Anck-su-namun

Chapter one

Thebes, Egypt, 1290 BC

Thebes was the city of Imhotep, the High Priest of the Dead. It was also the city of Anck-su-namun. Anck-su-namun was the Pharaoh's lover. But she loved Imhotep.

Imhotep walked into her bedroom and took the beautiful woman in his arms.

"My love for you is more important than life," he said. Outside the bedroom door, Imhoteps priests watched. But when Pharaoh Seti the First of Egypt walked in, they couldn't stop him. Imhotep quickly ran into the next room. Pharaoh Seti heard something, but he didn't see him. "Who was here?" Seti asked Anck-su-namun. "I know somebody was here, in your bedroom." And then, the Pharaoh looked into the next room.

"Imhotep!" he said.

"My High Priest!" Anck-su-namun looked at Imhotep. They had to kill the Pharaoh before the Pharaoh and his soldiers killed them. Anck-su-namun took her knife and pushed it hard into the Pharaoh's back. The Pharaoh's eyes opened wide. Then, Imhotep took the Pharaoh's sword and killed him. They heard something outside. The Pharaoh's soldiers - the Med-Jai - were there. But Imhotep's priests came in first. They took the Pharaoh's sword from Imhotep's hand. "Come with us," the priests said to him. "Quick." They pulled him away from his lover.

"No!" said Imhotep. "I will stay with Anck-su-namun." "Please go," said Anck-su-namun. "Please live. They will kill me, but you can bring me back to life. Only you, the High Priest, can do it." The priests took Imhotep with them. The Pharaoh's soldiers ran in. Anck-su-namun didn't say goodbye to Imhotep; there wasn't time. She took the Pharaoh's sword and pushed it into her heart. Imhotep saw her die.

*

The Pharaoh's soldiers found Anck-su-namun's knife in the Pharaoh's back. But they didn't find Imhotep in her room. So Imhotep, the High Priest, had to send his lover - the killer of the Pharaoh - to the underworld.

Imhotep had to mummify Anck-su-namun. First, he cut out her heart. He put it in a gold box. Then, he read from the gold Book of Amun Ra. The Book of Amun Ra sent the bad people of this world to the underworld, a dark place with no hope.

They all watched her go - the Med-Jai, the people of Egypt, and the priests. Only the priests, with their white cats, weren't afraid. Nobody could hurt the priests when their white cats were with them.

But Imhotep could bring his lover back - back from the underworld, back from the dead.

*

The Book of the Dead could bring Anck-su-namun back. This black book was in the statue of the god Anubis. It was Anubis's book - a book for gods, not for men. But for his lover - for Anck-su-namun - Imhotep didn't listen to gods. The statue of Anubis was at Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead. Egypt's gold was there, too. Late at night Imhotep took his dead lover, Anck-su-namun, there. He also took her heart, in its gold box. He went across the desert to Hamunaptra on horseback with his priests.

There were ten soldiers at the statue of Anubis. But Imhotep was the High Priest, so the soldiers helped him. They carried dead Anck-su-namun. Imhotep and his priests found the Book of the Dead, and they took it to an underground room - a room of the dead. The soldiers followed.

When Imhotep began to read from the Book of the Dead, Anck-su-namun's heart moved, in its gold box. There was life in it again. Then, Anck-su-namun opened her eyes.

"Nothing can stop me now," thought Imhotep. But he was wrong.

The Med-Jai from Thebes ran into the underground room with swords in their hands. They stopped Imhotep. They broke the box with Anck-su-namun's heart in it, and Anck-su-namun died again. *

The Med-Jai mummified Imhotep's twenty-one priests, and Imhotep had to watch. They made the ten soldiers from Hamunaptra into mummies, too. They put them all into the ground before they were dead.

But for Imhotep there was something worse than that. First, they cut out his eyes with knives. Then, they put him into the ground - a mummy before he was dead. But that wasn't the worst thing. They put scarabs on Imhotep's face. The scarabs ran into his mouth and nose and started to eat him. This was Horn Dai, or half-life.

"The scarabs will eat him for all time," said the Med-Jai. "Imhotep is half-dead and he will be half-dead for all time. Nobody can bring him and Anck-su-namun back to the world of the living, or he will make everybody in the world his mummies. And the scarabs will fly again and eat us all. It will be the end of the world.

"So we, the Med-Jai, will stay here and watch Imhotep. First us, and then our sons, and then the sons of our sons. Nothing is more important than that." The Med-Jai looked down at Imhotep. The scarabs started to eat him. He could never get out.

Or could he?