The Valley of Kings and a Queen

Chapter 21

"Ready?" The stress that envelopes his face is quickly released as a mischievous smirk forms across his mouth.

We clear the dishes from our table trying to maintain at least some sense of manners and courtesy. We then grab our phones and bag packs off the chairs ready for the journey that awaits us. I can't contain my excitement or is it my nerves? They seem to easily get so jumbled together just like my feelings becoming lost in the sea of waves surging through my head.

We then head outside to the front of the Ramses Hotel waiting for the bus to arrive that will take us to the Valley of Kings. An open top tour bus arrives to pick us up alongside other tourists that have gathered across the street from the hotel about twenty minutes after eight. The more I travel, the more I realize that time is more fluid, and punctuality is not always a virtue, more often than not it is considered a vice.

We all pack into the top of the bus, Annie slides into a seat next to Aiden. Olivier and Henri sit behind them and Finley and Grey across the way leaving me to sit alone in front of Finley and Grey.

"Lone wolf," Grey whispers into my ear, his breath chilling the tips of my ears.

"Says the jackal himself," I respond gripping the back of my chair as I turn to face Grey giving him a cold and calculating glare. "Plus, the hardest walk to take is often the one that is alone, but with great hardship comes great strength, so thank you, I'll take that as a compliment." Grey rolls his eyes incredulously, and Finley just smirks at me lazily as I turn back around. I then pull my undone hair behind my head, and my nimble fingers swiftly weave it into two separate Dutch braids that hang down my left and right backsides. People quickly flood the bus up filling the seats with tourists from around the world – each hoping to fully uncover the depths of this ancient city that despite some dark secrets being covered up still radiates unmeasurable beauty. But isn't that what makes the light so alluring? The fact that it shields us from the darkness.

Another foreigner slides into the seat next to me – an older Asian man probably in his forties. He starts chatting with what I would assume to be his wife and daughter that are sitting in front of us. Finley and Grey are whispering behind me so softly that I am unable to decipher their conversation, so I sit back and just enjoy the view the bus offers looking out into the distance as the sun rises over the city shining forth hopefully enough light to cast out the darkness that awaits us.

The bus pulls out into the hustle and bustle of the city streets. The driver's voice booms over the intercom system, "Good morning ladies and gentlemen, today we will be headed down the Nile well technically up the Nile since it flows northward towards the Mediterranean, but we will be headed South to Luxor. Our final destination: the Valley of Kings." The excitement on the bus rises in anticipation of visiting one of the most popular tourist attractions in ancient Egypt. "Our travel time will be approximately two hours hoping to arrive just after ten thirty." I let out a huge breath of frustration – not an ideal time for us, since we hoped to arrive early to beat the crowds, but that will have to do. As the bus travels through the city scape, the driver recites facts on a variety of different Egyptian topics to appeal to the tourists imparting knowledge on the Nile River to various pharaoh's monarchs to the Muslim conquest of Egypt and their influence on the city's culture clearly evident in a lot of the cities architecture. Egypt a land of the Neolithic nomads to the home of great rulers to even greater wars and conquests. A land where time and time again civilization began and ended.

I lean back into my chair for most of the ride zoning out the driver's voice and just taking in the beauty of the city stretched out in front of me. About halfway through the trip, I almost begin to doze off. Henri and Olivier happened to be asleep on each other across the way which makes me chuckle. Annie's entranced by something Aiden's going on and on. They continue to laugh and mess with each other, and I feel as though I'm watching two six graders tease each other out of fear for admitting their true feelings. Then a figure out of the corner catches my eyes, a man in black trench coat appears standing at the top of the staircase.

"Psst," I turn around in my seat to catch Grey and Finley's attention. I startle them pulling them out of their deep conversation.

"What," Grey snarls at me, unleashing the feral jackal side of himself clearly irritated that I interrupted their important discussion.

"Do you see that figure on the top of the staircase," I ask softly.

"No," Grey says staring at the stairs, "there's nothing there." I look again and the figure is still standing there, but the man pulls a curvature blade from his coat. My eyes widen in disbelief.

"No, there's someone there. You have to believe me," I plea. Grey's brows fold inward clearly perplexed. Finley draws a symbol in the air in front of him and flows it towards the stairs. The hieroglyphics uncover the sinister figure revealing a middle-aged man armed with weapons and a staff now resting at his side. Finley charges towards the man jolting Olivier and Henri from their peaceful slumber. As Finley's knife collides with the man's blade, the voice over the intercom booms, "it appears that the early morning entertainment has arrived." The disembodied voice was vile and guttural, and I assume that it matched the man's true persona.

Two other magicians climb up the staircase of the bus – one I assume had to be the owner of our tour guide's nasty voice and the other I must be another so-called bus driver. The tourists that had been previously sitting next to us enjoying the early morning scenic view the bus had to offer were quickly transformed into large crocodiles. Not crocs that you would see lazily wadding in lakes and rivers on islands off the east coast, no these were monstrous creatures. The teeth that are jetting up from their upper lip look as sharp as razor blades longing to sink deep into our flesh. Their eyes glowing a luminous deadly black as tar. These creatures too are awaiting our downfall.

"Henri!," I scream, "Isn't Sobek the God of crocodiles."

"I'm working on it," he screams back at me from where he is standing.

Olivier casts a spell that one of the magicians wards off with flames that now set the bus ablaze.

Finley's still in combat with the first magician. His sword trying to strike the magician's left side, but the magician's blade clanks against his, leading it to go flying out of his grasp and over the side of the bus. The magician then blasts him with a powerful force sending Finley over the edge, his right arm barely hanging onto the bus's side as it continues speedily down the winding roads.

"Finley," I scream sending a surge of my powers towards him to no avail. He lets his arm go, and tumbles downward towards the pavement.

"Everyone get off the bus!" Olivier commands through the small wildfire that has not erupted and been unleashed into huge scorching flames. I struggle to see anything through the smoke and dust, and the fire has started to steal the oxygen my lungs are in such dire need of. I grab onto the side of the bus throwing myself downwards towards the ground sending some magic in front me hoping that it will cushion my fall. I was expecting to land flat on the pavement with my head cracked open and scrawled in blood but thank the gods or someone for Grey and Finley both happened to catch me between their arms as though I was performing a trust fall exercise. The bus has now been engulfed entirely in flames.

"Annie!" I scream. She has no magic, no way to escape the flames and leaping from the bus's doom so safely as the rest of us.

"Here," she cries on the other side of the flames and whirlwind of magic. Aiden has created a protective shield around her. Henri and Olivier are advancing on two magicians – the other one nowhere in sight. Was he killed from the flames or did he retreat in the midst of all the chaos that ensued? They were on the other side of the road in the battle, flames of fire between us. Henri had managed to use enchantments to ward off the vile crocodiles and conjure up his own set of crocodiles to avenge their deadly kin. There's no way for us to reach them through the flames, even with all our magic together, the ring of flames prevented us from making any advancements to aid our friends across the way.

"Finley," Aiden cries, "You and Grey – it's either you or Grey that the King must talk to it. I'm sure of it. Go, we got this." They nod in agreement and start bolting towards the street escaping the chaos that has ensued.

"Ray you need to go with them," Olivier urges me. I hesitate should I stay and help? What if they need me? Should I go follow Grey and Finley on their side quest? My hearts beating fast not wanting to make a panicked decision. "Go," Oliver screams louder with more certainty. I look back at him once more before I grab my staff from the ground and sprint in the direction following after the two boys.