The wind shrieked.

Akhmose tiptoed into the sanctuary behind his brother, Isesi. The dust from the storm outside coated their bodies, a second skin borne of the desert. The sand burned Akhmose's eyes, parched his tongue, clung to his bare head as a wig might.

His brother led him toward the shrine. The lamplight glinted off the axe clutched in Isesi's hand.

The god's boat rested atop a dais as if drifting down an invisible river. The shrine—a wooden box seven feet tall—stood in the center of the boat, its doors closed, the latch fastened.

Approaching the shrine, Isesi laid a hand on the doors.

"No," Akhmose said. "I have changed my mind."

"We are dying. The fields have turned to dust, the canals have dried, and the wells are nearly drained. Yet each day we bring oil to the temple so the high priest may anoint the god's image. Even as we starve, we offer food to the god's image." Isesi lowered his voice to a whisper. "The legend tells—"

"You cannot believe a legend."

"Our father was a priest of Djehuty, like us. He believed."

"The gods will punish us."

"My brother, the gods do not exist. If they lived, they would save us."

Isesi climbed into the god's boat. He unhooked the shrine's latch and parted the doors. The golden statue of Djehuty gleamed in the flicker of the oil lamps. While the body was rendered as a mummy with hands folded over its chest, the face displayed a fullness far from the gaunt figures he had passed on the journey here. Far from his own wasted form.

Isesi swung the axe backward.

The god's eyes, painted so vividly they seemed alive, stared at Akhmose as if the great one knew his thoughts. Akhmose shuffled closer to the shrine.

Isesi hammered his axe into the statue. The gold chipped. He hacked at it until sweat stained his clothing, yet even then he did not stop.

Pfft!

They froze. The side of the statue had cracked. A cold draft emanated from the breach.

Isesi's chest heaved. He dropped the axe.

Akhmose stumbled to the shrine. Leaning over the boat's hull, he squinted at the crack in the statue. The figure was a hollow shell. He inserted his fingers through the gap and pulled. A hinge groaned. The front half of the statue swung open.

A body tumbled out onto the floor.

Isesi gasped.