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"A chance," Walt said "Assu we can find Ra and wake him, and the rest of the House of Life doesn’t destroy us first"

Amos nodded "But if we can awaken Ra, that would be a feat ician has ever accomplished It would make Desjardins think twice The Chief Lector…well, it would seenizes the danger of Apophis rising We must convince hiods is the only way to defeat Apophis I would rather do this than fight him"

Personally, I wanted to punch Desjardins in the face and set his beard on fire, but I supposed Areen as a frog She’d come all the way frood of knowledge, and we’d already pegged her as our future librarian; but when the dangers were real, and not just in the pages of books…well, she had a tender stoe of the terrace if she needed to

"The--the scroll," she ed, "you said there are two other parts?"

I took the scroll In the daylight it looked ile--brittle and yellow and likely to cru in the papyrus like a low-voltage current I felt an overwhelan to unroll the cylinder Carter tensed

Amos said, "Sadie…"

No doubt they expected Brooklyn to catch fire again, but nothing happened I spread out the scroll and found it ritten in gibberish--not hieroglyphics, not any language I could recognize The end of the papyrus was a jagged line, as if it had been ripped

"I iether," I said "It will be readable only when all three sections are combined"

Carter looked i our last adventure I’d read a scroll to banish Set, and it had worked much the sah!" He put three slireed "As Khufu says, the three sections of the book represent the three aspects of Ra--ht That scroll there is the spell of Khnum You’ll need to find the other t"

How Khufu fit all of that into a single grunt, I didn’t know; but I wished I could take all my classes froh school finished in a week

"So the other two grapes," I said, "I ht, they won’t be easy to find"

Ao The middle section is in the possession of the House of Life It has been ht security Judging from your vision, I’d say the scroll is now in the hands of Vladiuessed "Who is he?"

Alyph "The third-ician in the world He’s also one of Desjardins’ strongest supporters He runs the Eighteenth No a cat, she was quite good at that "Vlad the Inhaler He’s got an evil reputation"

I re voice "What happened to his face?"

Bast was about to answer, but Amos cut her off

"Just realize that he’s quite dangerous," he warned "Vlad’s icians"

"You mean he’s an assassin?" I asked "Wonderful And Desjardins just gave him permission to hunt Carter and me if we leave Brooklyn"

"Which you’ll have to do," Bast said, "if you want to seek the other sections of the Book of Ra You have only four days"

"Yes," Iwith us, won’t you?"

Bast looked down at her Fancy Feast

"Sadie…" She soundedand…well, someone has to check on Apophis’s prison We have to knohat’s going on, how close it is to breaking, and if there’s a way to stop it That requires a firsthand look"

I couldn’t believe I was hearing this "You’re going back there? After all my parents did to free you?"

"I’ll only approach the prison from the outside," she promised "I’ll be careful I am a creature of stealth, after all Besides, I’m the only one who kno to find his cell, and that part of the Duat would be lethal to a mortal I--I must do this"

Her voice tre back to her old prison see to do

"I won’t leave you undefended," she promised "I have a…a friend He should arrive from the Duat by tomorrow I’ve asked him to find you and protect you"

"A friend?" I asked