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At the far end of the room, the ghost of Mad Claude flickered into view. As he walked towards Sadie and Walt, the rest of the mummies began to stir.
“You should be honored, my friends.” He gave them a crazy grin. “It takes a lot of excitement for a ba to return to their withered old bodies. But we simply can’t let you leave until you've freed us for the afterlife. Use the knife, do your spells, you can go.”
“We can’t free you all!” Sadie shouted.
“A shame,” Claude said. “Then we’ll take the knife and free ourselves. I suppose two more bodies in the catacombs won’t make any difference.”
He said something in Latin, and all the mummies surged toward them, shuffling and tripping, falling and rolling. Some crumbled to pieces as they tried to walk. Others fell down and were trampled by their fellows. But more came forward.
Sadie and Walt backed into the corridor. Sadie had her staff in one hand. With the other, she held tight to Walt’s hand. She’d never been good at summoning fire, but she managed to set the end of her staff ablaze.
“We’ll try it your way,” she told Walt. “Light them up and run.”
***
Before Walt could light his own staff in turn, a boy materialized from the shadows. His back was to Sadie and Walt, he had shaggy black hair, black jeans, an intimidating black sword, and a brown aviator's jacket. He was short, probably about 5 feet tall.
“What’s going on here?” The boy asked as if he was annoyed at the scene he was greeted by. He sighed. “Everybody stop.”
To Sadie’s surprise, the mummies actually did all stop at his order, then all knelt and bowed to him. He looked around the room and scrunched his nose, “Mummies? How long have you all…” He trailed off, shaking his head. “I see Thanatos wasn’t kidding,” he mumbled.
“Excuse me,” Sadie butt in, “Who are you?”
The boy turned, looking surprised to be addressed by her. Now that Sadie could see his face, she realized he looked very young, maybe only 13 years old like her. He straightened out. “Ambassador of Hades, at your service. Or no…is this a Greek problem or a Roman problem?” He looked back at the mummies, considering for just half a moment, “Definitely Roman, sorry. Ambassador of Pluto then.”
“You’re a graecus!” Mad Claude exclaimed. It sounded like a curse.
“Watch your mouth. I can have you thrown in the River Archenon,” the Ambassador said. He looked back at Sadie and Walt, shaking his head and giving them a look that said can you believe they think I’ll actually do that? Mad Claude looked terrified.
“Anyway,” the Ambassador continued, “We received a report of numerous unrested souls from our side. I was sent to deliver them to the underworld, hopefully before anyone found them and got hurt.”
“Well you certainly took your time,” Sadie grumbled.
He did not humor her with a response, but he did shoot her a nasty glare.
Mad Claude cleared his throat. “Honorable Ambassador, I apologize for my earlier rudeness,” his voice was hesitant. “Would you allow me to make a request?”
Sadie hoped he would say no and just get on with sending them to the underworld; she had a strong suspicion that she wouldn’t like Claude’s request.
“Depends on what it is,” the Ambassador said.
“Can we still kill them? Just really quickly?” Mad Claude asked. Yup, exactly what Sadie thought he was going to say.
“Why?” The Ambassador asked. Sadie’s stomach flip-flopped—that wasn’t a no.
“These priests promised to help us if I led them to the scroll they were looking for, but after they found it, they refused! They even have one of the ceremonial knives for opening the mouths of the dead, but she said the knife isn’t for us.” Claude’s voice was venomous.
“That’s a fair reason to be frustrated…” the Ambassador said. Sadie couldn’t believe her ears. Claude began to lunge towards them. “Hey, hey, I wasn’t finished!” the Ambassador stopped him. “HOWEVER, given I’m here to help you now and that their disruption of these catacombs is likely the reason I was alerted to you, I think we can consider their promise fulfilled. Technically. In the future, I’d advise getting a binding oath when making deals this important.” He paused. “Though, I don’t suppose there is a future for you.”
The Ambassador took his sword out. Without saying another word, he slammed the point into the ground and it cracked open around him. The souls all departed from the mummies and made their way down into the earth.
Sadie and Walt returned to their feet.
“Thank you,” Walt said. He looked dazed, almost trance-like, lost in his own thoughts.
“For the record,” Sadie said, “We didn’t actually promise him we’d release their souls. Not really.”
The Ambassador gave her a blank stare. “I don’t really care.”
His attitude rankled Sadie. “Who exactly are you anyway? Ambassador of Hades, or Pluto or whatever—what does that even mean?”
“It is what it sounds like. Though, that really doesn’t concern you.” He began walking towards the exit.
“Can I get a name at least?” Sadie asked.
“I don’t see why you’d need it.”
Walt blinked back to the present. “Who’s Thanatos?” He asked, “Just earlier you said Thanatos wasn’t kidding. What was that about?”
“He was just complaining that Anubis never makes inter-afterlife reports on time, if at all,” the Ambassador said, “And with how old these mummies were, and the fact that we were just notified today…well, I think he’s justified in complaining.” Sadie noticed he didn’t answer Walt’s first question.
As if summoned by the sound of his name, Anubis appeared. Sadie blushed. Great. She was stuck with both her crushes right after that wonderful emotional talk with Walt.
“You shouldn’t speak ill of the gods, boy,” Anubis said
The Ambassador looked him up and down, seemingly unimpressed. “What? Am I embarrassing you in front of your little friends? Are you scared they’ll think you’re irresponsible?”
“You dare mock me?” Anubis said. He sounded more like a kid trying to start a fight in the school lunchroom than a god demanding respect.
“They are your little friends, aren’t they? That's why you finally reported this place after how many hundreds or thousands of years?”
Anubis shrugged, conceding the point. “And so what if that’s true? Why should I be beholden to Thanatos’ schedule?” He asked, “I am more ancient than him. I outshine him in every way.” Sadie thought that was a bit of a bratty response.
“You think you’re better than Thanatos? In every way?” The Ambassador asked.
“Even better looking,” Anubis said. He winked at Sadie.
The Ambassador laughed. “Yeah, okay, Jackal-head.”
“Don’t call him that!” Sadie said. She blushed when the Ambassador turned to her and raised a judgemental eyebrow. “He has a human face too. A nice one.” It wasn’t the great defense she meant it to be.
“But he still just kind of looks like some guy, compared to Thanatos—”
“What makes you qualified to make that judgment?” Sadie interrupted.
“I’ve actually seen both of them.”
“But if we’re really comparing attractiveness here, wouldn’t you need a lady’s opinion?” Sadie asked.
The Ambassador turned red and frustrated. Sadie smiled, she knew he had no good comeback, she knew he knew she was right. “Whatever,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets and glaring at the floor. “Just please start filing your paperwork, or maybe next time I’ll let the ghosts kill whatever poor magicians set them off.”
Anubis didn’t let him walk off. “I thought you Greeks were taught to respect the gods.” Sadie didn’t understand why he felt the need to continue picking a fight.
“By Olympus!” the Ambassador said, “You are so whiny. Can’t you just thank me for dealing with your issue promptly and then let me be on my way?”
“Thank you? I don’t need to thank the likes of you.” Anubis said.
“That’s fine. Again, next time I just won’t hurry or help spare any of your magicians.”
“You shouldn’t threaten gods. I could kill you where you stand.”
The Ambassador laughed. “With what body?”
“These two magicians here are blood of the pharaohs,” Anubis said, “Not only do I have two options for a host, but two ideal options.” Sadie blushed a bit at the idea of being possessed by Anubis, even though he was being quite unattractively aggressive and petulant at the moment. She had never seen him act like this before.
“Okay, fine, go ahead. I’m sure your boss Osiris will love hearing you explain why you risked starting a war with my father.”
Anubis looked surprised for a second, then his gaze turned steely. “I should have known you were one of Hades’ half-breed spawn, there is quite the peculiar stench in here.”
“I’m sorry, what did you call me?” the Ambassador said. Sadie didn’t like what Anubis called him either. He scoffed before he continued, “You know, I’m not surprised. Sif told me—”
“I’m not jealous!” Anubis interupted. “The dealings of your gods are unnatural.” Sadie couldn't help but note that the Ambassador hadn't actually acused Anubis of jealousy, at least not yet, Anubis jumped to that himself. Either thet was how he really felt, or he knew what Sif thought of him.
“Really? That’s how you feel?” the Ambassador asked. “Then who’s she?” He pointed at Sadie.
“You shouldn’t be listening to Sif anyway, were you aware she’s friends with Persephone?” Anubis asked, dodging the question.
“Yes. What are you implying?”
“Sif is a stuck up, judgmental gossip, and you can tell by the kind of company she keeps,” Anubis said. Sadie cringed. Had he not realized the Ambassador was giving him the chance to backtrack?
“Are you trying to call my stepmother a bitch?”
There was a faint scuttling sound and Sadie saw an Egyptian farmer walk in with a small hoard of rats. As he got closer, Sadie realized his eyes were blank white and his skin had a slight bluish tint. He was hosting a god. “Sorry, am I interrupting something?” He asked.
“Ptah,” Anubis said, “It’s good to see you.”
“No, there was no interruption,” the Ambassador said, “I was just leaving.”
Anubis shifted again as if to try and stop him, but Sadie stepped forward and put a hand on his arm. “Please, just let him.”
Sadie had so many questions after the Ambassador left—who he was, what he was doing, what Anubis meant…but they had limited time. Ptah was there to open a door for them, Carter was in danger, and Apophis would be rising soon. Her questions would have to wait for another time.