Daniel Taylor and the Dark Legacy (2 page)

There were five of them in the group, plus the professor, and they always worked together on one site under the watchful eyes of the old man, so that no one would do anything stupid if they happened across an artifact. Naturally, none of the Egyptian authorities had any idea who they really were. They had posed as scientists and obtained a special permit to carry out “measurements” for a few months.

With the help of sophisticated instruments, the Guild had identified a constant but very weak energy pulse that couldn’t be localized precisely. Their scholars had concluded that a dark-magic relic emitting a weak electromagnetic field must be somewhere within this pyramid. Now the students were pulling out all the stops to find it in the limited time frame of the permit.

Working in the depths of a pyramid could be eerie. Sometimes the silence was broken by quiet, unexpected noises — rustlings, cracks, rumbles. James told himself that it was just little animals or crumbling rocks, but sometimes it still gave him goosebumps — and he had been working there almost every day for the past three months.

When his friend’s footsteps had faded into the distance, James set about collecting his letters. He recovered his lantern — luckily, it had been sturdy enough to survive the fall — and blew the dust off of every page before refolding the papers and returning them to his breast pocket.

The last page had fallen against the wall. When he bent over to pick it up, James was shocked to see that something was clearly engraved on one of the lower stones in the wall. James pulled the lantern closer, then used a thick, soft paintbrush to sweep the sand away from the stone’s surface. He inhaled sharply.

“The eye of Horus,” he whispered, kneeling on the ground to examine it more closely. “It can’t be.”

This was a symbol of protection and power. Something important must have been hidden here, James hoped. This room wasn’t a burial chamber, so they hadn’t yet made any excavations within it — it seemed completely insignificant. The whole area was fairly low on the professor’s list of priorities.

Somewhat awed, James traced with his finger the engraved line of an arching eyebrow and the oval beneath it that signified a hawk’s eye. Then he straightened up. Should he call the others over?

No, he wanted to make this discovery on his own. It would make a perfect conclusion to his training, which would be over in just three months.

James collected his tools and began to scrape at the cement between the joints of the stones with a sharp blade. Usually this cement was extremely hard, even after so many thousands of years. But to James’ surprise, it flaked away quite easily. The material wasn’t normal cement. Someone must have hidden something here after the pyramid had already been built.

Using a wedge, he loosened the stone until he could pull it away. The rasping noise of stone scraping against stone gave James goosebumps all over, and he found himself constantly looking around to see whether anyone was coming. He could hear his pulse thumping in his ears.

James lay down on his stomach, feeling his heart pound against his ribs. He held the lantern up to the hole in the wall, but couldn’t see anything but dust. Eyes straining, he finally made out an edge — a blind corner in the small hole. Oh, man, he’d have to reach in there! What if he encountered a skeletal hand, or what if a swarm of scarabs rushed over him, just like in horror films?
This is reality, not make-believe
, he told himself. He gathered his courage and stretched his arm out into the wall, right up to the shoulder. He groped around the corner and gave a start as he felt something rough and pliable. There really was something there!

“Come on,” he hissed at himself, shoving his hand back into the hollow. Sweat was pouring down his face, dripping from his nose onto the dusty floor. Clenching his teeth and holding his breath, James made a grab for the object. It was bulky, and James had to rotate it before he could pull it out. The thing, whatever it was, was really heavy! The bundle consisted of a coarsely woven cloth covering a hard, elongated object — as far as James could feel. Although his hands were violently trembling, James carefully unwrapped it. As the golden staff appeared, topped by a golden snake head, James could scarcely believe his luck. The scepter, this had to be it!

Man, today was his lucky day — incredible! The blood rushed to his head so quickly that he felt a little dizzy. He would have to tell the others, but first he wanted to be sure that he had found the real artifact. He had no desire to make a fool of himself.

Don’t touch anything, call me over right away if you find something!
James heard the words of his professor ringing in his ears.

Of course — so that you can take all the credit, old man.

James let the cloth fall to the ground. As he touched the bare metal, it seemed to him that it was vibrating. The sensation penetrated his entire body. Phenomenal!

James turned the scepter over and saw an inscription running the length of the staff. It was in hieroglyphs, which James could read with ease. Students at the Guild School learned ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Sumerian, and naturally also how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs. Unlike the rest of humanity, which had only deciphered the pictographs after the decryption of the Rosetta Stone, the Guild, which had been in existence for thousands of years, had never forgotten the old languages. How could he have doubted the Guild’s scholars, perfectly fluent in the ancient tongues — their reading of the clay pot had been absolutely correct.

James read from top to bottom, whispering the ancient inscription: “Peret … em-bah netjer …” A tingle ran down his spine, and the hairs on his arms stood up. The staff in his hand grew warmer, vibrating more strongly and beginning to glow. A dark power descended on James, nestling into his heart and making it beat even faster and louder.

“This is madness,” he whispered in awe. Then he thought,
Damn it, what have I done?
But a few seconds later, his professor’s warnings were again forgotten. Who was the professor, anyway? He, James, was now superior to all!

It was said that the gods of the ancient pharaohs were actually demons. At this precise moment, James had no doubt that this was the truth. Most of the pharaohs had been capable leaders who had protected their people and promoted trade and culture. But the demons had directed the human rulers. First, they raised the Egyptian culture to a world force in order to gain power over additional multitudes; then, they had corrupted the pharaohs (or even taken over themselves) to instigate wars, and subjugate and enslave entire peoples — generating misery, from which they drew their power. Demons thrived on negative energy and fed on souls, after all.

In the process, they created a variety of objects that they used to more easily manipulate mankind. The Scepter of Power was supposed to be one of mightiest of these instruments. And now he was holding it in his hand!

The voice of reason that had been whispering to him from the furthest corners of his mind, telling him that he had been incredibly stupid to activate the scepter, fell silent. James couldn’t have done otherwise — the artifact had literally forced him to do it! And he had no regrets.

The glow subsided, but the feeling of power remained. James felt fantastic!

This time, when he heard a noise behind him, he didn’t even flinch. He knew that he was virtually invincible.

James turned around. “Ruben, you won’t believe …”

It wasn’t his colleague standing there, but rather a beautiful woman whose black hair flowed in waves over her shoulders. She was wearing a white linen gown and pressing a strange bundle to her breast. She would have made an excellent ancient Egyptian.

What are you doing here?
he wanted to ask, but then he saw her eyes light up.

James stepped back. “What …” He caught a whiff of ozone. She was a demon! Yes, there was no doubt about it. The smell indicated that she must have just come through a demon portal. The underworlders could simply draw a circle with their hand on any solid object, creating a blue ring of energy — effectively, a door that could take them anywhere.

Wow, she was stunning! James stood there, paralyzed. A real-life demon was standing right in front of him, and all he could do was stare at her like a madman.

The dark eyes, almost as black as her hair, bore into him. “Let go of it at once!” she commanded him.

He suddenly regained a clear head. “Do you mean
this
?” he asked, holding the staff out before him. Dear God, he couldn’t believe how amazing he felt! He didn’t have the slightest fear of this lovely underworlder, who probably would have liked nothing better than to kill him with her gaze.

An energy sphere formed in James’ hand; it was so incredibly large and bright that it would certainly destroy this young woman. Even his powers had multiplied! The sphere grew larger in his hand. Cool. The scepter must be providing him with extra energy, and James again sensed that he was losing himself in the power of the artifact.

Despite the danger that James represented to her, the woman took a step toward him. “Put it down or deactivate it, but do it quickly!” Her voice rang out sharply, and shivers rippled across his entire body.

“Why should I do anything that a demon commands me to do?” he growled. He was about to throw his sphere directly at the woman when a movement in a bundle she was holding distracted him.

She pressed it tighter to her chest. What was she carrying? It was only when James saw a tuft of black hair sticking out of the cloth that he realized: It was a baby.

He couldn’t very well kill a child!

The demon just stood there before him, making no attempt to attack him or tear the scepter away from him, and … wait a minute, the baby could just be some kind of trick!

Suddenly, the woman murmured a spell, and a second later they were surrounded by a shimmering sphere that looked very much like an oversized soap bubble.

James spun around. “What have you done?”

“I’ve given us more time,” she said. “I’ve enclosed us within a capsule in which time passes much more slowly.”

Wow, this demon possessed extraordinary powers!

“How were you able to activate the scepter?” she asked. “No normal man could do that, and you certainly aren’t a demon!”

She stared at the energy sphere that was still growing in James’ hand. He felt the sinister, deadly power stirring within him.

“You’re a watcher!” Her face relaxed. She no longer looked quite so much like an avenging angel. Unfortunately, this made her even more attractive in James’ eyes. She might well be the embodiment of absolute evil, but she didn’t look like it. They were so similar, the two of them, but they represented opposite sides in the war.

Many thousands of years ago, their kind had split apart when a group of magically gifted druids had divided into two camps. One had decided to use their powers only for good, while the other wielded their might to their own advantage. The latter group had retreated into their own grim world, from which they sought to subjugate and corrupt humanity.

The demon pointed to the scepter. “You have to reverse the activation spell! Read the inscription from bottom to top, quick!”

“Why?” he asked.

She shook her head, as though he already knew the answer but was simply too stupid to realize it. “Because otherwise you won’t survive for very long. They’ll feel the power of the artifact and come here immediately!”

James had no need to ask who the demon meant by “they.” “How do you know all this?”

“I’m the guardian of this scepter.”

The guardian? It just kept getting better: a demon who guarded a dark-magic artifact rather than using it for herself? And yet there was something benevolent in the expression in her eyes, and he was tempted to believe her. The mighty energy sphere burst in his hand, and the demon gave a sigh of relief.

James read the inscription backward and immediately sensed the power slipping out of him, sucked back through his arm into the scepter.

He shuddered. Now he could think clearly again … and he was the defenseless prisoner of a demon.

The bubble wavered perilously. The woman flinched and furrowed her brow. She seemed to be listening to something within her. Her face darkened. “You’re in for it now! Xandros will soon know everything!”

Who is Xandros?
he thought, but the answer came to him immediately: “The king of the underworld!”

“And also … my father,” she whispered.

The baby in her arms began to cry softly. The demon caressed its head and murmured calming words before turning back to James. “I have to go. I can’t hold back time forever.” Sweat shone on her forehead. The spell must be requiring an enormous amount of energy to maintain. “They’ll be here soon. The disturbance in power could be felt even in the underworld.”

As a watcher, James naturally knew that demons could communicate with each other telepathically. Their consciousnesses were all linked. It would only take a single thought for the demon to lead them here.

She bent down to pick up the cloth in which the artifact had been wrapped and then held out her hand. “Give me the scepter.”

“Certainly not,” he said, although his tone of voice was less than convincing.

Oh, heavens, she was so beautiful! But hadn’t he learned that most demons appeared in an attractive form so that they could more easily corrupt and manipulate humans?

“Then you’ll die. It’s your choice. The longer you wait, the quicker they’ll find you. The scepter is still radiating residual energy. I have to take it to a safe place before they arrive.”

James didn’t let go of the staff. “I can give the scepter to the Guild. They’ll take care of it.”

“No!” Her eyes grew wide again. She came so close to him that they were almost touching. “You can’t trust any of them.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Why not? We’re the good guys, after all. Why should I trust
you
?”

Her eyes darkened. “Even among you, there are renegades.”

James had felt the power of the artifact. A watcher could very easily fall under the spell of this dark force; he had no doubt of that.