“Yes, hullo, boys,” I muttered. “Lovely to see you. Excuse me.”
I followed Carter and Zia to the fiery throne. Ra gave us a toothless grin. He was still as old and wrinkly as ever, but something seemed different about his eyes. Before, his gaze had always slid over me as if I were part of the scenery. Now, he actually focused on my face.
He held out a plate of macaroons and chocolate biscuits, which were a bit melted from the heat of his throne. “Cookies? Wheee!”
“Uh, thanks.” Carter took a macaroon.
Naturally, I opted for the chocolate. I hadn’t eaten a proper meal since we’d left our father’s court.
Ra set down the platter and wobbled to his feet. Bes tried to help, but Ra waved him off. He tottered toward Zia.
“Zia,” he warbled happily, as if singing a nursery rhyme. “Zia, Zia, Zia.”
With a jolt, I realized it was the first time I’d heard him use her actual name.
He reached out to touch her scarab amulet. Zia backed away nervously. She glanced at Carter for reassurance.
“It’s okay,” Carter promised.
She took a deep breath. She unclasped her necklace and pressed it into the old man’s hands. A warm glow expanded from the scarab, enveloping both Zia and Ra in a brilliant golden light.
“Good, good,” Ra said. “Good…”
I expected the old god to get better. Instead, he began to crumble.
It was one of the most alarming things I’d seen in a very alarming day. First his ears fell off and melted to dust. Then his skin started turning to sand.
“What’s happening?” I cried. “Shouldn’t we do something?”
Carter’s eyes widened with horror. His mouth opened, but no words came out.
Ra’s smiling face dissolved. His arms and legs cracked apart like a desiccated sand sculpture. His particles scattered across the River of Night.
Bes grunted. “That was fast.” He didn’t seem particularly shocked. “Usually it takes longer.”
I stared at him. “You’ve seen this before?”
Bes gave me a crooked grin. “Hey, I took my turns working on the sun barque in the old days. We’ve all seen Ra go through his cycle. But it’s been a long, long time. Look.”
He pointed at Zia.
The scarab had disappeared from her hands, but golden light still radiated around her like a full-body halo. She turned toward me with a brilliant smile. I’d never seen her so at ease, so pleased.
“I see now.” Her voice was much richer, a chorus of tones descending in octaves through the Duat. “It’s all about balance, isn’t it? My thoughts and his. Or is it mine and hers…?”
She laughed like a child on her first bike ride. “Rebirth, at last! You were right, Sadie and Carter! After so many eons in the darkness, I am finally reborn through Zia’s compassion. I’d forgot what it is like to be young and powerful.”
Carter stepped back. I couldn’t blame him. The memory of Walt and Anubis merging was still fresh in my mind, so I had a sense what Carter was feeling; it was more than a little creepy hearing Zia describe herself in the third person.
I lowered my vision deeper into the Duat. In Zia’s place stood a tall man in leather and bronze armor. In some ways, he still looked like Ra. He was still bald. His face was still wrinkled and weathered with age, and he had the same kindly smile (only with teeth). Now, though, his posture was straight. His body rippled with muscles. His skin glowed like molten gold. He was the world’s buffest, most golden grandpa.
Bes knelt. “My lord Ra.”
“Ah, my small friend.” Ra ruffled the dwarf god’s hair. “Rise! It’s good to see you.”
At the bow, Sobek came to attention, holding his long iron staff like a rifle. “Lord Ra! I knew you would return.”
Ra chuckled. “Sobek, you old reptile. You would snap me up for dinner if you thought you could get away with it. Horus and Isis kept you in line?”
Sobek cleared his throat. “As you say, my king.” He shrugged. “I can’t help my nature.”
“No matter,” Ra said. “We’ll need your strength soon enough. Are we approaching sunrise?”
“Yes, my king.” Sobek pointed ahead of us.
I saw light at the end of the tunnel—literally. As we neared the end of the Duat, the River of Night widened. The exit gates stood about a kilometer ahead, flanked by statues of the sun god. Past that, daylight glowed. The river turned to clouds and poured into the morning sky.
“Very good,” Ra said. “Steer us to Giza, Lord Sobek.”
“Yes, my king.” The croc god thrust his iron staff into the water, poling us along like a gondolier.
Carter still hadn’t moved. The poor boy stared at the sun god with a mixture of fascination and shock.
“Carter Kane,” Ra said with affection, “I know this is difficult for you, but Zia cares for you greatly. Nothing about her feelings has changed.”
I coughed. “Ah…request? Please don’t kiss him.”
Ra laughed. His image rippled, and I saw Zia in front of me again.
“It’s all right, Sadie,” she promised. “Now would not be the time.”
Carter turned awkwardly. “Um…I’ll just…be over there.” He bumped into the mast, then staggered toward the stern of the boat.
Zia knit her brow in concern. “Sadie, go take care of him, will you? We’ll be reaching the mortal world soon. I must stay vigilant.”
For once, I didn’t argue. I went to check on my brother.
He was sitting by the tiller in crash position, his head between his knees.
“All right?” I asked. Stupid question, I know.
“She’s an old man,” he muttered. “The girl I like is a buff old man with a voice deeper than mine. I kissed her on the beach, and now…”
I sat next to him. The glowing orbs fluttered around us in excitement as the ship approached the daylight.
“Kissed her, eh?” I said. “Details, please.”
I thought he might feel better if I could get him talking. I’m not sure if it worked, but at least it got his head out from between his knees. He told me about his journey with Zia through the serapeum, and the destruction of the Egyptian Queen.
Ra—I mean Zia—stood at the bow between Sobek and Bes, very carefully not looking back at us.
“So you told her it was all right,” I summed up. “You encouraged her to help Ra. And now you’re having second thoughts.”
“Do you blame me?” he asked.
“We’ve both hosted gods ourselves,” I said. “It doesn’t have to be permanent. And she’s still Zia. Besides, we’re heading into battle. If we don’t survive, do you want to spend your last few hours pushing her away?”
He studied my expression. “What happened to Walt?”
Ah…touché. At times, it seemed that Carter knew my secret name as well as I knew his.
“I…I don’t know exactly. He’s alive, but only because—”
“He’s hosting Anubis,” Carter finished.
“You knew?”
He shook his head. “Not until I saw that look on your face. But it makes sense. Walt has a knack for…whatever it is. That gray obliteration touch. Death magic.”
I couldn’t answer. I’d come back here to comfort Carter and reassure him that everything would be all right. Now, somehow, he’d managed to turn the tables.
He put his hand briefly on my knee. “This could work, sis. Anubis can keep Walt alive. Walt could live a normal life.”
“You call that normal?”
“Anubis has never had a human host. This is his chance to have an actual body, to be flesh and blood.”
I shivered. “Carter, it isn’t like Zia’s situation. She can separate at any time.”
“So let me get this straight,” Carter said. “The two guys you liked—one who was dying and one who was off-limits because he’s a god—are now one guy, who isn’t dying and isn’t off-limits. And you’re complaining.”
“Don’t make me sound
ridiculous!” I shouted. “I’m not ridiculous!”
The three gods looked back at me. All right. Fine. I did sound ridiculous.
“Look,” Carter said, “let’s agree to freak out about this later, okay? Assuming we don’t die.”
I took a shaky breath. “Deal.”
I helped my brother up. Together we joined the gods at the bow as the sun boat emerged from the Duat. The River of Night disappeared behind us, and we sailed across the clouds.
The Egyptian landscape spread out red and gold and green in the dawn. To the west, sandstorms swirled across the desert. To the east, the Nile snaked its way through Cairo. Directly below us, at the edge of the city, three pyramids rose on the plains of Giza.
Sobek struck his staff against the bow of the ship. He shouted like a herald: “At last, Ra has truly returned! Let his people rejoice! Let his throngs of worshippers assemble!”
Perhaps Sobek said that as a formality, or to suck up to Ra, or possibly just to make the old sun god feel worse. Whatever the case, nobody down below was assembling. Definitely nobody was rejoicing.
I’d seen this vista many times, but something was wrong. Fires burned across the city. The streets seemed strangely deserted. There were no tourists, no humans at all around the pyramids. I’d never seen Giza so empty.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
Sobek hissed in disgust. “I should have known. The weak humans are in hiding, or scared away because of the unrest in Egypt. Apophis has planned this well. His chosen battleground will be clear of mortal annoyances.”
I shivered. I’d heard about the troubles in Egypt lately, along with all the strange natural disasters, but I hadn’t thought of it as part of Apophis’s plan.
If this was his chosen battleground…
I focused more closely on the plains of Giza. Peering into the Duat, I realized the area wasn’t empty after all. Encircling the base of the Great Pyramid was an enormous serpent formed from a swirling tornado of red sand and darkness. His eyes were burning points of light. His fangs were forks of lightning. Wherever he touched, the desert boiled, and the pyramid itself shook with a horrible resonance. One of the oldest structures in human history was about to crumble.
Even from high above, I could feel the presence of Apophis. He radiated panic and fear so strongly, I could sense the mortals across Cairo cowering in their homes, afraid to go out. The whole land of Egypt was holding its breath.
As we watched, Apophis reared his massive cobra head. He struck at the desert floor, biting a house-sized crater in the sand. Then he recoiled as if he’d been stung, and hissed with anger. At first, I couldn’t tell what he was fighting. I called on Isis’s bird-of-prey sight and spotted a small lithe figure in a leopard-skin leotard, knives flashing in both hands as she leaped with inhuman agility and speed, striking at the serpent and evading his bite. All by herself, Bast was holding Apophis at bay.
My mouth tasted like old pennies. “She’s alone. Where are the others?”
“They await the pharaoh’s orders,” Ra said. “Chaos has left them divided and confused. They will not march to battle without a leader.”
“Then lead them!” I demanded.
The sun god turned. His form shimmered, and for a moment I saw Zia in front of me instead. I wondered if she would blast me to cinders. I had a feeling that would be quite easy for her now.
“I will face my old enemy,” she said calmly, still with Ra’s voice. “I won’t let my loyal cat fight alone. Sobek, Bes—attend me.”
“Yes, my king,” Sobek said.
Bes cracked his knuckles. His chauffeur’s outfit vanished, replaced by only his Dwarf Pride Speedo. “Chaos…get ready to meet Ugly.”
“Wait,” Carter said. “What about us? We’ve got the serpent’s shadow.”
The ship was descending rapidly now, coming in for a landing just south of the pyramids.
“First things first, Carter.” Zia pointed to the Great Sphinx, which stood about three hundred meters from the pyramids. “You and Sadie must help your uncle.”
Between the Sphinx’s paws, a trail of smoke rose from a tunnel entrance. My heart missed a beat. Zia had once told us how that tunnel was sealed to keep archaeologists from finding their way into the First Nome. Obviously, the tunnel had been forced open.
“The First Nome is about to fall,” Zia said. Her form shifted again, and it was the sun god standing before me. I really wished he/she/they would make up their mind.
“I will hold off Apophis as long as I can,” Ra said. “But if you don’t help your uncle and your friends immediately, there will be no one left to save. The House of Life will crumble.”
I thought about poor Amos and our young initiates, surrounded by a mob of rebel magicians. We couldn’t let them be slaughtered.
“She’s right,” I said. “Er, he’s right. Whichever.”
Carter nodded reluctantly. “You’ll need these, Lord Ra.”
He offered the sun god the crook and flail, but Ra shook his head. Or Zia shook her head. Gods of Egypt, this is confusing!
“When I told you the gods waited for their pharaoh,” Ra said, “I meant you, Carter Kane, the Eye of Horus. I am here to fight my old enemy, not to assume the throne. That is your destiny. Unite the House of Life, rally the gods in my name. Never fear, I will hold Apophis until you come.”
Carter stared at the crook and flail in his hands. He looked every bit as terrified as he had when Ra had crumbled to sand.
I couldn’t blame him. Carter had just been ordered to assume the throne of creation and lead an army of magicians and gods into battle. A year ago, even six months ago, the idea of my brother’s being given that kind of responsibility would’ve horrified me as well.
Strangely, I didn’t mind it now. Thinking of Carter as the pharaoh was actually comforting. I’m sure I’ll regret saying this, and I’m sure Carter will never let me forget it, but the truth was I’d been relying on my brother ever since we’d moved to Brooklyn House. I’d come to depend on his strength. I trusted him to make the right decisions, even when he didn’t trust himself. When I had learned his secret name, I’d seen one very clear trait woven into his character: leadership.
“You’re ready,” I told him.
“Indeed,” Ra agreed.
Carter looked up, a bit stunned, but I suppose he could tell I wasn’t teasing him—not this time.
Bes punched him in the shoulder. “’Course you’re ready, kid. Now, stop wasting time and go save your uncle!”
Looking at Bes, I tried not to get teary-eyed. I’d already lost him once.
As for Ra, he seemed so confident, but still he was confined to the form of Zia Rashid. She was a strong magician, yes, but she was new to this hosting business. If she wavered even slightly, or overextended herself…
“Good luck, then.” Carter swallowed. “I hope…”
He faltered. I realized the poor boy was trying to say good-bye to his girlfriend, possibly for the last time, and he couldn’t even kiss her without kissing the sun god.
Carter began to change shape. His clothes, his pack, even the crook and flail melted into plumage. His form shrank until he was a brown-and-white falcon. Then he spread his wings and dove off the side of the boat.
“Oh, I hate this part,” I muttered.
I called on Isis and invited her in: Now. It’s time to act as one.
Immediately her magic flowed into me. It felt as if someone had switched on enough hydroelectric generators to light up a nation and channeled all that power straight into me. I turned into a kite (the bird) and soared into the air.
For once, I had no problem turning back to human. Carter and I rendezvoused at the feet of the Great Sphinx and studied the newly blasted tunnel entrance. The rebels hadn’t been too subtle. Stone blocks the size of cars had been reduced to rubble. The surrounding sand had blackened and melted to glass. Either Sarah Jacobi’s crew had used a ha-di spell or several sticks of dynamite.
“This tunnel…�
� I said. “Doesn’t the other end open just across from the Hall of Ages?”
Carter nodded grimly. He pulled out the crook and flail, which were now glowing with ghostly white fire. He plunged into the darkness. I summoned my staff and wand and followed him inside.
As we descended, we saw evidence of battle. Explosions had scorched the walls and steps. One portion of the ceiling had buckled. Carter was able to clear a path with the strength of Horus, but as soon as we were through, the tunnel collapsed behind us. We wouldn’t be exiting that way.
Below us, I heard the sounds of combat—divine words being cast; fire, water, and earth magic clashing. A lion roared. Metal clanged on metal.
A few meters farther, and we found the first casualty. A young man in a tattered gray military uniform was propped against the wall, holding his stomach and wheezing painfully.
“Leonid!” I cried.
My Russian friend was pale and bloody. I put my hand on his forehead. His skin was cold.
“Below,” he gasped. “Too many. I try—”
“Stay here,” I said, which I realized was silly, since he could hardly move. “We’ll be back with help.”
He nodded bravely, but I looked at Carter and knew we were thinking the same thing. Leonid might not last that long. His uniform coat was soaked with blood. He kept his hand over his gut, but he’d clearly been savaged—either by claws or knives or some equally horrible magic.
I cast a Slow spell on Leonid, which would at least steady his breathing and stem the flow of blood, but it wouldn’t help much. The poor boy had risked his life to escape St. Petersburg. He’d come all the way to Brooklyn to warn me about the impending attack. Now he’d tried to defend the First Nome against his former masters, and they’d cut him down and walked right over him, leaving him to suffer a lingering death.
“We will be back,” I promised again.
Carter and I stumbled on.
We reached the bottom of the steps and were instantly thrown into battle. A shabti lion leaped at my face.
Isis reacted faster than I could have. She gave me a single word to speak: “Fah!”
And the hieroglyph for Release shimmered in the air:
The lion shrank to a wax statuette and bounced harmlessly off my chest.
The Complete Kane Chronicles Page 102