Tut by P. J. Hoover Page A

answer for you.”
    â€œNot his girlfriend,” Tia said, pointing to herself. “Remember?”
    He tossed the balled-up papyrus at me. I ducked out of the way.
    â€œIt doesn’t count,” Imsety said. “Which means you have only one chance left.”
    I wasn’t about to complain. I hadn’t known the answer, and this way, I still had a head of hair.
    â€œBring it on,” I said. “I’m ready.”
    â€œNo cheating this time,” Qeb said.
    Tia made a pretend motion of zipping her mouth and tossing away a key.
    Imsety pulled the final piece of papyrus from the Canopic jar. “Last question. What’s the…” he started. “Oh, come on. This is way too easy.”
    I deserved something easy. My quest for vengeance was noble and just. Horemheb had to be eliminated.
    â€œRead it.”
    â€œFine,” Imsety said. “What’s the volume of a pyramid? Seriously? That’s like basic pharaoh training one-oh-one.”
    â€œDarn right it is,” I said. I’d learned about the great pyramids of Giza when I was six years old. My tutors had drilled me, making sure I could do all the calculations in my head. I silently sent them a prayer of thanks. “Area of the base times the height divided by three.”
    Imsety ripped the slip of papyrus in half and threw it to the ground. “I cannot believe we didn’t even get to shave your head.”
    After the questions, I couldn’t, either.
    â€œMaybe next time,” I said. “Not.”
    The final ankh—the golden one in the center—shimmered and twisted upward, pulling the entire wall with it. A dark room lay ahead. I’d won.
    â€œGuess I won,” I said.
    â€œWell played,” Qeb said. “I thought we had you there with that dead king thing.”
    I thought so, too, but I didn’t dare voice it. The gods could play by any rules they wanted. I didn’t want them to retract my victory.
    â€œYeah, not everyone knows about Seti the First being cut into pieces and buried under the obelisks,” Imsety said. “Our dad told you, didn’t he?”
    Horus had never mentioned anything of the sort. I had no clue the obelisks had been built on top of Pharaoh Seti the First’s body parts. Who knew?
    â€œYep,” I lied. “You know Horus.”
    Full of more secrets than Imsety was full of hot air.
    â€œYou should stop by more often, little Tut,” Qeb said, mussing my hair, which I was very happy to still have.
    â€œYou should drop by the town house sometime,” I said. “Horus would love to see you.”
    â€œThat’s debatable,” Qeb said. It was so hard to read what he was really thinking with that falcon head of his.
    â€œSure he would. Just not on the new moon.” If Qeb dropped by then, Horus might kill him. Let’s put it this way: new moons and Horus? Not the best of friends. During the new moon, Horus went totally blind. Not just missing-one-eye blind, but couldn’t see out of the other one either. And when Horus was blind, Horus was dangerous. And pretty much crazy. He’d tried to scratch both my eyes out one time. Gil had almost pulled Horus’s claws out, he’d been so mad. That had been a thousand years ago, and ever since, Horus disappeared for a few days around the new moon.
    Qeb clacked his falcon beak, which made me guess he was laughing. “Right. I almost forgot about that.”
    I never forgot about it. The image of my eyeballs clawed out made it impossible to forget.
    Ahead of us, the dark room beckoned. I couldn’t risk losing entry.
    â€œCome on.” I grabbed Tia’s hand and pulled her through the open doorway. And then the door lowered behind us. We were swallowed in darkness.

 
    8
    WHERE THE SHABTIS DRAW BLOOD
    â€œIt’s dark in here,” Tia said not two seconds after the ankh door lowered behind us.
    Even though I knew it was showing off, I