“Then find someone else to do it.” Her bracelets jingled as she jabbed a finger at him. “Just get me a crocodile. Now!”
“Yes, my lady.” The Keeper scuttled toward the door.
Ahmose watched in envy. “Mother, can I help him? Please?”
“No, Ahmose.” She pulled him close. “Pharaoh is coming soon, and we must be prepared.” She smoothed his hair with restless fingers. “You know what to do.”
“Yes, Mother.” With a quick, miserable glance at Lady Satiah, he added, “But won’t Pharaoh be angry when he finds out about Dedi?”
“I will handle it,” Lady Satiah told him.
“But what if he blames us?”
“Do not concern yourself about that,” Lady Satiah said. “You are Pharaoh’s son, and such worries are beneath you. Remember, all things are possible—if you play your part well. And then Pharaoh won’t neglect you anymore.” She tweaked a stray lock of his hair.
Ahmose flinched.
Behind them, the Keeper pushed open the gates to the landing.
“Quick, Ra!” Khepri whispered. “To the crocodiles!”
I dashed after the Keeper and followed him out.
* * *
On the landing itself, all was chaos. The floodwaters had swallowed the lower piers, and workmen were hauling barrels and small boats out of the river’s reach. Other men were repairing a damaged gangplank. Armed with spears, Hormin and Qen stood guard against the many crocodiles swimming dangerously close.
“Get me one little baby crocodile,” the Keeper begged Hormin and Qen. “I’ll find you a net.”
“Not on your life,” Hormin sniffled.
“Yeah,” Qen agreed. “There’s a limit to what we’ll do for you.”
“Keep your mind on the job,” Hormin warned Qen. “Don’t let him distract you.”
“I only need a small one.” The Keeper pointed at an enormous crocodile, lying in wait in the floodwaters. “Smaller than that one’s snout.”
The crocodile lunged upward, aiming at the Keeper.
“Watch out!” Hormin hauled the Keeper out of danger. “You nearly lost your foot there. Didn’t you see him coming?”
Shaking, the Keeper knelt down and touched his toes, as if checking to make sure they were all there. “I…I didn’t think he’d attack me. Animals usually sense I’m their friend.”
“You lousy kidnapper!” the crocodile roared. “Come out here and fight. I’ll bite both your feet off!”
Khepri and I recognized the crocodile at the same moment he recognized us.
“It’s the Admiral!” Khepri exclaimed.
I leaped to the top of the nearest wall so I could see his scaly head better. He looked faster in the water than he had on the mudbank, and more dangerous, too.
“Where’s our prince?” the Admiral snapped at me.
“Where’s ours?” I countered.
“You first.” The Admiral’s heavy tail churned the waters.
I stood my ground. “No, you.”
“Tell me what you know, or you’ll regret it!” the Admiral growled. “I’m getting very hungry…”
Did that mean he was holding Dedi hostage?
“Er…” I stalled, hoping Khepri would come to my rescue.
Tipping forward to advise me, Khepri lost his balance. “Raaaaaaaaaaaa!” he cried. “Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!”
I flung a paw out to stop him, but it was too late.
Khepri hurtled toward the raging floodwaters—and the Admiral’s open mouth.
CHAPTER 23
Plan B
You’ve probably noticed that cats are geniuses at falling. Pharaoh’s Cat, in particular. I twist in the air. I turn somersaults. And I always land on my feet. (Well, almost always.)
Beetles are not geniuses. They tend to land on their backs. Fortunately, Khepri had picked up a few tricks from me. Sailing through the air, he did a double somersault and a backflip, and he landed behind the Admiral’s left eye.
“Ugh! It’s a bug! Get off me, you dung-eater! The Admiral tried to shake Khepri loose, but my friend clung to his scaly skin.
“Attaboy!” I called out. “Hang in there, buddy!”
The Admiral stopped twisting. Battle won, I thought. But then I got a good look at his cold, golden-green eyes.
“Tell me everything you know about Sobek Junior,” the Admiral ordered me. “Or I’ll submerge.”
Khepri gasped. Some beetles are excellent swimmers, I’ve been told. Not Khepri.
“I’m sinking,” the crocodile warned. His tail vanished under the floodwaters, and then most of his spine did, too.
“Raaaaaaaaaaa!” Khepri wailed.
“This is it.” The Admiral hovered just above the waterline. “Talk, or the beetle gets it!”
“Okay, okay,” I said. “I’ll tell you everything I know. The princes were together, just before dawn. We know that. And our prince took your prince out of his cage—”
“Your prince stole our prince?” The Admiral raised his head, enraged.
“He didn’t steal him,” I explained. “He was trying to help him—”
The Admiral wasn’t listening. “Okay, that does it!” he shouted, so loudly that every crocodile on the river could hear him. “It’s time for Plan B.”
Khepri’s chirp was so high it was almost a squeak. “Plan B?”
“Plan Break-in!” the Admiral roared. As dozens of crocodiles dived deep underwater, he lunged for the landing, then fell back with a huge splash, soaking me.
“Khepri!” I shrieked.
“Right here!” My buddy flung himself onto me. “I made the leap just in time.”
Surfacing, the Admiral let out a bellow that sounded like a battle cry. Every remaining crocodile on the water turned toward him, echoing the call. The Nile itself seemed to shudder, and I could have sworn that the floodwaters rose higher.
As Khepri and I watched in horror, the crocodiles surged toward the landing, hurling their bodies halfway out of the water, pale bellies twisting. The floodwaters were so high that they didn’t have far to jump, and two of them made it. Jaws wide, they padded toward the terrified humans.
Qen threw his spear, but it fell short.
Holding tight to his, Hormin shouted, “Run for your lives!”
The screaming workmen didn’t need to be told. The ones repairing the gangplank let it go. When it fell halfway into the water, more crocodiles raced up it, including the Admiral, who called out orders. “Take back the palace—and find our prince!”
“Let’s get out of here, Ra!” Khepri panted.
Easier said than done. All around me, people were shrieking and stumbling over one another. I saw Qen fall near the water’s edge.
I tried to snake through the panicked feet of the crowd, but it was impossible. “We’ll never get out of here alive!” I wailed.
And then, above the uproar, I heard Pharaoh.
At first I thought it must be a dream. But when I leaped up onto a stack of barrels, I saw a royal barge coming down the Nile. Standing tall at the prow was Pharaoh, his face as fierce as Horus, the falcon god.
“Pharaoh’s here?” I gasped. “Already?”
“But how—?” Khepri wondered aloud.
“Shhh!” I said. “He’s calling my name.”
“Ra,” Pharaoh shouted, “where are my children?”
I’d never felt like such a failure. I almost wished the crocodiles would eat me. Dedi was still missing, and Kiya—
Kiya. I had to protect her. I shot toward the palace, bouncing across the heads of the tight-packed servants struggling to get to safety.
“Ra, where are you going?” Pharaoh shouted.
I couldn’t stop. Kiya was the only thought on my mind. I reached the front of the crowd and leaped through the palace gates, just before they
swung shut behind me.
“Why are they closing the gates?” Khepri said, upset. “Don’t they realize they’re leaving a lot of people out there? The crocodiles will get them.”
“Lock the gates, men!” Inside the entranceway, General Wegaf was standing tall again, and there was a ruthless look in his eye. “Keep those crocodiles out!”
“But my brother is outside!” a young servant cried, turning to Lady Satiah. “Please, my lady—”
“Be silent!” Lady Satiah’s lips were pale under their dots of red paint. “I have a son to protect.”
“My lady, have you heard about Pharaoh’s barge?” the Steward put in anxiously. “The watchman Hormin saw it coming down the Nile.”
Hormin was sniffling more than usual. “It’s true, my lady. I—”
“Pharaoh will be safe if he stays on the barge,” Lady Satiah interrupted. “Anyway, he has spearmen to protect him. I expect everyone to follow General Wegaf’s orders, and keep those gates closed!” In her beaded finery, she wobbled toward the General. “Brother, have you seen Ahmose?”
“The silly boy ran off,” the General told her. “Not much of a soldier, is he? Need to fix that.”
“Ran where?” Lady Satiah demanded, her voice trembling. “Not outside?”
“No.” The General waved toward the living quarters. “Back there somewhere.”
Lady Satiah hobbled off, calling, “Ahmose, where are you? Answer me right now!”
As she vanished from sight, Miu darted toward us, her eyes wide. “Kiya’s disappeared! I finally found a way into the room where she was, but she’s gotten out somehow. I’ve been looking for her everywhere.”
“Kiya’s gone?” I was starting to feel panicky. To lose one of Pharaoh’s children was bad enough, but both? “I should have stayed with her. I should have kept her safe—”
“You couldn’t be in two places at once, Ra,” Khepri said. “Miu, is there anywhere you haven’t searched yet?”
“The zoo,” Miu said.
“That’s where we’ll go, then,” Khepri said firmly. “As fast as we can!”
I ran as if the crocodiles were behind me, though thankfully they weren’t. “Maybe Pharaoh’s spearmen fought them off,” I panted to Khepri as we neared the dung pit.
“Some of them, anyway,” Khepri said. “Remember the ones who dived down? I’m a little worried about that. I have a theory—”
“What’s that sound?” Miu interrupted.
Thump, thump, thump. I heard it, too.
Miu ran faster. “I can feel it through my paws.”
I picked up speed, too. “And it’s getting louder and louder.”
“That would be evidence for my theory,” Khepri said, but he didn’t sound happy about it. “You see—”
“Is that Kiya?” I cut in. Up ahead, a small figure near the dung pit turned toward the zoo.
I shot ahead. By the time I reached the zoo archway, she was gone, but the gate to the zoo was open. I slipped through it.
Miu followed me. “Do you think she’s hiding here?”
“Must be,” I said. “I’ll track her down by scent. I’m good at that.” And it’s true, I am. Most of the time. But not when a stinky dung pit has knocked out my nose.
“I can barely smell anything,” I finally had to admit.
“I can’t, either,” Miu told me. “We’ll have to ask if anyone’s seen her.”
I glanced around at the cages. “Well, at least we’ve got lots of witnesses.” I turned toward the closest ones, the ibis and the lioness. “Hello again! We’re looking for a girl who—”
“They stole my baby!” the lioness wailed to me. “They stole him. And I’ll never see him again.”
“Serves you right!” the ibis screamed at her. “Your cubs ate my babies.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m on important business here,” I told them. “If you could answer the question—”
“You don’t understand,” the lioness moaned. “They stole him. They stole my baby. They took him to the storeroom an hour ago. When the babies go there, they never come back.”
“They’re just looking after him,” Miu said gently. “He’s sick.”
“They stole him,” the lioness insisted. “They stole my baby.”
I rolled my eyes. “Look, nobody would steal your baby, lady. I mean, what use is a lion cub to anyone?”
The lioness swung her head around to me, and her claws sprang out. I was so close to the bars that she nearly took off my nose.
“Er…except to his mother, of course,” I babbled, backing away. “Useful thing, kids. That’s why I’m looking for one. Er, not mine, that is. Pharaoh’s daughter. Actually, I’m still looking for Pharaoh’s son, too. And the baby crocodile. Did I mention that I’m Pharaoh’s Cat?”
“I don’t care whose cat you are,” the lioness roared. “If you come any closer, you’re dead meat!”
Up by my ears, Khepri had been chittering away to himself. Now his legs hit my fur with a bounce. “That’s it! You’ve cracked the case, Ra!”
“I have?” I said. “Er…I mean…yes, I have. Of course.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t see it myself,” Khepri went on.
“That’s all right,” I told him. “Nobody cracks cases like me.”
I was about to ask how I’d cracked this one, but Khepri was shouting excitedly to Miu, “Now we know what happened to Dedi!”
“We do?” Miu said.
“Lead us out of here, Ra,” Khepri said to me. “We need to move now, before it’s too late.”
“But what about Kiya?” Miu asked.
“Dedi’s in more danger right now,” Khepri said. “Come on!”
I raced out of the zoo, not sure where we were going. But the moment we came out of the gate, I got a sinking feeling that I knew where Khepri was taking us. Make that a stinking feeling…
“Not the dung pit!” I gasped.
Thump, thump, THUMP. The sound was coming from deep inside the pit. And then it stopped, and there was a horrible gurgle.
“Uh-oh!” Khepri clutched my ear. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
“Dedi!” I flew at the pit cover, shouting his name. “Dedi, are you in there?”
“No!” Khepri cried. “Get back, Ra!”
CRUNCH! The pit cover splintered, then shattered.
I froze. The most humongous crocodile I’d ever seen was slithering out of the dung pit.
CHAPTER 24
Crunch
Within seconds, the crocodile had me trapped, his teeth snapping at my tail.
“WHERE IS MY SON?” he roared.
“Er…let me guess,” I said weakly. “You’re King Sobek, right? I’m Pharaoh’s Cat. Pleased to meet you.”
Behind him, a second enormous crocodile slithered up from the pit. This one was female. The sight made me woozy. Or maybe that was the smell of the dung that coated her scales.
“And your lovely wife,” I added. “What an unexpected treat.”
“Not so unexpected,” Khepri muttered. “That dung pit must empty into the Nile, and I bet it has an underwater grate to block the way into the palace. That thumping sound we heard was the crocodiles breaking down the grate.”
The two crocodiles bared their teeth, roaring so loudly that my fur shook. “WHERE IS OUR SON?”
“Tell them, Ra!” Khepri whispered in my ear.
I couldn’t tell them what I didn’t know. “No, you.”
“But you’re the one who figured it out.”
“You can give me the credit, okay?” I told him.
“But your voice is louder.”
The crocodiles narrowed their eyes. Their tails began to thrash.
“Khepri, just tell them!”
“Ahem!” Khepri clicked to get their attention. “It’s me, Kh
epri the Great Detective. Your baby is behind the door!”
“WHAT DOOR?” the king crocodile growled, tail still thrashing.
Khepri pointed. “The storeroom door.”
The storeroom? But I’d been in there already, playing tag with the Keeper, and I hadn’t seen a crocodile baby there. Then it hit me: Khepri was fooling the crocodiles so we could get away.
It worked. The crocodiles abandoned us for the door.
As I darted back to Miu, King Sobek slid his lower jaw into the gap at the bottom of the door, and…
CRUNCH!
Within seconds, the crocodiles were inside, tearing their way through the storeroom.
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
“Good job, Khepri,” I said. “Let’s get away now.”
“No! We need to follow them,” Khepri urged me.
I couldn’t believe my ears. “What?”
Beside me, Miu stared at Khepri in astonishment. “You want us to go into the storeroom?”
“Yes,” Khepri said. “As fast as you can.”
“The storeroom with two angry crocodiles in it?” I double-checked.
“Yes. Hurry, or it will be too late!”
“SOBEK JUNIOR!” King Sobek roared from inside the shed. And then: “WHO IS THIS BOY?”
I bolted for the storeroom.
The king and queen filled the room so completely that there was hardly any room for me amid the wreckage. But when I jumped onto a broken shelf, I saw some crunched-open feed bins at the back. Inside were three prisoners tied with rope. One was a baby crocodile. The second was a lion cub, fast asleep. The third was…
“Dedi!” I exclaimed, racing to his side. Bound and gagged, he couldn’t speak, but his eyes brightened with hope. When he glanced back at the crocodile king and queen, the hope gave way to fear.
When I saw how the crocodiles were looking at Dedi, I was afraid, too. Were they about to attack?
I jumped in front of Dedi and started talking fast.
“See?” I said to the crocodiles. “What did we tell you? Here is your baby, safe and sound. And our prince is with him. He was trying to save your prince, you see—”
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