Page 67 of Queen Takes Checkmate
“Vivian, is there more than one portal to access Heliopolis?”
“Of course, some more guarded than others. I know them all.”
“How are they opened?”
“The blood of Ra opens portals. His foul blood burns in my veins.”
I lifted my head from Rik’s neck and focused on her. Solemnly, I asked, “Would you be willing to allow a few of my men to feed on you, only so they may carry that same power and open extra portals?”
She stared at me, her lovely face glowing with inner fire. Her eyes so fierce they pierced my soul. “For you, my queen, I will do anything. Anything at all.”
26
Shara
The dusty basement room was crowded with all my Blood, Gwen, Carys, and Gina. Though I didn’t ask any of them to leave.
My rat friend sat on my shoulder, her tiny paw locked in my hair. Through her, I felt hundreds of other rats nearby. If the worst happened, and Huitzilopochtli tried to kill me or escape to kill his daughter and granddaughter, they would clog the tunnels with their little bodies and prevent him from reaching the surface. Hopefully by then, one of my Blood could kill him.
Guillaume had brought out his heavy Templar sword for this job. He stood at the mummy’s head, ready to chop him in half at the first sign of trouble. Xin, Ezra, Nevarre, Llewellyn, and Daire all stood at the door to prevent his escape.
Clutching the Isador grimoire in my arms against my chest, I turned to my twins. “Is there anything else you can tell me about him? Signs of his power? Anything?”
“His calendar day is One Flint.” Itztli’s face was grim and hard, though his black dog’s mournful eyes looked back at me. “The first day of the calendar to symbolize his founding of Tenochtitlan.”
“He was the god of human sacrifice, war, and the sun,” Tlacel added. “War captives were most often sacrificed to him, but every year, a handsome young man would be chosen to take the god’s place. He would live in luxury as Huitzilopochtli until he was sacrificed during Toxcatl. Warriors who died in battle were transformed into hummingbirds and flew to his side. Also, women who died in childbirth. They were considered great warriors for battling to bear a child and received honors at his side.”
Itztli lightly gripped the hilt of his obsidian blade on his hip. “He was always pictured with Xiuhcoatl, a weapon that was made to look like a fire-breathing dragon. It might have been a spear thrower, though I also saw a picture once with Xiuhcoatl stuck in his sister’s chest.”
“The one who tried to kill his mother?” I asked.
He nodded. “He chopped her up and threw her head up into the sky, which became the moon. Xiuhcoatl was sometimes thought to be a representation of the fire god, too. He supposedly threw it during battles like lightning bolts.”
Handing the book to Gina for safekeeping, I stepped closer to the mummy. I held my hands out over him, palms down, though I didn’t touch him. Closing my eyes, I listened, not with my ears, but with my magic.
I sank slowly into the mummy. I felt the rasp of brittle wrappings around the body. Dried and shrunken flesh. Cords of muscles that had tightened to thin strips of leather. Bones. So ancient my mind couldn’t comprehend exactly how old he must be. As old as Isis, surely. Would I someday find the Great One’s body like this? Lost and forgotten, dried up in some dingy basement?
Or my mother’s?
I felt a cold wisp brush my nape, sending chills trickling down my spine. I had a feeling that my mother would never have left her body behind. She wouldn’t risk me trying to find her so I could resurrect her.
:My time is over, daughter. It is your time to rise.:
Deep inside the mummy, I felt the cavity where his organs should be. In true Egyptian fashion, they’d been removed. That told me it had to have been done by Ra, or at least ordered by him. It didn’t make sense that Keisha Skye would have attempted to mummify an Aztec god.
The emptiness didn’t feel right, though. There was an echo. A greater hole that felt wrong. It took me a moment to realize why, but I had to check the book to be sure.
Opening my eyes, I lowered my hands. “Gina, can you find the page where the mummification ritual is covered? It should be fairly close to the beginning.”
She flipped carefully through the pages. “Yes, here it is. What do you need?”
“Is the heart removed?”
“No,” she replied. “It must be kept with the body. The heart was the seat of thinking and emotion for ancient Egyptians. That’s why it had to be weighed against Ma’at’s feather of truth before they could continue their journey to paradise.”
“Bingo,” I whispered, smiling. “That’s why he’s trapped as a mortal. Ra had his heart removed. It’s not here.”
“Can you resurrect him if there’s no heart?” Rik asked.
