Chapter 4

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

Sadie Kane

"So," I said brightly, "looks like we're going to Brazil. Awesome! Always wanted to see the jaguar and the armadill-o 'dilloing in his armor', as grandma Faust liked to read about. To me."

There was a pause as everyone else just stared at me, blankly. "It's Mr. Kipling?" I said helpfully. "Just so stories? Were rather popular in Britain at one time?"

"...Ok," Uncle Amos still did not get me, but decided to humour me all the same. "Anyways! You can't go – you've got school-"

"Uncle Amos?" Carter spoke up. "It's summer. BAG is closed until September. We're free – got free time, I mean."

"Yes, Carter, but no. You are the Great House now, you cannot just go off-"

"Uncle, are you trying to pull rank on me?" Carter's voice was breaking because that is apparently how teenage boys sound, and he sounded somewhat hilarious, but for some reason I was reminded of our dad when he was in an angry mood. "Because I can pull rank on you right back on!"

...Suddenly my older joke about the Lion King did not appear to be as funny. Carter and uncle Amos glared at each other, with their hackles almost raised, and I, for one, did not quite know what to do. Fortunately, Zia did.

"Please! Great House! Chief Lecturer! There's no need to act so... manly!" the first scribe of the House spoke up. "We can contact the Brazilian nome and see if they can't do something about it!"

"Um, right, that's a good idea," both Carter and uncle Amos backed away from each other with relief. "Whom do we have there?"

"Joaquin Vasquez, and, um, I forgot. Chief Lecturer?"

"A native, Tikisoke something," uncle Amos said brightly, "and he's a water specialist, so maybe he should be the one in charge of the field work?"

"Let's first contact him, shall we?" Zia pulled out a scrying-eye bowl (as we learned later), filled it with water, and produced –

"An apple?" Carter said incredulously.

"Oh yes, we're talking about the New World," Zia nodded sagely and replaced the fruit with a pineapple, albeit a small one. "Now, Chief Lecturer, if you would do the honors?"

"Certainly," uncle Amos nodded, pointed his staff at the bowl and the pineapple, and said the appropriate spell. Immediately, the fruit began to roll above the bowl, the water inside it quivered, and we saw a scene inside the Brazilian nome's mansion, and it was bad.

OK, it was not Apophis-level bad. When the giant snake had his way, he just razed nomes to the ground, leaving behind the sign of Chaos. This was just... devastated, abandoned, as in our family basement, when grandpa Faust took grandma and me for a week in the country, and when we returned we found our basement flooded and had to hire a plumber to drain it.

"Really?" uncle Amos turned to me.

"Yeah. When the waters were drained, the basement had that same mildew-y and algae-y appearance," I replied before I had time to think. "Um, did I say the last part aloud?"

"Yes, you did," uncle Amos said thoughtfully. "And you raise some interesting points."

There was a pause as we thought this over.

"You don't think that Nephthys did that, do you?" I asked slowly. "I mean, she's nice! She helped Isis escape from Set when he had captured Osiris! She-"

"She is a goddess, Sadie," Zia said quietly, "and you must remember that gods aren't humans – they got different values, especially in modern times. Plus, if I when remember about the Vasquez family is correct-"

"It is," uncle Amos nodded. "Mr. – I mean senhor Vasquez senior is the greatest priest of Sobek in the modern times. And his relationship with the House of Life has always been uneasy." He paused. "Chief Lecturer Iskander was able to command the respect of the Vasquez family, but I am not him-"

"No. But you're still the Chief Lecturer and overall an amazing uncle," Carter said firmly. "Although Sobek... no, I don't like him."

"We don't like him. He tried to kill us, and with me he came really close," I supported him.

"Don't worry; senhor Vasquez is cool – according to Anubis anyways."

"Walter!" I yelled excitedly. "How are you – never mind."

"I'm stable, Sadie," my boyfriend gave me a sad smile. "What about Vasquez?"

"His son and other wizard might've been captured by Nephthys, but probably not," I replied.

"Um... can I have the long story?"

I exchanged looks with the others, and encouraged by their subtle glances told Walt (and Anubis) 'the long story'.

"...And I don't think that Nephthys is behind this," I finished, glaring at uncle Nephthys. "She's nice."

"Yes, Sadie, but it is South America," uncle Amos shook his head. "I remember talking with Thoth few times about it – apparently he and some other Egyptian gods tried to get established there, but it didn't work."

"What?" I gaped.

"Sadie, come on – the pyramids?" Carter sighed. "Plus there were all those conspiracy theories that the god Quetzalcoatl was actually a westerner-"

"Actually, he was Thoth, just in disguise," uncle Amos corrected my brother. "But it didn't work out either."

"... Can we have the long story, please?" Carter said when it became obvious that the Chief Lecturer was not going to talk about this further.

"I didn't get it myself," uncle Amos admitted. "I and Thoth never been close, and he was remarkably close-lipped about this. Anyways, he confessed that other Egyptian gods too have visited the New World and had some sort of a personality problem-"

"Anubis didn't," Walter suddenly spoke up. "In fact he said that he has quite enjoyed it."

We all looked at him. "Sorry, he doesn't walk to talk aloud," Walter admitted. "I think that he has some parent problems."

"No duh! I mean, he is the son of Set and Nephthys! Set is evil, and Nephthys apparently has her own issues now!"

"You're not helping, Sadie," Carter pointed out, very unnecessarily.

"He is, however, more than willing to open up a portal for us."

"Sweet! I'll go and pack my bags!"

Uncle Amos just groaned.

TBC