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He was right It didn’t Then again, I had no idea how tiht not correspond exactly to one mortal hour in the world above

Anubis once told me he’d been in the Land of the Dead for five thousand years, but he still felt like a teenager, as if no time had passed

I shuddered What if we popped out on the other side of the River of Night and found that several eons had passed? I’d just turned thirteen I wasn’t ready to be thirteen hundred

I also wished I hadn’t thought of Anubis I touched the shen amulet on my necklace After all that had happened with Walt, the idea of seeing Anubis uilty, but also a bit excited Perhaps Anubis would help us on our journey Perhaps he’d whisk me away to some private spot for a chat as he had last tiraveyard, dinner for two at the Coffin Café…

Snap out of it, Sadie, I thought Concentrate

I pulled the Book of Ra froain I’d read the--much like a maths textbook The scroll was chock-full of terht’s flock" "reborn in fire," "the acres of the sun," "the kiss of the knife," "the gaht," and "the last scarab"--athered that as we passed through the twelve stages of the river, I’d have to read the three sections of the Book of Ra at three separate locations, probably to revive the different aspects of the sun god, and each of three aspects would present us with soe I knew that if I failed--if I sothe spells--I would end up worse than Vlad Menshikov The idea terrified me, but I couldn’t dwell on the possibility of failure I siibberish would make sense

The current accelerated So did the leaking of the boat Carter de a bucket and bailing out water, while I concentrated on keeping the crew in line The deeper we sailed into the Duat, the ainsthowto float down ain your head: Die, traitor, die Every so often I’d get the feeling ere being followed I’d turn and think I could see a whitish se of a flash, but I decided itwas the darkness ahead--no shoreline, no landmarks, no visibility at all The crew could’ve steered us straight into a boulder or theWe just kept sailing through the dark e?" I murmured

Carter eht--a boy dressed as a pharaoh with the royal crook and flail, bailing water froht follow huested

"Human what?"

"Sleep patterns Mom used to tell us about theain, I’d only been six when our ician, and had thought nothing of reading us Newton’s laws or the periodic table as bedtione over my head, but I wanted to remember I’d always been irritated that Carter remembered Mum so es," Carter said "Like, the first few hours, the brain is almost in a coma--a really deep sleep with hardly any dreams Maybe that’s why this part of the river is so dark and forh REM--rapid eye et ht follow a pattern like that"

It seeain, Muic weren’t mutually exclusive She’d called thee Bast had once told us there were millions of different channels and tributaries to the Duat’s river The geography could change with each journey, responding to the traveler’s thoughts If the river was shaped by all the sleeping ot , then ere in for a rough ride

The river eventually narrowed A shoreline appeared on either side--black volcanic sand sparkling in the lights of our ic crew The air turned colder The underside of the boat scraped against rocks and sandbars, which ave up on the pail and pulled wax fro the leaks, speaking binding spells to hold the boat together If I’d had any chewing gum, I would’ve used that as well

We didn’t pass any signposts--NOW ENTERING THE THIRD HOUSE, SERVICES NEXT EXIT--but we’d clearly entered a different section of the river Ti rate, and still we hadn’t done anything

"Perhaps the first challenge is boredo happen?"

I should’ve known better than to say that aloud Right in front of us, a shape loomed out of the darkness A sandaled foot the size of a water bed planted itself on the prow of our ship and stopped us dead in the water

It wasn’t an attractive foot, either Definitely male Its toes were splattered with rown The leather sandal straps were covered in lichen and barnacles In short, the foot looked and s on the sa the same sandal, for several thousand years

Unfortunately, it was attached to a leg, which was attached to a body The giant leaned down to look at us

"You are bored?" his voice boomed, not in an unfriendly way "I could kill you, if that would help"

He wore a kilt like Carter’s, except that the giant’s skirt could have supplied enough fabric to make ten ship sails His body was huross body hair thatfoundation for overly fuzzyin his nose and long curly horns hung with dozens of bronze bells His eyes were set far apart, with luminous red irises and vertical slits for pupils I suppose that all sounds rather frightening, but the ram man didn’t strike me as devilish In fact he looked quite familiar, for so, as if he’d been standing on his little rock island in the otten why he was there

[Carter asks when I became a ram whisperer Do shut up, Carter]

I honestly felt sorry for the ram man His eyes were full of loneliness I couldn’t believe he would hurt us--until he drew froe knives with curly blades like his horns