Apophis will not stay locked away forever.”
“I’d settle for a few hundred years,” Sadie said.
Isis smiled. “However that may be, today you are heroes. The gods owe you a debt, and we take our debts seriously.”
Horus rose from the throne. With a wink at me, he knelt before us. The other gods shifted uncomfortably, but then followed his example. Even the gods in fire form dimmed their flames.
I probably looked pretty stunned, because when Horus got up again he laughed. “You look like that time when Zia told you-”
“Yeah, could we skip that?” I said quickly. Letting a god into your head has serious disadvantages.
“Go in peace, Carter and Sadie,” Horus said. “You will find our gift in the morning.”
“Gift?” I asked nervously, because if I got one more magic amulet, I was going to break out in a cold sweat.
“You’ll see,” Isis promised. “We will be watching you, and waiting.”
“That’s what scares me,” Sadie said.
Isis waved her hand, and suddenly we were back on the mansion’s terrace as if nothing had happened.
Sadie turned toward me wistfully. “‘Stimulating.’”
I held out my hand. The djed amulet was glowing and warm in its linen wrapping. “Any idea what this thing does?”
She blinked. “Hmm? Oh, don’t care. What did Anubis look like to you?”
“What did…he looked like a guy. So?”
“A good-looking guy, or a slobbering dog-headed guy?”
“I guess…not the dog-headed guy.”
“I knew it!” Sadie pointed at me as if she’d won an argument. “Good-looking. I knew it!”
And with a ridiculous grin, she spun around and skipped into the house.
My sister, as I may have mentioned, is a little strange.
The next day, we got the gods’ gift.
We woke to find that the mansion had been completely repaired down to the smallest detail. Everything we hadn’t finished yet-probably another month’s worth of work-was done.
The first thing I found were new clothes in my closet, and after a moment’s hesitation, I put them on. I went downstairs and found Khufu and Sadie dancing around the restored Great Room. Khufu had a new Lakers jersey and a brand-new basketball. The magical brooms and mops were busy doing their cleaning routine. Sadie looked up at me and grinned-and then her expression changed to shock.
“Carter, what-what are you wearing?”
I came down the stairs, feeling even more self-conscious. The closet had offered me several choices this morning, not just my linen robes. My old clothes had been there, freshly cleaned-a button-down shirt, starched khaki slacks, loafers. But there had also been a third choice, and I’d taken it: some Reeboks, blue jeans, a T-shirt, and a hoodie.
“It’s, um, all cotton,” I said. “Okay for magic. Dad would probably think I look like a gangster…”
I thought for sure Sadie would tease me about that, and I was trying to beat her to the punch. She scrutinized every detail of my outfit.
Then she laughed with absolute delight. “It’s brilliant, Carter. You look almost like a regular teenager! And Dad would think…” She pulled my hoodie over my head. “Dad would think you look like an impeccable magician, because that’s what you are. Now, come on. Breakfast is waiting on the patio.”
We were just digging in when Amos came outside, and his change of clothes was even more surprising than mine. He wore a crisp new chocolate-colored suit with matching coat and fedora. His shoes were shined, his round glasses polished, his hair freshly braided with amber beads. Sadie and I both stared at him.
“What?” he demanded.
“Nothing,” we said in unison. Sadie looked at me and mouthed O-M-G, then went back to her bangers and eggs. I attacked my pancakes. Philip thrashed around happily in his swimming pool.
Amos joined us at the table. He flicked his fingers and coffee magically filled his cup. I raised my eyebrows. He hadn’t used magic since the Demon Days.
“I thought I’d go away for a while,” he announced. “To the First Nome.”
Sadie and I exchanged glances.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I asked.
Amos sipped his coffee. He stared across the East River as if he could see all the way to Washington, D.C. “They have the best magic healers there. They will not turn away a petitioner seeking aid-even me. I think…I think I should try.”
His voice was fragile, like it would crack apart any moment. But still, it was the most he’d said in weeks.
“I think that’s brilliant,” Sadie offered. “We’ll watch after the place, won’t we, Carter?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Absolutely.”
“I may be gone for a while,” Amos said. “Treat this as your home. It is your home.” He hesitated, as if choosing his next words carefully. “And I think, perhaps, you should start recruiting. There are many children around the world with the blood of the pharaohs. Most do not know what they are. What you two said in Washington-about rediscovering the path of the gods-it may be our only chance.”
Sadie got up and kissed Amos on the forehead. “Leave it to us, Uncle. I’ve got a plan.”
“That,” I said, “sounds like very bad news.”
Amos managed a smile. He squeezed Sadie’s hand, then got up and ruffled my hair as he headed inside.
I took another bite of my pancakes and wondered why-on such a great morning-I still felt sad, and a little incomplete. I suppose with so many things suddenly getting better, the things that were still missing hurt even worse.
Sadie picked at her scrambled eggs. “I suppose it would be selfish to ask for more.”
I stared at her, and I realized we were thinking the same thing. When the gods had said a gift…Well, you can hope for things, but as Sadie said, I guess you can’t get greedy.
“It’s going to be hard to travel if we need to go recruiting,” I said cautiously. “Two unaccompanied minors.”
Sadie nodded. “No Amos. No responsible adult. I don’t think Khufu counts.”
And that’s when the gods completed their gift.
A voice from the doorway said, “Sounds like you have a job opening.”
I turned and felt a thousand pounds of grief drop from my shoulders. Leaning against the door in a leopard- spotted jumpsuit was a dark-haired lady with golden eyes and two very large knives.
“Bast!” Sadie cried.
The cat goddess gave us a playful smile, as if she had all kinds of trouble in mind. “Someone call for a chaperone?”
A few days later, Sadie had a long phone conversation with Gran and Grandpa Faust in London. They didn’t ask to talk to me, and I didn’t listen in. When Sadie came back down to the Great Room, she had a faraway look in her eyes. I was afraid-very afraid-that she was missing London.
“Well?” I asked reluctantly.
“I told them we were all right,” she said. “They told me the police have stopped bothering them about the explosion at the British Museum. Apparently the Rosetta Stone turned up unharmed.”
“Like magic,” I said.
Sadie smirked. “The police decided it might’ve been a gas explosion, some sort of accident. Dad’s off the hook, as are we. I could go home to London, they said. Spring term starts in a few weeks. My mates Liz and Emma have been asking about me.”
The only sound was the crackle of fire in the hearth. The Great Room suddenly seemed bigger to me, emptier.
At last I said, “What did you tell them?”
Sadie raised an eyebrow. “God, you’re thick sometimes. What do you think?”
“Oh.” My mouth felt like sandpaper. “I guess it’ll be good to see your friends and get back your old room, and-”
