Theodosia & the Eyes of Horus by R. L. Lafevers Read Free Book Online Page B

had.
    Unfortunately, she didn't turn up on my way to the basement either. Which was too bad, as I always preferred a bit of company down there.
    The problem with the catacombs was that so many forgotten relics had been stacked on top of one another, it was nearly impossible to tell which ones were responsible for the
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    vile magic and dark curses that swirled about. What made matters even worse was that the Staff of Osiris hadn't even felt cursed, and I had no idea how to distinguish a power-laden artifact from an uncursed one.
    I opened the door, turned up the gaslights, and then paused as the force of the dark magic hit me. I shuddered once and gripped the three amulets I wore around my neck. Just as I lifted my foot to head down, a voice behind me said, "Can I come too?"
    My pulse slowed a bit at this reprieve. "Henry!" Heartened considerably by the idea of a companion--even if it was only Henry--I said, "Why, of course you can come down. If you want to. But I didn't think this sort of thing interested you all that much."
    Henry shrugged. "It's not like there's anything else to do in this stuffy old place."
    "Very well, then. Come along. But you need to wear this." I lifted one of the amulets from my neck and held it out to him.
    He recoiled as if I had offered him a plate of boiled suet. "I'm not wearing one of your stupid necklaces."
    "It's not a necklace, Henry. It's protection. Remember? I gave one to Stokes when he was injured in St. Paul's churchyard."
    He shook his head at me. "Quit pretending to be all
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    magical and mystical," he said. "You're not fooling anyone, and you just look stupid." Then, before I could stop him, he shoved past me and raced down the stairs. His words stung, and I had half a mind to leave him to the mercies of whatever magic he might find. Then we would see who was pretending. However, just the thought of that had me hurrying down the stairs after him. At the bottom step, instead of stopping, I kept right on going until I bumped smack into him.
    "Watch it!" he said, pushing me away.
    "Sorry," I murmured as I slipped the amulet into his coat pocket under the guise of steadying myself. Once that important business had been taken care of, I turned my attention to the catacombs.
    The gaslights barely penetrated the shadowed corners of the room, mostly because they weren't run-of-the-mill shadows. I suppressed a shudder at the thought of an unprotected Henry. In front of me, Henry sniffed. "It smells like wet dog."
    My eyes flew to the Anubis statue sitting atop the Canopic shrine. He was sleek black stone, not a twitch of a whisker or tail, thank goodness. He hadn't come to life again, not since I'd returned the Orb of Ra to his shrine. But I'd been alone every other time I'd come down here. I wasn't sure if a second person's ka would have an effect on him.
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    Some curses remained dormant for centuries until they were exposed to a person's life force, which activated the magic in much the same way that the sun caused a flower to bloom.
    "What's your cat doing down here?" Henry pointed to where Isis lay, curled up between the statue's front paws.
    "What on earth are you doing here, Isis?"
    She raised her head and blinked her golden eyes at me, then gave a meow of greeting.
    Henry whistled, pulling my attention from the cat. His eyes were big and round as he stared at the mummies against the wall. "All right," he finally said. "Now I see why you call it the catacombs. This place is creepy."
    I found it heartening that he finally felt a niggle of discomfort. He'd never admitted to that. "You should have seen it before I straightened it up some," I told him as I headed for the shelves in the far corner, the very place I'd found the Staff of Osiris. Ever since I'd learned that the staff had come to us as part of an entire warehouse of artifacts of unknown provenance, I'd been trying to identify the rest of the batch. That was why I'd been dragging my feet on this inventory. If there were other