The First Ark: Deathless Prequel Read Free

next to Osiris. His mouth worked as he met her gaze, but he was incapable of speech. She pulled his head to her bosom, blood soaking through her furs. It was already cooling. "Oh, my love. I am so sorry."
    Osiris gave a shuddering gasp and died.

Chapter 3- Chamber of the Gods

    "Isis?" a voice said, muted and distant. She glanced up through the tears to find Sekhmet staring down at her. Her near sister's face was a mask of grief and pain, twin to her own. Sekhmet gathered Isis to her and Isis didn't fight it. She sobbed her grief into the damp furs covering her friend's chest.
    "It's my fault," she said, finally pushing Sekhmet away. Isis rose to her feet, wiping away the tears as she sought desperately to compose herself. "I knew the spirits couldn't protect us here and I agreed to come anyway. His death is my fault."
    "No," Sobek hissed, limping forward. He leaned heavily on his spear, but his eyes were hard. "This is not your doing. Osiris led us here. I mourn his death, but the blame is his."
    "This was Set's doing," Sekhmet said, glaring a challenge at Sobek. The wounded warrior broke gazes first. Isis was grateful. Had she spoken the words would have been a great deal harsher.
    Sekhmet knelt next to Osiris and gently removed his necklace of cave lion teeth, the mark of the tribe's chieftain. She settled it grimly around her own neck. "But we are too weak to claim vengeance, at least right now. They will return soon and we cannot be here when they do."
    "Perhaps the stranger can help us," Isis suggested, turning to peer up the corridor. The odd-looking stranger still stood there, his golden staff gripped firmly in hand. If he'd moved at all during the fighting she hadn't seen it, and if the sight of so many bodies troubled him he gave no sign.
    The stranger beckoned them forward, then turned and disappeared into the darkness. A moment later something inexplicable happened. The sapphire set into the staff began to glow, it's light both warm and bright. She'd never seen such magic, such incredible power.  
    Sekhmet was the first to follow, with Sobek hobbling after. Isis moved to support his larger frame, bearing some of his weight as they hurried after the stranger with his incredible staff. The stranger guided them through many tunnels, up flights of tall stairs and down others.
    By the time the stranger stopped to face them, Sobek had gone ashen. The wound in his thigh was deep and bled freely. She had no catgut thread to bind it and using a fur as a bandage would do little unless Sobek stopped to rest.
    "Unnh," The stranger grunted, pointing urgently down a ramp that led into a dark cavern.  
    Sekhmet moved to Sobek's opposite side, and together they helped the wounded warrior into the cavern. At the room's far side light shone through a square cave mouth, much like the one they'd passed through when entering this dark place.
    The stranger threaded through the cavern, passing by odd spires that towered over them. The one in the center stood higher than ten men and hummed with some low malevolent power. Isis eyed it warily as she passed by, not trusting anything about this place.
    She was out of breath by the time they reached the light, and she found it wasn't the cave's exit. Rather it led into a small room that had clearly been constructed by the gods. Seven blocks a little longer than a man radiated outward from a central point, each more clear than the clearest ice and standing at about waist height. Large gemstones dotted their surface, with little pulses of red and blue light passing between them on invisible lines.
    "Unnhhh," the stranger grunted, even more urgently. He rested his staff against one of the blocks, then moved to scoop up Sobek. Sekhmet stiffened as if she might protest, but relaxed and allowed the stranger to carry Sobek to one of the strange blocks.
    He set the wounded warrior atop the block, and after a moment the block glowed and began to flow like melting animal fat. Sobek sank inside and