Bast hesitated a little too long for my taste.
“No. My enemy couldn’t have escaped.” She took a deep breath. “Your mother’s final act of magic sealed that gate. The enemy was still inside. But that’s what the magician meant. As far as he was concerned, my ‘post’ was battling that monster forever.”
It had the ring of truth, as if she were sharing a painful memory, but it didn’t explain the other bit the magician had said: She endangered us all. I was getting up the nerve to ask exactly what the monster had been, when Bast stood up.
“I should go scout,” she said abruptly. “I’ll be back.”
We listened to her footsteps echo down the stairwell.
“She’s hiding something,” Carter said.
“Work that out yourself, did you?” I asked.
He looked away, and immediately I felt bad.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just…what are we going to do?”
“Rescue Dad. What else can we do?” He picked up his wand and turned it in his fingers. “Do you think he really meant to…you know, bring Mom back?”
I wanted to say yes. More than anything, I wanted to believe that was possible. But I found myself shaking my head. Something about it didn’t seem right. “Iskandar told me something about Mum,” I said. “She was a diviner. She could see the future. He said she made him rethink some old ideas.”
It was my first chance to tell Carter about my conversation with the old magician, so I gave him the details.
Carter knit his eyebrows. “You think that has something to do with why Mom died-she saw something in the future?”
“I don’t know.” I tried to think back to when I was six, but my memory was frustratingly fuzzy. “When they took us to England the last time, did she and Dad seemed like they were in a hurry-like they were doing something really important?”
“Definitely.”
“Would you say freeing Bast was really important? I mean-I love her, of course-but worth dying for important?”
Carter hesitated. “Probably not.”
“Well, there you are. I think Dad and Mum were up to something bigger, something they didn’t complete. Possibly that’s what Dad was after at the British Museum-completing the task, whatever it was. Making things right. And this whole business about our family going back a billion years to some god-hosting pharaohs-why didn’t anyone tell us? Why didn’t Dad?”
Carter didn’t answer for a long time.
“Maybe Dad was protecting us,” he said. “The House of Life doesn’t trust our family, especially after what Dad and Mom did. Amos said we were raised apart for a reason, so we wouldn’t, like, trigger each other’s magic.”
“Bloody awful reason to keep us apart,” I muttered.
Carter looked at me strangely, and I realized what I’d said might have been construed as a compliment.
“I just mean they should’ve been honest,” I rushed on. “Not that I wanted more time with my annoying brother, of course.”
He nodded seriously. “Of course.”
We sat listening to the magic hum of the obelisk. I tried to remember the last time Carter and I had simply spent time like this together, talking.
“Is your, um…” I tapped the side of my head. “Your friend being any help?”
“Not much,” he admitted. “Yours?”
I shook my head. “Carter, are you scared?”
“A little.” He dug his wand into the carpet. “No, a lot.”
I looked at the blue book we’d stolen-pages full of wonderful secrets I couldn’t read. “What if we can’t do it?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “That book about mastering the element of cheese would’ve been more helpful.”
“Or summoning fruit bats.”
“Please, not the fruit bats.”
We shared a weary smile, and it felt rather good. But it changed nothing. We were still in serious trouble with no clear plan.
“Why don’t you sleep on it?” he suggested. “You used a lot of energy today. I’ll keep watch until Bast gets back.”
He actually sounded concerned for me. How cute.
I didn’t want to sleep. I didn’t want to miss anything. But I realized my eyelids were incredibly heavy.
“All right, then,” I said. “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
I lay down to sleep, but my soul-my ba-had other ideas.
S A D I E
20. I Visit the Star-Spangled Goddess
I HADN’T REALIZED HOW UNSETTLING it would be. Carter had explained how his ba left his body while he slept, but having it happen to me was another thing altogether. It was much worse than my vision in the Hall of Ages.
There I was, floating in the air as a glowing birdlike spirit. And there was my body below me, fast asleep. Just trying to describe it gives me a headache.
My first thought as I gazed down on my sleeping form: God, I look awful. Bad enough looking in a mirror or seeing pictures of myself on my friends’ Web pages. Seeing myself in person was simply wrong. My hair was a rat’s nest, the linen pajamas were not in the least flattering, and the spot on my chin was enormous.
My second thought as I examined the strange shimmering form of my ba: This won’t do at all. I didn’t care if I was invisible to the mortal eye or not. After my bad experience as a kite, I simply refused to go about as a glowing Sadie-headed chicken. That’s fine for Carter, but I have standards.
I could feel the currents of the Duat tugging at me, trying to pull my ba to wherever souls go when they have visions, but I wasn’t ready. I concentrated hard, and imagined my normal appearance (well, all right, perhaps my appearance as I’d like it to be, a bit better than normal). And voila, my ba morphed into a human form, still see- through and glowing, mind you, but more like a proper ghost.
Well, at least that’s sorted, I thought. And I allowed the currents to sweep me away. The world melted to black.
At first, I was nowhere-just a dark void. Then a young man stepped out of the shadows.
“You again,” he said.
I stammered. “Uh…”
Honestly, you know me well enough by now. That’s not like me. But this was the boy I’d seen in my Hall of Ages vision-the very handsome boy with the black robes and tousled hair. His dark brown eyes had the most unnerving effect on me, and I was very glad I’d changed out of my glowing chicken outfit.
I tried again, and managed three entire words. “What are you…”
“Doing here?” he said, gallantly finishing my sentence. “Spirit travel and death are very similar.”
“Not sure what that means,” I said. “Should I be worried?”
He tilted his head as if considering the question. “Not this trip. She only wants to talk to you. Go ahead.”
He waved his hand and a doorway opened in the darkness. I was pulled towards it.
“See you again?” I asked.
But the boy was gone.
I found myself standing in a luxury flat in the middle of the sky. It had no walls, no ceiling, and a see-through
