Monster Planet(14)

'I disconnected a fuel line. It will take them but a moment to repair the damage, but it may take most of the day to find it.'

Sarah wanted to rush forward and hug him. You didn't embrace the pilot of a military helicopter in mid-flight, though. 'We're safe,' she trumpeted, and he snorted one of his sarcastic laughs.

'Safe to fly into certain death, yes,' he chortled. 'Alright, commander. Where to first?'

'Nekropolis,' she told him.

'Never heard of it.'

She hadn't either. 'There's a good reason for that. Head northeast, toward the sea. We're looking for a salt pan just this side of the canal. It's surrounded on most sides by slickrock.'

They found it with relative ease. From the air the salt pan looked like a sheet of ice in the middle of the desert. Osman set down on the solid rock just off the edge of the pan'such features were notorious for their poor stability'and together they jumped out, their nerves still buzzing with adrenaline. 'This is where we pick up our reinforcements?' Osman asked.

Sarah could understand his skepticism. On the far side of the pan a city had been constructed but it was like no city either of them had ever seen. Its main feature was a massive slab-walled temple set into the rocky cliffs, a structure of thick columns crowned with carved lotus blossoms and huge, thin statues of serene-faced men. On either side of the temple entrance stood a sphinx, one with the face of a pharaoh, the other with the head of an ancient Roman woman. Nearby stood both a pyramid and a mastaba. There were ruins like this all over Egypt'they had both seen dozens'but none so eclectic. Nor any so new. Precarious scaffolding covered the pyramid. Across the pan they could see tiny figures moving up and down on the scaffolding, some carrying blocks of sandstone on their backs that must have weighed half a ton. Osman glared at her. 'I'm not going to like this,' he said.

'No.' She lead him across the pan, their feet breaking the crust of salt that rimed its surface and made it glisten from the air. From the ground it just looked white, a featureless white that caught the glare of the sun and made Sarah feel as if she were moving through pure light. As she climbed the steps to the temple she saw the darkness inside its square entrance and wondered how nice it would be to go in there where it would be cool and the air wouldn't burn her lungs. She didn't get the chance to find out. Ptolemaeus Canopus emerged first, his painted face bobbing toward her from the shadows. Other mummies followed him. One looked a hundred times as old and her wrappings were badly tattered but gold glistened from underneath here and there. Another wore a wooden mask in the shape of a ram's head painted red and green and white.

As Ptolemy stepped down to meet her there was a great silent commotion on the pyramid. The work there stopped and the mummies who were building the giant tomb fell to their knees with their arms in the air. Jack had mentioned that Ptolemy had been an important man in his day'just what had he been, Sarah wondered, to evince such respect?

He came closer and Osman stepped backwards, down the steps. Sarah held her ground. Ptolemy came close enough to touch her, close enough that she could smell him: cinnamon and nutmeg with an undernote of road tar. The ram-headed mummy held something out to her and she took it'a scarab carved out of soapstone. The same one she'd seen Jack give to Ptolemy the night before.

'Thank you,' she said, uncertain of protocol, but then she shrieked and nearly dropped the thing. It had come alive in her hand'she could feel it squirming and buzzing. She managed not to let go somehow and when she looked down she saw it hadn't changed at all. It was energy, pure life energy neither light nor dark that was pulsing against her skin.

scarab this is heart this is my scarab my heart scarabit said to her, the words piling up and resonating off each other, looping around and around in her head until dizziness swept over her. She could feel the words instead of hearing them'they raced up her arms to her throat and she felt them there as if she'd said them herself.you only heart scarab you only can hear you only you can scarab hear me. This chosen is why hear you heart were chosen.

The female mummy, the ancient one, pressed her body against Ptolemy. Her hands clutched at him and her linen-wrapped face buried itself in the crook of his neck.

wife my alone this is my wife alone she will gone rule in my place she will be alone when rule i am gone,Ptolemy told Sarah. Sarah just looked away and cleared her throat. He let the female nuzzle him a moment longer then stepped forward, closer to Sarah.

you family have no mate do family you have family