Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx (16 page)

Jake twisted in his shackles and spotted two faces pressed in the tiny window of the cell door: Marika and Kady. Their eyes shone with fear, both for him and for what was about to transpire.

As the bloodstone touched the crimson droplet on the Egyptian's forehead, the tattooed eye burst forth with writhing shadows. The darkness swept over Kree's head, obscuring all features.

The witch stepped back as Kree rose, his head still hidden within a cowl of shadows. He faced Jake, which set Jake's heart to thundering. Even the slug on his cheek slithered behind his left ear and hid.

From the mask of darkness, the middle eye opened, aglow with darker flames, as if a black hole burned in the center of the Egyptian's forehead.

Cruel laughter scratched free of the darkness.

“We meet again.”

It was Kalverum Rex, the Skull King.

“Did you think you could escape me so easily?”
The voice boomed with threat.
“I am everywhere!”

Jake refused to give in to his terror. He forced his heart out of his throat so he could speak. “But you are not
here
,” he said. “You can't be, can you?”

A low, threatening growl followed, confirming what Jake had already suspected.

“You can't cross the Great Wind,” Jake said. “Only your shadow has seeped through, poisoning what it touches.”

The growl turned to laughter again.
“Clever boy. You must be clever enough then to know what I want.”

Jake tried not to answer, but he couldn't help himself. “The Key of Time. You need it to cross the storm, like my friends and I did.”

“You will give it to me.”
Kree stepped forward, lifting his dagger. But from the way the Egyptian's arm shook, even this small gesture took great effort from the Skull King as he possessed Kree's body. Even with the bloodstone, the Skull King's reach through the storm was weak. Proving this, his next words were softer, sounding farther away.
“Give me the Key of Time and I'll let you and your friends free.”

Now it was Jake's turn to laugh.
Fat chance he'd let them live
. If Jake had learned anything from his previous adventure, he knew that Kalverum Rex could never be trusted. Beyond his alchemies, his best weapons were lies, deceit, and betrayal. And if he wanted something in this desert land, Jake was not about to help him get it.

The Skull King must have sensed Jake's determination.

Dark flames burst more strongly out of that single eye.
“If you will not give me the Key, I will take it from you!”

Kree swung away toward the witch, wobbly and poorly controlled, as if a drunken puppet master pulled his strings. The voice of the Skull King grew fainter, echoing out of an ever-deepening well as the connection faded.

“Get the Key … then kill them all!”

Kree suddenly fell to his knees, a puppet whose strings had been cut. The shadows around his head broke away like a flock of crows and vanished. With a groan, the Egyptian lifted a hand to his forehead, as if checking to see if his head were still on his shoulders. Fingers probed the tattooed eye above his brows. It was just a tattoo again.

The Skull King was gone.

Heka made no move to help Kree get up. It took him two tries to get back on his feet. Even then he clutched a hanging chain to hold himself up. He swung around to face Jake. That calculating, wary look from before had changed to pure hatred, as if Jake were to blame for his weakness.

Kree stumbled toward Jake, stopping only long enough to grab a curved blade from Dogo's table. The weapon looked like a giant version of the paring knife Aunt Matilda used for skinning chickens. From the look on Kree's face,
skinning
was a distinct possibility.

He lifted the blade to Jake's throat. “Where is the Key?”

So the Egyptian must have been conscious while the Skull King took over his body, listening from inside. Fear glowed in Kree's bloodshot eyes. The experience plainly shook him down to his bones, and he was determined to give his master everything he wanted.

“Hand over the Key!” Kree pressed the knife harder.

“I … I don't have it.”

As the lie slipped from Jake's lips, the slug oozed a slime that burned like a hot poker shoved into his ear.

Jake screamed as loudly as he could.

Beyond his cry, he heard Marika call out, “Leave him alone!”

Kree smiled with satisfaction and straightened, taking his knife with him. “It seems the witch's pet disagrees with you.”

Jake panted as the pain of the burn eventually ebbed.

“Shall we try again?” the Egyptian asked. “Where's the Key?”

Jake continued to breathe hard, calming his heart. The slug slid from behind his sore ear and squirmed along his jawbone to rest at the edge of his mouth.

“Answer me,” Kree said, “or I'll pull one of your friends out of the cell and start feeding fingers and toes to the fire.”

Jake finally gasped out, “No! I have the Key.” He
struggled with his arms behind his back, fighting the iron cuffs. “Free my hands, and I'll show you.”

Kree grabbed a ring of keys hanging from a wooden beam. He crossed behind Jake's back. “Do not move,” he said, punctuating his order with a poke of his knife in Jake's shoulder.

Jake heard metal scrape metal—then the cuffs fell off and clattered to the floor. Kree stepped back to the front as Jake brought his arms around and rubbed his wrists.

“The Key …” Kree said. “Now!”

Jake reached behind his back and fished into the seat of his pants. He found what he was looking for, pulled it free, and held it out toward Kree. It was Kady's cell phone. He had to trust that Kree did not know what the Key of Time looked like. The pocket watch remained tucked beneath his undershirt, resting over his heart where it belonged. He would never give it up.

“Is this the Key of Time?” Kree asked, turning the phone around in his fingers. The witch drifted closer, looking over the other's shoulder.

“See for yourself,” Jake said, sidestepping the question. He pantomimed how to flip open the phone.

Kree followed his directions. As the home screen blinked to life, displaying again Kady's cheerleading squad, Kree clutched his throat in shock. “What strange alchemy is this?”

If you only knew
…

“And this is the Key?” Kree asked again.

Jake had no choice but to lie. “Yes. Yes, it is.”

The slug ignited on his cheek, and Jake kept his face stiff, expecting the burn this time. A moment ago he had screamed, but he had overplayed it, yelling extra loud on purpose, making it look as if he had no tolerance for pain. As the slug continued to sear his cheek, tears welled and rolled from the corners of his eyes.

Let them think I'm crying because I gave up the Key
.

Kree didn't bother even looking over, mesmerized by the glowing screen of the phone. He had fully fallen for the deception, but Heka turned her cloaked face toward Jake, plainly wary. She moved closer, drifting as if afloat.

Before she could reach him, the door to the dungeon banged open. All eyes turned in that direction. A trio of black-robed figures rushed inside, followed by Dogo, looking sheepish and running a palm over his bald head.

“They wouldn't stop,” the dungeon master said.

The head of the trio came forward and dropped to a knee. They were all clearly members of the Blood of Ka. “Master Kree, I have word from the pharaoh's bedchamber. He wakes faster than we expected. I think the two princesses suspect something is amiss. Especially that nuisance, Nefertiti.”

Kree shoved the cell phone into his robe. “I will go and speak with them. Calm those waters before suspicion ruins our plans. You and the others prepare more of the
elixir. It is time we sent Pharaoh Neferhotep back to sleep. This time forever.”

He swept toward the door, trailed by the others. As Kree passed the dungeon master, he pointed an arm at Jake.

“Kill them. All of them. Slowly.”

Dogo nodded, relieved. He rubbed his palms together as the party cleared out of the chamber. Jake didn't see the witch leave, but she was also gone.

The dungeon master crossed to the table, put his fists on his hips, and studied his spread of bone-breaking tools. Jake shifted his arms farther behind his back, hoping that Dogo hadn't noticed that Kree had freed his hands earlier. He had one shot.

Dogo turned around with a wicked set of shears, like those used to trim hedges. The man's gaze locked on Jake's bare toes. He was choosing which one to cut off first.

To keep the ogre's attention up there rather than on the shackles on the floor, Jake wiggled his toes. Dogo smiled, exposing a handful of missing teeth.

He lumbered forward, a glob of drool hanging from his lower lip.

Once his target was close enough, Jake swung both arms wide and slammed his cupped palms against the man's ears. It was a Tae Kwon Do attack he'd learned, devastating enough to drop a grown man to his knees.

Or a grown ogre.

As Dogo fell forward, Jake moved fast. He jackknifed
at the hip and clipped Dogo's jaw with the crown of his head. It felt as if he smashed his skull against a boulder. Jake's ears rang, but it was a thousand times worse for the dungeon master. Dogo's head snapped back in a wicked whiplash, rolling his eyes back, too.

The big man crashed into a dead sprawl across the floor.

Jake swung back and forth from his ankles, keeping an eye on Dogo. The man stayed down. But for how long?

“Jake!” his sister called. “Quit hanging around and get us out of here!”

“What do you think I'm trying to do?”

Again that maniacal laughter rose from one of the cells. More faces appeared in the other windows. They stared at his efforts, hope shining in their faces.

Jake used his body weight to swing back and forth, higher and higher. The shackles cut into the skin of his ankles. Blood ran hotly down his legs, but he continued to swing. He reached an arm out toward the ring of keys, which hung again on the crossbeam in front of him. His fingertips strained, but the keys were still out of reach. He had to roll higher up.

But even then, could he reach them?

He wasn't sure.

Back and forth … back and forth …

Blood filled his head, setting it to pounding. His vision darkened at the edges. He knew he was close to passing
out. He reached out again. His middle finger touched one of the iron keys, setting it swinging; but he came to a hopeless realization. No matter how far he swung, he'd never reach that ring.

He let his body go slack, giving up.

Dizzy from the effort, he flashed into the past, to a moment he thought he'd forgotten. He was riding a carousel with his mother. They were at an old amusement park on the coast of Maine where the operators still hung brass rings for the carousel riders to try to grab. He remembered straining to snatch one as his wooden horse rode up and down. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get one. He was too small.

He again heard his mother's laughter as she rode behind him.

Jakey
,
you can do it! Don't give up
!

With that encouragement, he stood in his stirrups on the next pass. He jumped for the ring, managed to hook it, and fell back into his saddle with the prize.

But that was then …

Jakey
,
you can do it
!

His mother's words echoed in his dazed brain.

I can't, Mom. I can't
.

“Jake!” The shout was louder than before, but not the least bit encouraging, only threatening.

His head cleared enough to recognize his sister's voice. “Kady …?”

“Why did you stop, lamebrain? You almost had it.”

“I can't. My arms aren't long enough.”

She sighed. “C'mon! You can do it!”

At that moment, her voice sounded so much like their mother's. Jake closed his eyes, holding back tears.

“For you, Mom,” he whispered, and began to swing again.

His friends crowded at the window, fighting to watch.

Marika called to him, “Just a little farther!”

Pindor was not as optimistic. “If you fail, we can always join the Blood of Ka! As they say among my people,
when in Rome
…”

Bach'uuk shoved Pindor out of the way. He used his turn at the window to worm an arm out and wave, urging Jake on.

With his friends' encouragement, Jake used all his weight and strength to propel himself even higher. He reached out for the ring, straining his shoulder. Still it was no good. He touched the longest key with a fingertip, but he couldn't grab it. His arms simply weren't long enough.

Pindor groaned, expressing what Jake felt. There was nothing he could do. The hopeful faces of the other prisoners also sank away from their windows, equally defeated.