CHAPTER
18. When Fruit Bats Go Bad
WE HUDDLED UNDER THE EAVES of a big white government building and watched the rain pour down on the Place de la Concorde. It was a miserable day to be in Paris. The winter skies were heavy and low, and the cold, wet air soaked right into my bones. There were no tourists, no foot traffic. Everyone with any sense was inside by a fire enjoying a hot drink.
To our right, the River Seine wound sluggishly through the city. Across the enormous plaza, the gardens of the Tuileries were shrouded in a soupy haze.
The Egyptian obelisk rose up lonely and dark in the middle of the square. We waited for more enemies to pop out of it, but none came. I remembered what Zia had said about artifacts needing a twelve-hour cooldown before they could be used again. I hoped she was right.
“Hold still,” Bast told me.
I winced as she pressed her hand against my chest. She whispered something in Egyptian, and the pain slowly subsided.
“Broken rib,” she announced. “Better now, but you should rest for at least a few minutes.”
“What about the magicians?”
“I wouldn’t worry about them just yet. The House will assume you teleported somewhere else.”
“Why?”
“Paris is the Fourteenth Nome—Desjardins’ headquarters. You would be insane trying to hide in his home territory.”
“Great.” I sighed.
“And your amulets do shield you,” Bast added. “I could find Sadie anywhere because of my promise to protect her. But the amulets will keep you veiled from the eyes of Set and from other magicians.”
I thought about the dark room in the First Nome with all the children looking into bowls of oil. Were they looking for us right now? The thought was creepy.
I tried to sit up and winced again.
“Stay still,” Bast ordered. “Really, Carter, you should learn to fall like a cat.”
“I’ll work on that,” I promised. “How are you even alive? Is it that ‘nine lives’ thing?”
“Oh, that’s just a silly legend. I’m immortal.”
“But the scorpions!” Sadie scrunched in closer, shivering and drawing Bast’s raincoat around her shoulders. “We saw them overwhelm you!”
Bast made a purring sound. “Dear Sadie, you do care! I must say I’ve worked for many children of the pharaohs, but you two—” She looked genuinely touched. “Well, I’m sorry if I worried you. It’s true the scorpions reduced my power to almost nothing. I held them off as long as I could. Then I had just enough energy to revert to Muffin’s form and slip into the Duat.”
“I thought you weren’t good at portals,” I said.
“Well, first off, Carter, there are many ways in and out of the Duat. It has many different regions and layers—the Abyss, the River of Night, the Land of the Dead, the Land of Demons—”
“Sounds lovely,” Sadie muttered.
“Anyway, portals are like doors. They pass through the Duat to connect one part of the mortal world to another. And yes, I’m not good at those. But I am a creature of the Duat. If I’m on my own, slipping into the nearest layer for a quick escape is relatively easy.”
“And if they’d killed you?” I asked. “I mean, killed Muffin?”
“That would’ve banished me deep into the Duat. It would’ve been rather like putting my feet in concrete and dropping me into the middle of the sea. It would’ve taken years, perhaps centuries, before I would’ve been strong enough to return to the mortal world. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. I came back straightaway, but by the time I got to the museum, the magicians had already captured you.”
“We weren’t exactly captured,” I said.
“Really, Carter? How long were you in the First Nome before they decided to kill you?”
“Um, about twenty-four hours.”
Bast whistled. “They’ve gotten friendlier! They used to blast godlings to dust in the first few minutes.”
“We’re not—wait, what did you call us?”
Sadie answered, sounding as if in a trance: “‘Godlings.’ That’s what we are, aren’t we? That’s why Zia was so frightened of us, why Desjardins wants to kill us.”
Bast patted Sadie’s knee. “You always were bright, dear.”
“Hold on,” I said. “You mean hosts for gods? That’s not possible. I think I’d know if…”
Then I thought about the voice in my head, warning me to hide when I met Iskandar. I thought about all the things I was suddenly able to do—like fight with a sword and summon a magical shell of armor. Those were not things I’d covered in home school.
“Carter,” Sadie said. “When the Rosetta Stone shattered, it let out five gods, right? Dad joined with Osiris. Amos told us that. Set…I don’t know. He got away somehow. But you and I—”
“The amulets protected us.” I clutched the Eye of Horus around my neck. “Dad said they would.”
“If we had stayed out of the room, as Dad told us to,” Sadie recalled. “But we were there, watching. We wanted to help him. We practically asked for power, Carter.”
Bast nodded. “That makes all the difference. An invitation.”
“And since then…” Sadie looked at me tentatively, almost daring me to make fun of her. “I’ve had this feeling. Like a voice inside me….”
By now the cold rain had soaked right through my clothes. If Sadie hadn’t said something, maybe I could’ve denied what was happening a little longer. But I thought about what Amos had said about our family having a long history with the gods. I thought about what Zia had told us about our lineage: “The gods choose their hosts carefully. They always prefer the blood of the pharaohs.”
“Okay,” I admitted. “I’ve been hearing a voice too. So either we’re both going crazy—”
“The amulet.” Sadie pulled it from her shirt collar and held it for Bast to see. “It’s the symbol of a goddess, isn’t it?”
I hadn’t seen her amulet in a long time. It was different from mine. It reminded me of an ankh, or maybe some kind of fancy tie.“That is a tyet,” Bast said. “A magic knot. And yes, it is often called—”
“The Knot of Isis,” Sadie said. I didn’t see how she could know that, but she looked absolutely certain. “In the Hall of Ages, I saw an image of Isis, and then I was Isis, trying to get away from Set, and—oh, god. That’s it, isn’t it? I’m her.”
She grabbed her shirt like she physically wanted to pull the goddess away from her. All I could do was stare. My sister, with her ratty red-highlighted hair and her linen pajamas and her combat boots—how could she possibly worry about being possessed by a goddess? What goddess would want her, except maybe the goddess of chewing gum?
But then…I’d been hearing a voice inside me too. A voice that was definitely not mine. I looked at my amulet, the Eye of Horus. I thought about the myths I knew—how Horus, the son of Osiris, had to avenge his father by defeating Set. And at Luxor I’d summoned an avatar with the head of a falcon.
I was afraid to try it, but I thought: Horus?
Well, it’s about time, the other voice said. Hello, Carter.
“Oh, no,” I said, panic rising in my chest. “No, no, no. Somebody get a can opener. I’ve got a god stuck in my head.”
Bast’s eyes lit up. “You communicated with Horus directly? That’s excellent progress!”
“Progress?” I banged my palms against my head. “Get him out!”
Calm down, Horus said.
“Don’t tell me to calm down!”
Bast frowned. “I didn’t.”
“Talking to him!” I pointed at my forehead.
“This is awful,” Sadie wailed. “How do I get rid of her?”
Bast sniffed. “First off, Sadie, you don’t have all of her. Gods are very powerful. We can exist in many places at once. But yes, part of Isis’s spirit now resides inside you. Just as Carter now carries the spirit of Horus. And frankly, you both should feel honored.”
“Right, very honored,” I said. “Always wanted to be possessed!”
Bast rolled her eyes. “Please, Carter, it’s not possession. Besides, you and Horus want the same thing—to defeat Set, just as Horus did millennia ago, when Set first killed Osiris. If you don’t, your father is doomed, and Set will become king of the earth.”
I glanced at Sadie, but she was no help. She ripped the amulet off her neck and threw it down. “Isis got in through the amulet, didn’t she? Well, I’ll just—”
“I really wouldn’t do that,” Bast warned.
But Sadie pulled out her wand and smashed the amulet. Blue sparks shot up from the ivory boomerang. Sadie yelped and dropped her wand, which was now smoking. Her hand was covered in black scorch marks. The amulet was fine. “Ow!” she said.
Bast sighed. She put her hand on Sadie’s, and the burn marks faded. “I did tell you. Isis channeled her power through the amulet, yes, but she’s not there now. She’s in you. And even so, magical amulets are practically indestructible.”
“So what are we supposed to do?” Sadie said.
“Well, for starters,” Bast said, “Carter must use the power of Horus to defeat Set.”
“Oh, is that all?” I said. “All by myself?”
“No, no. Sadie can help.”
“Oh, super.”
“I’ll guide you as much as possible,” Bast promised, “but in the end, the two of you must fight. Only Horus and Isis can defeat Set and avenge the death of Osiris. That’s the way it was before. That’s the way it must be now.”
“Then we get our dad back?” I asked.
Bast’s smile wavered. “If all goes well.”
She wasn’t telling us everything. No surprise. But my brain was too fuzzy to figure out what I was missing.
I looked down at my hands. They didn’t seem any different—no stronger, no godlier. “If I’ve got the powers of a god, then why am I so…”
“Lame?” Sadie offered.
“Shut up,” I said. “Why can’t I use my powers better?”
“Takes practice,” Bast said. “Unless you wish to give over control to Horus. Then he would use your form, and you would not have to worry.”
I could, a voice said inside me. Let me fight Set. You can trust me.
Yeah, right, I told him. How can I be sure you wouldn’t get me killed and just move on to some other host? How can I be sure you’re not influencing my thoughts right now?
I would not do that, the voice said. I chose you because of your potential, Carter, and because we have the same goal. Upon my honor, if you let me control—
“No,” I said.
I realized I’d spoke aloud; Sadie and Bast were both looking at me.
“I mean I’m not giving up control,” I said. “This is our fight. Our dad’s locked in a coffin. Our uncle’s been captured.”
“Captured?” Sadie asked. I realized with a shock that I hadn’t told her about my last little ba trip. There just hadn’t been time.
When I gave her the details, she looked stricken. “God, no.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “And Set spoke in French—‘Bon soir.’ Sadie, what you said about Set getting away—maybe he didn’t. If he was looking for a powerful host—”
“Desjardins,” Sadie finished.
Bast growled deep in her throat. “Desjardins was in London the night your father broke the Rosetta Stone, wasn’t he? Desjardins has always been full of anger, full of ambition. In many ways, he would be the perfect host for Set. If Set managed to possess Desjardins’ body, that would mean the Red Lord now controls the man who is Chief Lector of the House…. By Ra’s throne, Carter, I hope you’re wrong. The two of you will have to learn to use the power of the gods quickly. Whatever Set is planning, he’ll do it on his birthday, when he’s strongest. That’s the third Demon Day—three days from now.”
“But I’ve already used Isis’s powers, haven’t I?” Sadie asked. “I’ve summoned hieroglyphs. I activated the obelisk at Luxor. Was that her or me?”
“Both, dear,” Bast said. “You and Carter have great abilities on your own, but the power of the gods has hastened your development, and given you an extra reservoir to draw on. What would’ve taken you years to learn, you’ve accomplished in days. The more you channel the power of the gods, the more powerful you will become.”
“And the more dangerous it gets,” I guessed. “The magicians told us hosting the gods can burn you out, kill you, drive you crazy.”
Bast fixed her eyes on me. Just for a second they were the eyes of a predator—ancient, powerful, dangerous. “Not everyone can host a god, Carter. That’s true. But you two are both blood of the pharaohs. You combine two ancient bloodlines. That’s very rare, very powerful. And besides, if you think you can survive without the power of the gods, think again. Don’t repeat your mother’s—” She stopped herself.
“What?” Sadie demanded. “What about our mother?”
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Tell us, cat!” Sadie said.
I was afraid Bast might unsheathe her knives. Instead she leaned against the wall and stared out at the rain. “When your parents released me from Cleopatra’s Needle…there was much more energy than they expected. Your father spoke the actual summoning spell, and the blast would’ve killed him instantly, but your mother threw up a shield. In that split second, I offered her my help. I offered to merge our spirits and help protect them. But she would not accept my help. She chose to tap her own reservoir….”
“Her own magic,” Sadie murmured.
Bast nodded sadly. “When a magician commits herself to a spell, there is no turning back. If she overreaches her power…well, your mother used her last bit of energy protecting your father. To save him, she sacrificed herself. She literally—”
“Burned up,” I said. “That’s what Zia warned us about.”
The rain kept pouring down. I realized I was shivering.
Sadie wiped a tear from her cheek. She picked up her amulet and glared at it resentfully. “We’ve got to save Dad. If he’s really got the spirit of Osiris…”
She didn’t finish, but I knew what she was thinking. I thought about Mom when I was little, her arm around my shoulders as we stood on the back deck of our house in L.A. She’d pointed out the stars to me: Polaris, Orion’s Belt, Sirius. Then she’d smile at me, and I’d feel like I was more important than any constellation in the sky. My mom had sacrificed herself to save Dad’s life. She’d used so much magic, she literally burned up. How could I ever be that brave? Yet I had to try to save Dad. Otherwise I’d feel like Mom’s sacrifice had been for nothing. And maybe if we could rescue Dad, he could set things right, even bring back our mom.
Is that possible? I asked Horus, but his voice was silent.
“All right,” I decided. “So how do we stop Set?”
Bast thought for a moment, then smiled. I got the feeling that whatever she was about to suggest, I wasn’t going to like it. “There might be a way without completely giving yourself over to the gods. There’s a book by Thoth—one of the rare spell books written by the god of wisdom himself. The one I’m thinking of details a way to overcome Set. It is the prized possession of a certain magician. All we need to do is sneak into his fortress, steal it, and leave before sunset, while we can still create a portal to the United States.”
“Perfect,” Sadie said.
“Hold up,” I said. “Which magician? And where’s the fortress?”
Bast stared at me as if I were a bit slow. “Why, I think we already discussed him. Desjardins. His house is right here in Paris.”
Once I saw Desjardins’ house, I hated him even more. It was a huge mansion on the other side of the Tuileries, on the rue des Pyramides.
“Pyramids Road?” Sadie said. “Obvious, much?”
“Maybe he couldn’t find a place on Stupid Evil Magician Street,” I suggested.
The house was spectacular. The spikes atop its wrought iron fence were gilded. Even in the winter rain, the front garden was bursting with flowers. Five stories of white marble walls and black-shuttered windows loomed before us, the whole thing topped off by a roof garden. I’d seen royal palaces smaller than this place.
I pointed to the front door, which was painted bright red. “Isn’t red a bad color in Egypt? The color of Set?”
Bast scratched her chin. “Now that you mention it, yes. It’s the color of chaos and destruction.”
“I thought black was the evil color,” Sadie said.
“No, dear. As usual, modern folk have it backward. Black is the color of good soil, like the soil of the Nile. You can grow food in black soil. Food is good. Therefore black is good. Red is the color of desert sand. Nothing grows in the desert. Therefore red is evil.” She frowned. “It is strange that Desjardins has a red door.”
“Well, I’m excited,” Sadie grumbled. “Let’s go knock.”
“There will be guards,” Bast said. “And traps. And alarms. You can bet the house is heavily charmed to keep out gods.”
“Magicians can do that?” I asked. I imagined a big can of pesticide labeled God-Away.
“Alas, yes,” Bast said. “I will not be able to cross the threshold uninvited. You, however—”
“I thought we’re gods too,” Sadie said.
“That’s the beauty of it,” Bast said. “As hosts, you are still quite human. I have taken full possession of Muffin, so I am pretty much me—a goddess. But you are still—well, yourselves. Clear?”
“No,” I said.
“I suggest you turn into birds,” Bast said. “You can fly to the roof garden and make your way in. Plus, I like birds.”
“First problem,” I said, “we don’t know how to turn into birds.”
“Easily fixed! And a good test at channeling godly power. Both Isis and Horus have bird forms. Simply imagine yourselves as birds, and birds you shall become.”
“Just like that,” Sadie said. “You won’t pounce on us?”
Bast looked offended. “Perish the thought!”
I wished she hadn’t used the word perish.
“Okay,” I said. “Here goes.”
I thought: You in there, Horus?
What? he said testily.
Bird form, please.
Oh, I see. You don’t trust me. But now you need my help.
Man, come on. Just do the falcon thing.
Would you settle for an emu?
I decided talking wasn’t going to help, so I closed my eyes and imagined I was a falcon. Right away, my skin began to burn. I had trouble breathing. I opened my eyes and gasped.
I was really, really short—eye-level with Bast’s shins. I was covered in feathers, and my feet had turned into wicked claws, kind of like my ba form, but this was real flesh and blood. My clothes and bag were gone, as if they’d melted into my feathers. My eyesight had completely changed, too. I could see a hundred and eighty degrees around, and the detail was incredible. Every leaf on every tree popped out. I spotted a cockroach a hundred yards away, scurrying into a sewer drain. I could see every pore on Bast’s face, now looming above me and grinning.
“Better late than never,” she said. “Took you almost ten minutes.”
Huh? The change had seemed instantaneous. Then I looked next to me and saw a beautiful gray bird of prey, a little bit smaller than me, with black-tipped wings and golden eyes. I’m not sure how, but I knew it was a kite—like the bird kite, not the kind with a string.
The kite let out a chirping sound—“Ha, ha, ha.” Sadie was laughing at me.
I opened my own beak, but no sound came out.
“Oh, you two look delicious,” Bast said, licking her lips. “No, no—er, I mean wonderful. Now, off you go!”
I spread my majestic wings. I had really done it! I was a noble falcon, lord of the sky. I launched myself off the sidewalk and flew straight into the fence.
“Ha—ha—ha,” Sadie chirped behind me.
Bast crouched down and began making weird chittering noises. Uh-oh. She was imitating birds. I’d seen enough cats do this when they were stalking. Suddenly my own obituary flashed in my head: Carter Kane, 14, died tragically in Paris when he was eaten by his sister’s cat, Muffin.
I spread my wings, kicked off with my feet, and with three strong flaps, I was soaring through the rain. Sadie was right behind me. Together we spiraled up into the air.
I have to admit: it felt amazing. Ever since I was a little kid, I’d had dreams in which I was flying, and I always hated waking up. Now it wasn’t a dream or even a ba trip. It was one hundred percent real. I sailed on the cold air currents above the rooftops of Paris. I could see the river, the Louvre Museum, the gardens and palaces. And a mouse—yum.
Hang on, Carter, I thought. Not hunting mice. I zeroed in on Desjardins’ mansion, tucked in my wings, and shot downward.
I saw the rooftop garden, the double glass doors leading inside, and the voice inside me said: Don’t stop. It’s an illusion. You’ve got to punch through their magic barriers.
It was a crazy thought. I was plummeting so fast I would smack against the glass and become a feathery pancake, but I didn’t slow down.
I rammed straight into the doors—and sailed through them as if they didn’t exist. I spread my wings and landed on a table. Sadie sailed in right behind me.
We were alone in the middle of a library. So far, so good.
I closed my eyes and thought about returning to my normal form. When I opened my eyes again, I was regular old Carter, sitting on a table in my regular clothes, my workbag back on my shoulder.
Sadie was still a kite.
“You can turn back now,” I told her.
She tilted her head and regarded me quizzically. She let out a frustrated croak.
I cracked a smile. “You can’t, can you? You’re stuck?”
She pecked my hand with her extremely sharp beak.
“Ow!” I complained. “It’s not my fault. Keep trying.”
She closed her eyes and ruffled her feathers until she looked like she was going to explode, but she stayed a kite.
“Don’t worry,” I said, trying to keep a straight face. “Bast will help once we get out of here.”
“Ha—ha—ha.”
“Just keep watch. I’m going to look around.”
The room was huge—more like a traditional library than a magician’s lair. The furniture was dark mahogany. Every wall was covered with floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Books overflowed onto the floor. Some were stacked on tables or stuffed into smaller shelves. A big easy chair by the window looked like the kind of place Sherlock Holmes would sit smoking a pipe.
Every step I took, the floorboards creaked, which made me wince. I couldn’t hear anyone else in the house, but I didn’t want to take any chances.
Aside from the glass doors to the rooftop, the only other exit was a solid wooden door that locked from the inside. I turned the deadbolt. Then I wedged a chair up under the handle. I doubted that would keep magicians out for very long, but it might buy me a few seconds if things went bad.
I searched the bookshelves for what seemed like ages. All different types of books were jammed together—nothing alphabetized, nothing numbered. Most of the titles weren’t in English. None were in hieroglyphics. I was hoping for something with big gold lettering that said The Book of Thoth, but no such luck.
“What would a Book of Thoth even look like?” I wondered.
Sadie turned her head and glared at me. I was pretty sure she was telling me to hurry up.
I wished there were shabti to fetch things, like the ones in Amos’s library, but I didn’t see any. Or maybe…
I slung Dad’s bag off my shoulder. I set his magic box on the table and slid open the top. The little wax figure was still there, right where I’d left him. I picked him up and said, “Doughboy, help me find The Book of Thoth in this library.”
His waxy eyes opened immediately. “And why should I help you?”
“Because you have no choice.”
“I hate that argument! Fine—hold me up. I can’t see the shelves.”
I walked him around the room, showing him the books. I felt pretty stupid giving the wax doll a tour, but probably not as stupid as Sadie felt. She was still in bird form, scuttling back and forth on the table and snapping her beak in frustration as she tried to change back.
“Hold it!” Doughboy announced. “This one is ancient—right here.”
I pulled down a thin volume bound in linen. It was so tiny, I would’ve missed it, but sure enough, the front cover was inscribed in hieroglyphics. I brought it over to the table and carefully opened it. It was more like a map than a book, unfolding into four parts until I was looking at a wide, long papyrus scroll with writing so old I could barely make out the characters.
I glanced at Sadie. “I bet you could read this to me if you weren’t a bird.”
She tried to peck me again, but I moved my hand.
“Doughboy,” I said. “What is this scroll?”
“A spell lost in time!” he pronounced. “Ancient words of tremendous power!”
“Well?” I demanded. “Does it tell how to defeat Set?”
“Better! The title reads: The Book of Summoning Fruit Bats!”
I stared at him. “Are you serious?”
“Would I joke about such a thing?”
“Who would want to summon fruit bats?”
“Ha—ha—ha,” Sadie croaked.
I pushed the scroll away and we went back to searching.
After about ten minutes, Doughboy squealed with delight. “Oh, look! I remember this painting.”
It was a small oil portrait in a gilded frame, hanging on the end of a bookshelf. It must’ve been important, because it was bordered by little silk curtains. A light shone upon the portrait dude’s face so he seemed about to tell a ghost story.
“Isn’t that the guy who plays Wolverine?” I asked, because he had some serious jowl hair going on.
“You disgust me!” Doughboy said. “That is Jean-Fran?ois Champollion.”
It took me a second, but I remembered the name. “The guy who deciphered hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone.”
“Of course. Desjardins’ great uncle.”
I looked at Champollion’s picture again, and I could see the resemblance. They had the same fierce black eyes. “Great uncle? But wouldn’t that make Desjardins—”
“About two hundred years old,” Doughboy confirmed. “Still a youngster. You know that when Champollion first deciphered hieroglyphics, he fell into a coma for five days? He became the first man outside the House of Life to ever unleash their magic, and it almost killed him. Naturally, that got the attention of the First Nome. Champollion died before he could join the House of Life, but the Chief Lector accepted his descendants for training. Desjardins is very proud of his family…but a little sensitive too, because he’s such a newcomer.”
“That’s why he didn’t get along with our family,” I guessed. “We’re like…ancient.”
Doughboy cackled. “And your father breaking the Rosetta Stone? Desjardins would’ve viewed that as an insult to his family honor! Oh, you should’ve seen the arguments Master Julius and Desjardins had in this room.”
“You’ve been here before?”
“Many times! I’ve been everywhere. I’m all-knowing.”
I tried to imagine Dad and Desjardins having an argument in here. It wasn’t hard. If Desjardins hated our family, and if gods tended to find hosts who shared their goals, then it made total sense that Set would try to merge with him. Both wanted power, both were resentful and angry, both wanted to smash Sadie and me to a pulp. And if Set was now secretly controlling the Chief Lector…A drop of sweat trickled down the side of my face. I wanted to get out of this mansion.
Suddenly there was a banging sound below us, like someone closing a door downstairs.
“Show me where The Book of Thoth is,” I ordered Doughboy. “Quick!”
As we moved down the shelves, Doughboy grew so warm in my hands, I was afraid he would melt. He kept a running commentary on the books.
“Ah, Mastery of the Five Elements!”
“Is that the one we want?” I asked.
“No, but a good one. How to tame the five essential elements of the universe—earth, air, water, fire, and cheese!”
“Cheese?”
He scratched his wax head. “I’m pretty sure that’s the fifth, yes. But moving right along!”
We turned to the next shelf. “No,” he announced. “No. Boring. Boring. Oh, Clive Cussler! No. No.”
I was about to give up hope when he said, “There.”
I froze. “Where—here?”
“The blue book with the gold trim,” he said. “The one that’s—”
I pulled it out, and the entire room began to shake.
“—trapped,” Doughboy continued.
Sadie squawked urgently. I turned and saw her take flight. Something small and black swooped down from the ceiling. Sadie clashed with it in midair, and the black thing disappeared down her throat.
Before I could even register how gross that was, alarms blared downstairs. More black forms dropped from the ceiling and seemed to multiply in the air, swirling into a funnel cloud of fur and wings.
“There’s your answer,” Doughboy told me. “Desjardins would want to summon fruit bats. You mess with the wrong books, you trigger a plague of fruit bats. That’s the trap!”
The things were on me like I was a ripe mango—diving at my face, clawing at my arms. I clutched the book and ran to the table, but I could hardly see. “Sadie, get out of here!” I yelled.
“SAW!” she cried, which I hoped meant yes.
I found Dad’s workbag and shoved the book and Doughboy inside. The library door rattled. Voices yelled in French.
Horus, bird time! I thought desperately. And no emu, please!
I ran for the glass doors. At the last second, I found myself flying—once again a falcon, bursting into the cold rain. I knew with the senses of a predator that I was being followed by approximately four thousand angry fruit bats.
But falcons are wicked fast. Once outside, I raced north, hoping to draw the bats away from Sadie and Bast. I outdistanced the bats easily but let them keep close enough that they wouldn’t give up. Then, with a burst of speed, I turned in a tight circle and shot back toward Sadie and Bast in a hundred-mile-an-hour dive.
Bast looked up in surprise as I plummeted to the sidewalk, tumbling over myself as I turned back into a human. Sadie caught my arm, and only then did I realize she was back to normal as well.
“That was awful!” she announced.
“Exit strategy, quick!” I pointed at the sky, where an angry black cloud of fruit bats was getting closer and closer.
“The Louvre.” Bast grabbed our hands. “It’s got the closest portal.”
Three blocks away. We’d never make it.
Then the red door of Desjardins’ house blasted open, but we didn’t wait to see what came out of it. We ran for our lives down the rue des Pyramides.
SADIE
19. A Picnic in the Sky
[Right, Carter. Give me the mic.]
So I’d been to the Louvre once before on holiday, but I hadn’t been chased by vicious fruit bats. I would’ve been terrified, except I was too busy being angry with Carter. I couldn’t believe the way he’d treated my bird problem. Honestly, I thought I would be a kite forever, suffocating inside a little feathery prison. And he had the nerve to make fun!
I promised myself I’d get revenge, but for the time being we had enough worries staying alive.
We raced along in the cold rain. It was all I could do to avoid slipping on the slick pavements. I glanced back and saw two figures chasing us—men with shaved heads and goatees and black raincoats. They might’ve passed for normal mortals except they each carried a glowing staff. Not a good sign.
The bats were literally at our heels. One nipped my leg. Another buzzed my hair. I had to force myself to keep running. My stomach still felt queasy from eating one of the little pests when I was a kite—and no, that had not been my idea. Totally a defensive instinct!
“Sadie,” Bast called as we ran. “You’ll have only seconds to open the portal.”
“Where is it?” I yelled.
We dashed across the rue de Rivoli into a wide plaza surrounded by the wings of the Louvre. Bast made straight for the glass pyramid at the entrance, glowing in the dusk.
“You can’t be serious,” I said. “That isn’t a real pyramid.”
“Of course it’s real,” Bast said. “The shape gives a pyramid its power. It is a ramp to the heavens.”
The bats were all around us now—biting our arms, flying around our feet. As their numbers increased, it got harder to see or move.
Carter reached for his sword, then apparently remembered it wasn’t there anymore. He’d lost it at Luxor. He swore and rummaged around in his workbag.
“Don’t slow down!” Bast warned.
Carter pulled out his wand. In total frustration, he threw it at a bat. I thought this a pointless gesture, but the wand glowed white-hot and thumped the bat solidly on the head, knocking it out of the air. The wand ricocheted through the swarm, thumping six, seven, eight of the little monsters before returning to Carter’s hand.
“Not bad,” I said. “Keep it up!”
We arrived at the base of the pyramid. The plaza was thankfully empty. The last thing I wanted was my embarrassing death by fruit bats posted on YouTube.
“One minute until sundown,” Bast warned. “Our last chance for summoning is now.”
She unsheathed her knives and started slicing bats out of the air, trying to keep them away from me. Carter’s wand flew wildly, knocking fruit bats every which way. I faced the pyramid and tried to think of a portal, the way I’d done at Luxor, but it was almost impossible to concentrate.
Where do you wish to go? Isis said in my mind.
God, I don’t care! America!
I realized I was crying. I hated to, but shock and fear were starting to overwhelm me. Where did I want to go? Home, of course! Back to my flat in London—back to my own room, my grandparents, my mates at school and my old life. But I couldn’t. I had to think about my father and our mission. We had to get to Set.
America, I thought. Now!
My burst of emotion must’ve had some effect. The pyramid trembled. Its glass walls shimmered and the top of the structure began to glow.
A swirling sand vortex appeared, all right. Only one problem: it was hovering above the very top of the pyramid.
“Climb!” Bast said. Easy for her—she was a cat.
“The side is too steep!” Carter objected.
He’d done a good job with the bats. Dazed heaps littered the pavement, but more still flew round us, biting every bit of exposed skin, and the magicians were closing in.
“I’ll toss you,” Bast said.
“Excuse me?” Carter protested, but she picked him up by his collar and pants and tossed him up the side of the pyramid. He skittered to the top in a very undignified manner and slipped straight through the portal.
“Now you, Sadie,” Bast said. “Come on!”
Before I could move, a man’s voice yelled, “Stop!”
Stupidly, I froze. The voice was so powerful, it was hard not to.
The two magicians were approaching. The taller one spoke in perfect English: “Surrender, Miss Kane, and return our master’s property.”
“Sadie, don’t listen,” Bast warned. “Come here.”
“The cat goddess deceives you,” the magician said. “She abandoned her post. She endangered us all. She will lead you to ruin.”
I could tell he meant it. He was absolutely convinced of what he said.
I turned to Bast. Her expression had changed. She looked wounded, even grief-stricken.
“What does he mean?” I said. “What did you do wrong?”
“We have to leave,” she warned. “Or they will kill us.”
I looked at the portal. Carter was already through. That decided it. I wasn’t going to be separated from him. As annoying as he was, Carter was the only person I had left. (How is that for depressing?)
“Toss me,” I said.
Bast grabbed me. “See you in America.” Then she chucked me up the side of the pyramid.
I heard the magician roar, “Surrender!” And an explosion rattled the glass next to my head. Then I plunged into the hot vortex of sand.
I woke in a small room with industrial carpeting, gray walls, and metal-framed windows. I felt as if I were inside a high-tech refrigerator. I sat up groggily and discovered I was coated in cold, wet sand.
“Ugh,” I said. “Where are we?”
Carter and Bast stood by the window. Apparently they’d been conscious for a while, because they’d both brushed themselves off.
“You’ve got to see this view,” Carter said.
I got shakily to my feet and nearly fell down again when I saw how high we were.
An entire city spread out below us—I mean far below, well over a hundred meters. I could almost believe we were still in Paris, because a river curved off to our left, and the land was mostly flat. There were white government buildings clustered around networks of parks and circular roads, all spread out under a winter sky. But the light was wrong. It was still afternoon here, so we must’ve traveled west. And as my eyes made their way to the other end of a long rectangular green space, I found myself staring at a mansion that looked oddly familiar.
“Is that…the White House?”
Carter nodded. “You got us to America, all right. Washington, D.C.”
“But we’re sky high!”
Bast chuckled. “You didn’t specify any particular American city, did you?”
“Well…no.”
“So you got the default portal for the U.S.—the largest single source of Egyptian power in North America.”
I stared at her uncomprehendingly.
“The biggest obelisk ever constructed,” she said. “The Washington Monument.”
I had another moment of vertigo and moved away from the window. Carter grabbed my shoulder and helped me sit down.
“You should rest,” he said. “You passed out for…how long, Bast?”
“Two hours and thirty-two minutes,” she said. “I’m sorry, Sadie. Opening more than one portal a day is extremely taxing, even with Isis helping.”
Carter frowned. “But we need her to do it again, right? It’s not sunset here yet. We can still use portals. Let’s open one and get to Arizona. That’s where Set is.”
Bast pursed her lips. “Sadie can’t summon another portal. It would overextend her powers. I don’t have the talent. And you, Carter…well, your abilities lie elsewhere. No offense.”
“Oh, no,” he grumbled. “I’m sure you’ll call me next time you need to boomerang some fruit bats.”
“Besides,” Bast said, “when a portal is used, it needs time to cool down. No one will be able to use the Washington Monument—”
“For another twelve hours.” Carter cursed. “I forgot about that.”
Bast nodded. “And by then, the Demon Days will have begun.”
“So we need another way to Arizona,” Carter said.
I suppose he didn’t mean to make me feel guilty, but I did. I hadn’t thought things through, and now we were stuck in Washington.
I glanced at Bast out the corner of my eye. I wanted to ask her what the men at the Louvre had meant about her leading us to ruin, but I was afraid to. I wanted to believe she was on our side. Perhaps if I gave her a chance, she’d volunteer the information.
“At least those magicians can’t follow us,” I prompted.
Bast hesitated. “Not through the portal, no. But there are other magicians in America. And worse… Set’s minions.”
My heart climbed into my throat. The House of Life was scary enough, but when I remembered Set, and what his minions had done to Amos’s house…
“What about Thoth’s spellbook?” I said. “Did we at least find a way to fight Set?”
Carter pointed to the corner of the room. Spread out on Bast’s raincoat was Dad’s magic toolbox and the blue book we’d stolen from Desjardins.
“Maybe you can make sense of it,” Carter said. “Bast and I couldn’t read it. Even Doughboy was stumped.”
I picked up the book, which was actually a scroll folded into sections. The papyrus was so brittle, I was afraid to touch it. Hieroglyphs and illustrations crowded the page, but I couldn’t make sense of them. My ability to read the language seemed to be switched off.
Isis? I asked. A little help?
Her voice was silent. Maybe I’d worn her out. Or maybe she was cross with me for not letting her take over my body, the way Horus had asked Carter to do. Selfish of me, I know.
I closed the book in frustration. “All that work for nothing.”
“Now, now,” Bast said. “It’s not so bad.”
“Right,” I said. “We’re stuck in Washington, D.C. We have two days to make it to Arizona and stop a god we don’t know how to stop. And if we can’t, we’ll never see our dad or Amos again, and the world might end.”
“That’s the spirit!” Bast said brightly. “Now, let’s have a picnic.”
She snapped her fingers. The air shimmered, and a pile of Friskies cans and two jugs of milk appeared on the carpet.
“Um,” Carter said, “can you conjure any people food?”
Bast blinked. “Well, no accounting for taste.”
The air shimmered again. A plate of grilled cheese sandwiches and crisps appeared, along with a six-pack of Coke.
“Yum,” I said.
Carter muttered something under his breath. I suppose grilled cheese wasn’t his favorite, but he picked up a sandwich.
“We should leave soon,” he said between bites. “I mean…tourists and all.”
Bast shook her head. “The Washington Monument closes at six o’clock. The tourists are gone now. We might as well stay the night. If we must travel during the Demon Days, best to do it in daylight hours.”
We all must’ve been exhausted, because we didn’t talk again until we’d finished our food. I ate three sandwiches and drank two Cokes. Bast made the whole place smell like fish Friskies, then started licking her hand as if preparing for a cat bath.
“Could you not do that?” I asked. “It’s disturbing.”
“Oh.” She smiled. “Sorry.”
I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall. It felt good to rest, but I realized the room wasn’t actually quiet. The entire building seemed to be humming ever so slightly, sending a tremble through my skull that made my teeth buzz. I opened my eyes and sat up. I could still feel it.
“What is that?” I asked. “The wind?”
“Magic energy,” Bast said. “I told you, this is a powerful monument.”
“But it’s modern. Like the Louvre pyramid. Why is it magic?”
“The Ancient Egyptians were excellent builders, Sadie. They picked shapes—obelisks, pyramids—that were charged with symbolic magic. An obelisk represents a sunbeam frozen in stone—a life-giving ray from the original king of the gods, Ra. It doesn’t matter when the structure was built: it is still Egyptian. That’s why any obelisk can be used for opening gates to the Duat, or releasing great beings of power—”
“Or trapping them,” I said. “The way you were trapped in Cleopatra’s Needle.”
Her expression darkened. “I wasn’t actually trapped in the obelisk. My prison was a magically created abyss deep in the Duat, and the obelisk was the door your parents used to release me. But, yes. All symbols of Egypt are concentrated nodes of magic power. So an obelisk can definitely be used to imprison gods.”
An idea was nagging at the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite pin it down. Something about my mother, and Cleopatra’s Needle, and my father’s last promise in the British Museum: I’ll put things right.
Then I thought back to the Louvre, and the comment the magician had made. Bast looked so cross at the moment I was almost afraid to ask, but it was the only way I’d get an answer. “The magician said you abandoned your post. What did he mean?”
Carter frowned. “When was this?”
I told him what had happened after Bast chucked him through the portal.
Bast stacked her empty Friskies cans. She didn’t look eager to reply.
“When I was imprisoned,” she said at last, “I—I wasn’t alone. I was locked inside with a…creature of chaos.”
“Is that bad?” I asked.
Judging from Bast’s expression, the answer was yes. “Magicians often do this—lock a god up together with a monster so we have no time to try escaping our prison. For eons, I fought this monster. When your parents released me—”
“The monster got out?”
Bast hesitated a little too long for my taste.
“No. My enemy couldn’t have escaped.” She took a deep breath. “Your mother’s final act of magic sealed that gate. The enemy was still inside. But that’s what the magician meant. As far as he was concerned, my ‘post’ was battling that monster forever.”
It had the ring of truth, as if she were sharing a painful memory, but it didn’t explain the other bit the magician had said: She endangered us all. I was getting up the nerve to ask exactly what the monster had been, when Bast stood up.
“I should go scout,” she said abruptly. “I’ll be back.”
We listened to her footsteps echo down the stairwell.
“She’s hiding something,” Carter said.
“Work that out yourself, did you?” I asked.
He looked away, and immediately I felt bad.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just…what are we going to do?”
“Rescue Dad. What else can we do?” He picked up his wand and turned it in his fingers. “Do you think he really meant to…you know, bring Mom back?”
I wanted to say yes. More than anything, I wanted to believe that was possible. But I found myself shaking my head. Something about it didn’t seem right. “Iskandar told me something about Mum,” I said. “She was a diviner. She could see the future. He said she made him rethink some old ideas.”
It was my first chance to tell Carter about my conversation with the old magician, so I gave him the details.
Carter knit his eyebrows. “You think that has something to do with why Mom died—she saw something in the future?”
“I don’t know.” I tried to think back to when I was six, but my memory was frustratingly fuzzy. “When they took us to England the last time, did she and Dad seemed like they were in a hurry—like they were doing something really important?”
“Definitely.”
“Would you say freeing Bast was really important? I mean—I love her, of course—but worth dying for important?”
Carter hesitated. “Probably not.”
“Well, there you are. I think Dad and Mum were up to something bigger, something they didn’t complete. Possibly that’s what Dad was after at the British Museum—completing the task, whatever it was. Making things right. And this whole business about our family going back a billion years to some god-hosting pharaohs—why didn’t anyone tell us? Why didn’t Dad?”
Carter didn’t answer for a long time.
“Maybe Dad was protecting us,” he said. “The House of Life doesn’t trust our family, especially after what Dad and Mom did. Amos said we were raised apart for a reason, so we wouldn’t, like, trigger each other’s magic.”
“Bloody awful reason to keep us apart,” I muttered.
Carter looked at me strangely, and I realized what I’d said might have been construed as a compliment.
“I just mean they should’ve been honest,” I rushed on. “Not that I wanted more time with my annoying brother, of course.”
He nodded seriously. “Of course.”
We sat listening to the magic hum of the obelisk. I tried to remember the last time Carter and I had simply spent time like this together, talking.
“Is your, um…” I tapped the side of my head. “Your friend being any help?”
“Not much,” he admitted. “Yours?”
I shook my head. “Carter, are you scared?”
“A little.” He dug his wand into the carpet. “No, a lot.”
I looked at the blue book we’d stolen—pages full of wonderful secrets I couldn’t read. “What if we can’t do it?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “That book about mastering the element of cheese would’ve been more helpful.”
“Or summoning fruit bats.”
“Please, not the fruit bats.”
We shared a weary smile, and it felt rather good. But it changed nothing. We were still in serious trouble with no clear plan.
“Why don’t you sleep on it?” he suggested. “You used a lot of energy today. I’ll keep watch until Bast gets back.”
He actually sounded concerned for me. How cute.
I didn’t want to sleep. I didn’t want to miss anything. But I realized my eyelids were incredibly heavy.
“All right, then,” I said. “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
I lay down to sleep, but my soul—my ba—had other ideas.
SADIE
20. I Visit the Star-Spangled Goddess
I HADN’T REALIZED HOW UNSETTLING it would be. Carter had explained how his ba left his body while he slept, but having it happen to me was another thing altogether. It was much worse than my vision in the Hall of Ages.
There I was, floating in the air as a glowing birdlike spirit. And there was my body below me, fast asleep. Just trying to describe it gives me a headache.
My first thought as I gazed down on my sleeping form: God, I look awful. Bad enough looking in a mirror or seeing pictures of myself on my friends’ Web pages. Seeing myself in person was simply wrong. My hair was a rat’s nest, the linen pajamas were not in the least flattering, and the spot on my chin was enormous.
My second thought as I examined the strange shimmering form of my ba: This won’t do at all. I didn’t care if I was invisible to the mortal eye or not. After my bad experience as a kite, I simply refused to go about as a glowing Sadie-headed chicken. That’s fine for Carter, but I have standards.
I could feel the currents of the Duat tugging at me, trying to pull my ba to wherever souls go when they have visions, but I wasn’t ready. I concentrated hard, and imagined my normal appearance (well, all right, perhaps my appearance as I’d like it to be, a bit better than normal). And voilà, my ba morphed into a human form, still see-through and glowing, mind you, but more like a proper ghost.
Well, at least that’s sorted, I thought. And I allowed the currents to sweep me away. The world melted to black.
At first, I was nowhere—just a dark void. Then a young man stepped out of the shadows.
“You again,” he said.
I stammered. “Uh…”
Honestly, you know me well enough by now. That’s not like me. But this was the boy I’d seen in my Hall of Ages vision—the very handsome boy with the black robes and tousled hair. His dark brown eyes had the most unnerving effect on me, and I was very glad I’d changed out of my glowing chicken outfit.
I tried again, and managed three entire words. “What are you…”
“Doing here?” he said, gallantly finishing my sentence. “Spirit travel and death are very similar.”
“Not sure what that means,” I said. “Should I be worried?”
He tilted his head as if considering the question. “Not this trip. She only wants to talk to you. Go ahead.”
He waved his hand and a doorway opened in the darkness. I was pulled towards it.
“See you again?” I asked.
But the boy was gone.
I found myself standing in a luxury flat in the middle of the sky. It had no walls, no ceiling, and a see-through floor looking straight down at city lights from the height of an airplane. Clouds drifted below my feet. The air should’ve been freezing cold and too thin to breathe, but I felt warm and comfortable.
Black leather sofas made a U round a glass coffee table on a blood-red rug. A fire burned in a slate fireplace. Bookshelves and paintings hovered in the air where the walls should’ve been. A black granite bar stood in the corner, and in the shadows behind it, a woman was making tea.
“Hello, my child,” she said.
She stepped into the light, and I gasped. She wore an Egyptian kilt from the waist down. From the waist up, she wore only a bikini top, and her skin…her skin was dark blue, covered with stars. I don’t mean painted stars. She had the entire cosmos living on her skin: gleaming constellations, galaxies too bright to look at, glowing nebulae of pink and blue dust. Her features seemed to disappear into the stars that shifted across her face. Her hair was long and as black as midnight.
“You’re the Nut,” I said. Then I realized maybe that had come out wrong. “I mean…the sky goddess.”
The goddess smiled. Her bright white teeth were like a new galaxy bursting into existence. “Nut is fine. And believe me, I’ve heard all the jokes about my name.”
She poured a second cup from her teapot. “Let’s sit and talk. Care for some sahlab?”
“Uh, it’s not tea?”
“No, an Egyptian drink. You’ve heard of hot chocolate? This is rather like hot vanilla.”
I would’ve preferred tea, as I hadn’t had a proper cup in ages. But I supposed one didn’t turn down a goddess. “Um…yeah. Thanks.”
We sat together on the sofa. To my surprise, my glowing spirity hands had no trouble holding a teacup, and I could drink quite easily. The sahlab was sweet and tasty, with just a hint of cinnamon and coconut. It warmed me up nicely and filled the air with the smell of vanilla. For the first time in days I felt safe. Then I remembered I was only here in spirit.
Nut set down her cup. “I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve brought you here.”
“Where exactly is ‘here’? And, ah, who’s your doorman?”
I hoped she’d drop some information about the boy in black, but she only smiled. “I must keep my secrets, dear. I can’t have the House of Life trying to find me. Let’s just say I’ve built this home with a nice city view.”
“Is that…” I gestured to her starry blue skin. “Um…are you inside a human host?”
“No, dear. The sky itself is my body. This is merely a manifestation.”
“But I thought—”
“Gods need a physical host outside the Duat? It’s somewhat easier for me, being a spirit of the air. I was one of the few gods who was never imprisoned, because the House of Life could never catch me. I’m used to being…free-form.” Suddenly Nut and the entire apartment flickered. I felt like I would drop through the floor. Then the sofa became stable again.
“Please don’t do that again,” I begged.
“My apologies,” Nut said. “The point is, each god is different. But all my brethren are free now, all finding places in this modern world of yours. They won’t be imprisoned again.”
“The magicians won’t like that.”
“No,” Nut agreed. “That’s the first reason you are here. A battle between the gods and the House of Life would serve only chaos. You must make the magicians understand this.”
“They won’t listen to me. They think I’m a godling.”
“You are a godling, dear.” She touched my hair gently, and I felt Isis stirring within me, struggling to speak using my voice.
“I’m Sadie Kane,” I said. “I didn’t ask for Isis to hitch a ride.”
“The gods have known your family for generations, Sadie. In the olden days, we worked together for the benefit of Egypt.”
“The magicians said that gods caused the fall of the empire.”
“That is a long and pointless debate,” Nut said, and I could hear an edge of anger in her voice. “All empires fall. But the idea of Egypt is eternal—the triumph of civilization, the forces of Ma’at overcoming the forces of chaos. That battle is fought generation after generation. Now it’s your turn.”
“I know, I know,” I said. “We have to defeat Set.”
“But is it that simple, Sadie? Set is my son, too. In the old days, he was Ra’s strongest lieutenant. He protected the sun god’s boat from the serpent Apophis. Now there was evil. Apophis was the embodiment of chaos. He hated Creation from the moment the first mountain appeared out of the sea. He hated the gods, mortals, and everything they built. And yet Set fought against him. Set was one of us.”
“Then he turned evil?”
Nut shrugged. “Set has always been Set, for better or worse. But he is still part of our family. It is difficult to lose any member of your family…is it not?”
My throat tightened. “That’s hardly fair.”
“Don’t speak to me of fairness,” Nut said. “For five thousand years, I have been kept apart from my husband, Geb.”
I vaguely remembered Carter saying something about this, but it seemed different listening to her now, hearing the pain in her voice.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Punishment for bearing my children,” she said bitterly. “I disobeyed Ra’s wishes, and so he ordered my own father, Shu—”
“Hang on,” I said. “Shoe?”
“S-h-u,” she said. “The god of the wind.”
“Oh.” I wished these gods had names that weren’t common household objects. “Go on, please.”
“Ra ordered my father, Shu, to keep us apart, forever. I am exiled to the sky, while my beloved Geb cannot leave the ground.”
“What happens if you try?”
Nut closed her eyes and spread her hands. A hole opened where she was sitting, and she fell through the air. Instantly, the clouds below us flickered with lightning. Winds raged across the flat, throwing books off the shelves, ripping away paintings and flinging them into the void. My teacup leaped out of my hand. I grabbed the sofa to avoid getting blown away myself.
Below me, lightning struck Nut’s form. The wind pushed her violently upward, shooting past me. Then the winds died. Nut settled back onto the couch. She waved her hand and the flat repaired itself. Everything returned to normal.
“That happens,” she said sadly.
“Oh.”
She gazed at the city lights far below. “It has given me appreciation for my children, even Set. He has done horrible things, yes. It is his nature. But he is still my son, and still one of the gods. He acts his part. Perhaps the way to defeat him is not the way you would imagine.”
“Hints, please?”
“Seek out Thoth. He has found a new home in Memphis.”
“Memphis…Egypt?”
Nut smiled. “Memphis, Tennessee. Although the old bird probably thinks it is Egypt. He so rarely takes his beak out of his books, I doubt he would know the difference. You will find him there. He can advise you. Be wary, though: Thoth often asks for favors. He is sometimes hard to predict.”
“Getting used to that,” I said. “How are we supposed to get there?”
“I am goddess of the sky. I can guarantee you safe travel as far as Memphis.” She waved her hand, and a folder appeared in my lap. Inside were three plane tickets—Washington to Memphis, first-class.
I raised my eyebrow. “I suppose you get a lot of frequent flyer miles?”
“Something like that,” Nut agreed. “But as you get closer to Set, you will be beyond my help. And I cannot protect you on the ground. Which reminds me: You need to wake up soon. Set’s minion is closing in on your hideout.”
I sat up straight. “How soon?”
“Minutes.”
“Send my spirit back, then!” I pinched my ghostly arm, which hurt just like it would on my normal arm, but nothing happened.
“Soon, Sadie,” Nut promised. “But two more things you must know. I had five children during the Demon Days. If your father released all of them, you should consider: Where is the fifth?”
I racked my brain trying to remember the names of all of Nut’s five children. Bit difficult without my brother, the Human Wikipedia, around to keep track of such trivia for me. There was Osiris, the king, and Isis, his queen; Set, the evil god, and Horus, the avenger. But the fifth child of Nut, the one Carter said he could never remember… Then I recalled my vision in the Hall of Ages—Osiris’s birthday and the woman in blue who’d helped Isis escape Set. “You mean Nephthys, Set’s wife?”
“Consider it,” Nut said again. “And lastly…a favor.”
She opened her hand and produced an envelope sealed with red wax. “If you see Geb…will you give him this?”
I’d been asked to pass notes before, but never between gods. Honestly, Nut’s anguished expression was no different than those of my love-struck friends back at school. I wondered if she’d ever written on her notebook: GEB + NUT = TRUE LOVE or MRS. GEB.
“Least I can do,” I promised. “Now, about sending me back…”
“Safe travels, Sadie,” the goddess said. “And Isis, restrain yourself.”
The spirit of Isis rumbled inside me, as if I’d eaten a bad curry.
“Wait,” I said, “what do you mean restrain—”
Before I could finish, my vision went black.
I snapped awake, back in my own body at the Washington Monument. “Leave now!”
Carter and Bast jumped in surprise. They were already awake, packing their things.
“What’s wrong?” Carter asked.
I told them about my vision while I frantically searched my pockets. Nothing. I checked my magician’s bag. Tucked inside with my wand and rod were three plane tickets and a sealed envelope.
Bast examined the tickets. “Excellent! First class serves salmon.”
“But what about Set’s minion?” I asked.
Carter glanced out the window. His eyes widened. “Yeah, um…it’s here.”