Crossing the river took no more than ten minutes, including the time needed for the rowers to take their positions. While Anubis and Ana?s went to retrieve the fragment, their task was to prepare for the journey back up the Nile by turning the boat around and waiting for them. To reach the next piece of Osiris, they had to travel upstream against the current—a much longer trip than the way there—before branching off westward. In a straight line, the distance between the two locations wasn’t very far, but by boat, their second trip would take up most of the afternoon.

  “Why not go on foot?” Ana?s asked as she stepped off their vessel onto the damp soil of the papyrus fields.

  The tall pnts brushed against her waist, and the dense vegetation made it impossible to see her feet. Navigating the scattered puddles and small marshy pools wasn’t exactly easy.

  “We can’t cross without a boat,” Anubis expined, keeping a watchful eye on her movements. “It’s a long journey, but it’s necessary. Watch where you step—some holes are deeper than they look.”

  Ana?s moved closer to the jackal-headed god, stepping behind him to mimic his path. This way, she could follow safely, letting him test the ground first. The papyrus field was far wider than it appeared, stretching for hundreds of meters, but they were close enough to the fragment for Ana?s to sense its distinct energy. Since Anubis didn’t know its exact location, she guided him whenever he needed to adjust their course, leading them straight to the pond where Osiris’s flesh rested.

  “Guide me from dry nd. You don’t need to get dirty too,” Anubis suggested as he waded into the water, its surface covered in green algae.

  “It’s toward the middle,” she directed as he moved slowly, hindered by the thick, murky water. “More to the right. A little farther… There! Right in front of you. Ouch!”

  Something had sunk its fangs into her leg, just above her ankle. A sharp pain spread through her body instantly, and when she looked down to locate the source, her gaze locked onto a snake cmped onto her limb. It was coiling itself around her leg, tightening its grip, refusing to let go. Ana?s couldn’t stop the scream that tore from her throat. The bite was painful, but it was nothing compared to the sheer terror flooding her veins. The serpent had no intention of releasing her.

  “Are you okay?!” Anubis shouted, hesitating to turn back after hearing Ana?s’s terrified scream.

  “A… a snake is wrapping around my leg!” she whimpered, completely panicked. “What do I do? It won’t let go!”

  “Don’t move,” Anubis ordered as he quickly searched the bottom of the pond to retrieve the fragment before returning. “If you move, it will only tighten its grip.”

  “You want me to just wait patiently until it decides to pull its fangs out of my leg?!” she shrieked.

  “Yes,” the jackal god confirmed firmly.

  Her body was frozen with fear, making staying still easier than she expected. Ana?s could feel her heart pounding wildly as if it was about to burst out of her chest at any moment. Her head was starting to spin—was it the venom or just the shock? Her leg throbbed with pain, and the pressure of the snake’s coils around her flesh was just as unbearable, but she could feel it gradually loosening its grip as the seconds passed.

  “I got it!” Anubis excimed as he lifted an arm from the water, immediately wrapping it in a clean shroud to conceal it. “Is it still holding on?”

  “Y-yes…” she stammered through clenched teeth, though her voice was slightly calmer than before.

  Anubis hastened toward her, forcing his way through the algae that slowed his movements. When he was only a few steps from solid ground, the snake finally released Ana?s’s leg and slithered away at high speed, as if sensing danger approaching. Perhaps she could have transformed into a jackal to escape its fangs and grip, but the shock had completely paralyzed her ability to think, and she had chosen to simply follow the god’s instructions.

  “How do you feel?” he asked, crouching in front of her to examine the bite, lifting her robe slightly.

  “It hurts like hell,” she compined, sweat forming on her forehead.

  “The bite doesn’t seem to be swelling,” he observed, looking at the two small red puncture wounds without touching her skin. “Any nausea?”

  “No, just the pain from the bite itself.”

  Anubis straightened up, visibly relieved.

  “Then it’s a dry bite—no venom. That’s good; otherwise, we would have had to rush back immediately. Knowing my mother, she probably has some salve in her pouch to ease the pain. Let’s get back to the river. Will you be able to walk?”

  Ana?s timidly put weight on her injured leg to test its strength. Her body was still a bit shaky from the emotional turmoil and the sudden pain, but her limb wasn’t impaired enough to keep her from walking.

  “Yes,” she confirmed with a grimace.

  The papyrus leaves brushed against her wound, even through her robe, as the bite had left her skin hypersensitive. It wasn’t pleasant, but she could manage by gritting her teeth. She sincerely hoped Isis had brought the right remedies because the thought of spending the rest of the afternoon sitting in a wooden chair with this pain made her want to cry.

  Luckily for her, the goddess had indeed prepared supplies for treating any superficial wounds. She didn’t even cast them a disapproving gnce when Anubis knelt before Ana?s to apply the salve, allowing her to remain seated on the boat’s chair. It seemed that getting bitten by a wild animal and suffering in silence granted them some level of immunity from her judgment.

  Or perhaps, after all, Isis was capable of compassion toward her—especially when they still had many hours to wait in their chairs on the river before reaching their destination. A journey that indeed proved more than uncomfortable for the young woman.

  “When will we arrive?” Ana?s mented, using her hand as a makeshift fan.

  As the afternoon wore on, the air in the Nile Delta became increasingly stifling. The pain from the bite had subsided significantly, but her weakened body struggled under the humid heat of the crossing. In truth, it was undeniably cooler than the desert, thanks to the surrounding water, but the air here was so different that adjusting to it in just a few hours was proving difficult. To make matters worse, her clothes had begun to cling to her body due to the sweat that had formed in response to the initial pain of the bite.

  “Soon,” the supervisor answered as he analyzed one of the maps Anubis had given him, with the approximate position of the artifact marked on it. “Half an hour at most.”

  “The point I marked on the map isn’t precise,” Anubis admitted, gncing at the young Akh with embarrassment. “The artifact is somewhere at the bottom of the river. You’ll need to locate it and guide me for the dive.”

  Ana?s sighed, already feeling the first throbs of an impending headache, like a grim premonition. With her exhausted body, she knew she wouldn’t escape it this time. The only thing she could hope for was that they would quickly return to the Duat after retrieving this fragment.

  She furrowed her brows. A resistance was blocking her magical flow as she tried to detect the spiritual energy of Osiris’s flesh. After repeated use of the amulet’s power, the process had become so natural that her magic usually flowed unhindered, like a waterfall. Now, it felt as though someone had built a dam, allowing only trickles of her energy to pass—far too little to activate her detection abilities.

  “Something is blocking me…” she murmured, trying to push against the barrier in her mind. “It’s like a wall… I can’t get through.”

  “Give me your hand,” Anubis whispered, ensuring the humans accompanying them wouldn’t overhear.

  He was seated just to her left, while Isis occupied one of the two seats in front of them. Hesitantly, Ana?s extended her hand, and Anubis took it in his, gently pressing his thumb against her skin. Instantly, warmth poured into her fingers, and she recognized the signature of the jackal god’s magic. He was channeling energy into her to help her break through the barrier blocking her detection, intertwining their magic once again. She coughed lightly as she realized what he was doing, her cheeks flushing slightly as memories of the st time their spiritual essences had merged flooded her mind. Even though the only contact between them was their interlocked hands, she still felt the magical act as something intensely intimate.

  Shaking off these thoughts, Ana?s refocused on the amulet’s power. With Anubis’s magic enhancing hers, the cascade was overwhelmingly powerful—so much so that locating the fragment became astonishingly easy. She could sense its energy with such crity that she felt it pulsing within her, its force almost painful in its intensity.

  “We’re…” Ana?s began before Anubis interrupted her.

  “It’s OK, I can sense it too.”

  Surprise flickered across Ana?s’s face. Their connection had grown so strong that she was now able to share the amulet’s powers with him simply by touch. Sending him images through their spiritual link was one thing, but for him to actually use this ability—or at least have it extend to him—was something entirely new.

  When he withdrew his hand and the flow of his magic ceased, a wave of exhaustion crashed over Ana?s. It was as if her strength had left with her lover’s energy. This time, she didn’t feel a headache coming on, but she could still sense the fragment pulsing somewhere in the distance within her mind. It wasn’t painful, but it was deeply unsettling—like she had just run a marathon and could now hear her pulse pounding in her skull.

  Fifteen minutes ter, Anubis instructed the overseer to stop the boat. However, he didn’t wait for it to fully halt before moving toward the edge. With a fluid motion, he dove into the river, hands first, with the ease of an experienced swimmer. Ana?s hadn’t even noticed him take a deep breath to hold before submerging.

  Exactly three minutes and twenty seconds passed before the jackal god’s dark hair broke the surface of the water again. Ana?s, who had started to worry during that time, rushed to help him climb back aboard, joined by Isis, who had the same instinct. Without hesitation, he handed them a heavy object wrapped in linen—just like the arm before. Judging by its shape and the pieces they had already recovered… this was the torso. And it was incredibly heavy. Both women had to lift it together to pce it on the boat’s floor while the rowers helped Anubis back on board.

  “Don’t let them see what it is,” Isis murmured, pcing the torso behind her seat—visible to the trio but hidden from the crew’s view.

  Ana?s nodded, making sure the damp linen fully covered the flesh while Anubis removed his tunic to wring it out as best as he could. He then sat back down, pulled it on again, and turned his attention to the overseer.

  “Head for the vilge of Saou,” he ordered. The man studied the map for a moment before returning it to Anubis and reying the instructions to the rowers. “We’ll be home in an hour.”

  That meant they would arrive just before dusk. It was nothing compared to the time they had already spent on this boat, but for Ana?s, it felt like an hour too long. She spent it dozing in her chair, with Anubis keeping a watchful eye to ensure she didn’t slip. When Isis finally roused her with a gentle shake of her shoulder, the jackal god was paying generously for their passage. He returned to retrieve the fragment and carried it toward the small necropolis on the outskirts of Saou while Ana?s struggled to force one foot in front of the other.

  Another evening she would spend asleep, too drained to enjoy the rest of the day. A habit she couldn’t wait to break. But most of all, she wished she could have spent it in her lover’s arms…