I’ll admit I wasn’t thinking straight.
When we got back on board, Bloodstained Blade reported on the ship’s repairs, but I barely heard him. I plowed right past him and carried Zia inside to the nearest cabin. I set her on the bed and rummaged through my pack for medical supplies—a water bottle, some magic salve Jaz had given me, a few written charms. I was no rekhet like Jaz. My healing powers consisted mostly of bandages and aspirin, but I began to work.
“Come on,” I mumbled. “Come on, Zia. You’re going to be fine.”
She was so warm, her drenched clothes had almost dried. Her eyes were rolled back in her head. She started muttering, and I could’ve sworn she said, “Dung balls. Time to roll the dung balls.”
It might’ve been funny—except for the fact that she was dying.
“That’s Khepri talking,” Setne explained. “He’s the divine dung beetle, rolling the sun across the sky.”
I didn’t want to process that—the idea that the girl I liked had been possessed by a dung beetle and was now having dreams about pushing a giant sphere of flaming poo across the sky.
But there was no question: Zia had used the path of the gods. She’d called on Ra—or at least one of his incarnations, Khepri.
Ra had chosen her, the way Horus had chosen me.
Suddenly it made sense that Apophis had destroyed Zia’s village when she was young, and that the old Chief Lector Iskandar had gone to such lengths to train her and then hide her in a magical sleep. If she held the secret to reawakening the sun god…
I dabbed some ointment on her throat. I pressed a cold washcloth to her forehead, but it didn’t seem to help.
I turned to Setne. “Heal her!”
“Oh, um…” He winced. “See, healing magic isn’t really my thing. But at least you’ve got the Book of Thoth! If she dies, it wasn’t for nothing—”
“If she dies,” I warned, “I will…I will…” I couldn’t think of a torture painful enough.
“I see you need some time,” Setne said. “No problem. How about I go tell your captain where we’re heading? We should get back to the Duat, back onto the River of Night as soon as possible. Do I have your permission to give him orders?”
“Fine,” I snapped. “Just get out of my sight.”
I don’t know how much time passed. Zia’s fever seemed to subside. She started breathing more easily and slipped into a gentler sleep. I kissed her forehead and stayed by her side, holding her hand.
I was dimly aware of the ship’s moving. We dropped into a momentary free-fall, then hit water with a shudder and a loud splash. I felt a river rolling under the hull once again, and from the tingling in my gut, I guessed we were back in the Duat.
The door creaked open behind me, but I kept my eyes on Zia.
I waited for Setne to say something—probably to brag about how well he’d done navigating us back to the River of Night—but he stayed silent.
“Well?” I asked.
The sound of splintering wood made me jump.
Setne wasn’t at the door. Instead, Bloodstained Blade loomed over me, his ax head having just split the doorframe. His fists were clenched.
He spoke in an angry, cold hum: “Lord Kane, it’s time to die.”
S A D I E
13. A Friendly Game of Hide-and-Seek (with Bonus Points for Painful Death!)
I SEE. LEAVE OFF WITH THE AX-MURDERING DEMON. Trying to make my part of the story seem boring, eh? Carter, you are such an attention hog.
Well, as you were cruising down the Nile in a lavishly appointed riverboat, Walt and I were traveling in a bit less style.
From the realm of the dead, I ventured another conversation with Isis to negotiate a doorway into the Nile Delta. Isis must have been cross with me (I can’t imagine why) because she deposited Walt and me waist-deep in a swamp, our feet completely stuck in the mud.
“Thanks!” I yelled at the sky.