“Your brother and loyal friend,
Kenna.
Neff set the letter on the table, pride and longing like a double-edged blade in her heart.
As if sensing her anguish, the cat bumped her head against Neff’s hand. “I’m all right, Cat,” she said, sniffing. “Now, what’s this?”
She examined the top scroll. Unlike Kenna’s letter, it was written in the gods’ words, so it took her longer to decipher.
“The Book of the Red Lady,” she murmured. “The Red Lady,” she knew, was one of the goddess Sekhmet’s various titles.
“These look like spell scrolls,” she went on, both for her own benefit and the cat’s. Sekhmet was not often invoked in the magic used by priests of Amun. Wondering what kinds of spells theymight be, Neff began translating the headings of each one:
To Enthrall a Man.
To Make a Man Blind to His Brothers.
To Loosen a Bowstring.
To Have Power over the Winds.
Neff felt the blood drain from her face. Aside from the life-giving spell she’d been working on with the twig, and the spell to summon Medjed, these were by far the most powerful spells she’d ever seen. What’s more, they were malicious.
Dark magic.
No wonder they were hidden inside that wall.In the wrong hands, spells like these could be incredibly destructive. In the right ones, though…
She studied the lists of ingredients marked in red ink and blew out her cheeks. Some of the items would be hard to get her hands on.But not impossible.Still, even if she got what she needed, there was no guarantee she’d be able to cast the spells correctly.
Kenna wouldn’t have given this to you if he didn’t believe, a voice within her urged.The potential for failure is high, but the consequences of not trying at all are much worse.
Neff heard a hiss. The cat stood with her back arched and hackles raised. As she had so many times before, the cat was staring into the middle of the room, focused on something that wasn’t there.
Or was it?
Neff recalled telling Ahura how cats are capable of seeing “the unseen,” and how it reminded her of the Medjed spell. The spell had called him a guardian with “eyes that see yet are unseen.” When nothing happened after she cast the spell, she’d assumed it hadn’t worked.
But what if it had? What if Medjed had been with her ever since, and she just didn’t know it?
She stood, trying to pinpoint exactly where the cat was staring. “Erm…hello?” she said, tentatively.
Nothing happened.
She went to the window and gathered a handful of sand that had blown in overnight and hadn’t yet been swept out by the servants. Then she threw it up in the air.
The sand drifted to the floor in a cloud, but Neff could have sworn she saw some of the grains create the outline of a form about half her size. When the sand had settled back to the ground, she also noticed that it neglected to fill two small areas with very recognizable shapes.
Feet.
Neff went rigid with shock.By Amun, something really is there!She grabbed a length of white linen she’d used to dry herself after her bath that morning. Biting her lip, she flung it over the same spot.
The cloth floated down onto the invisible object, giving form where none had been, making it look as if a small child hid under the white cloth.
Neff’s fear intensified. She dashed behind the table and hid.
What will it do now that I’ve discovered it?
The cat didn’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation. She padded over to Neff, rubbed her chin against the table leg, and meowed, as if to say,See? I told you so.
