4. The Hall of Truth
He grabbed her hind legs, dropped the torch, and dove flat to the ground. She followed involuntarily. “The Florisian Faith liked to string invisible wires at eye level. If you walk into them you go blind—or even worse, lose your nose.”
“How is not being able to smell worse than not being able to see!?”
“If I couldn’t smell, we’d have been eaten long ago. I’ve hardly ever seen those Shadowshifters.”
More careful now, they crawled over the floor, until the feel of the stone changed at the end of the hall. They stood up and shook the dust from their fur.
Gidi looked left and finally saw what the figure above the arrows was. A jackal.
A jackal!
Above it was another text. This time, somehow, Gidi could read the hieroglyphs. Anubis welcomes you to the world of the dead.
She stood stock still. Jaco didn’t notice and already stuck his head through the opening. He peeked around the corner, first left, then right. Slowly and silently, Gidi shuffled backward.
Jaco is Anubis, she thought. He’s come to sacrifice me!
She had forgotten about the invisible wires and tripped. She plopped on her back and couldn’t get up herself anymore, legs flailing wildly.
Jaco ran towards her and tried to turn her over. “Did you hurt yourself?”
“No! Stay away from me!”
He looked at her as if she were a difficult puzzle he just couldn’t figure out. “What? What’s the matter?”
“What’s your real name?”
“I’m called Jaco. I don’t have a last name, I never knew my parents.”
“Not true! You’re Anubis! You killed me long ago and now you’re taking me to the god of the underworld! I don’t want to go.”
“No, no, no, no, nonsense. If I had killed you, you would have noticed for sure.”
“So you admit you’re Anubis?”
“No, I’m a descendant from Anubis. I can’t help that. That’s why I know so much about pyramids, temples, and Ra’s legends. That’s why I have the original legendary parchment in my possession.”
Not anymore, she thought. But this isn’t the time to tell him that.
With his snout, Jaco pushed her onto her side and examined the wound on her heel.
“A deep cut. Hop on my back.”
He lay down on the ground. She waited a long time. He really seems to want to protect me—but why? Why? She slid onto his back and rested her chin between his ears.
They entered the Hall of Truth. It smelled of incense and burnt wood. In the large empty space, every footstep echoed for a while.
In the center stood a gigantic golden scale. In the right pan laid a large peacock feather, while the left pan remained empty.
“Let’s hurry through before the real Anubis returns.”
He sprinted past the scale. He kept running and running, even when his face turned red and his tongue hang out, panting loudly—the end of the room never came any closer.
Now Gidi understood how magic could prevent you from ever reaching a pyramid.
Exhausted, Jaco laid his head on the ground.
“Oh, maybe the scale will ask us questions too? Can we use multiple choice again?”
He laughed and turned to the empty pan. “No, dear Gidi, I’m afraid we have to weigh our souls.”
“How?”
“By sitting on the scale?”
“But … then it will weigh my body, not my soul.”
“Do you see any other option?”
Is destroying the scale an option? She didn’t dare say it in the possible presence of a living scale.
She stepped forward. The empty left pan lowered itself—an invitation.
She jumped on it. The pan with the feather plummeted down freely and bounced off the stone floor a moment later. Gidi was lifted up just as fast, nearly bumping the ceiling with her head.
The scale spun around and flung her away on the other side. She had to jump away to avoid a rough landing.
“Jaco! You have to try it! It’s like a ride!”
He looked concerned. “I’m afraid my soul isn’t as light as yours. Maybe you should continue alone.”
“I won’t survive a minute more in this stupid pyramid. I don’t even know what I’m looking for. Try it—what could go wrong?”
“A lot,” he mumbled, as he planted both paws on the scale.
Like a sponge, the scale sucked him in. The feather lowered and lowered, Jaco moving up just like Gidi. But when the dust settled, the feather still hovered just above Jaco.
He was heavier than the feather.
His eyes widened and his tail clung tightly to the scale.
“Throw away the rope!”
He shook it off and flung it towards her.
The feather bobbed up and down, but maybe that was an optical illusion too. There was no clear outcome.
“Quick, grab my compass!” Jaco shouted.
She dove into the bag and flung the binoculars towards him.
He sighed. “We’ll have to do it with this then.”
He threw the object into the air and batted it away with his tail. It landed on top of the feather with a shrill clap, like a spoon clanking against a pan.
Jaco rose just enough to rise higher than the feather. He too was flipped around and pushed to the other side.
Exhausted, he sank through his legs and his eyes fell shut. A long breath left through his nostrils.
“Hey, stay awake! We still have a pyramid to discover!”
“That can wait until tomorrow.”
“But isn’t it unsafe to sleep here? We’re in the realm of the dead!”
“No, we can’t actually enter the realm of the dead. Only deceased beings can do that. That’s why Osiris rules it.”
“Oh. Where are we then?”
“We’re now safely in an in-between space. The warm-hall-behind-the-scale, I call it. We’ll figure out the next step tomorrow.”
The rays of light illuminating the room dimmed. Tiny holes in the wall let in just enough outside light to see the room, but now that evening fell, they lost that luxury. The only torch they had still lay at the entrance.
“Oh, well, then I’ll sleep too.”
In the dark she searched for Jaco’s warm belly and pressed herself against it.
She couldn’t sleep. The scale had so much trouble with him, she thought. Why does he want to find Isis anyway? Maybe he’ll murder her!
By now she only saw black. She thought of her memories from before Jaco found her, but nothing came to mind. She’d been very young.
After hours of worrying she decided enough was enough. She blew in his ears until he startled awake.
“Why do you want to bring me to better lands safely anyway?” she whispered.
“Is this really the best moment?”
“Yes. If we’re continuing this adventure together, we have to trust each other.”
“Fine. Do you have any idea what the Shadowshifters are looking for?”
“Food? Murder? Funny shapes in the shadows?”
“Yes, you’re a tasty bite for them. That’s why I have to protect you.”
“But then why didn’t you take those squirrels with you?”
“I can’t protect everyone. Besides, they’re not important.”
“What do you mean not important? All animals are important!”
“Yes, yes, I know that, sure. But not all animals rule a kingdom.”
Her smile grew wider than ever. “… are you saying I’m the queen of this desert?”
“No, you—”
Two loud shrieks echoed through the darkness. Many footsteps splashed on the ground, like marbles bursting from a bag. A fiery torch stormed into the room, carried by a fennec fox, and illuminated the darkness.
Unfortunately, a lack of shadows at night didn’t mean Shadowshifters lost their powers. Instead, it meant that everything was a shadow.
“How in the gods’ names did they get inside?”
Dozens of fennec foxes ran into the hall, screaming and growling. They jumped on the scale together, which toppled over and cracked the floor with its hard landing.
So destroying WAS an option after all.
Jaco pushed her onto a small staircase leading to a raised plateau. He looked around: four side passages. He chose one and frantically pointed at it.
“Run! As fast as you can, I’ll distract them!”
She attempted a big leap, but the wound on her leg tore open again.
“Can’t do it!”
Jaco immediately stood before her. “Then we’ll have to do this differently.”
“No, go on alone!”
She said it heroically; she didn’t mean it.
“I’ll never leave you. No one survives alone in this desert. You just have to play along.”