The crocodile attacked anyone and everyone within range of its jaws. As the panic rolled around it, the Shabti stood over the fatally wounded Martyr of Saint Mark. “What is happening?” the dying man said in a weak voice.

“I have questions to ask you,” the Shabti rasped. “How did your band come to attack this airship now?”

“I will tell you nothing, Devil—”

“Your soul will not leave until my questions are answered,” the Shabti replied. The Martyr of Saint Mark looked around and the horror showed on his face. Despite his lethal wounds, he was in fact still alive. “When I am satisfied, you will go to your reward. How did your band come to attack this flying ship?”

“Our leader made the choice!”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I swear by Jesus and the Apostles. His contact in the government said to attack this ship!”

“Where is your leader?”

“Over there, with the pagan whores.”

The Shabti looked back into the other compartment, watching the other Martyrs of Saint Mark confronting the Ladies of Flame. The stranger, Hawk Ramsey, was there as well, and threw his hand axe to kill the terrorist leader. The Shabti felt a pang of disappointment. The killing was too public and there was no way that the Shabti could capture his soul in such a venue. The answers of what the leader knew would elude them for now. It looked back at the man on the floor. With a whispered spell, the life faded from his eyes as his soul moved on.

Once Hawk Ramsey and the Sakhmit priestess pushed their way into the compartment, the Shabti vanished into the background. A few simple spells allowed it to slip away unnoticed. It wandered through the back streets of Cairo until it stopped in a crooked alley. Alighting on a lamppost ahead sat a large golden hawk. The humans likely would not see it, but the Shabti recognized it instantly, the ba, the soul of Osiris-Ramesses.

“What happened on the flying contraption?” the spirit asked.

The Shabti replied in its scratchy voice. “Christian zealots attacked. They threatened the girl and the Lady of Flame. And the anomaly.”

“It was dealt with, I take it,” Osiris-Ramesses said, his gaze bearing down on the Shabti like the scorching midday sun.

“The crocodile spell. The Christians did not see it coming.”

“Good, the forces of Murat will be fulfilled,” the ba said. “Stay with them. I cannot see the full pattern yet. Especially with the foreign man, the anomaly.”

“Hawk Ramsey.”

“Keep paying attention to what he does. They will be at my tomb within a few days. Things have not yet coalesced, but they will soon. Be vigilant.”

“As you command I will answer, my pharaoh.” The Shabti bowed as the golden hawk took wing and vanished into the sky.