Chapter 9 (part 1)

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

Carter Kane

"Back? So soon?" uncle Amos raised one of his eyebrows. "That must be a new record even for you."

"Yes, well, we are team Kane," Sadie said brightly.

"And we had help from the local genius loci," Zia added, looking at Sadie askance.

"That too," Sadie agreed, probably because she did not quite get what Zia was talking about. "Anyways, uh, Walt has delivered – so how we're going to build the boat?"

"It's one of the Lector tricks," uncle Amos said proudly. "First, we get the tools out-"

"Wait!" senhorita Vasquez suddenly spoke up. "Shouldn't we get outside first? It may be because I am a woman, but this sounds like an outside activity to me, building boats and all. I mean, how otherwise we will get it to Brazil?"

There was a rather sheepish pause as we tried to explain to her that she was correct, but-

"Well, um, I was distracted by your radiant beauty to think straight?" uncle Amos offered the first suggestion, and there was another pause. See, senhorita Vasquez – just like the rest of us – was covered in squashed tundra mosquitoes and mud and also smelled faintly of eau de Arctic fox, so she was far from radiant, at least in a conventional sense, and she knew it.

"You know," she said conventionally, as she began to wrap up her sleeves, and I doubted that it was to improve her spellcasting, "when my parents were younger, father once told mother something similar in similar circumstances too. Mother was not amused and did her best to explain that to father. Father being whom he is, of course, managed to get the best of her, as always, but they ended up getting married all the same. Anyways, getting back to you-"

"You have to excuse uncle Amos," Sadie said quickly. "He may be chief lector but he's also a Kane and we – they - aren't smooth talkers..."

"...Right. Um, you have a bathroom here for me to at least wash my face and hands?" senhorita Vasquez grimaced.

"Yes!" Sadie said brightly and led her away.

(It should be noted that while there are some spells to clean yourself up magically, we never got the hang of them, plus it is just as simple to clean yourself up the old-fashioned way...)

"So, uh, we aren't smooth talkers?" I said the first thing that came to my mind.

"Yes! But still loveable!" Zia said brightly and actually gave me a kiss on the cheek. I blushed.

(Sadie, give me the microphone back!)

Sadie Kane

When we returned, everything was the same, save that my brother was grinning like some doofus.

"So," uncle Amos said, further proving my statement, even though that wasn't necessary, "is everyone, uh, ready to actually go to Brazil?"

"Uncle Amos?" Carter shook himself out of whatever daydream he was currently in. "You're coming with us?"

"Yes," uncle Amos replied firmly. "I am!"

"Why?"

"Because this is the spell for the Chief Lector, similar to the summoning of Sekhmet."

"We are not going to be summoning her, are we?" Carter grimaced.

"No."

There was another pause, as everyone appeared to be struggling for things to say, until Walt broke the it. "Let's go," he suggested rather tensely, and we went, remembering that it was his mother – well, Anubis' mother, but the lines between them appeared to be blurring (and that was worrying to me) – on the line.

TBC