The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3)(76)

She scooped another dollop of salve and looked at the long cut across my stomach. “Um…you should do this part.”

She scraped the salve onto my fingers and let me apply it. The gash mended. I sat up slowly and took care of the glass cuts on my legs. Inside my chest, I swear I could feel my ribs mending. I took a deep breath and was relieved to find it didn’t hurt.

“Thank you,” I said. “What is that stuff?”

“Nefertem’s Balm,” she said.

“It’s a bomb?”

Her laughter made me feel almost as good as the salve. “Healing balm, Carter. It’s made of blue lotus flower, coriander, mandrake, ground malachite, and a few other special ingredients. Very rare, and this is my only jar. So don’t get injured anymore.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I was pleased that my head had stopped spinning. My double vision was returning to normal.

The Egyptian Queen wasn’t in such good shape. The remains of the hull were scattered across the beach—boards and railings, ropes and glass, mixed with the bones that had already been there. The wheelhouse had imploded. Fire curled from the broken windows. The fallen smokestacks bubbled golden smoke into the river.

As we watched, the stern cracked off and slid underwater, dragging the glowing orbs of light with it. Maybe the magical crew was bound to the boat. Maybe they weren’t even alive. But I still felt sorry for them as they disappeared under the murky surface.

“We won’t be going back that way,” I said.

“No,” Zia agreed. “Where are we? What happened to Setne?”

Setne. I’d almost forgotten about that ghostly scumbag. I would’ve been fine with his sinking to the bottom of the river, except that he’d taken the Book of Thoth.

I scanned the beach. To my surprise, I spotted a slightly battered pink mummy about twenty yards down the shore, squirming and struggling through the flotsam, apparently trying to inchworm his way to freedom.

I pointed him out to Zia. “We could leave him like that, but he’s got the Book of Thoth.”

She gave me one of those cruel smiles that made me glad she wasn’t my enemy. “No hurry. He won’t get far. How about a picnic?”

“I like the way you think.”

We spread out our supplies and tried to clean up as best we could. I busted out some bottled water and protein bars—yeah, look at me, the Boy Scout.

We ate and drank and watched our gift-wrapped pink ghost try to crawl away.

“How did we get here, exactly?” Zia asked. Her golden scarab still glittered at her throat. “I remember the serapeum, the Apis Bull, the room with the sunlight. After that, it’s fuzzy.”

I described what had happened as best I could—her magic scarab shield, her suddenly awesome powers from Khepri, the way she’d fried the Apis Bull and almost combusted herself. I explained how I’d gotten her back to the ship, and how Bloodstained Blade had turned psycho.

Zia winced. “You granted Setne permission to give Bloodstained Blade orders?”

“Yeah. Maybe not my best idea.”

“And he brought us here—to the Land of Demons, the most dangerous part of the Duat.”

I’d heard of the Land of Demons, but I didn’t know much about it. At the moment, I didn’t want to learn. I’d already escaped death so many times today, I just wanted to sit here, rest, and talk with Zia—and maybe enjoy watching Setne struggle to get somewhere in his cocoon.

“You, uh, feeling okay?” I asked Zia. “I mean, about the stuff with the sun god…”

She gazed across the pitted landscape of black sand, bones, and fire. Not many people can look good in the light of superheated volcanic gas plumes. Zia managed.

“Carter, I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t understand what was happening to me. I was frightened.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I was the Eye of Horus. I understand.”

Zia pursed her lips. “Ra is different, though. He’s much older, much more dangerous to channel. And he’s trapped in that old husk of a body. He can’t restart his cycle of rebirth.”

“That’s why he needs you,” I guessed. “He woke up talking about zebras—you. He offered you that scarab when he first met you. He wants you to be his host.”

A crevice spewed fire. The reflection in Zia’s eyes reminded me of how she’d looked when she merged with Khepri—her pupils filled with orange flames.

“When I was entombed in that…that sarcophagus,” Zia said, “I almost lost my mind, Carter. I still have nightmares. And when I tap into Ra’s power, I have the same sense of panic. He feels imprisoned, helpless. Reaching out to him is like…it’s like trying to save somebody who’s drowning. They grab on to you and take you down with them.” Zia shook her head. “Maybe that doesn’t make sense. But his power tries to escape through me, and I can barely control it. Every time I black out, it gets worse.”

“Every time?” I said. “Then you’ve blacked out before?”

She explained what had happened in the House of Rest when she’d tried to destroy the nursing home with her fireballs. Just a minor little detail Sadie forgot to tell me.

“Ra is too powerful,” she said. “I’m too weak to control him. In the catacombs with the Apis Bull, I might’ve killed you.”