Only now the sand did not flow.

The crystal must have been powering it somehow.

Jake retrieved his father’s watch as both Mari and Pindor let out a breath of relief—then they all jumped at the sharp shout behind them.

“Jake!” It was Kady. As usual, she had wandered off on her own. Probably looking for the jewelry section. But Jake heard the ring of fear in her voice. “You’d better come see this! Now!”

He shoved the crystal into his backpack and headed toward her, trailed by the others. She stood near the back wall, where a huge mural made of tiles graced the entire arc of the chamber. The work was a mosaic masterpiece, so finely detailed that it looked like a painting.

Jake headed toward Kady, who stood on the far side of the mural. He realized that the mosaic was a triptych, a piece of art broken into three pieces. Each section told a story. The first showed Ankh Tawy as a vibrant city, bustling with activity, the sun shining brightly on it. The next showed the city in ruins. Blasted by great winds, people were running in terror. At the top of the mosaic, a monstrous, shadowy beast, its eyes made up of fiery red tiles, sailed on wide wings. From its open mouth, the winds blew forth.

“The Howling Sphinx of Ankh Tawy,” the madman explained.

This was the story of the fall of the great city, a history written in bits of glass and tile.

“Jake!” Kady yelled, and waved for him to join her.

He hurried forward, irritated. “What?”

Her eyes were huge as she pointed at the third mosaic. The city still lay in ruins, but it was now dead quiet. Nothing moved but the wind, whipping the sand. But in place of the Sphinx, a single figure stood over the lost city, looking like a giant ready to crush the ruins to dust.

The madman spoke. “She who came from Calypsos. She who woke the Great Sphinx and destroyed Ankh Tawy.”

Kady turned to Jake, but he could not speak. His sister choked out the impossibility of it. “It’s Mom.”

18

TWO WILL FALL

How could that be?

Jake struggled to understand what he was seeing. How could his mother be up on that wall? But there was no mistaking her yellow hair, the curve of her cheek, or her bright eyes made of sky blue glass tiles. Even her clothes resembled the khaki safari outfit she always wore in the field.

“It’s Mom,” Kady said again, with a tremble in her voice. “Now we know she made it here.”

Jake felt a similar surge of hopefulness. Despite the recovery of his father’s watch in the great Temple of Kukulkan, neither of them could be certain their parents had made it to the valley of Calypsos, that they weren’t murdered by grave robbers as the world believed.

But Jake’s mood was tempered by what the mosaic implied. “Ankh Tawy fell hundreds of years ago. If Mom and Dad landed here … if they stayed …”