Gods and Monsters 4: Into the Duat

## *Prelude*

*The demigods rescued their companion and banished evil from his heart, learning of the powers of a true love’s kiss, certain that now all would settle and they would finally have peace. But alas, as we have learned from previous experiences, even the powers of legend cannot solve everything, as evil never truly rests, it is patient, biding its time, plotting out each step. Even the victories that the demigods think they score are not truly victories, but steps in evil’s plan, bringing them ever closer to the end.*

*And so, here it is, the next step, a step that shakes creation to its core, breaching the walls between the living and the dead.*

## Chapter 1

Lio grabbed a pair of pants and shoved them into his bag,
closely followed by a few other pieces of clothing, then zipped it up when it
was sufficiently full.

“Lio, are
you packed yet?” Ammit called from somewhere outside his room, most likely the
kitchen.

“Yes Mom!”
he hollered back. He grabbed the bag off his bed and rushed to the kitchen, where
his mom was waiting with breakfast. He quickly bolted it down and rushed
outside, then stopped short as he realized there was no portal awaiting him.

“Mom,
where’s the portal?” he asked. Ammit followed him outside, looking at her son
with amusement.

“Honey, you
were in such a rush, I never got to open it! Where was it you said you were
going again?” she laughed.

“At
Nahele’s house. In Pahoa, Hawaii.” Lio groaned, eager to be off. Ammit chuckled
some more, then concentrated. The air before Lio twisted and began to spiral,
then the darkness itself was sucked in, until there was a swirling mass of
darkness before him. When it reached the right size, he leaped through and
landed on a well-cut lawn, decorated with various trees and flowering bushes.
In the midst of the lawn was a massive banyan tree with thick branches growing
almost perpendicular to its trunk. And perched within these huge branches was
the largest tree house Lio had ever seen. It looked like someone had taken an
actual house and dumped it in a tree, then the house became one with said tree.
The house was built from natural scraps of wood, left in their original twisted
shapes and with the mossy bark still attached in most places, it looked quite
hippie-ish. And below the tree house, leaning against the banyan’s trunk with
her arms crossed, was the one demigod Lio had been so eager to see. There stood
Nahele, her short black hair carelessly rumpled like a boy’s, dressed in a
simple white t-shirt and shorts, feet bare as usual and a smile in her face.

“Well, took
you long enough.” she said.

“What? I’m
right on time!” he protested, looking down at the clock on his phone.

“You know I
can never pass up any opportunity to bug you, right? Anyway, come on up, unless
you’re scared of heights?” she said, her tone teasing. He wasn’t, so he
followed her right up the creaky wooden stairs up to the tree house.

“You live
in a tree house?” he asked when he reached the top.

“Well,
duh.” she replied, gesturing around her at the obvious.

“I mean,
why?”

“Because
trees are sacred to my mom and this is a tree?” she replied, her tone still
sarcastically obvious.

“You know
what, never mind, living in a tree house in a great idea.” he said, giving up.

“You got
that right. Now let’s stop arguing about it and get inside.” she said, pushing
him towards the open door. Inside the house looked about as hippie as the
outside, with colorful hand-blown glass trinkets hanging in the windows,
symbols of luck and prosperity everywhere, furniture made of interesting bits of
branches, curtains and blankets made with natural fibers and dyes, and a
springy, plush green carpet of…was that moss? His feet sunk into said carpet,
proving that it was indeed made of the tree-covering plant. Nahele sank down
into one of the weird tree chairs and beckoned for Lio to join her. He did,
cautiously taking a seat in the one across from her.

“What’s
with the hippie décor?”

“Me and Mom
are very environmentally friendly. The furniture is made from invasive trees
and left untreated with any chemicals, so if it gets too old, we can just
compost it. What we take from the earth, we can give back to it. A lot more
sustainable than normal life, which has the earth and life in a downward spiral
of doom.”

“But, you
have a car. Doesn’t that take gas? Lani’s does.”

“Nope. I
told you it was enchanted. Hers does, but mine doesn’t. Runs on magic. Aunt Uli
made it that way. She was going to do the same to Lani’s, but Lani was very
old-fashioned in that sense. She’s having it upgraded though. Anyway, what are
we doing talking about this? Do you have all your camping stuff?”

“Yup!”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Sleeping
bag?”

“Aww…dang!”

“I thought
so. No worries, we have extra, Mom loves camping.” Nahele said, standing up and
heading over to a tall dresser, pulling down two rolled up sleeping bags from
the top and tossing one to Lio, who managed to catch it before it smacked him
in the face.

“Now, let’s
see? What else do you have, or in other words, what else did you forget that I
have to provide?” she said as she searched the room for stuff, throwing them
into her own bag as she listed them.

“Aw, come
on, it was one thing!”

“Change of
clothes?”

“Yup.”

“Toothbrush?”

“Check.”

“Hairbrush?”

“Don’t need
one.”

“Deodorant?”

“Got it.”

“Mosquito
repellent?”

“No.”

“Good, you
won’t need it. Sasquatch repellent?”

“Say what
now?”

“I’m
kidding. Well, I’d say you’re good to go.” Nahele said, no longer searching the
room for stuff and zipping up her dufflebag.

“Where are
we even going to camp?”

“At the
beach.”

“Nice!” he
said, envisioning soft sand, clear water and a glorious sunset, Nahele by his
side. Romantic.

“Ah, you
wouldn’t be saying that if you knew which beach it was.” Nahele said, giving
him an evil grin.

“What,
why?” he replied, eyes widening.

“We are
going to MacKenzie, which is probably the most haunted beach on the entire
island.”

“But, don’t
we have ghosts at school?”

“Oh trust
me, the MacKenzie ghosts make Principal Revenant look adorable.”

“Oh,
great.” Lio whimpered.

“We should
be fine though, you’re a being of the afterlife, I’m a local demigod, we got
this.” Nahele reassured him. Lio didn’t relax much, and eyed her warily as she
picked up a bag containing their tent and slung it over her shoulder.

“Well, come
on, we want to get there before all the good spots are gone!”

“But, if
it’s a haunted beach, won’t there be few people there?”

“Yeah, but
you want to avoid the lava tube holes, the grave markers, the ghost trail, the
possessed trees, and be far enough from the really unstable cliff with
treacherous waves, all while hoping we don’t become the next victims of pretty
much any and every kind of crime, just about all of which happened there. Fun!”
Nahele said cheerfully, grabbing her gear and heading back down the stairs. Lio
followed, still feeling uneasy about the whole thing. But hey, if it meant
spending 24 hours of quality time with her, then totally worth it. Maybe.

They got
into Nahele’s car, which had taken on the appearance of any normal Honda
Accord, shoved their gear into the back, and hopped into the driver and front
passenger seats. Nahele started up the car and they headed down the driveway,
Lio rolling down his window and admiring the scenery, the radio pounding out
normie songs.

“Say,
Nahele? This place is so pretty, how do you keep the mortals away?” he asked.

“Well, it
is quite isolated, but it is also protected by magic, nobody will notice it
even exists. It’s a bit like that one house from Harry Potter. There’s a whole
property missing, but people just see the two on either side. Know what I
mean?” she replied.

“Yeah, I
get it. That’s awesome! I need to get a place like that when I’m on my own.”

“Maybe we
can share.” she said slyly, giving him a sidelong glance. He laughed and winked
back, and the two lapsed into silence, Lio enjoying the feel of wind against
his face.

After about twenty minutes of driving, they wound up on a
road tunneling through a few miles of jungle, the trees growing lower to the
asphalt, the branches thickening until half the sunlight was blocked. The area
had an odd feel, part creepy and part beautiful, and Lio could definitely see
why it would be a great place to haunt, dark and isolated.

“Not to
sound like a little kid, but are we there yet?” he spoke up.

“Dude,
impatient much? We’re right on top of it.” she replied, shooting him a look of
exasperation. He looked outside, confused, and sure enough, there sat a wooden
sign, clearly stating that they were now at MacKenzie Park. Nahele steered the
car up the drive and parked in the completely empty lot, and the two got out.
Lio stared at his surroundings, surprised. With all the talk that Nahele had
given him earlier, he was expecting a macabre scene, with scattered bodies,
blood, restless spirits, man-eating trees, and the entire thing crumbling into
the ocean. But what greeted him was an actually quite peaceful stretch of
cliff-side land, with ironwood trees everywhere, their fallen needles creating
a soft, sand-colored carpet. A gentle breeze blew through, ruffling their hair
lightly. And there were certainly no crashing tidal waves turning the cliff
into a shaking mess.

“I thought
you said this place was haunted?” Lio said, disappointed.

“Oh it
is…at night. The normies have actually proved that ghosts here hate light,
they’re afraid of even flashlights, so they only come out at night. We’re safe,
for now.” Nahele said mysteriously. She popped open the trunk and grabbed their
stuff, walking around the grounds for a good camping spot, saying her thoughts
aloud as she went.

“No, too
close to that tree,”

“Oops,
there’s a lava tube there,”

“Mm, no,
too many roots here,”

“Ugh,
there’s another boulder that I’ll probably end up sleeping on,”

“Ah
perfect! Not too close to a tree, flat enough, and not lumpy thingies.” She
exclaimed when she finally found the right spot, dumping their stuff on the
ground.

“Uh,
Nahele? It says no camping right there.” Lio said, pointing to a sign nailed to
a nearby tree.

“Pff, you
honestly think I’m going to listen to that thing? I’m a demigod, those rules
apply to humans, not me. Besides, even the normies don’t listen to it. Now are
you going to stand there lecturing me, or are you going to help me with this
tent, because if you don’t, you can sleep outside with all the lovely bugs.”
She scoffed. At the suggestion of that delightful prospect, Lio hurried over
and helped her wrestle the fabric and poles into place. After a few minutes of
frustration and many swearwords, they managed to get the tent up, shoving their
gear inside, then stepping back to admire their handiwork. Then they wandered
along the cliff to explore, coming to a stop at a fallen branch, where they
talked for a while, bugged each other, and finally ate.

“Nahele?”
Lio asked.

“Yeah?”

“Won’t some
human find our tent and rat us out for it?”

“No. I
warded it against humans, they’ll think we’re invisible. Doesn’t work on
druggies though, but then again, who trusts their word?”

“Good
point.” He agreed, then they lapsed into a comfortable silence as they finished
off their food. By the time they finished- which was a while, since Lio scarfed
down quite a lot, making Nahele secretly glad she brought a veritable buffet
along- the sun was beginning to set, and they watched it sink down below the
waves, hand in hand, enjoying the serenity of the moment. He kissed her on the
cheek and leaned his head against her shoulder.

“Well, I
suppose we ought to get ready for bed.” Nahele sighed as the last traces of
orange faded from the sky, then summoned a glowing flower to light their way.
They got to their feet and headed back to their tent, grabbing their pajamas.
Then a thought hit Lio, and he furrowed his brow as he searched the grounds in
the fading light.

“Say, where
do we take a shower?” he asked.

“They don’t
have that here, they don’t even have a bathroom. I can make it rain for you,
but it’ll be quite cold, and it’ll probably make the sea act up. You could
teleport home and take a shower there too.” She suggested innocently. Lio made
a face as he considered his options. He wasn't too thrilled at the prospect of
being rained on, but the memory of fainting the last time he opened a portal
didn’t seem too great either.

“I’ll skip
it.” he decided.

“Smart boy.”

“Okay, what
about brushing teeth? How do we do that?”

“Here you
go, have fun.” she replied, handing him a water bottle. Lio grimaced and
grabbed his toothbrush and paste, then went well away from the tent to clean
his teeth. Then they changed into their pajamas, and slid into their sleeping
bags, watching the soft light of the moon filter through the fabric of their
tent.

Lio stared up at the roof of the
tent, contemplating his day, then turned to face his tent buddy.

“Nahele?”

“Hm?”

“This is
nice. I’m glad we get to spend some time together.”

“Me too.”

Lio smiled and scooted closer to her until he could lean his
head on her shoulder. She leaned her head against his, and the two slowly
drifted off to sleep, comforted by each other’s presence.

## Chapter 2

A piercing shriek shattered the cold midnight air. Lio
jerked awake, then lay still, eye wide and frantically looking around him.

“Nahele?”
he whispered as loudly as he dared, which wasn't very.

“Yeah?” she
whispered back, just as softly.

“What was
that?”

“No idea.
Could have been the ghost of a murder victim…or a real time victim.”

“I don’t
recall seeing any other campers.”

“Ghost
then.”

“Didn’t you
say this tent was warded?”

“Against
humans. I can’t do much against things that are formerly human!”

They lay still, barely daring to breathe, waiting for
something else to happen. Then Lio began to thrash and wheeze, clutching at his
neck. He felt two clammy hands gripping his throat, slowly choking the life out
of him. Nahele sat up in shock and frantically shook his shoulder. The
sensation passed and Lio sucked in a huge gulp of air, rubbing his neck, trying
to dispel the eerie feeling of a ghostly attacker.

“Dude what
happened?”

"S-someone
choking me!”

“Oh dear,
that’s another ghost!”

They shuddered and moved closer together, getting as close
as they could and holding each other as tight as possible. Then something
invisible snatched at their sleeping bags, determined to rip them off, but
whatever it was couldn’t do much against the zippers.

More screams came, accompanied by wailing and sobbing, and the
sound of many heavy footsteps marching by outside. It was as if every ghost
that haunted the park had decided to act up at once. The two living beings
inside the tent closed their eyes tight, burying their faces in each other’s
shoulders, trying to ignore the chaos outside. Then their tent shook violently,
as if someone was trying to tip them over or get inside. The demigods did their
best to ignore it, trying to believe it was the wind, even though they knew the
air was still.

Then everything stopped. The tent settled back down and the unholy
wailing stopped. Everything was still, as if something had spooked the spooks.
Then a shadow fell over the tent, the silhouette of a figure walking closely
by.

“What is
that?” Nahele whimpered.

“Night
Marchers?” Lio suggested.

“No, those
already passed, that was the footsteps we heard. This is something else.”

“Well, I’m
going out to see.”

“Lio, no!”

“I have to,
we can’t keep doing this all night! Besides, I am a death demon, they might
respect me.” he whispered back. He summoned up as much courage as he could and
unzipped the tent before he could chicken out again. He cautiously popped his
head out and Nahele flinched, certain that he would be either dragged out or
beheaded. Neither of this happened, thankfully.

“What
the…?” Lio said, his voice more confused than fearful, and Nahele’s curiosity
won out over her fear. She crawled up next to him and peered outside as well.

“What on
earth? What is she doing here? Lio? Can you explain this?”

“No! Just
because she’s Egyptian-supposedly-doesn’t mean I know everything about her.
There’s too many dead to keep track of.” Lio scoffed back.

The source of their bafflement was floating about before
them, looking as confused as they were. She had black hair pulled back in a bun
and topped with a gold circlet. Her white linen dress swayed and fluttered in a
nonexistent breeze, pulling back a stretch of the fabric to reveal two small, discolored
puncture wounds on her arm, just under her heavy gold armband. She soon spotted
them, and recognizing Lio as one of her own people, she began to drift towards
him, brown eyes locked onto him and pale hand raised questioningly. When she
was close enough for them to hear her soft ghost voice, she rambled off
something Nahele couldn’t understand, but Lio, being Egyptian himself, could
understand ancient Egyptian perfectly, and replied in kind, then shook his head
sadly. Cleopatra sagged with disappointment and drifted off, fading into the
trees.

“What was
that all about?” Nahele asked when the dead queen had left.

“She wanted
to know where she was and if I could help her get home. I said I couldn’t, but
while she is here, she agreed to guard us from the others. Sad really, being
lost like that.” Lio replied with a tragic sigh. They settled back into their
sleeping bags, huddled close together, their eyes wide and staring up at the
roof of their tent, waiting for another ghost to give them trouble. But none
came. Everything was silent, except for the noise of crickets and the
ever-present chirps of coqui frogs. They slowly drifted off to sleep, spirits
of those who passed on passing silently by, leaving the two alone under the
threatening glare of the dead queen. A few glowing ghost orbs drifted by
peacefully, like massive fireflies, lighting the area around them. Even a few
straggler stomping Night Marchers tiptoed around them, wary of provoking
Cleopatra’s wrath. One ghost started to step out of a tree, but quickly backed
up when she met eyes with the Egyptian royal. No, nothing would be bothering
them tonight.

## Chapter 3

The two woke up the next morning, Lio with his arms looped
around Nahele’s stomach, and Nahele looking like she fell out of an airplane.
They stretched and pulled apart, rubbing their eyes and running their fingers
through their messed up hair.

“Ugh, last
night was so weird! I don’t think I have ever seen so much ghost activity
outside the Duat!” Lio groaned.

“No
kidding. And Cleopatra showing up? Wild!” Nahele replied.

“Yeah, that
was weird, wasn’t it?” Lio absentmindedly ran his fingers through his hair once
more, his face scrunched into a bemused look. He crawled to the entrance of the
tent, unzipped it, and stepped outside, searching for the dead queen. But like
most ghosts, she was long gone, back to whatever realm of the dead she had come
from. Maybe she had found her way back to the Duat on her own. He shrugged and
reentered the tent.

“Is she out
there?” Nahele asked.

“No, maybe
she went back to the Duat.”

“That would
be nice. The poor dear looked so lost.”

“Yeah. So,
what are we going to do the rest of the day?”

“Mm, how
about we pack up and head home, to the demigod house. We can shower, then head
out to do something again.”

“Sounds
good.” He agreed, and the two went about changing their clothes, eating a hasty
light breakfast (which Lio didn’t find all that fulfilling), and collapsing the
tent, which turned out to be a lot easier than putting it up. They got into the
car and headed back home, the morning light filtering through the trees,
scattering patches of light on the road below. It all looked so much more
beautiful, and not at all haunted. But they knew better than that.

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

The two
teleported, Nahele leading and Lio feeling queasy, and arrived at the demigods’
house, the one that Lio and all the Hawaiian demigods stayed in during school
days. There were several other cars parked in the massive garage, showing that
all the other demigods were there as well. Nahele pulled up in the last
available space and parked, Lio hopping out and grabbing their gear. They
entered the house and raced up the stairs, playfully shoving past one another
as they tried to be first to the bathroom. Lio won, and after dumping his stuff
in his room and grabbing a towel and fresh clothes, headed in for a very
refreshing shower. When he came back out again, changed and toweling his braids
dry, he headed back downstairs to the living room, where everyone seemed to be
waiting for him, Nahele included, changed and washed herself.

“How did
you get clean?” he asked her, surprised.

“Lio, you
didn’t honestly think that in a sixteen bedroom house, there was only one
bathroom?” she replied teasingly, eyebrow raised as the other ghouls snickered.
He rolled his eyes and sat down on the couch next to them.

“Did you
tell them about that ghost we saw?” he said.

“What
ghost?” Lani asked, leaning past Nahele to look at him.

“We were at
MacKenzie’s, and we saw the ghost of Cleopatra the eighth.” Nahele replied.

“Well of
course you saw a ghost, it’s Mackenzie, there’s tons of ghosts there…wait did
you say Cleopatra? What the heck was she doing there?”

“Yeah. We
have no idea ourselves.”

“That’s
weird.”

“No
kidding.”

“Wow, she
must be lost.”

“You don’t
say?” Nahele replied. Lani leaned back to contemplate this, shaking her head in
disbelief. Kai joined her, staring at the ceiling. Haukea seemed only mildly
intrigued, and went right back to watching T.V.

Then there
was a knock at the door. Everyone looked around, confused.

“You guys
expecting company?” Nahele asked. Everyone shook their heads or shrugged. She
went to the door and opened it, revealing four Hawaiian guys standing behind
it, the foremost being tall, muscular and tattooed. His eyes seemed to bore
right through her, dark and intimidating. The instant her eyes fell upon him,
Nahele let out a loud scream and the other demigod girls leaped to their feet.

## Chapter 4

Nahele shrieked and the guy beamed brightly, throwing his
arms out wide.

“Nahele!
Long time no see! C’mere, you!” he said delightedly, wrapping his arms around
her and pulling her into a tight hug, swaying back and forth.

One of the
other guys, a tall, dark-haired teen with grey skin and shark fins protruding
from his arms and legs stepped forth, and Kai threw her arms around his neck,
kissing him fiercely.

A third
manster came forth, holding his arms hopefully out to Haukea for a hug, a
nervous smile on his face, tiny snowflakes dropping from his white hair and
brown skin. But she tossed her head and turned away haughtily, and his face
fell. Lani smiled awkwardly and went to hug him instead, small clouds of steam
rising where their skin came in contact. Then she turned to the last guy, a
slender manster in black hoodie, reptilian face partly in the shadows. They very
awkwardly hugged, patting each other gingerly on the back before pulling away.
After they had all gotten done greeting each other, the first guy stepped back
from Nahele and gave her a light slap to the arm.

“Girl,
where you been? I had to hunt you down to see you again! Why haven’t you come
to see your bros? We missed you, you know!” he scolded. She rubbed her arm,
embarrassed.

“I missed
you guys too, but it felt weird, I felt like I wouldn’t belong.”

“Are you
kidding me? You’re always welcome here! You’re one of us! Our halau has been so
lost without our leader!”

“It was an
all male halau though…and I’m no longer a guy…”

“Really?
That’s your excuse? You know that doesn’t really matter. You’re still our
leader. I can’t do it, feels wrong. Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time. I
saw a male halau, guys in their teen years and older, being led by a twelve
year old girl! You really think gender matters much? It’s skill, homie, and
there ain’t nobody more skilled than you!” he scoffed. “And who’s that over
there?” he said, gesturing to Lio, who was watching the whole thing, baffled.

“Oh, that’s
Lio, he’s my boyfriend.” Nahele replied, still a bit embarrassed, her face
pink.

“Oh, you
have a boyfriend now? Finally! I’ve been telling you to get over your shyness!”
the guy exclaimed. Nahele blushed even harder and punched him in the arm.

“Where are
my manners? Of course you wouldn’t know us! I’m Ikaika, that’s Keanu, Mokoa
over there, and the one that is still making out with Kai is Mano. Guys, enough
already!” he said, pointing to the white haired guy, then the lizard man, and
the shark dude respectively, earning him a glare from both Mano and Kai, who
separated long enough to do so, then went back to what they were doing. Ikaika
rolled his eyes, and went over to pull them apart.

“Anyway,
we’re all demigods, I’m the son of Ku and Hina, Keanu is Poliahu’s boy, Mano’s
dad is the shark god, Lord I-can’t-remember-his-name”

“Kamohoali’i.”
Mano interrupted.

“Yeah, that
dude. And Makoa is the son of…well…”

“Whiro.”
Makoa whispered, his soft rustling voice barely audible.

“Yes.
Anyway, nice to meet you. I’ve heard absolutely nothing about you, probably
because A CERTAIN SOMEBODY HASN’T VISITED ME IN FOREVER!” Ikaika continued,
yelling the last bit past Lio at Nahele.

“Hey, I was
busy!” she replied defensively.

“Mm-hm,
sure you were.” he said sarcastically. “So, what’s for lunch?”

“Lunch? We
just had breakfast!” Lio said, puzzled.

“Time zone
difference. At least three hours between Hawaii and the mainland US.” Ikaika
explained.

“Oh yeah,
that makes sense. Let’s eat!” Lio replied. Haukea rolled her eyes.

“Leave it
to the bottomless pits to think about more food.” she said.

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

After packing away a massive amount of lunch (mostly by Lio,
who went back for fourths), the demigods remained seated around the table,
chatting and catching up.

“Say,
Nahele? Didn’t you say we would be going someplace else today?” Lio asked.
Nahele squirmed uncomfortably.

“Uh, I
don’t know. We might have a change of plans.” She replied awkwardly.

“Does this
have anything to do with those guys showing up?”

“Ah, well,
yes.” She said, uncomfortable. Ikaika, having overheard, butted in.

“Don’t let
us hold you up. Go hang out, do something.” he said.

“But what
about you guys? You complained that I don’t hang out as much with you.” she
replied.

“Yeah, but
that’s no excuse for ditching on your boyfriend.”

“Nevertheless,
you’ll still fuss about me not spending time with you.” she countered, and
Ikaika rolled his eyes.

“Dear gods,
you argue just as much as you used to. Fine, compromise. We’ll all go out. We
can take a trip to an isolated beach. We’ll all be together, and there’ll be
enough space to have privacy. Deal?”

“Alright.”
Nahele agreed.

In about ten minutes, everyone was ready to go, and even the
four new demigods boys had managed to rustle up beach things, probably from
Mano, who always insisted on being prepared for water action.

“Okay, now
how are we going to get there, flying car, walk, drive across the ocean, sail?”
Lani asked.

“I was
thinking teleport. It’ll save time.” Ikaika replied. Lio’s stomach churned at
the thought. He had never been very good at summoning portals. Nahele noticed
his discomfort.

“We’ll all
be contributing to create the portal, so don’t be worried about being sick.
It’ll be fine.” she said reassuringly. Lio nodded, but his stomachache didn’t
lessen much. All nine demigods formed a circle and joined hands, Haukea
reluctantly clasping hands with her brother and Mokoa, and they all focused on
making the portal. Nothing happened, then Lani pointed out what they were doing
wrong.

“Uh, guys?
Aren’t we supposed to concentrate on where we’re going? Because we have no
idea.”

“Don’t
worry about the location, I’ll focus our energy. Just concentrate on opening
the portal.” Ikaika replied. They closed their eyes once more and did as he
suggested, and soon felt the familiar tugging sensation.

## Chapter 5

The world swirled around them, a blur of sensation, then the
spiraling stopped. They all opened their eyes to see a small stretch of
beautiful beach, empty of all human and monster life. They released hands, and
Mano and Kai raced to the water, leaping in and disappearing under the waves.
The others drifted off and soon Lio found himself alone…with Ikaika.

“So…hi.”
Lio said awkwardly.

“Yeah, hi.”
Ikaika replied. They stood there awkwardly for a moment more, the sea breeze
ruffling their hair.

“Say,
didn’t you say that you and Nahele were spending the day together?” Ikaika said
finally.

“Yeah, we
went camping last night.” Lio replied.

“Really?
Where?”

“MacKenzie
park.”

“Really?
Wild! See any ghosts?”

“Yeah,
tons. We even saw Cleopatra.”

“Wait,
Cleopatra? You mean like the Egyptian queen that went nuts and committed
suicide by snake?”

“Yup.
That’s the old queen of my people.”

“And you
saw her in Hawaii?”

“Yeah.”

“That
actually reminds me. Last night I saw a weird ghost too.”

“No
kidding?”

“Yeah, I
was walking around Liliuokalani Gardens, and I saw this ghost, some sort of
warrior, I think he was…Greek, Roman? I don’t know, but anyway, he was dressed
in bronze armor, and a leather skirt thingy and he had a bronze helmet with a
red plume on top, and he was doing the weirdest thing. He was chasing this gold
ghost around, kept kicking him and yelling something about Sparta.”

“No way,
that must have been King Leonidas and King Xerxes.”

“You mean
like the *300*? But that isn’t what
happened.”

“Yeah, nor
is it historically accurate. But when they found out about that movie, they
started doing reenactments, for a really long time. I doubt they’ll stop
anytime soon either.”

“Wow.
Still, it must suck getting your butt kicked by a guy in a leather skirt for
the rest of eternity.” Ikaika remarked, and they both cracked up. Maybe this
new demigod wasn’t so bad, Lio thought. He seemed friendly enough. They walked
off together to join the others, who were splashing each other and shrieking in
the shallows. Well, all except for Makoa. Lio couldn’t see the freaky lizard
dude anywhere. But he did notice an unfamiliar human mingling among them, a
tall skinny albino dude with not a single hair anywhere on him.

“Who’s
that?” Lio said, pointing at him.

“Oh, that’s
Makoa.” Ikaika replied.

“What?”

“Yeah,
that’s his human form. He’s a bit self conscious about his lizard body.”

“But won’t
he be sensitive to sunlight?”

“Yeah, he
sure is. He turns right into a tomato unless he wears like SPF a million.”

“Then why?”

“No idea.
He just does.” Ikaika said, shrugging. The two lapsed into a slightly awkward
silence, Lio absentmindedly digging into the sand. Then a wet clod of sand hit
him right in the chest, splattering him in grit.

“Hey!” he
exclaimed as Ikaika laughed uproariously, dusting wet sand from his hands.

“GOTCHA!” he yelled, wheezing with
laughter. Lio glared at him, causing the demigod to laugh even harder,
clutching his sides. He reached down and scooped up some sand, patting it into
a ball, and Ikaika’s laughter was abruptly cut off by a handful of dirt. He
coughed and spluttered, spitting out bits of sand and frantically wiping off
his tongue.

“GOTCHA
BACK!” Lio cried, laughing at him in return. Ikaika shot him a mischievous look
and scooped up even more sand, lobbing it back. Lio danced aside and took off
running, laughing as Ikaika gave pursuit. Yeah, it looked as though he had
definitely made a new friend. They ran past Lani, and Nahele, who were burying
Haukea in the sand as Keanu held the angry ice demigoddess to the ground.

“What’s up
with you guys?” Nahele called as the two passed by, sand kicked up in their
wake.

“I’m going
to end him!” Ikaika shouted.

“You
started it!” Lio called back.

“Yeah, but
I didn’t get you in the mouth!” Ikaika replied. Lio cackled and ran on.

“Ah yes,
nothing like friendship.” Nahele said, patting sand into a mermaid tail around
Haukea’s legs as it rapidly froze on contact, cocooning the ghoul into an icy
shell.

## Chapter 6

The next day, the demigods met up with their other friends,
and Kimmy let out a squeal as she spotted a familiar figure coming towards
them.

“KARA!” she
cried, arms flung wide as she raced down the hall towards her. They collided in
a hug, students rushing to get out of their way as they enthusiastically held
each other, swaying and spinning with Kimmy’s excitement.

“You’re
back! Oh, you will not believe the wild time we had when you were gone! It was
insane!” Kimmy gushed when she finally let go, waving her arms exaggeratedly.
She filled her in on all their misadventures, with Lio being mind-controlled by
Tamas and forced to steal stuff, then their rescue of Charnelle to find Lio,
breaking him out of the enchanted club, and finally rescuing the two vampire
girls. Kara’s eyebrow rose further and further up as Kimmy’s story went on,
until it was almost to her hairline.

“Good gods,
that’s the last time I go on vacation! If that’s the trouble you guys get into
when I’m gone, I better stay put to make sure you all keep it together!” she
exclaimed. Kimmy laughed and hugged her bestie once more.

“Yeah, you
probably could have really kicked butt and saved us all some time!”

The rest of the group surrounded them, welcoming back their
absent crew member. After hugs and greetings went all around, the group started
off to class, taking their time as they talked. Lio sidled up to Kara and poked
her shoulder.

“Hey.”

“Ah yes,
our little kleptomaniac. Still got your mind?” she teased, poking him in the
forehead.

“Hey, you
try being in my shoes through that! Anyway, how was the Asia tour? Anything
exciting happen?”

“Oh, you
know, just a few riots. And a demon attack. No big deal.”

“No big
deal! Are you kidding me? Tell me all about it!” he replied.]

“Yeah,
there were a few attempts to destroy Andromeda, and that caused quite a panic,
the audience totally freaked, smashed tons of stuff. Then the demons, you know,
all the really nasty ones, tried to rise from the Netherworld, but I soon took
care of that, added a few heads to my skull collection. Some of the ones there
haven’t been seen since thousands of years ago, when my parents and siblings
took them down. It was so weird, seeing them all returned from the dead. Just
imagine it, all the demons you heard of in the bedtime stories your mom would
tell you about, all the ones that they slayed all those years ago, saving the
worlds again and again.”

“Wait, back
from the dead? You were battling undead demons?”

“Yeah, I
guess so. Was super weird, you’ll be surprised how stupid some of them were.
Like one could turn into a rubber ball. A *ball*.
How exactly does that inspire fear?”

“Have you
seen our dodgeskull games?”

“Good
point.” She replied. But before he could question her further, the bell rang
and they all drifted off to class. He sat down in his usual spot, still
thinking about the undead demons. To his surprise, the seat next to him was
soon occupied by Makoa, the demigod now in his reptilian form.

“Oh, hey.”
Lio said, slightly awkward. Makoa nodded in response. Then they lapsed into an
awkward silence, Lio unsure of what to say to a guy he barely knew.  He instead watched the reactions of students
towards Makoa's presence. They looked super uncomfortable, disturbed by his
silent manner and serpentine features. But Lio was used to such things, having
a rather scaly face himself, so he wasn’t as bothered, even if they whole
silent thing did bug him. Yet, there seemed to be something else about the guy
that bothered everyone, but Lio couldn’t quite seem to put his finger on it.
Then he realized, it was the aura he gave off. It was familiar, but where had
he felt it before? The Duat! It was the feeling of death that surrounded
everything, but mostly gods like Anubis and Osiris, who dealt directly in the
dead. Even his own mother, Ammit, had it. And he himself had it, to some
degree. So, Makoa must be a death demigod, that was the only explanation. Maybe
he knew something about the queer reappearance of those who had been long dead.

“So, um,
are you like the son of a death god or something?” Lio started awkwardly. Makoa
nodded.

“Did you
hear about all the ghosts popping up in strange places, like Cleopatra in
Hawaii?”

Makoa
nodded again.

“Any idea
why?”

Makoa
pulled out a piece of paper and pencil, scribbling something on it and passing
it to Lio.

*Not really, but I do have some theories.*

“Really? Like what?”

*Either a necromancer has gone a little trigger-happy, or the barrier between life and death isn’t what it once was. Or some evil could be rising and the end is nigh. Doubt it though.*

“How so? About the barrier, I
mean.”

*Well, some recently dead can escape, that’s why we have ghosts in the first place, but those who were long dead need a breach somewhere to get out. Cleopatra should have been quite deep into your afterlife, right?*

“Yeah, you’re right. My mom told
me all about Cleopatra’s judgment, it was quite a scandal back then, her not
being a true Egyptian and all. That’s actually when we started letting foreign
ghosts into our afterlife. But she had been let into the royal afterlife, even
though some saw her as too pathetic to deserve it.”

*Exactly. So unless people were constantly bothering her eternal rest, like poor Queen Mary of Scots, constantly being summoned by tweens to bathroom mirrors, she would have really wandered in deep.*

“Ha ha, yeah, good point. So,
there must be a breach of some sort in there, right? But who could be powerful
enough to do that? I mean, reverse death? Holy cow!”

*Yeah. Unfortunately, I have no idea who could have done it myself, but I’m sure we will know soon enough.*

“Yeah, I suppose so.” Lio said
and sighed, staring blankly at the wall in front of him as he contemplated what
was happening.

## Chapter 7

The demigods met up at lunch, all fourteen of them crushed
together in a tight huddle around a few tables that they had managed to shove
together without anyone noticing. Lio quickly caught up the others on what was
happening with the ghosts returning, and gasps and expressions of shock and
surprise rose from the others.

“Now, that
we got everyone up to date, any ideas?” he said. Charnelle poked at her food.

“No, but I
do think I know who is behind this.” She said.

“Really,
who?” everyone asked. She looked up in surprise.

“Seriously guys?
As if you couldn’t guess? My idiot half-brother, Tamas!”

“Oh yeah,
duh. But how could he possibly open the afterlife? It’s not his domain, and
even he isn’t strong enough to do anything like that.” Lio said.

“He isn’t,
but all the stuff you stole for him is.” She replied darkly.

“Oh crap! I
forgot about that!” he said, slapping his forehead with his palm.

“Yeah,
well, you’re probably the only one. We should try to find out what sort of
stuff you took, might give us a clue as to what is happening.” She said.

“Good idea,
but even still, I think Tamas might not be strong enough to do something this
big. We should keep looking for other culprits.” Lio replied.

“Remember
Principal Revenant and the whole Haunted High mess?”

Everyone shuddered and nodded.

“Well, what
if she was acting up again? We can’t rule something like that out.”

“I suppose.
Okay, here’s what we can do. We can split into two groups, one that researches
what Lio stole, and another to investigate Revenant. Deal?”

“Good idea,
but who does what? I want to help with the Revenant thing, but you guys will
need me for the artifacts.”

“Well,
maybe the first group can get a head start, you can tell us what you remember,
and we can text you if we need more.”

“Okay, I
can do that.”

“And as for
who does what, Makoa and as many undead and death demigods as we can find-well,
ones we trust- should investigate Revenant, and the others can research relics.
I think we should let Sangeeta in on this, she’s very knowledgeable in
everything, and she has four arms, it’ll make it go twice as fast.” Charnelle
said.

“Hey, what
about me? My mom is the goddess of destruction, so weapons are kind of my
specialty! Not to mention I have eight arms, so I can work *four* times as fast!” Kara protested indignantly, waving said arms
like an angry spider. Charnelle laughed.

“Yes, of
course, you’ll be a valuable member.” She said. Kara leaned back and crossed
her arms, seemingly placated.

“Anyway, we
should probably keep this a secret, we don’t want chaos breaking out. The first
group should get started today afterschool, we can use the school library, it’s
pretty huge, so it should have enough resources. And it has Wi-Fi if we need
it. The second group should start in a day or two, as soon as we find a way to
the ghost world.”

The group
agreed to the vetala’s statement, and the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch
and their meeting.

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

After the last bell rang, Lio charged out of the classroom,
dashing madly through the hall towards where he hoped was the library.
Unfortunately, since he wasn’t really the bookish type, he had no idea where it
was and got hopelessly lost, ending up at the grimnasium instead. Defeated, he
swore loudly and sat down hard on the floor. Great. Now he had no idea where
the heck to go from here. He sighed and ran his fingers through his braids, and
pounded the tiles with a fist.

“Excuse me?
Might I inquire what you are doing? You look frustrated.” A soft, polite voice
said. Lio looked up to meet the large brown eyes of another student, a rather
shy looking ghoul who seemed as though she may run away at any minute. She
looked awfully familiar, with her auburn hair done up in a rather messy bun and
her pale skin covered in words, but he couldn’t quite place who she was.
Something that started with a P? Polly, no, Pamela, no, Priscilla, no, wait,
Page! That was it! She was some sorted of weird animated book creature.

“Yeah, I’m
lost.” He replied.

“Where were
you going?”

“I was
trying to get to the library.”

“Well, you’re
rather off course. That’s all the way on the other side of school. Want me to
take you there?”

“Yeah,
that’d be great. I’m supposed to meet a few friends there, and I’m going to be
dreadfully late.” He replied, heaving himself off the floor and following Page
down the corridor. While they walked, Lio contemplated his quiet companion. A
book monster, eh? She’d probably know the library like the back of her hand.
She might be able to make their research go faster. Sure, they had said to keep
their business a secret, but surely letting one other monster in on it couldn’t
be that bad. And she didn’t seem like the type to blab stuff out to everyone
she met (unlike *some* students).

“Say, you
spend a lot of time in the library?” he asked.

“Yes, I
volunteer there as a matter of fact. I know every book in there.” She replied.
Hey, that was great, she’d definitely be useful.

“Uh, can
you keep a secret?”

“What, that
a rebel like you was caught reading?” she teased quietly.

“No, it’s
more important than that.”

“Of course
I can. I don’t talk much to anyone anyway.”

“Well, me
and my friends are trying to save the world. I know that sounds a bit
ridiculous, but it’s true. We are meeting up at the library today to do some
research about some artifacts, and I was wondering if maybe you could help us,
since you claim to know the library so well.”

“I’d be
glad to help. I do believe you, of course, I have lived many an unbelievable
tale myself. For example, have you ever heard of anyone who literally wrote
their own fate, on their skin no less?”

“Yeah, that
is a bit strange.”

“Oh dear,
that was supposed to be MY secret. I suppose you can keep one, can you,
especially if you trust me with yours?”

“No
problem. No one will ever find out from me.” Lio promised.

They soon arrived at the library entrance, where Charnelle,
Lily, Kara, Trevor, Kimmy, Nahele, Lani and Sangeeta were all waiting
impatiently for him to arrive. Nahele’s eyebrow raised dangerously high as she
noticed that Lio’s companion wasn’t leaving. When they had entered and she was
sure Page was out of earshot, she leaned in close to Lio and hissed under her
breath, “What is she doing here?”

“She can
help us, honest.”

“What did
we say about secrecy?”

“Like I
said, she can help us.”

“And what
makes you so sure she can be trusted? She may be an agent for Tamas.”

“Do you
really think he’d hire someone like *her*
to do his dastardly work? Look at her, she’s so delicate, she can’t even stand
to be around candles! You think he’d want someone made of paper on his side?”

“I guess
you have a point there. I just hope you’re right.” Nahele sighed, then they
joined the others. Page looked around, then led them to the most private table
she could, which was in a rather convenient corner, which they could keep their
backs to, to prevent any of the very few students in here from spying on them. They
all sat down around it, and looked expectantly at Lio while Page drifted
nearby, pretending to be absorbed in a book while actually keeping close guard.

“What are
you guys staring at me for?”

“You’re
supposed to know what we are looking for. So speak.” Lani said.

“Ah,
yes…well…one tiny little problem…I can’t remember anything.” He said awkwardly.

“Oh,
wonderful.” Kara said, rolling her eyes.

“Hey, I
can’t help it. That lotus nectar they gave me must have done something to my
brain.” He replied defensively.

“Hypnotism
usually can help when someone can’t remember something. Everything is available
in the subconscious mind, we just have to access it.” Sangeeta said wisely.

“Yeah, but
how do we do that?” Kara said.

“Vampires
are pretty good at hypnotism, that’s how they get most of their victims,
through eye contact. I suppose a vetala could do it as well.” Page hinted
casually.

“Oh no, not
me, no can do!” Charnelle protested.

“Oh come
on, if anybody has to be worried, it’ll be me.” Lio replied. Charnelle heaved a
dramatic sigh and opened her eyes wide, staring deep into Lio’s eyes. They
remained like this for a while, then Charnelle blinked and leaned back, heaving
another sigh.

“I can’t do
it guys, I have never hypnotized anyone before.” She said.

“Mind if I
got get someone who can?” Page asked.

“Yeah, go
ahead.” Kara said, crossing her arms. Page left, and a few minutes later,
returned with a dark-skinned vampire ghoul in arm.

“I suppose
you all know Priscilla and she all knows you. I took the liberty of explaining
what was going on, and she swore on her grave not to tell a single
soul-regardless if they even have a soul.”

“Hello
darlings!” Priscilla said, waving her fingers at the group. She gracefully
pulled out a chair next to Lio and said down with equal finesse.

“So, I have
to hypnotize you. Should be easy enough, as long as you do as I say. Okay?” she
said.

“Yeah,
okay. Let’s just get this over with.” He grumbled, not the least big stoked
about the prospect of being hypnotized by a vampire, especially since he had
found out that was how they got their victims. Priscilla turned to face Lio,
and motioned that he do the same.

“Okay, now,
look deep into my eyes.” She said. He obeyed, feeling rather silly staring
right at her like that, and awkward that he was doing it right in front of his
girlfriend.

“That’s it.
Keep looking into my eyes. Deeper, deeper, deeper.” She continued. Her voice
took on a sweet and melodic tone, and he felt himself sinking into the dark
depths of the vampire’s eyes, unable to look away even if someone set his pants
on fire. It was as if she was calling his very soul, and he had to answer. Her
eyes seemed to grow, until they were all that filled his vision. His mind went
blank, all thoughts seemingly insignificant.

“Very good,
Lio. Now you’re getting sleepy, so very tired. It would be so nice to take a
nap right now, wouldn’t it?” she asked, her voice seeming to echo through his
mind. He found himself mumbling in agreement, his voice flat, and he stifled
back a yawn.

“It’s okay,
you can sleep, nobody will mind. Go ahead, sleep.” Her voice was so soothing
and sweet, why wouldn’t he ever want to do anything but obey? Yes, she was
right, nobody would mind one bit if he slept a little while. His eyes rolled
into his head and he abruptly fell forward as his brain shut off, Priscilla
lunging to catch him and pushing him back into his chair. He was asleep
alright, and very deeply so.

“Lio? Can
you hear me?” she said softly.

“Yes.” He
mumbled.

“Good. Now,
I want you to tell me something. Do you remember when you were under Tamas’s
control?”

Lio looked
rather uncomfortable, mumbling fretfully, his face furrowing into a worried
look.

“Yes,” he finally assented.

“He had you take a few things, very
important things. Do you remember what they were?”

“Yes.”

“Could you tell me what they were?”

“I was in an alley the first time,
I think I mugged an elf for a medallion…then I was in some Egyptian temple, I
got a black stone knife, it glowed in the dark…then I was in a monastery I
think, I snatched some sort of double ended scepter thingy and a weird spike or
dagger, it had a guy’s head on it…then I was at a lake, I had to dive into a
grab a sword…next time, I had to break into a church and smash a display, got a
spear from there….then I had to get a trident, it was in an underwater temple
of some sort…and then I snatched a wallet…then I got a hammer from the middle
of what I think was a fjord…then I had to break into another church and get a
cup of some sort…then a crown…then some stick covered in funny marks, runes I
think…and another trident, this one from a mountaintop…and a robe covered in
feathers from another temple…Oh gods, no!” Lio said in a monotonous voice as he
recounted his kleptomaniac sprees, his voice rising towards the end in the
first sign of emotion since he was hypnotized.

“What is it Lio? Please tell me.”
Priscilla persisted anxiously.

“Oh gods, it was horrible! So much
blood, it was everywhere! Everything, red! Oh gods, what did I do? What did I
do!” he wailed, twisting as if the recall were physically hurting him.

“What was it?”

"A heart! Oh gods, did I kill
some one?” he cried, tears beginning to stream down his face.

“Okay, that’s enough. Lio, wake up.
WAKE UP!” Priscilla exclaimed, slapping Lio across the face. He jerked and
shook his head, running his fingers through his hair, his eyes wide with shock.
He wiped a few tears away, then hid his face in his hands, quietly sobbing.
Nahele came over and put her arms around him, kissing his cheek as she held him
close.

“Well, at
least we now know what to look for.” Priscilla said, sighing and leaning back
in her chair. “Now, where to look?”

Where to
look indeed. The shelved stretched over a dozen feet high, crammed with books,
hundreds, maybe thousands. Plenty of resources, but so much to sift through!

## Chapter 8

Kara sighed and pounded her fist on the table.

“Great, now
what?” she said.

“I think we
should try to figure out what Lio took first, then researching it’s importance.
So, we look for swords.” Sangeeta replied.

“But which
one, there are tons of swords, magical or not.” Page countered.

“True, but
he said he got this one from a lake. How many swords are associated with lakes?”
Nahele said.

“Well,
there was Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur. That was said to be magical and
it belonged to the lady of the lake. Upon his death, Arthur had it returned to
her.”

“Okay,
great, now we know Lio stole Excalibur, but what use would Tamas have for
that?” Kara replied.

“Not sure,
yet. We might be able to think of something if we figure out the rest. In the
meantime, Page could look up legends of Excalibur.” Sangeeta suggested.

“Already on
it, but one tiny problem.” Page said.

“What is
it?” Kimmy replied.

“There is a
really great book, that I really think will help us, but it is all the way at
the top shelf, and there is not ladder to reach it.” She pointed out. Everyone
groaned, but Lily looked thoughtful.

“I can fly
up there and grab it, just tell me what to look for.” She said.

“Oh, great!
It’s called ‘Relics of the British Isles’. It’s a thick one, with gold
lettering and brown leather.” Page replied, pointing to said tome.

Lily opened
her great white wings and flapped hard, sending her rocketing into the air, releasing
clouds of dust to drift into the noses of those below, who began to sneeze
loudly, much to the annoyance of the nearby librarian, who hadn’t been there
earlier to their rather loud discussion, and therefore found their allergy
attack rude, hissing at them with a loud “Shhh!”

Lily
ignored them and grabbed the book, pulling out the heavy tome and nearly
dropping it at its unexpected weight. She flew back down and plopped it on the
table, sending up another cloud of dust from its cover. She carefully opened
it, pulling apart the yellowing pages and began to read.

“Okay, now
that that is covered, I think we can take out two more relics in one shot. Lio
said he stole two relics from a monastery, a…double ended scepter thingy and a
weird spike or dagger. That part’s not that helpful, but we might be able to
find out what they were if they were from a monastery.”

“There’s a
scroll in that cabinet over there that is all about Tibetan monasteries, it
goes pretty in depth.” Page said, nodding towards the cabinet about twenty feet
away.

“I got it!”
Lio said, heading towards it. He tried to open the cabinet, but was foiled when
the knob wouldn’t turn.

“Dang, it’s
locked! Guys, it’s locked!” he called to the others.

“Really?
Are you a demigod or aren’t you?” Nahele called back, earning them another hiss
from the librarian.

“Good
point.” He said, and turned back to the cabinet. He glared at the knob,
focusing all his authority on the little globe of metal, demanding silently
that it had better unlock itself or else. He had to admit, he felt rather silly
having a mental argument with an inanimate object, but his efforts were
rewarded when he tried the knob again and, to his satisfaction, it turned easily.

“Hey, I got
it!” he called back, delighted.

“Goody for
you.” Kara replied.

Lio pulled open the glass doors and
studied all the labels on the shelving below each scroll, which announced what
the name of each scroll was. Let’s see, *Thaumaturgy*
for Idiots*, no…*Dragons of the
Northern Hemisphere*, no…*The
Collective Works of Dr. Frankenstein*, no…* Monasteries of the Tibetan Himalayas*. That’s it, that must be it!*
Triumphant, he reached out to grab the scroll.

But, just as his hand brushed
against the ancient paper, it shivered and burst, unrolling itself and
rearranging itself into the shape of a ferocious dragon, which proceeded to
snap at his fingers with papery fangs. He yelled and lurched back, snatching
his hand away from the creature before it could bite him. It drew itself up to
its full height, level with the top of Lio’s head, and fixed him in a fibrous
glare.

“What exactly do you think you’re
doing?” it hissed, its voice like the sound of paper rustling.

“I, uh, well…what exactly are you?
I mean, this was something I expected more from the *Dragons of the Northern Hemisphere* scroll.” He replied nervously.

“Are you trying to be funny?” it
growled.

“No sir…or ma’am.” He whimpered.

“Humph. Well, if you must know, I
am Kyorinrin, the kyorinrin. I guard these shelves.”

“Nice to meet you…mind if I call
you Kyo?”

“If you must. Now what is your
business here, disturbing my rest?”

“I simply wanted to read…well, you.
You are the scroll on Tibetan monasteries, right?”

The scroll looked taken-aback.

“Read me? Do you have any idea of
when the last time I was read? Nobody these days seems to care about getting a
decent education, all they want is to magically pass without doing any work and
waste all their time making out with each other, letting me and my kind fall into
disuse!”

“So…can I read you?”

“Why yes, of course! I’d be
delighted!” Kyo said, unraveling back into a normal scroll, unrolling to its
full extent before him. Lio cautiously picked it up and carried it back to the
table. He skimmed over the elaborate script, ingoring all the little bits about
the monk’s daily routines and such, until a picture caught his eye. It was a
hand-drawn sketch of all the different relics that they used. Among the
artifacts shown, there were the two he had stolen. The double-ended scepter was
called a vajra, and the dagger with the dude’s face on it was a phurba. He
scanned the text below to see if there was anything else on it about them.

Sure enough, the passage right
below it was all about the objects shown. He read up on the vajra first.

*The vajra is often paired with the ghanta, a bell that represents the feminine while the vajra represents masculine.*

Yeah, blah, blah, blah.

*It is used to symbolically destroy ignorance, helping one become a step closer to achieving enlightenment.*

Tamas didn’t seem the type to be
big on enlightenment and destroying ignorance. If anything, he promoted it.

*It is also known as the “thunderbolt”, and in Hindu belief, is the favored weapon of Indra, the god of the heavens and storms. This reflects the idea of the vajra being parallel to the thunderbolt. Another similar weapon is the bolt of Zeus.*

Oh no. That must be it. Wonderful.
In the hands of a human, such a relic was harmless, only symbolic, but what
would happen if it were wielded by someone of godly blood, especially if they
had malicious intent? Shuddering at the thought of what a nutcase like Tamas
could do with such an object, he moved on to the section about the phurba.

*The phurba is a ritualistic dagger or stake, used to pierce the earth or in earlier times, as a stake to bind sacrificial animals.*

Okay, didn’t seem like Tamas would
use it for that, but the whole sacrificial thing did seem probable.

*It symbolizes stability during rituals, and only those who have been initiated may wield it.*

Pff, as if Tamas would possibly
care about that.

*It is also used to magically cure disease, destroy demons and exorcise the restless dead.*

Oh damn. Now *that* was more like something Tamas might do. And why did that sound
so ominous? Lio looked up from the scroll and let his eyes wander around the
room. His gaze fell upon Charnelle, who was deep in reading a book about roles
of sacrifice in religions. Wasn’t a vetala a type of vampiric ghost from near
Tibet? And wasn’t she Tamas’s sister? Well, half-sister. She was so helpful to
the group, she always seemed to know what her brother was doing, and played a
major part in helping them defeat him. That must really piss him off.

Oh no, he wouldn’t. He was evil,
but he wouldn’t. Would he? Dear gods no! How horrible! Lio shuddered again and
rolled up the scroll, satisfied that he had read enough. He got up and placed
it back in the cabinet he had gotten it from. It reformed into its dragon
shape, a little less alarming this time.

“Did you find what you were looking
for?” Kyo asked.

“Yes, thank you. It was very
helpful.” Lio replied. The kyorinrin beamed, or as much as a paper dragon
could, which wasn’t much and looked terrifying, but Lio could tell it was
pleased, as it unraveled and the last thing to go was its contented smile.

That made him feel good, being able to make
someone feel needed, even if it was an animated scroll. Funny thing that, no
one ever takes notice of such things, taking their belongings for granted
without a thought about what the object could feel, or even if it could feel.

Lio sighed
and turned back to the table.

“Did you
guys manage to find anything?” he asked. Everyone but Lily shook their heads.

“Why, did
you?” Kara asked.

“Yeah, I
did. Nothing too thrilling, especially if Tamas is the one with such power in
his hands.” Lio replied.

“Really?
Like what?” Charnelle asked.

“Nothing
important. You shouldn’t worry yourself about it.” He said dismissively.
Charnelle gave him a skeptical look, then shrugged and resumed her reading. Lio
watcher her sadly for a moment more, thinking about what he had read about the
phurba. Please, let him be wrong. Don’t let Tamas be planning something so
ghastly.

## Chapter 9

The next day, after school was over, Lio met up with the
other six, plus Charnelle, up in the school’s attic. They were here to check in
on the doings of Principal Revenant, and had decided the best place to start
would be with the door Spectra had used to gain entrance to the Ghost World.

“Is this
it?” he asked, pointing to a nearby door.

Charnelle
nodded.

“Yep, it
sure is.”

Makoa
opened the door and they all stepped through. They tumbled out onto a large
boat that was being sailed by…Cheryl Ferryman. They stopped short and stared at
her.

“What are
you doing here?” Lio demanded.

“I might
ask you the same thing.” She replied coolly, continuing to push the boat down
the river with her long oar.

“Where is
River Styxx?” he continued, ignoring her question.

“The real
river Styx is in Hades, but I presume you are asking about the other River
Styxx, my irritating cousin. She is elsewhere, shirking her duties no doubt,
and I have been left here to take over for her while she is away. Of course,
I’m using my own boat, hers is just ridiculous with those confetti cannons, but
I digress. Now, why are you here? You obviously aren’t dead, well, not all of
you, so you have no business here.”

“Well, if
you must know, we are here to reverse death.”

“I’m afraid
I cannot let you do that. The dead have already begun to return to the realm of
the living, it has caused quite a lot of chaos, my father has been swamped by
thousands of ghosts insisting he take them back.” Cheryl replied, her voice
frosty.

“Oh, wait, no, that’s not what I
meant. I mean re-reverse it…or was it un-reverse it? Anyway, we are here to set
things right.”

“You
better. Heaven forbid you be forced to join them.” She said warningly.

That shut
them up, making their stomachs plummet at the implications of such a statement.
The tension stretched awkwardly until it was thick enough to cut with a knife.

“So, have
any of you seen Kio recently?” Cheryl asked nervously, her entire demeanor
changing from intimidating to hesitant.

“Who?” Lio
asked, confused.

“Eustakhios.
He hasn’t visited me in weeks.” She replied, her voice full of anxiety.

“Oh yeah,
he’s hasn’t been in school either, he’s mega grounded. He threw a colossal rave
and totally trashed the house. His dad was super mad, and now he’s not allowed
out until he finishes fixing the place. He messed it up pretty good, so he’ll
be a while.” Trevor replied.

“Really?
Oh, okay then. For a moment there I thought he had…you know… I mean, I’m not
the most perfect match for a party-lover, all doom and gloom and rules.” Cheryl
laughed nervously, still awkward, but obviously relieved.

“Oh trust
me, you guys may be polar opposites, but that guy is crazy about you.” Trevor
reassured her. They lapsed into silence again, but this time it was less
frigid, and everyone relaxed, beginning to enjoy the feel of waves passing
gently under the keel.

Then, all
of a sudden, the boat began to rock and shake like a building in an earthquake,
most unusual for a watercraft on the sea. Everyone shrieked and grabbed for
something sturdy as they were sent this way and that. The shaking passed, and
they slowly got to their feet, everyone’s eyes wide with shock. Well, at least
everyone but Cheryl, who looked completely unfazed, as if this kind of thing
happened on a regular basis.

“Is that
normal?” Lio asked, struggling to his feet.

“No.”
Cheryl replied.

“Then
what?”

“It started
about the same time as the ghost riots. I think it might be the fabric of the
universe unraveling, but you never know.” She said casually. The others gulped
nervously and looked to each other. Lio pretended that he hadn’t heard that, and
went to the railing to watch their progress across the sea.

Out of
nowhere, a thick fog began to roll in, as pale and ghostly as ectoplasm, just
like every typical horror movie right before the monster appeared. Lio
shuddered and watched it closely, in case something unpleasant did appear.
Yeah, sure, they did go to a monster school, but every so often, monsters do
get spooked themselves, especially if they had no idea what was coming. Lio
reached out with his death sense, trying to see if anything was lurking in the
mist. But, of course, being in the Ghost World, pretty much everything
triggered it, including some of the boat’s passengers. Charnelle was a big
presence especially, sticking out in the undead landscape. She was quite lively
for a dead one.

Then
another presence registered, coming ever closer, and larger than any Lio had
felt before. Or it might have just felt that way against the empty feel of the
sea around them. Whatever it was, it made Lio’s heart race in fear, and a cold
sweat broke out across his face, unusual, since reptiles don’t normally sweat.
He shoved down his rising fear and concentrated on the presence. It was like it
was either one large being, or numerous smaller ones all in one place. Most
unusual.

The fog
began to part, revealing a massive castle, with many towers leaning crookedly
here and there.

“Here we
are!” Cheryl announced cheerily. “But I don’t know of you all should go looking
like that.”

“Like
what?” Lio retorted, taking personal offense.

“Well,
solid.”

“And what
are we supposed to do about it?”

“You will
have to wear death shrouds. They’ll give you the appearance of ghosts. But
remember, just because you will look the part, doesn’t you are actual ghosts.
You will still have to go around things the old-fashioned way, so make sure
nobody notices.”

“Can’t we
just use ghost powder?”

Cheryl
sighed and rolled her eyes.

“It’s
called Boogey Sand, and of course not! I don’t have any, that’s a Boogeyman
thing. Now just take the stupid shrouds already!” she snapped, thrusting the
gray cloaks at them. They each pulled on a shroud, which, upon contact with
their skin, grew transparent and emitted a ghostly glow. Cheryl offered a
shroud to Charnelle, who shook her head and said, “None for me, thanks.”

“Why not?”
Lio said, after he had torn his eyes away from his glowing body.

“I don’t
need it.” She said simply, then lay down on the deck. Her body shimmered and a
transparent duplicate sat up, rising from her still form. Ghost Charnelle
beamed and waved at them happily, her body still lying there, unmoving.

“Ugh,
creepy.” Mano said, shuddering.

“Hm, I
forgot she could do that.” Lily said, eyeing her friend’s now-dead body.

“Would you
be a dear and keep an eye on my body please?” Ghsot Charnelle asked Cheryl
sweetly.

“No
problem. Now you kids go and have fun. remember, you are still solid! Well, all
of you except Charnelle.” Cheryl said, waving them off as the boat gently
bumped against the dock at the bottom of the staircase. They gingerly stepped
off onto the dock, wary of sinking through the transparent wood. Ikaika gave
Keanu a playful shove and he stumbled first onto the dock. It held, and the
others soon followed. Cheryl pushed her long oar against the dock and pushed
off, sailing back into the misty sea.

“Well, there
goes our ride home.” Trevor said darkly.

“Oh, don’t
worry, she’ll be back. After all, she still has my body.” Charnelle reassured
him, as if her corpse was good enough reason for the death demigod to return.
They turned and began the ascent up the long stairway to the main entrance, Lio
at the rear, complaining under his breath of how hippo feet weren't meant for
climbing stairs, Makoa occasionally glancing back in sympathy as his own
reptile feet barely managed to find purchase on the smooth surface.

## Chapter 10

After quite a trek, with some of the less in shape demigods
panting slightly, the eight made it to the top and to the large wooden doors,
which were firmly shut, as no student that went there ever needed to open it.
Trevor looked around, and with all the stealth of a burglar, pried the door
open just enough for them to slip through, and waved all the demigods through,
while Charnelle ignored him and passed straight through the wood like a native
ghost.

“Showoff.”
Keanu grunted, grumbling as he collided with the narrow opening.

Soon they were all inside, looking
around them with awe. It was a lot like Monster High, but even darker and
creepier, with much less color than their own school.

“I think we
should have gotten a guide.” Mano remarked as he gazed around, already feeling
lost in the eerie halls. Makoa shrugged dismissively and took the lead,
confidently leading them down the main hall. They looked to each other and
shrugged as well, turning to follow the reptile demigod. His guess was about as
good as theirs, at least he seemed confident he knew where he was going.

The halls
were thankfully empty, as the students appeared to have finished their day too,
so nobody bothered them as they made their way to what they hoped was Principal
Revenant’s office. The only other soul they saw along the way was presumably
the janitor, who was too busy mopping ectoplasm off the floor-which seemed like
a hopeless venture to Lio, since the entire school seemed to be made of the
stuff- to notice a few living students pass by.

They came
to a stop at a door, on which there was a corroded plaque announcing that they
had indeed arrived at Principal Revenant’s office.

“Now what?”
Haukea asked.

“Knock?”
Kai suggested.

They all stood before it,
motionless, each waiting for another to take action. Nobody did, and finally
Lio took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

“Come in!” called a voice from
within. Lio opened the door and all eight filed in. The office was dark and
creepy, like a crypt, yet full of the usual principal stuff, papers and books
and such. Standing behind her desk was Principal Revenant herself, who was
watching the demigods file in, confused.

“Who are you? I have never seen any
of you around here before.” Revenant demanded, bewildered at her office being
invaded by so many strange teenagers.

“We’re here to stop you, Revenant.”
Lio said boldly, throwing back the hood of his shroud.

“What? If this is about the
upcoming exam week, there is nothing you can do about it, it is standard
procedure.”

“Uh, no, we are here about the
reversal of death. We know it was you, so stop playing innocent!” Lio
commanded. Revenant just looked even more confused.

“What is going on here? What are
you talking about? You all better start explaining yourselves, or I’ll have you
thrown out by security!” Revenant snapped. Lio felt the wind puff right out of
his sails, and he shrank, embarrassed.

“Um, well…” he started, not sure
what to say now that he had made a mess of things. But, thankfully, Lily
stepped up, throwing back her hood and motioning for the others to do the same.

“I am sorry for the intrusion, but
we are here on urgent business. We are all demigods from Monster High, well
except for Charnelle, she’s a vetal. As my friend here stated, there seems to
be a reversal of death, allowing ghosts to enter the realm of the living more
easily. We came here to see if you might have anything to do with it.” She
explained calmly.

Revenant snorted and looked
annoyed.

“I most certainly had nothing to do
with it. I have been here the whole time! It is kind of impossible for me to
leave.” She said, floating high enough into the air to reveal the fact she was
tightly bound in chains, anchoring her to the ghost realm.

“Besides,” she continued, “there
have been students disappearing from here. Dozens of them. I have sent out
messages and truant officers to look for them but they are gone without a
trace. Not to mention all the quakes we have experienced, interrupted many a
class.” Just then, the room shook, sending the demigods cascading into each
other, with Principal Revenant remaining unaffected, since she wasn’t in
contact with the floor.

“See what I mean? There’s no way I
could do that, I was here the whole time! Whatever this is has adversely
affected us as well. But I have nothing to do with it. I do not have the power
to cause such an event. This is more in the range of powerful beings like gods.
Maybe you should question one of your own.”

“I see. I’m sorry once again for
bothering you. We will try to reverse this mess and get all your lost students
back. Good day.” Lily replied, tipping her head towards the ghost.

“See that you do. Good day to you
to, and good luck.” Revenant replied, showing the first sign of her caring
sign.

Feeling rather defeated, as if
their journey had been proven pointless, the demigods turned and left, filing
back out of her office and back down the hall. They headed out the main
entrance and back down the stairs, waiting for Cheryl’s return at the dock.

“Well, now what?” Ikaika asked.

“If she has nothing to do with it,
then we can eliminate her from the suspect list.” Lily said.

“She *says* she has nothing to do with it.” Lio said.

“Lio, she was bound in *chains*.
There was no way she could possibly do something like this in that condition.
Besides, she did make a pretty good point. Ghosts, no matter how strong they
are, don’t have that kind of power. Sure, when she was still a bad guy, she had
opened a portal to kidnap a lot of our classmates, but even that still isn’t to
the scale of what is happening now. No, I think she’s right, we’d have better
luck looking to our own kind to find who did it.” Lily replied. Just then,
Cheryl appeared, steadily rowing towards them in her boat. They climbed aboard
and pulled off their shrouds while Charnelle sank back into her body, getting
up off the deck and brushing herself off.

“But, even if we do consider other
demigods, who could have done it?” Lio said.

“Tamas.” Trevor replied darkly.
Silence fell over the demigods at that name.

“Yeah, it does seem like something
he’d do, but how? Death is not in his powers. Not to mention, even the
strongest demigod would be overwhelmed by such a massive magical demand.
Holding open that many breaches? He’d combust from exertion!” his sister
countered.

“But what about all the relics he
has from when he controlled Lio? What about those? Couldn’t he gain power from
them?” Trevor replied.

“None of them look like they’d be
capable of such things. Maybe we should investigate some other gods first, then
we’ll see.” She said. That ended their discussion, and they spent the rest of
the journey in silence, their return uninterrupted by any more quakes.

As they traversed across the
seemingly endless sea, with no end in sight, a thought hit Lio.

“Say, how do we get back?”

## Chapter 11

The other’s eyes widened at the thought of being marooned in
such a featureless scape on a ghostly boat.

“Oh, I
forgot, you all probably want a portal. I’m so used to people arriving in one
way trips that I forget how to go back.” Cheryl exclaimed, taking a hand off
her oar to slap against her forehead.

“But, won’t
that make another breach?” Ikaika asked.

“No, you
all belong in the realm of the living. It’ll be fine.” She replied
nonchalantly. She waved her hand through the air and a portal opened up,
revealing the inside of their school’s attic. They thanked her and jumped
through, delighted to be back in a world of bright color and warmth. Now that
they were back, they realized just how frigid the ghost world was. Makoa was
the last to jump through, and closed the door behind them, shutting out the icy
vastness of the dead realm.

“So, any
ideas which gods might do this?” Lio said, rubbing his hands together, partly
in anticipation to make progress, partly to bring some life back into his numb
hands.

“Makoa's
dad is a death god, he might do it.” Haukea said.

Mano looked
at the reptile demi, staring into his eyes for a moment.

“He says
no, his dad wouldn’t do something like this, he’d be bringing in more dead, not
letting them out.” The shark demigod said.

“What about
your mom, Lio?” Trevor asked.

“No, I
don’t think she’s strong enough. Besides, she’s a stickler for the rules
governing death. Same goes for the other Judgment gods.” Lio replied.

“You know,
I think every death god is like that, they aren’t exactly known for leniency.
The most I’ve heard of was Hades letting a few ghosts go, but those were his
own kids, and only a small number, nowhere near the mass we are guessing.”
Charnelle said.

“Great, so
everything points to Tamas. What say we check in on the other group, see if
they found anything else.” Lio said. Just then, as if he had summoned it, his
phone rang, the screen announcing that it was from Nahele.

“Hey babe.”
He answered.

“Uh, hi,
did not expect that. Anyway, we found the rest of the relics. A lot of them are
powerful and dangerous in the wrong hands, but we can’t find out what relevance
they’d have for the afterlife or being able to open it. The most relevant were
the phurba and the stone knife, which turned out to be a netjeri knife, and
actually made of meteoric iron, but I have no idea what an opening of the mouth
ceremony would have to do with opening the whole underworld.” She said.

“Ugh, that
blows.”

“Yeah, but
we also searched the Internet about them, and we found that other things had
been stolen, from museums and churches and similar places. Apparently he
convinced someone else to steal stuff for him after you were gone.”

“Are you
sure he got someone else?”

“Does doing
it himself seem like his style?”

“Good
point. What sort of stuff did he take?”

“Well, we
aren’t sure if *he* stole them, but the
items taken were several canopic jars, a gemstone studded breastplate, a pair
of knucklebones, and most disgusting of all, I can’t even believe he touched
it, but a Hand of Glory.”

“Ew! What
the hell? That’s gross. I actually can understand most of the stuff, but
canopic jars? What use would he have for gut bottles?”

“Who can
understand the workings of a villain?”

“Yeah, I
guess. I think I ought to stop in the Duat and ask my mom about the netjeri
knife.”

“You do
that. Will you be staying with her overnight?”

“No, I’ll
be back.”

“Good, see
you tonight. Love you, bye!”

“Love you
too, bye.” Lio finished, hanging up and slipping the phone back in his pocket.

“So, what’s
the deal?” Ikaika asked.

“Turns out
Tamas stole some other stuff, at least we think he did it, and as for the other
stuff he took, well, we can’t figure out what significance they might have. So
far the most suspicious if the netjeri knife, that weird black one I stole, and
I’m going to ask my mom what she knows about it.” Lio replied.

“Okay, you
have fun with that. We should probably be getting home now anyway.”

“Yeah, I’ll
see you guys.”

The others
waved and then disappeared one by one, either by teleporting, or stepping
through a portal to their respective homes.

Lio huffed
a deep sigh. He hated this part, he still wasn’t so great at either one, but
his best shot was a portal. He closed his eyes and concentrated, focusing on
the Duat as if his life depended on it. He felt the familiar tug in his stomach
and the fizzling of magic in his bones, and heard the moaning of the portal as
it sucked in the surrounding air. He opened his eyes and sure enough, there it
was. He smiled proudly, this was the fastest he had ever managed to open a
portal. Maybe he should try teleportation next, he might have gotten better at
that too.

He leaped
through the portal and emerged into the familiar darkness of the Duat. He was
standing on the bank of the river of fire, his mother’s house not very far
away, and the voices of the lost dead moaning and wailing in the wind. Lio took
a deep breath, inhaling the pungent stench of sulfur. Ah, no place like home.
He had no idea how much he had missed the place, but it was wonderful. Then he
tried to take a step towards the house. The world seemed to spin around him,
and he collapsed, falling face-first into the black dirt. He shut his eyes
tightly and groaned. He tried to move his head out of the dirt, but the
spinning increased until he felt like he was going to throw up.

After a few moments, the spinning
faded away, and he was able to slowly push himself off the ground, rising
slowly to his feet. His head was still swirling and he out his hands against
his forehead, as if to keep his head from falling off. He groaned and began to
take a step forward again, then stopped short as twin growls erupted in front
of him. Shocked, he dropped his hands, staring to see what it was.    There stood two massive leopards, but their
heads swayed well above him on elongated necks. Serpopards! What were they
doing here?

They
snarled and stepped towards him, their feral gaze never leaving his face
despite their swaying necks, foam dripping from their bared fangs.

“Nice kitties,
good cats.” Lio coaxed, but his words had no effect. The serpopards took
another step forward, their snarling unceasing. He stepped back, but it was as
if he were walking through molasses. He pushed as hard as he could against the
feeling, struggling to get away, but all he got was the spinning sensation in
his head once more. He managed a couple more steps, and his head felt like it
was going to fall off. Thrown off balance, he fell down, and the serpopards
advanced, still growling and snarling.

"N-nice
kitties, who’s a pretty leopard?” Lio whimpered, confused by the wobbling
double image he was seeing, so disoriented by the spinning he was now seeing
four of the angry beasts. His stomach churned, and he was certain he was going to
hurl. The serpopards did not look any friendlier than they had before, and Lio quickly
began to think of an escape plan. He certainly couldn’t run for it, whatever
was holding him back certainly didn’t seem to affect the great cats at all, so
his best option was teleport. He struggled to pull himself together enough to
focus, but even still his concentration was shaky, a fact not helped by the
feral hissing.

Suddenly,
both serpopards lunged, their necks stretching out impossibly far as their
slavering jaws snapped for him. He screamed and his stomach twisted as the
world went black.

## Chapter 12

“Lio? Lio!” someone called. Lio
stirred and opened his eyes to see a tan blob floating in front of him. His
vision slowly came into focus until the blob turned into Nahele’s concerned
face.

“Dude, you okay?” Ikaika asked from
behind her.

“Urgh.” Lio groaned. Then he
realized that he was lying face up in a field of grass. He sat, up and his head
spun viciously, and he quickly rolled over, throwing up onto the ground.

Once his stomach was as empty as it
was going to get, Lio groaned again and slowly pushed himself to his feet and
looked around. There was the mansion he stayed in with Nahele and all her
friends, so he must have successfully teleported out, at least, kind of successfully,
since he hadn’t really had a destination in mind when he was attacked. Well, at
least he had made it out all in one piece…I think.

Wait, attacked? That’s right, he
had been attacked, hadn’t he? He remembered taking a portal to the Duat to see
his mom, but he had been unable to move very far in a hurry, and then he was
jumped by those two serpopards! but why had they tried to kill him? He usually
got along so well with their kind! After all, he was part big cat, part
reptile, just like them, they were practically family! And they were right
there, almost as if they were planted…by someone waiting for him…who knew he’d
be coming and wouldn’t want him there. It seemed like the kind of thing only
Tamas would want to do, but where had he gotten so much power to do so? Maybe
it wasn't Tamas, maybe Lio had done something to offend one of the death gods
and was now locked out of the Duat. He had to ask his mom, just had to.

As he thought about it, and about
his mother, a pang of homesickness went through him, and he felt a few tears
welling up. He had been so close, he was right there, only a few dozen feet
away, but he had been unable to so much as walk closer. How cruel the Fates
were. Or whoever blocked him.

He reached into his pocket and
pulled out his phone, hoping to at least be able to call her. Most people
couldn’t get reception in the afterlife, but with Thoth’s help, Lio was an
exception. At least, normally he was. When he dialed his mother’s number, all
he got was no signal, not even a chance to leave a voice-mail. He growled in
frustration and threw his phone to the ground and stomped on it. This was
ridiculous! Now what could he do? He had to get a hold of her, he just had to!

“Lio, are you all right? What
happened?” Nahele asked, concerned by her boyfriend’s behavior.

“I tried to go to the Duat to visit
my mom. But when I got there, it felt like I was moving through mud, something
was slowing me down. I also felt super dizzy and could barely move. Then, out
of nowhere, I was attacked by a pair of serpopards. They could move freely, but
not me, and they were nearly on top of me when I teleported here. I never got
even the slightest chance to see my mom or ask her what was happening. And now
I just tried calling her, but it won’t go through.” Lio replied angrily. Nahele
gave him a look of pity and scooped his phone from the ground, dusting it off
on her shorts and slipping it into her pocket, then put her arm around his
shoulders as she led him into the house.

“Maybe you can try praying to her,
or visiting her in your dreams.” Kai suggested as they all went inside.

“Yeah, maybe. It’s at least worth a
shot. I can go to her as a ba.” Lio said glumly.

"A what now? Bah?”

“*Ba.* It’s a part of the soul that roams when you sleep. It looks
like a bird with the person’s head.”

“Bwahaha! You’d look so weird as a
ba!” Kai cackled. Lio just grunted in reply.

They all sat down to dinner,
thoughtfully provided by Makoa, then Lio showered and headed to bed, not
bothering to stay up and watch television with the others like they normally
did.

Lio had just slid into the sheets
when the door silently opened, revealing Nahele, who had similarly changed into
her nightclothes.

“Lio, are you okay?” she asked
softly.

“Just annoyed. I haven’t seen Mom
in a while, and the fact that someone blocked me from my home when I didn’t do
anything to deserve it, at least, I think I didn’t. I just want this stupidity
to stop, I wish Tamas would give it up already.” He sighed.

“Yeah, that’d be nice, but too much
to hope for. Knowing Tamas, he isn’t going to stop until he gets what he wants,
whatever that is.” Said Nahele sadly, then she softly laid down next to him,
slipping her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder and stroking his
hair. He shut his eyes, finding solace in her touch, her scent of jasmine and
pine wrapping around him in an almost protective cocoon, and her kiss on his
cheek was the last thing he felt as he drifted off to sleep.

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

Lio felt
himself rising up into the air, as weightless as a feather on the wind. He
looked down and saw himself lying on the bed below him, Nahele still curled up
next to him, fast asleep. She was such a sweet girl, he really loved her.

Then he saw
himself, his *ba* self. Sure enough, he had the body of a bird, with his
usual head. Lucky thing nobody else could see him, otherwise he’d never hear
the end of Lio the Amazing Bird Boy.

He focused
on his surroundings, and tried to feel around for the Duat. It was always here,
right underneath the fabric of the living world, he just had to reach it.
There! He concentrated on it and to his satisfaction, was able to smoothly
glide through the transition between dimensions. Life was so much easier as a *ba*,
even if you weren't technically alive as one. There was none of that messy
portal or teleportation business.

He floated
down over the river of fire, following it through the dark realm of the Duat.
He could hear the restless noises of the dead, and feel the hot sulfurous
breeze beneath his ghostly wings. There, up ahead, was the little temple he
shared with his mom. And there were the two serpopards that had attacked him
earlier, sound asleep, letting out funny hissing snores. He noted with much
satisfaction that they did not try to stop him now, they didn’t even stir, as
if they couldn’t feel his presence. He hovered over them, debating whether or
not he should try to do something to get even, but he knew that in this form,
there wasn't much he could do. Resigned, he drifted over the roof of his house,
and began to sink lower, phasing right through the roof and dropping into his
mother’s bedroom.

Ammit was
still awake, sitting on her bed and staring out the window, her eyes circled
with worry, twisting a pillowcase in her clawed hands.

*Mom,* he thought, unable to speak aloud.
Ammit jumped and whirled around, turning her head frantically to find him.
Finally she looked up and spotted him, a great fanged smile spreading across
her face as she saw him for the first time in a while.

“Lio, there
you are! I’ve been worried sick about you! You haven’t visited me in so long,
not even a phone call or a single prayer! And why are you in *ba* form?
Did you die, don’t tell me you’re dead! Surely I would have felt it, I mean,
after all, I am a death god and you are my son-” Ammit gushed, rambling on as
relief rushed over her.

*Mom, it’s been like a week, maybe two. No, I’m not dead, just sleeping. And I tried to visit and call, but my calls were blocked and serpopards attacked me*. Lio
protested, cutting her off before she built up a good head of steam.

“What? How,
what happened?”

*I was wondering that myself. Am I in trouble with any of the gods?*

“No, of course
not. I mean, you may not be the most obedient of children, but you haven’t done
anything that would warrant such treatment. Osiris is perfectly happy with you,
and Anubis actually said he missed seeing you around the Hall of Judgment, he’d
like you to stop by sometime.”

*Really? That’s odd*. *By the way, do you know anything about netjeri knives? I remember you telling me about them once*.

“Oh, yes,
we use them in opening of the mouth ceremonies of the dead, they are used to
enable the dead to speak, eat, see, things like that. Also used on some statues
of gods.”

*Oh, okay then*.

“Say, are
you still with that Nahele girl?”

*Uh, yeah*.

“Oh, well,
I know you two are teenagers, still getting used to your emotions and bodies
and this is your first time being in a relationship, but please remember to be
safe and-”

*MOM!* Lio yelled, his ghostly face turning a bright red with embarrassment. *It’s not like that!*

“Oh, okay
then, but don’t do anything you’ll regret, please? I’m not quite ready to be a
grandmother.”

*MOM, PLEASE!* Lio shrieked, flapping his ethereal wings in protest. He rose into
the air and through the ceiling, escaping before his mother could embarrass him
further. He sailed into the warm breeze, rising swiftly through the Duat, then
the dimensions, reappearing back in his bedroom, hovering over his sleeping
form before finally sinking back into his body.

## Chapter 13

Lio woke and groaned softly, as all the events of last
night’s “trip” came back to him, including all his mother’s embarrassing talks.
His face colored as he remembered her words.

“Mmph, Lio?
You awake?” came Nahele’s slurred voice from behind him as she too awakened,
shifting to lean on her elbow.

“Yeah.” He
said around a yawn.

“Did you
manage to see your mom?”

“I
certainly did.” he replied, face flushing even redder. Nahele leaned over him,
eyes squinting in curiosity at his embarrassed tone. She noticed his pink face
and smirked.

“What did
you guys talk about?” she teased.

“Ah,
well…uh…it was…well…”

“That’s
moms for you. At least, most of them anyway. My mom doesn’t bother giving me
any ‘talks’, she knows I know better.”

“Yeah.”

“But did
you manage to find out why you couldn’t move when you tried to see her?”

“Kinda. She
said that none of the gods had blocked me or anything, so that must mean that
somehow Tamas did it.”

“Wonderful.
Just what we need, another misadventure with that idiot. Anyway, we better get
up, the guys must have breakfast ready by now.” Nahele groaned, flopping back
down.

At the mention of food, Lio began to hastily get up, then
stopped suddenly and turned back to her.

“Were you
here all night?”

“Yeah. I
was going to go back to my room, but it was so comfy here, and I’m lazy.”

“You, lazy?
How do you get muscles like that if you’re lazy, magic?” Lio retorted, poking
her in the belly, where he knew she had toned abs to rival any boy.

“Partially,
yes.” She snickered, then rose to her feet. Lio smirked and followed her out.

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

“So did you
find out what’s happening?” Kimmy asked. The entire gang was gathered around a
single table in the creepateria once more, discussing the weird events that had
been happening all too often.

“Well,
first we went to the Ghost World to see Revenant, but no dice, she’s clean.
Then I decided to ask my mom about some stuff, since she’s a death god and all,
I tried to go to the Duat in person, but it was like moving through quicksand,
not to mention, I was ganged up on by a pair of serpopards. I didn’t manage to
get even a foot in the right direction. I had to visit her in my dreams that
night, in *ba* form.” Lio replied.

“Dude, no
way, that’s awful! Also, what’s a *ba*?” Lily said.

“It’s a
part of the soul that leaves the body and moves around when you’re asleep. It
looks like the person’s head on a bird body.” He explained.

“Nice. Lio
the Amazing Bird Boy.” Kara snickered.

Lio rolled
his eyes. Yep, there it was.

“Enough
about the *ba*. Besides, I’d like to see *you* as a *ba*, you’ll
be Kara the Amazing Flying Octopus.” He retorted. She scowled back, then her
frown eased and she began to crack up.

“Okay,
guys, pull yourselves together! Lio, what did she say about the knife?”
Sangeeta scolded.

“Yeah,
well, she said that they are used in opening of the mouth ceremonies, they are
supposed to give the dead the ability to see, eat, talk, cast spells, stuff
like that.”

“Huh,
wonder what on earth Tamas could need that for?” Lily said, face scrunched in
confusion.

“Whatever
it is, it can’t be anything good.”

“I think we
may have to go there and check it out.” Nahele said.

“I don’t
think we should just yet. He might have something rigged for us. Remember what
I said about serpopards?”

“Yeah,
well, you did say you managed to go back in your dreams.”

“Yeah, my *dreams*!”
Lio retorted.

“Well,
fine, but how are we going to learn anything if we can’t go see for ourselves?”

“I think we
should have maybe someone like a spy, a secret agent of some sort.” Sangeeta
said thoughtfully.

“Oh, yeah!
But who?” Nahele replied.

“I think I
may know just the monster.” Lio said.

“Who?”

“Can’t say
yet, too public. But you be sure to meet me after school, we’ll see if we can
catch up to them.” Lio replied, looking at everyone to make sure that they
understood that he meant them and only the two of them.

“Hey, why
can’t we come too? We don’t want to miss out on the fun!” Kara protested
indignantly.

“We can’t
have too many people, might scare them off. Very anti-social, you know. Don’t
worry, we’ll be sure to tell you all about it when we finish.” He said, then
the bell rang, ending lunch and their meeting.

## Chapter 14

The last bell of the day rang, echoing loudly through the
hall outside. The students all got up and eagerly poured out, Lio casually
slipping into the eager stream, searching the mass of faces for his girlfriend.
Sure enough, there she was, several feet away, and a head taller than the rest.
She waved to him, and he nodded back, then they separated from the rest of the
class and casually wandered into an empty corridor.

“So, who
are we looking for? And shouldn’t we get a move on, I mean, everyone is
leaving.” Nahele said.

“Oh, no
worries, she practically lives here.” Lio replied nonchalantly.

“Remind me
again why we are doing this and who on earth would be crazy enough to go for
it?”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

Lio sighed
and rolled his eyes, but made sure she didn’t see the latter.

“Tamas obviously would have an eye
out for us and if we’re going to find out what’s happening without attracting
much attention, I think it would be best if we had a spy on the inside. It will
be dangerous, but I have just the ghost in mind.” Lio said.

“Who, Spectra?”
Nahele asked.

“No, worse.
Spectra couldn’t handle. You’ll see what I mean.” Lio replied nervously. He led
the way down the hall, and made a turn down a passage, dark and seldom
traveled. He led them all the way to the end, where a purple glowing specter
was floating.

“Viola?”
Lio asked hesitantly. The ghost whirled around to face them, violet and blue
hair swirling through the air, her face fierce and sour.

“Yes? What
do you want?” she snapped, her voice frosty.

“I need
your help. It’s very important.”

“So are a
lot of other things. And what makes you so sure I’ll help you?”

“I’m sure
you would if you knew what it was.”

“What?”

“The
underworld is in chaos, and we need an insider to help us, give us an idea of
what’s happening, since I cannot be there myself.”

“Ha! That
is a lot to ask. No deal.” She said, turning to drift away, her progress
hindered by the iron shackles around her feet, scraping across the tiles. This
gave Lio an idea, and he called out to her before she could fully disappear.

“I will
repay you.” he said quickly, before she was gone. She slowed and turned back
around, her expression that of mild interest.

“Oh, and
what could you possibly give me that I would want? Besides, that price would be
too high.” She snorted and began to leave once more, scowling at her shackles.

“I’ll
release you from your shackles!” Lio hastily said. Viola stopped short again,
her back stiff and straight, and he knew he hit a sore spot. She turned back
once more, slowly.

“What did
you say?” she whispered.

“I will
release you from your shackles.” He repeated. She swooped in uncomfortably
close to the two, her undead breath icy against their faces.

“Oh,
really? And do you have any idea why exactly I was put in these in the first
place?” she hissed. “MURDER. Twenty people. That’s several families right
there. You sure you want to let something like that loose in the world?
Besides, you probably don’t have the power to release me.”

“I know. I
am a demon of death, I can have it arranged. I am sure Osiris would let it be
so.”

“Oh really?
Ha! As if!”

“Viola,
murdering twenty is indeed a severe crime, but what I am asking you to do will save
the lives of millions, perhaps billions. Surely such a deed would outweigh what
you have done and tip judgment in your favor?” he said softly. She regarded him
silently, inwardly puzzled.

“All right,
I’ll do it. But if you do not hold out your end of our bargain, I swear I will
haunt you for all eternity.”

“Deal.” He
agreed. They shook hands, Viola’s ghostly hand freezing like ice. Then the
specter turned and phased through the wall, almost as if she had never been.
The two demigods followed suit and walked away.

“Lio, are
you sure that was a good idea?”

“Nope. But
if it works, it should be worth it.”

“I hope
you’re right.”

“Me
too.”

## Chapter 15

Lio and Nahele arrived home, stepping through the front
door.

“Surprise!”
came a collective yell, causing the two to stumble back. There, in the living
room waiting for their arrival, was every tenant of the house, as well as their
other friends.

“Well,
who’s the unlucky agent?” Kara asked.

“Kara! Is
it really a good idea to be talking about this? Tamas could be magically
over-hearing us or something!” Lio protested.

“You should
have thought of that when we went to meet our little friend.” Nahele said.

“Better
late than never.”

“I don’t
think this is one of those cases in which that applies.”

“Yeah,
well…Charnelle!”

“Don’t
worry, I’ve been keeping a telepathic eye out. We’re safe to talk about it. And
we were fine in the creepateria too. Tamas hasn’t heard of anything.” Charnelle
reassured him.

“Okay good.
The spy we recruited is Viola Bell.”

“Who now?”
said Ikaika.

“Viola.
She’s a ghost, daughter of the Bell Witch, rather unpleasant personality?
Anyway, I thought she’d be perfect for it. She’s sneaky and underhanded, the
only one with enough guts to do the job-despite the fact she no longer *has* guts-, and besides, she’s so unlike
us, how on earth would Tamas guess she’s working for us?” Lio replied. The
group murmured and nodded in agreement. It did seem like she’d be a good
choice.

“So, when
can we expect her to report back?” Lily asked.

“No idea. I
suppose she’ll show up when she has anything relevant. Anyway, let’s have a
party.” Lio replied.

“Party?”
Nahele said, confused at Lio’s sudden change of topic.

“Yeah, why
not? We’re all here, we are no longer in school, so the school rules don’t
apply here. It’s perfect! Besides, we earned it, we got this far, and after all
the times we had to defeat Tamas, I’d say we deserve a break.”

“There is
still the house rules.” Nahele reminded him sternly.

“Aw, come
on.”

“But I do
know a place that doesn’t.”

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

An hour or so later, the entire group appeared in front of
an uncomfortably familiar alley, and piled out of Lani’s car, which for this
trip had transformed into a large bus to accommodate everyone. Nahele led them
down the alley to the entrance of a club.

“Say,
Nahele, isn’t this were Tamas has his hideout?” Lio whispered nervously.

“No way
dude, you think I’d honestly bring us to Tamas’s HQ to party? This is our club,
it always was, we just had to steal it back from him. Now that it’s back under
our control, it’s a lot cooler and you don’t have to freak about the drinks.”

“Oh, okay
then.” He said, still only partially reassured.

The bouncer at the door was a werewolf this time, and she
nodded them in without a single problem. They entered the club, and the steady
throb of bass shook their bodies, tingling their bones with the vibe.

“Cool.” Lio
said, looking around him. The club was packed with tons of young monsters, many
from school, all of which looked like they were having a good time, free of
lotus nectar. And when he looked to the DJ stand, there was Andromeda-42, the
real one this time. But he still felt on edge about being in a place that held
so many negative memories for him.

“Come on,
let’s dance. It’s okay, you’ll be fine here, I’m with you.” Nahele said, her
voice soft. Lio looked at her and met her eyes, which were warm and kind,
reassuring. His tension melted away, and he joined the others on the dance
floor, swaying and stepping in perfect harmony with the other dancers.

On and on
they danced, everyone slowly forgetting their troubles in the music, at least
for the time being, moving as one to the beat, not caring about anything but
that moment. At least, until they got too tired to move and had to take a
breather. Lio gasped and headed towards the back, where he collapsed into a
chair and leaned wearily on the table, panting but grinning. His gaze wandered
across the crowd, then fell on a bewildered looking ghost.

“Brandon
Phantom?” Lio whispered to himself, confused as to why he looked confused. As
if he had heard him, Brandon drifted over, passing through several tables.

“Hey, uh,
hi.” He said.

“Hi.”

“Uh, this
may sound a bit weird, but do you have any idea where we are?”

“It’s a
dance club, it’s actually about twenty minutes away from the school. And how
can you not know where you, didn’t you come here on purpose?” Lio replied.

“No I
didn’t. I was just cruising, you know, through like the afterlife, then I tried
to go solid, but something was keeping me from doing so, then everything went
black, I felt like I was being thrown, then all of a sudden, here I am!”

“Dude that’s
weird. So you got rejected from the underworld?”

“Seems so.”

“Have you
tried going back?”

“Yeah, I
tried to teleport pretty much anywhere, but I can’t. I also tried to turn
human, but it’s like my powers are broken. I can’t do any of my normal powers.
All I got left is phasing and super flexibility, but they both hurt like all
heck. Just going through those tables nearly made me pass out! And don’t even
get me started on superstrength! I feel like a noodle, can’t even lift a
tissue!”

“Dude, that
sucks!”

“No
kidding, I can’t even move that fast either, or I would have tried to leave.”

“I wish
there was something I could do, but even as a death demigod, I got nothing.”
Lio said sadly. Brandon sighed and his ethereal shoulders slumped in defeat.

“One of my
friends might be able to help, I’ll go get them.” Lio continued, not wanting to
make Brandon lose all hope. Brandon nodded, and Lio got up, weaving his way
through the thick crowd of dancers to find his friends. It took him a while, as
everyone had really spread out, but after about five minutes or so, the entire
gang was gathered around a table in the back, intently listening to the two
mansters describing Brandon’s situation. Unfortunately, none of them had any
clue to what his problem was either.

“Normally
I’d guess voodoo of some sort, but considering recent events, I blame Tamas.”
Sangeeta said, idly fiddling with a straw she had nicked from a nearby drink.

“Who?”
Brandon asked, face scrunched in confusion.

“Ah, you
innocent soul, so clueless to the evils of this world, how precious. Tamas is
by far the most despicable creature to walk the earth or any other world. And
we seem to have made our ongoing mission to take him down.” Kara explained.

“Oh.”

“But what
problem would he have with you? You didn’t do anything to antagonize the guy,
did you?” Trevor said.

“No, how
could I, I never even heard of him, until just now.”

“Maybe it
has nothing to do with you as an individual, maybe you have a specific trait
that he’s filtering against, not for you, but someone else, and you just got
caught in the crossfire.” Charnelle suggested.

“Good point.”
Lily replied, pointing thoughtfully at her.

“Whatever
it is, maybe our friend can tell us…if she returns.” Lio said, and everyone
fell silent at that thought, their cheerful mood quickly crushed as reality
struck them once more.

“I think we
had best go home. Brandon, do you think you could head home too?” Nahele said
softly.

“No, it’s
too far. And I can’t call my parents either, electronics go nuts around me now.
I even fried a robot here.” Brandon said glumly.

“You could
stay with us. We have plenty of room.” Ikaika offered.

“Yeah,
that’s a good idea, let’s go!” Nahele agreed, and the group rose in unison,
skirting the crowd as they headed to the exit, carefully keeping their pace
slow enough for Brandon to keep up. They all passed through the doorway,
Brandon the last to go, but just as he was about to step outside, he hit an
invisible barrier and stumbled back.

“Oh no, I
knew it was too good to be true.” Brandon sighed sadly.

“What?
What’s happening?” Lily said, baffled.

“I think
he’s gone full ghost. Ghosts can’t leave their place of haunting, the few that
can are very rare. And apparently the club is Brandon’s new haunt. He’s more or
less anchored here.” Sangeeta said.

“Just my
luck, isn’t it?” Brandon mumbled.

“Oh! But
can’t they pass freely if they are attached to an object instead of a place?
That’s how some ghosts are able to haunt new places, right?” Lio exclaimed,
delighted with his flash of brilliance.

“Yes of
course! Nice going there, Death Boy!” Sangeeta smiled.

“But what
can he possess? Isn’t it usually an object from the original haunt?” Lio
replied.

“How about
this, think it’d do?” Kara said, ripping a nearby nail right out of the wall.

“Kara,
really? That’s technically property damage.” Nahele protested.

“So? Sue
me.” Kara retorted.

“Not really
my color, but it should work. At least I hope it does.” Brandon said. Kara
stuck her hand holding the nail through the doorway to Brandon’s side. He
concentrated, focusing as hard as he could on the tiny steel shard. His body
began to swirl, growing smaller and smaller, then finally disappearing into the
nail with a twist.

“Okay, did
I do it?” came Brandon’s distorted voice.

“Yeah, you *nailed* it.” Kara said, cracking up.

“Oh, ha
ha.” Snorted Nahele sarcastically.

“Hey, that
was actually funny.” Lio said in her defense.

“Yeah, see,
the Amazing Bird Boy agrees with me!” Kara said.

“Enough
with the bird boy thing!” Lio snapped.

“All right
guys, drop it, we’re wasting time.” Lani sighed, motioning for them to follow
her as she headed to her car/bus. They all piled on and took a seat, Kara
eyeing the nail awkwardly.

“Hey, uh,
could any of you guys take this by any chance? I mean, no offense Brandon or
anything, but this is a bit too weird for me.” She said, holding it away from
her like it was radioactive.

“None
taken, it’s pretty weird for me too. I’ve possessed tons of things, but I don’t
think I’ve ever been a nail before.” Said Brandon from his new home.

“Cool.
Anybody want this thing?” she said, waving it around. All the other demigods
eyed it and shifted awkwardly. Finally Makoa reached out a pale hand, and Kara
dropped the Brandon-nail into it. Makoa looked at it almost fondly, as if he
was protecting something precious, and delicately slipped it into a pocket in
his hoodie.

## Chapter 16

“Well, here we are.” said Ikaika,
once the crew had arrived at their house. “Your passenger still okay?”

Makoa reached into his pocket and
pulled out the nail. Lio eyed it, but saw nothing special about it, then leaned
in close.

“Brandon, you still there?” he
yelled.

A thick ectoplasmic mist swirled
out of the tip of the nail like a bizarre genie bottle, condensing to form
Brandon, who was rubbing his ear and giving Lio an unhappy look.

“Dude, not need to yell, I can hear
you just fine! Yeah, I’m still here, obviously. Now, where is here?” he
grumbled.

“You’re at our house, or have you
forgotten what we planned?”

“I’m stuck in ghost form and forced
to haunt a nail, I have other things on my mind at the moment.” Brandon huffed.

“Yes, well, now that you’re here,
I’ll take you to our spare room, you can, uh, haunt it for now.” Nahele said,
taking the nail and turning to head up the stairs, Brandon following at a slow
drift.

“Okay, now what do we do? How are
we going to help him and figure out what’s going on?” Kara said.

“Well, I personally am waiting for
our spy to report back and let me know what she finds, but so far she hasn’t
shown her face.” Lio sighed.

“If she even found anything.”
Ikaika reminded him.

“Yeah, *if*.”

And at that hopeless thought,
everyone headed to bed, half of them teleporting back home.

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

Lio stirred, then lay still, wide-awake as he sensed a
presence in his room. The temperature seemed to drop and a cold breeze wafted
over him, even though his windows and door were shut and locked. On edge now,
he slowly rolled over, moving very slightly, terrified of what he might see.
But that didn’t stop him from yelping anyway when he saw what, or more
appropriately, who it was.

“Viola!
Geez, what are you doing here?” Lio shrieked.

“Calm down,
I showed up to report back, I figured you’d want to hear what I got ASAP.”
Viola retorted.

“Well, what
did you find out then?” Lio replied in a lower tone, his heart still racing
wildly.

“Not much
really-”

“What! Then
what are you doing here?”

“Ugh, let
me finish! I was saying, not much really, I don’t know why he’s doing it, or
his future plans, but I did find out that he put up an enchanted block between
the realms of the living and the dead.”

“Who did?”

“Tamas.”

“I thought
so.” Lio said, shuddering. “What sort of block?”

“Not fully
sure, but it would appear that it doesn’t allow physical bodies to pass
through. If you want to get in, you’ll have to be dead. Or disembodied.” Viola
said. Lio groaned and rubbed his face.

“Wonderful.
Just what I needed to hear at three in the morning.” he grumbled.

“It’s
actually five in the morning. I’ll be going now, but don’t you forget your end
of the deal.” Viola said cheerily, then phased through the wall. Lio groaned
again and flopped down. He tried to drift back off to sleep to catch the last
few hours of sleep he could get, but his mind was wandering, trying to process
what she had said. Obviously they had to go into the Underworld to stop him
from doing whatever it was he was planning, but how? If they couldn’t bring
their bodies with them, how would they possibly have enough strength to defeat
him, ghosts weren’t exactly known for their physical fighting ability. And how
would they even separate their souls from their bodies without dying? He had
heard about the Boogey Sand that Twyla had that could turn them into ghosts,
but her father was less than likely to let her use any of that again,
especially after the fiasco that had happened with that stuff. He had heard of
a few shamanic rituals that were supposed to cause out of body experiences, but
most of that was just hallucinations caused by drugs. Charnelle could easily
slip out of her body like it was a change of clothes, but she was the only one
capable of that. His mom and Uncle Anubis might know of something, but still,
things did not look pleasant. Lio sighed and stared at the ceiling.

His door
creaked slowly open, revealing Nahele on the other side, her hair a complete
mess and her eyes half-closed with sleep.

“Hey, you
okay? What happened, I heard something.” She slurred.

“Viola
dropped by, scared the crap out of me, but at least I have some idea of what’s
happening.”

“Oh?
Normally I’d ask you to fill me in, but I don’t think I’m conscious enough yet,
and we should wait to tell everyone at once. What time is it?”

“Good idea.
It’s five.”

“Ugh, budge
over will you? I don’t think I can make it back to my room.” She groaned. He
scooted over and she slipped in the bed next to him, and was passed out within
a minute. Lio snuggled back down and managed to drift off himself.

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

“Well, good
morning! Did you kids have fun last night?” came Lani’s teasing voice. Nahele
stirred and grumbled something quite rude that Lio totally agreed with.

“My, my,
didn’t get enough sleep? Lio, you naughty boy, keeping a girl up like that.”
Lani replied, the mirth in her voice growing. Lio felt his face burn, even
though they had done none of the things she was implying.

“Lani?”
Nahele growled.

“Yes
sweetheart?”

“Shut your
face right now before I come over there and shut it for you.”

“Yes dear.”
Her cousin giggled, then turned and walked out with a flirty wink.

“Good gods,
your family is annoying.” Lio groaned.

“No, you
don’t say?” Nahele replied sarcastically. Then the door reopened and Lani
popped her head back in.

“Oh, I
nearly forgot, there was a reason for me coming up here besides mocking you. If
you two don’t get your lazy butts out of bed right now, we’re going to be
really late for school.” She said, then shut the door and left.

“Oh
wonderful. I hope they left us some breakfast.” Nahele sighed.

“If they
didn’t, I’m going to eat *them*.” Lio said, rolling out of bed. Nahele got
up and went to her own room, and the two changed, brushed their teeth and
dashed down the stairs as fast as they could, Lio nearly falling on his face as
his clumsy hippo feet stumbled on the steps. Luckily, the others had indeed
saved them some breakfast, even being considerate enough to take Lio’s colossal
appetite into account.

“Hurry up
and eat, guys, we are going to be late!” Ikaika urged.

“So I’ve
heard.” Lio growled, then sat down and started stuffing his face as fast as he
could. “Oh, by the way, I got a report from our spy this morning, but if we
don’t have enough time, let’s meet up at lunch, and bring the others.”

They nodded, and when
the two were finished, they all went outside and teleported, it being too late
for them to drive.

When the blackness faded and the school appeared, Lio
swayed, managing to keep his feet as the world still spun. Still not very
pleasant, but it was better than all the passing out he’d do before. The others
shook their heads, trying to rid themselves of similar dizziness, then they all
raced up the stairs and into the school, each managing to make it to their
seats in their respective classes before the bell rang.

## Chapter 17

The demigods met up once more at their usual isolated table
in the creepateria, waiting to hear what report Lio had.

“So,
everybody here?” Lio asked, despite the fact it was pretty obvious everyone
was. They all nodded, some giving him a sarcastic look.

“Hey, did
someone bring Brandon? After what happened to him, we might as well include the
guy.” He suddenly realized. Makoa nodded and held up the nail.

“Ah, good.
Hey, Brandon, you there? Can you hear me okay?”

“Loud and
clear. I think I better stay in here, I don’t seem to be strong enough to hold
a form, so I better preserve what little energy I got.”

“Cool. Now,
last night I got a visit from our…uh…little friend. She showed up in my room,
totally uninvited might I add, and told me what she knew about what’s been
going on. Turns out, it’s like we expected, Tamas.”

“Oh
wonderful. I hate that guy.” Kara groaned.

“Yeah, but
wait, there’s more. Supposedly he has put an enchantment of some sort to keep
physical bodies from travelling into the afterlife. Basically if you’re alive,
you can’t come in. So, he’s got a block up against us, he’s taking no chances.”

“Wow, this
just gets better and better. We can’t stop him without dying first, and when
we’re dead, we won’t be strong enough to stop him, as ghosts aren’t the best
fighters. And I highly doubt we want to waste our lives for his sake.” Lily
grumbled.

“I’ve been
thinking about how we could possibly get down there to defeat him, but I can’t
think of anything that *doesn’t*
include dying first that we can easily do.” Lio sighed.

“But, what
if we didn’t have to die? What if there was a way to be a ghost without losing
your life?” Charnelle said slowly.

“What do
you mean? The only thing I know of that can do that is Boogey Sand, but I
highly doubt Twyla’s dad will let us use any, since he doesn’t know us, and
there was that whole mess with it.”

“Yes, but
that altered your physical form, what I am saying is different. You would be a
real ghost, separate from your body, but you would not be dead.”

“So like an
out-of-body experience?”

“Well, kind
of. It is like what I do, slipping out my body like a banana out of a peel. You
actually leave your body, but it is easier to return than actual death. It is
hard to describe, but it should work.”

“But
wouldn’t that still make us ghosts, and as Lily said, ghost’s aren’t strong.”

“Not
really, actually. A ghost is an imprint of a person, their memories. But a soul
is more than that; it is a deeper force, beyond the individual. This procedure
is both, it brings out both the soul and ghost, so you will have your powers, just
not your body. However, if you do use your powers, it will be more raw, as it
will not be filtered by your body. You will be more powerful, but it will be
harder.”

“Sounds
interesting, how do we do this?” Trevor said.

“Well, meet
me after school, up at the attic by the Ghost World door.”

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

The entire crew met up in the attic after the last bell
rang, waiting by Spectra’s portal. Kimmy looked around at the large crowd
standing there with her. They really had grown, from seven or so, to this crowd
of over a dozen. Possibly too many, but who knows, against a nut like Tamas, a
small army might be just the thing.

“So, I
presume everyone is here. Now we can move on with my plan, starting by going
through this door.” Charnelle said, looking around to make sure everyone was
indeed here.

“But I
thought we agreed that Boogey Sand was out of the question?” Lio said.

“Forget the
darned sand for a moment will you? What I am doing does not require sand!
However, we do need Cheryl, and to find her, we have to go to the Ghost World,
so here we are!” Charnelle huffed, then threw the door open wide. They all
stepped through the door and onto the deck of a large ship.

“Ah, good,
you got my message.” Charnelle said to the ghoul at the helm.

“Kio, what
are you doing here?” Trevor asked, surprised at seeing his cousin standing next
to the daughter of Charon. He smiled and winked, or at least it looked like he
did, it was hard to tell what was happening behind his dark sunglasses.

“Hey man, I
heard that my girlfriend was feeling lonely, so I dropped by to visit.” He
said, looping his arm around Cheryl’s waist.

“But, I
thought you were grounded.”

“I am.”

“Then how
come you are here?”

“This world
co-exists with ours, so while I am here, I am also technically there.”

“That’s
confusing.”

“I know.
And also a total lie, I’m totally breaking the rules right now, my folks aren’t
home, so I seized the chance to sneak away.”

“Dude,
you’re so going to get it if your mom finds out.”

“I know,
but seeing Gorgeous here again was totally worth it.” Kio replied, grinning
broadly and planting a kiss on Cheryl’s cheek, making her deathly grey face
turn the slightest shade of pink.

“All right,
enough about that, how are we going to get to the afterlife without being
destroyed?” Lio butted in.

“Simple, I
am going to reap your souls.” Cheryl replied.

“Um, excuse
me? I thought we weren’t going to die?”

“Technically
you’ll still be fine, I’ll be doing this a bit differently, it’s hard to
explain, but you’ll recover. And if things don’t go as planned, don’t worry
about it, you’ll be fine, it’s not permanent. At least, not always.”

“Okay then,
but does it have anything to do with that terrifying thing over there? Because
I am not sure how comfortable I am with that thing being near me.” He said,
pointing to an overlarge reaper scythe propped up on the railing near Cheryl,
it’s wicked blade gleaming silver in the twilight.

“Oh no, not
at all. That I only use for permanent deaths. Though if any of you have a
problem with the technique I will be using, I may have to.” Cheryl replied
sweetly.

“Oh
wonderful.” Lio groaned, rolling his eyes.

“Kio, I
don’t know if you’ll be able to pass through the barrier yourself, so you can
either join them…or return home.” She said wistfully, turning sadly to her
boyfriend.

“Hmm, well,
I don’t want to leave you, but at the same time being separated from my body
doesn’t seem too hot a prospect, as much as I trust you with my life and all,
so I think I should head home, my parents should be returning soon anyway. But
I will try to drop by again as soon as I can. Love you, babe.” Kio said,
kissing her once more before disappearing in a purple flash. Cheryl looked
disappointed, but she took a deep breath and motioned to the others.

“Well, to
start off, you may want to lie down, when you leave your bodies they’ll fall
down and I don’t think you’ll be wanting to deal with some injuries when you
return.”

The group obeyed, laying flat on the deck, scooting around a
bit and bumping into each other as the tried to make sure they each had enough
room. When they were all decently comfortable, Cheryl took another deep breath
and slowly let it out through her mouth, blowing a frigid breeze over them.
They shivered and their bodies tingled as if they were being filled with soda,
with little bubbles tickling everywhere. Then it felt like the world was
falling away, or they were rising, and a sense of weightlessness. They felt so
free, as light as air, and Kimmy, really taking pleasure in the feeling, turned
to her boyfriend.

“Trevor, is
this what flying feels like?” she asked.

“Kinda, but
with your body included.” He replied.

“What?”

“Look
down.”

And they all did, and saw-to their shock and surprise-
themselves, lying still and cold on the deck below them. Cheryl beamed and
waved up at the new ghostified crew.

“Hey guys,
how does it feel?” she called.

“Incredible.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt this weightless, even underwater.” Lio said,
floating aimlessly over the ship.

“Well, you
guys better be careful. It’s easy to get lost in spirit form. Not to mention,
if you start to forget who you are, you’ll start to dissipate. Luckily you’ve
also got your identity included in this form, so that shouldn’t give you too
much trouble. However, if you notice your edges starting to get fuzzy, remember
who you are, and why you are here, and that should be enough to pull you
together again. Also, you are more capable to manipulating solids that most
ghosts, so you can pick up objects much easier, but you also will be more solid
yourselves, so be careful when trying to phase through things, you might remain
solid and crash, which will look funny seeing as you are trying to be ghosts,
who don’t really have that problem. Well, I think that just about covers it.”
Cheryl said.

“Any time
limit?” Lily asked.

“In terms
of being separated from your bodies under normal circumstances, not really, no.
If you guys were doing this on your own, I’d say return before decay sets in,
but since I’m watching your bodies, that won’t happen, so take as long as you
need. But since you are here in the afterlife, you must keep in mind that the
longer you remain here, the stronger the draw of this realm on your souls. Stay
too long, and you won’t be able to leave. I’d say that gives you about a week,
depending on your willpower. But I don’t think it’ll take that long.”

“So much for
‘that just about covers it’. Anything else to add to that encyclopedia of
rules?” Nahele asked sarcastically.

“No, I’m
pretty sure that should do. Well, go have fun guys, and don’t get lost! I’d
hate to have to come in after you!” she said, cheerily waving them off the
ship. The ghostly group drifted uncertainly off the boat and out over the sea.

## Chapter 18

“So, anyone have any idea where the
heck we’re going?” Kara asked eventually as they aimlessly drifted over the
misty sea.

“Yeah,
seriously Lio, where are we going?” Lily added. Lio groaned and rolled his
eyes.

“I don’t
know man, I’m just trying it find it here.” He huffed.

“What,
follow the yellow brick road to Egypt or something? Sniff it out?” Trevor said.

“Guys,
enough already! I’m trying as hard as I can, but it is really hard to find the
Duat in here, there are so many other afterlives to pass through. Like right
below us is the Mesopotamian underworld.” Lio snapped, exasperated. The others
looked down to see a bunch of people covered in feathers sitting in the dark
eating dirt.

“Wow, was
this their hell?” Kara asked.

“Nope, they
didn’t really have any hell or heaven, this is more or less where everyone went
when they died.” Lio replied.

“Well,
that’s depressing. All they had to look forward to was eating dirt.” Kara
replied.

“Yeah, not
much of a sense of imagination there. The Japanese however had tons of
imagination, so I do hope we don’t have to pass over Jigoku, that place is
unbelievably awful. The worst part of Jigoku is said to be so horrible it
cannot be accurately described without the author or reader dying of terror.”

“Wow, that
sounds dramatic.”

“No
kidding. So you can imagine how horrible passing above that must be.”

“Yeah,
let’s try to avoid that one, please.” Charnelle said lightly.

They drifted on in silence, the grey mist swirling around
them. Then strange cries and screams began to drift up from the mist below
them, mixed with the calls of strange birds and animals.

“Oh no,
it’s Jigoku.” Kara gulped. Everyone tensed, then Lio looked down.

“No, it’s
not, it’s just Meido. Kinda like a Buddhist Purgatory, kinda. Not nearly as bad
as Jigoku, but still pretty awful. Let’s hurry up, shall we?” Lio replied.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and floated on.

After a while, Trevor spoke up.

“I don’t
mean to sound like a little kid, but are we there yet?”

“I don’t
know, but it does seem like we’re getting closer, it’s starting to feel more
familiar.” Lio replied.

“Really?
Which one is that one below us?” Kimmy asked, pointing.

“Oh, that,
that’s Hades. And over there you can see Elysium.”

Everyone looked, then oohed and aahed at the sight of the
small paradise, glowing bright with sunlight and radiating sheer happiness.

“Wow, that
looks nice!” Kimmy remarked.

“It is,
I’ve been there.” Trevor replied.

“Really?”

“Yeah,
visited the family there.”

“Say, I know
we just say Elysium down there, but where are all the other heavens? Are they
below us too?”

“No,
they’re above us, the only reason why Elysium was down there was because it was
believed to be underground.” Lio replied. and at that, everyone looked up and
saw fluffy white clouds reflecting all sorts of lovely colors.

“Oh, hey,
look, that’s Swarglok!” Kara cried, pointing to a brilliant throne room in
which a group of nymphs were dancing. Everyone looked up and Kimmy squealed
with delight.

“Look, my
dad is there! Hi Dad!” she cried, waving enthusiastically. The green face of
Kamadev looked down in surprise, then he waved back as he recognized his
daughter. Then when he spotted Trevor gliding next to her, he scowled
ferociously, and everyone was glad when Swarglok was swept past above them.

“Aha! I
think we’re getting close now, I can feel it!” Lio exclaimed.

“Oh thank
goodness, took long enough.” Trevor grumbled. The mist below them shifted and
swirled, then parted, revealing a dark land, cut through by a shadowy river.
The smell of sulfur and other Underworld-ly stuff rose up to meet them, as did
the sounds of many souls, whispering and shrieking. They began to descend,
landing in a shadowy orchard of some sort.

“Are those
trees made of turquoise?” Kimmy asked, pointing to the oddly blue leaves.

“Yeah,
actually, they are. They’re one of the prettier things about this place. Man,
it feels good to be home!” Lio said, stretching and smiling happily, taking a
deep breath of the hellish air. The others looked at him funny. This seemed
like a very odd place for someone to get homesick over.

“Okay,
then, now that we are here, where do you think Tamas is?” Kara asked.

“Hmm, let’s
see now. I doubt he’d be in the Hall of Judgment, as it has several gods in it
everyday, like Osiris, Anubis, and my mom, as well as the other judgment gods,
so as tough as Tamas thinks he is, nobody with an ounce of sense would dare
take on those guys. I would guess probably either the Eighth House, aka the
House of Challenges, or the Land of Demons, though how he could navigate it
successfully is anyone’s guess. Both of them seem like his type of thing.” Lio
said.

“So, which
one should we go for first?” Lily asked.

“I dunno,
maybe we should see if Charnelle can sense him.” Lio said, looking at the
vetal. But Charnelle shook her head sadly at them.

“I’m sorry,
I cannot feel him or much of anything down here. It’s like my senses are being
covered by a wet blanket, I can’t get even the slightest hint of psychic
anything. I think it is because I am so far out of my own realm and culture,
everything here is so strange to me.” She said sadly.

“Well, if
it is having that effect on you, maybe it is the same for Tamas, and he won’t
be able to sense us coming. It could be an advantage on our part.” Kimmy said
hopefully.

“I hope so,
but it would be nice if Charnelle could find him, give us a further edge. Ah
well, I suppose it’d be too much to hope for.” Kara said.

“Okay,
then, if that is no longer a possibility, let’s try to use logic. Which one of
those two would be a more likely candidate?” said Trevor.

“They are
both difficult, but the Land of Demons is only really easy to navigate by
demons, or those who have a copy of the Book of Thoth, which seems unlikely, as
I don’t remember stealing a scroll of any sort for him. Or it could be
navigated by a demigod of death, like me or Anuntehp, so as great the Land of
Demons is for defense, I don’t think he’ll be there. The Eighth House makes
sense though. While Ra travels through there on his sunboat every night, and
being a god of light, he’d contrast sharply with Tamas, at the same time, the
Eighth House can only be accessed in the eighth hour of night, no sooner, no
later, so it would give him added protection. I think we should go there.” Lio
said.

“Great, now
where is it?” Trevor replied.

“I think we
should follow the river. Ra takes his boat down it every night, and he must
pass through each house, so I think it should take us there.” Lio said
confidently, and began to drift along the riverbank. The others shrugged and
followed.

## Chapter 19

The group drifted along for some time, until Lio halted
abruptly and slapped his forehead with his palm, or at least tried to, as doing
anything like that while mostly immaterial was rather difficult.

“Dang it!
How could I be so stupid? I totally forgot! Ugh!” he exclaimed, annoyed.

“What, what
happened?” Kara asked.

“I
completely forgot that we can’t enter so much as a single Gate from the bank,
they can only be entered from the river, like Ra does every night! I can’t
believe we walked all this way for nothing! Now we have to go back to the First
Gate.” He groaned.

Everyone
groaned with him, and a chorus of complains broke out.

“Ugh,
seriously dude? We went all this way for nothing?” Ikaika groaned.

“I do hope
we didn’t waste too much time. Cheryl did say that if we stayed too long here,
we would not be able to return.” Kimmy fretted.

“No
worries, she gave us a week.” Lani said with a dismissive shrug.

“That may
be so, but time travels differently in the afterlife, sometimes with different
speeds in the same realm. A week of the time where we started might not be a
week where we are. It might be a month, or more likely, a few hours.” Charnelle
warned. Everyone considered it, and gulped.

“Well, what
are we waiting for? Let’s get a move on before we disappear!” Lily cried.

“Yes, lets.
But where are we going to go now?” Trevor agreed, looking pointedly at Lio.

“We have to
reach the First Gate. Come on.” Lio said, and turned around, heading back the
way they came, moving as fast as he could in ghost form.

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

Some time later the group arrived at the First Gate, mildly
tired, but now with a greater mastery of drifting.

“Okay, now
what?” Kara asked.

“Well, we
have to travel by river.” Lio started.

“You mean
on that very sketchy looking river right there?” Trevor asked, pointing at the
flow of liquid shadow passing beside them.

“Yep,
that’s the one.” Lio confirmed, somewhat grimly.

“And how
are we going to do that?” Kara asked sarcastically.

“Well, we
are going to go by boat. Unfortunately, the only boat I know of that can handle
the trip…well, we can’t just go and get it.” Lio said slowly.

“Why, which
one is it?” Lily asked.

“Ra’s. And
he’s a pretty big deal, so borrowing his barque is kinda unlikely.”

“Barque?
What the heck is that, I thought we were after his boat?” Ikaika asked,
scrunching his face up in confusion.

"A barque *is* a boat, dummy.” Lio groaned, rolling his eyes.

“Maybe we
can just, you know, float over the river, since we can drift like ghosts and
all.” Kimmy suggested.

“Not unless
you want to get snatched by something, or dragged under by the river itself.”

“Oh. Well,
maybe we can use a different boat?”

“Really? Do
you know of any other boat that can take that kind of…that? Can any other boat
stand being tossed about by gods knows what, survive a splashdown into a lake
of fire, or even float on a river of darkness? I don’t, all the ones I have met
just sink or get utterly destroyed.” Lio asked sarcastically, jerking his thumb
back at the river, which had chosen that moment to flare suddenly, swirling
with a thick myriad of shadows, stirred by the sulfuric breeze, which
conveniently also brought a chorus of eerie wails with it. Kimmy shuddered and
shook her head.

“Yeah,
exactly. But, I guess we gotta do what we gotta do. Come on, let’s just get
this over with already.” Lio grumbled, and led the way to the dock.

The dock was fairly small, just a small wooden platform made
of several planks stretching out over the shadowy river. Only one boat was
docked there, a large golden barque. The barque wasn’t gold like the metal, but
more so ancient wood with a fiery undertone, as if bathed in a faint golden
flame. A single linen sail hung from the mast, the white cloth etched with
faint gold hieroglyphs that rippled and shimmered in the faint light. And
standing before the whole thing, right in their path, was a lone figure,
scowling most distastefully at them.

“Cyrus!
What are you doing here?” Lio asked surprised.

“I might ask
you the same thing. Surely you lot aren’t dead, I would have felt it. And even
if I missed your passing, you would be extremely lost, being here instead of on
your way to the Hall of Judgment.” The green demigod said, arching his eyebrow,
his tone dripping with suspicion.

“None of
your business.” Lio snapped.

“Mm-hm.
Sure it isn’t.”

“Seriously
Cyrus, you have no idea what we are doing here.”

“Indeed I
don’t. Care to enlighten me?”

“I don’t
have the time. Will you please just move and let us take the boat already?”

“Oh? What
need do you have for the boat of Ra, the almighty lord of the sun, old king of
the gods?”

“None of
your business! Now shoo!”

“I’m afraid
I can’t let you do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because
this barque is the property of Ra, and you do not have the authority to take it.
It is against all rules for you to sail this craft, especially against his
will.”

“Ugh, just
get lost already! You were always such a pain!” Lio growled and shoved Cyrus.

“Fine. But
don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Cyrus said with a nasty smirk, and he faded into
the shadows.

“Ugh, he’s
so annoying! What the hell was he doing here anyway? It’s like he knew we were
coming! Anyway, come on, get aboard, we don’t have much time to lose.” Lio
said, and touched the barque’s hull. The light coating of flame that surrounded
the ship suddenly flared up with his touch, turning the boat white hot, and Lio
yelped, leaping backwards and jerking back his scorched hand. A massive voice,
loud and booming, echoed across the river.

“WHO DARE
TOUCH THE BOAT OF RA, LORD OF THE HEAVENS?”

A great column of bright flame
burst into being before the terrified demigods, solidifying into a tall,
falcon-headed man, flames leaping from his skin, and on his sharp, bird face
was a very unhappy look indeed.

## Chapter 20

The demigods quailed before the
god’s anger, his rage rolling off his body like waves of heat, which were also
radiating from his tanned skin.

“WELL? SPEAK, OR SHALL I BLAST YOU
AND BE DONE WITH IT?” he roared again.

“Lord Ra, Grandfather, I am most
sorry! Thing is, well…I…uh….” Lio stammered.

“WELL WHAT?” Ra thundered
impatiently, his eyes glowing with fire.

“I kinda need to use your boat.”
Lio finished meekly.

“WHAT FOR?”

“We’re trying to save the world…or
at least figure out what is happening to the dead, why they are getting lost.
We think the reason is in one of the Houses, but we need to be able to pass
through on the river, and for that we need your boat.”

“SHOULDN’T YOU BE ABLE TO DO THAT
ON YOUR OWN? DEAD PASS THROUGH THE TWELVE GATES ALL THE TIME.”

“Yes, true, but you see, we are not
dead. Not really anyway. Or at least most of us. But the point is, we won’t be
able to survive the river by ourselves, and your great boat is the only thing
that can take the trip.”

“AND WHY IS THIS JOURNEY SO
IMPORTANT TO YOU THAT YOU DARE RISK PROVOKING MY WRATH?”

“Well, we believe that this may
affect the fate of the world, that unless we stop this breach of the dead into
the realm of the living, the world as we know it may end. And the cause is
somewhere here, possibly in the Eight House.”

“AND YOU HONESTLY THINK THAT MERE
GODLINGS CAN ACCOMPLISH SO MIGHTY A TASK, WHICH YOU CLAIM IT IS?”

“Yes. You gods don’t seem to have
noticed it.”

“YOU DARE SUGGEST THAT I AM
INCOMPITENT AT DEALING WITH SUCH THINGS MYSELF?”

“No, no, not at all! It’s just that
as gods, you all are so busy, especially you. You always have to take the sun
through the sky every day and bring it home to recover here. You are out there
during the day, and only arrive in the Duat at night, and then you have to pass
through every gate, while battling Apophis. You’re simply too busy, a little
thing like this would understandably pass your notice. But as demigods, we
aren’t as busy as you, and we can take the time out to investigate it. With us
in charge of this, you won’t have to waste any of your precious time on
something so trivial.” Lio amended hastily. The god seemed to consider this,
and his anger diminished, if only just by a hair.

“YOU DO REALIZE THAT THOSE DANGERS
YOU SPEAK YOU TOO WILL FACE ON YOUR JOURNEY. AND AS YOU MENTIONED, *US GODS* ARE *TOO BUSY* TO ACCOMPANY YOU AND PROTECT YOU FROM SUCH THINGS?”

“Yes, I know. We will take care of
ourselves, thank you.”

“HMF. WELL, IF YOU THINK YOU CAN
HANDLE, I SUPPOSE YOU MAY TAKE IT, *BUT*
JUST THIS ONCE*! YOU MUST BRING IT BACK BEFORE SUNSET, AND IT MUST BE IN*
PERFECT CONDITION! YOU’RE LUCKY THAT IT’S DAYTIME AND I DON’T NEED IT AT THE
MOMENT.” Ra boomed, bending down to pin Lio under his fierce gaze. Lio squirmed
uncomfortably under his scrutiny, and an almost wicked gleam entered the god’s
eye.

“Yes, of course!” Lio agreed,
nervous.

“THEN SO BE IT! AND BE OFF WITH
YOU!” The god straightened up and burst into flames, which then cleared to
reveal that the god had disappeared.

“Phew! That was a close one! I
thought we were toast for sure!” Lio gasped. He gingerly climbed aboard the
barque, weak at the knees with relief. The others followed warily, afraid the
sun god would change his mind and reappear to zap them after all.

“I didn’t really like the look on
his face, right before he left. It was like he knew something we missed.”
Trevor grumbled.

“Something we missed! Oh no! I
forgot!” Lio cried despairingly.

“Oh great, another one. What is it
this time?” Kara groaned.

“I can’t believe that I mentioned
Apophis and forgot about him at the same time!”

“What about him?”

“Ra would always battle with him
every time he made the journey down the river, and so will we! But Ra at least
had a bunch of gods to help him, like Bast and Isis, and even Set! But we don’t
have anyone, and we aren’t strong enough to take on someone like that! You guys
don’t know much about him, and I certainly can’t take him on by myself! What
are we going to do?” Lio wailed, burying his face in his hands.

“Well, we are just going to have to
find the next best thing to the gods.” Nahele sighed. Lio looked sharply at
her, eyes wide as an idea dawned on to him.

“That’s it! You’re brilliant!” he
cried, rushing over to her and giving her a fierce kiss. “That’s what we can
do, find others to take their place, like their children, demigods like us! I
know of a few cousins that could help! C’mon, let’s go! We haven’t a moment to
lose!”

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

Lio led them to a grove of
turquoise trees, right in the middle of which was a large clearing. Well above
their heads soared a teenage boy with large wings, the light catching on his
feathers and throwing off a myriad of rainbow colors. He glanced down and
spotted them, then spiraled in for a landing.

“Hello Lio. What are you doing
here?” the boy asked, tossing a black curl away from his face.

“Khopesh, these are my friends.
Guys, this is Khopesh, he’s the son of Horus.” Lio said, introducing him to the
group.

“Hey. But still, why are you here?
I haven’t seen you in forever, yet here you suddenly are. What gives?”

“Sorry dude. Kinda a long story,
will fully fill you in later, but right now, we seriously need your help. In a
nutshell, we are taking Ra’s boat, but we need a good crew, since the gods
won’t go with us. We need you and perhaps just one other.”

“Wow. Why do you need me in
particular though?”

“We need someone who can fight off
Apophis!” Kimmy piped up. Khopesh’s kohl-lined eyes glared dangerously at her,
so very reminiscent of a bird of prey.

“Thou mustn’t speak his name, not
even his Greek one, when we are here, so close to where he lies. It is
foolishness to risk invoking him. And besides, I cannot battle him, the one who
fought him off on Ra’s journey was…oh no. Lio, you could not possibly mean *him*.” Khopesh said, his tone wary as he
gave Lio a horrified look.

“Yes, unfortunately, I do mean
him.” Lio confirmed.

“Oh no, surely not! I just managed
to lock him up!” Khopesh groaned.

“Well, you’re just going to have to
release him. He is very crucial to our success.”

“Ugh. But so you know, I am doing
this under protest.”

“I know.”

“Lio?” Kimmy asked.

“Yeah?”

“Who is this locked up person?”

“You’ll see.” And his tone was very
grim indeed.

\*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*          \*

They arrived at a very hostile
looking little building, its walls made of solid iron. Khopesh led them inside,
and they all squinted, as it was even darker in here than it was out there.
Khopesh held up his hand and whispered a few soft words. Fiery hieroglyphs
burned into being, floating up above his head and providing enough light to
illuminate the room. On the other side was a single cell, like that of a
prison, complete with a wall of iron bars. A lone figure reclined casually on
the sagging cot, caught in the hieroglyphs reddish-orange light. It rose to its
feet and slowly sauntered over, relaxed as could be. The light revealed it to
be a tall, muscular Egyptian demigod, with tanned skin of a ruddy tinge-though
this could have been the light, a shaven head, and a rather wicked, chiseled
face, with black eyes playing mischievously from amidst thick kohl, an evil
grin on thick lips.

“Well, I knew you’d be back for me.
You could never bear to be away from me for very long.” he said, his voice
silky and deep, a flirtatious wink aimed at Khopesh.

“Meet Setne everyone. He’s the son
of Set, and the bane of my existence.” Khopesh said, rolling his eyes.

“I prefer the term ‘love of my
life’.” Setne replied.

“Ugh! Just get out here!” khopesh
growled, throwing open the cell door and grabbing Setne’s arm, roughly dragging
him out of the cell.

“Oh baby, you always did like it
rough.” Setne purred.

“I swear to gods, if you don’t shut
up right now, I will finish you!” Khopesh snarled.

“I look forward to it, gorgeous.
But who are they? Brought me some new roomies?”

“They are…well, I don’t know all
their names yet, but we’ll know them soon enough. C’mon, let’s go.”

“Pleased to meet you.” Setne said,
holding out his large hand to shake. The first to reach out and shake it was
Kimmy-poor, trusting Kimmy-and she found her fingers crushed in a death grip.
He pulled her uncomfortably close, much to the outrage of Trevor, and leaned
in, his black eyes intently studying her face. Then his face broke into a
rather nasty smile.

“Innocent, aren’t you? So kindly
and trusting, tis a shame really. You better watch yourself, lock that gentle
heart up tight, or who knows who will come along and try to take advantage of
it.” He said softly, his breath like a desert wind, abrasive and hot on her
skin, as if trying to dig out further secrets from her. Finally he let go and
drew back.

“So what sort of adventure are we
going on, hmm?” he asked.

“Oh, just stop distracting us and
get moving.” Khopesh snapped, giving him a rough shove to get him on his way.
Setne just smirked and made kissy faces at him before strolling casually down
the path towards the river.

## Chapter 21

They finally re-arrived at the river and the dock with the
sun god’s barque. When Setne saw it, he let out a delighted whoop and vaulted
aboard.

“You guys
managed to steal Ra’s barque without getting incinerated? Nice! That one was
always on my bucket list!” he exclaimed excitedly.

“What, no!
We didn’t steal it, it’s being borrowed!” Lio protested.

“Mm-hm.
Right.” Setne agreed sarcastically.

“No really,
we have Ra’s permission and everything.”

“You guys
are no fun, all goody two shoes and stuff.” Setne snorted, rolling his eyes.
“Well, come on, what are we waiting for? Let’s get a move on and see how this
baby sails!”

“You’re
supposed to let us go first, stupid. Ra knows of us using it, but he might have
incinerated *you*.” Lio grumbled,
climbing aboard the boat.

“Yeah, but
he didn’t. You gotta give the god’s omniscience some credit.” Setne shot back,
a smug smile on his face. Lio just sighed and rolled his eyes.

“So, what
are we doing? I presume you guys didn’t need the barque for just a joy ride.”
Setne asked once they were all aboard.

“No, we
need it to save the world.” Lio replied shortly.

“Oh, we
certainly think highly of ourselves, don’t we? Care to clarify?”

“We have to
get into the Eighth House.”

“And what
exactly does that have to do with me?”

“The barque
is normally crewed by the gods….which we don’t have, so we needed their next
best stand-ins…”

“So you
need me to play my dad, Set.”

“Yeah.”

“So you
expect me to fight off the giant, ever powerful, primordial serpent of Chaos as
well as a bunch of other demons and such, keeping us safe against immeasurable
odds that the gods themselves can barely manage together…by myself.”

“Um, yeah.”
Lio affirmed cautiously. He didn’t want the demigod running out on them now,
right when they needed his help. And he didn’t particularly enjoy the
suspicious look Setne was giving him.

“Sounds
like my kind of party. Count me in.” Setne said at last, giving a nonchalant
shrug.

“Okay, that
was easier than I expected. Now, how do we get this thing going?” Lio said,
surprised at his reaction. He turned and looked around the deck hoping for some
sort of instructions or something on how to sail a barque.

“You have
to start by rowing it, dummy. There’s no wind yet, so you can use the sail. You
can however use the oars, there’s nothing stopping you from paddling.” Kai
sighed, rolling her eyes exasperatedly. There was a lot of eye rolling going on
today.

“Oh yeah, I
didn’t think about that.” Lio admitted, blushing a bit. “Well, uh, let’s all
get rowing.”

They all
stood at one of the oars, and as they assembled, a realization hit Lio as he
noticed one spot remained empty.

“Oh crap, I
forgot all about Brandon! Brandon, are you here?” he asked. He heard a rather
irritated sigh, and a swirl of ectoplasm pooled into view, spiraling up into
the form of an annoyed boy.

“Yeah, I’m
here, kind of you to finally remember me.” Brandon grumbled.

“So sorry
dude, I’m just not used to being part of the gang yet. How are you doing, any
of your powers back?” Lio said apologetically.

Brandon
tried to grab hold of an oar, but unlike the rest of them, he was not yet solid
enough to budge it, instead passing through it like it wasn't there.

“Nope.” He
said, rather obviously.

“Okay, then
you can…uh…” Lio tried, awkwardly.

"He
can call the oar pace. Not everyone here knows how to row, so we’ll need it.”
Nahele called out.

“Yes, that,
that’d be perfect!” Lio agreed, thankful that Nahele had spoken up and saved
his butt. Some days he fell in love with that woman all over again. He switched
places with Brandon, Lio standing at the oar and Brandon moving to the front of
the boat and began to call out the pace, while behind him Khopesh and Setne
discussed how they were going to go about protecting the ship.  Khopesh stared deep into the river, brow
furrowed as he searched the waves, ever-watchful for suspicious forms. Not
taking his gaze from the shadowy waters, he raised his hand and muttered a few
words. Gold hieroglyphs appeared in the air above his palm, which then
coalesced into a single beam of golden light, which in turn hardened into a
sword. But what a weird sword it was, it’s bronze blade bent into a crescent,
as if someone had given a very solid tree a good whack with it, and hadn’t made
a scratch on the tree. It didn’t look very efficient, but if a war demigod was
using it, then there must have been more to it than met the eye.

Khopesh
tested the weight of this bizarre sword, then, satisfied with it, went back to
watching the waters. But the river was not what he should have been keeping his
eye on.

“Imma need
that, thankee very much.” Setne said, reaching over and casually plucking the
sword out of Khopesh’s hand. Khopesh just stood there, spluttering and
stammering as he stared at Setne in shock, surprised that he had been disarmed
so easily. Growling, he raised his hand again, and this time brought a spear
with a bronze tip into being, gripping it very tightly as he glared at Setne,
silently daring him to take his new weapon. But the demigod was no longer
interested in Khopesh’s weapon, instead intently watching the waters for any
upcoming threats.

Trevor
looked at the sword with interest, as weaponry was a specialty of his.

“What kind
of sword is that?” he finally asked. Setne looked over at him, then at Khopesh,
a mischievous grin slowly spreading across his face.

“It’s
called a *khopesh.*” He said. Khopesh
winced and sighed.

“Here it
comes.” He mumbled under his breath.

“Wait, same
as Khopesh? Does that mean-” Trevor said.

“Yes, yes,
I am named after a sword, big whoop. It was my dad’s favorite weapon and mine
as well, now get over it!” Khopesh snapped. This was a conversation that he had
had many a time, and he was eager to get it done with as soon as possible.

“Neato.”
Said Trevor quietly.

Setne
sniggered and went back to watching the river, just in time to spot a
suspicious ripple.

“INCOMING!”
he managed to yell. Then the water exploded at their bow.

## Chapter 22

The river exploded into a massive spray of water, drenching
everyone aboard from bow to stern in splashes of shadow. A wave of disturbed
water sent them surging upward, then splashing down hard, nearly wiping them
out. A huge, angry roar greeted them as a colossal figure burst out of the
water. A huge baboon sprang out of the water and beat his chest, screaming and
bellowing at the crew in anger. Everyone squealed and Lio yelped.

“Babi!”

The baboon
god seemed to get further angered at the mention of his name. He let out a
mighty shriek and leaped onto the railing, then began to pound on the boat,
hoping to scare them off. But the group stood their ground, albeit a bit
shakily, and Babi screeched again. He then hurled himself at the person nearest
him, who so happened to be Khopesh. The demigod twirled his spear and slashed
at the furious monkey god. A red line cut across Babi’s golden fur and he
bellowed in outrage, swiping at the boy. Khopesh danced aside and narrowly
managed to escape being grabbed, then charged back in for another hit.

But this time he wasn’t so lucky.
Instead of impaling the baboon through the leg like he had been intending, he
was caught by surprise as Babi grabbed the spear and swung upwards, Khopesh
still clinging to the shaft. Up the demigod went, and the scene would have
looked almost comical, if it hadn’t been for the fact that he was fighting for
their lives. Babi swung the spear around and around through the air, trying to
dislodge him, but Khopesh managed to hang on, his knuckles turning white as his
wings flapped frantically, trying to orient himself as he was yanked through
the air. Babi noticed those rainbow feathers, and grabbed one of his wings. The
hollow bones snapped in his hand like delicate twigs, and Khopesh cried out in
pain. Blinded by agony, he finally let go of the spear and Babi made to throw
him off the boat into the shadowy river. Setne raced across the deck, lunging
over the railing, and managed to grab Khopesh by the leg and haul him back
aboard before he touched the water. Khopesh gasped as his feet hit the deck
once more, his wing flopping uselessly by his side. Sensing weakness, Babi
lunged once more at him, hoping to finish him off.

But he had not anticipated the
response he would get. Setne shoved Khopesh aside and threw himself at the
baboon with a roar to rival the monkey’s. The god had just enough time to look
a bit surprised before Setne came crashing down on him, sword upraised. The two
hit the deck hard, causing the boat to dip downwards, threatening to keel over,
and Setne knelt on the god’s chest, sword swinging high overhead. The curved
bronze blade flashed back down, and the baboon was minus one hand. He howled in
pain as Setne furiously slashed again and again at the monkey, and, realizing
that he had been beat, Babi disappeared, causing Setne to crash down onto the
deck, his sword plunging into the wood and sticking there. He whirled around,
looking for his adversary, but the baboon god was long gone, having admitted,
reluctantly, defeat.

After having determined that the
crazed god was really and truly gone, Setne jerked the sword out of the deck,
and went over to check on Khopesh. Khopesh was standing there, holding his
broken wing and wincing.

“You okay?” Setne asked, his deep
voice soft with concern.

“No! That bleeding ape snapped
quite a few of my wing bones, my wing is useless now!” Khopesh snapped, gently
prodding his feathers to find said broken bones. Setne reached over to examine
his wing, and so happened to put his arms around Khopesh in the process.
Everyone drew back a bit, expecting the fierce demigod to kick up a major fuss
for the closeness, but to their surprise, he sighed and leaned against him,
letting Setne feel around his wing to find the damage.

“I think I may be able to manage a
healing spell.” Setne muttered, then mumbled a few indecipherable words in
Egyptian. A bunch of red hieroglyphics appeared and sank into the wing, fading
in amongst the rainbow colors. Khopesh yelped then sighed again in relief as
the bones were snapped back into place and sealed shut. He flapped his wing
experimentally, and smiled in satisfaction as the limb moved smoothly as
normal.

“Good job.” He said to Setne.

“Thanks.” The demigod replied, then
his dark eyes rolled up into the back of his head, and he sank to the deck,
limp as a rag with exhaustion.

“Hey, whoa! You idiot! You
shouldn’t have done that, if healing spells drain you that much!” Khopesh
exclaimed, lunging to catch him before he hit the deck, wings flapping to keep
balance.

“Totally worth it.” Setne mumbled,
giving Khopesh a small smile.

“No, it’s not! Look at yourself!
You call this worth it?” he retorted.

“For you, anytime.” Setne replied,
his smirk widening, even managing a small wink. Khopesh gave him a small slap
of admonishment.

“Oh, stuff it, will you.” he
reprimanded. But it was not a scolding of genuine disgusted sternness, but more
so like someone who did not want something to be found out. “Man, that was
weird! I can’t believe the first guardian was Babi! It is normally a giant
snake.”

The others watched their
interaction with interest, then gasped at Khopesh’s revelation, but their
intrigue was disrupted by a sudden angry howl, followed by several more. They
had reached the second gate.

## Chapter 23

As they sailed down this new stretch of river,
the shadowy water began to writhe, twisting with mysterious shapes. Setne and
Khopesh leaned over the side of the boat and eyed the water warily. Suddenly
Setne leaped back, slashing at the air with his sword. A body erupted out of
the water, clawing at the demigod, face twisted in a ghoulish snarl, then let
loose another howl as the khopesh cut through its belly, spilling its innards
and splashing shadowy blood on the deck before sinking back down into the
water. Kimmy screamed and the others jumped, scared by the undead’s sudden
appearance and attack. The boat began to rock, pummeled and pushed by other
creatures in the water, their furious knocking echoing through the wood of the
hull. The boat rocked harder as momentum built up, until it was tipping so
furiously that the threat of capsizing was imminent, the crew howling and
screaming as they clung on for dear life.

Now that the
rail of the boat was low enough to be within their reach, the dead surged out
of the water, clinging to the enchanted wood, even as the magical flames
coating it sizzled and hissed against their greyed skin.

Setne and
Khopesh both lunged at the first few who managed to board, and successfully
sent them slashed and reeling back into the river, but their numbers were
rapidly increasing, the deck filling with the grey bodies of the dead. The
other demigods braced themselves for attack when it became apparent that the
two would not be able to hold the spirits off for long.

Lily and Trevor
both pulled bows and quivers out of the air and began shooting ghosts left and
right, sending the dead sailing back down with ghastly howls of outrage and
pain.

Kara
summoned a pair of scimitars and slashed at the dead, lopping off limbs and
heads, the defeated spirits oozing through the wood.

Nahele
summoned balls of green light and hurled them at any dead unfortunate enough to
be close to her. Upon contact with their shadowy flesh, vines burst out of the
light and enveloped them, quickly bundling them up in the woody ropes until
they fell back over, all bound up tight in cocoons.

Makoa
remained barehanded, grabbing the ghosts in his claws and hurling them bodily
off board.

The
other Hawaiian demis had summoned ancient weapons native to their people and
were now stabbing the wraiths with spears or slashing them with a particularly
unusual weapon resembling a misshapen wood ping pong paddle, albeit one rimmed
with shark’s teeth.

Brandon,
unable to do much of anything in his immaterial form, watched helplessly and
shouted out warnings and suggestions to the fighters.

Lio,
wishing desperately that he could summon weapons like the others, simply
gripped his paddle tighter, and lashed out at any who came near, whapping them
solidly with very satisfying thunks.

Charnelle,
having gone into out-of-body mode, teased the ghosts and lured them either
completely off the boat or near enough to one of the others where they were
taken down.

Kimmy,
ever the pacifist, remained where she was, frozen in shock, gripping her paddle
and sitting rigidly in her seat. One of the ghosts still trying to come aboard
surged up towards her, catching her hair in its gnarled hand. Kimmy screamed in
pain and fear as the ghost yanked on her hair, ripping some of it out by the
roots as its claws tore at her scalp. She swatted uselessly at its arm, but the
ghost hung on, shaking her head almost mockingly as it saw how helpless she was
against it. Trevor, hearing her scream, lunged over her and directly stabbed
the ghost in the wrist with an arrow, its flesh smoking and blistering upon
contact with the iron arrowhead. It screeched in agony and let go, clutching
its arm as it fell back into the water, strands of black hair still tangled in
its claws. Kimmy shivered in horror and revulsion as Trevor pulled her to her
feet, dragging her to the center of the boat.

“Stay
behind me, back to back! Don’t go near the railings!” he bellowed, pushing her
behind him. She nodded, mute with terror, and pressed against his reassuringly
muscled back, squealing with alarm any time one of the dead came too near.

Within
about ten minutes, though it felt more like ten hours, all the undead had been
defeated, slipping back into the river from which they came, the water calming
quickly over their heads, giving it the deceptive appearance of calm until
nothing was left of the encounter except for a few splashes of shadow blood and
the panting of the crew, their weapons hanging limp by their sides. Then Lio
remembered something Khopesh had mentioned earlier.

“Hey,
Khopesh, hadn’t you said something about a giant snake that was supposed to
guard the first gate but wasn’t there? Do you think we’ll run into it by any
chance?” he asked. Just then, as if triggered by his words, a very large and
hostile hiss filled the air. Khopesh turned and gave Lio a disgruntled look.

“Dude,
I seriously wish you did not just say that.” He groaned. Then a thick, scaly
rope fell from the sky.

## Chapter 24

A massive cobra crashed into the
deck of the barque, causing the boat to almost capsize for a third time. The
demigods shrieked and the snake hissed again in anger, rearing up and spreading
its hood. Khopesh approached the irate snake, arms raised in a gesture of equal
parts surrender and supplication.

“Oh
great Khekheru, Guardian of the Desert, Protector of the First Gate, I beseech
thee, o Mighty One, pray let us pass your-” he began, before Setne pushed him
aside, rolling his eyes.

“Basically,
what this dummy is trying to say is could you kindly let us go by without
attacking us please? We’ve had a bit of a rough day so far, and it’d be nice to
get a break.” He huffed. The snake hissed even louder, and a stream of fire
blasted from its mouth at them, the two managing to sidestep the flames just in
time, the clothing smoking lightly from a narrowly missed roasting, the duo
yelping all the while. Meanwhile, the deck, which had gotten the full blast of
it, was perfectly fine, with not so much as the tiniest of burn marks on the
wood.

Once
they were out of immediate danger, Khopesh whirled on Setne and slapped him in
the arm.

“Great,
now you’ve gone and made him mad! Nice going pal!” he snapped, kohl-lined eyes
blazing. Setne pouted and rubbed his arm.

“Ouchie!
Geez, no need to get so violent, save it for the snake! And how do you know it
was me that pissed it off? Maybe you annoyed it with your jabbering like some
suck up butt kisser!” he whined. Khopesh snarled and lunged to hit him again.

“GUYS!
Break it up! Seriously! Did you forget we got a giant angry fire breathing
snake here?” Lio yelled. Khopesh stopped short, his fist still pulled back
mid-strike, then what Lio said seemed to sink in.

“Oh,
right, I forgot.” He admitted.

“Yeah,
because he finds me so distracting.” Setne teased, flirtatiously waggling his
eyebrows at Khopesh. Khopesh looked as though he was going to forget the snake
once again and finish off Setne right then and there, but this time he was
brought back to the present situation by the serpent itself. It spat another
ball of fire, which missed again, then decided to forget about its ineffective
fire breath and do things the old school way, suddenly striking down to snap
one of the boys up in its mouth. The two yelled and ran in opposite directions.
The snake tried to follow both, but seemingly unable to pick one, turned to the
others and lunged again. Fangs two feet longs snapped at them, barely missing
Lani’s leg, and she squealed, punching the snake in the eye, hard. It hissed
and reared into the air, twisting and thrashing as its eye teared up at the
blow. Once it had finished blinking back the pain, it refocused back on the
crew, having found a new target that offended it. It started to come back down,
but then saw Lani’s still balled fist and seemed to think better of it, then
brought its head back up. Confused, the demigods watched it, which turned out
to be a big mistake.

Trevor
was the first to hear the whoosh of air as a large, heavy object came flying
towards them. He looked up to see a thick, scaled vine approaching very fast,
the snake’s tail, which was lashing out towards them.

“JUMP!”
he bellowed, and they did, all of them managing to do so high enough, the tail
whistling harmlessly beneath their feet. All, except for one. Khopesh had been
so focused on the head, which was still glaring down at them, that he had
failed to see the tail coming up from behind, or hear Trevor’s warning. Before
he could notice that anything was wrong, the tail was already upon him, and he
was knocked clean off the boat, sailing into the air.

“KHOPESH!”
Setne howled, certain that his partner was doomed. But, this time the demigod’s
wings were in perfect shape, and he simply flapped them open, catching himself
and circling back around. He shot straight up into the air, rising up, up, up,
hundreds of feet, then folded in his wings, pulling them tight against his
body, shot back down, straight at the snake.

He hit the snake's head going a full fifty miles per hour,
impacting on the scales with a sickening *crunch!*,
the two flying off the ship and over the other side, plunging into the water.
For several nerve-wracking moments, all was still, then the surface of the
river exploded, and Khopesh flew out, victorious. He landed on the deck with a
rather self satisfied smile, which was quickly replaced by a look of surprise
when Setne charged over, tackling him in an embrace.

"Don't you ever scare me like
that again!" Setne growled into his hair, pulling him as tightly to him as
he could.

 "Got my butt kicked twice in one
day. Maybe you're right, maybe I am finding you too distracting." Khopesh
laughed weakly.

"Get your butt kicked all you
want, just don't get yourself killed." Setne replied gruffly, still
clinging to him.

"Dying wasn't exactly on my to
do list. Now leggo, I can't breathe!" Khopesh grumbled, pushing Setne away
from him. But when he turned away, they all could see the pink blush in his
cheeks, and the small smile on his face as he dreamily gazed out across the
water, absentmindedly tucking a stray curl behind his ear.

Setne watched him with a smirk, then turned to the rest of
the crew.

“Well, we got attacked three times, and we’re only two gates
in. I think we can expect things to get a lot worse here on in.” He announced
cheerily. Everyone groaned, except for Kara, who cheered instead.

“We get to kick more butt? Awesome!” she cried, delighted,
pumping her sword in the air. Setne smiled at her.

“You’re my kind of girl. You guys better follow her lead, we
will be getting challenged a *lot*,
might as well enjoy it.” He said. Everyone rolled their eyes or made faces at
him and he turned back to face the front, snickering at their response.

Then suddenly the river burst into flame, and everyone
shrieked.

“Ah, I see we have reached the third gate.” remarked Setne
calmly, as if he was merely mentioning the time of day or how mild the weather
was.

“Um, is the river supposed to be on fire? Shouldn’t we be
worried about that?” Kimmy asked nervously.

“Nope. The thing you gotta watch out for is the lava lake.”
Setne replied, still as chill as ever. Kimmy squeaked and scooted closer to
Trevor, eyes flicking nervously across the scenery. Then the boat began to pick
up speed, the river’s murmur growing to a roar, then the fore of the barque
began to tip downwards. They had reached the lake of fire, but first had to
pass through a waterfall, which would plunge them straight down into the flames
to what looked to be a certain doom…and there was nothing they could do about
it.

## Chapter 25

“Everybody,
get down and hold on tight!” Khopesh yelled, struggling to be heard over the
roar of the river, dropping to his knees and tightly gripping the railing.
Everyone hit the deck, digging their fingers into any crack and crevice they
could find.

“But
what about when we splashdown? Won’t the fire splash up and consume us?” Trevor
yelled back.

“Well,
then you better pray your godly blood makes you holy enough to make it! If not,
well, you’re screwed.” Khopesh replied.

“What
is he talking about? Trevor?” Kimmy asked, eyes wide with panic.

“The
lake gives blessings to those who are worthy…if not, they are burned to
damnation.” He said grimly. Kimmy paled and squeezed her eyes tightly, digging
her nails deeper into the wood and hoping her manicure would hold her good
enough. Visions of her being swept overboard in a great wave of flame and being
sent crashing down into the lake below where she’d both drown and burn to a
crisp danced through her head. She shuddered and shoved the thought aside, she
did not need that kind of thinking.

The
boat tipped over the edge of the waterfall and plunged headfirst into the lake
below, the crew screaming their heads off in the sulfuric air the whole time,
arms straining to keep them attached to the deck as their bodies were first
weightless, then dragged downwards, tugging on their fingertips. They hit the
surface of the lake with a great splash, and plunged under the surface, the
entire boat fully immersing in the flames.

Down,
down, down they sank, and several of them nearly were ripped from their
desperate grip on the ship’s timbers by the sheer force of the entry. But they
all managed to hang on, holding their breaths instinctively, as if this were
any other lake. Even though there was no water whatsoever, this instinct may
have saved their spectral lungs, as the flames swirling around their faces was
worse than any amount of water. Blinding light spun around their heads and
their squeezed their eyes tightly shut, blind spots dancing through their
vision behind their eyelids where the brilliant sparks had burned their
impression on their retinas. Blistering heat scorched through their skin and
burned its way into their bones, till they felt like they were being consumed
by it. Kimmy felt a scream bubbling up in her chest. She knew it, they were all
going to die, burned to ash.

Then,
the boat began to tilt upwards once more, pulling back to the surface, until it
bobbed up into the warm air, which felt refreshingly cool against their skin in
comparison to the ordeal they just endured. Leftover flames sizzled out and
died, leaving the boat unmarked by so much as a patch of soot. Kimmy and the
others took in a collective deep breath, gasping the sulfurous air gratefully.
She opened her eyes, relieved beyond words to be alive and seemingly unharmed,
then turned to her boyfriend to remark on this delight. Then she screamed,
horrified by what she saw.

The
left half of Trevor’s face was burned, blisters and patches of raw skin
sweeping from his hairline all the way down to his elbow, golden blood seeping
from the areas where the skin had burned away completely.

“Trevor!
Oh my gods!” she shrieked, eyes wide and disbelieving. How could this have
happened?

But,
before her very eyes, the gold blood retreated back into his flesh, new skin
flowing neatly back over the gaping burns, blisters flattening themselves back
out until he was healed, looking just as he had before.

“I
guess I have been forgiven for my sins.” He said drily, freeing one hand to
stroke his now unblemished face.

“Oh,
Trevor, how could that have happened?” Kimmy wailed.

“I
suppose I just wasn’t as pure as you lot.” He replied, eyes hard. Setne was
watching them, and gulped. He had remained unharmed, and the fact that Trevor
had gotten burned revealed much about the demigod’s past. What kind of things
had he done that the lake would let someone as troublesome as Setne past
without so much as a single mark, yet burn half of Trevor away? Setne gulped
and turned back around to face the front once more. Whatever it was, it was
none of his business.

## Chapter 26

They sailed smoothly across the
surface of the lake, which was actually quite pleasant, the lake glowing like
the sun. They squinted against the bright light and waited to be taken to the
next gate, relieved that their dip in the fire was over.

“Boy,
that was quite something, wasn’t it, being bathed in fire like that?” Nahele
laughed nervously, wiping her forehead, which, despite her being in spectral
form, still somehow produced sweat, lots of it.

“Mm,
don’t relax just yet. My dad had told me about something that was supposed to
happen over here, I just can’t remember what it was, but we should stay wary,
just in case.” Khopesh said, glaring suspiciously at the lake’s surface, brow
scrunched against the light.

“Naw,
I think we should be good, I’m pretty sure the biggest challenge here is
surviving the lake.” Lio said reassuringly.

Then
the surface of the lake started to bubble and splash as if disturbed by
something…something really big. The barque rocked, sending its occupants
crashing about its deck, then rose up into the air, held up by some unseen
force. An angry hiss, much larger than that emitted by Khekheru, blasted from
somewhere beneath the hull.

“I
have *got* to stop opening my big
mouth!” Lio wailed as he fell, clunking his head on the rail. Setne managed to
stagger over to the railing and leaned down, quite a bit further than was safe.

“Ah,
hello there Apophis, you ugly old worm you!” he hollered down at whatever was
below them. At the mention of that name, all the Egyptians aboard yelped in
fear, eyes wide with the horror of realizing what exactly they happened to be
sitting on. Even the Greeks looked a bit alarmed, but everyone else had on the
blank look of someone who was completely clueless.

“Uh,
I have a feeling we’re about to find out in a few minutes, but just for
clarification’s sake, who or what exactly is Apophis?” Kara asked nervously,
feet wide apart as she braced herself against the rocking motion of the boat.
Just then they began to fall as Apophis ducked out from under the barque, and
they landed with a great splash back into the fire lake, flames raining down on
them. A colossal red cobra rose from the lake’s surface, rising higher, higher,
and ever more higher into the air, until they had to crane their heads back
uncomfortably just to see where its head went. Its body was as thick as their
boat was wide, its scales as large as any of their hands. Its hood spread out,
about thirty or so feet wide, and it hissed again, revealing fangs as long as a
leg. Its eyes glowed with the deep red power of chaos, of which this snake was
king. Waves of fear radiated from him, making their skin crawl, sinking deep
into them until their very bones wanted to run away, regardless of the fire
lake in the way or not.

“Damn,
that is one big snake.” Trevor muttered, looking up at it.

“Why
thank you, Captain Obvious, nobody could tell.” Kara replied sarcastically. They
briefly glared at each other, then returned their attention to the matter at
hand.

Apophis
hissed again, and great globs of venom flew from his fangs, cascading down to
the boat where they landed with great splashes, fizzling through the wood. The
crew yelped and leaped away from the newly made craters in the deck.

“*Where is that old, useless bird Ra?*”
Apophis hissed, his voice sounding like many demons snarling together, a
cacophony of raspy voices that tended to cancel each other out, but together made
the speaker very audible, as no one was crazy enough to dare do something as
foolish as mishear such a being.

“Ah,
hehe, well, you see, he’s not here right now.” Setne said, laughing nervously.

“*No? Really? As if that conceited senile coot would let a bunch of children run his boat. Pah! You are simply hiding him from me. I knew he was too pathetic to face me, he always hid behind those other sorry excuses for gods. Speaking of which, where are they? Ran home to Mommy? Couldn’t bear to face me again? Ha! I knew they were weak. Now tell me, where are they, and where are you hiding Ra?”* Apophis snarled.

“Like
I said, they’re not here, Ra’s not here, and we are *not* hiding him, okay?” Setne said, growing impatient despite the
terror that was thumping its merry way around his chest.

“*All right, since you insist on lying to me, I guess I will just have to…*convince *you. How about I start with one of the locals, hm? Yes, you there, son of Horus. You look nice and juicy, young enough to still have tender flesh, you’ll do nicely. Besides, it’ll stick in Horus’s craw to hear how his son died. Never could stand that overgrown songbird.”* the snake said, his voice dangerously soft as his red eyes locked onto Khopesh. He rose further into the air, muscles
tensing, then suddenly struck, his massive head plunging down towards them like
a giant flash of red lightning. Khopesh’s eyes widened and he dropped into a
crouch, arms thrown up in a futile attempt to protect himself from his
impending doom.

“Oh,
now you’ve done it.” Setne growled, and the sword in his gripped shimmered,
elongating into a bronze tipped spear as he stepped protectively in front of
the cowering Khopesh. As Apophis’s gaping mouth came within range, Setne drew
his arm as far back and he could and plunged the spear into the cobra’s mouth
and straight through his bottom jaw, black blood spurting from the wound.
Apophis screamed in pain and rage, surging back into the air, Setne managing to
yank his spear back out just in time, tip coated in tar like blood, which
hissed at the metal. The serpent continued to scream, a horrible sound that was
equal parts demon howl and nails on chalkboard, with an overtone of metal on
glass, which made everyone’s hair stand up and set their teeth on edge. With a
final ear-splitting wail, he plummeted back into the lake, disappearing
completely beneath the flames, the ripples from his exit rocking the boat
gently.

## Chapter 27

“I suppose it’d be too much to
hope for by saying he’s gone.” Lio said cautiously.

“*Don’t you dare even start!*” Setne
snapped. Lio gulped and grinned sheepishly.

The
surface of the lake exploded, the giant serpent’s head shooting hundreds of
feet into the air on their starboard side, and came plowing back down…right
past them on the other side.

“Wow,
his aim is terrible, he totally missed us!” laughed Ikaika, watching Apophis’s
head sink far below the flames, his body arching over them. But Kai, the
experienced mariner, had been watching the whole thing with a look of horror,
noticing that the red coil suspended above them was slowly descending, and
remembered that she had seen something similar before from certain types of sea
serpent.

“No,
guys, he didn’t miss, he’s got us exactly were he wants us! We have to get
moving, now!” she said, voice growing louder and higher in panic.

“Why,
what’s happening?” Nahele asked, also watching the coil and completely
clueless.

“Nahele,
we need to make this boat move faster, can you summon some air to push us?
Lani, can you make a wave in the lake to add some extra speed? We need to get
out of here, we won’t make it in time, we’re moving too slow!” Kai ordered. But
both demigoddesses just stood there, still not getting it.

“But
why though?” Lani asked stubbornly.

“Because
he’s about to crush us with his body. He’ll wind himself around the boat and
squeeze the ship until it breaks. See? Now *GET*
A MOVE ON!” *she yelled, pointing to the starboard side, where Apophis’s*
head had reemerged, glaring maliciously at them, then he sank back down, so
confident that he had them now that he didn’t even bother to watch. The gravity
of the situation finally hitting them, the two girls raced to the stern of the
barque, Nahele frantically flapping her hands about, trying to summon any
random breeze that may happen by. Lani was leaning over the rail, beckoning to
the fire with as much panic. The others sat on their rowing benches and watched
the snake’s body descend, trying not to imagine being crushed to death under
those crimson scales, which was quite hard, considering it was starting to
speed up, now only a few feet above the sail. Finally they managed to stir up a
steady breeze and a good-sized surge of lake, suddenly speeding them up and
sending them shooting out from under the snake, the coil splashing down into
the flames with nothing but hot air beneath it. Upon discovering that the ship
was not smashed to bits in his coils, Apophis’s head shot back out of the
water, surprise plastered across his scaly face.

“*Sayonara*, slug-face!” Kara called back
cheerfully, waving wildly at the dismayed cobra. Seeing that his prey was
getting away, and being very sassy about it too, he let out a howl of anger and
defeat, more horrible than the last, the sound grating on their eardrums.

“*I WILL GET YOU! I SWEAR! THEN YOU SHALL MEET THE INSIDE OF MY BELLY!”* he roared.

“Yeah,
yeah, cue the corny evil critter lines.” Kara retorted.

“Uh,
guys, hate to bust you bubble, but we have a problem.” Khopesh interrupted.

“What
do you mean?” Kai asked, looking at him sharply, annoyed that anything would
dare spoil her feelings of elation with their sailing success.

“We’re
going too fast, we’re almost to the fourth gate!” he said, pointing to the
rapidly approaching tombs that signified the fourth gate.

“Guys,
cut the wind and waves!” Kai yelled to the two in the back.

“We
did! it’s not doing much though, we’re still going too fast! I think the
combined forces caused us to make a mini tsunami, which we’re right on top of!”
Nahele said, arms spread helplessly.

“Well,
in that case, everyone hold on tight!” Kai commanded. Everyone did as they were
bid, clinging to the railing as firmly as they could, the boat bouncing and
skipping on the growing wave, pushing them faster and faster.

They
finally crashed through the fourth gate, moving so fast that their hair was
blown back almost straight out behind them, screaming on top of a wave of fire
twenty feet high.

## Chapter 28

The barque sailed in through the
fourth gate at top speed, at the peak of the wave’s crescendo of fire, the
screams of those on board ripped from their mouths and flung behind them by the
sulfurous wind. The wave crashed down, taking the boat with it, sending them
plunging into the new stretch of river with a huge *WHUMPH!* The friends stopped screaming, cut short as the impact
jarred their jaws shut, teeth clacking together painfully, all but one abruptly
silenced.

“AAAAAAAH-unf!”
Ikaika hollered, his continued scream of panic changing to a grunt as Nahele
let go of the railing and slapped him sharply across the face. He glared at her
and rubbed his cheek sulkily.

“Snap
out of it, yo! Can’t you see where we are?” she snapped. His eyes, as well as
everyone else’s, flicked across the new landscape. It was dark, much more so
than any of the previous gates, and eerie squat buildings loomed up from the
gloom.

“Say,
anybody else notice how smooth the river is now? Shouldn’t it still be a bit
choppy from our…uh… ‘grand entrance’?” Trevor said, leaning over to examine the
water below them, eyes narrowed suspiciously. The others copied him, and
noticed that he was quite right, the river had indeed calmed abnormally fast,
and instead of the gentle rocking them had become accustomed to, the boat was
now gliding along as smoothly as glass, and slowing down to a leisurely pace.
And instead of flame, the river was now black, like the first gate of shadows,
but slick, like oil.

“Hey
guys, aren’t those like tombs or something?” Kara said, pointing to the
partially hidden structures as another one of them drew in closer as they
sailed past it.

“Yeah,
I think so.” Lily agreed, holding her hand next to her eyes to block the red
glow of the previous gate in an attempt to see through the darkness better.

“I
swear, if mummies come out of there and try to attack us, that’ll be way too *Indiana Jones*.” Lio said.

And
just as the last word left his mouth, an eerie groan filled the air, a low,
hoarse sound, like a raspy breath being forced past desiccated vocal cords by
dried up lungs. Dark figures lumbered from the shadows, making their way slowly
but surely toward the boat with short, shuffling steps, because apparently the afterlife
did not care if it was a total cliché or not.

Mummies,
dozens of them, stumbled towards the river, drawn in by the light radiating
from the boat, shriveled arms reaching towards them, clawed hands grasping as
if to snatch the warm glow itself.

“*Lio!”* the whole crew chorused.

“*I’m sorry, okay?”* he whined back.

Just
then, the whispering started. It was a low hissing, a mixture of howling wind
and ghostly voices.

*Help us. Save us. Bring us the light. Save us from this darkness. Only you can free us. Mercy. Mercy! Help us! Take us with you! MERCY!*

The
lead corpse splashed into the river, wading towards them, the traitorous boat
floating ever more slowly, as if giving the mummy a chance to catch up. And
catch up it did, clawing its way up the side and gripping the railing tightly
to haul itself onto the deck.

*Help us,* it hissed, now so close they
could see its face, dirty bandages having fallen from its shrunken features.
Its skin was stretched tight against its skull and a dark brown with age, nose
dried to a pair of holes, teeth bared as dusty lips drew back in a morbid grin,
but worst of all were its eyes, shriveled up to white streaks, gazing
sightlessly at them. Mano, the closest to the undead thing, thoroughly unnerved
by the hissing and now the zombie’s appearance, quickly shoved the creature
away from him, its dried hands ripping from the railing, blackened nails
gouging grooves into the wood as it plummeted into the river, flailing as it
sank, dragged down by its waterlogged wrappings.

*THEN DIE!* All the
voices hissed, and the remaining mummies all lunged at them as one.

They
managed to shove the first wave of bodies off before they could successfully
board the ship, but were soon overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of them. Soon
they were a whirlwind of action, slashing, stabbing and shooting the mummies,
but to no avail. They were simply too many, and the blows they received,
normally devastating, seemed to have no affect on the dehydrated dead.

“Guys,
our weapons are useless, only by chopping them to bits do we stand a chance,
just try to shove them overboard, it’s our only hope!” Khopesh cried, madly
hacking at a particularly stubborn zombie, then sending into the river with a
hefty kick to its chest, dried ribs snapping like twigs beneath his foot. The
others did as they were bid, shoving mummy after mummy off the boat, wrestling
the particularly stubborn ones over the side. Kimmy near fell overboard herself
as she tried to push away one that seemed hell-bent on grabbing her, its clawed
hands snagged in her long black hair, and had managed to drag her halfway over
the edge before Trevor noticed and gave it a hefty kick to the collarbone,
overbalancing it and sending it toppling into the river, strands of dark hair
still tangled in its fingers. Kimmy blinked back tears of pain as she rubbed
her stinging scalp. Trevor huffed and rolled his eyes at his girlfriend’s
manner, then ushered her to an unoccupied corner of the boat.

“If
you can’t fight them, then stay out of their reach, okay? I might not be there
to save you again.” He warned. Kimmy just nodded and retreated into her corner,
too scared of what had happened to notice his gruff manner. Trevor grunted and
dove back into the fray, twirling his heavy bow like a staff and knocking five
mummies clean off the boat in one swipe.

After
ten long minutes of fighting- and mostly effort from Kara and Trevor, they had
managed to clear the boat of all the zombies and were now floating almost
peacefully down the placid river.

“I swear, I
will never be able to look at either one of the de Nile sisters the same way
again.” Lio joked, a pathetic attempt to lighten the situation. The others
laughed weakly, still recovering from their ordeal.

“Yeah,
okay, I don’t think they’re going to just sit back and lay off us, so we had
better get a move on.” Khopesh said, and everyone nodded.

“Since
we don’t have a wind or much of a current either, our only option is paddling.
So, everyone grab an oar and starting rowing like your life depends on it,
because you never know, it just might.” Kai said, after testing the air.
Everyone groaned at the thought of more manual labor, but they each took their
place at the oars, with Brandon back up at the front to regulate their pace.

As
they rowed down the stretch of river towards the next gate, the mummies did not
give them much more trouble after that, though the ones that had fallen in the
water continued to pursue them, snatching at their oars and nearly ripping them
out of their hands, or else pushing the bottom of the boat, causing it to rock
from side to side, though not enough to be very threatening, as if they wanted
to capsize the barque, but their embalmed hearts weren’t quite into it, and the
crew began to calm.

Finally
they neared the fifth gate, the underwater shoves from the mummies having
lessened to slight nudges. Everyone on board was so relaxed from how
disheartened the mummies seemed from their defeat, that they were not expect
any more threats from the dead. But, just before they were to pass through the
upcoming gate, all the zombies, sensing that they had let their guard down,
heaved as one, pushing the stern so high up into the air that the whole boat
nearly flipped upside down. They had not shoved it hard enough to actually
capsize it, but taken completely by surprise, everyone on board to lose their
footing and collapse into a pile at the bow, yelling in shock and fear, a few
nearly toppling into the water, which was now dangerously close. Then, as they
sailed through the fifth gate, the rear of the barque flipped back down,
slapping the water hard and sending everyone flying back into the air and
crashing down near the middle, in a groaning huddle of bruises and injured
pride.

The
mummies were now retreating back to their tombs, having gotten some
satisfaction out of scaring the daylights out of the demigods, and said
demigods were now regaining their feet, with plenty of grimaces, complaints,
and grumbled swearing. They were so preoccupied with tending their minor
injuries that nobody noticed their new challenger, at least, not until it was
almost on top of them.

## Chapter 29

“*KREEEEEET!”*

Everyone froze, eyes wide,
scared to turn around.

“What
the holy hell was that?” Trevor asked.

“Sounds
like my brother when someone steps on his foot.” Lani joked, laughing weakly.

*“REEEEEEEET!”* shrieked the voice again,
loud and bestial, as if coming from a very, *very*
large animal.

“I’m
pretty sure that’s some sort of pig.” Kara said with falsely casual tone.

“Well,
we’re not going to find out for sure until we bother to look.” Trevor replied.
So they all turned, very slowly and carefully, and sure enough, standing on the
surface of the river as if it were as solid as the ground, was a massive boar.
It was about as big as their whole boat, and covered in coarse, black bristles,
yellowed tusks, as long as anyone of one the demigods were tall, curved over
its upper lip, and its little red eyes gleamed with a rabid rage. It snorted
angrily, and the crew was buffeted back by its hot, smelly breath.

“Yup,
that’s a pig alright. Nobody move, and it might not attack.” Nahele said. The
boar let loose another deafening squeal, and they all froze, fearful of doing anything
that might provoke it. For several minutes they all stood there, not moving an
inch, just staring at each other, the demigods and the pig, waiting for the
other to do something.

“Uh…guys?
I hate to say this, but I have to sneeze.” Ikaika whispered out of the corner
of his mouth.

“I
swear, if you do, I will end you. Can’t you hold your breath or something?”
Nahele hissed back.

“I
don’t think so. I’m allergic to pig hair.” Ikaika whispered, then sniffled.
Everyone tensed.

“Ah…”

“Uh-oh.”

“Ah…”

“Don’t
you dare!”

“*ACHOOO!*”

Ikaika sneezed with enough force
to unbalance himself and he toppled to the deck, landing on his rear with a
hollow *thud*.

“*SCREEET!*” the boar screeched, and
charged, sharp hooves tearing up the surface of the river as it raced towards
them, mouth open wide.

“Oh
great.” Nahele groaned, managing to shoot a glare at Ikaika before the boar
rammed headfirst into the side of the barque. The port side of the boat was
shoved upwards as the boar tossed its head, almost capsizing them for the
countless time that day. Everyone was tossed to the starboard side, with the
exception of the winged demigods, which consisted only of Lily, Trevor, and
Khopesh, who used the momentum to launch themselves into the air.

The
first to regain their feet was Kara, who was starting to get a bit seasick from
all the tossing about they had been receiving at every turn and getting quite
sick of it. She leapt to her feet as gracefully as a cat, drew a scimitar out
of thin air, and charged the boar, screaming as she ran.

“*You overgrown lump of bacon!*” she
yelled, and slashed her scimitar across the boar’s face, leaving a deep red
gash, the brilliant crimson of its blood contrasting starkly with the pitch
black fur. It squealed in rage and pain, and swiped at her. One of its huge
tusks caught her in the stomach, lifting her clear off the boat and sending her
flying into the air.

“KARA!”
Kimmy screamed as she watched her best friend sail overhead, helpless to do
anything to prevent her fall. But, thankfully, there were several someones who
could. Just before she hit the water, both Trevor and Lily swooped down, each
managing to grab one of her arms, and yank her up into the air. When she saw
how close her toes were to the dark water, only a few inches away, she squeaked
and jerked her legs into the air, pulling herself into a comical, midair squat.
The siblings dropped her onto the boat and launched themselves at the boar,
joined by Khopesh, and the three summoned long spears and proceeded to stab at
the boar’s face, aiming for its eyes. The boar lashed out again, nearly hitting
Lily, who managed to jerk back in time, and swapped her spear out for a
crossbow. The others still on board all leaped forward to help, but fell back
again when they saw how easily the three were handling the monstrous pig. They
didn’t seem to need much help at all, agilely swooping around the pig’s head
like a bunch of oversized birds, Trevor even managing to dive under its head
and stick it in the throat with his spear, leaving the long bit of wood still
lodged in the boar’s windpipe.

Riddled
with arrows and stuck in two places with spears, looking rather like a
porcupine now, the boar screamed in defeat and staggered off down the river
behind them, sinking below the water’s surface, leaving nothing but a bloody,
blooming cloud in its wake.

The
three demigods landed, Trevor wiping his face with his shirt as he sighed with
exhaustion.

“I
haven’t been attacked this much since I was a soldier in the Spartan army!” he
huffed. Everyone moved to congratulate the trio, amazed that they could take
the boar on all by themselves, so caught up in their delight that they hadn’t
noticed that one was not in their number.

“Um,
guys?” came Kara’s voice, high and quavering in a manner most unlike herself.
Everyone turned back around to see her standing a ways from everyone, her
charcoal skin paling to an ashen grey, her hand pressed tightly to her stomach.
She slowly removed her hand and lifted it to show everyone. The palm of her
hand was covered in bright red, and her belly smeared with it, blood oozing
thickly from a deep tear in her midsection. They all gaped incomprehensibly at
the wound and all the blood, until she swayed and her wide eyes rolled up into
her head.

## Chapter 30

Kara’s knees gave out and she
fell, body going limp as she fainted. Trevor was the first to snap out of his shock
and he launched himself towards her, managing to catch her before she hit the
deck, gently easing her down to the floor and placing her head in his lap. He
placed his hand over her wound and muttered a few words under his breath, then
peeked under his hand, grimaced, placed his hand back, muttered a few more
words, looked again, this time with a worried expression, and tried again. When
this third time failed, he lifted his hand for all to see.

“Look.
It’s poisoned. See those darker streaks? There must have been some sort of
venom it the tusks.” he said, and sure enough, extending from the wound into
the surrounding skin was a slowly expanding web of dark purple threads, working
their way into the rest of her flesh, sending their poison deeper into her
body.

“I
don’t know what kind of poison it is, so I can’t heal her as fast as I normally
could. If I keep trying, I might be able to save her, but until then, I won’t
be able to leave her side. You all will have to do this without me.” He said
quietly.

“Just
as long as you can heal her.” Setne said, and Trevor nodded. Everyone uneasily
turned back to face the front, just in case something else showed up to give
them an unpleasant surprise.

However,
it was not as they had been expecting. Now that they were no longer being
terrorized by an oversized pig, they could finally take in their surroundings,
which were actually not as horrible as they were expecting. The sky brightened
with sunlight, revealing rolling fields of green stretching out on either side
of them, scattered here and there with clusters of exotic trees. They could see
in the distance lines of humans, the souls of the deceased, being guided here
and there to their respective fields. A good breeze had stirred up as well,
puffing out their sail and bringing with it the light perfume of several
hundred flowers, their colorful heads bobbing gently in the wind.

The rest of their journey
through this little paradise would have been almost perfect, if they had not
been weighed down by the worry for Kara, who occasionally let out a moan of
pain from the back of the boat, where Trevor was still tending to her, mumbling
spells nonstop under his breath and making faces when they didn’t work.

Just
a few hundred feet before they would cross into the sixth gate, Khopesh tensed
and jerked upright, staring out across the water at whatever was coming up.

“Guys,
I just remembered! We’ll be meeting Apophis again in the next section, *and* another fire lake!” he gasped.
Everyone groaned and winced; that was the last thing they had wanted to hear.

“We’ll
need all hands on deck, and two of our best fighters are down. Trevor? How goes
it back there?” he continued, straining to see around everyone to the two in
the back.

“No
good. None of the spells I know are working on her, I have no knowledge of what
kind of poison it is. I’m not a healing god.” Trevor said, showing them the
dark streaks, which, despite his best efforts, had spread further across her
belly.

“At
least you can heal, just keep trying. We have faith in you.” Khopesh said,
though his worry was written clearly on his face as he turned to face the front
again. Kimmy continued to watch the two, anxiety wrinkling her brow. Her best friend
was so pale and sweat was pouring from her skin, her eyes shifting restlessly
under their lids, and she murmured and whimpered softly. Trevor wasn’t looking
much better, perspiration shining on his face as he scowled and continued to
whisper spells with increasing frustration. Finally he sighed and shook his
head, looking up at Kimmy.

“I’m
sorry, but this is not working.” He said sadly. Kimmy felt her heart drop into
her stomach. Oh no. Not her best friend. Please, not her. She watched her
friend fading slowly away, weakening before her very eyes. Kimmy managed to
tear her eyes away from Kara’s pale visage and onto Trevor’s face, which had
lost his look of worry and was now had a faraway, thoughtful.

“There
is one thing…but it is very desperate, a last resort…yes…but I don’t see much
options here…” he whispered, slowly turning to look down at Kara’s grey face.
Mystified, Kimmy stared as he lifted his left hand, palm up, into the air. Her
eyes widened as a silver dagger appeared there, an ugly, cruel thing with a
curved blade and a skull for the pommel. It seemed to radiate an aura of
malice, and just looking at it made Kimmy’s skin crawl, as if trying to get
away from that blade and drag her with it. It was undoubtedly a very evil
knife.

“Yes,
this is the only way…” Trevor said, looking at the dagger and back down at
Kara, an alien gleam in his eye. He shifted it in his hand, taking a firm grip
on the hilt and raised it into the air.

## Chapter 31

Kimmy gasped and reached out to
stop him, but she was too late. The blade flashed downward in a silver
streak…and slashed open his own hand. Golden blood oozed thickly from the newly
made gash in his palm. He laid the dagger down on the deck, and drew his finger
through the blood puddling in his hand until his fingertip was covered in the
golden liquid. He then gently touched it to Kara’s belly, and began to trace
strange runes around her wound while he whispered more spells under his breath,
the gold of his blood standing out starkly against her dark skin. When he had
completed the circle of symbols around her wound, the entire pattern lit up,
and then sank into her skin until it was hardly more than a faint trace, the
purple threads ceasing their spread into the rest of her body. Trevor leaned
back and let out a sigh of exhaustion and relief. Then he let out a pained yell
and fell back onto the deck, grimacing and clutching his side.

“Sweetwings,
what’s wrong?” Kimmy exclaimed, falling to her knees and leaning over him, eyes
huge with concern.

“I
didn’t think it’d react *that* fast.
Holy wow, that *hurts*. And don’t call
me Sweetwings! Especially not in public!” he groaned.

“What
do you mean, it’d react that fast? What reacted?” she said, completely ignoring
the complaint about her pet name for him.

“The
binding spell. See?” he replied, boosting himself up on one arm, and lifting
his shirt with the other. There on his abdomen, in the exact same spot as
Kara’s gash, was an angry looking red weal, from which purple veins were
radiating.

“It’s
a blood binding spell. It binds my life to hers and vice versa, and makes me
share her wound, helping her stay alive by tapping into my life force, at least
until I choose to sever the link…or it kills us. Look, it’s working.” Trevor
said, pointing. Sure enough, Kara was regaining color and slowly opening her
eyes, her breathing evening out, though it was still fairly labored, coming out
in pained gasps. She managed to sit up, and both of them staggered to their
feet, obviously in pain, but able to stand without falling over.

“You
good?” Trevor asked her. Kara nodded, wiping some of her hair out of her face.

“Not
really good per se, but I’ll make it.” She panted. Trevor nodded sharply, and
turned back to the rest of them.

“Let’s
keep going then. We’ll be fine.” He said. The others slowly turned back around,
still muttering and throwing the two of them concerned looks. Kimmy, however,
refused to return to her respective oar, instead staying by her best friend’s
and boyfriend’s sides. She couldn’t quite believe that they could be okay
enough to stand just like *that*,
especially not after how hard Trevor had struggled to cast a healing spell just
before. Trevor noticed her worried hovering around them, and clasped a heavy
hand on her shoulder.

“Love,
we’re fine. Pay attention to out there and not here, or we all might not make
it back. Leave us to ourselves.” He said, looking her dead in the eye. She
remained hesitant, eyes searching his face for any betraying sign of hidden
weakness. His face softened and he leaned in closer to her.

“*Please*.” He whispered to her softly. She
finally nodded her consent and reluctantly took up her place, happening to
overhear Mano and Ikaika’s muttered conversation.

“No,
I don’t know how he did it either. I’ve heard of such spells, but supposedly
they’re really difficult and can go very wrong. And to pull it off so fast?”

“I know, it’s really strange. And *why* would he pull a move like that? Isn’t that like the kind of desperate, last
resort magic you use on someone you like, love deeply?”

“I
dunno man, the whole thing is a bit fishy to me…”

Kimmy tried to ignore the weird,
slithery feeling that gave her in her stomach, and resumed her grip on the oar,
picking up the steady pace that propelled them down the shadow river.

## Chapter 32

Now that they were no longer
having to worry all too much about the state of Kara’s health, the friends were
able to finally take a good look around them.

“Wow,
it’s actually a lot nicer here, now that there isn’t anything creepy or trying
to kill us.” Nahele remarked, one hand shading her eyes from the bright
sunlight of this hour.

“Yeah…but
after all that, it feels a little *too*
nice, you know what I mean?” Khopesh muttered under his breath, leaning in
towards Setne.

“I
personally feel like something’s missing, you know? But I can’t quite put my
finger on *what*…it was big though.”
Setne said thoughtfully, gazing intently at the open, rolling fields.

A
few places behind the duo, Lio was getting the same unsettled feeling, though
he kept it silent. He hadn’t really spent a whole lot of time here before,
mostly just passing through with his mom, but he also got the impression that
there was something that should be there that wasn’t. He also looked over at
the fields, observing the lines of ghosts and the resident gods in the distance
performing their various duties. But, so far, it looked as though nothing was
amiss. At least, nothing he could see.

They
drifted on for a bit, then the sky began to darken once more, and the green
hills turned from grassy velvet to a shiny, harder substance with an uncanny
resemblance to…

“Is
that *snakeskin*?” Kimmy said
incredulously, her face twisted into a look of disgust. Normally she never had
much problem with snakes, living in India her whole life meant she ran into
them frequently ever since she was a baby, but she had never seen this much up
close, and it was quite gross.

“Eyup.
We’ve passed on into the seventh gate, so we’ll be seeing a lot more of that.”
confirmed Khopesh. A chorus of “Ew!” rose from the sailing party and everyone
shuddered, remembering a certain snake they had encountered not that long ago.
Lio grimaced, but kept looking out over the landscape. He felt like they were
getting closer to finding out what was missing here, but it was still just out
of reach. Then he spotted a series of poles, over a hundred feet tall with the
bottoms splitting into forks, staked deep into the scaly ground, as if to pin
down something, but ineffectively, as they jabbed down at nothing. It hit him
suddenly like a ton of bricks, and his stomach plummeted to somewhere near his
feet.

“Guys,
I hate being that guy, and I know I have been that guy on this trip, but I
think there’s something you all should know.” He started, panic rising slowly
in his voice.

Nahele
groaned and rolled her eyes. “Honey, if you got something to say, hurry it up
and spit it out!” she snapped.

“Alright.
I think you-know-who is missing.” Lio said shortly.

“You-know-who
*who*?” Khopesh said, turning to give
Lio an annoyed look.

“Evil
snake dude. You know, the one that we had such a great time with. He’s supposed
to be right over there, being held down by those posts. But guess what, he’s
kinda not there right now.” Lio replied, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at
the gigantic poles.

“Buuut,
if we ran into him back there, what would he be doing all the way over here?”
Ikaika said, confused.

“He
can exist in multiple places at once down here. And out of all the places he
could be, this is one of the spots he *definitely*
*should be, vomiting up all the poor suckers he swallowed, but he isn’t.”*

“This
day just gets better and better.” Trevor mumbled sarcastically, one arm still
clamped over his middle.

“You
said it, brother.” Lily agreed, pulling her bow back out again, nocking an
arrow just in case.

They
all eyed the fields nervously, and unconsciously picked up the pace, sending
the barque zooming down the river. Then Khopesh spotted a reddish glow ahead,
coming up fast, and they were headed straight for it.

“EVERYONE,
SLOW DOWN!” he hollered, and startled, everyone tried to halt their progress by
frantically stabbing their oars into the water, but they were out of sync and choppy,
just causing the boat to twist and spin. The glow grew brighter and a wave of
intense heat abruptly engulfed them. They were now spinning well out of control
and headed, helpless to avoid it, straight into a second lake of fire.

## Chapter 33

This time there was no waterfall
to dump them headfirst right into it, but as it turns out, this particular lake
of fire had quite a bit of lava mixed in with it, and lava just so happens to
be a lot thicker than the average shadow, so even without the unceremonious
cannonball, they still hit it pretty hard.

The barque,
which wasn’t made to go roaring right into a lava lake, pitched forward
brutally, sending everyone sliding and falling down to the fore of the boat
while the aft shot up into the air. The wood screeched and groaned horribly as
it scraped against some of the cooler lava, and bit of liquid rock and flame
sprayed up, raining down upon them like so many fiery missiles. The sail
flapped and bucked, pushing them forward a bit more, dragging them across the
rock, then the wind died out, leaving them almost comically with their rear
suspended in the air. Then the aft came splashing back down, hitting the lake
and sending a jarring impact through the wood, jostling them into each other
and leaving quite a few solid bruises. The boat rocked back and forth for a
bit, making them all feel quite queasy, before finally settling and gently
rising and falling with the red-hot waves.

When everyone
got to their feet-and several staggered to the rail to heave-they noticed that
this particular lake was actually pretty small, they could see the shore on
both sides quite clearly, and could even spot even more poles, albeit these
ones were the normal kind, more like tall pillars made of black stone than
oversized forks stabbing into the ground.

“Hey Lio, were
those also supposed to be holding something?” Ikaika asked sarcastically,
pointing at the pillars, which stood at regular intervals, but didn’t seem to
serve any other purpose. Lio looked and groaned.

“Trust me, you
don’t want to know.” He moaned. They didn’t have to wait long to find out just
what those pillars were there for.

A cacophony of
reptilian hisses, insectile clicking, and bestial shrieks and roar greeted
them, and hundreds upon hundreds of heads broke the surface of the lake, bits
of lava dripping down their wide assortment of faces. The demons rose slowly
from the fire like zombies emerging from the tomb, and revolved to face them,
unfurling wings or tails or other appendages, flexing arms and loosening necks. Golden ropes, each one severed and emitting glowing, broken hieroglyphs, dangled from wrists and waists, where they were still wrapped.
All of them looked like they came from the deepest pit of your worst nightmare,
and all of them were angry. Very angry.

## Chapter 34

The demons were slowly closing
in, eyes blazing with anger, as if the demigods had all done them some very
personal wrong. When they were only a few feet away from the boat, they paused,
creating a circle around the boat. The demigods stared at them, and they stared
right back, even the ones that didn’t have eyes. The wind whistled through the
sail, loud in the tense silence.

Then,
they pounced. A demon with the head of a scarab and a humanoid body covered in
hyena fur grabbed hold of the railing near Kimmy and heaved himself up. Kimmy
whirled around, and came face to face with the beetle visage, huge compound
eyes glowing with and refracting the firelight, pincers clicking menacingly as
his antenna waved in her direction. She shrieked in alarm and reflexively swung
at him. Her oar whacked him full in the face with an unpleasant chitinous
crunch, rather like a very large bug being stepped on, and the demon fell over
backwards with a horrible scream, yellowish liquid oozing from a busted eye.
Kimmy stood paralyzed, clinging to her oar with a death grip, eyes wide and
frantically searching for the next threat, heart pounding somewhere in her
throat.

The
others were faring rather worse. Lani was grappling with a purple-skinned demon
with an octopus for a head, her oar lying forgotten on the deck, her forearms
wrapped in slimy purple tentacles. She snarled and yelped as the demon’s sharp
octopus beak nipped at her, and her body burst into flame in panic. The demon
gave a strange bubbling yelp back and released her, tentacles drawing back to
his face in pain. While he was in shock, Lani took the opportunity to punch him
right between the eyes, but it didn’t do her much good. Her fist merely sank
into his jelly-like flesh, and he didn’t even seem to notice.

Trevor
on the other hand was standing back to back with Kara, sending volley after
volley of arrows into a cloud of winged demons that every so often dive-bombed
the boat. Occasionally a demon would fall from the group with a pained screech
and plunge into the lava, skewered by one or more arrows. But for all that
fell, there were dozens more left. Kara was keeping close to him, a scimitar in
each hand, lashing out at any demons that came too near, but other than that,
she stayed out of the way, slightly hunched over and protecting her stomach
wound, her skin looking rather ashy again.

Ikaika and
several other demis had armed themselves with spears and throwing one after
another at their attackers, new spears magically appearing in their hand as
soon as the previous ones left.

Lily was flying
around with a crossbow, sniping out demons from the air, but mostly dodging
them as they flew at her, trying to grab at her wings and legs. One lion-headed
demon managed to grab a hold of her ankle and let out a roar of triumph as he
began to reel her in. But she turned and shot a bolt straight into his eye and
clean through his head. He let out a bellow of pain and fell out of the air,
landing in the lake with a splash of fire.

Kimmy
was snapped back to her situation from watching her friends by a loud thud next
to her as something slammed against the boat. She turned, too late, to see a large
demon with a crocodile’s head leaping from the lava, jaws open wide, displaying
rows of huge fangs. His jaws snapped shut on her arm and she screamed as his
fangs stabbed into her. The demon’s eyes lit up with victory and began to pull
her overboard. Trevor whirled at the noise and came running over, shoving both
demons and their friends out of the way. He tossed his bow aside and grabbed
the demon’s head with his bare hands, then wrenched its jaws open wide, freeing
Kimmy and breaking the demon’s jaw with a loud *CRACK*. The demon let out a hiss and sunk back down, eyes glazed as
it passed out, torn jaw dangling limply from its face. Kimmy whimpered as she
held her bleeding arm to her chest, watching her assailant disappear under the
surface. Trevor pulled her injured arm towards him and examined the punctures,
which were bleeding sluggishly. He sighed and pulled his shirt off, wrapping it
tightly around her arm like a bandage.

“Lucky
thing it didn’t happen to hit any major blood vessels, or you’d be in real
trouble. Put some healing potion on that and you’ll be right as rain, love.” He
said with another sigh. “But if this keeps up, who knows what other injuries
we’ll have to deal with.”

He
turned and took in their surroundings. Demons were still pouring in, ignoring
their fallen brethren completely in their eagerness to tear the boat and its
passengers apart.

“Guys!
Fall back! Now!” he shouted, and the demis did so one by one as they managed to
release themselves.

“What’s
up?” Lani yelled, shoving Octopus Face overboard.

“I
need everyone to dive overboard and stay under.”

“What?
We’ll drown! Or burn to death!” Nahele said, looking at him like he had lost
his mind.

“Just
do it and stop questioning me! I’ve got a plan.” Trevor bellowed back. Everyone
looked shaken at his tone and one by one they took the plunge. He turned back
to Kimmy, eyes soft with concern.

“You
too. Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.” he told her, voice reassuring. Kimmy nodded
and climbed over the railing, dangling her legs over the lava before taking a
deep breath and letting gravity take her. Her breath jerked in her lungs as the
heat hit her, making the air in her nose burn and she shut her eyes against the
brightness of the flames.

Just
one was left on board now. Kara hadn’t budged, just stood there with her arm
pinned to her gut.

“What
about me, Gut-Wound Ghoul? I don’t think I could handle a dip like that in my
condition.” She said.

Trevor
took a deep breath and exhaled in annoyance.

“Well,
if you really think you can’t make it, then I think you’d best lay down on the
deck and curl into as small a ball as you can. Make sure you have your stomach
and face as covered as best as you can, and whatever you do, DO NOT LOOK UNTIL
I SAY SO. Understood?” he said. Kara nodded and got down to her knees, covering
her face with her hands and tucking her head into her knees, curling up like a
turtle in its shell, bracing herself for the worst.

## Chapter 35

Trevor spread his wings wide,
and pushed off, launching himself into the air. The demons that were hovering
overhead quickly got out of the way as he blasted up into the sulfurous sky
like an avenging angel. He rose up until he was up above them and they remained
beneath him, content to circle like vultures as they watched him curiously, wondering
what this one was up to.

Trevor took in a deep breath and
closed his eyes, clearing his mind and focusing on gathering up every bit of
magical energy that he possessed. It came to him in a flood of vibrant light
visible only in his minds eye, filling up the very fibers of his being, until
even his skin glowed with the sheer force of it. He drew upon it all -save for
a small bit that he wrapped around Kara like a glowing shield- and pulled it in
tight, drawing and squeezing it down until it was a tight ball, burning in his
chest like a miniature sun.

He
then exhaled and let it all go.

All
that pent up energy exploded from his body, blasting forth in a wave of heat
and light like the sun, and surging violently outwards, completely incinerating
everything in its path. The demons closest by had no time to so much as blink
before they were burned to nothing. Ones farther off at least had a chance to
briefly shriek before they crumbled to ash, and those farthest away simply fell
down dead, unable to scream through the massive burns that covered their entire
bodies, their innards completely roasted in a matter of seconds.

Kara
felt a wave of heat wash over her, and even through her tightly closed fingers
she could see bright white light, which shone through her flesh and lit up her
bones, like faint shadows in the bright red of her flesh. She curled up even
tighter, but could not suppress the amazement she felt at the sheer power of
what her friend could do.

Meanwhile,
Kimmy and the others still sheltering in the lake, felt a concussive blast hit
them through the lava, shoving them like a wave, and jarring their bones with
the impact. Kimmy almost felt her breath escape her lungs, but tightly pinched
her lips together to prevent it.

Trevor then
closed his wings and landed lightly back on the boat, crouching on his tiptoes
as he felt the last traces of energy leave his body, leaving him temporarily
feeling a bit weaker. When his heart stopped pounding, he stood up and touched
Kara lightly on the shoulder.

“It’s over, you
can get up now.” He said softly. As she uncurled her body, Trevor reached out
with his mind and touched the thoughts of his other friends.

*You can all come back up now. I have*
finished.

 Immediately
their heads popped out from the surface of the lake, gasping for breath, and
they began to paddle back to the boat. Trevor leaned over the rail and grasped
their hands, pulling them one by one back on board. Kara was just standing
there, gaping at the now demon-free lake of fire, in awe at what had just
happened.

When Kimmy was
pulled on board, Kara pulled her aside and said in a low voice in her ear,
“That guy is a keeper, honey. I don’t know what the heck he just did, but…wow.”
Kimmy looked at her in surprise then smiled.

“Yeah, he’s
pretty great, isn’t he?” she said, her voice dreamy.

The others were
looking around, trying to see any sign of the demons, but there was nothing.

“Wow, what did
you do, to make them just disappear like that?” Lio said, impressed, as he
tried to see if he could spot anything, one hand shading his eyes as he
squinted across the lake.

“I channeled
the power of the sun.” Trevor said simply, with the air of someone merely
stating the weather. Everyone gaped at him.

“You channeled
the power of the *sun*? But, how?” Lio
gasped, mouth hanging open.

“That is a long
story that we don’t have time for.” Trevor replied, arms crossed, as if daring
Lio to pry further.

“Okay, but, why
didn’t you do this sooner? It would have been a much easier trip if you simply
had blasted our enemies away.”

Trevor frowned
at him.

“Lio, do you
honestly think it’s that easy to call up that kind of energy all the time? It’s
not easy to draw up so much in this form.”

“Hmph.” Lio
grunted, looking annoyed and disappointed. “Would have been cool though.” He
continued under his breath.

“Say, why did
you have them jump in the lake? I mean, if you could protect me in the middle
of that, how come you couldn’t do that for them too?” Kara asked, giving Trevor
a curious frown.

“Because the
lava provided a barrier from it. It took all my concentration to keep just you
safe, let alone about a dozen more. Not to mention, the looks on all your faces
was pretty entertaining too.” He replied, a mischievous grin spreading across
his face. Nahele snorted in indignation and gave him peeved look.

“But, how did
the boat survive a direct blast?” Lani said, confused. Trevor rolled his eyes.

“*Honestly*. It’s the *sun god’s boat.* It would be a very sorry magical boat if it
couldn’t even handle the very god it was made for.” He snorted.

“Now let’s get
a move on, we don’t have all day to interrogate me about my abilities.” He said
loudly, turning his back to them and striding to the front of the boat before
they could argue. Everyone watched him a second longer, then reluctantly went
back to rowing, which, at this point, everyone was quite sick of doing.

“Why couldn’t
Ra have upgraded to motorboat? Or a yacht? Now *that* I could roll with.” Lio grumbled as he rubbed his soar
spectral hands. He never thought being a ghost could be so full of…cramps.

## Chapter 36

The trip into
the next gate was actually fairly uneventful, much to everyone’s relief, as
they were quite sick and tired of making new enemies at every turn. After
drifting aimlessly down the river for a few minutes, they actually started to
get bored. Then Lio spotted it.

“Guys look!
That’s it! That’s got to be it!” he cried out excitedly, pointing and bouncing
on his odd feet, as giddy as a small child. Everyone jumped and quickly tried
to halt their progress, causing the boat to rock and fishtail a bit.

“*What*
is it?” Nahele grumbled, taking a break to feel her sore biceps, glaring at her
boyfriend for having the audacity to be so happy when she wasn’t.

“Tamas’s
hideout! See? That trident thing there, that sure isn’t part of the Duat!” he
replied, her crankiness bouncing right off him.

“Geez, after
all that, I had totally forgotten why we are here.” Trevor muttered awkwardly.

“How can you
tell?” Lily asked, squinting in the direction of Lio’s outstretched finger.

“Because in the
entire history of Egypt, I have never once heard mention of a *trident*. Least of all one made of
bronze.” Lio said, rolling his eyes in frustration that they weren’t getting as
excited as him.

“Oh yeah….”
Lily replied, finally seeing it. And sure enough, standing upright all on its own,
was a sic foot tall trident made of golden metal and glowing with a soft aqua
blue aura.

“That must be
Poseidon’s trident! I thought we returned that to Uncle?” Lily said.

“Well, Lio must
have re-stolen it.” Trevor replied.

“Hey!” Lio
protested. “It wasn’t my fault I did that!”

“I never said
it was.” Trevor said coolly.

“Never mind who
stole it, let’s just concentrate on getting it back.” Kara said dismissively.

“Uh, we’re kind
of still going down river and any chance of getting that back is about to pass
us by. Everyone, pull over! Quickly, quickly!” Lani said. Everyone jumped and
quickly tried to halt their progress, causing the boat to rock and fishtail a
bit.

“How the hell
do you pull a boat over?” Kara grunted as she strained her muscles against the
current.

“Everyone, just
do as I say!” Kai barked and everyone did as she bid, until they slowly managed
to turn around and push their way ashore against the current. The bottom of the
barque met the shore and ground up against the dirt. Everyone gratefully
disembarked, stumbling around a bit as their legs got used to standing on a
surface that wasn’t moving.

“Okay, now that
we are finally here, what say we go up and grab it? I mean, it’s right *there*.” Kara said, gesturing to the
trident.

“I like your gung-ho
attitude, but that’s precisely the reason why we *shouldn’t* just go up and grab it, it’s a little *too* ‘right there’, you know? Knowing
Tamas, he’s crafty; he isn’t going to be casually leaving a powerful artifact
like that just lying around wherever. Most likely, it’s heavily trapped.”
Trevor said, eye narrowed as he thoughtfully examined the trident…from a
distance.

“You think it’d
still hurt us? I mean, we *are* in
ghost mode.” Kimmy said hopefully. Trevor looked at her somewhat disgustedly.

“If you want to
take the chance that Tamas *might* have
somehow possibly overlooked a ghost trying to run off with his stuff, then by
all means, go for it.” He said. Kimmy looked between him and the trident, then
back again.

“Yeah, okay,
no.” She said in a small voice. Trevor shook his head and led the way forward,
muttering under his breath.

“She may be
cute and sweet and all, but my gods, my girlfriend has the IQ of a goldfish.”

## Characters

First row: Lio, Kimmy, Kara

Second row: Charnelle, Lily, Page

Third row: Priscilla, Trevor