If not for the panacea hex, Sam wouldn’t have either. But he couldn’t tell Doc about it—and Doc certainly wouldn’t want to hear, given his aversion to getting drawn any farther into the gangs than he already was. “Just look at it as an opportunity to recreate a ritual long lost to the world.”
“One that I can never tell anyone about.” Doc sighed. “Maybe if I write everything down and put it in a safety deposit box, only to be opened after my death…”
Sam gestured to the crates. “So where do we begin?”
“I’ll look for anything else that might be related to the ritual. You just…keep working on the hex, I suppose.” He spotted the mortar Sam had been using when Alistair came in. “Is that lapis lazuli? You’ve already started, then.”
“I’m gathering the components, but I still don’t know how to decipher the disc. In a spiral? From inside to outside?”
“Right.” Doc ran his hand through his hair, putting it in further disarray. “Let’s get started.”
They worked for hours, sorting through the crates and organizing any contents that seemed relevant. Papyrus fragments, for the most part, though there was also a wooden object like a crooked wand that Doc seemed intensely interested in.
“A ritual adze, used in a funerary rite called the ‘opening of the mouth,’” he said when Sam asked him about it. “This could be important.”
Sam had only seen a small portion of the crates’ contents at the butcher’s shop. Most of the items were everyday objects: a disassembled bed, cosmetics palettes, parts of a chariot—all covered in gold and semi-precious stones and inscribed with hieroglyphics. All of it was extremely fragile, though preservation hexes had helped the wood, papyrus, and textiles stay in one piece through the passing of the millennia.
At last they came to the largest crate of all, which had been brought in only with a great deal of sweating and swearing. When they removed the lid and pulled back the straw packing, a face stared up at them.
Sam’s breath caught in his throat. The features were sculpted from solid gold and surrounded by a headdress bearing a vulture and cobra. And what features they were—even he could tell the woman depicted had been stunningly beautiful.
“The innermost coffin,” Doc said reverently. He gently brushed away straw packing to expose yet more gold. “She’s holding the flail and the heka—magic—scepter, just like Tutankhamun was. Judging by his burial, this coffin would have been contained in two outer ones, which in turn were held inside a sarcophagus and series of shrines. Though things might have been done differently in Amarna. Or more likely, they were too heavy to move and are still sitting in her tomb, wherever it is.”
“Is she…inside?” Sam asked, then immediately felt stupid. It was a coffin, after all.
“Yes,” Doc said. “It looks unopened—see the seals here and here?” His eyes gleamed for a moment with a combination of admiration and something else—desire, perhaps, to open the thing and look upon the pharaoh’s actual face. Then he sighed and stepped back. “Nothing in here will tell us about her plans for her hex, though.”
Doc went to the papyri they’d collected, but Sam lingered by the coffin. Inside, mere inches away, lay the remains of a woman who’d lived more than three thousand years ago. She’d ruled a mighty kingdom, been buried with unimaginable wealth, and yet…
And yet she’d cared about her husband. Had his children. Eaten and drank and made love.
Been a human being, just like he was.
“I’m sorry you couldn’t bring your husband back,” he said, quietly so Doc didn’t overhear. “I don’t know if I can do any better. But I’m going to try.”
21
ARRESTS NOT IN SIGHT FOR BEER WAR MURDER
Three men were shot yesterday outside of a club on Dearborn St. Police urge any potential witnesses to come forward. All three men were believed to be involved in rumrunning, and…
GUNMEN KILL WOMAN IN CICERO-CHICAGO BEER WAR
Christina Shaw, aka “Chris the Fist,” former pugilist and known associate of the Cicero liquor gang, was found shot to death outside of her home late on Sunday night…
TOWERTOWN HEX SHOP COLLAPSE; POLICE SUSPECT SABOTAGE
The Everything & Moore hex shop on State St. collapsed yesterday evening, killing two. A police witch, speaking on condition of anonymity, says magic had been used to weaken the foundations before a timed charge was set off, bringing the entire building to the ground. Fortunately the detonation and collapse took place after hours, and…
BOMB SHATTERS CICERO SALOON NOTED FOR GOOD ALCOHOL
A black powder bomb, believed to be an incident in an ongoing beer war, wrecked the saloon of Kevin Gill. According to the residents of the neighborhood, Gill’s saloon had been in operation since the time of his father, and was still known as a place that served a good pint even in these thirsty times. Police believe a rival liquor gang…
EDDIE BELLINOWSKI DEAD IN BEER WAR INCIDENT
Daniel “Two-Gun” Zywarski Sought After Shooting
According to witnesses, Edward “Eddie” Bellinowski was drinking at The Clawhammer Club on Wabash Ave., when he was shot dead by an unseen assailant. An underworld tipster claims Dan Zywarski of the Cicero liquor gang, who also goes by the nickname Two-Gun, used magic to conceal himself and carry out the murder. Bellinowski was shot six times, three in the chest and three in the head.
