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As his silhouette es flickered past: Bes in a chauffeur’s unifor us out of our sinking li spells ondesperately to heal me; Bes and oatthe bank of the Nile His lastat hione Even his Hawaiian shirt had disappeared

"You took all of hi That wasn’t the deal!"

Khonsu opened his eyes and sighed deeply "That was lovely" He s had happened "I believe it’s your turn"

His silver eyes were cold and lu that for the rest ofat the y, or ame Sadie and I destroyed Khonsu easily We bumped his pieces at every opportunity Within five minutes, our last piece was off the board

Khonsu spread his hands "Well done! Three hours are yours If you hurry, you can hth House"

"I hate you," Sadie said It was the first she’d spoken since Bes disappeared "You’re cold, calculating, horrible--"

"And I’m just what you needed" Khonsu took off his platinum Rolex and wound back the tiods flickered and ju slammed into reverse

"Now," Khonsu said, "would you like to spend your hard-earned ti? Or do you want to save this poor old fool of a king?"

"Zebras?" Ra muttered hopefully

"Where are our parents?" I asked "At least let us say good-bye"

Khonsu shook his head "Time is precious, Carter Kane You should’ve learned that lesson It’s best that I send you on your way; but if you ever want to gaain--for seconds, hours, even days--just let ood"

I couldn’t stand it I lunged at Khonsu, but the od vanished The whole pavilion faded, and Sadie and I were standing on the deck of the sun boat again, sailing down the dark river The glowing crew lights buzzed around us,the sail Ra sat on his fiery throne, playing with his crook and flail like they were puppets having an iinary conversation

In front of us, a pair of enorht massive snakes were carved into the rock, four on each side The gates were slowly closing, but the sun boat slipped through just in tihth House

I have to say, the House of Challenges didn’t seeht monsters, yes Serpents loohosts tried to board the sun boat We destroyed the Bes, that I iod Khonsu Our enemies didn’t stand a chance

Sadie cast spells I’d never seen her use She summoned sheets of ice that probably s in our wake She turned an entire shipful of pirate ghosts into Khonsu bobble-heads, then vaporized them in a miniature nuclear explosion Meanwhile, Ra played happily with his toys while the light servants flittered around the deck in agitation, apparently sensing that our journey was reaching a critical phase The Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Houses passed in a blur From time to time I heard a splash in the water behind us, like the oar of another boat I looked back, wondering if Menshikov had so If so us, it knew better than to show itself

At last I heard a roar up ahead, like another waterfall or a stretch of rapids The light orbs worked furiously taking down the sail, pushing on the oars, but we kept gaining speed

We passed under a low archway carved like the goddess Nut, her starry li in welco the Twelfth House, the last part of the Duat before we eht at the end of the tunnel, literally, but instead our path had been sabotaged I could see where the river was supposed to go The tunnel continued ahead, sloinding out of the Duat I could even smell fresh air--the scent of the mortal world But the far end of the tunnel had been drained to a field of ed into a massive pit, like an asteroid had punched a hole in the earth and diverted the water straight down We were racing toward the drop

"We could jump," Sadie said "Abandon ship…"

But I think we came to the same conclusion We needed the sun boat We needed Ra We had to follow the course of the river wherever it led

"It’s a trap," Sadie said "The work of Apophis"

"I know," I said "Let’s go tell hirabbed the ed into the maelstrom

It see when you dive to the botto to explode, and your eyes are going to pop out of your head? I into the Duat deeper than we’d ever been--deeper than any o Theso fast they ht fly apart

We didn’t crash We didn’t hit bottom The boat simply flipped direction, like down had becoloith harsh red light TheI was nauseated and I could barely think straight, but I recognized the shoreline up ahead: a beachas a force underneath--a led to break free Dozens of deh the scarab shells with shovels And standing on the shore, waiting for us patiently, was Vlad Menshikov, his clothes charred and sreen fire

"Welcome, children," he called across the water "Come Join me for the end of the world"

22 Friends in the Strangest Places