Rick Riordan - The Red Pyramid

“Nothing’s moving on the streets,” Zia said. “If we try to drive up to the mountain-”

“We’ll be seen,” I said.

“What about that spell?” Carter looked at Zia. “You know…the one you used in the First Nome.”

“What spell?” I asked.

Zia shook her head. “Carter is referring to an invisibility spell. But I have no magic. And unless you have the proper components, it can’t be done on a whim.”

“Amos?” I asked.

He pondered the question. “No invisibility, I’m afraid. But I have another idea.”

I thought turning into a bird was bad, until Amos turned us into storm clouds.

He explained what he was going to do in advance, but it didn’t make me any less nervous.

“No one will notice a few wisps of black cloud in the midst of a storm,” he reasoned.

“But this is impossible,” Zia said. “This is storm magic, chaos magic. We should not-”

Amos raised his wand, and Zia disintegrated.

“No!” Carter yelled, but then he too was gone, replaced by a swirl of black dust.

Amos turned to me.

“Oh, no,” I said. “Thanks, but-”

Poof. I was a storm cloud. Now, that may sound amazing to you, but imagine your hands and feet disappearing, turning into wisps of wind. Imagine your body replaced by dust and vapor, and having a tingly feeling in your stomach without even having a stomach. Imagine having to concentrate just to keep yourself from dispersing to nothing.

I got so angry, a flash of lightning crackled inside me.

“Don’t be that way,” Amos chided. “It’s only for a few minutes. Follow me.”

He melted into a heavier, darker bit of storm and raced towards the mountain. Following wasn’t easy. At first I could only float. Every wind threatened to take some part of me away. I tried swirling and found it helped keep my particles together. Then I imagined myself filling with helium, and suddenly I was off.

I couldn’t be sure if Carter and Zia were following or not. When you’re a storm, your vision isn’t human. I could vaguely sense what was around me, but what I “saw” was scattered and fuzzy, as if through heavy static.

I headed towards the mountain, which was an almost irresistible beacon to my storm self. It glowed with heat, pressure, and turbulence-everything a little dust devil like me could want.

I followed Amos to a ridge on the side of the mountain, but I returned to human form a little too soon. I tumbled out of the sky and knocked Carter to the ground.

“Ouch,” he groaned.

“Sorry,” I offered, though mostly I was concentrating on not getting sick. My stomach still felt like it was mostly storm.

Zia and Amos stood next to us, peeping into a crevice between two large sandstone boulders. Red light seeped from within and made their faces look devilish.

Zia turned to us. Judging from her expression, what she’d seen wasn’t good. “Only the pyramidion left.”

“The what?” I looked through the crevice, and the view was almost as disorienting as being a storm cloud. The entire mountain was hollowed out, just as Carter had described. The cavern floor was about six hundred meters below us. Fires blazed everywhere, bathing the rock walls in blood-colored light. A giant crimson pyramid dominated the cave, and at its base, masses of demons milled about like a rock concert crowd waiting for the show to begin. High above them, eye-level to us, two magic barges manned by crews of demons floated slowly, ceremoniously towards the pyramid. Suspended in a mesh of ropes between the boats was the only piece of the pyramid not yet installed-a golden capstone to top off the structure.

“They know they’ve won,” Carter guessed. “They’re making a show of it.”

“Yes,” Amos said.

“Well, let’s blow up the boats or something!” I said.

Amos looked at me. “Is that your strategy, honestly?”

His tone made me feel completely stupid. Looking down on the demon army, the enormous pyramid…what had I been thinking? I couldn’t battle this. I was a bloody twelve-year-old.

“We have to try,” Carter said. “Dad’s in there.”

That shook me out of my self-pity. If we were going to die, at least we would do it trying to rescue my father (oh, and North America, too, I suppose).

“Right,” I said. “We fly to those boats. We stop them from placing the capstone-”

“Pyramidion,” Zia corrected.

“Whatever. Then we fly into the pyramid and find Dad.”

“And when Set tries to stop you?” Amos asked.

I glanced at Zia, who was silently warning me not to say more.

“First things first,” I said. “How do we fly to the boats?”

“As a storm,” Amos suggested.

“No!” the rest of us said.

“I will not be part of more chaos magic,” Zia insisted. “It is not natural.”

Amos waved at the spectacle below us. “Tell me this is natural. You have another plan?”

“Birds,” I said, hating myself for even considering it. “I’ll become a kite. Carter can do a falcon.”

“Sadie,” Carter warned, “what if-”

“I have to try.” I looked away before I could lose my resolve. “Zia, it’s been almost ten hours since your pillar of fire, hasn’t it? Still no magic?”

Zia held out her hand and concentrated. At first, nothing happened. Then red light flickered along her fingers, and her staff appeared in her grip, still smoking.

“Good timing,” Carter said.

“Also bad timing,” Amos observed. “It means Desjardins is no longer pursued by the pillar of fire. He’ll be here soon, and I’m sure he’ll bring backup. More enemies for us.”

“My magic will still be weak,” Zia warned. “I won’t be much help in a fight, but I can perhaps manage to summon a ride.” She brought out the vulture pendant she’d used at Luxor.

“Which leaves me,” Amos said. “No worries there. Let’s meet on the left boat. We’ll take that one out, then deal with the right. And let’s hope for surprise.”

I wasn’t in the mood to let Amos set our plans, but I couldn’t find any fault with his logic. “Right. We’ll have to finish the boats off quickly, then head into the pyramid itself. Perhaps we can seal off the entrance or something.”

Carter nodded. “Ready.”

At first, the plan seemed to go well. Turning into a kite was no problem, and to my surprise, once I reached the prow of the ship, I managed to turn back into a human on the first try, with my staff and wand ready. The only person more surprised was the demon right in front of me, whose switchblade head popped straight up in alarm.

Before he could slice me or even cry out, I summoned wind from my staff and blew him off the side of the boat. Two of his brethren charged forward, but Carter appeared behind them, sword drawn, and sliced them into piles of sand.

Unfortunately, Zia was a bit less stealthy. A giant vulture with a girl hanging from its feet tends to attract attention. As she flew towards the boat, demons below pointed and yelled. Some threw spears that fell short of their mark.

Zia’s grand entrance did manage to distract the remaining two demons on our boat, however, which allowed Amos to appear behind them. He’d taken the form of a fruit bat, which brought back bad memories; but he quickly returned to human form and body-slammed the demons, sending them tumbling into the air.

“Hold on!” he told us. Zia landed just in time to grab the tiller. Carter and I grabbed the sides of the boat. I had no idea what Amos was planning, but after my last flying boat ride, I wasn’t taking chances. Amos began to chant, pointing his staff towards the other boat, where the demons were just beginning to shout and point at us.

One of them was tall and very thin, with black eyes and a disgusting face, like muscle with the skin peeled away.