The Red Pyramid(The Kane Chronicles, Book 1)

Chapter 30. Bast Keeps a Promise


HOURS LATER, I WOKE UP ON THE RV’S couch with Bast shaking my arm.
“We’re here,” she announced.
I had no idea how long I’d been asleep. At some point, the flat landscape and complete boredom had zonked me out, and I’d started having bad dreams about tiny magicians flying around in my hair, trying to shave me bald. Somewhere in there, I’d had a nightmare about Amos too, but it was fuzzy. I still didn’t understand why Zia would mention him.
I blinked the sleep out of my eyes and realized my head was in Khufu’s lap. The baboon was foraging my scalp for munchies.
“Dude.” I sat up groggily. “Not cool.”
“But he gave you a lovely hairdo,” Sadie said.
“Agh-agh!” Khufu agreed.
Bast opened the door of the trailer. “Come on,” she said. “We’ll have to walk from here.”
When I got to the door I almost had a heart attack. We were parked on a mountain road so narrow, the RV would’ve toppled over if I’d sneezed wrong.
For a second, I was afraid we were already in Phoenix, because the landscape looked similar. The sun was just setting on the horizon. Rugged mountain ranges stretched out on either side, and the desert floor between them seemed to go on forever. In a valley to our left lay a colorless city—hardly any trees or grass, just sand, gravel, and buildings. The city was much smaller than Phoenix, though, and a large river traced its southern edge, glinting red in the fading light. The river curved around the base of the mountains below us before snaking off to the north.
“We’re on the moon,” Sadie murmured.
“El Paso, Texas,” Bast corrected. “And that’s the Rio Grande.” She took a big breath of the cool dry air. “A river civilization in the desert. Very much like Egypt, actually! Er, except for the fact that Mexico is next door. I think this is the best spot to summon Nephthys.”
“You really think she’ll tell us Set’s secret name?” Sadie asked.
Bast considered. “Nephthys is unpredictable, but she has sided against her husband before. We can hope.”
That didn’t sound very promising. I stared at the river far below. “Why did you park us on the mountain? Why not closer?”
Bast shrugged, as if this hadn’t occurred to her. “Cats like to get as high up as possible. In case we have to pounce on something.”
“Great,” I said. “So if we have to pounce, we’re all set.”
“It’s not so bad,” Bast said. “We just climb our way down to the river through a few miles of sand, cacti, and rattlesnakes, looking out for the Border Patrol, human traffickers, magicians, and demons—and summon Nephthys.”
Sadie whistled. “Well, I’m excited!”
“Agh,” Khufu agreed miserably. He sniffed the air and snarled.
“He smells trouble,” Bast translated. “Something bad is about to happen.”
“Even I could smell that,” I grumbled, and we followed Bast down the mountain.


Yes, Horus said. I remember this place.
It’s El Paso, I told him. Unless you went out for Mexican food, you’ve never been here.
I remember it well, he insisted. The marsh, the desert.
I stopped and looked around. Suddenly I remembered this place, too. About fifty yards in front of us, the river spread out into a swampy area—a web of slow-moving tributaries cutting a shallow depression through the desert. Marsh grass grew tall along the banks. There must’ve been some kind of surveillance, its being an international border and all, but I couldn’t spot any.
I’d been here in ba form. I could picture a hut right there in the marsh, Isis and young Horus hiding from Set. And just downriver—that’s where I’d sensed something dark moving under the water, waiting for me.
I caught Bast’s arm when she was a few steps from the bank. “Stay away from the water.”
She frowned. “Carter, I’m a cat. I’m not going for a swim. But if you want to summon a river goddess, you really need to do it at the riverbank.”
She made it sound so logical that I felt stupid, but I couldn’t help it. Something bad was about to happen.
What is it? I asked Horus. What’s the challenge?
But my ride-along god was unnervingly silent, as if waiting.
Sadie tossed a rock into the murky brown water. It sank with a loud ker-plunk!
“Seems quite safe to me,” she said, and trudged down to the banks.
Khufu followed hesitantly. When he reached the water, he sniffed at it and snarled.
“See?” I said. “Even Khufu doesn’t like it.”
“It’s probably ancestral memory,” Bast said. “The river was a dangerous place in Egypt. Snakes, hippos, all kinds of problems.”
“Hippos?”
“Don’t take it lightly,” Bast warned. “Hippos can be deadly.”
“Was that what attacked Horus?” I asked. “I mean in the old days, when Set was looking for him?”
“Haven’t heard that story,” Bast said. “Usually you hear that Set used scorpions first. Then later, crocodiles.”
“Crocodiles,” I said, and a chill went down my back.
Is that it? I asked Horus. But again he didn’t answer. “Bast, does the Rio Grande have crocodiles?”
“I very much doubt it.” She knelt by the water. “Now, Sadie, if you’d do the honors?”
“How?”
“Just ask for Nephthys to appear. She was Isis’s sister. If she’s anywhere on this side of the Duat, she should hear your voice.”
Sadie looked doubtful, but she knelt next to Bast and touched the water. Her fingertips caused ripples that seemed much too large, rings of force emanating all the way across the river.
“Hullo, Nephthys?” she said. “Anyone home?”
I heard a splash downriver, and turned to see a family of immigrants crossing midstream. I’d heard stories about how thousands of people cross the border from Mexico illegally each year, looking for work and a better life, but it was startling to actually see them in front of me—a man and a woman hurrying along, carrying a little girl between them. They were dressed in ragged clothes and looked poorer than the poorest Egyptian peasants I’d ever seen. I stared at them for a few seconds, but they didn’t appear to be any kind of supernatural threat. The man gave me a wary look and we seemed to come to a silent understanding: we both had enough problems without bothering each other.
Meanwhile Bast and Sadie stayed focused on the water, watching the ripples spread out from Sadie’s fingers.
Bast tilted her head, listening intently. “What’s she saying?”
“I can’t make it out,” Sadie whispered. “Very faint.”
“You can actually hear something?” I asked.
“Shhh,” they both said at once.
“‘Caged’...” Sadie said. “No, what is that word in English?”
“Sheltered,” Bast suggested. “She is sheltered far away. A sleeping host. What is that supposed to mean?”
I didn’t know what they were talking about. I couldn’t hear a thing.
Khufu tugged at my hand and pointed downriver. “Agh.”
The immigrant family had disappeared. It seemed impossible they could cross the river so quickly. I scanned both banks—no sign of them—but the water was more turbulent where they’d been standing, as if someone had stirred it with a giant spoon. My throat tightened.
“Um, Bast—”
“Carter, we can barely hear Nephthys,” she said. “Please.”
I gritted my teeth. “Fine. Khufu and I are going to check something—”
“Shh!” Sadie said again.
I nodded to Khufu, and we started down the riverbank. Khufu hid behind my legs and growled at the river.
I looked back, but Bast and Sadie seemed fine. They were still staring at the water as if it were some amazing Internet video.
Finally we got to the place where I’d seen the family, but the water had calmed. Khufu slapped the ground and did a handstand, which meant he was either break dancing or really nervous.
“What is it?” I asked, my heart pounding.
“Agh, agh, agh!” he complained. That was probably an entire lecture in Baboon, but I had no idea what he was saying.
“Well, I don’t see any other way,” I said. “If that family got pulled into the water or something...I have to find them. I’m going in.”
“Agh!” He backed away from the water.
“Khufu, those people had a little girl. If they need help, I can’t just walk away. Stay here and watch my back.”
Khufu grunted and slapped his own face in protest as I stepped into the water. It was colder and swifter than I’d imagined. I concentrated, and summoned my sword and wand out of the Duat. Maybe it was my imagination, but that seemed to make the river run even faster.
I was midstream when Khufu barked urgently. He was jumping around on the riverbank, pointing frantically at a nearby clump of reeds.
The family was huddled inside, trembling with fear, their eyes wide. My first thought: Why are they hiding from me?
“I won’t hurt you,” I promised. They stared at me blankly, and I wished I could speak Spanish.
Then the water churned around me, and I realized they weren’t scared of me. My next thought: Man, I’m stupid.
Horus’s voice yelled: Jump!
I sprang out of the water as if shot from a cannon—twenty, thirty feet into the air. No way I should’ve been able to do that, but it was a good thing, because a monster erupted from the river beneath me.
At first all I saw were hundreds of teeth—a pink maw three times as big as me. Somehow I managed to flip and land on my feet in the shallows. I was facing a crocodile as long as our RV—and that was just the half sticking out of the water. Its gray-green skin was ridged with thick plates like a camouflage suit of armor, and its eyes were the color of moldy milk.
The family screamed and started scrambling up the banks. That caught the crocodile’s attention. He instinctively turned toward the louder, more interesting prey. I’d always thought of crocodiles as slow animals, but when it charged the immigrants, I’d never seen anything move so fast.
Use the distraction, Horus urged. Get behind it and strike.
Instead I yelled, “Sadie, Bast, help!” and I threw my wand.
Bad throw. The wand hit the river right in front of the croc, then skipped off the water like a stone, smacked the croc between the eyes, and shot back into my hand.
I doubt I did any damage, but the croc glanced over at me, annoyed.
Or you can smack it with a stick, Horus muttered.
I charged forward, yelling to keep the croc’s attention. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the family scrambling to safety. Khufu ran along behind them, waving his arms and barking to herd them out of harm’s way. I wasn’t sure if they were running from the croc or the crazy monkey, but as long as they kept running, I didn’t care.
I couldn’t see what was happening with Bast and Sadie. I heard shouting and splashing behind me, but before I could look, the crocodile lunged.
I ducked to the left, slashing with my sword. The blade just bounced off the croc’s hide. The monster thrashed sideways, and its snout would’ve bashed my head in; but I instinctively raised my wand and the croc slammed into a wall of force, bouncing off as if I were protected by a giant invisible energy bubble.
I tried to summon the falcon warrior, but it was too hard to concentrate with a six-ton reptile trying to bite me in half.
Then I heard Bast scream, “NO!” and I knew immediately, without even looking, that something was wrong with Sadie.
Desperation and rage turned my nerves to steel. I thrust out my wand and the wall of energy surged outward, slamming into the crocodile so hard, it went flying through the air, tumbling out of the river and onto the Mexican shore. While it was on its back, flailing and off balance, I leaped, raising my sword, which was now glowing in my hands, and drove the blade into the monster’s belly. I held on while the crocodile thrashed, slowly disintegrating from its snout to the tip of its tail, until I stood in the middle of a giant pile of wet sand.
I turned and saw Bast battling a crocodile just as big as mine. The crocodile lunged, and Bast dropped beneath it, raking her knives across its throat. The croc melted into the river until it was only a smoky cloud of sand, but the damage had been done: Sadie lay in a crumpled heap on the riverbank.
By the time I got there, Khufu and Bast were already at her side. Blood trickled from Sadie’s scalp. Her face was a nasty shade of yellow.
“What happened?” I asked.
“It came out of nowhere,” Bast said miserably. “Its tail hit Sadie and sent her flying. She never had a chance. Is she...?”
Khufu put his hand on Sadie’s forehead and made popping noises with his mouth.
Bast sighed with relief. “Khufu says she’ll live, but we have to get her out of here. Those crocodiles could mean...”
Her voice trailed off. In the middle of the river, the water was boiling. Rising from it was a figure so horrible, I knew we were doomed.
“Could mean that,” Bast said grimly.
To start with, the guy was twenty feet tall—and I don’t mean with a glowing avatar. He was all flesh and blood. His chest and arms were human, but he had light green skin, and his waist was wrapped in a green armored kilt like reptile hide. He had the head of a crocodile, a massive mouth filled with white crooked teeth, and eyes that glistened with green mucus (yeah, I know—real attractive). His black hair hung in plaits down to his shoulders, and bull’s horns curved from his head. If that wasn’t weird enough, he appeared to be sweating at an unbelievable rate—oily water poured off him in torrents and pooled in the river.
He raised his staff—a length of green wood as big as a telephone pole.
Bast yelled, “Move!” and pulled me back as the crocodile man smashed a five-foot-deep trench in the riverbank where I’d been standing.
He bellowed: “Horus!”
The last thing I wanted to do was say, Here! But Horus spoke urgently in my mind: Face him down. Sobek only understands strength. Do not let him grasp you, or he will pull you down and drown you.
I swallowed my fear and yelled, “Sobek! You, uh, weakling! How the heck are ya?”
Sobek bared his teeth. Maybe it was his version of a friendly smile. Probably not.
“That form does not serve you, falcon god,” he said. “I will snap you in half.”
Next to me, Bast slipped her knives from her sleeves. “Don’t let him grasp you,” she warned.
“Already got the memo,” I told her. I was conscious of Khufu off to my right, slowly lugging Sadie uphill. I had to keep this green guy distracted, at least until they were safe. “Sobek, god of...I’m guessing crocodiles! Leave us in peace or we’ll destroy you!”
Good, Horus said. “Destroy” is good.
Sobek roared with laughter. “Your sense of humor has improved, Horus. You and your kitty will destroy me?” He turned his mucus-filmed eyes on Bast. “What brings you to my realm, cat goddess? I thought you didn’t like the water!”
On the last word, he aimed his staff and shot forth a torrent of green water. Bast was too quick. She jumped and came down behind Sobek with her avatar fully formed—a massive, glowing cat-headed warrior. “Traitor!” Bast yelled. “Why do you side with chaos? Your duty is to the king!”
“What king?” Sobek roared. “Ra? Ra is gone. Osiris is dead again, the weakling! And this boy child cannot restore the empire. There was a time I supported Horus, yes. But he has no strength in this form. He has no followers. Set offers power. Set offers fresh meat. I think I will start with godling flesh!”
He turned on me and swung his staff. I rolled away from his strike, but his free hand shot out and grabbed me around the waist. I just wasn’t quick enough. Bast tensed, preparing to launch herself at the enemy, but before she could, Sobek dropped his staff, grasped me with both massive hands, and dragged me into the water. The next thing I knew I was drowning in the cold green murk. I couldn’t see or breathe. I sank into the depths as Sobek’s hands crushed the air out of my lungs.
Now or never! Horus said. Let me take control.
No, I replied. I’ll die first.
I found the thought strangely calming. If I was already dead, there was no point in being afraid. I might as well go down fighting.
I focused my power and felt strength coursing through my body. I flexed my arms and felt Sobek’s grip weaken. I summoned the avatar of the hawk warrior and was instantly encased in a glowing golden form as large as Sobek. I could just see him in the dark water, his slimy eyes wide with surprise.
I broke his grip and head-butted him, breaking off a few of his teeth. Then I shot out of the water and landed on the riverbank next to Bast, who was so startled, she almost slashed me.
“Thank Ra!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah, I’m alive.”
“No, I almost jumped in after you. I hate the water!”
Then Sobek exploded out of the river, roaring in rage. Green blood oozed from one of his nostrils.
“You cannot defeat me!” He held out his arms, which were raining perspiration. “I am lord of the water! My sweat creates the rivers of the world!”
Eww. I decided not to swim in rivers anymore. I glanced back, looking for Khufu and Sadie, but they were nowhere in sight. Hopefully Khufu had gotten Sadie to safety, or at least found a good place to hide.
Sobek charged, and he brought the river with him. A massive wave smashed into me, toppling me to the ground, but Bast jumped and came down on Sobek’s back in full avatar form. The weight hardly seemed to bother him. He tried to grab her without any luck. She slashed repeatedly at his arms, back and neck, but his green skin seemed to heal as quickly as she could cut him.
I struggled to my feet, which in avatar form is like trying to get up with a mattress strapped to your chest. Sobek finally managed to grab Bast and throw her off. She tumbled to a stop without getting hurt, but her blue aura was flickering. She was losing power.
We played tag team with the crocodile god—stabbing and slashing—but the more we wounded him, the more enraged and powerful he seemed to get.
“More minions!” he shouted. “Come to me!”
That couldn’t be good. Another round of giant crocs and we’d be dead.
Why don’t we get minions? I complained to Horus, but he didn’t answer. I could feel him struggling to channel his power through me, trying to keep up our combat magic.
Sobek’s fist smashed into Bast, and she went flying again. This time when she hit the ground, her avatar flickered off completely.
I charged, trying to draw Sobek’s attention. Unfortunately, it worked. Sobek turned and blasted me with water. While I was blind, he slapped me so hard I flew across the riverbank, tumbling through the reeds.
My avatar collapsed. I sat up groggily and found Khufu and Sadie right next to me, Sadie still passed out and bleeding, Khufu desperately murmuring in Baboon and stroking her forehead.
Sobek stepped out of the water and grinned at me. Far downstream in the dim evening light, about a quarter of a mile away, I could see two wake lines in the river, coming toward us fast—Sobek’s reinforcements.
From the river, Bast yelled, “Carter, hurry! Get Sadie out of here!”
Her face went pale with strain, and her cat warrior avatar appeared around her one more time. It was weak, though—barely substantial.
“Don’t!” I called. “You’ll die!”
I tried to summon the falcon warrior, but the effort made my insides burn with pain. I was out of power, and Horus’s spirit was slumbering, completely spent.
“Go!” Bast yelled. “And tell your father I kept my promise.”
“NO!”
She leaped at Sobek. The two grappled—Bast slashing furiously across his face while Sobek howled in pain. The two gods toppled into the water, and down they went.
I ran to the riverbank. The river bubbled and frothed. Then a green explosion lit the entire length of the Rio Grande, and a small black-and-gold creature shot out of the river as if it had been tossed. It landed on the grass at my feet—a wet, unconscious, half-dead cat.
“Bast?” I picked up the cat gingerly. It wore Bast’s collar, but as I watched, the talisman of the goddess crumbled to dust. It wasn’t Bast anymore. Only Muffin.
Tears stung my eyes. Sobek had been defeated, forced back to the Duat or something, but there were still two wake lines coming toward us in the river, close enough now that I could see the monsters’ green backs and beady eyes.
I cradled the cat against my chest and turned toward Khufu. “Come on, we have to—”
I froze, because standing right behind Khufu and my sister, glaring at me, was a different crocodile—one that was pure white.
We’re dead, I thought. And then, Wait...a white crocodile?
It opened its mouth and lunged—straight over me. I turned and saw it slam into the two other crocodiles—the giant green ones that had been about to kill me.
“Philip?” I said in amazement, as the crocodiles thrashed and fought.
“Yes,” said a man’s voice.
I turned again and saw the impossible. Uncle Amos was kneeling next to Sadie, frowning as he examined her head wound. He looked up at me urgently. “Philip will keep Sobek’s minions busy, but not for long. Follow me now, and we have a slim chance of surviving!”
SADIE
31. I Deliver a Love Note


I’M GLAD CARTER TOLD THAT LAST BIT—partly because I was unconscious when it happened, partly because I can’t talk about what Bast did without going to pieces.
Ah, but more on that later.
I woke feeling as if someone had overinflated my head. My eyes weren’t seeing the same things. Out my left, I saw a baboon bum, out my right, my long-lost uncle Amos. Naturally, I decided to focus on the right.
“Amos?”
He laid a cool cloth on my forehead. “Rest, child. You had quite a concussion.”
That at least I could believe.
As my eyes began to focus, I saw we were outside under a starry night sky. I was lying on a blanket on what felt like soft sand. Khufu stood next to me, his colorful side a bit too close to my face. He was stirring a pot over a small fire, and whatever he was cooking smelled like burning tar. Carter sat nearby at the top of a sand dune, looking despondent and holding...was that Muffin in his lap?
Amos appeared much as he had when we last saw him, ages ago. He wore his blue suit with matching coat and fedora. His long hair was neatly braided, and his round glasses glinted in the sun. He appeared fresh and rested—not like someone who’d been the prisoner of Set.
“How did you—”
“Get away from Set?” His expression darkened. “I was a fool to go looking for him, Sadie. I had no idea how powerful he’d become. His spirit is tied to the red pyramid.”
“So...he doesn’t have a human host?”
Amos shook his head. “He doesn’t need one as long as he has the pyramid. As it gets closer to completion, he gets stronger and stronger. I sneaked into his lair under the mountain and walked right into a trap. I’m ashamed to say he took me without a fight.”
He gestured at his suit, showing off how perfectly fine he was. “Not a scratch. Just—bam. I was frozen like a statue. Set stood me outside his pyramid like a trophy and let his demons laugh and mock me as they passed by.”
“Did you see Dad?” I asked.
His shoulders slumped. “I heard the demons talking. The coffin is inside the pyramid. They’re planning to use Osiris’s power to augment the storm. When Set unleashes it at sunrise—and it will be quite an explosion—Osiris and your father will be obliterated. Osiris will be exiled so deep into the Duat he may never rise again.”
My head began to throb. I couldn’t believe we had so little time, and if Amos couldn’t save Dad, how could Carter and I?
“But you got away,” I said, grasping for any good news. “So there must be weaknesses in his defenses or—”
“The magic that froze me eventually began to weaken. I concentrated my energy and worked my way out of the binding. It took many hours, but finally I broke free. I sneaked out at midday, when the demons were sleeping. It was much too easy.”
“It doesn’t sound easy,” I said.
Amos shook his head, obviously troubled. “Set allowed me to escape. I don’t know why, but I shouldn’t be alive. It’s a trick of some sort. I’m afraid...” Whatever he was going to say, he changed his mind. “At any rate, my first thought was to find you, so I summoned my boat.”
He gestured behind him. I managed to lift my head and saw we were in a strange desert of white dunes that stretched as far as I could see in the starlight. The sand under my fingers was so fine and white, it might’ve been sugar. Amos’s boat, the same one that had carried us from the Thames to Brooklyn, was beached at the top of a nearby dune, canted at a precarious angle as if it had been thrown there.
“There’s a supply locker aboard,” Amos offered, “if you’d like fresh clothes.”
“But where are we?”
“White Sands,” Carter told me. “In New Mexico. It’s a government range for testing missiles. Amos said no one would look for us here, so we gave you some time to heal. It’s about seven in the evening, still the twenty-eighth. Twelve hours or so until Set...you know.”
“But...” Too many questions swam round in my mind. The last thing I remembered, I’d been at the river talking to Nephthys. Her voice had seemed to come from the other side of the world. She’d spoken faintly through the current—so hard to understand, yet quite insistent. She’d told me she was sheltered far away in a sleeping host, which I couldn’t make sense of. She’d said she could not appear in person, but that she would send a message. Then the water had started to boil.
“We were attacked.” Carter stroked Muffin’s head, and I finally noticed that the amulet—Bast’s amulet—was missing. “Sadie, I’ve got some bad news.”
He told me what had happened, and I closed my eyes. I started to weep. Embarrassing, yes, but I couldn’t help it. Over the last few days, I’d lost everything—my home, my ordinary life, my father. I’d been almost killed half a dozen times. My mother’s death, which I’d never gotten over to begin with, hurt like a reopened wound. And now Bast was gone too?
When Anubis had questioned me in the Underworld, he’d wanted to know what I would sacrifice to save the world.
What haven’t I sacrificed already? I wanted to scream. What have I got left?
Carter came over and gave me Muffin, who purred in my arms, but it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t Bast.
“She’ll come back, won’t she?” I looked at Amos imploringly. “I mean she’s immortal, isn’t she?”
Amos tugged at the rim of his hat. “Sadie...I just don’t know. It seems she sacrificed herself to defeat Sobek. Bast forced him back to the Duat at the expense of her own life force. She even spared Muffin, her host, probably with the last shred of her power. If that’s true, it would be very difficult for Bast to come back. Perhaps some day, in a few hundred years—”
“No, not a few hundred years! I can’t—” My voice broke.
Carter put his hand on my shoulder, and I knew he understood. We couldn’t lose anyone else. We just couldn’t.
“Rest now,” Amos said. “We can spare another hour, but then we’ll have to get moving.”
Khufu offered me a bowl of his concoction. The chunky liquid looked like soup that had died long ago. I glanced at Amos, hoping he’d give me a pass, but he nodded encouragingly.
Just my luck, on top of everything else I had to take baboon medicine.
I sipped the brew, which tasted almost as bad as it smelled, and immediately my eyelids felt heavy. I closed my eyes and slept.


And just when I thought I had this soul-leaving-the-body business sorted, my soul decided to break the rules. Well, it is my soul after all, so I suppose that makes sense.
As my ba left my body, it kept its human form, which was better than the winged poultry look, but it kept growing and growing until I towered above White Sands. I’d been told many times that I have a lot of spirit (usually not as a compliment), but this was absurd. My ba was as tall as the Washington Monument.
To the south, past miles and miles of desert, steam rose from the Rio Grande—the battle site where Bast and Sobek had perished. Even as tall as I was, I shouldn’t have been able to see all the way to Texas, especially at night, but somehow I could. To the north, even farther away, I saw a distant red glow and I knew it was the aura of Set. His power was growing as his pyramid neared completion.
I looked down. Next to my foot was a tiny cluster of specks—our camp. Miniature Carter, Amos, and Khufu sat talking round the cooking fire. Amos’s boat was no larger than my little toe. My own sleeping form lay curled in a blanket, so small I could’ve crushed myself with one misstep.
I was enormous, and the world was small.
“That’s how gods see things,” a voice told me.
I looked around but saw nothing, just the vast expanse of rolling white dunes. Then, in front of me, the dunes shifted. I thought it was the wind, until an entire dune rolled sideways like a wave. Another moved, and another. I realized I was looking at a human form—an enormous man lying in the fetal position. He got up, shaking white sand everywhere. I knelt down and cupped my hands over my companions to keep them from getting buried. Oddly, they didn’t seem to notice, as if the disruption were no more than a sprinkle of rain.
The man rose to his full height—at least a head taller than my own giant form. His body was made of sand that curtained off his arms and chest like waterfalls of sugar. The sand shifted across his face until he formed a vague smile.
“Sadie Kane,” he said. “I have been waiting for you.”
“Geb.” Don’t ask me how, but I knew instantly that this was the god of the earth. Maybe the sand body was a giveaway. “I have something for you.”
It didn’t make sense that my ba would have the envelope, but I reached into my shimmering ghostly pocket and pulled out the note from Nut.
“Your wife misses you,” I said.
Geb took the note gingerly. He held it to his face and seemed to sniff it. Then he opened the envelope. Instead of a letter, fireworks burst out. A new constellation blazed in the night sky above us—the face of Nut, formed by a thousand stars. The wind rose quickly and ripped the image apart, but Geb sighed contentedly. He closed the envelope and tucked it inside his sandy chest as if there were a pocket right where his heart should be.
“I owe you thanks, Sadie Kane,” Geb said. “It has been many millennia since I saw the face of my beloved. Ask me a favor that the earth can grant, and it shall be yours.”
“Save my father,” I said immediately.
Geb’s face rippled with surprise. “Hmm, what a loyal daughter! Isis could learn a thing from you. Alas, I cannot. Your father’s path is twined with that of Osiris, and matters between the gods cannot be solved by the earth.”
“Then I don’t suppose you could collapse Set’s mountain and destroy his pyramid?” I asked.
Geb’s laughter was like the world’s largest sand shaker. “I cannot intervene so directly between my children. Set is my son too.”
I almost stamped my foot in frustration. Then I remembered I was giant and might smash the whole camp. Could a ba do that? Better not to find out. “Well, your favors aren’t very useful, then.”
Geb shrugged, sloughing off a few tons of sand from his shoulders. “Perhaps some advice to help you achieve what you desire. Go to the place of the crosses.”
“And where is that?”
“Close,” he promised. “And, Sadie Kane, you are right. You have lost too much. Your family has suffered. I know what that is like. Just remember, a parent would do anything to save his children. I gave up my happiness, my wife—I took on the curse of Ra so that my children could be born.” He looked up at the sky wistfully. “And while I miss my beloved more each millennium, I know neither of us would change our choice. I have five children whom I love.”
“Even Set?” I asked incredulously. “He’s about to destroy millions of people.”
“Set is more than he appears,” Geb said. “He is our flesh and blood.”
“Not mine.”
“No?” Geb shifted, lowering himself. I thought he was crouching, until I realized he was melting into the dunes. “Think on it, Sadie Kane, and proceed with care. Danger awaits you at the place of crosses, but you will also find what you need most.”
“Could you be a little more vague?” I grumbled.
But Geb was gone, leaving only a taller than normal dune in the sands; and my ba sank back into my body.
SADIE
32. The Place of Crosses


I WOKE WITH MUFFIN SNUGGLED on my head, purring and chewing my hair. For a moment, I thought I was home. I used to wake with Muffin on my head all the time. Then I remembered I had no home, and Bast was gone. My eyes started tearing up again.
No, Isis’s voice chided. We must stay focused.
For once, the goddess was right. I sat up and brushed the white sand off my face. Muffin meowed in protest, then waddled two steps and decided she could settle for my warm place on the blanket.
“Good, you’re up,” Amos said. “We were about to wake you.”
It was still dark. Carter stood on the deck of the boat, pulling on a new linen coat from Amos’s supply locker. Khufu loped over to me and made a purring sound at the cat. To my surprise, Muffin leaped into his arms.
“I’ve asked Khufu to take the cat back to Brooklyn,” Amos said. “This is no place for her.”
Khufu grunted, clearly unhappy with his assignment.
“I know, my old friend,” Amos said. His voice had a hard edge; he seemed to be asserting himself as the alpha baboon. “It is for the best.”
“Agh,” Khufu said, not meeting Amos’s eyes.
Unease crept over me. I remembered what Amos said: that his release might have been a trick of Set’s. And Carter’s vision: Set was hoping that Amos would lead us to the mountain so we could be captured. What if Set was influencing Amos somehow? I didn’t like the idea of sending Khufu away.
On the other hand, I didn’t see much choice but to accept Amos’s help. And seeing Khufu there, holding Muffin, I couldn’t bear the idea of putting either of them in danger. Maybe Amos had a point.
“Can he travel safely?” I asked. “Out here all by himself?”
“Oh, yes,” Amos promised. “Khufu—and all baboons—have their own brand of magic. He’ll be fine. And just in case...”
He brought out a wax figurine of a crocodile. “This will help if the need arises.”
I coughed. “A crocodile? After what we just—”
“It’s Philip of Macedonia,” Amos explained.
“Philip is wax?”
“Of course,” Amos said. “Real crocodiles are much too difficult to keep. And I did tell you he’s magic.”
Amos tossed the figurine to Khufu, who sniffed it, then stuffed it into a pouch with his cooking supplies. Khufu gave me one last nervous look, glanced fearfully at Amos, then ambled over the dune with his bag in one arm and Muffin in the other.
I didn’t see how they would survive out here, magic or no. I waited for Khufu to appear on the crest of the next dune, but he never did. He simply vanished.
“Now, then,” Amos said. “From what Carter has told me, Set means to unleash his destruction tomorrow at sunrise. That gives us very little time. What Carter would not explain is how you plan to destroy Set.”
I glanced at Carter and saw warning in his eyes. I understood immediately, and felt a flush of gratitude. Perhaps the boy wasn’t completely thick. He shared my concerns about Amos.
“It’s best we keep that to ourselves,” I told Amos flatly. “You said so yourself. What if Set attached a magic listening device to you or something?”
Amos’s jaw tightened. “You’re right,” he said grudgingly. “I can’t trust myself. It’s just...so frustrating.”
He sounded truly anguished, which made me feel guilty. I was tempted to change my mind and tell him our plan, but one look at Carter and I kept my resolve.
“We should head to Phoenix,” I said. “Perhaps along the way...”
I slipped my hand into my pocket. Nut’s letter was gone. I wanted to tell Carter about my talk with the earth god, Geb, but I didn’t know if it was safe in front of Amos. Carter and I had been a team for so many days now, I realized that I resented Amos’s presence a little. I didn’t want to confide in anyone else. God, I can’t believe I just said that.
Carter spoke up. “We should stop in Las Cruces.”
I’m not sure who was more surprised: Amos or me.
“That’s near here,” Amos said slowly. “But...” He picked up a handful of sand, murmured a spell, and threw the sand into the air. Instead of scattering, the grains floated and formed a wavering arrow, pointing southwest toward a line of rugged mountains that made a dark silhouette against the horizon.
“As I thought,” Amos said, and the sand fell to the earth. “Las Cruces is out of our way by forty miles—over those mountains. Phoenix is northwest.”
“Forty miles isn’t so bad,” I said. “Las Cruces...” The name seemed strangely familiar to me, but I couldn’t decide why. “Carter, why there?”
“I just...” He looked so uncomfortable I knew it must have something to do with Zia. “I had a vision.”
“A vision of loveliness?” I ventured.
He looked like he was trying to swallow a golf ball, which confirmed my suspicions. “I just think we should go there,” he said. “We might find something important.”
“Too risky,” Amos said. “I can’t allow it with the House of Life on your trail. We should stay in the wilderness, away from cities.”
Then suddenly: click. My brain had one of those amazing moments when it actually works correctly.
“No, Carter’s right,” I said. “We have to go there.”
It was my brother’s turn to look surprised. “I am? We do?”
“Yes.” I took the plunge and told them about my talk with Geb.
Amos brushed some sand off his jacket. “That’s interesting, Sadie. But I don’t see how Las Cruces comes into play.”
“Because it’s Spanish, isn’t it?” I said. “Las Cruces. The crosses. Just as Geb told me.”
Amos hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. “Get in the boat.”
“A bit short on water for a boat ride, aren’t we?” I asked.
But I followed him on board. Amos took off his coat and uttered a magic word. Instantly, the coat came to life, drifted to the stern and grasped the tiller.
Amos smiled at me, and some of that old twinkle came back into his eyes. “Who needs water?”
The boat shuddered and lifted into the sky.


If Amos ever got tired of being a magician, he could’ve gotten a job as a sky boat tour operator. The vista coming over the mountains was quite stunning.
At first, the desert had seemed barren and ugly to me compared to the lush greens of England, but I was starting to appreciate that the desert had its own stark beauty, especially at night. The mountains rose like dark islands in a sea of lights. I’d never seen so many stars above us, and the dry wind smelled of sage and pine. Las Cruces spread out in the valley below—a glowing patchwork of streets and neighborhoods.
As we got closer, I saw that most of the town was nothing very remarkable. It might’ve been Manchester or Swindon or any place, really, but Amos aimed our ship toward the south of the city, to an area that was obviously much older—with adobe buildings and tree-lined streets.
As we descended, I began to get nervous.
“Won’t they notice us in a flying boat?” I asked. “I mean, I know magic is hard to see, but—”
“This is New Mexico,” Amos said. “They see UFOs here all the time.”
And with that, we landed on the roof of a small church.
It was like dropping back in time, or onto a Wild West film set. The town square was lined with stucco buildings like an Indian pueblo. The streets were brightly lit and crowded—it looked like a festival—with stall vendors selling strings of red peppers, Indian blankets, and other curios. An old stagecoach was parked next to a clump of cacti. In the plaza’s bandstand, men with large guitars and loud voices played mariachi music.
“This is the historic area,” Amos said. “I believe they call it Mesilla.”
“Have a lot of Egyptian stuff here, do they?” I asked dubiously.
“Oh, the ancient cultures of Mexico have a lot in common with Egypt,” Amos said, retrieving his coat from the tiller. “But that’s a talk for another day.”
“Thank god,” I muttered. Then I sniffed the air and smelled something strange but wonderful—like baking bread and melting butter, only spicer, yummier. “I—am—starving.”
It didn’t take long, walking the plaza, to discover handmade tortillas. God, they were good. I suppose London has Mexican restaurants. We’ve got everything else. But I’d never been to one, and I doubt the tortillas would’ve tasted this heavenly. A large woman in a white dress rolled out balls of dough in her flour-caked hands, flattened and baked the tortillas on a hot skillet, and handed them to us on paper napkins. They didn’t need butter or jam or anything. They were so delicate, they just melted in my mouth. I made Amos pay for about a dozen, just for me.
Carter was enjoying himself too until he tried the red-chili tamales at another booth. I thought his face would explode. “Hot!” he announced. “Drink!”
“Eat more tortilla,” Amos advised, trying not to laugh. “Bread cuts the heat better than water.”
I tried the tamales myself and found they were excellent, not nearly as hot as a good curry, so Carter was just being a wimp, as usual.
Soon we’d eaten our fill and began wandering the streets, looking for...well, I wasn’t sure, exactly. Time was a-wasting. The sun was going down, and I knew this would be the last night for all of us unless we stopped Set, but I had no idea why Geb had sent me here. You will also find what you need most. What did that mean?
I scanned the crowds and caught a glimpse of a tall young guy with dark hair. A thrill went up my spine—Anubis? What if he was following me, making sure I was safe? What if he was what I needed most?
Wonderful thought, except it wasn’t Anubis. I scolded myself for thinking I could have luck that good. Besides, Carter had seen Anubis as a jackal-headed monster. Perhaps Anubis’s appearance with me was just a trick to befuddle my brain—a trick that worked quite well.
I was daydreaming about that, and about whether or not they had tortillas in the Land of the Dead, when I locked eyes with a girl across the plaza.
“Carter.” I grabbed his arm and nodded in the direction of Zia Rashid. “Someone’s here to see you.”
Zia was ready for battle in her loose black linen clothes, staff and wand in hand. Her dark choppy hair was blown to one side like she’d flown here on a strong wind. Her amber eyes looked about as friendly as a jaguar’s.
Behind her was a vendor’s table full of tourist souvenirs, and a poster that read: new mexico: land of enchantment. I doubted the vendor knew just how much enchantment was standing right in front of his merchandise.
“You came,” Zia said, which seemed a bit on the obvious side. Was it my imagination, or was she looking at Amos with apprehension—even fear?
“Yeah,” Carter said nervously. “You, uh, remember Sadie. And this is—”
“Amos,” Zia said uneasily.
Amos bowed. “Zia Rashid, it’s been several years. I see Iskandar sent his best.”
Zia looked as if he’d smacked her in the face, and I realized Amos hadn’t heard the news.
“Um, Amos,” I said. “Iskandar is dead.”
He stared at us in disbelief as we told him the story.
“I see,” he said at last. “Then the new Chief Lector is—”
“Desjardins,” I said.
“Ah. Bad news.”
Zia frowned. Instead of addressing Amos, she turned to me. “Do not dismiss Desjardins. He’s very powerful. You’ll need his help—our help—to challenge Set.”
“Has it ever occurred to you,” I said, “that Desjardins might be helping Set?”
Zia glared at me. “Never. Others might. But not Desjardins.”
Clearly she meant Amos. I suppose that should’ve made me even more suspicious of him, but instead I got angry.
“You’re blind,” I told Zia. “Desjardins’ first order as Chief Lector was to have us killed. He’s trying to stop us, even though he knows Set is about to destroy the continent. And Desjardins was there that night at the British Museum. If Set needed a body—”
The top of Zia’s staff burst into flame.
Carter quickly moved between us. “Whoa, both of you just calm down. We’re here to talk.”
“I am talking,” Zia said. “You need the House of Life on your side. You have to convince Desjardins you’re not a threat.”
“By surrendering?” I asked. “No, thank you. I’d rather not be turned into a bug and squashed.”
Amos cleared his throat. “I’m afraid Sadie is right. Unless Desjardins has changed since I last saw him, he is not a man who will listen to reason.”
Zia fumed. “Carter, could we speak in private?”
He shifted from foot to foot. “Look, Zia, I—I agree we need to work together. But if you’re going to try to convince me to surrender to the House—”
“There’s something I must tell you,” she insisted. “Something you need to know.”
The way she said that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Could this be what Geb meant? Was it possible that Zia held the key to defeating Set?
Suddenly Amos tensed. He pulled his staff out of thin air and said, “It’s a trap.”
Zia looked stunned. “What? No!”
Then we all saw what Amos had sensed. Marching towards us from the east end of the plaza was Desjardins himself. He wore cream-colored robes with the Chief Lector’s leopard-skin cape tied across his shoulders. His staff glowed purple. Tourists and pedestrians veered out of his way, confused and nervous, as if they weren’t sure what was going on but they knew enough to clear off.
“Other way,” I urged.
I turned and saw two more magicians in black robes marching in from the west.
I pulled my wand and pointed it at Zia. “You set us up!”
“No! I swear—” Her face fell. “Mel. Mel must’ve told him.”
“Right,” I grumbled. “Blame Mel.”
“No time for explanations,” Amos said, and he blasted Zia with a bolt of lightning. She crashed into the souvenir table.
“Hey!” Carter protested.
“She’s the enemy,” Amos said. “And we have enough enemies.”
Carter rushed to Zia’s side (naturally) while more pedestrians panicked and scattered for the edges of the square.
“Sadie, Carter,” Amos said, “if things go bad, get to the boat and flee.”
“Amos, we’re not leaving you,” I said.
“You’re more important,” he insisted. “I can hold off Desjardins for— Look out!”
Amos spun his staff towards the two magicians in black. They’d been muttering spells, but Amos’s gust of wind swept them off their feet, sending them swirling out of control at the center of a dust devil. They churned along the street, picking up trash, leaves, and tamales, until the miniature tornado tossed the screaming magicians over the top of a building and out of sight.
On the other side of the plaza, Desjardins roared in anger: “Kane!”
The Chief Lector slammed his staff into the ground. A crack opened in the pavement and began snaking towards us. As the crevice grew wider, the buildings trembled. Stucco flaked off the walls. The fissure would’ve swallowed us, but Isis’s voice spoke in my mind, telling me the word I needed.
I raised my wand. “Quiet. Hah-ri.”
Hieroglyphs blazed to life in front of us:


The fissure stopped just short of my feet. The earthquake died.
Amos sucked in a breath. “Sadie, how did you—”
“Divine Words, Kane!” Desjardins stepped forward, his face livid. “The child dares speak the Divine Words. She is corrupted by Isis, and you are guilty of assisting the gods.”
“Step off, Michel,” Amos warned.
Part of me found it amusing that Desjardins’ first name was Michel, but I was too scared to enjoy the moment.
Amos held out his wand, ready to defend us. “We must stop Set. If you’re wise—”
“I would what?” Desjardins said. “Join you? Collaborate? The gods bring nothing but destruction.”
“No!” Zia’s voice. With Carter’s help, she’d somehow managed to struggle to her feet. “Master, we can’t fight each other. That’s not what Iskandar wanted.”
“Iskandar is dead!” Desjardins bellowed. “Now, step away from them, Zia, or be destroyed with them.”
Zia looked at Carter. Then she set her jaw and faced Desjardins. “No. We must work together.”
I regarded Zia with a new respect. “You really didn’t lead him here?”
“I do not lie,” she said.
Desjardins raised his staff, and huge cracks appeared in the buildings all around him. Chunks of cement and adobe brick flew at us, but Amos summoned the wind and deflected them.
“Children, get out of here!” Amos yelled. “The other magicians won’t stay gone forever.”
“For once, he’s right,” Zia warned. “But we can’t make a portal—”
“We’ve got a flying boat,” Carter offered.
Zia nodded appreciatively. “Where?”
We pointed towards the church, but unfortunately Desjardins was between it and us.
Desjardins hurled another volley of stones. Amos deflected them with wind and lightning.
“Storm magic!” Desjardins sneered. “Since when is Amos Kane an expert in the powers of chaos? Do you see this, children? How can he be your protector?”
“Shut up,” Amos growled, and with a sweep of his staff he raised a sandstorm so huge that it blanketed the entire square.
“Now,” Zia said. We made a wide arc around Desjardins, then ran blindly towards the church. The sandstorm bit my skin and stung my eyes, but we found the stairs and climbed to the roof. The wind subsided, and across the plaza I could see Desjardins and Amos still facing each other, encased in shields of force. Amos was staggering; the effort was clearly taking too much out of him.
“I have to help,” Zia said reluctantly, “or Desjardins will kill Amos.”
“I thought you didn’t trust Amos,” Carter said.
“I don’t,” she agreed. “But if Desjardins wins this duel, we’re all dead. We’ll never escape.” She clenched her teeth as if she were preparing for something really painful.
She held out her staff and murmured an incantation. The air became warm. The staffed glowed. She released it and it burst into flame, growing into a column of fire a full meter thick and four meters tall.
“Hunt Desjardins,” she intoned.
Immediately, the fiery column floated off the roof and began moving slowly but deliberately towards the Chief Lector.
Zia crumpled. Carter and I had to grab her arms to keep her from falling on her face.
Desjardins looked up. When he saw the fire, his eyes widened with fear. “Zia!” he cursed. “You dare attack me?”
The column descended, passing through the branches of a tree and burning a hole straight through them. It landed in the street, hovering just a few centimeters above the pavement. The heat was so intense that it scorched the concrete curb and melted the tarmac. The fire came to a parked car, and instead of going round, it burned its way straight through the metal chassis, sawing the car in two.
“Good!” Amos yelled from the street. “Well done, Zia!”
In desperation, Desjardins staggered to his left. The column adjusted course. He blasted it with water, but the liquid evaporated into steam. He summoned boulders, but they just passed through the fire and dropped into melted, smoking lumps on the opposite side.
“What is that thing?” I asked.
Zia was unconscious, and Carter shook his head in wonder. But Isis spoke in my mind. A pillar of fire, she said with admiration. It is the most powerful spell a master of fire can summon. It is impossible to defeat, impossible to escape. It can be used to lead the summoner toward a goal. Or it can be used to pursue any enemy, forcing him to run. If Desjardins tries to focus on anything else, it will overtake him and consume him. It will not leave him alone until it dissipates.
How long? I asked.
Depends on the strength of the caster. Between six and twelve hours.
I laughed aloud. Brilliant! Of course Zia had passed out creating it, but it was still brilliant.
Such a spell has depleted her energy, Isis said. She will not be able to work any magic until the pillar is gone. In order to help you, she has left herself completely powerless.
“She’ll be all right,” I told Carter. Then I shouted down to the plaza: “Amos, come on! We’ve got to go!”
Desjardins kept backing up. I could tell he was scared of the fire, but he wasn’t quite done with us. “You will be sorry for this! You wish to play gods? Then you leave me no choice.” Out of the Duat, he pulled a cluster of sticks. No, they were arrows—about seven of them.
Amos looked at the arrows in horror. “You wouldn’t! No Chief Lector would ever—”
“I summon Sekhmet!” Desjardins bellowed. He threw the arrows into the air and they began to twirl, orbiting Amos.
Desjardins allowed himself a satisfied smile. He looked straight at me. “You choose to place your faith in the gods?” he called. “Then die by the hands of a god.”
He turned and ran. The pillar of fire picked up speed and followed.
“Children, get out of here!” Amos yelled, encircled by the arrows. “I’ll try to distract her!”
“Who?” I demanded. I knew I’d heard the name Sekhmet before, but I’d heard a lot of Egyptian names. “Which one is Sekhmet?”
Carter turned to me, and even with all we’d been through over the last week, I had never seen him look so scared. “We need to leave,” he said. “Now.”