The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles #1)(100)

I blinked the sleep out of my eyes and realized my head was in Khufu’s lap. The baboon was foraging my scalp for munchies.

“Dude.” I sat up groggily. “Not cool.”

“But he gave you a lovely hairdo,” Sadie said.

“Agh-agh!” Khufu agreed.

Bast opened the door of the trailer. “Come on,” she said. “We’ll have to walk from here.”

When I got to the door I almost had a heart attack. We were parked on a mountain road so narrow, the RV would’ve toppled over if I’d sneezed wrong.

For a second, I was afraid we were already in Phoenix, because the landscape looked similar. The sun was just setting on the horizon. Rugged mountain ranges stretched out on either side, and the desert floor between them seemed to go on forever. In a valley to our left lay a colorless city—hardly any trees or grass, just sand, gravel, and buildings. The city was much smaller than Phoenix, though, and a large river traced its southern edge, glinting red in the fading light. The river curved around the base of the mountains below us before snaking off to the north.

“We’re on the moon,” Sadie murmured.

“El Paso, Texas,” Bast corrected. “And that’s the Rio Grande.” She took a big breath of the cool dry air. “A river civilization in the desert. Very much like Egypt, actually! Er, except for the fact that Mexico is next door. I think this is the best spot to summon Nephthys.”

“You really think she’ll tell us Set’s secret name?” Sadie asked.

Bast considered. “Nephthys is unpredictable, but she has sided against her husband before. We can hope.”

That didn’t sound very promising. I stared at the river far below. “Why did you park us on the mountain? Why not closer?”

Bast shrugged, as if this hadn’t occurred to her. “Cats like to get as high up as possible. In case we have to pounce on something.”

“Great,” I said. “So if we have to pounce, we’re all set.”

“It’s not so bad,” Bast said. “We just climb our way down to the river through a few miles of sand, cacti, and rattlesnakes, looking out for the Border Patrol, human traffickers, magicians, and demons—and summon Nephthys.”

Sadie whistled. “Well, I’m excited!”

“Agh,” Khufu agreed miserably. He sniffed the air and snarled.

“He smells trouble,” Bast translated. “Something bad is about to happen.”

“Even I could smell that,” I grumbled, and we followed Bast down the mountain.

Yes, Horus said. I remember this place.

It’s El Paso, I told him. Unless you went out for Mexican food, you’ve never been here.

I remember it well, he insisted. The marsh, the desert.

I stopped and looked around. Suddenly I remembered this place, too. About fifty yards in front of us, the river spread out into a swampy area—a web of slow-moving tributaries cutting a shallow depression through the desert. Marsh grass grew tall along the banks. There must’ve been some kind of surveillance, its being an international border and all, but I couldn’t spot any.

I’d been here in ba form. I could picture a hut right there in the marsh, Isis and young Horus hiding from Set. And just downriver—that’s where I’d sensed something dark moving under the water, waiting for me.

I caught Bast’s arm when she was a few steps from the bank. “Stay away from the water.”

She frowned. “Carter, I’m a cat. I’m not going for a swim. But if you want to summon a river goddess, you really need to do it at the riverbank.”

She made it sound so logical that I felt stupid, but I couldn’t help it. Something bad was about to happen.

What is it? I asked Horus. What’s the challenge?

But my ride-along god was unnervingly silent, as if waiting.

Sadie tossed a rock into the murky brown water. It sank with a loud ker-plunk!

“Seems quite safe to me,” she said, and trudged down to the banks.

Khufu followed hesitantly. When he reached the water, he sniffed at it and snarled.

“See?” I said. “Even Khufu doesn’t like it.”

“It’s probably ancestral memory,” Bast said. “The river was a dangerous place in Egypt. Snakes, hippos, all kinds of problems.”

“Hippos?”

“Don’t take it lightly,” Bast warned. “Hippos can be deadly.”

“Was that what attacked Horus?” I asked. “I mean in the old days, when Set was looking for him?”

“Haven’t heard that story,” Bast said. “Usually you hear that Set used scorpions first. Then later, crocodiles.”

“Crocodiles,” I said, and a chill went down my back.

Is that it? I asked Horus. But again he didn’t answer. “Bast, does the Rio Grande have crocodiles?”

“I very much doubt it.” She knelt by the water. “Now, Sadie, if you’d do the honors?”

“How?”

“Just ask for Nephthys to appear. She was Isis’s sister. If she’s anywhere on this side of the Duat, she should hear your voice.”

Sadie looked doubtful, but she knelt next to Bast and touched the water. Her fingertips caused ripples that seemed much too large, rings of force emanating all the way across the river.