The Curse in Her Blood

Chapter 7

Robin

When I come to, I'm in the desert.

I blink my eyes and look around.

I'm half buried in a sand dune and quite by myself. I'm very confused about the state of things. I'm not sure how I ended up... well where ever I am, and I'm not sure why Set would abandon me when I'm supposed to be crucial to his plans. Unless this was all a lie and I was now in hell, in which case, well played, but there were far better ways to punish me than to stick me in the desert.

"Good morning," a cheery voice says and I startle and jump to my feet.

The act of dislodging myself from the sand sends rivers of it cascading down me, revealing it to be in many unsavoury places, and tangles my feet up once again so I ended up once more in the sand dune, just this time, face first.

When I do manage to get myself back on my feet I find that a man is standing above me and is staring at me with a grin of amusement. He wears an outfit similar to Set's from my dream, except his black is crisper and among the gold accents are turquoise and purple. He has a mop of curly black hair on his head and a pair of golden yellow eyes. He too is decked out in gold arm bands and bejeweled filigree almost like priceless tattoos.

"Uh... who are you?" I ask him. "And uh... where are we?"

"Why, you are in Egypt. More specifically Avris, or as you would call it Tell el-Dab'a," he says to me. I have no idea what he's talking about so I stay quiet. "And I am Set."

Now that I know is a lie. I look him up and down carefully as he dons a cocky grin.

"You're not Set," I say to him and that cocky grin widens.

"How can you be sure? He's a shapeshifter, he can wear any face," he tells me

Well the third person speech is definitely giving him away but instead I say: "I just know. You don't feel right. You don't feel like him."

"You can tell who he is by how he feels?" he asks and I don't answer because it doesn't make sense.

"Are we gonna, like, stand in the desert or are you supposed to take me somewhere?" I ask him because that's the only thing that makes sense at this moment.

"Yes, I am to take you to the Mortal Domain of Set, which is currently housed in the remnants of Hyksos," he tells me and then he just smiles at me. He's not moving, he's just staring at me, with a wide grin and even wider eyes.

"So... uh... you going to point me in the right direction or are you just going to stare at me?" I ask him and he breaks out into light chuckles.

"No, I have something much quicker," he says to me. He puts a hand to my shoulder and snaps his fingers. My stomach flip flops, my heart races, and in one second, I go from being in the desert to inside what has to be a goddamn palace.

I look around at my surroundings, at the gilded surfaces and the hand carved stone curves with my mouth open. Oh yeah, he was definitely not Set. And he's still staring at me like a lunatic.

"Welcome to Ombos, Palace of Set," he says bowing to me though I don't know why. "While you are here, I will be your most humble of servants. Anubis."

"Oh cool," I say before I can stop myself. "Where's the jackal head? Can I see it?"

His smile is coolly detached as he says: "Maybe next time. Set awaits you in the Grand Hall."

To my right a door opens, signaling that I was to go through it. Anubis gestures for me to go and I feel like I have no choice but to go through the door. I walk in as confidently as I can muster and find myself in a place even more luxurious than the foyer I was just in.

And at the head of a large banquet table stands what I know to be Set, wearing a different celebrity's face.

"Are you wearing Bradley James' face?" I ask him when I get close enough and his hands almost fly to his face. His eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"This is a face that pleases you," he tells me.

"Well no duh. Bradley's super-hot. I just don't know why you're wearing his face as opposed to yours," I answer and he seems to take this in.

"Because this face pleases you and mine... does not," he answers with a slow but sharp nod of his head. I blink my eyes because he seems to not get it and I look around at the accommodations.

"You've got a nice place here," I tell him.

There are all sorts of touches added to this place. The columns were Greek, the artwork Chinese, the metal work no doubt Roman. There was marble tile beneath my feet shining with an opalescent sheen. The table was made of the darkest ebony I had ever seen and the chairs all matched, with bright red silk cushions.

I could feel Set's eyes watching me, his gaze felt hot red against my skin and I tried not to squirm under it. "Yes. Not much needed to be changed either, almost everything here is pleasing to you."

"Okay, you need to stop saying that," I tell him. "And you need to stop doing that too."

"I don't understand."

"You don't have to keep changing things to please me. This is your house, and that is not your face. It doesn't matter what I think. It matters what you think," I tell him. "And it's really creepy to hear you go on about what pleases me. You don't know me so you're not supposed to know all that stuff."

"But I..."

"Yes, you learned all about me when you stuck your tongue down my ear," I finish for him. "That was an invasion of my privacy and as such I'd like you to stop using the knowledge that you stole from me."

Set just blinks his eyes at me like he doesn't understand my demands or like he just doesn't understand me. Maybe he had never dealt with someone like me before, he had been locked away for god knows how long. There is a decidedly awkward pause before he finally inclines his head gently and agrees to my demand.

With that done, and with nothing else to say to him, I turn and ask: "So... what do we do now?"

"I need to safely get you to Duat," he tells me.

I take that in. "Okay... so I need to go to the land of the dead? Can't we have Anubis like snap his fingers like he did to get me here?"

"Taking a mortal to the land of the dead, is a tricky thing," he says. "Essentially... you will need to die to gain access."

"Uh... huh... I did not sign up for dying... remember?" I remind him and he turns to look at me again. It that look of confusion like he doesn't understand if my question is sincere and it occurs to me that he might not know what sarcasm is... and therefore my comments are making no sense to him.

"If you would stop sassing me long enough for me to explain I would have told you that I believe to have found a way to grant you safe passage," he tells me and then looks me over again. "You haven't eaten since this morning, eat first and then we'll talk."

I sit down at an empty plate and as soon as I do, I'm staring at a full plate of bacon, scrambled eggs, toast and pancakes. The teacup in front of me fills up and when I look back to where Set was standing, I find that he's gone. I'm too hungry to care at that point, so I tuck in with gusto.