The Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles #1)(62)

I promised myself I’d get revenge, but for the time being we had enough worries staying alive.

We raced along in the cold rain. It was all I could do to avoid slipping on the slick pavements. I glanced back and saw two figures chasing us—men with shaved heads and goatees and black raincoats. They might’ve passed for normal mortals except they each carried a glowing staff. Not a good sign.

The bats were literally at our heels. One nipped my leg. Another buzzed my hair. I had to force myself to keep running. My stomach still felt queasy from eating one of the little pests when I was a kite—and no, that had not been my idea. Totally a defensive instinct!

“Sadie,” Bast called as we ran. “You’ll have only seconds to open the portal.”

“Where is it?” I yelled.

We dashed across the rue de Rivoli into a wide plaza surrounded by the wings of the Louvre. Bast made straight for the glass pyramid at the entrance, glowing in the dusk.

“You can’t be serious,” I said. “That isn’t a real pyramid.”

“Of course it’s real,” Bast said. “The shape gives a pyramid its power. It is a ramp to the heavens.”

The bats were all around us now—biting our arms, flying around our feet. As their numbers increased, it got harder to see or move.

Carter reached for his sword, then apparently remembered it wasn’t there anymore. He’d lost it at Luxor. He swore and rummaged around in his workbag.

“Don’t slow down!” Bast warned.

Carter pulled out his wand. In total frustration, he threw it at a bat. I thought this a pointless gesture, but the wand glowed white-hot and thumped the bat solidly on the head, knocking it out of the air. The wand ricocheted through the swarm, thumping six, seven, eight of the little monsters before returning to Carter’s hand.

“Not bad,” I said. “Keep it up!”

We arrived at the base of the pyramid. The plaza was thankfully empty. The last thing I wanted was my embarrassing death by fruit bats posted on YouTube.

“One minute until sundown,” Bast warned. “Our last chance for summoning is now.”

She unsheathed her knives and started slicing bats out of the air, trying to keep them away from me. Carter’s wand flew wildly, knocking fruit bats every which way. I faced the pyramid and tried to think of a portal, the way I’d done at Luxor, but it was almost impossible to concentrate.

Where do you wish to go? Isis said in my mind.

God, I don’t care! America!

I realized I was crying. I hated to, but shock and fear were starting to overwhelm me. Where did I want to go? Home, of course! Back to my flat in London—back to my own room, my grandparents, my mates at school and my old life. But I couldn’t. I had to think about my father and our mission. We had to get to Set.

America, I thought. Now!

My burst of emotion must’ve had some effect. The pyramid trembled. Its glass walls shimmered and the top of the structure began to glow.

A swirling sand vortex appeared, all right. Only one problem: it was hovering above the very top of the pyramid.

“Climb!” Bast said. Easy for her—she was a cat.

“The side is too steep!” Carter objected.

He’d done a good job with the bats. Dazed heaps littered the pavement, but more still flew round us, biting every bit of exposed skin, and the magicians were closing in.

“I’ll toss you,” Bast said.

“Excuse me?” Carter protested, but she picked him up by his collar and pants and tossed him up the side of the pyramid. He skittered to the top in a very undignified manner and slipped straight through the portal.

“Now you, Sadie,” Bast said. “Come on!”

Before I could move, a man’s voice yelled, “Stop!”

Stupidly, I froze. The voice was so powerful, it was hard not to.

The two magicians were approaching. The taller one spoke in perfect English: “Surrender, Miss Kane, and return our master’s property.”

“Sadie, don’t listen,” Bast warned. “Come here.”

“The cat goddess deceives you,” the magician said. “She abandoned her post. She endangered us all. She will lead you to ruin.”

I could tell he meant it. He was absolutely convinced of what he said.

I turned to Bast. Her expression had changed. She looked wounded, even grief-stricken.

“What does he mean?” I said. “What did you do wrong?”

“We have to leave,” she warned. “Or they will kill us.”

I looked at the portal. Carter was already through. That decided it. I wasn’t going to be separated from him. As annoying as he was, Carter was the only person I had left. (How is that for depressing?)

“Toss me,” I said.

Bast grabbed me. “See you in America.” Then she chucked me up the side of the pyramid.

I heard the magician roar, “Surrender!” And an explosion rattled the glass next to my head. Then I plunged into the hot vortex of sand.

I woke in a small room with industrial carpeting, gray walls, and metal-framed windows. I felt as if I were inside a high-tech refrigerator. I sat up groggily and discovered I was coated in cold, wet sand.

“Ugh,” I said. “Where are we?”

Carter and Bast stood by the window. Apparently they’d been conscious for a while, because they’d both brushed themselves off.