“No,” I said. “I’ve got to take him to Amos straightaway.”
Leonid choked. “Amos? He turn into Set—eat face?”
“Amos will not eat your face,” I assured him. “Jacobi’s been telling you stories.”
Leonid still looked uneasy. “Amos not become Set?”
How to explain without making it sound worse? I didn’t know the correct Russian for: He was possessed by Set but it wasn’t his fault, and he’s much better now.
“No Set,” I said. “Good Amos.”
Carter studied the Russian. He looked at me with concern. “Sadie, what if this is a trap? You trust this guy?”
“Oh, I can handle Leonid. He doesn’t want me to morph him into a banana slug, do you, Leonid?”
“Nyet,” Leonid said solemnly. “No banana slug.”
“There, you see?”
“What about visiting Thoth?” Carter asked. “That can’t wait.”
I saw the worry in his eyes. I imagined he was thinking the same thing I was: our mum was in trouble. The spirits of the dead were disappearing, and it had something to do with the shadow of Apophis. We had to find the connection.
“You visit Thoth,” I said. “Take Walt. And, uh, keep an eye on him, all right? Anubis wanted to tell me something about him, but there wasn’t time. And in Dallas, when I looked at Walt in the Duat…”
I couldn’t make myself finish. Just thinking about Walt wrapped in mummy linen brought tears to my eyes.
Fortunately, Carter seemed to get the general idea. “I’ll keep him safe,” he promised. “How will you get to Egypt?”
I pondered that. Leonid had apparently flown here via Shu Airways, but I doubted that fussy aviator god would be willing to help me, and I didn’t want to ask.
“We’ll risk a portal,” I said. “I know they’ve been a bit wonky, but it’s just one quick jump. What could go wrong?”
“You could materialize inside a wall,” Carter said. “Or wind up scattered through the Duat in a million pieces.”
“Why, Carter, you care! But really, we’ll be fine. And we haven’t got much choice.”
I gave him a quick hug—I know, horribly sentimental, but I wanted to show solidarity. Then, before I could change my mind, I took Leonid’s hand and raced across campus.
My head was still spinning from my talk with Anubis. How dare Isis and Horus keep us apart when we weren’t even together! And what had Anubis wanted to tell me about Walt? Perhaps he’d wanted to end our ill-fated relationship and give his blessing for me to date Walt. (Lame.) Or perhaps he wanted to declare his undying love and fight Walt for my affections. (Highly unlikely, nor would I appreciate being fought over like a basketball.) Or perhaps—most probable—he’d wanted to break some bad news.
Anubis had visited Walt on several occasions that I knew of. They’d both been rather tight-lipped about what was discussed, but since Anubis was the guide of the dead, I assumed he’d been preparing Walt for death. Anubis might have wanted to warn me that the time was nigh—as if I needed another reminder.
Anubis: off-limits. Walt: at death’s door. If I lost both of the guys I liked, well…there wasn’t much point in saving the world.
All right, that was a slight exaggeration. But only slight.
On top of that, my mum was in trouble, and Sarah Jacobi’s rebels were planning some horrible attack on my uncle’s headquarters.
Why, th
en, did I feel so…hopeful?
An idea started to tug at me—a tiny glimmer of possibility. It wasn’t just the prospect that we might find a way to defeat the serpent. Anubis’s words kept playing in my mind: The shadow lingers. There must be a way to retrieve a soul from oblivion.
If a shadow could be used to bring back a mortal soul that had been destroyed, could it do the same for a god?
I was so lost in thought, I barely noticed when we reached the fine arts building. Leonid stopped me.