So Hi guys I'm really sorry about the wait, but school is stressful. In any case I still don't know what should happen to Alex. Help!
Alex: Yay! we're back! You know everyone other than me.
Me: Hey that's not fair. Percy's not back! Yet.
Alex: Exactly!
Aria: Oh Styx! Gotta go Set's trying to destroy the world
Carter: Hey, How do I get the god to die? Aria? Hey, Where did you go?
Me: Oh styx
Enjoy!
Aria
That awkward moment when you realize your sister is insane. Yeah I went through that for about .05 seconds, then got over it.
"Washington D.C!" Sadie yelled striking the pyramid, and silence spread through the cavern.
Set seemed to realize what she was doing. He let out a nervous laugh. "Magic one-oh-one, Sadie Kane. You can't open a portal during the Demon Days!"
"A mortal can't," she agreed. "But a goddess of magic can."
Above us, the air crackled with lightning. The top of the cavern dissolved into a churning vortex of sand as large as the pyramid.
Demons stopped fighting and looked up in horror. Magicians stammered midspell, their faces slack with awe.
The vortex was so powerful that it ripped blocks off the pyramid and sucked them into the sand. And then, like a giant lid, the portal began to descend.
"No!" Set roared. He blasted the portal with flames, then turned on me and hurled stones and lightning, but it was too late. The portal swallowed us all.
The world seemed to flip upside down. For a heartbeat, I wondered if she'd made a terrible miscalculation—if Set's pyramid would explode in the portal, and I'd spend eternity floating through the Duat as a billion with little particles of Sadie sand. Then, with a sonic boom, we appeared in the cold morning air with a brilliant blue sky above us. Spread out below us were the snow-covered fields of the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The red pyramid was still intact, but cracks had appeared on its surface. The gold capstone glowed, trying to maintain its magic, but we weren't in Phoenix anymore. The pyramid had been ripped from its source of power, the desert, and in front us loomed the default gateway for North America, the tall white obelisk that was the most powerful focal point of Ma'at on the continent: the Washington Monument.
Set screamed something at her in Ancient Egyptian. I'm not going to translate because then Carter would rinse my mouth with soap, so, no thanks.
"I will rend your limbs from their sockets!" Set shouted. "I will—"
"Die?" Carter suggested. He rose behind Set and swung his sword. The blade cut into Set's armor at the ribs—not a killing blow, but enough to knock the Red God off balance and send him tumbling down the side of his pyramid. Carter bounded after him, and in the Duat I could see arcs of white energy pulsing from the Washington Monument to the Horus avatar, charging it with new power.
"The book, Sadie!" Carter shouted as he ran. "Do it now!"
I realized what he meant and leaped up the pyramid with more speed than Bast had when I'd distracted the magicians at luvore.
"Sadie read the book!" I shouted.
"No!" the Red God shouted. He charged towards me, but Carter intercepted him halfway up the slope.
He grappled with Set, holding him back. The stones of the pyramid cracked and crumbled under the weight of their godly forms. All around the base of the pyramid, demons and magicians who'd been pulled through the portal and knocked momentarily unconscious were starting to stir.
Sadie held out her hand and summoned the little blue tome we'd stolen from Paris: The Book of Overcoming Set. She unfolded the papyrus. She called for the feather of truth, and instantly it appeared, glowing above the pages.
She began the spell, speaking the Divine Words, and her body rose into the air, hovering a few centimeters above the pyramid. She chanted the story of creation: the first mountain rising above the waters of chaos, the birth of the gods Ra, Geb, and Nut, the rise of Ma'at, and the first great empire of men, Egypt.
The Washington Monument began to glow as hieroglyphs appeared along its sides. The capstone gleamed silver.
Set tried to lash out at Sadie, but Carter intercepted him. And the red pyramid began to break apart. I ran up the side of the pyramid, jumping over a large crack I rolled out of the way from an attack from a final demon. I stabbed up with my blade and was covered with dirt again.
Wow that was helpful. Kronos muttered.
Shut it!
I thought about Amos and Zia, trapped inside under tons of stone, and I faltered. There was a shift in the ground and I felt a terrifying tug in my gut. A sudden crash cam from underneath us and I resisted the urge to cry.
Watch. A voice told me. It's happening.
That made no sense but somehow I knew that what she meant. She was telling me to watch. Something important was about to happen.
Through the Duat, I saw magic forming around Sadie, weaving a white sheen over the world, reinforcing Ma'at and expelling chaos. Carter and Set wrestled back and forth as huge chunks of the pyramid collapsed.
The feather of truth glowed, shining like a spotlight on the Red God. As She neared the end of the spell, her words began tearing Set's form to shreds.
In the Duat, his fiery whirlwind was being stripped away, revealing a black-skinned, slimy thing like an emaciated Set animal—the evil essence of the god. But in the mortal world, occupying the same space, there stood a proud warrior in red armor, blazing with power and determined to fight to the death.
"I name you Set," She chanted. "I name you Evil Day."
With a thunderous roar, the pyramid imploded. Set fell crashing into the ruins. He tried to rise, but Carter swung his sword. Set barely had time to raise his staff. Their weapons crossed, and Horus slowly forced Set to one knee.
"Now, Sadie!" Carter yelled.
"You have been my enemy," I chanted along with her, "and a curse on the land."
A line of white light shot down the length of the Washington Monument. It widened into a rift—a doorway between this world and the brilliant white abyss that would lock Set away, trapping his life force. Maybe not forever, but for a long, long time.
To complete the spell, she only had to speak one more line: "Deserving no mercy, an enemy of Ma'at, you are exiled beyond the earth."
The line had to be spoken with absolute conviction. The feather of truth required it. And why shouldn't she believe it? It was the truth. Set deserved no mercy. He was an enemy of Ma'at.
But I hesitated in telling her to do it.
I looked towards the top of the monument, and in the Duat I saw chunks of pyramid flying skyward and the souls of demons lifting off like fireworks. As Set's chaos magic dispersed, all the force that had been charging up, ready to destroy a continent, was being sucked into the clouds. And as I watched, the chaos tried to form a shape. It was like a red reflection of the Potomac—an enormous crimson river at least a mile long and a hundred meters wide. It writhed in the air, trying to become solid, and I felt its rage and bitterness. This was not what it had wanted. There was not enough power or chaos for its purpose. To form properly, it needed the death of millions, the wasting of an entire continent.
It was not a river. It was a snake.
"Sadie!" Carter yelled. "What are you waiting for?"
Set was on his knees, writhing and cursing as white energy encircled him, pulling him towards the rift. "Lost your stomach, witch?" he bellowed. Then he glared at Carter. "You see, Horus? Isis was always a coward. She could never complete the deed!"
I glared at him. "Shut it. You have no right to talk."
"You." He growled. "Are in no position to speak to me-"
He was cut off by me muttering a spell that bound his mouth.
"Don't speak out loud." I told him. "You'll lower the intelligence of the entire city."
"Mmm!"
"Hush." I told him and turned to Sadie.
Carter looked at her, and for a moment I saw the doubt on his face. Horus would be urging him towards bloody vengeance. I was hesitating. This is what had turned Isis and Horus against each other before. We couldn't let it happen now. We were a family and we needed to work together.
Sadie sent me a questioning look. I gave her an encouraging nod, telling her silently that no matter what she did I would probably do the same.
"Carter, look." She threw the feather of truth into the sky, breaking the spell.
"No!" Carter screamed.
But the feather exploded into silver dust that clung to the form of the serpent, forcing it to become visible, just for an instant.
Carter's mouth fell open as the serpent writhed in the air above Washington, slowly losing power.
Next to her, a voice screamed: "Wretched gods!"
I turned to see Set's minion, Face of Horror, with his fangs bared and his grotesque face only inches from Sadie's, a jagged knife raised above her head.
Carter had thrown his sword with deadly accuracy. The demon dropped his knife, fell to his knees, and stared down at the blade that was now sheathed in his side.
He crumpled to his back, exhaling with an angry hiss. His black eyes fixed on me, and he spoke in a completely different voice—a rasping, dry sound, like a reptile's belly scraping over sand. "This is not over, godling. All this I have wrought with a wisp of my voice, the merest bit of my essence wriggling from my weakened cage. Imagine what I shall do when fully formed."
He gave me a ghastly smile, and then his face went slack. A tiny line of red mist curled from his mouth—like a worm or a fresh-hatched snake—and writhed upward into the sky to join its source. The demon's body disintegrated into sand.
My sister I looked up once more at the giant red serpent slowly dissolving in the sky. Then Sadie summoned a good strong wind and dispersed it completely.
The Washington Monument stopped glowing. The rift closed, and the little spell book disappeared from my sister's hand.
I moved towards Set, who was still ensnared in ropes of white energy. I'd spoken his true name. He wasn't going anywhere just yet.
"You all saw the serpent in the clouds," She said. "Apophis."
I nodded. "Definitely." I said, then muttered. "I'll never forget that snake."
Carter nodded, in stunned agreement with his sister. "He was trying to break into the mortal world, using the Red Pyramid as a gateway. If its power had been unleashed..." He looked down in revulsion at the pile of sand that had once been a demon. "Set's lieutenant—Face of Horror—he was possessed by Apophis all along, using Set to get what he wanted."
"Ridiculous!" Set glared at us and struggled against his bonds. "The snake in the clouds was one of your tricks, Isis. An illusion."
"You know it wasn't," I said.
"I could've sent you into the abyss, Set, but you saw the real enemy." Sadie continued. "Apophis was trying to break out of his prison in the Duat. His voice possessed Face of Horror. He was using you."
"No one uses me!"
Carter let his warrior form disperse. He floated to the ground and summoned his sword back to his hand. "Apophis wanted your explosion to feed his power, Set. As soon as he came through the Duat and found us dead, I'm betting you would've been his first meal. Chaos would've won."
"I am chaos!" Set insisted.
"Partially," Sadie said. "But you're still one of the gods. True, you're evil, faithless, ruthless, vile—"
"You make me blush, sister."
"But you're also the strongest god. In the ancient times, you were Ra's faithful lieutenant, defending his boat against Apophis. Ra couldn't have defeated the Serpent without you."
"I am pretty great,"Set admitted
"You wish." I muttered.
"But Ra is gone forever, thanks to you." He continued ignoring my comment.
"Maybe not forever," Sadie said. "We'll have to find him. Apophis is rising, which means we'll need all the gods to battle him. Even you."
Set tested his bonds of white energy. When he found he couldn't break them, he gave her a crooked smile. "You suggest an alliance? You'd trust me?"
Carter laughed. "You've got to be kidding. But we've got your number, now. Your secret name. Right, Sadie?"
She closed her fingers, and the bonds tightened around Set. He cried out in pain. It took a great deal of energy, and I knew she couldn't hold him like this for long, but there was no point telling that to Set.
"The House of Life tried banishing the gods," I said.
"It didn't work." Sadie agreed. "If we lock you away, we're no better than they are. It doesn't solve anything."
"I couldn't agree more," Set groaned. "So if you'll just loosen these bonds—"
"You're still a villainous piece of scum," She said. "But you have a role to play, and you'll need controlling. I'll agree to release you—if you swear to behave, to return to the Duat, and not cause trouble until we call you. And then you'll make trouble only for us, fighting against Apophis."
"Or I could chop off your head," Carter suggested. "That would probably exile you for a good long while."
Set glanced back and forth between us. "Make trouble for you, eh? That is my specialty."
"Swear by your own name and the throne of Ra," She said. "You will leave now and not reappear until you are called."
"Oh, I swear," he said, much too quickly. "By my name and Ra's throne and our mother's starry elbows."
"If you betray us," Sadie warned, "I have your name. I won't show you mercy a second time."
"You always were my favorite sister."
"Shut it."
Sadie gave him one last shock, and then let the bindings dissolve.
Set stood up and flexed his arms. He appeared as a warrior with red armor and red skin, a black, forked beard, and twinkling, cruel eyes; but in the Duat, I saw his other side, a raging inferno just barely contained, waiting to be unleashed and burn everything in its path. He winked at Horus, then pretended to shoot me with a finger gun. "Oh, this will be good. We're going to have so much fun."
"Begone, Evil Day," My sister said.
He turned into a pillar of salt and dissolved.
The snow in the National Mall had melted in a perfect square, the exact size of Set's pyramid. Around the edges, a dozen magicians still lay passed out. The poor dears had started to stir when our portal closed, but the explosion of the pyramid had knocked them all out again. Other mortals in the area had also been affected. An early-morning jogger was slumped on the sidewalk. On nearby streets, cars idled while the drivers took naps over the steering wheels.
Not everyone was asleep, though. Police sirens wailed in the distance, and seeing as how we'd teleported practically into the president's backyard, I knew it wouldn't be long before we had a great deal of heavily armed company.
Carter, Sadie and I ran to the center of the melted square, where Amos and Zia lay crumpled in the grass. There was no sign of Set's throne or the golden coffin, but I tried to push those thoughts out of my mind.
Amos groaned. "What..." His eyes clouded over with terror. "Set...he...he..."
"Rest." I put my hand on his forehead. He was burning with fever. The pain in his mind was so sharp, it cut me like a razor. Sadie copied me and gave him a look of concern.
"Quiet," She whispered. "Hah-ri."
Faint hieroglyphs glowed over his face:
Amos drifted back to sleep, but I knew it was only a temporary fix.
Zia was even worse off. Carter cradled her head and spoke reassuringly about how she would be fine, but she looked bad. Her skin was a strange reddish color, dry and brittle, as if she'd suffered a horrible sunburn. In the grass around her, hieroglyphs were fading—the remains of a protective circle—and I thought I understood what had happened. She'd used her last bit of energy to shield herself and Amos when the pyramid imploded.
"Set?" she asked weakly. "Is he gone?"
"Yes." Carter glanced at me, and I knew we'd be keeping the details to ourselves. "Everything's fine, thanks to you. The secret name worked."
She nodded, satisfied, and her eyes began to close.
"Hey." Carter's voice quavered. "Stay awake. You're not going to leave me alone with Sadie, are you? She's bad company."
Zia tried to smile, but the effort made her wince. "I was...never here, Carter. Just a message—a placeholder."
"Come on. No. That's no way to talk."
"Find her, will you?" Zia said. A tear traced its way down her nose. "She'd...like that...a date at the mall." Her eyes drifted away from him and stared blankly into the sky.
"Zia!" Carter clutched her hand. "Stop that. You can't...You can't just..."
Sadie and I knelt next to him and, my hand touched Zia's face. It was cold as stone. And even though I understood what had happened, I couldn't think of anything to say, or any way to console my brother. He shut his eyes tight and lowered his head.
Then it happened. Along the path of Zia's tear, from the corner of her eye to the base of her nose, Zia's face cracked. Smaller fractures appeared, webbing her skin. Her flesh dried out, hardening...turning to clay.
"Carter," I said.
"What?" he said miserably.
He looked up just as a small blue light drifted out of Zia's mouth and flew into the sky. Carter backed away in shock. "What—what did you do?"
"Nothing," I said. "She's a shabti. She said she wasn't really here. She was just a placeholder."
Carter looked bewildered. But then a small light started to burn in his eyes—a tiny bit of hope. "Then...the real Zia is alive?"
"Iskandar was protecting her," I said. "Like he was me."
"When the spirit of Nephthys joined with the real Zia in London, Iskandar knew she was in danger." Sadie agreed. Iskandar hid her away and replaced her with a shabti. Remember what Thoth said: 'Shabti make excellent stunt doubles?' That's what she was. And Nephthys told me she was sheltered somewhere, inside a sleeping host."
"But where—"
"I don't know," she said. And in Carter's present state, I knew Sadie was too afraid to raise the real question: If Zia had been a shabti all this time, had we ever known her at all? The real Zia had never gotten close to us. She'd never discovered what an incredibly amazing person I was. God forbid, she might not even like Carter.
Carter touched her face and it crumbled to dust. He picked up her wand, which remained solid ivory, but he held it gingerly as if he were afraid it too would dissolve. "That blue light," he began to ramble, "I saw Zia release one in the First Nome, too. Just like the shabti in Memphis—they sent their thoughts back to Thoth. So Zia must've been in contact with her shabti. That's what the light was. They must've been, like, sharing memories, right? She must know what the shabti's been through. If the real Zia is alive somewhere, she might be locked up or in some kind of magic sleep or— We have to find her!"
"Carter. " I said gently. "We-"
Then a familiar voice sent a cold shiver down my back: "What have you done?"
Desjardins was literally fuming. His tattered robes still smoked from battle. (Carter says I shouldn't mention that his pink boxer shorts were showing, but they were!) His staff was aglow, and the whiskers in his beard smoldered. Behind him stood three equally battered magicians, who all looked as if they'd just regained consciousness.
"Oh, good," Sadie muttered. "You're alive."
"You bargained with Set?" Desjardins demanded. "You let him go?"
"We don't answer to you," Carter growled. He stepped forward, hand on his sword, but I put out my arm to hold him back.
"Let Sadie handle it." I whispered.
"Desjardins," my sister said obviously as calmly as she could, "Apophis is rising, in case you missed that part. We need the gods. The House of Life has to relearn the old ways."
"The old ways destroyed us!" he yelled.
"Desjardins." I interrupted.
A year ago, the look in his eyes would've made me tremble. He fairly glowed with rage, and hieroglyphs blazed in the air around him. He was the Chief Lector, and I'd just undone everything the House had worked for since the fall of Egypt. Desjardins was a heartbeat away from turning me into an insect, and the thought should've terrified me.
Instead my only thought was how many people had almost turned me into a hamster. Okay false, my only thought was; I don't like bugs.
"Pride destroyed you," Sadie said. "Greed and selfishness and all of that. It's hard to follow the path of the gods. But it is part of magic. You can't just shut it down."
"You are drunk with power," he snarled. "The gods have possessed you, as they always do. Soon you will forget you are even human. We will fight you and destroy you." Then he glared at Carter. "And you—I know what Horus would demand. You will never reclaim the throne. With my last breath—"
"Save it," She said. Then faced our brother. "You know what we have to do?"
They seemed to have a mental conversation about important things.
"Are you sure?" he asked. "We're leaving ourselves open." He glared at Desjardins. "Just one more good smack with the sword?"
"I'm sure, Carter." Sadie said.
She closed her eyes and seemed to focus.
When she finally opened her eyes, Carter stood next to her looking grief-stricken, holding his Eye of Horus amulet.
Okay. I told Kronos, Our turn.
What can I help you with? He asked.
I need you out of my head. I told him. Especially if you want me to join you. I need to make my own decisions without your input.
You will regret this.
Then he was gone.
Desjardins was so stunned, he momentarily forgot how to speak English. "Ce n'est pas possible. On ne pourrait pas—"
"Yes, we could," Sadie said. "We've given up the gods of our own free will. And you've got a lot to learn about what's possible."
Carter threw down his sword. "Desjardins, I'm not after the throne. Not unless I earn it by myself, and that's going to take time. We're going to learn the path of the gods. We're going to teach others. You can waste time trying to destroy us, or you can help."
The sirens were much closer now. I could see the lights of emergency vehicles coming from several directions, slowly cordoning off the National Mall. We had only minutes before we were surrounded.
Desjardins looked at the magicians behind him, probably gauging how much support he could rally. His brethren looked in awe. One even started to bow to me, then caught himself.
Alone, Desjardins might've been able to destroy us. We were just magicians now—very tired magicians, with hardly any formal training.
Desjardins' nostrils flared. Then he surprised me by lowering his staff. "There has been too much destruction today. But the path of the gods shall remain closed. If you cross the House of Life again..."
"Agreed." I told him.
He glared at me. "I know where you've been, you must give up on the path of the gods. You are not powerful enough."
I stepped towards him and sheathed my knives. "I will never be able to resist the path the House of Life set me on, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try. Despite your anger towards me, you have always been like a father. That will never be gone, but I have finally discovered who I am. Granted I don't like it but I can't change it. Neither can you."
"In honor of our past, I will not punish you, but if you ever challenge me again..."
He let the threat hang in the air. He slammed his staff down, and with a final burst of energy, the four magicians dissolved into wind and gusted away.
I smiled. My memory was returning fully I was beginning to know who I was.
Then Amos groaned and started sitting up. Police cars and sinister-looking black vans blocked the curbs all around us. Sirens blared. A helicopter sliced through the air over the Potomac, closing fast. God only knew what the mortals thought had happened at the Washington Monument, but I didn't want my face on the nightly news. Percy would never stop questioning me.
"Carter, we have to get out of here," Sadie said. "Can you summon enough magic to change Amos into something small—a mouse maybe? We can fly him out."
He nodded, still in a daze. "But Dad...we didn't..."
He looked around helplessly. I knew how he felt. The pyramid, the throne, the golden coffin—all of it was gone. We'd come so far to rescue our father, only to lose him. And Carter's first girlfriend lay at his feet in a pile of pottery shards. That probably didn't help either. (Carter protests that she wasn't really his girlfriend. Oh, please!)
I sighed. We had to stay together. Or we'd all end up in prison.
"First things first," Sadie said. "We have to get Amos to safety."
"Where?" Carter asked.
There was only one place I could think of.
I turned to Sadie. "Come on let's get to the airport. We're all headed back to New York."
Carter
If anybody felt worse than I did, it was Amos. I had just enough magic to turn myself into a falcon and him into a hamster (hey, I was rushed!), but a few miles from the National Mall, he started struggling to change back. I still don't know what Aria did.
Sadie and I were forced to land outside a train station, where Amos turned back into a human and curled into a shivering ball. We tried to talk to him, but he could barely complete a sentence. Aria touched his forehead and muttered something under her breath. Instantly his breathing steadied and his face stopped paling.
Finally we got him into the station. We let him sleep on a bench while Sadie, Aria and I warmed up and watched the news.
According to Channel 5, the whole city of Washington was under lockdown. There'd been reports of explosions and weird lights at the Washington Monument, but all the cameras could show us was a big square of melted snow on the mall, which kind of made for boring video. Experts came on and talked about terrorism, but eventually it became clear that there'd been no permanent damage—just a bunch of scary lights. After a while, the media started speculating about freak storm activity or a rare southern appearance of the Northern Lights. Within an hour, the authorities opened up the city.
"Honestly." Aria asked. "What are they going to come up with next?"
I wished we had Bast with us, because Amos was in no shape to be our chaperone; but we managed to buy tickets for our "sick" uncle and ourselves as far as New York.
I slept on the way, the amulet of Horus clutched in my hand.
We got back to Brooklyn at sunset.
We found the mansion burned out, which we'd expected, but we had nowhere else to go. I knew we'd made the right choice when we guided Amos through the doorway and heard a familiar, "Agh! Agh!"
"Khufu!" Sadie cried.
The baboon tackled her in a hug and climbed onto her shoulders. He picked at her hair, seeing if she'd brought him any good bugs to eat. Then he jumped off and grabbed a half-melted basketball. He grunted at me insistently, pointing to a makeshift basket he'd made out of some burned beams and a laundry basket. It was a gesture of forgiveness, I realized. He had forgiven me for sucking at his favorite game, and he was offering lessons. Looking around, I realized that he'd tried to clean up in his own baboon way, too. He'd dusted off the one surviving sofa, stacked Cheerios boxes in the fireplace, and even put a dish of water and fresh food out for Muffin, who was curled up asleep on a little pillow. In the clearest part of the living room, under an intact section of roof, Khufu had made three separate mounds of pillows and sheets—sleeping places for us.
I got a lump in my throat. Seeing the care that he'd taken getting ready for us, I couldn't imagine a better welcome home present.
"Khufu," I said, "you are one freaking awesome baboon."
"Agh!" he said, pointing to the basketball.
"You want to school me?" I said. "Yeah, I deserve it. Just give us a second to..."
My smile melted when I saw Amos.
He'd drifted over to the ruined statue of Thoth. The god's cracked ibis head lay at his feet. His hands had broken off, and his tablet and stylus lay shattered on the ground. Amos stared at the headless god—the patron of magicians—and I could guess what he was thinking. A bad omen for a homecoming.
"It's okay," I told him. "We're going to make it right."
If Amos heard me, he gave no sign. He drifted over to the couch and plopped down, putting his head in his hands.
"Amos." Air whispered. " I need to speak with you."
He looked up at her and recognition dawned on his face. "You?"
Aria smiled. "Come on, upstairs we go."
She led him up the ruined staircase and out of sight.
Sadie glanced at me uneasily. Then she looked around at the blackened walls, the crumbling ceilings, the charred remains of the furniture.
"Well," she said, trying to sound upbeat. "How about I play basketball with Khufu, and you can clean the house?"
Even with magic, it took us several weeks to put the house back in order. That was just to make it livable. It was hard without Isis and Horus helping, but we could still do magic. It just took a lot more concentration and a lot more time. Every day, I went to sleep feeling as if I'd done twelve hours of hard labor; but eventually we got the walls and ceilings repaired, and cleaned up the debris until the house no longer smelled of smoke.
Aria was a great help, she was always positive and seemed to have a way with stone. She touched the broken pieces of Toth's statue in turn and then whispered under her breath. Instantly it repaired itself but then collapsed with Aria. She woke up later that evening and face palmed herself, then instantly went to work on dinner. After that she went back to mending broken things.
We even managed to fix the terrace and the pool. We brought Amos out to watch as we released the wax crocodile figurine into the water, and Philip of Macedonia sprang to life.
Amos almost smiled when he saw that. Then he sank into a chair on the terrace and stared desolately at the Manhattan skyline.
I began to wonder if he would ever be the same. He'd lost too much weight. His face looked haggard. Most days he wore his bathrobe and didn't even bother to comb his hair.
"He was taken over by Set," Sadie told me one morning, when I mentioned how worried I was. "Do you have any idea how violating that is? His will was broken. He doubts himself and...Well, it may be a long time..."
We tried to lose ourselves in work. We repaired the statue of Thoth, (Aria passed out again) and fixed the broken shabti in the library. I was better at grunt work—moving blocks of stone or heaving ceiling beams into place. Sadie was better at fine details, like repairing the hieroglyphic seals on the doors. Once, she really impressed me by imagining her bedroom just as it had been and speaking the joining spell, hi-nehm. Pieces of furniture flew together out of the debris, and boom!: instant repair job. Of course, Sadie passed out for twelve hours afterward, but still...pretty cool. Slowly but surely, the mansion began to feel like home.
At night I would sleep with my head on a charmed headrest, which mostly kept my ba from drifting off; but sometimes I still had strange visions—the red pyramid, the serpent in the sky, or the face of my father as he was trapped in Set's coffin. Once I thought I heard Zia's voice trying to tell me something from far away, but I couldn't make out the words.
Sadie and I kept our amulets locked in a box in the library. Every morning I would sneak down to make sure they were still there. I would find them glowing, warm to the touch, and I would be tempted—very tempted—to put on the Eye of Horus. But I knew I couldn't. The power was too addictive, too dangerous. I'd achieved a balance with Horus once, under extreme circumstances, but I knew it would be too easy to get overwhelmed if I tried it again. I had to train first, become a more powerful magician, before I would be ready to tap that much power.
One night at dinner, we had a visitor.
Amos had gone to bed early, as he usually did. Khufu was inside watching ESPN with Muffin on his lap. Sadie and I sat exhausted on the deck overlooking the river. Philip of Macedonia floated silently in his pool. Except for the hum of the city, the night was quiet.
Aria gathered the plates from the table and went upstairs to check on Amos. She returned looking glum and muttering to herself. She leaned against the terrace and stared at the distant Manhattan skyline.
I'm not sure how it happened, but one minute we were alone, and the next there was a guy standing at the railing. He was lean and tall, with messed-up hair and pale skin, and his clothes were all black, as if he'd mugged a priest or something. He was probably around sixteen, and even though I'd never seen his face before, I had the weirdest feeling that I knew him.
Sadie stood up so quickly she knocked over her split-pea soup—which is gross enough in the bowl, but running all over the table? Yuck.
"Anubis!" she blurted.
Aria glanced over nodded a hello and stepped back. "Hey Anubis. How's life?"
"Ha-Ha" He shot back. "Very funny."
Anubis? I thought she was kidding, because this guy did not look anything like the slavering jackal-headed god I'd seen in the Land of the Dead. He stepped forward, and my hand crept for my wand.
"Sadie," he said. "Carter. Aria, Would you come with me, please?"
"Sure," Sadie said, her voice a little strangled.
"Hold on," I said. "Where are we going?"
Anubis gestured behind him, and a door opened in the air—a pure black rectangle. "Someone wants to see you."
Sadie took his hand and stepped through into the darkness, which left me no choice but to follow. Aria groaned and unwillingly followed.
The Hall of Judgment had gotten a makeover. The golden scales still dominated the room, but they had been fixed. The black pillars still marched off into the gloom on all four sides. But now I could see the overlay—the strange holographic image of the real world—and it was no longer a graveyard, as Sadie had described. It was a white living room with tall ceilings and huge picture windows. Double doors led to a terrace that looked out over the ocean.
I was struck speechless. I looked at Sadie, and judging from the shock on her face, I guessed she recognized the place too: our house in Los Angeles, in the hills overlooking the Pacific—the last place we'd lived as a family.
"The Hall of Judgment is intuitive," a familiar voice said. "It responds to strong memories."
Aria simply stood there dumbfounded, staring at the source of the sound.
Only then did I notice the throne wasn't empty anymore. Sitting there, with Ammit the Devourer curled at his feet, was our father.
I almost ran to him, but something held me back. He looked the same in many ways—the long brown coat, the rumpled suit and dusty boots, his head freshly shaven and his beard trimmed. His eyes gleamed the way they did whenever I made him proud.
But his form shimmered with a strange light. Like the room itself, I realized, he existed in two worlds. I concentrated hard, and my eyes opened to a deeper level of the Duat.
Dad was still there, but taller and stronger, dressed in the robes and jewels of an Egyptian pharaoh. His skin was a dark shade of blue like the deep ocean.
Anubis walked over and stood at his side, but Sadie and I were a little more cautious.
"Well, come on," Dad said. "I won't bite."
Ammit the Devourer growled as we came close, but Dad stroked his crocodile head and shushed him. "These are my children, Ammit. Behave."
"D-Dad?" I stammered.
Now I want to be clear: even though weeks had passed since the battle with Set, and even though I'd been busy rebuilding the mansion the whole time, I hadn't stopped thinking about my dad for a minute. Every time I saw a picture in the library, I thought of the stories he used to tell me. I kept my clothes in a suitcase in my bedroom closet, because I couldn't bear the idea that our life traveling together was over. I missed him so much I would sometimes turn to tell him something before I forgot that he was gone. In spite of all that, and all the emotion boiling around inside me, all I could think of to say was: "You're blue."
My dad's laugh was so normal, so him, that it broke the tension. The sound echoed through the hall, and even Anubis cracked a smile.
"Goes with the territory," Dad said. "I'm sorry I didn't bring you here sooner, but things have been..." He looked at Anubis for the right word.
"Complicated," Anubis suggested.
"Complicated. I have meant to tell you both how proud I am of you, how much the gods are in your debt—"
"Hang on," Sadie said. She stomped right up to the throne. Ammit growled at her, but Sadie growled back, which confused the monster into silence.
"What are you?" she demanded. "My dad? Osiris? Are you even alive?"
Dad looked at Anubis. "What did I tell you about her? Fiercer than Ammit, I said."
"You didn't need to tell me." Anubis's face was grave. "I've learned to fear that sharp tongue."
Sadie looked outraged. "Excuse me?"
"To answer your question," Dad said, "I am both Osiris and Julius Kane. I am alive and dead, though the term recycled might be closer to the truth. Osiris is the god of the dead, and the god of new life. To return him to his throne—"
"You had to die," I said. "You knew this going into it. You intentionally hosted Osiris, knowing you would die."
I was shaking with anger. I didn't realize how strongly I'd felt about it, but I couldn't believe what my dad had done. "This is what you meant by 'making things right'?"
My dad's expression didn't change. He was still looking at me with pride and downright joy, as if everything I did delighted him—even my shouting. It was infuriating.
"I missed you, Carter," he said. "I can't tell you how much. But we made the right choice. We all did. If you had saved me in the world above, we would have lost everything. For the first time in millennia, we have a chance at rebirth, and a chance to stop chaos because of you."
"There had to be another way," I said. "You could've fought as a mortal, without...without—"
"Carter, when Osiris was alive, he was a great king. But when he died—"
"He became a thousand times more powerful," I said, remembering the story Dad used to tell me.
My father nodded. "The Duat is the foundation for the real world. If there is chaos here, it reverberates in the upper world. Helping Osiris to his throne was a first step, a thousand times more important than anything I could've done in the world above—except being your father. And I am still your father. Your's too Aria."
My eyes stung. I guess I understood what he was saying, but I didn't like it. Sadie looked even angrier than me, but she was glaring at Anubis.
"Sharp tongue?" she demanded.
Dad cleared his throat. "Children, there is another reason I made my choice, as you can probably guess." He held out his hand, and a woman in a black dress appeared next to him. She had golden hair, intelligent blue eyes, and a face that looked familiar. She looked like Sadie.
"Mom," I said.
She gazed back and forth from Sadie to me in amazement, (completely ignoring Aria who looked very pleased about that) as if we were the ghosts. "Julius told me how much you'd grown, but I couldn't believe it. Carter, I bet you're shaving—"
"Mom."
"—and dating girls—"
Aria glanced at me apologetically, like she totally understood how embarrassing that was.
"Mom!" Have you ever noticed how parents can go from the most wonderful people in the world to totally embarrassing in three seconds?
She smiled at me, and I had to fight with about twenty different feelings at once. I'd spent years dreaming of being back with my parents, together in our house in L.A. But not like this: not with the house just an afterimage, and my mom a spirit, and my dad...recycled. I felt like the world was shifting under my feet, turning into sand.
"We can't go back, Carter," Mom said, as if reading my mind. "But nothing is lost, even in death. Do you remember the law of conservation?"
It had been six years since we'd sat together in the living room—this living room, and she'd read me the laws of physics the way most parents read bedtime stories. But I still remembered. "Energy and matter can't be created or destroyed."
"Only changed," my mother agreed. "And sometimes changed for the better."
She took Dad's hand, and I had to admit—blue and ghostly or not—they kind of looked happy.
"Mum." Sadie swallowed. For once, her attention wasn't on Anubis. "Did you really...was that—"
"Yes, my brave girl. My thoughts mixed with yours. I'm so proud of you. And thanks to Isis, I feel like I know you as well." She leaned forward and smiled conspiratorially. "I like chocolate caramels, too, though your grandmum never approved of keeping sweets in the flat."
Sadie broke into a relieved grin. "I know! She's impossible!"
I got the feeling they were going to start chatting for hours, but just then the Hall of Judgment rumbled. Dad checked his watch, which made me wonder what time zone the Land of the Dead was in.
"We should wrap things up," he said. "The others are expecting you."
"Others?" I asked.
"A gift before you go." Dad nodded to Mom.
She stepped forward and handed me a palm-size package of folded black linen. Sadie helped me unwrap it, and inside was a new amulet—one that looked like a column or a tree trunk or...
"Is that a spine?" Sadie demanded.
"It is called a djed," Dad said. "My symbol—the spine of Osiris."
"Yuck," Sadie muttered.
Mom laughed. "It is a bit yuck, but honestly, it's a powerful symbol. Stands for stability, strength—"
"Backbone?" I asked.
"Literally." Mom gave me an approving look, and again I had that surreal shifting feeling. I couldn't believe I was standing here, having a chat with my somewhat dead parents.
Mom closed the amulet into my hands. Her touch was warm, like a living person's. "Djed also stands for the power of Osiris—renewed life from the ashes of death. This is exactly what you will need if you are to stir the blood of the pharaohs in others and rebuild the House of Life."
"The House won't like that," Sadie put in.
"No," Mom said cheerfully. "They certainly won't."
The Hall of Judgment rumbled again.
"It is time," Dad said. "We'll meet again, children. But until then, take care."
"Be mindful of your enemies," Mom added.
"And tell Amos..." Dad's voice trailed off thoughtfully. "Remind my brother that Egyptians believe in the power of the sunrise. They believe each morning begins not just a new day, but a new world."
Before I could figure out what that meant, the Hall of Judgment faded, and we stood with Anubis in a field of darkness.
"I'll show you the way," Anubis said. "It is my job."
He ushered us to a space in the darkness that looked no different from any other. But when he pushed with his hand, a door swung open. The entrance blazed with daylight.
Aria grinned and fist bumped him. Then stepped through the open door.
Anubis bowed formally to me. Then he looked at Sadie with a glint of mischief in his eyes. "It's been...stimulating."
Sadie flushed and pointed at him accusingly. "We're not done, mister. I expect you to look after my parents. And next time I'm in the Land of the Dead, you and I will have words."
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I'll look forward to that."
We stepped through the doorway and into the palace of the gods.
It looked just like Sadie had described from her visions: soaring stone columns, fiery braziers, a polished marble floor, and in the middle of the room, a gold-and-red throne. All around us, gods had gathered. Many were just flashes of light and fire. Some were shadowy images that shifted from animal to human. I recognized a few: Thoth flickered into view as a wild-haired guy in a lab coat before turning into a cloud of green gas; Hathor, the cow-headed goddess, gave me a puzzled look, as if she vaguely recognized me from the Magic Salsa incident. I looked for Bast, but my heart fell. She didn't seem to be in the crowd. In fact, most of the gods I didn't recognize.
"What have we started?" Sadie murmured.
I understood what she meant. The throne room was full of hundreds of gods, major and minor, all darting through the palace, forming new shapes, glowing with power. An entire supernatural army...and they all seemed to be staring at us.
Thankfully, two old friends stood next to the throne. Horus wore full battle armor and a khopesh sword at his side. His kohl-lined eyes—one gold, one silver—were as piercing as ever. At his side stood Isis in a shimmering white gown, with wings of light.
"Welcome," Horus said.
"Um, hi," I said.
"He has a way with words," Isis muttered, which made Sadie snort.
Horus gestured to the throne. "I know your thoughts, Carter, so I think I know what you will say. But I have to ask you one more time. Will you join me? We could rule the earth and the heavens. Ma'at demands a leader."
"Yeah, so I've heard."
"I would be stronger with you as my host. You've only touched the surface of what combat magic can do. We could accomplish great things, and it is your destiny to lead the House of Life. You could be the king of two thrones."
I glanced at Sadie, but she just shrugged. "Don't look at me. I find the idea horrifying."
Horus scowled at her, but the truth was, I agreed with Sadie. All those gods waiting for direction, all those magicians who hated us—the idea of trying to lead them made my knees turn to water.
"Maybe some day," I said. "Much later."
Horus sighed. "Five thousand years, and I still do not understand mortals. But—very well."
He stepped up to the throne and looked around at the assembled gods.
That was when I noticed something.
"Hey." I whispered to Sadie, "Where's Aria?"
She snorted. "She that girl over there talking to that god, she's got brown hair? That's her."
I turned, ignoring all other conversation, and found that Sadie was right. Aria stood off to the side conversing with a woman.
She seemed to be having an argument. She opened her mouth, said something, and the woman cut her off. Aria's arms fell to her sides and her head hung. She gave the woman a curt nod and walked toward us.
"What was that about?" I asked.
"Hush." She said placing her finger over my lips. "Horus is speaking."
...
So main idea; Horus became king, The gods told us we'd receive a gift and we went home.
The next day, we got the gods' gift.
We woke to find that the mansion had been completely repaired down to the smallest detail. Everything we hadn't finished yet—probably another month's worth of work—was done.
The first thing I found were new clothes in my closet, and after a moment's hesitation, I put them on. I went downstairs and found Khufu and Sadie dancing around the restored Great Room. Khufu had a new Lakers jersey and a brand-new basketball. The magical brooms and mops were busy doing their cleaning routine. Sadie looked up at me and grinned—and then her expression changed to shock.
"Carter, what—what are you wearing?"
I came down the stairs, feeling even more self-conscious. The closet had offered me several choices this morning, not just my linen robes. My old clothes had been there, freshly cleaned—a button-down shirt, starched khaki slacks, loafers. But there had also been a third choice, and I'd taken it: some Reeboks, blue jeans, a T-shirt, and a hoodie.
"It's, um, all cotton," I said. "Okay for magic. Dad would probably think I look like a gangster..."
I thought for sure Sadie would tease me about that, and I was trying to beat her to the punch. She scrutinized every detail of my outfit.
Then she laughed with absolute delight. "It's brilliant, Carter. You look almost like a regular teenager! And Dad would think..." She pulled my hoodie over my head. "Dad would think you look like an impeccable magician, because that's what you are. Now, come on. Breakfast is waiting on the patio."
Aria stood on the patio as well, she smiled when she saw me, then went back to her small breakfast of a blueberry muffin. She was dressed casually, jean shorts, an orange T-shirt and an army green denim jacket.
We were just digging in when Amos came outside, and his change of clothes was even more surprising than mine. He wore a crisp new chocolate-colored suit with matching coat and fedora. His shoes were shined, his round glasses polished, his hair freshly braided with amber beads. Sadie and I both stared at him.
"What?" he demanded.
"Nothing," we said in unison. Sadie looked at me and mouthed O-M-G, then went back to her bangers and eggs. I attacked my pancakes. Philip thrashed around happily in his swimming pool.
Amos joined us at the table. He flicked his fingers and coffee magically filled his cup. I raised my eyebrows. He hadn't used magic since the Demon Days.
"I thought I'd go away for a while," he announced. "To the First Nome."
Sadie and I exchanged glances.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked.
Amos sipped his coffee. He stared across the East River as if he could see all the way to Washington, D.C. "They have the best magic healers there. They will not turn away a petitioner seeking aid—even me. I think...I think I should try."
His voice was fragile, like it would crack apart any moment. But still, it was the most he'd said in weeks.
"I think that's brilliant," Sadie offered. "We'll watch after the place, won't we, Carter?"
"Yeah," I said. "Absolutely."
"I may be gone for a while," Amos said. "Treat this as your home. It is your home." He hesitated, as if choosing his next words carefully. "And I think, perhaps, you should start recruiting. There are many children around the world with the blood of the pharaohs. Most do not know what they are. What you two said in Washington—about rediscovering the path of the gods—it may be our only chance."
Sadie got up and kissed Amos on the forehead. "Leave it to us, Uncle. I've got a plan."
"That," I said, "sounds like very bad news."
Amos managed a smile. He squeezed Sadie's hand, then got up and ruffled my hair as he headed inside.
Aria glanced over her shoulder at the skyline. "Carter, Sadie. I need to tell you something."
"What is it?" Sadie asked.
Aria laughed her musical laugh that lightened everyone's mood. "Right to the point huh? Well, you remember yesterday when I was talking to that goddess..."
"Yeah," Sadie said, "So?"
"Well, she told me some things I'd rather not hear."
"Oh."
"A friend of mine needs help, well more like a camp of friends. I should be back by Autumn." She said the last part cheerfully. "At the latest."
"Oh." Sadie said. Suddenly intent on staring at her eggs.
I felt the same way, like we were losing someone all over again. Then a sudden idea hit me. I pulled a piece of paper from my pocket and wrote down the Brooklyn House's phone number.
I handed it to Aria. "Promise to call if you need help."
She smiled. "I swear to the river Styx that I will call if I need help."
I had no idea what that meant, but thunder boomed and seemed to seal our deal.
"Well." She said cheerfully. "I guess I'm off. Bye Ya-Guys!"
She hugged both of us and stepped towards the door. "I promise I'll come back here before Desjardins stirs up any trouble, deal?"
Sadie grinned and gave her a thumbs up. "Got it!"
She smiled and hoisted a backpack off a chair and over her shoulder. Then she left.
I sat down and thought for a minute. Then shook my head.
I took another bite of my pancakes and wondered why—on such a great morning—I still felt sad, and a little incomplete. I suppose with so many things suddenly getting better, the things that were still missing hurt even worse.
Sadie picked at her scrambled eggs. "I suppose it would be selfish to ask for more."
I stared at her, and I realized we were thinking the same thing. When the gods had said a gift...Well, you can hope for things, but as Sadie said, I guess you can't get greedy.
"It's going to be hard to travel if we need to go recruiting," I said cautiously. "Two unaccompanied minors."
Sadie nodded. "No Amos. No responsible adult. I don't think Khufu counts."
And that's when the gods completed their gift.
A voice from the doorway said, "Sounds like you have a job opening."
I turned and felt a thousand pounds of grief drop from my shoulders. Leaning against the door in a leopard-spotted jumpsuit was a dark-haired lady with golden eyes and two very large knives.
"Bast!" Sadie cried.
The cat goddess gave us a playful smile, as if she had all kinds of trouble in mind. "Someone call for a chaperone?"
Well There it is! Aria Kane and the Red Pyramid is officially complete. The next one should be out soon, Well see you later!