of the army, I assumed they were Semiramis and Ninus. They were hovering about ten feet above the ground.

I heard a woman's voice suddenly, as clear as if it was speaking next to me.

"King Sumuel, surrender now, the war is already over."

I heard the voice of an elderly man reply.

"I invoke the right to sent a champion, to decide the battle."

"A champion? You are indeed crazy old man... sure... he will fight... Gilgamesh!!"

Semiramis's men burst into an enormous cheer and then started banging their spears against their shields, the noise was deafening.

I looked down and saw a large bearded man emerge from the ranks of soldiers, he walked with a terrifying confidence the muscles in his enormous arms rippling as he carried his sword and shield.

"This is going to be a short fight, he's huge and probably has enchanted weapons," I said to Peter.

"You never know, I saw a hundred and fifty pound guy beat the shit out of four men once."

I saw the door of the city's gate open up a crack, a man walked out, he was not as tall as Gilgamesh but was still large. His arms were also rippling with muscles, he looked confident too but in a different way, like an athlete before a match.

"Our champion... the great Sulva," I heard the kings voice say.

I looked down at the two men as they approached each other, Sulva started doing a weird dance while he waited for Gilgamesh, making small skip like sideways hops.

I stared at Sulva's face, he suddenly looked strangely familiar, I could not place him though, I had a feeling that I had seen his likeness in a large mural.

Every myth has it's monster to be defeated, that must be Sulva, I thought to myself.

Both men stood still now, they were about five feet apart, Sulva moved suddenly throwing his shield away, he gripped his long bronze sword with both hands.

Gilgamesh laughed, then turned to his men while pointing back to Sulva derisively, he then threw his own shield away.

They both had their swords in front of them now, circling each other cautiously, Gilgamesh feinted Sulva didn't react.

Then it started, both swords moved with astonishing speed flicking to and fro, the bright sun reflecting in their polished bronze surfaces. They were spectacular swordsmen, the blades moved so fast I could scarcely follow them.

Sulva got too close then... Gilgamesh seized him in one of his powerful arms, I saw both swords go flying away as Gilgamesh prepared to finish his foe with his bare hands.

Then suddenly Sulva was free, I saw an expression of astonishment on Gilgamesh's face. Sulva squared himself brought his arms up and then in a lightning strike punched Gilgamesh in the face. Gilgamesh laughed... dropping his arms and taunting his foe, two more lightning strikes hit Gilgamesh.

He swung his own mighty fist missing wildly. I saw that for all the blows Gilgamesh was taking, they seemed to have little effect.

"Semiramis has probably enchanted him so he can't be hurt," I whispered to Peter.

Sulva circled Gilgamesh then came too close again, Gilgamesh howled grabbing his foe around the shoulders, but Sulva wasn't there, in one astonishing move he leaped over Gilgamesh while simultaneously wrapping an arm around his neck. Once behind his foe he used his other arm to anchor the first and then slowly pressed Gligamesh's head forward.

Gilgamesh tried mightily to pull the arm from his throat but I could see he was weakening fast, he staggered for a few steps and then fell to his knees. Sulva held on for a few more seconds and released him, Gilgamesh fell face forward onto the ground, not moving.

"Well that's not right... Gilgamesh is supposed to win everything," I said.

"Probably had the better publicist," Peter replied.

"Ya... and I've never heard of this Sulva guy."

I looked at Semramis expecting to see an expression of anger on her face, instead I saw an almost blank stare, like a cat staring at a caged bird.

Semiramis raised her arms, I heard a cracking sound and a huge section of the cities wall collapsed in a heap.

She turned to her troops.

"Attack," I heard as if someone had said it next to me.

I looked down, Sulva was standing by himself in front of the now charging army, strangely he looked absolutely terrified.

I heard another sound, like a loud groan, then I saw what looked like a ripple in the air advance towards the soldiers, it hit them like a hurricane, knocking them over and flattening them as if they were blades of grass.

I turned my head back towards the city, I saw dark black smoke start pouring out of a spot on the ground, it grew larger and larger twisting and turning then forming an enormous skull, there was a snake slithering through one eye socket.

"LEAVE NOW!!!" the skull bellowed in an ear-splitting baritone voice.

Semiramis stared dispassionately at the skull, clearly unimpressed.

"You have no idea the foe you have acquired.... is that you Imhotep?"

"LEAVE NOW, OR THE BATTLE WILL CONTINUE!!!"

"I will leave... but I will find you... Imhotep?"

The skull said nothing.

She turned the floating platform around and Ninus and her whizzed away back towards her troops. I saw that they had already started getting up, the uninjured ones helping the injured.

"Hmm... another sorcerer, even more strange," I said.

"You don't think it's Imhotep?" Peter asked.

"Not really his style... he doesn't strike me as the secretive type."

The three women that were with us on the carpet had gone from being cheerily drunk, to despondent.

"She has started a war with another god," one of them said, her voice shaking.

I saw that they had cracked open another amphora of wine and were busy drowning their sorrows.

"Maybe I should fly," I said as I gently pulled the pilot from away from the carpets controls.

Chapter thirteen

When we had returned to Nineveh, it was mid afternoon. I had kept the same room that Peter and I had rented the previous day, I was surprised to see that a cleaner had actually been in and had cleaned and straightened things up. I was glad I had not left any of our toiletry lying around.

"Wow maid service," Peter said as we walked in.

"I doubt they were just here to clean things."

"More spies?"

"I think so... Semiramis is probably worried about other sorcerers."

"Would they stop her, if they knew?"

"I know Imhotep would... but the others... I know so little about the City of Magic, when I built it, it was just a small town. I never really trained another sorcerer until Shelley came along, six thousand years later."

"So the sorcerers there now, what would they be like?" Peter asked.

"Intellectuals... megalomaniacs... crazy... who knows, even in this time it's already been fifteen hundred years of spells being created, hundreds maybe thousands of sorcerers trained. Look at the city in our time, it's a death trap, I think it that's why it was deserted."

"Why did you give all your magic secrets to Senbi anyway?"

"I thought I was dying, I had learned so much and I didn't want it to be for nothing. I trusted him, he was honest and a man of conscience."

"Well maybe since he started everything the City reflects him, like a country reflects its forefathers."

"Ya... well he also conjured up a copy of me for a wife, kinda creepy."

"So what next?"

"Tonight we will sneak into the palace and spy on our prey, maybe we can find out what we need without confronting her."

"That doesn't sound very safe," Peter said, he looked slightly alarmed.

"Don't worry, we'll be ethereal, no-one will be able to see us."

We spent the rest of the day walking around the city and seeing the sights.

When night finally fell we were back in our rented room. I conjured up the image of two sleeping people in our bed, complete with regular breathing and the odd snore. They would only be revealed as dummies upon close inspection.

I shut off the rooms magical light, it was controlled by covering a small statue of the god Shamash with a cloth. I then used my bracelet to turn Peter and I ethereal.

The ethereal spell had taken me many months to create, when activated the user was not so much actually invisible and immaterial, but more like transferred to another place while still getting sensory input from the place that they had left.

The trickiest part of the spell to write was to enable the user to walk on floors and stairs without sinking through. It left an unfortunate side effect, if the users feet were wet, or if they walked through sand, footprints would be visible.

I made sure Peter was aware of this.

Peter and I were also able to see and touch each other when we were ethereal, something I had only been able to add recently by integrating modern technology into the spell. I had also incorporated a modern sound amplifier so that if I needed too I could increase the sensitivity of our hearing.

We could only communicate by hand signals though.

I grabbed Peters hand and we walked though the rooms door, he turned and stared at me with a startled expression. When a person walked through a wall it became black for a moment because of the absence of light, for this reason the spell user had to be careful and stay away from thick walls and buttresses. It was also why it was never a good idea to use this spell in the wilderness, you could get lost in a large mountain.

We were soon walking down the street towards the large palace complex in the city center. I noticed that the city had quieted down from the revelry of the previous night. I was glad the streets were empty I had used my ethereal spell many times before but it still made me squirm a little when someone walked through me.

We were now walking up the wide staircase leading to the place gates, I waved at the guards as we walked passed them.

The palace was a maze of corridors and rooms but I was able to figure out where to go by following what looked like a scribe. He was walking quite fast and had a worried expression on his face, he led us to a large open room furnished with an enormous wooden table surrounded by chairs.

I saw Semiramis and Ninus seated on one side, there were three middle aged men seated across from them, they looked like her generals.

The scribe bowed to her and then reached across the table and put a clay tablet covered in cuneiform writing in front of her. The scribe bowed again and then backed out the door.

Semiramis picked up the tablet and read it.

"Hmm... seems my old friend Imhotep had a guest a few days ago," I saw her eyes narrow.

"Who?" Ninus asked.

"A mysterious Nubian woman and her manservant... he had skin as white linen it says... he must be from one of the northern tribes."

"Do you think it was her in Babylon."

"It is curious, it says she managed to sneak out of Memphis without being seen and that Imhotep was always accounted for."

"So Imhotep recruited her to protect Babylon." Ninus said.

"No... I told no one my plan until two days ago, if it was her she must have acted on her own."

"Do you think she is a god like you?" Ninus asked.

"I wonder..."

I noticed that Ninus and her generals had expressions of profound concentration on their faces, like they were handling dangerous explosives.

Semiramis stood up suddenly, a dark expression on her face.

"I feel someone watching me," she said angrily

She turned her head and looked right at me.

"That is impossible my goddess, I have guards everywhere," one of her generals stammered.

"Shut up you whining dog," she said abruptly.

She slowly started to walk towards Peter and I, she stopped in front of me and then waved one of her arms through both of us.

"You're there aren't you... hiding... Imhotep? No... I feel someone else."

"How can you tell, my queen," Ninus asked.

"One can always tell when they're being watched, if they pay attention, something Imhotep never figured out."

"What shall we do?"

She turned towards Ninus "Nothing... and say nothing, a spy cannot spy if there is nothing to overhear."

She stared at me again.

"I will wait for you my mysterious enemy, you will have to reveal yourself eventually, you will only get what you want by confronting me."

Semiramis then turned and walked out of the room.

Peter and I were outside the city walls sitting on the banks of the river, the moon was high in the sky, we heard the frantic chirping of crickets and frogs.

"So much for that," Peter said.

"Ya... god what a creepy chick... is that true, you can tell if someone's watching you?"

"I can tell sometimes, I think though it has more to do with being perceptive, your spell probably has a slight effect on the environment somehow."

"That's probably it, It has pinhole cameras so we can see and a small number of membranes so we can hear, they are tiny but they probably cause some kind of disturbance."

"Yes, and our feet on the floor too, that would make noise," Peter said.

"I've used that spell a hundred times, this is the first time anyone noticed me, I even walked around a ultra high security building once."

"What for?" Peter asked, a curious expression on his face.

"Needed to get something," I said enigmatically.

"What?" Peter said now slightly perturbed.

"It would be better if you didn't know."

"Geez Kem... tell me."

"That idiot congressman... I got so pissed off, so I got his military records and dumped them off at the newspaper."

"That was you?" Peter had an amazed look on his face.

"Ya."

"You do that sort of thing all the time?"

"Sometimes... I don't wanna talk about it anymore."

"Those news reports, about the flying woman... saving that girl from the rapist, beating up a mob boss."

"I said, I don't wanna talk about it!"

"So, that's why you were watching all those Batman movies."

I stared at Peter feeling my eyes narrow, I then stood up brushing the dirt off of my bum, Peter stood up next me.

"I want to get this over with, I'm not her enemy I'll just walk in there and ask her," I said.

"Won't that be dangerous?"

I put my arms around Peter's neck and kissed him then I let him go and stepped back, I started to flip the squares on my bracelet.

"Yes... that's why I'm sending you back."

"What?" Peter said, a surprised look on his face.

He disappeared in a flash of light.

I sent him back to his office in the factory he owned, he would be safe there. Shelley had closed all the entrances to the City of Magic so he would not be able to come back.

I knew he would try, he was very stubborn and overly protective. I could not bear the thought of him being hurt, or worse.

I conjured up my enchanted bronze sword, if I needed to I could turn it's control over to a master swordsman I had met in my past. I had only done this once before, from the way the sword had fought I had gotten the impression he had been a remorseless killer.

I had not known him very well when I incorporated him in the swords enchantment.

I slung the swords scabbard over my shoulder and started walking towards the cities gates.

Chapter fourteen

As I approached the huge gates the two large statues jumped to life again blocking my way, they stared at me with their glowing eyes.

"Ha, it is the famers wife, why are you outside so late, this is against the rules," one of them said with an officious tone.

"I am the sorceress Kemamonit, get out of my way or you will spend the rest of eternity as real statues."

The two animals jerked their heads back as if they had been struck.

"Sorceress? You jest," one of them said defiantly.

"Yes, you will have to do better than that," said the other

I said a single word of command, then I walked between the two newly created stone statues, they would now stand on guard forever.

I made my way to the palace without being bothered it was only when I came to the main entrance that I was confronted with two guards armed with spears.

I froze them in place with a stasis spell, it was just a modified time slow spell, it would wear off in a few minutes long enough for me to slip by.

I retraced my steps back to the large room that I had seen Semiramis and her generals in, I opened the door and walked in. I saw Semiramis sitting at the large table reading a clay tablet, she was by herself.

She looked up as I closed the door behind me, I kept my eyes on her as I did not trusting her.

We studied each other, she had light skin with just a hint of olive, her hair was long and black with loose curls. I was struck by how beautiful she was, she had large brown eyes that stared at me with an odd almost menacing glare.

"The mysterious sorcerer I see... there is a familiarity about you, do I know you?"

"I am not your enemy, I had nothing to do with what happened in Babylon, I just have a question," I said.

"Question... you are Kemamonit aren't you, I have seen your corpse, you have cheated death?"

"No, that is not me, I am another Kemamonit."

"That is too bad, it would have been interesting to chat with her, about her battles with Senbi."

"Battles... I thought they were married?" I asked, suddenly curious.

"True hate can only be cultivated from love, the City blossomed from it as it always has, it thrives on conflict you know, you must read the histories some time."

I thought of Shelley and Janet.

"Your enmity with Imhotep... was that born out of love too?"

Semiramis stared at me, her face expressionless, it felt like she was looking into me, as if my Ka was naked. I suppressed a shudder.

"Imhotep is a fool," she said.

"Why do you hate him so?"

"Enough... he is a stupid man, the world is not numbers you cannot measure a person's character with a ruler their genius with a scale."

"What then?"

I had a niggling intuition that I was very close to finding out what I needed.

"You must judge their music, their humor... use ones insight and opinion."

I had a revelation.

"It's a musical joke... that's the solution, that's what you did" I said out loud.

She stared at me, there was evil in her eyes.

"You know the future don't you... my plans."

"Ah... nope... I was just thinking about something else," I silently cursed myself for blurting out the solution to her puzzle.

"There is something strange about you, the way you move, the melody of your language. It is subtle but noticeable."

She waved her hand and the room disappeared, we were on a large stone platform under the stars, there was a light but not from a noticeable source.

"I don't know what you mean." I said.

I kept my eyes on her keeping myself square to her as she walked, she circled me like a predator circles its prey.

"I can't let you stop me."

"Why would I stop you? I have no interest in these people."

"Your question what is it?"

"Um... why are you doing this? You're a sorcerer, you know about the nature of the universe, that we are just specks."

"You would not understand."

"Ok then... I'll just be on my way."

"I can't let you leave."

A sword appeared in her hand, I drew my own sword in response, my heart started beating faster.

"It has an enchantment?" She asked, a curious expression on her face.

"Yes."

"You used a master swordsman for the spell I'll bet, how did you find him?"

"I just followed a trail of corpse's."

Semiramis laughed as she spun her sword.

"I searched for a month, selected twelve men then had them fight for a prize."

I switched on the swords enchantment and felt the ghost of a long dead swordsman take control of the blade.

I had practised with the enchantment since the last time I had needed it, it was not something I had enjoyed, the sword would become angry sometimes and lash out if someone was near.

We approached each other.

"Say hello... my little friend," I said to my sword.

We began our duel.

The swords moved as if in a dance at first, one would thrust another would parry, back and forth almost too fast to see. Then they were still for a moment looking for a weakness a opening, perhaps resting, then they were at it again.

My practise sessions had enabled me to assist my sword in the battle. I could tell by the way the sword moved what it needed from me where to put my body.

Semramis and I had both our hands on our swords, I noticed she had no fear in her eyes, instead they sparkled with excitement.

"You chose well Kemamonit, your sword is almost the equal of mine."

I felt my blade jerk in anger, she had just signed her death warrant if she lost, my sword would kill her now if it got the chance.

She was right about the swords though, they were each other's equal, neither could get the upper hand on the other, every interchange ended in a stalemate.

The swords were resting again each blade flicking slightly contemplating each other.

My sword dropped suddenly as if the enchantment had stopped, the other sword moved like lightning seeing an opening, my sword jerked up then trying to recover, it was too late, I felt a jolt of pain as her sword pierced my forearm.

My sword jerked backwards throwing me to the ground, I stared at my arm Semiramis's blade was still in it, I saw that blood was flowing out of the wound.

I looked up and saw Semiramis cautiously approaching me, a long dagger in one hand, her expression was neutral, she looked like a butcher preparing to slaughter an animal.

I tried to lift my sword with my good arm, I couldn't, I had become too weak, I looked up at Semiramis she was close to me now, she leaned over to press her dagger against my throat.

My sword flicked to life like a dragonflies wing and pierced her through the heart.

I felt the sword pull back, it left a growing red circle in the middle of her chest, she looked at me, a confused expression on her face, then she collapsed in a heap onto the ground.

My sword stood straight up, like it was staring at me, then the point dipped down pressing against the back of the hand of my injured arm, it wiggled a bit like it was writing, then it relaxed in my grip and clattered against the stone floor.

I looked at my hand, the sword had lightly cut an odd symbol into it, I guessed so it would heal into a scar.

I looked at my wounded arm, blood was pouring out of it, I was starting to pass out from shock. I heard a voice yelling my name, I turned and saw Peter running towards me. I must be hallucinating.

I felt someone pick me up with a pair of powerful arms.

"Shave and a haircut... tell Shelley... shave and a haircut... just a stupid joke," I heard myself mumbling.

I faded away into unconsciousness.

Chapter fifteen

I woke up in a hospital bed, I felt slightly intoxicated probably from painkillers. I was in a large private room there was a flat screen television hanging on the wall opposite the bed.

I looked my arm that had been wounded, it was covered in bandages.

The door of the room cracked open for a second, then a tall thin man in a gray suit walked in.

"Ah... Miss Smith, you are awake," he said in a thick accent, it sounded Swedish.

"Yes... and you are?"

"I am inspector Nilsson from the police."

"Police? Have I done something wrong?"

"No... no... just a few questions."

He bent down and lifted up a long bronze sword from the floor, it was Semiramis's.

I heard the heart monitor next to the bed start beeping frantically.

"Could you put that down," I said sharply.

I had no idea whether the enchantment was still activated.

"It bothers you?" the inspector said as he examined the blade closely.

"Yes, that thing was stuck in my arm."

"How did that happen exactly?"

"Um... I was... um... hanging it and it fell piercing my arm."

"Really? Your husband said you were playacting and you slipped and fell."

"Um... ya... I'm sorry, I was a bit embarrassed about that... I lied."

"I'm a bit of an amateur archeologist, remarkable copy of an Assyrian sword, the person who made this sure knew their stuff."

"I wouldn't know, I found it at an antique store."

"Where was that exactly?"

"I don't remember, it was an impulse buy while I was vacationing in New York."

"You live in Sweden?"

"No... Seattle... I um... do a lot of business here."

"What do you do?"

He finally put the sword back down on the floor.

"Computer stuff... you know the clouds... kinda hard to explain."

"The clouds... really."

"Look... are you done? I'm pretty tired, I lost a lot of blood."

Nilsson stared at me a quizzical expression on his face.

"Ok Miss Smith, I'm done... for now."

He reached into a pocket and pulled out a business card, he set it down on my meal tray.

"My card."

He turned and left the room.

I stared at the large flat screen television, I looked at my meal tray and saw the remote control for it. The buttons were labelled in Swedish but I was able to find the power button, the screen flashed to life.

It was on a sports channel showing some kind of brutal fighting sport which I despised, I couldn't figure out how to change the channel.

"And in this corner the heavy weight champion of the worlllld... Henderson Sulva... Sulva," I heard the TV blare out.

I looked up at the screen, a large muscular man was doing an odd sideways shuffle as he waited for his opponent to appear.

It was the same man who had defeated Gilgamesh.

The door to my room opened and Peter walked in, he looked at the television as he walked towards me, I noticed a sheepish expression appear on his face.

"Hey lover, how are you feeling?"

He kissed me on the cheek.

"You... it was you at Babylon? How?"

Peter stared at the TV, Sulva was pounding his hapless opponent into a bloody pulp.

"He was ten and oh... said he wanted a challenge, so I gave it to him?"

"I don't understand... you know two spells, and how did you get back to Nineveh?"

"Janet's been training me... she's quite a good teacher, I didn't want to tell you I knew you would be angry."

"That woman is to clever for her own good... and I am angry... really angry."

"So am I Kem, you shouldn't have sent me away, I want you to promise never to do that again. I want us to face our problems together from now on."

I stared at my toes at the end of the bed, saying nothing.

"And I want us to get married," Peter continued.

Marriage... this was something unknown in my era, no doubt invented by some vacillating man so he could hedge his bets with the prospect of divorce.

I looked at Peter, I could tell from his expression that I would wound him terribly if I said no.

I looked back at my toes.

"Ok," I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

Peter kissed me again.

"Why did you stop her... at Babylon?" I asked.

"I'm Polish... kinda identified with a place that was constantly being invaded by indifferent empires."

"Oh... where am I anyway?"

"The same hospital you took me too when I broke my foot a few months ago."

"What did the doctor say?"

"Deep cut... good thing I got you here quickly... you'll be fine... there's something else though, you're going to have to be more careful from now on, you have another person to worry about."

I stared at Peter trying to discern his meaning then I realized what he meant. I stared at my womb, I sensed a certain smugness emanating from it.

It had been plotting this since I had met Peter, always making me forget to take those stupid pills. I heard my mother's voice in the distance.

"Now you'll understand little one, now you'll know."

I heard her laughing.

I put my hand on my womb, Peter put his over top of mine, I looked at him and smiled.

"I guess it's time," I said.

"What are we going to do?"

"We can't raise a child in the City of Magic, it's too dangerous."

"So what then?"

"Leave the place to Shelley and Janet... Janet doesn't need me anymore."

"But they despise each other."

I thought back to what Semiramis had said, that conflict had made the city thrive.

"Ya... guess they'll just have to find a way to deal with each other."

"I have your bracelet," Peter said as he reached into his pocket and pulled it out.

I took it from him and shrunk it down so it looked like a piece of cheap jewellery then put it on my good wrist.

"What happened to the City?"

"Shelley went back to Semiramis's quarters and played Shave and a haircut with a flute, right before the two musical notes, the puzzle disappeared and then a papyrus scroll appeared in its place."

"What did it say?"

"She didn't touch it, she just left and resealed the door."

"Good idea... that's what Imhotep did in the first place."

"They want to stay away for a few months just to be sure."

I looked at Peter, I felt a weariness come over me.

"Why don't we go up north, rent a cottage on a lake, then fish and have barbeques?"

"What about your movie?"

"Oh Gwenny can look after it, I'm not too interested in it anymore."

Egypt 2600 BC The first time around.

Imhotep stared at Semiramis, she was on her knees in front of him, he held his sword against her throat.

He had won, he had finally defeated her, all around them the landscape was destroyed, everything was scorched black, the ground was pock marked with large craters.

"Are you going to kill me now Imhotep?"

She had no fear in her eyes, he was still amazed even after all these years how beautiful they still looked to him.

She thrust her neck against the his sword in a playful almost childlike way. He flinched and jerked the blade back slightly.

"Lost your nerve... the great Imhotep."

He thought back to their battle, it had lasted almost a day, the spells they had thrown at each other had destroyed enormous swaths of land, turned the skies black. Only the gods knew the number of men and women they had killed.

It had been his knowledge of small infinites that had saved him, allowing him to dampen her last attack, trapping her.

He examined her face, her hair was matted and full of dirt, there was dry crusted blood smeared across her cheeks, it did not diminish her beauty.

"Nothing to say? After all these years."

He could not kill her, even after all the deceit and treachery, he still loved her, even now his heart ached, he felt an overwhelming urge to put his sword down and comfort her.

He said a command word, she froze in place, she was like a statue now. He put down his sword and stepped backwards, he conjured up a large tomb around her, on the outside it looked like a large unremarkable outcropping of granite.

Imhotep sheathed his sword and walked away.

She would escape the spell eventually but it would take thousands of years. He and his children would be dust when she emerged.

She was the futures problem now.

Los Angeles 1939 The second time around.

Selznick sat by himself at the back of the theater, there was a test audience of a few hundred people seated before him. he reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a small silver flask, he took a long swig of bourbon.

"Goddamn director," he thought to himself as he stared at the screen.

Things had been going well, he had bamboozled that ditzy blonde Smith had sent in her place, even managed to get her to put the story back to the civil war.

Then that asshole director Bay had seduced her.

He took another long swig of bourbon.

"Maybe I could get Louie to take care of him," Selznick shuddered for a moment, Louie had taken care of a lot of things Hollywood.

"Ordered so much goddamn dynamite the FBI was knocking on my door."

They had thought he might have been shipping it to Germany.

"Germany! I'm a goddamn Jew... goddamn asshole Hitler."

He was starting to get a bit drunk now.

A spaceship whizzed across the screen, he heard the test audience murmur in excitement.

"Jesus... that was pretty good."

He took another swig.

He wondered what had happened to that Smith chick, why she sent had the blonde in her place, she sure had been pretty for a colored broad. There was something about her though something that caused the hairs on his neck to stand up.

She knew things about him too, secret things.

The screen flashed to life showing a large expanse of desert, there was a large mansion in the middle of it, there was what looked like a party on the verandah, people in odd costumes talking and drinking.

Dorothy Dandridge made her first appearance, he heard the audience giggle.

"Jesus... her goddamn hair."

It looked like she was wearing some kind of ear muffs.

he listened to the dialog.

"Oh fiddle dee dee... the Empire won't attack."

Selznick took another long swig from his flask.

"Shoulda brought more booze."

It was late and he felt his eyelids start to get heavy, the bourbon hadn't helped, he was soon fast asleep.

He woke up, he noticed the test audience was staring raptly at the screen, completely silent. He looked himself, Dandridge was being held by what looked like a futuristic soldier, a large man in black armor was in front of her. He saw a large planet in the window behind them.

"No! Atlantaan is peaceful! We have no weapons, you can't possibly..."

The large armored man paused what sounded like tortured breathing, then he heard a deep baritone voice.

"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."

Selznick heard the audience gasp as the planet exploded.

"So that's why he needed all that goddamn dynamite"

The end

