The Final Kingdom by Michael Northrop

Author:Michael Northrop
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

They stayed on the path as it cut through a field of waist-high barley. With one hand still wrapped around his scarab, Alex reached out with the other and brushed the top of the nearest stalks. All around them, the light continued to shift and swirl, shapes and colors ornamenting the heavy air. He saw rosy red light pooling in the air ten feet in front of him, forming a perfect circle, like the pupil of an eye. It drained away a moment later, leaving nothing but the vague sensation of being watched.

As his ears adjusted to the steady hum all around, he heard other sounds rise up. Some were faint: airy exhalations that might have been the wind, but sounded more like an old man breathing his last gasp; distant roars that might have been thunder, had the golden sky not been cloudless. Others were louder: A chorus of wailing voices rose up off to their left. Alex whipped his head around, but all he saw was shifting grain.

“Did you guys hear that?” he said, but the voices had already stopped.

“I heard it,” said Ren.

Both of them turned to Luke, who shrugged. “I thought it was you two.”

Alex turned back toward the fields. Whether or not his ears were playing tricks on him, his eyes were telling a very clear story. The figures working the fields were closer now, the nearest no more than twenty yards away. Their broad backs were slightly stooped and their strong shoulders swung from side to side. Alex couldn’t see the blades of the scythes they were carrying, but he knew they were harvesting the grain. Golden stalks disappeared with each swing.

Shesh shesh shesh went the blades.

“Are they dangerous?” asked Ren, walking a little closer.

Alex shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he said. The figures hadn’t so much as glanced in their direction.

“So those guys are, like, one hundred percent dead, right?” hissed Luke. “And that’s why they look like that?”

They were close enough to see them clearly now. Some had skin the color of stone, but most were shades of blue. They wore simple clothes but regal headdresses that seemed oddly out of place in the sun-washed fields.

“They’re shabti,” said Alex.

“Yeah,” agreed Luke. “They’re definitely shabby.”

“Shabti,” corrected Ren. Then she turned toward Alex and added: “But, uh, you better tell us — I mean Luke — what those are again.”

Alex managed half a smile. He knew that Ren liked to know what was going on, and that a little information might help keep her calm in this strange world. Still, he pretended he was explaining it for Luke’s benefit.

“The ancient Egyptians believed that the afterlife was just, like, an extension of everyday life. There was no sickness or death, I mean, obviously. But you still had to work, to grow crops and stuff. So they put these little statues in their tombs. They’re called shabti, or answerers. Each day, when the dead were called to work, they could send out one of their shabti to answer for them.

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