The answer came from behind him. “We call them harpies.” Jake turned to find Nefertiti standing with Kady. “Hundreds of years ago, one of our slave tribes gave them that name. Said the winged beasts matched stories from their own land: great stinking, winged creatures that were half human.”

Jake nodded, recognizing the name. According to Greek mythology, the Harpyiai—or Harpies—were born from a union of Achilles’s mare and the god of the West Wind. It’s no wonder that some Lost Tribe of Greeks picked that name for the winged creatures here.

“They nest within the Great Wind,” Nefertiti continued. “They make their home inside that endless howling storm. We seldom see flocks so far from the Great Wind.”

“What’s this Great Wind you keep talking about?” Jake asked.

Nefertiti looked at him as if he were stupid, then sighed. She pointed to the horizon, toward that haziness blurring the place where sky and land met.

“See that mighty sandstorm? It circles the lands of Deshret. No one can pass through that storm without having their flesh scoured from their bones. One ship tried to sail over it, but it was broken apart and cast back into the desert. You five are the first to come through in hundreds of years.”

“Lucky us,” Pindor mumbled.

So the storm must be some sort of barrier, Jake thought.

He pictured the volcanic rim that enclosed the valley of Calypsos and the protective shield generated by the great Temple of Kukulkan. Was this never-ending storm another form of that? A barrier around these people’s homes to protect them? But if so, that meant something had to be generating such a force, along with supplying the people here with the All-World tongue.

But what?

Nefertiti continued, “Within the Great Wind lay the ruins of our original home, a majestic city named Ankh Tawy. We were driven into these lands as the winds rose. Six generations ago. Our loremasters keep the memory alive in the Temple of Time. Pictures, carvings, sculptures. The bits of Ankh Tawy recovered before the winds rose. We preserve them for eternity.”

Like some sort of museum.

Jake had to get a look inside that place.

Marika spoke. “Can you tell us more about what happened? How Ankh Tawy was destroyed?”

Anger grew in Nefertiti’s voice. “Outlanders came to us, of a most strange sort. They disturbed the sleeping Sphinx. It woke in fury and howled out the Great Winds, driving us from our homes.” Her eyes sparked, going hard. “They were travelers from Calypsos.”

“I’ve never heard of such a story,” Marika insisted. “We know nothing about any of this.”

Nefertiti looked down her nose at Marika. “That is what we will discover in Ka-Tor. The masters of the Blood of Ka will get the truth from you.”

A horn blared under Jake’s feet, cutting off their conversation. Then a moment later, another horn answered from far away, sounding like an echo.

Skymaster Horus shouted. “Ka-Tor awaits!”

Jake crossed to the rail and stared ahead. Off in the distance, a sprawling metropolis sat atop a plain of black rock. Two walls of stone enclosed the city: an outer ring and an inner one. A massive pyramid rose in the center. It looked like one solid piece of stone.