Pindor looked like he wanted to say more, sharing a glance with Marika.

“What?” Jake asked.

“That dark alchemy cast by the witch spread to much of the city. Hundreds have been turned to stone. Men, women, children.”

Jake took a deep, shuddering breath. So it wasn’t just Kady who had succumbed to that witch’s curse.

“People are scared,” Pindor continued, “taking to their homes. This fear can work for or against Djer. Some will rally with him against such horror. More may wish to bend a knee to Kree’s show of power and do whatever is demanded of them.”

It was grim news. The fate of this land teetered on a dagger’s edge. With Kree and his fellow cult members still loose and now bearing the power to turn all rebels to stone, the future did not look good. Guilt pushed Jake toward despair—not only for Kady, but also for those who had died today. By coming here, he’d set a match to a powder keg.

Marika touched his hand, a feather’s brushing of her fingertips. “We will stop Kree.”

“And that witch,” Pindor said.

Jake nodded. His friends would give him their strength.

The cabin door burst open, and Bach’uuk rushed inside, holding up a scroll. “I found a map.”

He’d also found Nefertiti. She followed him inside and glanced to Jake, then away again. He read the flash of guilt and sorrow. But he did not blame her. She’d jumped overboard to help Kady and her uncle. In the end, she was as much a victim of Kree and that witch as anyone.

Pindor sat up straighter when she joined them, combing his fingers through his hair, which only made it stick out more crazily. She ignored him.

“Why do you need the skymaster’s map?” she asked.

Jake waved her to a table. They all stood around it as Bach’uuk unrolled the scroll, revealing a map of Deshret. The outermost boundaries were shaded, marking the Great Wind that encircled this harsh land. The rest of the map was pocked with towns and villages, rivers and pools, dunes and rock. Crude skulls marked a scatter of places—danger zones—including one surrounded by an image of dancing flames.

Jake pulled out his father’s watch and snapped it open, resting it on his palm. They all leaned closer, staring at the rotating second hand. “It spins fastest when I hold it toward the northeast.” He demonstrated. “That’s the direction it wants us to go.”

Bach’uuk poked a finger at a spot southeast of Ka-Tor. “According to Skymaster Horus, this is where we are now.”

Jake had his friend keep his finger in place while he drew a line that traveled northeast from their current position. Nothing lay along that path, though it did brush perilously close to that image of the flaming skull. He continued to the end of the map, where the shaded area marked the Great Wind.

A small set of hieroglyphics indicated a place hidden in the storm. Jake didn’t need to read the Egyptian writing to know what it was.