“They’re not stone,” Jake said.
“Time’s river is unfreezing,” Bach’uuk said, recognizing the truth, too.
The warriors below hadn’t been turned to stone but had simply been frozen in time, so thoroughly that flesh refused to move. Even sunlight must have been trapped by the spell, unable to reflect back color, turning all to a dark gray.
Jake understood. The spell of the ruby timestone wasn’t one of petrifaction. It simply stopped time, freezing the assaulted so solidly that they appeared to be stone.
Hope surged as Jake pictured Kady, frozen into a gray statue with a sword. Was the same resuscitation occurring to her right now?
But his hope was short-lived.
A trumpeting screech made him jump. It wasn’t only the warriors who were coming back to life. As he stared, the Howling Sphinx slowly lowered its head, one black eye rolling toward Jake.
Below, cries of the wounded rose from thawing throats.
Warriors yelled.
Bach’uuk tugged Jake back toward the shelter of the pyramid as a battle—centuries old—restarted anew. A flash of fire drew his eyes to the west. Off in the distance, a blazing craft drifted up from the desert floor.
The royal barge.
It rose higher and higher, swinging toward the city. Even without a spyglass, Jake knew who captained that windrider. He pictured Kree standing at the prow, his middle eye blazing with black fire. With the Great Wind vanquished, nothing stood between Kalverum Rex and Ankh Tawy. Though it was centuries overdue, he intended to have his victory here.
As Jake fled back into the pyramid, he swore he could hear cold laughter flowing across the desert. Or maybe it was his own guilt.
What have I done?
Jake’s only hope was to reverse what he’d started. If he could get the Great Wind blowing again, he’d have some chance. He could use the ruby crystal to refreeze the growing battle at the foot of the pyramid, returning all to what it had been.
But what then?
The people of Deshret would still be trapped, ruled by the black fist of the Skull King. He’d promised Nefertiti he’d help her people. But how? And what about Pindor? Was he a prisoner aboard that barge?
All these thoughts and questions, laced with bitter guilt, tumbled through him as he fled down the tunnel and back into the inner chamber. Another bellowing cry of the pteranodon chased after him, stronger and more potent. The sharper screams of warriors followed amid the cries of the dying.
Across the chamber, Marika swung around. “Jake!”
She stood in the middle of the triangle of timestones, bathed in the brilliance of Ankh Tawy’s heart. The crystal sphere spun wildly above the metallic archway, blazing with light. Below it, the archway itself had turned into a shining mirror—reflecting the room, the triple glow of the timestones, even Marika’s robed form.
He yelled to her as he ran. “Marika, take out the ruby stone! Now!”
She lifted her arms, confused. “But, Jake—!”
“Do it!”
Instead she stepped out of the triangle and pointed toward the mirrored archway. He didn’t understand her hesitation. No matter what she was trying to tell him, nothing else mattered for the moment. He had to get to those timestones and rip them out before it was too late.
Only steps from the triangle, he realized something odd.
The mirror in the archway continued to reflect the room, but Jake wasn’t in it. In fact, a robed reflection continued to stand within the triangle, her back to the room—even though Marika stood off to the side.
Confusion drew him to stop.
The figure in the mirror turned, dressed in an Egyptian dress, her face painted beautifully.
“Jake,” the woman said, her voice full of love, her eyes shining with tears and astonishment.
Stunned, he fell to his knees at the impossibility of it.
“Mom …”
31
FAMILY REUNION
“You’ve gotten so big,” his mother said, stepping out of her triangle and coming forward.
Choking on tears, Jake struggled to his feet and rushed toward her—only to hit the mirror. He pressed his palms against the metal. His mother did the same, but they were unable to touch, separated by centuries. She was in the past, standing in the same spot, but hundreds of years ago. Still, Jake swore he could feel the heat of her palms through the cold metal.
He soaked in her every feature as if she were the sun and he was some starving plant: how her dark blond hair curled at her cheeks, how her blue eyes sparked when she smiled, how tiny sun freckles glowed through the tan of her skin.
In turn, she studied him just as deeply.
“How … how long has it been since we left you?” she asked, struggling to compose herself, to push back her shock.
“Three … three years,” he stammered out.
Her body sagged in disbelief mixed with a bone-deep sadness. “So long …” she mumbled breathlessly to herself. “What have we done?”
“I don’t understand. Where’s—?”
His words were cut off by the trumpeting screech of the pteranodon—but it didn’t come from behind him. It echoed through the mirror from his mother’s side. She glanced over her shoulder toward the exit of her pyramid’s chamber. Jake heard screams and clashes behind him. The war that had started during her time was ending during his.
When his mother turned back, her eyes shone with concern.
“He’s almost breached the last bastion. Cornelius’s forces will not hold him back much longer. He’s almost here.”
“Who?” Though Jake knew that answer.
“Kalverum,” she said, using the name in a frighteningly familiar manner. “He’s come for the timestones and Thoth’s mirror.”
Jake’s palms still rested on that mirror. The Egyptian god Thoth was the deity of wisdom and time.
“The timestones are potent weapons,” she said, stepping back, speaking fast, glancing often toward the exit, judging how much time she had left before the Skull King’s forces came storming inside. “I can’t let him have them.”
Jake understood. He’d experienced the power of those timestones. He turned to the ruby crystal. It was capable of stopping time. And he now understood the emerald’s ability. He stared at the arrow by its cup, pointing to the right, pointing forward. He pictured again the rapidly decaying bodies of those caught in its spell, like time-lapse photography speeding up. The power of the green stone accelerated time forward.
“Jake,” his mother said, drawing him back. “The timestones’ powers are the least of their potency.”