In which even someone used to mummies would be a lil freaked out at being attacked by them, and also- Walt is very suspicious by the end of this chapter. Shame he's not getting answers quite yet.
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Guest: I mean, I can imagine this Percy just like, using magic to shut Octavian up and being like 'Now, let me do a presentation on why Egypt was a billion times better than little baby Rome, starting with how long they lasted and the fact that you assholes are the ones who ruined it all'
Guest: Because emotions are hard! And Sadie is a do first kinda girl.

It was a slow careful process- using sympathetic magic to break down the rubble blocking the doorway, Sadie refused to let Walt use magic- which Percy totally got, though she mimed throwing up when Sadie and Walt did that annoying thing people who liked each other did when they bickered with all googly eyes for one another.

In any case Percy was very pleased by the time they were done moving the little pebbles on the makeshift mini doorway, though Sadie looked tired- which made sense she'd been the one to cast the spell connecting the mini door to the real one.

Of course she did glare at Sadie and Walt when Walt gently pulled Sadie's attention away from the job, telling her that it was done- and she pulled a face, mostly because Walt leaned in closer to Sadie, his lips brushing against her sisters softly.

"Ewwww." Percy poked her tongue out as Walt laughed at her reaction, and Sadie blinked slowly, looking like she was in a daze.

"Um..."

"Ugh." Percy rolled her eyes, "You're hopeless." she rose to her feet in a huff as Walt helped Sadie up, and together the trip headed down the corridor into the next room- which in Percy's opinion looked very boring- mostly anyway. It was just a five-meter-square chamber with nothing inside except a red lacquered box on a sandstone pedestal. On top of the box was a carved wooden handle shaped like a demonic greyhound with tall ears—the Set animal.

Percy blinked as she stared at it. "Well that brings back memories." she mumbled the words.

"Oh that can't be good." Walt's voice was worried- and it was almost comical how his eyes widened when Sadie walked straight up to the box, opened the lid and grabbed a scroll out from inside of it. "Sadie!" his voice was panicked, and Percy forced back a giggle.

"What?" Sadie turned to look at them, "It's Set's box. If he wanted to kill me or Percy he could have done it in St Petersburg. He wants us to have the scroll. He probably thinks it'll be fun watching me kill myself trying to awaken Ra." she looked up at the ceiling and shouted, "Isn't that right Set?" which made Percy giggle. That was probably what she'd do too honestly.

And the air almost seemed to turn sharper- the ground trembled as if something underneath it, something very large was laughing.

Walt exhaled. "I wish you wouldn't take chances like that."

"This from a boy who's willing to die to spend time with me?"

Walt made an exaggerated bow. "I take it back, Miss Kane. Please, go right ahead trying to kill yourself."

"Thank you."

"Ugghhhh." Percy groaned loudly, "Get a room you losers."

"Why do I love you again?" Sadie shot Percy a dirty look before shaking her head and looking down at the scrolls in her hands, "We're nearly there. We have the scrolls."

"Now we just gotta wake up Ra." Percy declared brightly, a wide smile on her lips.

"Yep." Sadie let out a breath, "There's no time to waste then. Let's get out of-"

Sadie's mouth snapped shut as a deep moaning echoed through the corridors as if something, or a whole host of somethings had woken up in a very bad mood.

"Out of here." Walt finished, "Great idea." he grabbed Percy's arm, and a moment later they were running, sprinting through the previous chamber, Sadie managing to catch Percy's free hand as they fled.

The problem was it wasn't easy to remember their path- the corridors all looked very similar in the darkness, and they had to double back twice when they went up the wrong ones before they finally managed to find the room with the family of mummies where they had met Mad Claude.

Percy and Sadie would have probably gotten themselves hurt if it wasn't for Walt.

His grip on Percy's arm stopped her from sprinting across the chamber- and her own grip on Sadie's hand stopped the other girl from bolting across the chamber to the last tunnel.

And when Walt shone his flashlight around the chamber Sadie's voice was pitched low in terror. "No... no no no."

All three doorways were clogged with human figures wrapped in linen. They pressed together as far as Percy could see down each corridor. Some were still completely bound. They hopped and shuffled and waddled forward as if they were giant cocoons engaged in a sack race. Other mummies had partially broken free. They limped along on emaciated legs, hands like dried branches clawing at their wrappings. Most still wore their painted-face portraits, and the effect was gruesome—lifelike masks smiling serenely at the top of undead scarecrows of bones and painted linen.

"I hate mummies." Sadie whimpered. "Maybe a fire spell," Walt said. "They've got to burn easily."

"We'll burn ourselves, too! It's too close in here."

"You have a better idea?"

And Percy quickly summoned her khopesh, her face pale, "We go out fighting." she was proud that her voice didn't wobble at all- it was kind of terrifying if she was being totally honest.

Then Sadie let out a scream and Percy looked down- one of the mummies on the floor had grabbed her leg, and Percy kicked out hard, knocking the hand away from her sister as she snarled, slashing downwards with her khopesh- only for one of the mummies hands to shoot up, grabbing at her wrist tightly. And Percy let out a shriek as she was yanked forward- and Walt released her arm, only to reach down and tap the had gripping Percy's wrist, and it instantly turned to dust and Percy stumbled backwards unto Sadies arms.

"Is that the power you were worried about?" Sadie breathed out, "That was brilliant- do it again!" except- Walt's face was tight with pain and he shook his head.

"I- I can't do it, not enough to get us out of here. Maybe if-"

Then, on the central dais, the mummy family began to stir.

Little Purpens sat up- and Percy gripped her khopesh tight enough that her knuckles were white. Gods but that was wrong, that was so so wrong.

And then at the far end of the room the ghost of Mad Claude flickered into view. As he walked toward them, the rest of the mummies began to stir.

"You should be honored, my friends." He gave them a crazy grin. "It takes a lot of excitement for ba to return to their withered old bodies. But we simply can't let you leave until you've freed us for the afterlife. Use the knife, do your spells, and you can go."

"We can't free you all!" Sadie shouted the words.

"A shame," Claude said. "Then we'll take the knife and free ourselves. I suppose two more bodies in the catacombs won't make any difference."

He said something in Latin, and all the mummies surged toward them, shuffling and tripping, falling and rolling. Some crumbled to pieces as they tried to walk. Others fell down and were trampled by their fellows. But more came forward.

Percy was hauled backwards by Sadie and Walt. Which to be fair- even she couldn't take on that many mummies- though she'd be willing to give it a try if she got the chance.

Then Sadie set the end of her staff ablaze."

"We'll try it your way. Light them up and run-"

"Awe." Percy pulled a face, "You know I can't do fire-"

"No, but you can do water, which we might need if this goes wrong."

"I hate it when you're right." Percy grumbled the words as Walt lit his staff too.

"On three." Sadie's voice trembled- and Percy couldn't blame her- the sight of the childs mummy coming towards them, the painted portrait of the child smiling at them- it was creepy, to say the least. "One- two-" but Sadie faltered when Percy grabbed at her arm- and Percy was tilting her head, listening carefully.

She could hear something- a skittering noise, a mass of living things charging towards them that was almost as creepy as the mummies- Percy saw Sadie's brows furrowing in confusion as Walt's panicked voice piped up, "Three comes next. Are we torching them or not?"

"Hug the walls!" Sadie yelled the words, and Percy found herself being slammed into the wall by Sadie- and Percy almost dropped her khopesh- though she was painfully glad that she didn't as a wave of claws and fur slammed into them and rolled over their backs- and Percy screamed- it was an army of rodents, scuttling five deep along the floor and racing horizontally across the walls, defying gravity.

And okay, okay Percy knew that maybe screaming was too much but- it was rats, they were gross- and sure they didn't exactly cause much damage- except maybe the tiny scratches from some claws, and sure the mummies were probably worse but- rats! Percy was pretty sure she'd never get over this, and she watched as they flooded the burial chamber. They tore into the mummies, clawing and chewing and squealing their tiny battle cries. The mummies writhed under the assault, but they didn't stand a chance. The room was a hurricane of fur, teeth, and shredded linen. It was like the old cartoons of termites swarming over wood and dissolving it to nothing.

"No!" yelled Mad Claude. "No!"

But he was the only one screaming. The mummies withered silently under the fury of the rats.

"I'll get you!" Claude snarled as his spirit began to flicker. "I'll have my revenge!"

And with one final evil glare, his image faded and was gone.

The rats divided their forces and scurried off down all three corridors, chewing through mummies as they went, until the room was silent and empty, the floor littered with dust, shreds of linen, and a few bones. Then Sadie's grip on Percy loosened and Percy sunk to her knees, still clinging to the wall- and she could hear Sadie crying, hear Walt soothing her gently. And Percy wished Carter were there- she really could have done with her big brother. But he wasn't- so she forced herself to rise to her feet, her gaze turning to Walt and Sadie- and Sadie was in Walt's arms, he was holding her close, stroking her hair.

"It's okay." His voice was soft-and his eyes met hers over Sadie's shoulder, "Are you okay Percy?"

"Y-yeah." Percy managed to get the words out, though she wasn't sure how. "Yeah I'm okay."

""I knew there was a story about rats." Walt's voice was far steadier than Percy's was at the moment. "I knew it. They saved Memphis. An enemy army besieged the city, and the people prayed for help. Their patron god sent a horde of rats. They ate the enemy's bowstrings, their sandals, everything they could chew. The attackers had to withdraw."

"The patron god—you mean—" Sadie lifted her head very slightly as Walt told the story.

"Me." From the exit corridor across the room, an Egyptian farmer stepped into view. He wore grubby robes, a head wrap, and sandals. He held a rifle at his side. He grinned at them, and as he got closer, Percy saw that his eyes were blank white. His skin had a slightly bluish tint, as if he were suffocating and really enjoying the experience.

"Sorry I didn't answer sooner," said the farmer. "I am Ptah. And no, Sadie Kane, I am not the god of spit."

"Please, have a seat," the god said. "Sorry about the mess, but what do expect from Romans? They never did clean up after themselves."

None of them sat, and Ptah blinked before nodding, "Ah, quite right." Ptah blinked his blank white eyes. "You're in a hurry."

"Sorry," Sadie said. "Are you a date farmer?"

Ptah looked down at his grubby robes. "I'm just borrowing this poor fellow for a minute, you understand. Not ideal but he was the only one nearby, he heard intruders so he was ready to shoot you if he found you."

"Uh.. thanks then." Sadie said slowly, "But the mummies- what will happen to their ba?"

Ptah laughed. "Don't worry about them. Now that their remains are destroyed, I imagine their ba will go on to whatever Roman afterlife awaits them. As it should be."

He put his hand over his mouth and burped. A cloud of white gas billowed out, coalesced into a glowing ba, and flew off down the corridor.

Walt pointed after the spirit bird. "Did you just—"

"Yes." Ptah sighed. "I really try not to talk at all. That's how I create, you see, with words. They can get me into trouble. Once just for fun I made up the word 'platypus' and—"

Instantly, a duckbilled, furry thing appeared on the floor, scrabbling around in a panic.

"Oh, dear," Ptah said. "Yes, that's exactly what happened. Slip of the tongue. Really the only way something like that could have been created."

That made Percy giggle- some of the tension easing from her shoulders as she darted over to the poor thing- though Ptah laughed and caught her arm before she could try and scoop it up.

"Leave it little Greekling-" he waved a hand and the Platypus disappeared- which made Percy pout, "Now, as I was saying I have to be careful, so I can't talk long. I'm glad you found the Book of Ra! I always did like the old chap. I would have helped earlier, when you asked, but it took a while to get here from the Duat. Also, I can open only one door per customer. I thought you had that blocked corridor well in hand. But there's a much more important door that you need."

"There is?" Percy blinked, ignoring the way Walt was looking at her- clearly confused.

Greekling. Wonderful they'd have to explain that later.

"Your brother," Ptah said. "He's in a great deal of trouble."