5. Horus' Riddle

The Shadowshifters formed a circle and bared their teeth. They scratched the ground and growled loudly, but no one jumped at Jaco. Every time a fennec fox stepped forward, he was roughly pulled back by his friends. The torch lit up everyone’s eyes, but no more than that.

Jaco puffed himself up. “Greetings, dear friends, listen to what I say!”

“Why would we listen?”

“We have important information!”

All the fennec foxes laughed. “So what? That dune gazelle there is worth much more to us. We’ll eat her and the desert will be free.”

“Not true! The queen remains in charge.”

“You think she’s still alive?”

He fell silent. One of the fennec foxes was significantly larger than the others. One paw clutched the torch, but Jaco’s eye fell on his other paw, which flattened a familiar parchment roll. And his neck, which wore a familiar rope.

“You can’t eat her. If you do that, you’ll never leave the pyramid alive!”

Now he had their attention. “She has information I don’t have. Without that knowledge, you might be able to escape the pyramid, but you’ll be cursed and die soon.”

“That’s true!”

Gidi yelled it deafeningly loud and stamped with her good hoof. Some fennec foxes startled and shied away.

“Say whatever you want. Once we’re outside, your fate will be the same. Tie them up!”

With his own rope, his left legs were tied to Gidi’s right legs. They could only walk at exactly the same time, which was practically impossible. The largest of the fennec foxes stood before Jaco and also puffed himself up.

“My name is Halek.”

“Oh, nice to meet you, I’m—”

“We’ve chased you a long time, Jaco. Each encounter, you were too clever for us, but that girlfriend of yours was a mistake. You should have stayed alone and definitely not lost your magical parchment roll.”

Jaco looked angrily at Gidi; she turned her head away again. She blinked and the Shadowshifter had jumped away to rummage through the torn bag. He pulled out the map and unrolled it. He briefly studied the intricate drawings, then flung the roll against the wall.

“Where’s the second part of the legend? Speak up! Where is Isis?”

“I don’t have the second part. I’m here precisely to find it. What do you want with her?”

“Once we’ve eaten that girlfriend of yours, she’s our last obstacle. With her out of the way, the desert really is ours. What do you want with her? Make some more friends?”

“Ask her to uplift my banishment.”

“Don’t believe a word of it. You’re an adventurer, a treasure hunter, a freebooter. They say you robbed the bank of Heroeshaven. Alone. You came here for treasure, a reward, a secret weapon. What is it?”

Jaco remained silent. Halek looked him up and down. His tail lowered, as if he was genuinely disappointed in Jaco.

“Stay quiet all you want, I’ll find out. You two lead me to the treasure chamber.”

“Please, let us rest first.”

The large Shadowshifter growled and walked away. The fennec foxes ransacked the bag and gobbled up all the food.

“Is it true?” Gidi asked softly.

“I’ve done many things I’m not proud of. Robbing some bank or other is not one of them.”

“Then why do they think it was you?”

“Someone completely on their own is easy to accuse. I happened to be in the area. I’m an intimidating jackal—no one defended me.”

“Is that why you were banished?”

“If only it were that simple. Then I’d have had an alibi.”

“Oh too bad, I’d have liked a kangaroo as a pet.”

“No, not a wallaby, an alibi. If they’d banished me for the bank robbery, they couldn’t have accused me of kidnapping.”

“Oh, but, I’d happily tell them you didn’t kidnap me! That I came along voluntarily.”

“I was talking about another kidnapping, but nice—”

A trio of Shadowshifters stomped the marble floor. As they approached their prisoners, they pushed other fennecs off the staircase.

“Done! Get up! That’s enough rest!”

“Your leader promised us more rest than this.”

“We don’t have a leader. One for all, and every fox for himself. Come on! We have better things to do!”

The first sunlight already dripped into the room again, illuminating the four side passages, each with an identical rectangular opening. Above the openings, however, were different words.

To the left and right of each word was the same symbol. An eye with thick brow and lashes: the symbol for Horus that Gidi had seen on Jaco’s map. She bumped her nose against his chin to get his attention, but he watched the fennec foxes closely.

“Tell us which passage to take and we’ll give you some food.”

“Yeah, right. Another of your empty promises.”

Meanwhile, six fennec foxes stood around them, spitting on the ground. Halek, whom they thought was the leader, still ate from the bag.

“We promise it. Give us the answer!”

“I don’t know. The words don’t make sense.”

“We’ll decide what makes sense. What are the words?”

“Two-quarters, a quarter, three-quarters, and four-quarters.”

“Maybe it’s a math question. That’s two-and-a-half together. Ring any bells?”

“Yes, that I’m surprised Shadowshifters can do math.”

Halek cracked a smile. Until he seemed to remember he was supposed to be threatening. “That was your last joke.”

“Stay calm, stay calm. I think we need to find the word that doesn’t belong—that’s the passage we need. That could take a while, so I suggest we split up and each choose one passage.”

Halek jumped between the Shadowshifters, nails first. He picked some leftovers from his teeth while placing a paw on Gidi’s trembling head.

“Out of the question! Then I’d lose three-quarters of my pack to traps. This scrawny dune gazelle isn’t worth that much to me. Give me the answer now—”

Another fox interrupted him. “What do you mean your pack?”

Halek didn’t even spare him a glance, let alone an explanation.

Gidi kept tapping Jaco and then nodding towards one of the passages. As he spoke, he put his paw on her head to calm her.

“And what if Anubis returns? And he sees you guys knocked over the scale? His vengeance will be bitter!”

“Yes, yes, enough of that. We have you captive, so we’ll do the threats. Fine, we split up. But I’ll stay close to you two … and you walk up front.”

They shuffled to the passage with three-quarters above it. The pack divided itself into four groups of nine. Each group hastily ran into another passage.

“I noticed,” Jaco whispered to Gidi through gritted teeth. “I hope you know what you’re doing,”

“Trust me, I’m the math genius here. Probably something I learned, you know, as a princess at—”

She stopped talking when the foxes walked right behind her. It was dark in the passage. Jaco held his non-tied front paw against the wall and felt notches that seemed to form a drawing.

Gidi did the same and also clearly felt a difference between this wall and the rest of the pyramid. Most drawings were abstract: circles, squares, spirals, lines. Interwoven were countless animal species: a crocodile, hippo, falcon, cat, fox, jackal, camel, and more.

Jaco slowed down. “Everyone, stop!”

The fennec foxes were slow to understand and shuffled a bit further.

“Now!”

Jaco swung around wildly to keep everyone behind him. Halek’s shriek fell silent due to a large jackal tail against his mouth. The torch illuminated the ground right in front of them.

“Look at the floor. See how some stones jut up at an angle? If you step on them, a mechanism starts. A trap. Quick, give me my dagger!”

The leader pulled the bag out of another’s teeth and rummaged through it. He was occupied for a while, but eventually flung the compass at Jaco.

“Can nobody here properly recognize objects!?” his voice echoed through the passage. “Fine, we’ll do it with this.”

The compass had an iron chain link. He took it in his mouth and wrapped two links around his strong molars. He tossed his head back; the compass followed. At its apex, Jaco turned back forward and slammed the compass into the ground.

All the loose stones shattered. The compass itself also broke into a hundred pieces, but it had already achieved its purpose.

An elephant-sized boulder fell from the ceiling and landed right in front of his snout.

Everyone was unharmed, but the passage was blocked. Jaco pushed as hard as he could against the rock.

No movement.

Yelling and screaming reached them from behind. The sound of a whipping sword, followed by a rope being cut. All four entrances collapsed simultaneously. A lion’s roar sounded in the distance.

Halek grabbed Jaco’s neck fur and spit in his face while speaking.

“And now we’re all stuck! You failed, Jaco. You’re not as great as you think. And Gidi will pay the price.”

“Calm down! Look. A riddle is on the wall.”

He spat again, this time towards the stones. “Followers of Ra. How they didn’t choke on their own riddles, now that’s a riddle. What is it?”

“When you seek me I’m not there, when you find me we’re square …”

Jaco fell silent. Gidi took over.

“… but if you don’t uncover my hiding place on the wall, your adventure ends here for all. Rara riddle me this, what am I?”