He thought he was done with tears, but touched by his friends’ vigil, his vision grew blurry. His heart pounded harder in his chest.
“There’s another timestone,” he blurted out.
Marika crinkled her brow. “Jake, what are you talking about?”
They all stared at him as if he’d gone mad. Then he realized that there was a good chance no one aboard the ship had heard the witch.
He brought them into his room and retold what happened, though it pained him to do so, especially when he got to the part about Kady.
“We know what happened from that point,” Marika said, saving him from having to relive it.
Pindor rubbed his chin. “That creature Heka …”
Marika’s lips tightened with worry. “A grakyl brood queen.” As the others looked at her, she explained. “No one’s ever seen one, but there are stories. They’re the most vicious of the grakyl. But what’s she doing here?”
Jake knew the answer, picturing the witch’s tattered wing and scarred body. “The Skull King must have sent her through the storm barrier. We know the beasts have some natural immunity to the blasting sand. Nefertiti mentioned how the harpies nest within the edges of that storm. Kalverum Rex must have chosen his strongest grakyl—one of the brood queens—to send through the barrier. He armed her with a bloodstone wand and the ruby crystal. But even protected by alchemy, the storm still came close to killing her.”
“She was sent,” Marika said, “to find the other two timestones.”
Pindor frowned. “She knows you have the emerald. Now she’ll want the third even more.”
“A crystal the color of a blue sapphire,” Marika said, fingering the apprentice badge.
Jake sat straighter and spoke with a vehemence that surprised him. “I’ll never let her have them.”
“We will help you,” Bach’uuk said. “But we should first find a map. See where your watch points.”
“I saw Politor with one,” Marika said. “He was talking with Horus and Shaduf atop the deck. They were trying to figure out where to go, which village would be the safest place for us to hide.”
“We’re not going to hide,” Jake said.
Bach’uuk patted him on the back. “Then I will go find the map.”
The mention of Horus and Shaduf reminded Jake of their current predicament. “What’s happening on the ground?”
Pindor shifted closer, as if he were huddling for a scrimmage. When it came to strategy, Jake’s Roman friend outshone most others. “Djer stayed behind in Ka-Tor. He’s attempting to rally the people against Kree. Word is that the entire Blood of Ka has vanished, along with Kree and that witch. Nefertiti’s sister has barricaded herself in the palace, guarded by those loyal to Kree.”
Pindor looked like he wanted to say more, sharing a glance with Marika.
“What?” Jake asked.
“That dark alchemy cast by the witch spread to much of the city. Hundreds have been turned to stone. Men, women, children.”
Jake took a deep, shuddering breath. So it wasn’t just Kady who had succumbed to that witch’s curse.
“People are scared,” Pindor continued, “taking to their homes. This fear can work for or against Djer. Some will rally with him against such horror. More may wish to bend a knee to Kree’s show of power and do whatever is demanded of them.”
It was grim news. The fate of this land teetered on a dagger’s edge. With Kree and his fellow cult members still loose and now bearing the power to turn all rebels to stone, the future did not look good. Guilt pushed Jake toward despair—not only for Kady, but also for those who had died today. By coming here, he’d set a match to a powder keg.
Marika touched his hand, a feather’s brushing of her fingertips. “We will stop Kree.”
“And that witch,” Pindor said.
Jake nodded. His friends would give him their strength.
The cabin door burst open, and Bach’uuk rushed inside, holding up a scroll. “I found a map.”
He’d also found Nefertiti. She followed him inside and glanced to Jake, then away again. He read the flash of guilt and sorrow. But he did not blame her. She’d jumped overboard to help Kady and her uncle. In the end, she was as much a victim of Kree and that witch as anyone.
Pindor sat up straighter when she joined them, combing his fingers through his hair, which only made it stick out more crazily. She ignored him.
“Why do you need the skymaster’s map?” she asked.
Jake waved her to a table. They all stood around it as Bach’uuk unrolled the scroll, revealing a map of Deshret. The outermost boundaries were shaded, marking the Great Wind that encircled this harsh land. The rest of the map was pocked with towns and villages, rivers and pools, dunes and rock. Crude skulls marked a scatter of places—danger zones—including one surrounded by an image of dancing flames.
Jake pulled out his father’s watch and snapped it open, resting it on his palm. They all leaned closer, staring at the rotating second hand. “It spins fastest when I hold it toward the northeast.” He demonstrated. “That’s the direction it wants us to go.”
Bach’uuk poked a finger at a spot southeast of Ka-Tor. “According to Skymaster Horus, this is where we are now.”
Jake had his friend keep his finger in place while he drew a line that traveled northeast from their current position. Nothing lay along that path, though it did brush perilously close to that image of the flaming skull. He continued to the end of the map, where the shaded area marked the Great Wind.
A small set of hieroglyphics indicated a place hidden in the storm. Jake didn’t need to read the Egyptian writing to know what it was.
Nefertiti said it out loud. “The ruins of Ankh Tawy.”
“The third timestone must be hidden there,” Jake said. “Most likely in the pyramid. We have to go at once.”
Nefertiti folded her arms. “None can enter Ankh Tawy. The storms are too fierce. The sand will scour the flesh off your bones. Many have tried, but no one can get through the Great Wind.”
“We did. “ Jake snapped his father’s watch closed and held it up. “This is the Key of Time. It carried us through before, to bring us here. We’ll have to trust that the watch will do so again. Why else would its hand point there?”
“If we ever hope to stop that witch from turning everyone in Deshret to stone, we’ll need all the power we can get. Jake’s one stone will not be enough,” Pindor said. “And if Heka should get hold of that third stone before we do …”