Isis

For the past half an hour, I've been trying my best to help Sadie. Really. But it feels simply impossible. Carter's idea about concentrating on her human life might have worked, if she wasn't constantly getting distracted. Her thoughts stumbled upon everything – memories, people, faces. It all merges together at this point. It's getting hard even for me to be present.

"C'mon child," I try again. "There has to be something, anything, powerful enough to bring you back."

Once again, it's like reaching a death end. Finally, I try a different tactic.

"What do you dream of?"

Finally, images start popping up in her head, forming a cohesive scene. I recognize London. Maybe it's something about her mates?

No, it isn't. The face smiling at us from the image is of my late host. It's not one of Sadie's memories. In fact, it's never happened. In this scene, Ruby is alive. Her and Sadie are walking down Oxford Street together, gazing in the shop windows and talking and laughing.

Sadie's body begins to shift until a 12 years old girl is sitting where the kite was moments before. And she's crying. Bast looks up at her with so much care, almost like a mother would look at her child. Almost. But not quite.

"Welcome back, kitten."

Sadie smiles, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Yeah, she thinks. It's good to be me again.

About an hour later, Carter wakes up with such a start that he bangs his knees against the drinks try. Sadie stifles a laugh.

"Sleep well?" she asks.

Carter blinks at her in confusion. "You're human."

"How kind of you to notice."

She takes another bite of her pizza. With the pizza and the cola, she's really been enjoying first class. Me too, if I'm being honest. Finally something worthy of a goddess.

"I changed back an hour ago." Sadie clears her throat. "It—ah—was helpful, what you said, about focusing on what's important."

She doesn't say anything else, but he looks at her as if he's read her mind.

She takes a sip of Coke. "You missed lunch, by the way."

"You didn't try to wake me?"

On the other side of the aisle, Bast burps. She's just finished off her plate of salmon and is looking quite satisfied. "I could summon more Friskies," she offers. "Or cheese sandwiches."

"God, Carter," Sadie says. "If it's that important to you, I've got some pizza left—"

"It's not that," he says and tells us how his ba had almost been captured by Set.

It's hard to breath. That's not good. That's not good at all. Sadie's though scatter around in panic, as if we're stuck as a kite again.

Dad trapped in a red pyramid? Poor Amos used as some sort of pawn?

Sadie looks at Bast for some kind of reassurance. "Isn't there anything we can do?"

Bast's expression is grim. "Sadie, I don't know. Set will be most powerful on his birthday, and sunrise is the most auspicious moment for magic. If he's able to generate one great explosion of storm energy at sunrise on that day—using not only his own magic, but augmenting it with the power of other gods he's managed to enslave...the amount of chaos he could unleash is almost unimaginable." She shudders. "Carter, you say a simple demon gave him this idea?"

"Sounded like it," Carter says. "Or he tweaked the original plan, anyway."

Bast shakes her head. "This is not like Set."

Sadie coughs. "What do you mean? It's exactly like him."

Yeah, what do you mean? My evil brother's never cared much about the consequences, as long as he gets what he desires.

"No," Bast insists. "This is horrendous, even for him. Set wishes to be king, but such an explosion might leave him nothing to rule. It's almost as if..." She stops herself, the thought seemingly too disturbing. This doesn't make me feel better. "I don't understand it, but we'll be landing soon. You'll have to ask Thoth."

"You make it sound like you're not coming," Sadie notes.

"Thoth and I don't get along very well. Your chances of surviving might be better—"

The seat belt light comes on. The captain announces we've started our descent into Memphis. Sadie peers out the window. A vast brown river cuts across the landscape. It reminds me uncomfortably of a giant snake.

The flight attendant came by and pointed to Sadie's lunch plate. "Finished, dear?"

"It seems so," Sadie tells her gloomily.

Memphis hasn't gotten word that it is winter. The trees are green and the sky is a brilliant blue.

Sadie and Carter insist on Bast not borrowing a car this time. I'm sure we would have found a way to return it. Anyway, the cat goddess agrees to rent one as long as it's a convertible. Soon we are cruising through the mostly deserted streets of Memphis with our BMW's top down.

The whole trip, Sadie stares at the road, bored out of her mind. We pass through a neighborhood with big white mansions on enormous lawns shaded by cypress trees. I haven't lived in a mortal mansion since the 40's. It's an impressive view, though the plastic Santa Claus displays on the rooftops rather ruin the effect. On the next block, we almost get killed by an elderly woman driving a Cadillac out of a church parking lot. Bast swerves and honks her horn, and the woman just smiles and waves.

Southern hospitality, I suppose?

After a few more blocks, the houses turn to rundown shacks. We spot two African American boys wearing jeans and muscle shirts, sitting on their front porch, strumming acoustic guitars. They sound so good, Sadie almost asks Bast to stop for a minute.

On the next corner stands a cinder block restaurant. The hand-painted sign on it reads chicken & waffles. There is a queue of twenty people outside.

"You Americans have the strangest taste. What planet is this?" Sadie asks.

Carter shakes his head. "And where would Thoth be?"

Bast sniffs the air and turns left onto a street called Poplar. "We're getting close. If I know Thoth, he'll find a center of learning. A library, perhaps, or a cache of books in a magician's tomb."

"Don't have a lot of those in Tennessee," Carter guesses.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sadie spots a sign and grins broadly. "The University of Memphis, perhaps?"

"Well done, Sadie!" Bast purrs.

Carter scowls at his sister.

The poor boy gets jealous, you know.

A few minutes later, we are strolling through the campus of a small college through red brick buildings and wide courtyards. It's eerily quiet, except for the sound of a ball echoing on concrete.

As soon as Carter hears it, he perks up. "Basketball."

"Oh, please," Sadie says. "We need to find Thoth."

Ignoring her, Carter follows the sound of the ball and we have no choice but to follow him.

Sadie shakes her head. Then we turn the corner and she yelps. On the basketball court, five players are in the middle of an intense game. The wear an assortment of jerseys from different American teams, and they all seem determined to win. Oh, and they're all baboons.

"The sacred animal of Thoth," Bast says. "We must be in the right place."

One of the baboons stands out in Sadie's mind. He has lustrous golden hair much lighter than the others and wears a purple jersey that seems oddly familiar.

"Is that...a Lakers jersey?" Sadie asks, hesitant to even name Carter's silly obsession.

He nods, and they both grin.

"Khufu!" they yell.

Khufu jumps in Sadie's arms and barks at her. "Agh! Agh!" He picks through her hair and drops to the ground, slapping the pavement to show how pleased he is.

Bast laughs. "He says you smell like flamingos."

"You speak Baboon?" Carter asks.

The goddess shrugs. "He also wants to know where you've been."

"Where we've been?" Sadie says. "Well, first off, tell him I've spent the better part of the day as a kite, which is not a flamingo and does not end in -o, so it shouldn't be on his diet. Secondly—"

"Hold on." Bast turns to Khufu and says, "Agh!" Then she looks back at Sadie. "All right, go ahead."

Sadie blinks. "Okay...um, and secondly, where has he been?"

Bast relays that with a single grunt.

Khufu snorts and grabs the basketball, which sends his baboon friends into a frenzy of barking and scratching and snarling.

"He dove into the river and swam back," Bast translates, "but when he returned, the house was destroyed and we were gone. He waited a day for Amos to return, but he never did. So Khufu made his way to Thoth. Baboons are under his protection, after all."

"Why is that?" Carter asks. "I mean, no offense, but Thoth is the god of knowledge, right?"

"Baboons are very wise animals," Bast says.

"Agh!" Khufu picks his nose, then turns his Technicolor bum our direction. He throws his friends the ball. They begin to fight over it, showing one another their fangs and slapping their heads.

"Wise?" Sadie asks.

"Well, they're not cats, mind you," Bast adds. "But, yes, wise. Khufu says that as soon as Carter keeps his promise, he'll take you to the professor."

Sadie blinks. "The prof— Oh, you mean...right."

"What promise?" Carter asks.

The corner of Bast's mouth twitches. "Apparently, you promised to show him your basketball skills."

Carter's eyes widen in alarm. "We don't have time!"

"Oh, it's fine," Bast promises. "It's best that I go now."

"But where, Bast?" Sadie asks. "How will we find you?"

The look in her eyes changes to something like guilt, as if she's just caused a horrible accident. "I'll find you when you get out, if you get out..."

"What do you mean if?" Carter asks, but Bast has already turned into Muffin and raced off.

Khufu barks at Carter most insistently. He tugs his hand, pulling him onto the court. The baboons immediately brake into two teams. Half take off their jerseys. Half leave them on. Carter is on the no-jersey team, and Khufu helps him pull his shirt off, exposing his bony chest. The game begins.

Now, I know nothing about basketball and Sadie is of no help, as she is even more clueless than me. But I'm fairly sure one isn't supposed to trip over one's shoes, or catch a pass with one's forehead, or dribble (is that the word?) with both hands as if petting a possibly rabid dog. But that is exactly the way Carter plays. The baboons simply run him over, quite literally. They score basket after basket as Carter staggers back and forth, getting hit with the ball whenever it comes close to him and tripping over monkey limbs until he is so dizzy, he turns in a circle and falls over. The baboons stop playing and watch him in disbelief. Carter lays in the middle of the court, covered in sweat and panting. The other baboons look at Khufu. It's quite obvious what they're thinking: Who invited this human? Khufu covers his eyes in shame.

"Carter," Sadie says with glee, "all that talk about basketball and the Lakers, and you're absolute rubbish! Beaten by monkeys!"

He groans miserably. "It was...it was Dad's favorite game."

Oh. Oh, gods. Sadie stares at him.

Dad's favorite game. God, why didn't that occur to me?

Apparently Carter takes Sadie's stare as further criticism.

"I...I can tell you any NBA stat you want," he says a bit desperately. "Rebounds, assists, free throw percentages."

The baboons are back to their game, ignoring Carter and Khufu both. Khufu lets out a disgusted noise, half gag and half bark.

Sadie steps forward and offers Carter a hand. "Come on, then. It doesn't matter."

"If I had better shoes," he suggests. "Or if I wasn't so tired—"

"Carter," Sadie says with a smirk. "It doesn't matter. And I'll not breathe a word to Dad when we save him."

Carter looks at her gratefully.

Well, I am rather wonderful, after all.

Then he takes her hand and Sadie hoists him up.

"Now for god's sake, put on your shirt," Sadie says. "And Khufu, it's time you took us to the professor."

Khufu leads us into a deserted science building. The air in the hallways smells of vinegar. We climb the stairs and find a row of professors' offices. Most of the doors are closed. One has been left open, revealing a space no bigger than a broom closet stuffed with books, a tiny desk, and one chair.

"Agh!" Khufu stops in front of a polished mahogany door, much nicer than the others. A newly stenciled name glistens on the glass: Dr. Thoth.