Nefertiti said it out loud. “The ruins of Ankh Tawy.”

“The third timestone must be hidden there,” Jake said. “Most likely in the pyramid. We have to go at once.”

Nefertiti folded her arms. “None can enter Ankh Tawy. The storms are too fierce. The sand will scour the flesh off your bones. Many have tried, but no one can get through the Great Wind.”

“We did. “ Jake snapped his father’s watch closed and held it up. “This is the Key of Time. It carried us through before, to bring us here. We’ll have to trust that the watch will do so again. Why else would its hand point there?”

“If we ever hope to stop that witch from turning everyone in Deshret to stone, we’ll need all the power we can get. Jake’s one stone will not be enough,” Pindor said. “And if Heka should get hold of that third stone before we do …”

“All my people would be doomed,” Nefertiti said. She pondered the situation, then nodded. “I will instruct Skymaster Horus to take us there.”

“Can you convince him to go along with our plan?” Marika asked.

Her question seemed to mystify Nefertiti, ever the princess. “I am the daughter of the Glory of Ra. He will do as I say.”

She stormed out through the doorway, sweeping the door closed behind her.

Pindor sighed. “Isn’t she great?”

Bach’uuk sighed, too, but with a roll of his eyes.

Returning to the table, Jake leaned both fists on it. He stared at the map. “Everything points to Ankh Tawy. Even the fate of my mother is twisted into that history.”

“And our land,” Marika added. “The histories of Calypsos and Deshret are intertwined.”

Her words reminded him of a question that had been nagging him ever since he saw his mother’s tiled face on the mural. “But why did the people here think my mother was from Calypsos?”

“Maybe she came here with others,” Pindor said. “Like you did with us.”

“But when I asked all of your Elders back in Calypsos if they’d ever seen my parents or heard any stories about them, no one had.”

“Ankh Tawy fell into ruins centuries ago,” Marika said. “If your mother and father had come to Calypsos back then, they might have been forgotten, the records lost.”

Jake refused to believe it. Who could forget his parents? He pictured them now, striding like giants across his memory. But as their son, maybe he was being biased.

Bach’uuk scowled and waved Marika’s explanation away. “Ur live always in the long time. We would know.” He turned to Jake. “They never came to Calypsos.”

Then it made no sense. It was yet another mystery, one Jake could not solve now. He returned to the map. Before he got to Ankh Tawy, he wanted to know as much about the city as possible. At some point, he would pull Nefertiti aside to pick her brain.

Pindor joined him, voicing a new worry. “Do you think that monster still lives in Ankh Tawy?”