“So we’ve heard,” I said, “and Apophis is destroying only Setne’s version of the scroll. As far as we can tell, only six copies existed. Apophis has already burned five. This is the last one.”
JD studied the burned papyrus scrap doubtfully. “If Apophis has truly risen from the Duat with all his power, why would he care about a few scrolls? No spell could possibly stop him. Why hasn’t he already destroyed the world?”
We’d been asking ourselves the same question for months.
“Apophis is afraid of this scroll,” I said, hoping I was right. “Something in it must hold the secret to defeating him. He wants to make sure all copies are destroyed before he invades the world.”
“Sadie, we need to hurry,” Carter said. “The attack could come any minute.”
I stepped closer to the scroll. It was roughly two meters long and a half-meter tall, with dense lines of hieroglyphs and colorful illustrations. I’d seen loads of scrolls like this describing ways to defeat Chaos, with chants designed to keep the serpent Apophis from devouring the sun god Ra on his nightly journey through the Duat. Ancient Egyptians had been quite obsessed with this subject. Cheery bunch, those Egyptians.
I could read the hieroglyphs—one of my many amazing talents—but the scroll was a lot to take in. At first glance, nothing struck me as particularly helpful. There were the usual descriptions of the River of Night, down which Ra’s sun boat traveled. Been there, thanks. There were tips on how to handle the various demons of the Duat. Met them. Killed them. Got the T-shirt.
“Sadie?” Carter asked. “Anything?”
“Don’t know yet,” I grumbled. “Give me a moment.”
I found it annoying that my bookish brother was the combat magician, while I was expected to be the great reader of magic. I barely had the patience for magazines, much less musty scrolls.
You’d never understand it, the face in the wall had warned. You need my help.
“We’ll have to take it with us,” I decided. “I’m sure I can figure it out with a little more—”
The building shook. Khufu shrieked and leaped into the arms of the golden baboon. Felix’s penguins waddled around frantically.
“That sounded like—” JD Grissom blanched. “An explosion outside. The party!”
“It’s a diversion,” Carter warned. “Apophis is trying to draw our defenses away from the scroll.”
“They’re attacking my friends,” JD said in a strangled voice. “My wife.”
“Go!” I said. I glared at my brother. “We can handle the scroll. JD’s wife is in danger!”
JD clasped my hands. “Take the scroll. Good luck.”
He ran from the room.
I turned back to the display. “Walt, can you open the case? We need to get this out of here as fast—”
Evil laughter filled the room. A dry, heavy voice, deep as a nuclear blast, echoed all around us: “I don’t think so, Sadie Kane.”
My skin felt as if it were turning to brittle papyrus. I remembered that voice. I remembered how it felt being so close to Chaos, as if my blood were turning to fire, and the strands of my DNA were unraveling.
“I think I’ll destroy you with the guardians of Ma’at,” Apophis said. “Yes, that will be amusing.”
At the entrance to the room, the two obsidian criosphinxes turned. They blocked the exit, standing shoulder to shoulder. Flames curled from their nostrils.
In the voice of Apophis, they spoke in unison: “No one leaves this place alive. Good-bye, Sadie Kane.”
S A D I E
2. I Have a Word with Chaos
WOULD YOU BE SURPRISED TO LEARN that things went badly from there?
I didn’t think so.
Our first casualties were Felix’s penguins. The criosphinxes blew fire at the unfortunate birds, and they melted into puddles of water.