SAVVY

Chapter 10

The Hall of Ages was exactly the same place I'd seen Horus. However, there were two differences; one, this was real life, and two, everything was much clearer. The fiery orbs were there, and so were the blue Egyptian hieroglyphics, but I noticed them much better.

But the weirdest of all were the images on either side of me. Like before, they were moving, shifting, transforming, and blurring, but they were in sharper focus. The first twenty feet of the Hall of Ages, I recognised the era as the beginning of the world. The sun rose, blazing across the ocean. A mountain emerged. Islands cracked and drifted apart. Giant walked across the landscape, along with a man with black skin and the head of a jackal, and a woman with multi-coloured, shimmering wings. It was Isis.

I didn't notice me step off the carpet, walking towards the pictures, but Zia tugged my jacket back.

"I said, don't touch anything!" She hissed. "These are the Age of the Gods. It's not wise to dwell on such images."

"They're only pictures, Zia," I protested.

"They're not only pictures. They're memories. Memories so powerful they can rip your mind apart."

I very wisely decided to stay on the carpet.

As we went along, the images changed colours to a blazing shade of silver. Egyptian armies raged, a king became crowned, workers at work building the first pyramid. I recognized it as the Great Pyramid as I watched as thousands knelt before the pharaoh, Khufu, who raised his arms to the sun and dedicated the pyramid as his own.

As the images turned copper, then bronze, temples were built, wars raged, magicians dueled, and the House of Life came into power. Hatshepsut, the greatest female pharaoh, reigned with a fake beard. Ramesses the Great led his armies to battle. Nectanebo II, standing over a table of battle figurines, creating, destroying and moving armies and navies by moving pieces on the board.

Looking back, I was glad that I had studied so earnestly about Egypt. The information served me greatly.

The images turned blue, the Ptolemaic times. I watched wide-eyed as Alexander the Great charged into battle with his great army, conquering Egypt. The last battle was when Romans marched into the Egyptian city of Alexandria. A woman dropped a snake into her blouse. With another jolt, I remembered her as Cleopatra when I was poring over one of Shakespeare's plays one day. She was the last in the line of pharaohs.

In the red zone of images, history began to turn more modern. It was the Arabs now that stormed Egypt, then the Turks, then Napoleon and his French army. The British arrived and the Suez Canal was constructed. The city started to look more like the modern day Cairo in every step.

Then I saw something weird in the last few steps — a giant serpent in a land of demons, armies of gods and goddesses fighting against demons. I saw the snake swallow a fiery glowing figure. I saw a girl and a boy hold up a figurine and start to chant. The snake's head erupted as the fiery figure stepped out again, alive and whole. Then, people were celebrating, and a king was crowned.

I reluctantly tore my eyes from the images when we came to a stop. I didn't notice we had reached the end.

The dais where Horus was at before was empty. There was nobody there. I wondered if Zia and Sadie were feeling quite ok, but they just kept going. They walked straight to the back wall behind the throne and pushed it, to reveal a secret room behind. Poor Carter's head got rather badly bumped on the doorway. I would rather follow the weird people than stay behind in some creepy hall, so I quickly hurried after them.

On the other side was a sort of war room. There was a large table inlaid with a full-colour world map. The surface was crowded with tiny figurines— painted cities, monsters, magicians, obelisks (a stone pillar that was kind of a landmark), cars, temples, and markers with hieroglyphs on them.

There was on person in the room, a man around forty, wearing linen robe and a little bit round in the middle. He had dark skin and cool hair— his braided locks were decorated with gold beads. He wore round glasses, and was so intently engrossed with the map that he jumped when Zia cleared her throat.

"Uncle Amos!" Sadie cried as she barrelled past me and threw her arms around the man. Carter crashed to the floor and groaned.

Amos looked stunned. "Sadie! Zia! Wonderful! But what's wrong with Carter?"

"He's sort of out cold. It's a long story." Sadie replied. She noticed me hanging around the edge of the room, uncomfortable (what a surprise), and said, "Uncle, this is Savannah Hughes. Savvy, this is my uncle Amos, the steward of Chief Lector."

"Savannah, eh?" Amos studied me.

"Savvy," I responded for like the fifth time today.

"Nice to meet you, Savvy. But Sadie, weren't you on a mission to find Setne and deliver him to your father? I only called for Zia, not you two."

"We got sidetracked," was Sadie's reply.

Amos raised his eyebrows. "Sidetracked?"

And so the story was told. We started from when I was picked up by Carter and Sadie. I explained what happened during the time Sadie was in the wheat field, and how Carter had fought Neper. I told them how I broke Thorn. I tried to make it sound like nothing, but judging from Sadie and Zia's looks they were deeply impressed.

Amos's face, however, had slipped into a deep frown as the story continued. "And you're sure this man was the Neper? You're sure Neper is actually back?"

"He was twenty feet tall, uncle, and he performed wheat magic," Sadie said patiently. "No magician would want to learn wheat magic."

"But what does that mean?" I cut in. "I'm confused— you said that the gods are gone."

"They're supposed to be," Amos replied. "When Apophis, the god of Chaos, was banished, the other gods are forced to retreat into the Duat as well. Such is the balance of the Universe."

"The Duat?" My voice, along with my face, was blank.

"Think of it as an ocean under our feet," Zia explained. "It had layers and layers of dimensions going down forever. The gods reside in the Duat, but occasionally they could come up to the mortal world. We live on the very surface. We travelled here through the Duat, but we only submerged bellowed its surface."

"So if the gods are back then…" My voice trailed off.

Amos nodded. "Apophis would return."

"But what's really wrong with Apophis?" I asked.

Sadie made a face. "He's an evil god, the evilest. He intended to destroy the world and make it into a big, soupy bowl of Chaos, as it was before Order was created. He tried to do that again last time, but we managed to perform an execration spell by destroying his shadow, his shuet, and in doing so we cut his connection to the mortal world. He shouldn't be able to rise again."

I suddenly realized something. "You're the one. In the image." When I felt three pairs of eyes on me, blushed and said, "I mean, you and Carter. You were chanting a spell. Carter was crowned the pharaoh! And you," I looked at Zia. "You were the glowing person, weren't you?"

"Yes," Zia said. "I was hosting the king god, Ra. He's the sun god, which is why I was glowing. I was swallowed by Apophis, but I…"

"Exploded his head?" I offered.

She laughed. "You could say that. But I am not hosting Ra any longer— he has also retreated from the mortal world, with all the other gods."

"Then why? Why is Neper back? Shouldn't he be in the Duat as well?" I asked. There was silence.

"Maybe we should ask you some questions about yourself first," Amos said. "For example, where did you come from?"

I hesitated. I didn't really want to lie. "I'm an orphan." I didn't exactly answer his question, but I didn't lie either. "I've met monsters before, but not gods."

Zia nodded. "That sounds normal. Egyptian monsters are attracted to magicians. You're lucky you survived this long. Do you know anything about your parents?"

I shook my head.

Sadie sighed. "Thanks for making this so much harder. How are we supposed to trace your bloodline? If we knew their names, we could figure out which magician family you belong too. Though I suppose we don't really need to."

I colored. "I don't like talking about my parents, ok?"

"We should wake Carter." Zia broke in. I noticed her expression changed when she looked at Carter, it became softer, more tender. "Amos, can you…?"

"Certainly, my girl." He placed a hand on Carter's forehead, and said, "Ohwi-eer."

Blue lines traced his way on Carter's forehead, forming a hieroglyph. Awaken.

Carter gasped, and his eyes flew open. "Neper!"

"Relax, my dear boy. He is gone; you are in the Hall of Ages." Amos assured him.

Carter sat up suddenly, looking around wildly. When he saw Zia, he blushed and stammered.

"How are you feeling, Carter?" Zia asked gently.

"Fine. Great." Carter said. "Amos, we just saw…"

"Neper, yes." Sadie said. "He's gone now, Carter."

And then the story was repeated all over again to Carter, starting from when he got knocked out. When we finished, he exclaimed, "But if Neper is back…"

"Apophis might be," Amos finished off wearily. "Yes, we were discussing that. But unfortunately, we cannot be sure Apophis is back. Only one god has returned, not all of them would return at once. Some take longer. And Apophis did have his shadow banished; I doubt he would come back sooner than the other gods."

It seemed to me like Amos was trying to reassure himself more than any other.

"Well anyways," Zia said. "Why did you want me to come here in the first place?"

In response, Amos pointed at one of the figurines. Looking closely, I saw it to be a monster, a demon. "We've found the Set animal; it's in New York City. We have detected him to be in Manhattan, at one of the hotels in the area. It's disguised as a maid."

"Not the Set animal again!" Carter exclaimed. "I thought I locked him in a locker." (don't ask me what this means)

"It seems that someone's set him loose in Manhattan, someone who's bent on using him to his advantage."

"Uncle Vinnie," Sadie growled. To my expression, she explained, "He's a ghost, a double crosser, a cunning bloke who's bent on taking over the gods. He died a really long time ago, but he's cheated death loads of times. Last time, he said he'd help us retrieve the Book of Overcoming Apophis, but he tried to kill us. He's in hiding, but we know he's up to something."

"We thought we'd picked up his trail in Buffalo, but we got sidetracked just now. He's probably long gone by now." Carter added.

"The Set animal is precisely the reason I have called for Zia's help. As a more experienced magician, I'm sure she would be up for the job. I was going to have her bring along some of the other initiates to make a team, but if you, Carter, and Sadie here would like to go along instead…"

Sadie grinned. "This monster won't know what will hit it, hey, Carter?"

"I was also thinking you could bring your friend, I mean… I think you should bring along Walt, but as I can't contact him at the moment—"

"Well yes, he's in Russia, gathering more magicians." I noticed Sadie's face had turned pink at the mention of Walt. "A lot of those Russians still believe Jacobi had the right idea… Sarah Jacobi was one of the puppets of Apophis," She said to my puzzled expression. "She rallied loads of Russian magicians to fight us, but she's gone — she died in battle."

"I think we should bring Savvy along, actually," Carter said. "It'd be a chance to see her perform magic and determine what kind of magician she is. It would be fun, like an initiation ceremony… only if you'd like to go, of course," he added hastily.

"Sign me up," I said instantly. A chance to battle a monster without having to be surprised by one? What fun! "Are we going now?"

"First you must train," Zia said, and I was relieved, as I was exhausted after speaking the divine word. "We'll stay hereor at the Brooklyn house for about a week, then we'll go, when you're ready. We should get some sleep; we're too tired to go now. It's getting late, anyways. After we go tomorrow, we'll go back to the Brooklyn House, agreed?"

"Yep, definitely." Carter said, and then blushed again.

Zia leaned over and gave Carter a quick peck on the cheek, while Sadie pointedly looked the other way. "I'm off to bed. See you." She smiled at Carter and left through another door.

"C'mon, Savvy, I'll show you where you sleep," Sadie said. "Sweet dreams, Uncle, brother dear. Ugh," She continued in an undertone as we left through another set of doors, which led to a tunnel. "Blithering Carter, gormless Carter, Carter my idiot brother thinks he can manage a girlfriend, when he can't even manage a sense of fashion style. I don't see why Zia fancies him, to be frank." The tunnels led to an open courtyard. Sadie led the way up a winding stone staircase into a hallway of doors. "If I'm kipping at the First Nome for some reason, I usually stay there." She pointed at a door. "The dorms are not as posh as the rooms at Brooklyn House, but oh well. You can sleep in that one," She pointed at the door next to hers. "You'll find clothes in the closet, for tonight and tomorrow as well."

"I'm not wearing linen robes," I said stubbornly.

"Well, I'm glad you have some fashion sense, but magicians usually wear clothes made of plants, like cotton, instead of animals, as it may interfere with their magic. But small amounts of animal products are ok. My boots, for example—" she stuck out a foot to reveal a pair of scuffed combat boots. "Well, these can stay. And your jacket is cotton as well, so that's great." Sadie yawned hugely. "I'm knackered. Oh, and one last thing— your ba might decide to take a little trip tonight, so be warned."

"Ba?"

"Chicken," Sadie said.

"Excuse me?"

Sadie sighed dramatically. "You see, now that your powers are stirring, your consciousness is also. You remember the Duat, don't you? Well, when you sleep, your consciousness passes through the shallowest currents. The deeper you go, the more horrible things you encounter, and the more difficult it is to return. You can get visions of the past, present, and future. Our ba is one of the five parts to our soul, it's our personality. The ba can leave our body when we dream, and it could come back to the earth after we die."

"But chicken? How does my ba have anything to do with chicken?"

"You'll see," Sadie said with an evil grin. "Thing is, we have magical protection. The headrest that we sleep on is enchanted to anchor our ba to our bodies. But they don't work on powerful magicians, and… well I doubt it's going to work on you."

I was flattered, but I pretended not to have understood. "Really? Why ever not?"

Sadie scowled. "Don't kid yourself. Now shut up and go sleep." She whirled around and slammed the door behind her.

I grinned, but my grin faded pretty quickly as I thought over the situation. I was stuck with a bunch of scary magicians who have the ability to blast me apart any second, but I couldn't leave because of my promise. To a goddess. I sighed as I walked into my dorm and sat down on a floating cot. Then I jumped up again and stared. Floating cots. Almost didn't see that one coming.

The stone walls of the dorms sweated moisture. There were creepy Egyptian images which flittered across the ceiling. The flickering light of the torches lining the wall threw dancing shadows onto every object. Obviously, the sheer size of the room suggested it was meant to fit a whole group of initiates, but it looked like the First Nome was pretty underpopulated for its capacity.

The brightly decorated headrest was there like Sadie said it would be, but it was so hard. It felt like it was made out of stone. After tossing and turning for hours, I swept the headrest off the cot and lay back down. I doubted my ba would suddenly decide to take a night trip when it had never done so before, and besides, Sadie said I was probably powerful enough so that a headrest would not be able to work some spell on me anyways. Despite my jet lag (Freak lag?) I shut my eyes and drifted off.