“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Can’t we go past invisibly?”
“It’s not the mortals I’m worried about.” He pointed.
All the police, reporters, and spectators around the barricades had fallen asleep. Several military-types in body armor were curled on the pavement, cuddling their assault rifles like teddy bears.
Standing in front of the barricades, blocking our car, were Carter and Walt. They were disheveled and breathing heavily, as if they’d run here all the way from Brooklyn. They both had wands at the ready. Carter stepped forward, pointing his sword at the windshield.
“Let her go!” he yelled at Bes. “Or I’ll destroy you!”
Bes glanced back at me. “Should I frighten him?”
“No!” I said. That was something I didn’t need to see again. “I’ll handle it.”
I stepped out of the limo. “Hello, boys. Brilliant timing.”
Walt and Carter frowned.
“You’re not in danger?” Walt asked me.
“Not anymore.”
Carter lowered his sword reluctantly. “You mean the ugly guy—”
“Is a friend,” I said. “Bast’s friend. He’s also our driver.”
Carter looked equal parts confused, annoyed, and uneasy, which made a satisfying ending to my birthday party.
“Driver to where?” he asked.
“Russia, of course,” I said. “Hop in.”
C A R T E R
9. We Get a Vertically Challenged Tour of Russia
AS USUAL, SADIE LEFT OUT some important details, like how Walt and I nearly killed ourselves trying to find her.
It wasn’t fun, flying to the Brooklyn Museum. We had to hang from a rope under the griffin’s belly like a couple of Tarzans, dodging policemen, emergency workers, city officials, and several old ladies who chased after us with umbrellas screaming, “There’s the hummingbird! Kill it!”
Once we managed to open a portal, I wanted to take Freak through with us, but the gate of swirling sand kind of…well, freaked him out, so we had to leave him behind.
When we got to London, television monitors in the storefronts were showing footage of Waterloo Station—something about a strange disturbance inside the terminal with escaped animals and windstorms. Gee, wonder who that could have been? We used Walt’s amulet for Shu the air god to summon a burst of wind and jump to Waterloo Bridge. Of course, we landed right in the middle of a heavily armed riot squad. Just luck that I remembered the sleep spell.
Then, finally, we were ready to charge in and save Sadie, and she rides up in a limousine driven by an ugly dwarf in a swimsuit, and she accuses us of being late.
So when she told us the dwarf was driving us to Russia, I was like, “Whatever.” And I got into the car.
The limousine drove through Westminster while Sadie, Walt, and I traded stories.
After hearing what Sadie had been through, I didn’t feel so bad about my day. A dream of Apophis and a three-headed snake in the training room didn’t seem nearly as scary as gods taking over our grandparents. I’d never liked Gran and Gramps that much, but still—yikes.
I also couldn’t believe our chauffeur was Bes. Dad and I used to laugh about his pictures in museums—his bulging eyes, wagging tongue, and general lack of clothing. Supposedly, he could scare away almost anything—spirits, demons, even other gods—which is why the Egyptian commoners had loved him. Bes looked out for the little guy…um, which wasn’t meant as a dwarf joke. In the flesh, he looked exactly like his pictures, only in full color, with full smell.
“We owe you,” I told him. “So you’re a friend of Bast’s?”
His ears turned red. “Yeah…sure. She asks me for a favor once in a while. I try to help out.”
I got the feeling there was some history there he didn’t want to go into.