Hey guys. I'm back. I've been trying to update more often now.

Aria

When I woke up Sadie was staring at me.I sat up groggily. "What happened?"

"Um." c"Well then what's the plan?" I asked standing up. Then I almost had dirt for dinner as I stumbled almost collapsing again. I shook my head and reached into my bag.Yes! I still had some left! I withdrew a small canister and uncapped it, taking a swig. Instantly I felt better, I set the nectar back in my pack and zipped it up.

"We're infiltrating Desjardins house to steal a book." Sadie told me.

"Oh goodie!" I said. "I love trying to get turned into a lizard!"

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and grinned.

"Come on then." I told them.

...

Once I saw Desjardins' house, I hated him even more. It was a huge mansion on the other side of the Tuileries, on the rue des Pyramides.

"Pyramids Road?" Sadie said. "Obvious, much?"

"Maybe he couldn't find a place on Stupid Evil Magician Street," Carter suggested.

I smirked.

The house was spectacular. The spikes atop its wrought iron fence were gilded. Even in the winter rain, the front garden was bursting with flowers. Five stories of white marble walls and black-shuttered windows loomed before us, the whole thing topped off by a roof garden. I'd seen royal palaces smaller than this place.

"Yep Desjardins's household." I said my voice laced in sarcasm. "Let's bust in!"

Bast snorted.

Carter pointed to the front door, which was painted bright red. "Isn't red a bad color in Egypt? The color of Set?"

Bast scratched her chin. "Now that you mention it, yes. It's the color of chaos and destruction."

"I thought black was the evil color," Sadie said.t

"No, dear. As usual, modern folk have it backward. Black is the color of good soil, like th. soil of the Nile. You can grow food in black soil. Food is good. Therefore black is good. Red is the color of desert sand. Nothing grows in the desert. Therefore red is evil." She frowned. "It is strange that Desjardins has a red door."

"Well, I'm excited," Sadie grumbled. "Let's go knock."

"There's the spirit!" I said.

"There will be guards," Bast said. "And traps. And alarms. You can bet the house is heavily charmed to keep out gods."

"Magicians can do that?" Carter asked.

"Oh yes." I said. "Desjardins enjoy's doing it a little too much."

"Alas, yes," Bast agreed. "I will not be able to cross the threshold uninvited. You, however—"

"I thought we're gods too," Sadie said.

"That's the beauty of it," Bast said. "As hosts, you are still quite human. I have taken full possession of Muffin, so I am pretty much me—a goddess. But you are still—well, yourselves. Clear?"

"No." They said in unison.

"I suggest you turn into birds," Bast said. "You can fly to the roof garden and make your way in. Plus, I like birds."

"First problem," Carter said, "we don't know how to turn into birds."

"Easily fixed! And a good test at channeling godly power. Both Isis and Horus have bird forms. Simply imagine yourselves as birds, and birds you shall become."

"Just like that," Sadie said. "You won't pounce on us?"

Bast looked offended. "Perish the thought!"

"How's Aria going to get in?" Sadie wondered.

I smiled. "Don't worry I'll get in."

My half siblings shrugged.

"Here goes." Carter said.

"Better late than never," she said. "Took you almost ten minutes."

Sadie made a sharp chirping sound. Laughter

Carter glance up at me, clearly thinking. Why is she my sister?

"Oh, you two look delicious," Bast said, licking her lips. "No, no—er, I mean wonderful. Now, off you go!"

"Don't worry I'll keep your cat from eating you." I told them

Carter spread his majestic wings. He had really done it! He was a noble falcon, lord of the sky. He launched myself off the sidewalk and flew straight into the fence.

I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

I shook my head and launched myself over the fence. I jumped nimbly onto the balcony and jumped higher onto the wall. I slung myself over the top balcony and entered the room.

Carter and Sadie followed soon after.

We were alone in the middle of a library. So far, so good.

Carter perched on the table and changed back. Sadie however was still very much a kite.

"You can turn back now," Carter told her.

She tilted her head and regarded him quizzically. She let out a frustrated croak.

He cracked a smile. "You can't, can you? You're stuck?"

She pecked his hand with her extremely sharp beak.

"Ow!" I complained. "It's not my fault. Keep trying."

She closed her eyes and ruffled her feathers until she looked like she was going to explode, but she stayed a kite.

"Don't worry," I said, trying to keep a straight face. "Bast will help once we get out of here."

"Ha—ha—ha."

"Aria help me look." Carter said. "Sadie, keep trying."

The room was huge—more like a traditional library than a magician's lair. The furniture was dark mahogany. Every wall was covered with floor-to-ceiling bookcases. Books overflowed onto the floor. Some were stacked on tables or stuffed into smaller shelves. A big easy chair by the window looked like the kind of place Sherlock Holmes would sit smoking a pipe.

Every step I took, the floorboards creaked, which made me wince. I couldn't hear anyone else in the house, but I didn't want to take any chances.

Aside from the glass doors to the rooftop, the only other exit was a solid wooden door that locked from the inside. I turned the deadbolt. Then I wedged a chair up under the handle. I doubted that would keep magicians out for very long, but it might buy me a few seconds if things went bad.

We searched the bookshelves for what seemed like ages. All different types of books were jammed together—nothing alphabetized, nothing numbered. Most of the titles weren't in English. None were in hieroglyphics. I was hoping for something with big gold lettering that said The Book of Thoth, but no such luck.

"What would a Book of Thoth even look like?" Carter wondered.

Carter slung his dad's bag off my shoulder. He set his magic box on the table and slid open the top. There was little wax figure. He picked him up and said, "Doughboy, help me find The Book of Thoth in this library."

His waxy eyes opened immediately. "And why should I help you?"

I shrieked

"Because you have no choice." Carter told his shabti glaring at me.

"I hate that argument! Fine—hold me up. I can't see the shelves."

I shook my head and kept looking.

"Hold it!" Doughboy announced. "This one is ancient—right here."

I pulled down a thin volume bound in linen. It was so tiny, I would've missed it, but sure enough, the front cover was inscribed in hieroglyphics. I brought it over to the table and carefully opened it. It was more like a map than a book, unfolding into four parts until I was looking at a wide, long papyrus scroll with writing so old I could barely make out the characters.

Carter glanced at Sadie. "I bet you could read this if you weren't a bird."

She tried to peck him again, but he moved his hand.

"Doughboy," Carter said. "What is this scroll?"

"A spell lost in time!" he pronounced. "Ancient words of tremendous power!"

"Well?" I demanded. "Does it tell how to defeat Set?"

"Better! The title reads: The Book of Summoning Fruit Bats!"

Carter stared at him. "Are you serious?"

"Would I joke about such a thing?"

"Who would want to summon fruit bats?"

"Ha—ha—ha," Sadie croaked.

I pushed the scroll away and we went back to searching.

After about ten minutes, Doughboy squealed with delight. "Oh, look! I remember this painting."

It was a small oil portrait in a gilded frame, hanging on the end of a bookshelf. It must've been important, because it was bordered by little silk curtains. A light shone upon the portrait dude's face so he seemed about to tell a ghost story.

"Isn't that the guy who plays Wolverine?" Carter asked.

"You disgust me!" Doughboy said. "That is Jean-François Champollion."

Carter hesitated. "The guy who deciphered hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone."

"Of course. Desjardins' great uncle."

"Great uncle? But wouldn't that make Desjardins—"

"About two hundred years old," Doughboy confirmed. "Still a youngster. You know that when Champollion first deciphered hieroglyphics, he fell into a coma for five days? He became the first man outside the House of Life to ever unleash their magic, and it almost killed him. Naturally, that got the attention of the First Nome. Champollion died before he could join the House of Life, but the Chief Lector accepted his descendants for training. Desjardins is very proud of his family...but a little sensitive too, because he's such a newcomer."

"That's why he didn't get along with our family," Carter guessed. "We're like...ancient."

Doughboy cackled. "And your father breaking the Rosetta Stone? Desjardins would've viewed that as an insult to his family honor! Oh, you should've seen the arguments Master Julius and Desjardins had in this room."

"You've been here before?"

"Many times! I've been everywhere. I'm all-knowing."

I heard a door slam downstairs and froze.

"Show me where The Book of Thoth is," Carter ordered Doughboy. "Quick!"

"Ah, Mastery of the Five Elements!"

"Is that the one we want?" I asked.

"No, but a good one. How to tame the five essential elements of the universe—earth, air, water, fire, and cheese!"

"Cheese?"

He scratched his wax head. "I'm pretty sure that's the fifth, yes. But moving right along!"

We turned to the next shelf. "No," he announced. "No. Boring. Boring. Oh, Clive Cussler! No. No."

"Shut up and look!" I told him.

"There."

We froze. "Where—here?"

"The blue book with the gold trim," he said. "The one that's—"

Carter pulled it out, and the entire room began to shake.

"—trapped," Doughboy continued.

Sadie squawked urgently. I turned and saw her take flight. Something small and black swooped down from the ceiling. Sadie clashed with it in midair, and the black thing disappeared down her throat.

Before I could even register how gross that was, alarms blared downstairs. More black forms dropped from the ceiling and seemed to multiply in the air, swirling into a funnel cloud of fur and wings.

"There's your answer," Doughboy told me. "Desjardins would want to summon fruit bats. You mess with the wrong books, you trigger a plague of fruit bats. That's the trap!"

They escape next chapter! I'm soo excited!