The Red Pyramid

Page 60

“Hold still. ” I ripped some cloth from the hem of my pants and tried to bind her leg. “Maybe there’s some healing magic or—”

“Sadie. ” She gripped my wrist feebly. “No time. Listen. ”

“If we can stop the bleeding—”

“His name. You need his name. ”

“But you’re not Nephthys! Set said so. ”

She shook her head. “A message. . . I speak with her voice. The name—Evil Day. Set was born, and it was an Evil Day. ”

True enough, I thought, but could that really be Set’s secret name? What Zia was talking about, not being Nephthys but speaking with her voice—it made no sense. Then I remembered the voice at the river. Nephthys had said she would send a message. And Anubis had made me promise I would listen to Nephthys.

I shifted uncomfortably. “Look, Zia—”

Then the truth hit me in face. Some things Iskandar had said, some things Thoth had said—they all clicked together. Iskandar had wanted to protect Zia. He’d told me if he’d realized Carter and I were godlings sooner, he could’ve protected us as well as. . . someone. As well as Zia. Now I understood how he’d tried to protect her.

“Oh, god. ” I stared at her. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

She seemed to understand, and she nodded. Her face contorted with pain, but her eyes remained as fierce and insistent as ever. “Use the name. Bend Set to your will. Make him help. ”

“Help? He just tried to kill you, Zia. He’s not the helping type. ”

“Go. ” She tried to push me away. Flames sputtered weakly from her fingers. “Carter needs you. ”

That was the one thing she might’ve said to spur me on. Carter was in trouble.

“I’ll be back, then,” I promised. “Don’t. . . um, go anywhere. ”

I stood and stared at the hole in the ceiling, dreading the idea of turning into a kite again. Then my eyes fixed on Dad’s coffin, buried in the red throne. The sarcophagus was glowing like something radioactive, heading for meltdown. If I could only break the throne. . .

Set must be dealt with first, Isis warned.

But if I can free Dad. . . I stepped towards the throne.

No, Isis warned. What you might see is too dangerous.

What are you talking about? I thought irritably. I put my hand on the golden coffin. Instantly I was ripped from the throne room and into a vision.

I was back in the Land of the Dead, in the Hall of Judgment. The crumbling monuments of a New Orleans graveyard shimmered around me. Spirits of the dead stirred restlessly in the mist. At the base of the broken scales, a tiny monster slept—Ammit the Devourer. He opened one glowing yellow eye to study me, then went back to sleep.

Anubis stepped out of the shadows. He was dressed in a black silk suit with his tie unknotted, like he’d just come back from a funeral or possibly a convention for really gorgeous undertakers. “Sadie, you shouldn’t be here. ”

“Tell me about it,” I said, but I was so glad to see him, I wanted to sob with relief.

He took my hand and led me towards the empty black throne. “We have lost all balance. The throne cannot be empty. The restoration of Ma’at must begin here, in this hall. ”

He sounded sad, as if he were asking me to accept something terrible. I didn’t understand, but a profound sense of loss crept over me.

“It’s not fair,” I said.

“No, it’s not. ” He squeezed my hand. “I’ll be here, waiting. I’m sorry, Sadie. I truly am. . . ”

He started to fade.

“Wait!” I tried to hold on to his hand, but he melted into mist along with the graveyard.

I found myself back in the throne room of the gods, except it looked like it had been abandoned for centuries. The roof had fallen in, along with half of the columns. The braziers were cold and rusty. The beautiful marble floor was as cracked as a dry lakebed.

Bast stood alone next to the empty throne of Osiris. She gave me a mischievous smile, but seeing her again was almost too painful to bear.

“Oh, don’t be sad,” she chided. “Cats don’t do regret. ”

“But aren’t you—aren’t you dead?”

“That all depends. ” She gestured around her. “The Duat is in turmoil. The gods have gone too long without a king. If Set doesn’t take over, someone else must. The enemy is coming. Don’t let me die in vain. ”

“But will you come back?” I asked, my voice breaking. “Please, I never even got to say good-bye to you. I can’t—”

“Good luck, Sadie. Keep your claws sharp. ” Bast vanished, and the scenery changed again.

I stood in the Hall of Ages, in the First Nome—another empty throne—and Iskandar sat at its feet, waiting for a pharaoh who hadn’t existed for two thousand years.

“A leader, my dear,” he said. “Ma’at demands a leader. ”

“It’s too much,” I said. “Too many thrones. You can’t expect Carter—”

“Not alone,” Iskandar agreed. “But this is your family’s burden. You started the process. The Kanes alone will heal us or destroy us. ”

“I don’t know what you mean!”

Iskandar opened his hand, and in a flash of light, the scene changed one more time.

I was back at the Thames. It must’ve been the dead of the night, three o’clock in the morning, because the Embankment was empty. Mist obscured the lights of the city, and the air was wintry.

Two people, a man and a woman, stood bundled against the cold, holding hands in front of Cleopatra’s Needle. At first I thought they were a random couple on a date. Then, with a shock, I realized I was looking at my parents.

My dad lifted his face and scowled at the obelisk. In the dim glow of the streetlamps, his features looked like chiseled marble—like the pharaoh statues he loved to study. He did have the face of a king, I thought—proud and handsome.

“You’re sure?” he asked my mother. “Absolutely sure?”

Mum brushed her blond hair out of her face. She was even more beautiful than her pictures, but she looked worried—eyebrows furrowed, lips pressed together. Like me when I was upset, when I looked in the mirror and tried to convince myself things weren’t so bad. I wanted to call to her, to let her know I was there, but my voice wouldn’t work.

“She told me this is where it begins,” my mother said. She pulled her black coat around her, and I caught a glimpse of her necklace—the amulet of Isis, my amulet. I stared at it, stunned, but then she pulled her collar closed, and the amulet disappeared. “If we want to defeat the enemy, we must start with the obelisk. We must find out the truth. ”

My father frowned uneasily. He’d drawn a protective circle around them—blue chalk lines on the pavement. When he touched the base of the obelisk, the circle began to glow.

“I don’t like it,” he said. “Won’t you call on her help?”

“No,” my mother insisted. “I know my limits, Julius. If I tried it again. . . ”

My heart skipped a beat. Iskandar’s words came back to me: She saw things that made her seek advice from unconventional places. I recognized the look in my mother’ eyes, and I knew: my mother had communed with Isis.

Why didn’t you tell me? I wanted to scream.

My father summoned his staff and wand. “Ruby, if we fail—”

“We can’t fail,” she insisted. “The world depends on it. ”

They kissed one last time, as if they sensed they were saying good-bye. Then they raised their staffs and wands and began to chant. Cleopatra’s Needle glowed with power.

I yanked my hand away from the sarcophagus. My eyes stung with tears.

You knew my mother, I shouted at Isis. You encouraged her to open that obelisk. You got her killed!

I waited for her to answer. Instead, a ghostly image appeared in front of me—a projection of my father, shimmering in the light of the golden coffin.

“Sadie. ” He smiled. His voice sounded tinny and hollow, the way it used to on the phone when he’d call me from far away—from Egypt or Australia or god knows where. “Don’t blame Isis for your mother’s fate. None of us understood exactly what would happen. Even your mother could only see bits and pieces of the future. But when the time came, your mother accepted her role. It was her decision. ”

“To die?” I demanded. “Isis should’ve helped her. You should’ve helped her. I hate you!”

As soon as I said it, something broke inside me. I started to cry. I realized I’d wanted to say that to my dad for years. I blamed him for Mum’s death, blamed him for leaving me. But now that I’d said it, all the anger drained out me, leaving me nothing but guilt.

“I’m sorry,” I sputtered. “I didn’t—”

“Don’t apologize, my brave girl. You have every right to feel that way. You had to get it out. What you’re about to do—you have to believe it’s for the right reasons, not because you resent me. ”

“I don’t know what you mean. ”

He reached out to brush a tear from my cheek, but his hand was just a shimmer of light. “Your mother was the first in many centuries to commune with Isis. It was dangerous, against the teachings of the House, but your mother was a diviner. She had a premonition that chaos was rising. The House was failing. We needed the gods. Isis could not cross the Duat. She could barely manage a whisper, but she told us what she could about their imprisonment. She counseled Ruby on what must be done. The gods could rise again, she said, but it would take many hard sacrifices. We thought the obelisk would release all the gods, but that was only the beginning. ”

“Isis could’ve given Mum more power. Or at least Bast! Bast offered—”

“No, Sadie. Your mother knew her limits. If she had tried to host a god, fully use divine power, she would have been consumed or worse. She freed Bast, and used her own power to seal the breach. With her life, she bought you some time. ”

“Me? But. . . ”

“You and your brother have the strongest blood of any Kane in three thousand years. Your mother studied the lineage of the pharaohs—she knew this to be true. You have the best chance at relearning the old ways, and healing the breach between magicians and gods. Your mother began the stirring. I unleashed the gods from the Rosetta Stone. But it will be your job to restore Ma’at. ”

“You can help,” I insisted. “Once we free you. ”

“Sadie,” he said forlornly, “when you become a parent, you may understand this. One of my hardest jobs as a father, one of my greatest duties, was to realize that my own dreams, my own goals and wishes, are secondary to my children’s. Your mother and I have set the stage. But it is your stage. This pyramid is designed to feed chaos. It consumes the power of other gods and makes Set stronger. ”

“I know. If I break the throne, maybe open the coffin. . . ”

“You might save me,” Dad conceded. “But the power of Osiris, the power inside me, would be consumed by the pyramid. It would only hasten the destruction and make Set stronger. The pyramid must be destroyed, all of it. And you know how that must be done. ”