The Serpent's Shadow

Page 18

“My dad won’t let him go.” I felt like the demon’s hands were closing around my throat again.
My father was fair but stern. He didn’t take excuses from anyone. All the years we’d traveled together, I could never even get away with leaving my shirt untucked. If Setne was as bad as Thoth said, my father would show him no mercy. He’d toss this guy’s heart to Ammit the Devourer like it was a doggie biscuit.
Walt’s eyes shone with excitement. He looked more animated than I’d seen him in a long time. “We can plead with your dad,” he said. “We can get Setne’s trial delayed, or ask for a reduced sentence in exchange for Setne’s help. The laws of the Underworld allow that.”
I frowned. “How do you know so much about dead people’s court?”
I regretted saying that immediately. I realized that he’d probably been preparing himself to face that courtroom. Maybe that’s what he’d been discussing with Thoth earlier.
I’m afraid you don’t have much time, Thoth had said.
“Sorry, man,” I said.
“It’s okay,” Walt said. “But we have to try. If we can convince your dad to spare Setne—”
Thoth laughed. “That would be amusing, wouldn’t it? If Setne got off yet again, because his evil ways were the only thing that might save the world?”
“Hilarious,” I said. The brisket sandwich wasn’t sitting well in my stomach. “So you’re suggesting we go to my father’s court and try to save the ghost of an evil psychotic magician. Then we ask this ghost to lead us to Apophis’s shadow and teach us how to destroy it, while trusting that he won’t escape, kill us, or betray us to the enemy.”
Thoth nodded enthusiastically. “You’d have to be crazy! I certainly hope you are.”
I took a deep breath. “I guess I’m crazy.”
“Excellent!” Thoth cheered. “One more thing, Carter. To make this work, you’ll need Walt’s help, but he’s running out of time. His only chance—”
“It’s fine,” Walt snapped. “I’ll tell him myself.”
Before I could ask what he meant, the overtime buzzer blared from the arena’s speakers.
“It’s almost dawn,” Thoth said. “You two had better leave, before the demons return. Good luck. And by all means, give Setne my regards—if you live that long, of course.”
C A R T E R
8. My Sister, The Flowerpot
THE RIDE BACK WASN’T FUN.
Walt and I held on to the boat while our teeth chattered and our eyes jiggled. The magic fog had turned the color of blood. Ghostly voices whispered angrily, like they’d decided to riot and loot the ethereal world.
Sooner than I expected, Freak pushed his way out of the Duat. We found ourselves over the New Jersey dockyards, our boat trailing steam as Freak bobbed wearily through the air. In the distance, the Manhattan skyline gleamed gold in the sunrise.
Walt and I hadn’t spoken during the trip. The Duat tends to put a damper on conversation. Now he regarded me sheepishly.
“I should explain some things,” he said.
I can’t pretend I wasn’t curious. As his sickness had progressed, Walt had gotten more and more secretive. I wondered what he’d been talking about with Thoth.
But it wasn’t my business. After Sadie learned my secret name last spring and got a free tour of my innermost thoughts, I’d become sensitive about respecting people’s privacy.
“Look, Walt, it’s your personal life,” I said. “If you don’t want to tell—”
“But it’s not just personal. You need to know what’s going on. I—I won’t be around much longer.”
I gazed down at the harbor, the Statue of Liberty passing below us. For months I’d known Walt was dying. It never got easier to accept. I remembered what Apophis had said at the Dallas Museum: Walt wouldn’t live long enough to see the end of the world.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Isn’t there some way—?”
“Anubis is sure,” he said. “I’ve got until sunset tomorrow, at the very latest.”
I didn’t want to hear another impossible deadline. By sunset tonight, we had to save the ghost of an evil magician. By sunset tomorrow, Walt would die. And the sunrise after that, if we were really lucky, we could look forward to Doomsday.
I never liked being thwarted. Whenever I felt like something was impossible, I usually tried even harder out of sheer stubbornness.
But at this point, I felt like Apophis was having a good laugh at my expense.
Oh, you’re not a quitter? he seemed to be asking. How about now? What if we give you a few more impossible tasks? Are you a quitter now?
Anger made a small hard knot in my gut. I kicked the side of the boat and nearly broke my foot.
Walt blinked. “Carter, it’s—”
“Don’t say it’s all right!” I snapped. “It’s not all right.”
I wasn’t mad at him. I was mad at the unfairness of his stupid curse, and the fact that I kept failing people who depended on me. My parents had died to give Sadie and me a chance to save the world, which we were close to botching. In Dallas, dozens of good magicians had died because they’d tried to help me. Now we were about to lose Walt.
Sure, he was important to Sadie. But I relied on him just as much. Walt was my unofficial lieutenant at Brooklyn House. The other kids listened to him. He was a calming presence in every crisis, the deciding vote in every debate. I could trust him with any secret—and even with making the execration statue of Apophis, which I couldn’t tell my uncle about. If Walt died…
“I won’t let it happen,” I said. “I refuse.”
Wild thoughts ran through my mind: Maybe Anubis was lying to Walt about his imminent death, trying to push Walt away from Sadie. (Okay, unlikely. Sadie wasn’t that much of a prize.)
[Yeah, Sadie, I really said that. Just checking to see if you were still paying attention.]
Maybe Walt could beat the odds. People survived cancer miraculously. Why not ancient curses? Maybe we could put him in suspended animation like Iskandar had done for Zia, until we found an antidote. Sure, his family had been searching for a cure unsuccessfully for centuries. Jaz, our best healer, had tried everything with no luck. But maybe we’d overlooked something.
“Carter,” Walt said. “Will you let me finish? We’ve got to make plans.”
“How can you be so calm?” I demanded.
Walt fingered his shen necklace, the twin of the one he’d given Sadie. “I’ve known about my curse for years. I won’t let it stop me from doing what I need to. One way or another, I’m going to help you beat Apophis.”
“How?” I said. “You just told me—”
“Anubis has an idea,” Walt said. “He’s been helping me make sense of my powers.”
“You mean…” I glanced at Walt’s hands. Several times I’d seen him turn objects to ashes simply by touching them, the way he’d done to that criosphinx in Dallas. The power didn’t come from any of his magic items. None of us understood it, and as Walt’s disease progressed, he seemed less and less able to control it, which made me think twice about giving the guy a high five.
Walt flexed his fingers. “Anubis thinks he understands why I have that ability. And there’s more. He thinks there might be a way to extend my life.”
That was such good news that I let out a shaky laugh. “Why didn’t you say so? He can cure you?”
“No,” Walt said. “Not a cure. And it’s risky. It’s never been done before.”
“That’s what you were talking to Thoth about.”
Walt nodded. “Even if Anubis’s plan works, there could be…side effects. You might not like it.” He lowered his voice. “Sadie might not like it.”
Unfortunately, I had a vivid imagination. I envisioned Walt turning into some sort of undead creature—a withered mummy, a ghostly ba, or a disfigured demon. In Egyptian magic, side effects could be pretty extreme.
I tried not to let my emotions show. “We want you to live. Don’t worry about Sadie.”
I could tell from Walt’s eyes that he worried about Sadie a lot. Seriously, what did he see in my sister?
[Stop hitting me, Sadie. I’m just being honest.]
Walt flexed his fingers. Maybe it was my imagination, but I thought I detected wisps of gray steam curling from his hands, as if just talking about his strange power had made it turn active.
“I won’t make the decision yet,” Walt said. “Not until I’m on my last breath. I want to talk to Sadie first, explain to her…”
He rested his hand on the side of the boat. That was a mistake. The woven reeds turned gray under his touch.
“Walt, stop!” I yelped.
He jerked his hand away, but it was too late. The boat crumbled to ashes.
We lunged for the ropes. Thankfully they did not crumble—maybe because Walt was paying more attention now. Freak squawked as the boat disappeared, and suddenly Walt and I were dangling under the griffin’s belly, holding on to the ropes for dear life and bonking into each other as we flew above the skyscrapers of Manhattan.
“Walt!” I yelled over the wind. “You really need to get a handle on that power!”
“Sorry!” he shouted back.
My arms were aching, but somehow we made it to Brooklyn House without plummeting to our deaths. Freak set us down on the roof, where Bast was waiting, her mouth agape.
“Why are you swinging from ropes?” she demanded.
“Because it’s so fun,” I growled. “What’s the news?”
Behind the chimneys, a frail voice warbled: “Ha-lllooooo!”
The ancient sun god Ra popped out. He gave us a toothless grin and hobbled around the roof, muttering, “Weasels, weasels. Cookie, cookie, cookie!” He reached into the folds of his loincloth and tossed cookie crumbs in the air like confetti—and yes, it was just as disgusting as it sounds.
Bast tensed her arms, and her knives shot into her hands. Probably just an involuntary reflex; but she looked tempted to use those blades on someone—anyone. She reluctantly slipped the blades back into her sleeves.
“The news?” she said. “I’m on babysitting duty, thanks to your Uncle Amos, who asked me for a favor. And Sadie’s shabti is waiting for you downstairs. Shall we?”
Explaining Sadie and her shabti would take a whole separate recording.
My sister had no talent for crafting magical statues. That didn’t stop her from trying. She’d gotten this harebrained idea that she could create the perfect shabti to be her avatar, speak with her voice, and do all her chores like a remote-controlled robot. All her previous attempts had exploded or gone haywire, terrorizing Khufu and the initiates. Last week she’d created a magical Thermos with googly eyes that levitated around the room, yelling, “Exterminate! Exterminate!” until it smacked me in the head.
Sadie’s latest shabti was Sadie Junior—a gardener’s nightmare.