Chapter 5
Disclaimer: see previous chapters.
Sadie Kane
It is easy, when you have a god on your side, to have a portal from here to there as well. In our case, 'here' was the twenty-first nome, and 'there' was the two hundred and fifty first, but all the same, we came to it without any particular problems (actually, without any) and took a look around.
"Nope, still the same old mess we saw in Zia's scrying bowl," I commented as I came over to an external window and peeked from it. "Looks rather like our own Boston place when we returned to it after we stopped Set from unleashing his red pyramid – and also Apophis – onto the world. Before that, Set's magic had devastated our nome-"
"Sadie, Walt and Zia heard this before, and I been there with you to begin with," Carter said crossly, as he and Zia chose to walk through the room instead. "There's no need to re-tell the past, unless you're imagining yourself to be a comic book heroine who wants to break the fourth wall..."
Stupid Carter did not finish, as something did break... not the fourth wall, but the floor, practically catapulting me out of the two hundred fifty first nome in the process.
"Sadie!" Walt cried and jumped after me. Fortunately for both of us, then, this nome was not built on top of a building as in case of the twenty first, but rather straight on the ground, like some sort of a lodge or a hut, so we didn't have to fall far, but fell straight onto our feet (okay, in my case it was more of onto my butt). "You okay?"
Considering that he had landed on his feet I felt that this question was rather annoying. "What do you think?" I asked and gave him a glare.
"Well, uh," Walt looked away from me onto the surrounding countryside. "Hey you! Yes you! I saw you! Come out here so that we can see you! Stop hiding!"
"I wasn't hiding – my lord," came the reply as a being roughly my size emerged from the tropical bushes and bowed.
I stared. It – he – whatever – looked human... at least from the waist down. His legs were more like a grasshopper's - pointing backwards – and the eyes, when he pulled up his wide-brimmed hat burned like a pair of coals.
"What are you?" I asked the newcomer, but Walt – no, Anubis – answered instead.
"This, Sadie Kane, is a gnome."
Carter Kane
"Sadie, Walt and Zia heard this before, and I been there with you to begin with," Carter said crossly, as he and Zia chose to walk through the room instead. "There's no need to re-tell the past, unless you're imagining yourself to be a comic book heroine who wants to break the fourth wall..."
I did not finish as the floor burst apart as if waiting for my statement, sending Sadie outside head over heels!
"Sadie!" Walt cried and jumped after her. Zia and I were not so lucky, as the shabti finally emerged from the hole in the floor. At least I hoped that it was a shabti, because otherwise it was just a giant tortoise and that... was not an improvement, actually.
"Zia!" I yelled as she readied her staff while I reached for my khopesh. "Hold on!"
I miscalculated. Instead of a khopesh I pulled out my pharaoh's crook and flail and hit the tortoise with them instead. "Bad animal!"
Instead of replying, the tortoise responded by withdrawing its head and legs back into its shell and becoming inert, I suppose. It certainly looked less active and dangerous
"I, uh, didn't mean to do that?" I smiled weakly to Zia.
"True, but being the Great House makes you the leader of the Pero Ankh as well," Zia nodded. "All of our creations are your subjects too, my lord, and will respond to your will."
I paused and looked at Zia. Ever since we've started dating each other (yes, I couldn't believe it either) she started to become less serious than before, and even began to crack jokes, but right now I was quite certain that she was fully serious.
"Can it – she – whatever – tell us what has happened to here, to Vasquez and the other guy?" I asked Zia, rather meekly. (Honestly, I never liked the idea of anyone bending my will, not even an artificial tortoise.)
"Of course not – it's a shabti, and not even the right kind, but the one made from clay!" Zia shook her head. "Its sole purpose was, or is, to guard this nome. Now that you – we – are here it doesn't have to do even that!"
"Ok, so what do we do now?"
"We look for clues?"
"Maybe we should look for Sadie instead?"
It was then that Sadie appeared, with Walt alongside her. "Carter, Zia?"
"Yeah?"
"You really should hear this."
And we did.
Sadie Kane
"Really?" I asked. "A gnome? With a 'g'?"
"Yes."
I stared at the gnome more intently than before. "So why uncle Amos doesn't like them?" I asked. "Yes, this one looks creepy, but not quite dangerous..."
"That's because we're not," the gnome kowtowed beneath his broad hat. "We are actually quite useful, lady mage!"
"Aha. Useful how? Never mind," I interrupted myself. "Can you tell us what has happened here to the magicians in this nome?"
"Um. Well. My lord," the gnome looked at Walter. "I didn't do anything."
"Acknowledged," Anubis spoke in his most serious voice. "What did you see?"
"It was some time ago, my lord," the gnome said again. "I was in the bushes, here, when it happened. The Mother of Waters emerged from the river and sang her song and the mages came to her to her as men always do."
"And you did nothing?" I asked crossly.
"No," the gnome gulped. "And what could I do? I'm just a gnome!"
"Fine," I snapped. "Then continue to be a gnome and stay here!"
"Yes, lady mage!" the gnome gulped and withdrew back into the shrubs, becoming basically invisible among them.
I turned to Walt/Anubis. "Boys, we really need to tell Carter and Zia this."
"Yes, Sadie."
"And yes, Anubis, I know that this is your mother-"
"You don't understand. We can exist in the world only via a host, human or otherwise. But if we stay in a human host the more human we become, and in an inhuman host – the more inhuman. Carter told me that he and Bes and Zia had left my mother in the river, which is composed of the element of water. I am really worried what this must've done to her."
"Right. Let's tell this to the others too."
And that was what we did.
TBC