Sab lifted both hands in the air, the incense creating a fog bank. “Oh great Amon, accept these offerings and use them to bring your enemies low. These things, true and pure, are established for Amon, Lord of Karnak. Take these divine offerings and fuel your wrath with them.”
With a nod from Sab, Valens placed a small stone jar at the edge of the offering block, next to the fowl pile. He withdrew, pressing his face to the ground and reciting: “Amon-Ra, Lord of Karnak, adorned with his mantle so he can walk on the earth in the form of a mummy…walk the earth in the form of a mummy…”
“What should we do?” Will hissed.
Athanasius had already drawn a vial of holy water from his habit. “We have to disrupt the offering.”
“I have Brother Philip’s Super Soaker in my backpack. I’m ready!”
The abbot returned the holy water bottle to his habit. “Give me the soaker. You just hold on to that staff and follow me.”
“Shouldn’t I face Amon alone? I’m supposed to face him alone.”
“Do you see Amon?” the abbot asked. He waited a moment, and when Will shrugged, he spun the boy around. “Until he appears, you’ll follow me.” Pulling the large water gun from Will’s backpack, Athanasius flipped a switch on its side and raced toward the inner sanctum of Amon.
Something reflective and metallic on the front steps of the Karnak Center drew Tobias Shen’s eye. The two torches on either side of the front door made the metallic objects twinkle. Darkness had conquered the sun and all along Dura Street, no light shone in any window—which only made the sparkling metal more mysterious.
Against Lucille’s protests, Shen went to investigate the shimmering objects. He left Lucille, Bartimaeus, and Leo behind in the cemetery, promising to return shortly. Stealthily creeping past the sandstone rams out front, he neared the front stairs. Strewn along the steps and the walkway were Ammit amulets by the hundreds. Some people had obviously seen Deborah Wilder’s TV special and had come by earlier to discard Sab’s hippo-like charms.
Watching from behind a great Celtic headstone, Aunt Lucille whispered to Leo, “I need you to concentrate on your inner light. I know we haven’t had much chance to practice, dear. But simply think of the light filling your body. Like you did at my house the other day. Breathe in, push the light out and you’ll do fine.”
Leo shoved his wire-framed glasses up the bridge of his nose. “It’s veeery dark out here. I have a question: When can we go home?”
“Hopefully soon. Have patience now. We can’t have you going off unexpectedly. If we need your light, I’ll tell you, okay?”
Bartimaeus’s fingers moved through the air as if he were playing some invisible piano. “Oh, I think we’re gonna need that light for sure. The Darkness is descendin’, Lucille. It’s stirrin’ something fierce now. You’d best get Tobias away from that door.” His brows pulsed weirdly. “We got a battle comin’.”
“Tobias! Tobias!” Lucille half whispered, motioning for him to retreat. “Come back here. Come here!”
But Tobias waved her off, scooping up amulets from the steps. “We should dispose of these. They should be destroyed,” he said, collecting the charms by the handful.
The speed with which Athanasius invaded the inner sanctum and attacked the offerings to Amon stunned Sab and Valens. With a flying kick, he toppled the small jar on the edge of the offering stone. As Tuthmosis’s ashes scattered onto the floor, he used Will’s water gun to spray them while still in midair. Once he landed, he splattered holy water on the birds, the produce, and the blue staff heaped on the hieroglyphed block.
“SARSOUR!” Pothinus Sab screamed in fury, his hands spread wide. “Release Ammit. RELEASE THE DESTROYER!” Sab madly lunged for Moses’s staff, but Will was too quick for him. The boy had already slid along the floor, as if stealing third base, and snatched the staff from the pile of offerings while Sab was focused on the abbot.
Valens rushed Athanasius, who threw down his water gun. Touching his index fingers to his thumbs, he extended his arms toward Valens. A pair of thin blue rays streamed from Athanasius’s fingertips, causing Valens to bend backward. It looked as if invisible hands held Valens by the collarbone and lifted him slightly off the floor. One of the few exorcists in the Brethren, Athanasius had the power to not only draw demonic spirits from humans, but also bind the demons themselves.
Pothinus Sab turned to Will, who now wielded the two staffs. Sab’s hair was gone, as was his goatee. Hairless, he was even creepier than usual. “You will die this night, Will Wilder. The hour of regeneration has come.”
Let’s hope it regenerates your hair, Will thought.
A clanging of chains and a terrible growl rumbled outside the room. “Sarsour! Is Ammit free? RELEASE HIM NOW!” Sab yelled.
The sweaty and frightened little man struggled with a rusty chain in the outer chamber. “I’m trying, Master. He is fitful. Ammit!” Whatever was at the other end of Sarsour’s chain, hidden by the wall, had a mind of its own. “NO, NOT THAT WAY!” Sarsour screamed.
With a screeching thud, the stone wall of the inner sanctum that hid the thing bulged inward. The chained creature repeatedly smashed into the wall nearest the bronze doors. Will’s body convulsed when he felt the force of the beast on the other side of the shifting stone blocks.
Is that Amon? Is that the demon?
Transfixed by the dust flying from the breaks in the wall, Will braced himself for the next crash. Athanasius maintained his focus on Valens. In Will’s confusion, Sab yanked the Staff of Moses from Will’s hand and threw it on top of the plucked geese.
“You want the staff?” Sab taunted Will. “Then you’ll have to go after it. It belongs to the great Amon.” Sab pulled a lever on the wall and the entire offering stone flipped, sending the fruit, the birds, and the staff plunging into a dark hole that had opened in the floor.
Will dove for the rod, but it was gone before he could grasp it. Sab cackled as a stone slid into place, closing the hole in the floor. “The Darkness will soon consume you. Are you afraid of the dark, Will Wilder? You should be.” For an instant Sab’s head elongated into the snapping hateful raven Will had seen on Mr. Bobbit’s face. The demon’s spirit was alive in Sab.
A ferocious roar and the clinking of iron snapped all heads toward the outer chamber. In a blur, an enormous creature galloped around the rectangular pool of the entry hall. Bashing into columns, it moved so quickly Will couldn’t make out its features. He only knew it was huge and loud.
“Is that Amon? Is it?” Will poked the thick end of Aaron’s staff at Sab. “Tell me!”
Sab cocked his bald head to the side, a toothy smile cracking his face. “It is nice to see you so angry. Amon is surely with us.” He pointed a finger toward the entry hall. “But Amon is far, far worse than that.”
Will jammed the staff into Sab’s belly, causing him to double over. “Is it YOU? Are you Amon? What is your true name? Do you feed on ‘the fattened geese’?” Will was at once scared and enraged, sweat pouring from under his pith helmet.
“How ridiculous you are, Wilder,” Sab wheezed. “The sacred geese of Amon would never pass my lips. They are his alone.”
In the outer chamber, Ammit began smashing through something wooden and hard. The noise of wood splintering fell like a sharp pick on Will’s ears.
Across the chamber, Valens passed out against the wall under the force of Athanasius’s rays. The abbot now turned to Will and Sab.
“Tell me where Amon is.” Will raised the staff high, ready to crush Sab’s head with it. “Tell me! TELL ME!”
“Self-mastery, William,” the abbot whispered sternly. “Forsake wrath and you shall find the truth.”
Will’s face relaxed. With some shame, he lowered the staff. The crashing of wood in the outer room grew more intense.
“Do you hear that? Do you?” Sab asked, gasping for air, holding his bruised abdomen. “That is the sweet sound of regeneration. Ammit shall seek out all who wear the amulet and devour them. Then�
�peace shall reign, yes?” He coughed out a ragged laugh. Before he could speak again, Abbot Athanasius hit him with the wispy blue ray from his fingertips and began mouthing Latin words.
CRRRRAAACK!
The main door of the Karnak Center buckled.
CRRRRAAACK!
Ammit’s relentless pounding and scratching created a hole. Sarsour yelled from the outer chamber, “He is nearly free, Master! Nearly free!”
Sab could not respond. Purple plumes billowed from his open mouth, his head tilted to the sky. Sab’s limbs jerked violently as the spirit of the demon escaped his body.
Will ran to the doorway of the inner sanctum, watching what appeared to be a super-sized hippopotamus demolish the front door. In the limited light, he could only see the rear end of the creature.
“Wh-what should we do?” Will asked the abbot.
“A scream for help might be in order,” the abbot said, coolly blasting away at Sab. “Let me finish with this one and then we’ll root out the demon.”
Will understood his meaning. Running toward the side door to alert Aunt Lucille and the others, Will caught a glimpse of Sarsour struggling to control Ammit’s chain in the entry hall. The little man was so preoccupied with the creature that he completely missed Will.
“Aunt Lucille!” Will shouted out the side door into the cemetery. “Ammit is coming—through the front door.” Not that she needed the warning.
The front doorway of the Karnak Center had been spitting wood chips and metal for several minutes while Ammit pounded it from the inside.
Tobias Shen, his hands filled with amulets, ran into the street to create some distance between himself and whatever was coming out.
“Get ready,” Bartimaeus said, his face pinched, his fingers still straining at the air. “So it’s a Fomorii—a big one. The hatred of this thing is intense.”
Aunt Lucille squatted down, locking eyes with Leo. “All right, now I need you to focus. Breathe, and let your light shine.”
Leo, clearly worried, puckered his thick lips. “Do I throw my arms out or keep them tight?”
“Throw them out as wide as you can and let ’er rip, dear,” Aunt Lucille said, pulling back the sleeves of her silk jacket. “I’ll be ready for him too. On my signal, okay?”
Leo gave her two thumbs-up.
The beast burst through the shattered doors of the Karnack Center. The sheer size of the thing shocked Tobias Shen. The front of its body looked to be that of a gargantuan lion with massive claws, but its haunches were those of a prehistoric hippo. It had a red reptilian face with an elongated snout surrounded by a great mane of unruly hair. Ammit stood on the top step growling in fury. Each time it opened its crocodile-like mouth, irregular razor-sharp teeth flashed in the torchlight. Nostrils flaring, it turned its massive head left to right.
Sarsour tentatively sidled up to the creature. “Time to feed, Ammit. Crush the bones of those who wear your image. Devour their souls.” He frantically pulled a pin on the metal collar at the creature’s neck, releasing it from the chain. Then he backed away fearfully. “He is free, Master. The great servant of Amon is free,” Sarsour rasped into the broken entryway.
Tobias Shen remained completely still in the darkness of the street. He stared down at the hundreds of amulets in his hands, knowing that holding them sealed his fate. He considered casting them aside and running, but he feared it could jeopardize the safety of his friends. Motionless, he held his ground—offering himself as a willing decoy for Ammit’s rage.
“All right, Leo, ignite. NOW,” Aunt Lucille urged her great-nephew in the cemetery.
Leo drew a deep breath and tightened his eyes in concentration. He shook from the effort.
Ammit lowered its snout, two beady green eyes locked on the amulets in the street. The creature’s front legs bent low, preparing to spring at the victim it could sense in the darkness.
“Concentrate, Leo,” Aunt Lucille begged, her voice higher than usual. “Show us your light.”
Leo strained, but his body did not illuminate in the slightest.
“Come on, Leo!” Aunt Lucille said, slapping her thighs in frustration.
The beast was off the front steps and tearing through the reflecting pool out front. Shen did not wait for the thing to reach him. He dropped a few of the amulets, clutched the remainder, and sprinted onto the lawn toward the Karnak Center.
Ammit hit the street, stopping suddenly, its claws ripping into the asphalt. After sniffing the amulets on the ground, the great reptilian head popped side to side. Spotting Shen, the Fomorii pursued him with astounding speed, crashing into one of the sandstone rams in front of the building.
Tobias serpentined between the other statues out front, Ammit close behind. The weaving disorienting the creature. Repeatedly zigzagging after his prey, Ammit lost patience and just demolished the three statues nearest the front entrance. By the time the last statue toppled over in pieces, Tobias had somersaulted onto the top step of the Karnak Center. But as he neared the wrecked door, Sarsour pulled a knife on him.
Hunching down in the cemetery, Bartimaeus told Leo, “I can’t see nothin’ in this darkness. But I know Tobias is in trouble and unless you start to glow, little man, this is gonna get reeeeal ugly. So TURN YA LIGHT ON!” he yelled.
Leo was so startled by Mr. Bart’s tone that he could feel the glow surging into his hands and face.
On the front porch of the center, Tobias elbowed the knife out of the tiny henchman’s hands. In one swift movement, he necklaced Sarsour with hundreds of amulets before bounding off the porch toward the graveyard.
Horrified, Sarsour ripped at the charms around his neck. He popped a few of the chains, throwing them as far as he could. But Ammit rose up from the edge of the porch like a tidal wave, falling on him all at once. The creature’s jaws viciously chomped on Sarsour, finishing him in seconds. With broken chains and crushed amulets hanging from its stained teeth, Ammit searched the darkness for the next victim.
Leo’s skin shimmered in the cemetery. He pressed his small palms together tightly, just as Aunt Lucille had taught him.
Ammit spotted the gleaming light between the headstones and sprang from its perch. Roaring like a T. rex entering a steakhouse, it charged toward the glow.
“Lucille, you may have to blast the beast,” Shen said, crouching next to his friends.
“I don’t think I can hold it. This is not your average Fomorii.”
After nervously watching Leo illuminate from penlight to lamp wattage, Bartimaeus turned to the creature. “Somebody better do somethin’ ’cause that thing’s hungry and it don’t look like the appetizer satisfied him. He’s fixin’ on having a main course.”
Ammit swiftly covered the lawn of the Karnak Center and closed in on the de Plancy Cemetery.
Aunt Lucille couldn’t let the creature get any closer. Leo was still not at his full radiance and if she waited any longer, it might cost a life or the lives of the whole town—something she could not permit. “Tobias, when I hit Ammit, you run around back. Strike it from the rear,” Lucille ordered in her rat-a-tat style. “Leo, Bart, behind me.”
She made a triangle with her index fingers and thumbs, holding her hands against her chest.
Ammit leapt into the air to pounce upon all four of them. The huge lion paws splayed open, its reptilian mouth agape. While the creature was in midflight, Leo’s skin lit up with such intensity that everyone had to shield their eyes. He opened his arms, unleashing a white radiance, like a hundred stadium lights in all directions. The incandescence paralyzed the creature, suspending it in midair. Protected by his sunglasses, only Bartimaeus could see Ammit floating before them.
“I’ve heard of keeping someone dangling, but that is ridic-u-lous,” Bart said with a laugh. “Keep it comin’, boy.”
Lucille released a red-and-white ray from the triangle of her hands that seared into Ammit’s furry chest. “Stay right there, Leo. Just a little longer,” Aunt Lucille said through tight lips. Her red be
am cut into the creature. Still, Ammit clawed at the air, its hippo hindquarters kicking in a desperate struggle to break free. A look of fear, then utter confusion filled its green eyes seconds before it exploded into a murky olive mist.
Leo gently touched his hands together and his inner light dimmed. A smile of satisfaction lingered on his round face. “Did I do good?” he asked.
“Oh, you did better than good, Leo,” Aunt Lucille said, hugging him hard. “You not only dispelled the darkness, but you also managed to turn your light off.”
Tobias Shen did not join the celebration. “I’m going inside to check on Will and the abbot. You all remain here.”
“Uh-uh,” Bartimaeus said, throwing his crutches out. “If you go, we all go. That’s the way this team rolls, right?”
“Right!” Aunt Lucille and Leo said in unison.
Abbot Athanasius proposed that he and Will hunt the demon in the basement of the Karnak Center. He figured if Sab dumped the offering to Amon through the floor of the inner sanctum upstairs, something must be beneath.
Will sneezed as they descended the rickety wooden steps. In the damp hallway of the basement, leading to the space directly under the inner sanctum, they were confronted by a fairly new sandstone wall. A crude etching of Amon with his plumed crown was carved into the center. A thick, yard-long slit along the bottom of the wall seemed to be some kind of air vent. Small bones and browned meat were scattered near the opening.
“We’ve got to”—AH-AH-CHOO!—“get in there,” Will said, indicating the wall.
“And how do you propose we break through stone?” the abbot asked nonchalantly, holding his candle.
Will shrugged, scratching the side of his head with Aaron’s staff.
“There’s an idea,” Athanasius said, tapping his index finger on the rod. “You could give the staff a try. Moses used his to liberate water from a stone—why not a demon?”
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