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At last Walt said, "It has to do with the blood of the pharaohs You guys--I mean the Kanes--you combine terful royal lines, Narht?"

"So I’ve been told Sadie the Great does have a nice ring to it"

Walt didn’t respond to that Perhaps he was ihtening concept

"My royal line…" He hesitated "How much do you know about Akhenaton?"

"Off the top of ypt"

Walt laughed, which was good If I could keep his ht be easier for him to open up

"Top of the class," he said "Akhenaton was the pharaoh who decided to do aith all the old gods and just worship Aten, the sun"

"Oh…right" The story vaguely rang a bell, which alaryptian geek as Carter "He’s the chap who moved the capital, eh?"

Walt nodded "He built an entirely new city at Amarna He was kind of a weird dude, but he was the first one who had the idea that the old gods were bad He tried to ban their worship, shut down their tee choice for the one god He thought it was the sun Not the sun god Ra--the actual sun disk, Aten Anyway, the old priests and icians, especially the priests of Auessed

"More or less," Walt said "So the priests of Amun-Ra’s temple weren’t too happy with Akhenaton After he died, they defaced his statues, tried to wipe out his name from all the ypt went back to the old ways"

I let that sink in Thousands of years before Iskandar had issued a rule exiling the gods, a pharaoh had had the sarandfather?" I asked

Walt wrapped the camel’s reins around his wrist "I’ot the saot probleods weren’t happy with Akhenaton, as you can i Tut?" I asked "You’re related to King Tut?"

"Unfortunately," Walt said "Tutankhamen was the first to suffer the curse He died at nineteen And he was one of the luckier ones"

"Hang on What curse?"

That’s when Katrina ca halt YouAs she reached the top of a massive sand dune, Katrina made a wet screechy soundca halt

I looked down the other side of the dune Below us, in the reen fields and palhly the size of central London Birds flew overhead Small lakes sparkled in the afternoon sun Ss dotted here and there After so long in the desert,at all the colors, like when you coht afternoon

I understood how ancient travelersan oasis like this after days in the wilderness It was the closest thing I’d ever seen to the Garden of Eden

The cah A trail of tiny footprints wound through the sand, all the way fro up the hill was a very disgruntled-looking cat

"It’s about time," said the cat

I slid off Katrina’s back and stared at the cat in as--but because I recognized the voice

"Bast?" I said "What are you doing inside that--what is that, exactly?"

The cat stood on its hind legs and spread its front paws like: Voilà! "An Egyptian mau, of course Beautiful leopard spots, bluish fur--"

"It looks like it’s been through a blender!"

I wasn’t just being harsh The cat was terribly beaten up Large chunks of its fur were ht once have been beautiful, but I wasfur was dirty and matted, and its eyes were swollen and scarred almost as badly as Vlad Menshikov’s

Bast--or the cat--or whatever was in charge--dropped back on all fours and sniffed indignantly "Sadie, dear, I believe we’ve talked about battle scars on cats This old toht, but I decided not to say that

Walt slid off Hindenburg’s back "Bast, hohere are you?"

"Still deep in the Duat" She sighed "It’ll be another day at least before I can find s down here are a bit…chaotic"

"Are you all right?" I asked

The cat nodded "I just have to be careful The abyss is teeuarded I’ll have to take a long detour to get back safely, and since the equinox starts toht I’d better send you a e"

"So…" Walt knit his eyebrows "That cat isn’t real?"