Neff squeezed her eyes shut and held fast to the truth. For it was not only a weapon—it was an anchor.
Yes, my king, Neff thought grimly,in the morning the workbegins.
34
Sita
Sita saw it all.
When Karim sent her into the cave, she’d expected a pair of palace guards to descend into the valley, or maybe a band of robbers who’d smelled the smoke of their campfire on the wind. She’d huddled in the dark, her arms around Behkai, praying that Karim had been wrong about the noise, that it was an animal or his imagination running wild.
But her prayer must have fallen on deaf ears.
The creature seemed to appear out of nowhere, as if throwing off a cloak made of the night itself. It was a shambling, grotesque figure, crafted of nothing more than cloth and skin and bone. And yet, somehow it was moving toward Karim with slow, relentless steps.
Was this the mummy Karim had claimed to have woken from his tomb? Was this Setnakht?
Amun forgive me, she thought.I should have believed him.
Behkai struggled against her grip, but Sita held him fast. “No, boy,” she whispered softly. “Please, you can’t go out there…”
She saw Karim lunge toward the creature. She lost control of Behkai, and he raced out of the cave toward them. She nearlycried out when she heard the dog’s terrified yelp a moment later.
Everything else happened very quickly.
The fire.
The blood.
The screams.
The crimson light.
She wondered if she’d imagined what came after that. How else could she explain it? The way the creature’s desiccated flesh knit itself back together around Karim’s bloody, still-pumping heart? The way the creature stretched its restored limbs once the light faded, like a man waking from a long sleep? How could such a thing be real?
Sita watched as the man, clothed in nothing but tatters, knelt by Karim’s side. She heard him murmur something, but the words were too quiet for her to comprehend.
Then the man stood, and she could have sworn he sensed her presence. His flashing eyes lingered on the shadowy cave long enough for her legs to turn to water. She pressed herself against the cold stone wall, not daring to breathe.
Then he turned away and didn’t look back as he climbed the ridge and left the valley.
***
Sita waited a long time, there in the dark. Her body was stiff with terror, and she worried that if she moved a single muscle, the monstrous man would reappear and find her.
Dawn broke on the horizon. She squinted into the light and thought,I can’t hide here forever.I have to go out there. I have to see.So she struggled to her feet and slowly emerged from theshadows.
Sita staggered toward the gruesome tableau. In the campfire, a few embers still glowed orange among the ash.
Something black lay nearby, curled into a tight ball.
“Behkai?”
One of the dog’s ears quirked at the sound of her voice. Slowly, he lifted his head.
Sita gasped. A mark had been burned into the left side of Behkai’s face, leaving his fur the color of bone and his eye cloudy and pale. It was the exact size and shape of a man’s hand.
Sita squatted in front of the dog and took his head in her hands. “What did that creature do to you?” she asked, her voice unsteady.
