“Behold!” he told the crowd. “Carter and Sadie Kane, who awakened our king! Let there be no doubt: Apophis the enemy has risen. We must unite behind Ra.”
Ra muttered in his sleep, “Fish, cookie, weasel,” then went back to snoring.
Horus cleared his throat. “I pledge my loyalty! I expect you all to do the same. I will protect Ra’s boat as we pass through the Duat tonight. Each of you shall take turns with this duty until the sun god is…fully recovered.”
He sounded absolutely unconvinced this would ever happen.
“We will find a way to defeat Apophis!” he said. “Now, celebrate the return of Ra! I embrace Carter Kane as a brother.”
Music began to play, echoing through the halls. Ra, still on his throne on his boat, woke up and started clapping. He grinned as gods swirled around him, some in human form, some dissolving into wisps of cloud, flame, or light.
Isis took my hands. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Sadie,” she said in a frigid voice. “Our greatest enemy rises, and you have dethroned my son and made a senile god our leader.”
“Give it a chance,” I said, though my ankles felt like they were turning to butter.
Horus clasped Carter’s shoulders. His words weren’t any friendlier.
“I am your ally, Carter,” Horus promised. “I will lend you my strength whenever you ask. You will revive the path of my magic in the House of Life, and we will fight together to destroy the Serpent. But make no mistake: you have cost me a throne. If your choice costs us the war, I swear my last act before Apophis swallows me will be to crush you like a gnat. And if it comes to pass that we win this war without Ra’s help, if you have disgraced me for nothing, I swear that the death of Cleopatra and the curse of Akhenaton will look like nothing compared to the wrath I will visit on you and your family for all time. Do you understand?”
To Carter’s credit, he held up under the gaze of the war god.
“Just do your part,” Carter said.
Horus laughed for the audience as if he and Carter had just shared a good joke. “Go now, Carter. See what your victory has cost. Let us hope all your allies do not share such a fate.”
Horus turned his back on us and joined the celebration. Isis smiled at me one last time and dissolved into a sparkling rainbow.
Bast stood at my side, holding her tongue, but she looked as if she wanted to shred Horus like a scratching post.
Anubis looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Sadie. The gods can be—”
“Ungrateful?” I asked. “Infuriating?”
His face flushed. I supposed he thought I was referring to him.
“We can be slow to realize what is important,” he said at last. “Sometimes, it takes us a while to appreciate something new, something that might change us for the better.”
He fixed me with those warm eyes, and I wanted to melt into a puddle.
“We should go,” Bast interrupted. “One more stop, if you’re up for it.”
“The cost of victory,” Carter remembered. “Bes? Is he alive?”
Bast sighed. “Difficult question. This way.”
The last place I wanted to see again was Sunny Acres.
Nothing much had changed in the nursing home. No renewing sunlight had helped the senile gods. They were still wheeling their IV poles around, banging into walls, singing ancient hymns as they searched in vain for temples that no longer existed.
A new patient had joined them. Bes sat in a hospital gown in a wicker chair, gazing out the window at the Lake of Fire.
Tawaret knelt at his side, her tiny hippo eyes red from crying. She was trying to get him to drink from a glass.
Water dribbled down his chin. He gazed blankly at the fiery waterfall in the distance, his craggy face awash in red light. His curly hair was newly combed, and he wore a fresh blue Hawaiian shirt and shorts, so he looked quite comfortable. But his brow was furrowed. His fingers gripped the armrests, as if he knew he should remember something, but couldn’t.
“That’s all right, Bes.” Tawaret’s voice quivered as she dabbed a napkin under his chin. “We’ll work on it. I’ll take care of you.”
Then she noticed us. Her expression hardened. For a kindly goddess of childbirth, Tawaret could look quite scary when she wanted to.