Song of the Sphinx — Jay Palmer

Sailing up the Nile, Karl seeks clues to the mystical portal with the aid of Nate and Phil, his squires, and Elaina, Eloise's mother. Brought before a wise elder, they are informed of a murderous Mad Hermit, who hides in the Valley of Thieves, who alone knows the secrets they seek. However, Eloise and Roselyn rekindle their rivalry over Karl, and none can triumph in a war between a Valkyrie and a Druid priestess. With Sister Aspertine praying for their souls, they enter the treacherous valley, and are captured by desert thieves. Alarika, the daughter of the Mad Hermit, rescues them, however, their only hope of escape is across the Desrhet, the deadliest of the Egyptian deserts. She leads them to the Valley of the Kings, to find a lost prayer that her dead father, the Mad Hermit, promised her would do the impossible: awaken the Great Sphinx at Giza, who alone can open the mystic portal. Yet the passage is one-way; trapped in the dark lands of the Egyptian Afterlife, they discover a wondrous paradise, the Field of Wheat, where each companion's dreams can come true. Yet the dreams of each companion becomes nightmares for the others, and their only hope lies in Alarika's dead father, the murderous Mad Hermit of the Valley of Thieves.