Anubis
Anubis copyright c. 2015 T.A. Chase
Part Thirty-Three-
Jamil cringed inside at the rather squeaky tone of his voice, but he was a little outraged that they would consider taking something from the Vatican.
Ahmed grinned at him. “It wouldn’t be the first thing we stole from there.”
“Ahmed. I mean Anubis.” He stopped and Ahmed touched his shoulder.
“Call me whichever you feel most comfortable using. I don’t mind.” Anubis motioned to the others. “Bas and Thoth could tell you stories of the places we’ve entered and took things from. There are artifacts that shouldn’t be allowed where anyone can find them.”
“Why? What do you do with them?” He glanced at Kellan. “Do you help them steal things?”
Chuckling, Kellan shook his head. “I can’t appear and disappear like they can, so it’s best if I stay behind. I take care of the library where they store the items. You should see it, Jamil. Books that were written centuries ago. There are even some I’m pretty sure were supposed to have been lost when the library at Alexandria burned.”
Shock rushed through him. “You have to be joking. No one knows what was lost when that library burned. How do they know they have anything from there?”
“Sekhmet took them when he realized what was happening. He got as much as he could before the fire destroyed the rest.” Bastet shrugged when Anubis and Thoth looked at him. “Kellan asked him one time when he showed up in our library while Kellan was working.”
“How as I supposed to know none of you talked to him?” Kellan rolled his eyes at their surprised expressions.
“It’s not that we don’t talk to him,” Thoth protested.
Kellan snorted. “You’re all scared of Sekhmet. Well, all of you except Isis. Maybe he’s just lonely. We talked for about an hour and he showed me where the Alexandria books were.”
Jamil saw the way Bastet’s eyebrows shot up. Apparently this Sekhmet was a man the others either respected or feared. It was also apparent they were amazed that he talked to Kellan.
“Isis showed up to drag him off somewhere, but not before thanking me for listening,” Kellan said.
“We need to focus, people,” Anubis told them. “We’ll worry about the other artifacts later.”
A thought hit Jamil. “Are you going to take any of mine?”
Anubis shrugged. “I don’t think so. This is the only thing I’ve seen so far that’s dangerous to the world. The other things you found will help establish information about an unknown ancient society, but they won’t help you raise the dead.”
“Not that I want to do that anyway,” Jamil muttered as he ran his fingers over the faded ink, trying to work out the writing. “This isn’t the normal hieroglyphs I’m used to seeing in the ancient Egyptian texts.”
Thoth grimaced. “It’s not, so I’m not sure how they expected to read it. Maybe they have someone who can.”
Jamil peeked at Anubis who frowned. “Are there people out there who would still know this language? Aside from you guys.”
“There were a few in one of the local tribes who would remember. I’m not sure they’d help outsiders though,” Anubis mumbled, rubbing his hands together.
Kellan leaned into Bastet’s side and Jamil watched Bastet encircle Kellan’s waist, drawing him closer. “Could it be the same group of people who kidnapped me?”
Kidnap? Jamil’s heart beat sped up. He didn’t like to hear that. “You were kidnapped?”
“Yes. By a crazy man who wanted me to tell him where to find the spell on how to make Earth Warriors.” Kellan motioned to the other three men in the room. “I’d stumbled on the knowledge that they existed and that there was actually a book with the spell in it. The man kidnapped and tortured me to tell him. But I didn’t.”
“Why not? It might have stopped him from hurting you.” Jamil didn’t understand why Kellan wouldn’t spill his guts.
Kellan met Bastet’s gaze and smiled. “I knew Bastet and the others were searching for me. I just had to stay alive long enough for them to get there.”
“You said a group though. Are there more men who might do something like that?” Jamil thought about Sandy and Eesha. “I should warn the girls.”
Anubis touched his arm then shook his head when Jamil met his eyes. “You can’t. One of my brothers is watching them for us. He’ll be able to keep them safe or at least will be able to get a hold of us if he needs help. Horus will stay unseen.”
“Why?”
“If the men after the book were to see the ladies had a guard, they would think Sandy and Eesha knew something and take them. What the girls don’t know won’t hurt them.”
Jamil wasn’t entirely sure he trusted Anubis to keep his friends safe, but since he didn’t know who to keep an eye out for, it was best for Anubis’ brother to protect them at the moment.
“Sterling was part of a group of very wealthy men who wanted to be the most powerful in the world. They also wanted to find immortality because they didn’t want to lose their power or money,” Thoth explained.
“It’s possible they decided if they couldn’t get immortality, then raising an army of the undead would be the next best thing.” Bastet rested his cheek on Kellan’s head while he spoke.
Jamil winced along with Anubis. “I can’t imagine what that would be like.”
“No need to, because it’ll never happen. The book is going to disappear into legend and no one except for us and our other brothers will know where it is.” Thoth stared down at the book in Jamil’s hands. “But before we do that, maybe we should think about setting a trap to find the killers.”
“We know it won’t be the ones who hired them,” Anubis pointed out.
“Of course not, but justice will be served for those who were killed. We’ll keep working to search out all the members of the group. We have time on our side. They don’t.” Thoth’s eyes gleamed.
2 Responses “Anubis”
more please!
thanks, T.A.!