at school?’
A moment of silent calculation and then Osiris said, ‘You have a choice, as all the dead do. Come with me or I will take another, and what will happen to them will be worse than anything you can imagine.’
‘I can imagine a lot.’
‘Every culture established by mortals in this world has shared one belief — that life continues in some way after death. It is known by peoples that have no contact with any beyond themselves, from the dawn of your ages, from the darkening west to the gleaming east. Because it is the One Truth embedded in the deepest recesses of your construct. The gift you were given when you were made.’
‘Yeah, I always knew I was going to live forever.’
‘The greatest threat to any being is that the endless cycle of death and rebirth could be ended. Complete termination. Never to exist again. More — never to have existed at all. Wiped from Existence.’
‘Except you’re making one big mistake. I’m a coward. In a world of cowards, I’m queen. Saving my own skin is my number-one priority in any situation. So whoever you choose, I’m going to be sick and sad, and hate myself, but I’m still not coming out of this fire.’
‘And still you lie to yourself.’
An image of Hunter flashed before her eyes. Laura felt a corresponding twist in her gut that shocked her. ‘You really picked the wrong one there.’
‘A lost child. Unloved. Ignored by his parents. Dragged into a friendless world of deceit and cold hearts. A man who loves, and loves love, but can never be allowed, and can never speak of it. Who must hide his loneliness and his sadness and his suffering. Who is honourable, and trustworthy, and who would give up his own life for others, but who is punished every second of his life by being forced to bring death, and to know all of the deaths he has brought. A man who loves you more than any man has loved you, and who cannot himself believe that he has found this depth of feeling.’
In the silence that followed his words, Osiris’s bloodshot eyes stared at Laura with uncompromising harshness. She hesitated, and then said, ‘You’re wasting your time. Run along now.’
‘I will take him.’ Osiris began to retreat into the dense vegetation.
‘Wait.’ Laura thought she was going to be sick. Every fibre of her demanded self-preservation, yet still she was torn. She had no control over the deep, oceanic swell of her response. ‘I won’t be wiped from Existence?’
‘No.’
‘But it’s not going to be nice, right?’
Osiris did not answer.
She barely knew Hunter. Of all the people Osiris could have chosen, he was the least likely to be important to her. Yes, they had made a connection, but it was nothing, not really. Everything for them lay in the future, unborn. She could resist.
She took a step towards the edge, hesitated. Osiris waited.
7
The sun hung fat and red over the West Bank where the dead had been taken for centuries. The great pyramid of Khufu rose in silhouette as the lights of the Sharia al-Haram began to flicker on, and the air was filled with the ethereal, soaring sound of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer.
Not long ago, Church would have drifted into the mystical atmosphere that had transformed Cairo into a city of wonders for millennia, but his fears for Ruth and his hatred for Veitch isolated him. He sat on the terrace of the rooftop apartment they had rented in an old boarding house, with the shadows growing long around him, waiting for some sign.
As the stink of the day’s traffic fumes gradually gave way to charcoal smoke and the aroma of barbecuing lamb from the street sellers, Shavi entered with an armful of books and pamphlets.
‘Research,’ he said brightly. ‘I thought it wise to know what magic might have awakened in Cairo before it descends on our doorstep.’
When Church didn’t respond, he pulled up a chair next to him and opened a bottle of mineral water. ‘Napoleon Bonaparte said that from the top of the pyramids, forty centuries look down on you. How many thousands of people, if not millions, have looked back at them during that time?’
‘You’re trying to make me feel insignificant?’
Shavi smiled. ‘Oh, that would be far too simplistic for me. On the one hand, I could be suggesting that all our lives, and our problems, are like the sand out there — tiny grains lost to the great, sweeping grandeur of the desert. Or I could be implying that as Brothers and Sisters of Dragons we are not insignificant. Of all the generations that have looked up at the pyramids, we are the first to be tasked with a destiny that could change everything.’
‘Or both.’
‘Or both.’
‘Insignificant in the ups and downs of our lives, the loves, and betrayals, and suffering. And uniquely important in the job we forgettable, pitiful people have been given to do.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Nobody likes a smart-arse, Shavi.’
They both smiled and watched in silence as the sun finally set and night fell across the Victorious City.
‘What have you found?’ Church asked.
‘Plenty. This is a place where myth and legend are carved into the very fabric of the city. But so far there appears to be no sign of anything out of the ordinary.’
‘That doesn’t give me much comfort.’
‘The city is quiet for now. Let us enjoy this moment.’
Church examined the milky river of stars overhead. ‘I’m starting to wonder what I’d do without you, Shavi. Sometimes I’m afraid all my brooding is going to drive me insane. I worry about everything — about Hunter, there’s so much going on inside him, and Laura, the same. About poor Tom-’
‘And they are concerned about you. That is what friends do. Now …’ Shavi opened one of the books to change the mood. ‘So much about the Kingdom of the Serpent — and the war with the spiders — and the myths and legends of the world! All there, in the old stories. That secret history again, just waiting to be read with the right eyes.’
‘Gnosticism taught us a lot.’
‘But the symbolism in the myths is so much more potent!’ He began to read, summarizing as he scanned the pages. ‘So much, even in the Middle East alone. As with all myths, another story playing behind the words. In Hittite mythology, Illuyankas was the monstrous snake, or dragon, who waged war against the gods and was eventually slain. This tale was assimilated into Canaanite mythology as the struggle of the gods against Leviathan. Illuyankas’s death was believed to signal the start of a new era.’
‘So the dragon is the bad guy?’
Shavi smiled, but did not answer. ‘In Iranian mythology, the monstrous dragon Azhi Dahaka was supposed to embody falsehood, and was the servant of Angra Mainyu, the god of darkness. It is told that at the end of the world, Azhi Dahaka will break free of his chains and ravage the Earth. Even here in Egypt, the great serpent Apep is a force of destruction and chaos, who attacks the life-giving sun every day. Even in the mythology of the Bible, the snake in the Garden of Eden was demonised. For giving knowledge! How can that be a bad thing? The message of that story was that humankind was supposed to stay in ignorance-’
‘Not rise up, not reach its potential. You know, you might have a few Christian scholars querying that reading.’ Church grinned, but was briefly distracted by small fires springing up here and there across the city. A celebration of some kind?
‘Propaganda!’ Shavi continued. ‘Politics is everywhere. When a ruling power wants to maintain control, it creates stories that demonise the other side, to win over the hearts and minds of the population. As you well know, the Christian Church did this effectively when it first arrived in Britain and attempted to supplant the Old
