Slowly a pattern emerged.
The lamb, the lamb, the lamb…
She remembered…
36Karim
He remembered the tug of that invisible rope around his chest, pulling him toward a forgotten tomb…
It’s not a wall. It’s a door.
He remembered the knock of a monster awakened, and the voice of a boy left to die in the dark…
If anyone can find it, you can!
Sweeping the floor of a forgotten temple, and finding his own image rendered on an ancient wall…
The oracle only foretells the beginning of the story. It’s up to us to decide how it ends.
Traversing the kingdom with Behkai, a deathless creature in relentless pursuit, then facing his fate…
You can’t die, tomb robber. Your story is not finished. This kingdom needs you.
Searching for the lost city with Sitamun, philosophizing and falling in love…
You really think we get to choose our fate?
Witnessing the birth of an infernal army…
Heed me, O ushabti! Wake and hear my call!
Surviving three spears to lead a lost tribe home…
Is this not a sign for hope? Is this not the hand of God reaching out to lift us from our tragedy?
Finding unity among division…
While the men sow discord, the children water flowers.
Karim remembered the way he felt when he met Raetawy on the riverbank, and she showed him kindness when others had not. He remembered telling her about the river, how its current seemed to pull him toward a destination not of his choosing. He could pause on his journey, he could fight the pull of the water and the pull of fate, and perhaps alter his course. But the currentwantedhim to find his place, wanted him to follow the path set out for him. Like the streams and tributaries that all flow to the great river, he was one of many, and the many were but one.
The lamb, the lamb, the lamb…
He remembered.
He remembered and he knew that, somehow, whether by choice or courage or divine intervention or mortal foolishness—or each of those things at once—they had all arrived in the place where they were truly meant to be.
“Greetings to you, Princess, sena, young sena,” he said, speaking to each of them in turn as the winds of fate swirled around them. “As lovely as it is to see you all, I believe we have a battle to fight.”
37Sita
Three soldiers advanced toward the platform with spears. Sitamun whirled on them, her voluminous green gown following like an ocean wave. By the time she registered the attackers, they’d already let their spears fly.
The thick fog that had clouded her mind while she’d been enchanted had given way to a crystalline clarity. Without hesitation or forethought, she unfurled her left arm, and the two tiny serpents that had been curled around her ear came to life. They slithered down her neck and along her arm, growing all the while, and then curled themselves in her hand, one red and one black, stretching, straightening, twisting into each other along a band of white light. In the blink of an eye, the light developed shape and texture. A length of twisted wood now in her hand, the serpents twined around it went still.
Sita slammed the base of the serpent staff on the platform.
Next to her, Neff shrieked as the three spears sliced throughthe air toward them. Rae stepped in front of the girl, while Karim raised his arms to try and shield them both.
