Jake Ransom and the Howling Sphinx (11 page)

Probably just as well
.

A spindly limbed man came running down the steps to meet the princess at the lower landing. He wore a white, ankle-length tunic and had bangles of gold on his wrists.

“The Glory of the Dawn has returned to us!” he squeaked in a fawning voice. He bowed deeply, then straightened. “I saw your majestic approach from the sentry roost and ran all the way down to greet you.”

She swept him aside with an arm and set about climbing the stairs. “See to the prisoners, Ammon.”

Prisoners
, Jake thought dourly.
At least we're no longer slaves
.

Ammon stared over at them. His eyes, framed by black eyeliner, grew wider with shock at the sight of the newcomers. Apparently he'd not counted the number of people returning. He waved for the group to follow him, then scurried after Nefertiti.

“I also come with a message from the skymaster!” he called after the princess. “He received a message from the royal palace at Ka-Tor. Your father has woken from his great slumber. He calls for his daughters.”

Shocked, Nefertiti tripped and sprawled across the steps. Ammon rushed forward to help her. She would have none of it and shoved him away. Jake caught a glimpse of her face. For a moment, all haughtiness had vanished. She looked like any girl—both scared and hopeful—then her expression hardened again.

“Father awakes! After two years! And you don't tell me this from the start! Why didn't you send a runner to me with the news?”

“Forgive me,” Ammon pleaded, bowing his head to the steps. “We just received word from the city. Only moments ago. Then I saw you coming and ran as fast as I could to bring you these glad tidings. Already the skymaster prepares his ships to sail back to Ka-Tor.”

Nefertiti turned away, her face starting to crumble again. She fled up the steps, her cloak billowing out like the wings of a hawk.

Ammon followed with a grumble under his breath now
that he was out of earshot of the princess.

With spears still at their backs, Jake's group was led up the steps. The stairs wound around and around the peak. The climb offered Jake a good view of the desert in all directions. It stretched endlessly, interrupted by more of the steeplelike pinnacles and ending at that hazy line at the horizon.

At last, the staircase disappeared into the mushroom cap of the peak. Tunnels had been burrowed through the raw rock. Slitlike windows let in sunlight, revealing chambers carved into the stone. A few men lounged about, wearing bits of leather and bronze armor. They carried javelins, swords, even a few bows made of horn and sinew. These men fell into step behind the group, clearing out of the place with the princess.

Jake stared around.
This place must be some sort of temporary outpost
…
or maybe even a hunting lodge
.

The party, growing larger as they went, continued higher and higher until at last they burst through the top of the peak. The sudden heat scorched any exposed skin. The brightness felt like a hammer blow between the eyes.

Jake stumbled a few steps, nearly blinded. He blinked away the glare and stared around at the flat summit of reddish black rock, as level as a landing pad.

And something
had
landed here.

Or at least almost.

Two large boats hovered a few feet off the rock, tethered in place with ropes. The crafts' hulls looked as if they were constructed of densely woven straw. Jake knew the earliest Egyptians built their boats out of papyrus. These appeared to be similarly constructed, painted in bright stripes of crimson and blue. Even the shape—from the long, shallow keel to the upturned prow and stern—reminded Jake of the riverboat he'd seen back at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

But rather than a towering square sail, a huge black balloon floated above each boat. The material looked rubbery. Fires glowed below the opening at the bottom, keeping the air hot inside the hovering balloon.

Jake and the others were marched across the stones toward a ramp that led into one of the boats. Nefertiti had already vanished inside.

Kady dragged her feet. She wasn't a fan of heights. “I'm
not flying in that thing. It looks like it's made of straw. I'll fall straight out the bottom.”

Marika and Pindor looked no happier.

Bach'uuk hardly seemed to care. He kept staring toward the horizon. His focus drew Jake's eyes out there. Again he noted that strange haziness blurring the horizon, making it hard to tell where the land ended and the sky began. Jake searched in all directions. It was the same everywhere.

Bach'uuk caught Jake's eye. “The Great Wind.”

Before Jake could ask what that meant, the point of a spear poked his back.

“Get aboard the windrider,” one of their guards ordered. “We head to Ka-Tor. There you will learn your fate.”

Another of their captors laughed and prodded Jake sharply. “He really means
to learn how you will die
.”

With a roar like a fiery dragon, flames shot into the open mouth of the balloon. The noise was nearly deafening. A barrel-chested man, as burly as a blacksmith, worked a set of bellows beneath the flaming copper funnel that was pointed up into the heart of the balloon. He would occasionally drop a reddish fruit into its furnace, causing the flames to belch higher. It was the same fruit that had been used to chase off the pack of raptors.

Must be some sort of combustible fuel source
, Jake guessed.

He and the others were corralled atop the deck near the prow of the boat. Their shackles had finally been taken off. Leaning on spears, a few guards watched them lazily. Jake understood why they were so unconcerned. There was nowhere the prisoners could escape unless they wanted to leap to their deaths.

Jake did not.

For the moment, he simply watched in fascination. The heated balloon rose up in the air. The lines attaching it to the boat grew taut. Then Jake felt the boat rise, floating away from the pinnacle of rock. He remembered the conversation between Nefertiti and Ammon. They must be heading back to her city, a place called Ka-Tor.

But not everyone was thrilled by the upcoming journey.

“I think I'm going to be sick,” Kady said as she stood by the rail.

Jake joined her. His friends spread to either side to watch the liftoff.

Marika stood next to Jake. “Amazing,” she said. Her hand reached to his and squeezed tightly—not in fear, but in excitement.

Pindor looked more like Kady: pale and ready to toss his cookies. Yet even in such terror, Jake's Roman friend never stopped searching the ship's deck. Jake knew who he was looking for. But Nefertiti remained below. They'd not seen the illustrious Glory of Dawn since being herded aboard the ship.

Slowly the windrider climbed into the sky, followed by the second ship.

As the pinnacle shrank below them, Bach'uuk leaned far over the rail and pointed below. “Look!”

Jake stared where his Ur friend pointed. A dozen men had stayed behind on the pinnacle. As Jake watched, one man leaped off the rock with a heavy pack strapped to
his back. Others followed, all plummeting toward their deaths—then wings snapped open from the packs, springing wide.

The saillike wings caught the air, and the men zipped out over the desert. Like hang gliders, the wings sailed and rode thermals rising from the overheated land. Still, Jake didn't think that the men would ever catch up with the pair of boats. The skyships had begun to rise faster and faster.

Jake was wrong.

Flames blasted out from the back of one of the hang gliders. The winged man shot skyward. The others followed in rough formation. They soon circled the pair of boats like sharks around a sinking ship.

But these ships weren't sinking.

The boats sped higher.

A hearty shout rose from the stern. “Ready, men! We're almost to the river! Ready the sails!”

Jake stared below and above. He saw no sign of a river under the ship. And where were the sails?

“Aye, Skymaster Horus!”

The shout came from all of the men gathered middeck. They scurried to obey, splitting into teams to take up positions near bronze cranks lined along the port and starboard sides of the ship

Jake frowned toward the skymaster. The tall Egyptian stood alone at the stern, dressed in a long tunic and cloak. Emblazoned on his cloak was the symbol for the Eye of
Horus, the Egyptian god of the sky. It was also the captain's name, quite fitting for a skymaster.

The captain's hands gripped what looked like the handle of a giant rudder. “Here we go!” he bellowed.

The boat suddenly lurched under him as it was hit by a hard gust. Jake's sister let out a high-pitched squeal (or maybe it was Pindor). Jake snatched the rail tightly. Marika bumped into him. Jake let go with one hand to catch her and hold her in place.

The stiff gust grew into a gale around them. Jake hunched with Marika against it. She smiled her thanks, which made his sunburned face grow even hotter. The wind blew steady and hard.

Must have reached some sort of jet stream
, he realized.

Horus shouted, “We're in it now, men! Hoist the sails!”

The men began cranking in unison, singing out to keep their rhythm.

Bach'uuk again pointed below, still leaning most of his body over the side. He plainly had no fear of heights.

Below, massive wings opened to either side of the ship. They looked to be made of the same rubbery substance as
the balloon, strutted and supported by ribs of bone.

Jake stared in awe. The ancient Egyptians had always been skilled boatmen, turning the Nile River into a lifeline for traffic and a source of food. Apparently these displaced Egyptians had found a new river to ride: a river of wind!

The wings unfurled to their widest. Cranks were locked into place. Skymaster Horus leaned hard on his rudder, and the skyship banked in that direction, gaining speed, racing over the desert.

The second ship trailed at a safe distance. The smaller skyriders flanked the crafts to either side, no longer needing their jets of flame. The stiff wind offered plenty of thrust to keep them aloft.

Jake found himself smiling as cool wind whipped his hair. He stared out at the passing desert floor, speckled with more rocky outcroppings. He spotted a herd of massive dinosaurs lumbering alongside a thin stream, as bright as silver against the golden sands and black rocks. He also spotted patches of dense trees centered on tiny oasis pools.

As he gazed beyond the rail, he wondered if his parents were out there somewhere, as lost as he was now. If so, the desert was far from hospitable.

Off in the distance, Jake spotted bursts of fire shooting up from the ground like flaming geysers. From this distance, it looked like a forest of flames.

He could only imagine how hot it was out there.

Closer at hand, a small village appeared below, barricaded and sitting atop a pancake-flat section of stone. The settlers must have found the place safer than building on the shifting sands, where all manner of nasty creatures could burrow under them.