The way she said that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Could this be what Geb meant? Was it possible that Zia held the key to defeating Set?

Suddenly Amos tensed. He pulled his staff out of thin air and said, “It’s a trap.”

Zia looked stunned. “What? No!”

Then we all saw what Amos had sensed. Marching towards us from the east end of the plaza was Desjardins himself. He wore cream-colored robes with the Chief Lector’s leopard-skin cape tied across his shoulders. His staff glowed purple. Tourists and pedestrians veered out of his way, confused and nervous, as if they weren’t sure what was going on but they knew enough to clear off.

“Other way,” I urged.

I turned and saw two more magicians in black robes marching in from the west.

I pulled my wand and pointed it at Zia. “You set us up!”

“No! I swear—” Her face fell. “Mel. Mel must’ve told him.”

“Right,” I grumbled. “Blame Mel.”

“No time for explanations,” Amos said, and he blasted Zia with a bolt of lightning. She crashed into the souvenir table.

“Hey!” Carter protested.

“She’s the enemy,” Amos said. “And we have enough enemies.”

Carter rushed to Zia’s side (naturally) while more pedestrians panicked and scattered for the edges of the square.

“Sadie, Carter,” Amos said, “if things go bad, get to the boat and flee.”

“Amos, we’re not leaving you,” I said.

“You’re more important,” he insisted. “I can hold off Desjardins for— Look out!”

Amos spun his staff towards the two magicians in black. They’d been muttering spells, but Amos’s gust of wind swept them off their feet, sending them swirling out of control at the center of a dust devil. They churned along the street, picking up trash, leaves, and tamales, until the miniature tornado tossed the screaming magicians over the top of a building and out of sight.

On the other side of the plaza, Desjardins roared in anger: “Kane!”

The Chief Lector slammed his staff into the ground. A crack opened in the pavement and began snaking towards us. As the crevice grew wider, the buildings trembled. Stucco flaked off the walls. The fissure would’ve swallowed us, but Isis’s voice spoke in my mind, telling me the word I needed.

I raised my wand. “Quiet. Hah-ri.”

Hieroglyphs blazed to life in front of us:

The fissure stopped just short of my feet. The earthquake died.

Amos sucked in a breath. “Sadie, how did you—”

“Divine Words, Kane!” Desjardins stepped forward, his face livid. “The child dares speak the Divine Words. She is corrupted by Isis, and you are guilty of assisting the gods.”

“Step off, Michel,” Amos warned.

Part of me found it amusing that Desjardins’ first name was Michel, but I was too scared to enjoy the moment.

Amos held out his wand, ready to defend us. “We must stop Set. If you’re wise—”

“I would what?” Desjardins said. “Join you? Collaborate? The gods bring nothing but destruction.”

“No!” Zia’s voice. With Carter’s help, she’d somehow managed to struggle to her feet. “Master, we can’t fight each other. That’s not what Iskandar wanted.”

“Iskandar is dead!” Desjardins bellowed. “Now, step away from them, Zia, or be destroyed with them.”

Zia looked at Carter. Then she set her jaw and faced Desjardins. “No. We must work together.”

I regarded Zia with a new respect. “You really didn’t lead him here?”

“I do not lie,” she said.

Desjardins raised his staff, and huge cracks appeared in the buildings all around him. Chunks of cement and adobe brick flew at us, but Amos summoned the wind and deflected them.

“Children, get out of here!” Amos yelled. “The other magicians won’t stay gone forever.”

“For once, he’s right,” Zia warned. “But we can’t make a portal—”

“We’ve got a flying boat,” Carter offered.

Zia nodded appreciatively. “Where?”

We pointed towards the church, but unfortunately Desjardins was between it and us.

Desjardins hurled another volley of stones. Amos deflected them with wind and lightning.

“Storm magic!” Desjardins sneered. “Since when is Amos Kane an expert in the powers of chaos? Do you see this, children? How can he be your protector?”

“Shut up,” Amos growled, and with a sweep of his staff he raised a sandstorm so huge that it blanketed the entire square.

“Now,” Zia said. We made a wide arc around Desjardins, then ran blindly towards the church. The sandstorm bit my skin and stung my eyes, but we found the stairs and climbed to the roof. The wind subsided, and across the plaza I could see Desjardins and Amos still facing each other, encased in shields of force. Amos was staggering; the effort was clearly taking too much out of him.

“I have to help,” Zia said reluctantly, “or Desjardins will kill Amos.”

“I thought you didn’t trust Amos,” Carter said.

“I don’t,” she agreed. “But if Desjardins wins this duel, we’re all dead. We’ll never escape.” She clenched her teeth as if she were preparing for something really painful.

She held out her staff and murmured an incantation. The air became warm. The staffed glowed. She released it and it burst into flame, growing into a column of fire a full meter thick and four meters tall.

“Hunt Desjardins,” she intoned.

Immediately, the fiery column floated off the roof and began moving slowly but deliberately towards the Chief Lector.

Zia crumpled. Carter and I had to grab her arms to keep her from falling on her face.

Desjardins looked up. When he saw the fire, his eyes widened with fear. “Zia!” he cursed. “You dare attack me?”

The column descended, passing through the branches of a tree and burning a hole straight through them. It landed in the street, hovering just a few centimeters above the pavement. The heat was so intense that it scorched the concrete curb and melted the tarmac. The fire came to a parked car, and instead of going round, it burned its way straight through the metal chassis, sawing the car in two.

“Good!” Amos yelled from the street. “Well done, Zia!”

In desperation, Desjardins staggered to his left. The column adjusted course. He blasted it with water, but the liquid evaporated into steam. He summoned boulders, but they just passed through the fire and dropped into melted, smoking lumps on the opposite side.

“What is that thing?” I asked.

Zia was unconscious, and Carter shook his head in wonder. But Isis spoke in my mind. A pillar of fire, she said with admiration. It is the most powerful spell a master of fire can summon. It is impossible to defeat, impossible to escape. It can be used to lead the summoner toward a goal. Or it can be used to pursue any enemy, forcing him to run. If Desjardins tries to focus on anything else, it will overtake him and consume him. It will not leave him alone until it dissipates.

How long? I asked.

Depends on the strength of the caster. Between six and twelve hours.

I laughed aloud. Brilliant! Of course Zia had passed out creating it, but it was still brilliant.

Such a spell has depleted her energy, Isis said. She will not be able to work any magic until the pillar is gone. In order to help you, she has left herself completely powerless.

“She’ll be all right,” I told Carter. Then I shouted down to the plaza: “Amos, come on! We’ve got to go!”

Desjardins kept backing up. I could tell he was scared of the fire, but he wasn’t quite done with us. “You will be sorry for this! You wish to play gods? Then you leave me no choice.” Out of the Duat, he pulled a cluster of sticks. No, they were arrows—about seven of them.

Amos looked at the arrows in horror. “You wouldn’t! No Chief Lector would ever—”

“I summon Sekhmet!” Desjardins bellowed. He threw the arrows into the air and they began to twirl, orbiting Amos.

Desjardins allowed himself a satisfied smile. He looked straight at me. “You choose to place your faith in the gods?” he called. “Then die by the hands of a god.”

He turned and ran. The pillar of fire picked up speed and followed.

“Children, get out of here!” Amos yelled, encircled by the arrows. “I’ll try to distract her!”

“Who?” I demanded. I knew I’d heard the name Sekhmet before, but I’d heard a lot of Egyptian names. “Which one is Sekhmet?”

Carter turned to me, and even with all we’d been through over the last week, I had never seen him look so scared. “We need to leave,” he said. “Now.”

Chapter 33. We Go Into the Salsa Business

YOU’RE FORGETTING SOMETHING, Horus told me.

A little busy here! I thought back.

You might think it’s easy steering a magic boat through the sky. You’d be wrong. I didn’t have Amos’s animated coat, so I stood in the back trying to shift the tiller myself, which was like stirring cement. I couldn’t see where we were going. We kept tilting back and forth while Sadie tried her best to keep an unconscious Zia from flopping over the side.

It’s my birthday, Horus insisted. Wish me happy birthday!

“Happy birthday!” I yelled. “Now, shut up!”

“Carter, what are you on about?” Sadie screamed, grabbing the railing with one hand and Zia with the other as the boat tipped sideways. “Have you lost your mind?”

“No, I was talking to—Oh, forget it.”

I glanced behind us. Something was approaching—a blazing figure that lit up the night. Vaguely humanoid, definitely bad news. I urged the boat to go faster.

Did you get me anything? Horus urged.

Will you please do something helpful? I demanded. That thing following us—is that what I think it is?

Oh. Horus sounded bored. That’s Sekhmet. The Eye of Ra, destroyer of the wicked, the great huntress, lady of flame, et cetera.

Great, I thought. And she’s following us because...

The Chief Lector has the power to summon her once during his lifetime, Horus explained. It’s an old, old gift—goes back to the days when Ra first blessed man with magic.

Once during his lifetime, I thought. And Desjardins chooses now?

He never was very good at being patient.

I thought that the magicians don’t like gods!

They don’t, Horus agreed. Just shows you what a hypocrite he is. But I suppose killing you was more important than standing on principle. I can appreciate that.

I looked back again. The figure was definitely getting closer—a giant golden woman in glowing red armor, with a bow in one hand and a quiver of arrows slung across her back—and she was hurtling toward us like a rocket.

How do we beat her? I asked.

You pretty much don’t, Horus said. She is the incarnation of the sun’s wrath. Back in the days when Ra was active, she would’ve been much more impressive, but still....She’s unstoppable. A born killer. A slaying machine—