Chapter X
Alright, I finished my writing schedule. I will update on Tuesdays and Fridays (hopefully). If not on those days it's for a really good reason. (Or a really stupid reason that I would rather not mention.) After I finish the Red Pyramid I will publish the second book of the series 'Katya Kane and the Battle of the Labyrinth'. I might give you guys another chapter today, but after that I have to go back to school. Have fun reading!
Katya
Sadie slammed her staff into the ground and yelled, "Washington, D.C!"
The pyramid shook. For a moment nothing else happened. I raced through the army of demons trying to get to where Sadie was opening a portal to Washington.
Set seemed to realize what she was doing. He let out a nervous laugh. "Magic one-oh-one, Sadie Kane. You can't open a portal during the Demon Days!"
"A mortal can't," Sadie agreed. "But a goddess of magic can."
I used my ice powers to create a ramp of ice up to the top of the pyramid; extra bonus with my powers, I didn't slip on ice.
Above us, the air crackled with lightning. The top of the cavern dissolved into a churning vortex of sand as large as the pyramid.
Demons stopped fighting and looked up in horror. Magician stammered midspell, their faces slack with awe at the uphill snowboarder, and the twelve-year old goddess of magic.
The vortex was so powerful that it ripped blocks off the pyramid and sucked into the sand. And then, like a giant lid, the portal began to descend.
"No!" Set roared. He blasted the portal with flames, then turned on Sadie and hurled stones and lightning, but it was too late. The portal swallowed us up.
The world seemed to flip upside down. Then, with a sonic boom, we appeared in the cold morning air with a brilliant blue sky above us. Spread out below us were the snow-covered fields of the National Mall in Washington D.C.
The red pyramid was still intact, but cracks had appeared on the surface. The gold capstone glowed, trying to maintain its magic, but we weren't in Phoenix anymore. The pyramid had been ripped from its source of power, the desert, and in front of us loomed the default gateway for North America, the tall white obelisk that was the most powerful focal point of Ma'at on the continent: the Washington Monument.
Set screamed something at Sadie in Ancient Egyptian. I was fairly sure it wasn't a compliment.
"I will rend your limbs from their sockets!" He shouted. "I will—"
"Die?" Carter suggested. He rose behind Set and swung his sword. The blade cut into Set's armor at the ribs—not a killing blow, but enough to knock the Red God off balance and send him tumbling down the side of his pyramid. Carter bounded after him, and in the Duat I could see arcs of white energy pulsing from the Washington Monument to the Horus avatar, charging it with new power.
"The book, Sadie!" I shouted, trying not to get crushed by a giant chicken-headed Carter, and the god of evil. "Do it now!"
She must've been dazed from opening the portal, because Set understood what I was saying faster than Sadie.
"No!" the Red God shouted. He charged towards Sadie but Carter intercepted him halfway up the slope.
He grappled with Set, holding him back. The stones of the pyramid cracked and crumbled under the weight of their godly forms. All around the base of the pyramid, demons and magicians who'd been knocked unconscious were starting to stir.
I ran into the midst of the awakened demons and started fighting. As more awakened, more came after me. That didn't matter, it just made it more.
I used a mixture of ice, sword, and Divine Words to battle the demons. As the magicians came to their senses they began to fight alongside me.
"I name you Set," Sadie chanted. "I name you Evil Day." The pyramid imploded. I sent a shield of ice to protect the magicians and me.
A doorway appeared. A doorway between this world and the brilliant white abyss that would lock Set away, trapping his life force. Maybe not forever, but for a long, long time.
To complete the spell, Sadie only had to speak one more line: "Deserving no mercy, an enemy of Ma'at, you are exiled beyond the earth."
But she hesitated. The line had to have absolute conviction. The feather of truth required it.
I looked to the top of the monument, and in the Duat I saw chunks of pyramid flying skyward and the souls of demons lifted like fireworks. As Set's chaos magic dispersed, all the force that had been charged up, ready to destroy a continent, was being sucked into the clouds. And as I watched, the chaos tried to form a shape. It was like a red reflection of a cobra crimson snake at least a mile long and a hundred meters wide. It writhed in the air, trying to become solid, and I felt its rage and bitterness. This is not what I had what it had wanted. There was not enough power or chaos for its purpose. To form properly, it needed the death of millions, the wasting of an entire continent.
"Sadie!" Carter yelled. "What are you waiting for?"
He couldn't see it, I realized. No one could but me and Sadie.
Set was on his knees, writhing and cursing as white energy encircled him, pulling him towards the rift. "Lost your stomach, witch?" He bellowed. Then he glared at Carter. "You see, Horus? Isis was always a coward. She could never complete the deed!"
Carter looked at Sadie, and for a moment I saw the doubt on his face. Horus would be urging him towards a violent vengeance. She was hesitating. This is what had turned Isis and Horus against each other before.
"Carter, look." She threw the feather of truth into the sky, breaking the spell.
"No!" Carter screamed. I watched in silent shock as the spell broke.
The feather exploded into silver dust that clung to the form of the serpent, forcing it to become visible, if only for a second.
Carter's mouth fell open as the serpent writhed in the air above Washington, slowly losing power.
Next to me a voice screamed: "Wretched gods!"
I turned to see Set's minion, Face of Horror, with his fangs bared and grotesque face only inches from mine, a jagged knife raised above my head. I didn't have time to raise my sword before there was a sickening thud, and the demon froze.
Carter had thrown his sword with deadly accuracy. The demon dropped his knife, fell to his knees, and stared down at the blade that was now sheathed in his side.
He crumpled to his back, exhaling with an angry hiss. His black eyes fixed on Sadie, and he spoke in a completely different voice—a rasping, dry sound, like a reptile's belly scraping over sand. "This is not over, godling. All this I have wrought with a wisp of my voice, the merest bit of my essence wriggling from my weakened cage. Imagine what I shall do when fully formed."
He gave her a ghastly smile, and then his face went slack. A tiny line of red mist curled from his mouth—like a worm or a fresh-hatched snake—and writhed upward into the sky to join its source. The demon's body disintegrated into sand.
The Washington Monument stopped glowing. The rift closed, and the little spellbook disappeared from Sadie's hand.
Sadie moved towards Set, who was still ensnared in ropes of white energy. She'd spoken his true name, he wasn't going anywhere jjust yet.
"You both saw the serpent in the clouds," Sadie said.
"Apophis," I finished.
Carter nodded, stunned. "He was trying to break into the mortal world, using the Red Pyramid as a gateway. If its power had been unleashed…" He looked down in revulsion at the pile of sand that had once been a demon.
"Set's lieutenant—Face of Horror—he was possessed by Apophis, using him to get what he wanted."
"Ridiculous!" Set glared at me and struggled against his bonds. "The snake in the clouds was one of your tricks, Isis. An illusion."
"You know it wasn't," Sadie said. "I could've sent you into the abyss, Set, but you saw the real enemy. Apophis was trying to break out of his prison in the Duat. His voice possessed Face of Horror. He was using you."
"No one uses me!"
Carter let his warrior form disperse. He floated to the ground and summoned his sword back to his hand. "Apophis wanted your explosion to feed his power, Set. As soon as he came through the Duat and found us dead, I'm betting power, Set. As soon as he came through the Duat and found us dead, I'm betting you would've been his first meal. Chaos would've won."
"I am chaos!" Set insisted.
"Partially," Sadie said. "But you're still one of the gods. True, you're evil, faithless, ruthless, vile—"
"You make me blush, sister."
"But you're also the strongest god. In the ancient times, you were Ra's faithful lieutenant, defending his boat against Apophis. Ra couldn't have defeated the Serpent without you." I said.
"I am pretty great," Set admitted. "But Ra is gone forever, thanks to you."
"Maybe not forever," I said.
"We'll have to find him. Apophis is rising, which means we'll need all the gods to battle him. Even you," Sadie finished.
Set tested his bonds of white energy. When he found he couldn't break them, he gave us a crooked smile. "You suggest an alliance? You'd trust me?"
Carter laughed. "You've got to be kidding me. But we've got your number, now. Your secret name. Right, guys?"
Sadie closed her fingers, and the bonds tightened around Set. He cried out in pain. It took a great deal of energy for her to do that, and she couldn't hold him for long, but there was no point telling that to Set.
"The House of Life tried to banish the gods," Sadie said. "It didn't work. If we lock you away, we're no better than they are. It doesn't solve anything."
"I couldn't agree more," Set groaned. "So if you'll just loosen these bonds—"
"You're still a villainous piece of scum," Sadie said. "But—"
"You're just lost, aren't you?" I asked. "Since Ra's been gone, you don't know what to do with yourself. You lost the only guidance you had."
"And how would you know anything about that, girl," Set snarled.
"I know someone like you, his name was Luke, and he let himself be misguided by hate."
Set glared at me.
"You have a role to play, and you'll need controlling. I'll agree to release you—if you swear to behave, to return to Duat, and not cause trouble until we call you. And then you'll make trouble only for us, fighting against Apophis," Sadie said.
"Or I could chop off your head," Carter suggested. "That would probably exile you for a good long while."
"Set glanced back and forth between the three of us. "Make trouble for you, eh? That is my specialty."
Sadie gave him one last shock, then let loose his bindings.
Set stood up and flexed his arms. He winked at Horus, pretended to shoot Sadie with a finger gun. "Oh, this will be good. We're going to have so much fun."
"Begone, Evil Day," Sadie said.
Set blew me a kiss, then he turned into a pillar of salt and dissolved.
I was still freaked out by the god of evil blowing me a kiss, which was something you never wanted to experience. It was really weird.
The snow in the National Mall had melted in a perfect square, the exact size of Set's pyramid. Around the edges, a dozen magicians still lay passed out. The poor guys had started to stir when our portal closed, but the explosion of the pyramid had knocked them all out again. Other mortals in the area had also been affected. An early-morning jogger was slumped on the sidewalk. On nearby streets, cars idled while the drivers took naps over the steering wheels.
Not everyone was asleep, though. Police sirens rang in the distance, and seeing as we'd practically teleported into spitting distance of the president, I knew it wouldn't be long before we had a great deal of heavily armed company.
We ran to the center of the melted square, where Amos and Zia lay crumpled in the grass. There was no sign of Set's throne, or the sarcophagus, but I tried not to think of that.
Amos groaned. "What…" His eyes clouded over with terror. "Set…he…he…"
"Rest," Sadie put her hand on his forehead. "Quiet," she whispered. "Hah-ri."
Faint hieroglyphs glowed over his face.
Zia was worse off than Amos. Carter cradled her head and spoke reassuringly about how she would be fine, but she looked bad. Her skin was a reddish color, dry and brittle, as if she'd been terribly sunburned. In the grass around her, hieroglyphs faded—the remains of a protection circle. She'd used her last amount of energy to protect herself and Amos when the pyramid imploded.
"Set?" she asked weakly. "Is he gone?"
"Yes." Carter's voice quavered. "Stay awake. You're not going to leave me with Sadie, are you? She's bad company?"
My heart tugged at the sad scene. I found myself thinking of a certain green-eyed boy.
"I was… never here, Carter. Just a messenger—a placeholder."
"Come on. No. That's no way to talk."
"Find her will you?" Zia asked. A tear traced its way down her nose. "She'd… like that… a date at the mall."
This Zia was a shabti. The idea came on me like a wave. A placeholder. The real Zia was hidden in a cave somewhere. Oh, no, this is bad. Carter was going to freak.
By the time I came back to reality Desjardins was in front of us. "What have you done?"
Desjardins was literally fuming. His tattered robes still smoking from battle. His staff was aglow, and the hairs in his beard were charred. Behind him stood three equally battered magicians, who all looked like they'd just regained consciousness.
"Oh, good," Sadie muttered. "You're alive."
"You bargained with Set?" Desjardins demanded. "You let him go?"
"We don't answer to you," Carter growled. He stepped forward, hand on his sword, but I put out my arm to hold him back.
"Desjardins," Sadie said calmly. "Apophis is rising, in case you missed that part. We need the gods. The House of Life had to relearn the old ways."
"The old ways destroyed us!" He yelled.
"Pride destroyed you," I said, stepping up. "Greed and selfishness consumed you. It's hard to follow the path of the gods. But it is part of magic. You can't just shut it down."
"You are drunk with power," he snarled. "The gods have possessed you, as they always do. Soon you will forget you are even human. We will fight you and destroy you."
"I am not hosting a god," I said simply.
"But you—"
"Save it," Sadie interrupted. She turned to face her brother. "You know what we have to do?"
The spirit of Horus and Isis left Carter and Sadie.
Desjardins was so stunned, he momentarily forgot how to speak English. "Ce n'est pas possible. On ne pourrait pas—"
"Yes, we could," Sadie said. "We've given up the gods of our own free will. And you've got a lot to learn about what's possible."
Carter threw down his sword. "Desjardins, I'm not after the throne. Not unless I earn it myself, and that's going to take time. We're going to learn the path of the gods. We're going to teach others. You can waste your time trying to destroy us, or you can help."
The sirens grew closer and Desjardins looked conflicted. Then he lowered his staff.
"There has been too much destruction today. But the path of the gods shall remain closed. If you cross the House of Life again…"
He let the threat hang in the air. He slammed his staff down, and with a final burst of energy, the four magicians dissolved into dust and blew away.
Amos groaned and tried to sit up. Police cars and sinister black vans blocked the curbs all around us. A helicopter was slicing through the air above the Potomac, closing fast.
"Guys, we have to get out of here," I said. "Can you summon enough magic to change Amos into something small—a mouse maybe? You guys can turn into birds, I'll ice-surf.
He nodded, still in a daze. "But Dad… we didn't…"
He looked around helplessly. I knew how that felt. Failing to save someone you loved. You had to live with that guilt for the rest of your life. I had to live with the memory of Bianca di Angelo, and the look on little Nico's face when he found out.
I couldn't grieve now. I had to be strong for them.
"First things first." I said. "We have to get Amos to safety."
"Where?" Sadie asked.
There was only one place I could think of.
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