The Burning Man

3

Ethereal string music echoed distantly and the sweet aroma of incense filled the air. Laura opened her eyes. She was lying on a cold slab, unable to move her arms or legs. The last thing she remembered was stepping out of the oasis of Blue Fire and following in the footsteps of Osiris. Craning her neck, she saw that she was bound from feet to waist with linen mummification strips; further wrappings pinned her hands to her sides and continued up her arms to her shoulders. She only perceived these details peripherally, however, for her attention was almost immediately transfixed by a horror so great it took a second to comprehend. Her chest had been cracked open. She could see her organs glistening from her breastbone to her navel, yet she felt no pain. As the shock subsided, she screamed long and hard and blacked out briefly.

When she came round again, it was with the reassuring thought that she wasn’t human. She could survive this, had already survived things that would have killed anyone she knew. Unable to bear the view, she closed her eyes, calming herself. And when she opened them next, she was not alone.

His skull-head yellow in the flickering torchlight, Osiris sat on a stone throne at the end of the chamber beyond her feet. Beside him stood many other beings, a number of them with animal heads, which Laura guessed were his fellow gods.

‘You have been brought into the Court of the Two Ma’ats to declare innocence of wrongs before the great god, and before the full tribunal of forty-two divine assessors,’ Osiris intoned. ‘You must defend yourself successfully or be destroyed for ever.’

‘You told me I wouldn’t be wiped from Existence,’ she said angrily. Laura was shocked to hear her voice, a rustle of autumn leaves, barely holding on.

‘And you will not. If you defend yourself successfully.’

Laura released a foul-mouthed tirade that at least made her feel a little better.

‘The Brothers and Sisters of Dragons are an anomaly in this world,’ Osiris continued. ‘You were created for a world that does not exist, by a power that does not rule, which is an echo of the one true god that made this place.’

‘I get it. You’re just a bunch of arse-kissing collaborators. You see who’s in the driving seat and you get right behind them. “Yes, boss, no, boss.” I’ve seen your kind in every awful job I’ve tried to do in my miserable life.’ She was proud that she sounded so defiant.

‘What is the point in offering the promise of magic to a people dwelling in a place where there can be no magic?’ Osiris continued. ‘In offering hope where there can be none? It only makes the people restless and bitter and sorrowful. It disrupts the tranquillity of their lives and ruins what little joy they might find in their short existence. What you do is cruelty. What you bring to this stable world is terror. The Brothers and Sisters of Dragons are not a force for good, but for harm.’

‘So you’re saying we should give up and accept the world’s a mess? Just because people are stumbling along blindly-’

‘They are content.’

‘Because they don’t know what they could have.’

‘They never will. Not in this world.’

‘Then we’ll blow the damn thing up and start again.’

‘You must recognise the absurdity of your words: that a handful of mortals could unseat the great architect of the universe.’

‘You’re not recognising something, bonehead,’ she spat. ‘We’ve got the Pendragon Spirit, and it’s alive. And every human being has a shard of that power in them, just waiting to be awakened. That’s why you want to destroy us, and the big bad Void wants to keep us contained and living in ignorance — because you’re scared of what we might achieve if the human race ever opens its eyes.’

There was silence for a long moment, and then Osiris raised a hand. ‘The judgment will commence. And if you are found wanting, the Pendragon Spirit will be removed and destroyed. And one by one the lights will be extinguished, and the Blue Fire will die, and there will only be the comforting, endless dark.’

‘You don’t get to judge me,’ Laura said. ‘No one does.’

‘I call forth the Lord of the Sacred Words.’

The ranks separated and a god with the hunched body and features of a baboon stepped forward. He unfurled a papyrus scroll, which he set on a lectern, and then took up a reed pen, poised to write.

‘Thoth, god of wisdom, will record the judgment.’

Then came Anubis, jackal eyes glittering coldly. He held a pair of golden scales with a feather resting on one dish.

‘The god of embalming will weigh your heart against the feather to see if you are worthy of joining the ancient gods in the Fields of Reeds.’

‘Why do I get the feeling you’ve already made up your mind?’

Laura was overcome by a deep sense of dread. A shadow fell across her, and it was the coldest thing she had ever experienced. Webs of frost bloomed on her skin. Something loomed over her just beyond her field of vision; she had the feeling she would go mad if her eyes were to fall on it.

‘If you are judged unworthy, if you are found false and wicked, the daemon Ammut is here. She is the Devourer of the Damned. She will eat your heart, and then she will eat you, and you will die the ultimate death — wiped from Existence, never to have been.’

Laura closed her eyes and tried not to tremble but failed. She wanted to say something brave and clever, but no words would come.

‘Let the judgment begin,’ Osiris announced.