Finally, the group hug pulled apart.
“What happened to them all?” asked Ren, sniffling and gesturing around the room. “To the Death Walkers, I mean.”
Dr. Bauer looked around the room, counting the fallen. “We sent them to the ceremony,” she said.
“The weighing of the heart?” said Alex.
His mom nodded. “Yes, they can’t avoid it any longer.”
Ren shook her head. “That is one test they are not ready for.”
“That’s okay,” said Alex. “I’m pretty sure Ammit has already decided on their grades.”
Even amid the sorrow and loss, the friends managed to exchange a few soft laughs. Even Luke, who pretended he knew what they were talking about.
Cairo had always been a somewhat chaotic place — ask anyone who’s ever rented a car there — and so it was back to something like normal when the friends arrived for Todtman’s funeral. His final wish was to have his ashes scattered in the waters of the Nile as it rolled north to the sea. It was done from the deck of a large, slow-moving boat, among a few rows of stoic Germans and what seemed to be about half the world’s museum curators. Alex and Ren leaned over the side to watch the ashes scatter and fall.
“Auf wiedersehen,” whispered Ren, who had decided to learn German in Todtman’s honor.
Alex already spoke some, but he stayed silent and just watched. This time, his tears really did mix with the waters of the Nile.
And what was there to do after that but get back to the business of living? Alex’s mom and Ren’s dad were busier than ever, trying to get the Met’s battered Egyptian wing up and running again. There was, for obvious reasons, a surging public interest in ancient Egypt. At night, Dr. Bauer studied the Spells, making sure everything was as it should be.
The wider world did its part: picking up the pieces, reburying the dead. Eventually, things returned to something like normal. Even for the families at the center of the maelstrom, who found themselves at a dinner party at the Durans’ place a month later.
Alex’s mom and Ren’s mom and dad talked about the things parents talk about, Luke helped himself to seconds, and Alex and Ren chattered on about the school where they were once again classmates.
Alex felt something brush against his ankle and flinched. His nerves were, to be honest, still a little on edge.
“Oh, don’t worry about her,” said Ren, reaching down and scooping up a sleek black cat.
“You got a cat?” said Alex.
Ren’s dad looked over, finished chewing, and said, “Or she got us. Just showed up on the doorstep. Pretty weird considering we’re on the fourteenth floor. Anyway, she wouldn’t leave until Ren got home.”
“And then we couldn’t get her to let the cat go,” added Ren’s mom.
Alex looked at the cat’s golden eyes and coat of elegant jet-black fur as it purred softly in Ren’s arms. There was something so familiar about it all. “What’s her name?” he said, leaning in to pet the newest addition to the Duran family.
Ren leaned in, too. “Don’t you know?” she whispered.
Alex looked from her to the cat and back again. “No way,” he said. “Pai?”
The cat looked up at him, centuries of wisdom in her golden eyes. “Mmuh-Rack!”
Alex shook his head. He’d always heard that cats had nine lives. He had no doubt this former mummy would enjoy her second one.
He looked around the table at his family and friends. He was pretty sure he would, too.
Michael Northrop has written short fiction for Weird Tales, the Notre Dame Review, and McSweeney’s. His first young adult novel, Gentlemen, earned him a Publishers Weekly Flying Start citation for a notable debut, and his second, Trapped, was an Indie Next List selection. NPR picked Michael’s middle-grade novel Plunked for their Backseat Book Club. He has also written about a rescued Rottweiler in Rotten and, most recently, some treacherous seas in Surrounded By Sharks. An editor at Sports Illustrated Kids for many years, Michael now writes full-time from his home in New York City. Visit him online at www.michaelnorthrop.net.
You’ve read the book — now awaken the adventure at Scholastic.com/TombQuest!
Create a tomb, fill it with traps and treasure, and challenge your friends.
Have your ebook ready and enter the code to unlock huge rewards!
RNDC9T97WF
Copyright © 2016 by Scholastic Inc.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, TOMBQUEST, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Control Number Available
ISBN 978-0-545-72342-8
First edition, April 2016
Cover art by Michael Heath. Frames by Charice Silverman. All art © Scholastic Inc. Art direction by Keirsten Geise.
e-ISBN 978-0-545-72350-3
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
The Final Kingdom Page 14
