Rick Riordan - The Red Pyramid

“Is that why you never came round?” Sadie asked Amos. “Because Dad was banished?”

“The House forbade me to see him. I loved Julius. It hurt me to stay away from my brother, and from you children. But I could not see you-until last night, when I simply had no choice but to try to help. Julius has been obsessed with finding Osiris for years. He was consumed with grief because of what happened to your mother. When I learned that Julius was about to break the law again, to try to set things right, I had to stop him. A second offense would’ve meant a death sentence. Unfortunately, I failed. I should’ve known he was too stubborn.”

I looked down at my plate. My food had gotten cold. Muffin leaped onto the table and rubbed against my hand. When I didn’t object, she started eating my bacon.

“Last night at the museum,” I said, “the girl with the knife, the man with the forked beard-they were magicians too? From the House of Life?”

“Yes,” Amos said. “Keeping an eye on your father. You are fortunate they let you go.”

“The girl wanted to kill us,” I remembered. “But the guy with the beard said, not yet.”

“They don’t kill unless it is absolutely necessary,” Amos said. “They will wait to see if you are a threat.”

“Why would we be a threat?” Sadie demanded. “We’re children! The summoning wasn’t our idea.”

Amos pushed away his plate. “There is a reason you two were raised separately.”

“Because the Fausts took Dad to court,” I said matter-of-factly. “And Dad lost.”

“It was much more than that,” Amos said. “The House insisted you two be separated. Your father wanted to keep you both, even though he knew how dangerous it was.”

Sadie looked like she’d been smacked between the eyes. “He did?”

“Of course. But the House intervened and made sure your grandparents got custody of you, Sadie. If you and Carter were raised together, you could become very powerful. Perhaps you have already sensed changes over the past day.”

I thought about the surges of strength I’d been feeling, and the way Sadie suddenly seemed to know how to read Ancient Egyptian. Then I thought of something even further back.

“Your sixth birthday,” I told Sadie.

“The cake,” she said immediately, the memory passing between us like an electric spark.

At Sadie’s sixth birthday party, the last one we’d shared as a family, Sadie and I had a huge argument. I don’t remember what it was about. I think I wanted to blow out the candles for her. We started yelling. She grabbed my shirt. I pushed her. I remember Dad rushing toward us, trying to intervene, but before he could, Sadie’s birthday cake exploded. Icing splattered the walls, our parents, the faces of Sadie’s little six-year-old friends. Dad and Mom separated us. They sent me to my room. Later, they said we must’ve hit the cake by accident as we were fighting, but I knew we hadn’t. Something much weirder had made it explode, as if it had responded to our anger. I remembered Sadie crying with a chunk of cake on her forehead, an upside-down candle stuck to the ceiling with its wick still burning, and an adult visitor, one of my parents’ friends, his glasses speckled with white frosting.

I turned to Amos. “That was you. You were at Sadie’s party.”

“Vanilla icing,” he recalled. “Very tasty. But it was clear even then that you two would be difficult to raise in the same household.”

“And so…” I faltered. “What happens to us now?”

I didn’t want to admit it, but I couldn’t stand the thought of being separated from Sadie again. She wasn’t much, but she was all I had.

“You must be trained properly,” Amos said, “whether the House approves or not.”

“Why wouldn’t they approve?” I asked.

“I will explain everything, don’t worry. But we must start your lessons if we are to stand any chance of finding your father and putting things right. Otherwise the entire world is in danger. If we only knew where-”

“Phoenix,” I blurted out.

Amos stared at me. “What?”

“Last night I had…well, not a dream, exactly…” I felt stupid, but I told him what had happened while I slept.

Judging from Amos’s expression, the news was even worse than I thought.

“You’re sure he said ‘birthday present’?” he asked.

“Yeah, but what does that mean?”

“And a permanent host,” Amos said. “He didn’t have one yet?”

“Well, that’s what the rooster-footed guy said-”

“That was a demon,” Amos said. “A minion of chaos. And if demons are coming through to the mortal world, we don’t have much time. This is bad, very bad.”

“If you live in Phoenix,” I said.

“Carter, our enemy won’t stop in Phoenix. If he’s grown so powerful so fast…What did he say about the storm, exactly?”

“He said: ‘I will summon the greatest storm ever known.’”

Amos scowled. “The last time he said that, he created the Sahara. A storm that large could destroy North America, generating enough chaos energy to give him an almost invincible form.”

“What are you talking about? Who is this guy?”

Amos waved away the question. “More important right now: why didn’t you sleep with the headrest?”

I shrugged. “It was uncomfortable.” I looked at Sadie for support. “You didn’t use it, did you?”

Sadie rolled her eyes. “Well, of course I did. It was obviously there for a reason.”

Sometimes I really hate my sister. [Ow! That’s my foot!]

“Carter,” Amos said, “sleep is dangerous. It’s a doorway into the Duat.”

“Lovely,” Sadie grumbled. “Another strange word.”

“Ah…yes, sorry,” Amos said. “The Duat is the world of spirits and magic. It exists beneath the waking world like a vast ocean, with many layers and regions. We submerged just under its surface last night to reach New York, because travel through the Duat is much faster. Carter, your consciousness also passed through its shallowest currents as you slept, which is how you witnessed what happened in Phoenix. Fortunately, you survived that experience. But the deeper you go into the Duat, the more horrible things you encounter, and the more difficult it is to return. There are entire realms filled with demons, palaces where the gods exist in their pure forms, so powerful their mere presence would burn a human to ashes. There are prisons that hold beings of unspeakable evil, and some chasms so deep and chaotic that not even the gods dare explore them. Now that your powers are stirring, you must not sleep without protection, or you leave yourself open to attacks from the Duat or…unintended journeys through it. The headrest is enchanted, to keep your consciousness anchored to your body.”

“You mean I actually did…” My mouth tasted like metal. “Could he have killed me?”

Amos’s expression was grave. “The fact that your soul can travel like that means you are progressing faster than I thought. Faster than should be possible. If the Red Lord had noticed you-”

“The Red Lord?” Sadie said. “That’s the fiery bloke?”

Amos rose. “I must find out more. We can’t simply wait for him to find you. And if he releases the storm on his birthday, at the height of his powers-”

“You mean you’re going to Phoenix?” I could barely get the words out. “Amos, that fiery man defeated Dad like his magic was a joke! Now he’s got demons, and he’s getting stronger, and-you’ll be killed!”

Amos gave me a dry smile, like he’d already weighed the dangers and didn’t need a reminder. His expression reminded me painfully of Dad’s. “Don’t count your uncle out so quickly, Carter. I’ve got some magic of my own. Besides, I must see what is happening for myself if we’re to have any chance at saving your father and stopping the Red Lord. I’ll be quick and careful. Just stay here. Muffin will guard you.”