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How could soe have leaped so far? Too late, I realized we should have stayed inside where it was harder for theit

"Carter," I said "Stay perfectly still"

He froze in crab-walk position The monster’s two heads dripped venom that hissed and stea any rocks, I picked up a chunk of broken ice and threw it at the tjesu heru Naturally, I hit Carter in the back instead Nevertheless, I got the tjesu heru’s attention

Both heads turned towardFirst step done: distract the monster

Second step: find soiving me a bit more trouble

I’d used one My staff and ouldn’t do ical reserves drained The knife froht situation to open someone’s htest idea how to use it

For the iven up the spirit of Isis I could really have used the full oddess But, of course, that was exactly why I’d had to separate froerously addictive It can quickly destroy your life

But what if I could fored the ha-di spell for the first time in months And while it had been difficult, it hadn’t been iht Here’s what I need--

Don’t think, Sadie, her voice whispered back alic has to be involuntary, like breathing

You mean… I stopped myself Don’t think Well, that shouldn’t be too hard I held up lyph blazed in the air A one-meter-tall tyet lit up the courtyard like a Christmas-tree star

The tjesu heru snarled, its yellow eyes fixed on the hieroglyph

"Don’t like that, eh?" I called "Syet away from my brother!"

It was a con could do anything useful But I hoped the snake creature wasn’t sed backward He looked for his sword, but it was ten meters away--much too far to reach

I kept my eyes on the ic circle in the snow around me It wouldn’t provide

"Carter," I called, "When I say go, run back here"

"That thing’s too fast!" he said

"I’ll try to detonate the hieroglyph and blind it"

I still et the chance to try it Somewhere off to my left, boots crunched on ice Thelyph He was dressed in a heavy wool coat and a policeman’s hat, with a rifle in his hands, but he couldn’t have beenin his uniform When he saw the monster, his eyes widened He stu his weapon

He yelled so at me in Russian, probably, "Why is there a two-headed snake monster with no bum?"

Thetwo heads

"That’s a uard I was fairly sure he couldn’t understand, but I tried to keepto save e ears were the only things holding up his hat He glanced fro above

He said a word in Ancient Egyptian: "Heqat"--the coed to a two-meter oaken rod with the carved head of a falcon

Wonderful, I thought The security guards are secretly icians

He addressed nized the nauess," I said "You want to take me to your leader"

The tjesu heru snapped its jaws It was rapidly losing its fear of h away to uard, "your boss Menshikov is a traitor He su to kill us so ouldn’t blab about his plans to free Apophis Savvy the word Apophis? Bad snake Very bad snake! Now, either help me kill this uard hesitated He pointed at me nervously "Kane" It wasn’t a question