Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom

“This is his temple, after all.”
“Special?”
“Does he have a wife? A sister? Brother? Parents? A son or
daughter?”
“No, none of those things, at least not as he was worshipped in
Kush, or Nubia,” she said. She looked thoughtful. “But Apedemak was
worshipped in Egypt, too, in the ancient times.…” She began to walk
back and forth, avoiding puddles of venom, thinking aloud. “In Egypt he
was worshipped under the name ‘Maahes.’”
“That’s worth a try.”
“And Maahes did have a mother,” Amenirdis said, still pacing. “In
northern Egypt, he was the son of the cat goddess, Bast. And in
southern Egypt, closer to Kush, the cat goddess who bore him was
known as Sekhmet.”
“Three more names for you to try, then,” Jack said. He passed
around the canteen again, then offered the others strips of smoked
meat and dried fruit, while chewing on some meat himself.
“This room doesn’t have an exit,” he said, picking up the coil of
rope, then shouldering the bag. “So where do we go now?”
Amenirdis pointed to the wall to the right of the one they’d come
in. “We go there.”
“How do you know?” Jack said, then answered himself. “Because
part of that wall isn’t there.”
She nodded. The men followed her through the wall.
They kept going, moving as quickly as they could, always alert for
the next trap. Amenirdis led them through four more illusionary walls,
before they stepped into another large chamber instead of a corridor.
Jack looked around him. “Uh-oh.”
Before he could worry further, another creature pushed through a
wall to the right of them. This one was not a monster, not exactly. It was
difficult to see, but when Jack heard its shrill cry, he knew it was real,
and dangerous. It was an enormous falcon, and it appeared to be
made of pale, shimmering smoke.
The creature was as big as their first foe. Its shadowy beak and
talons were huge, and somehow Jack knew they were real enough to
wound, or kill. “Here were go again,” he muttered. “Amenirdis!”