by Rick Riordan
I also had a burning desire to find a nice warm hyena carcass, stick my face right in there and –
Okay, basically I wasn’t myself.
I tried to focus on the present. I stared at my shoes … the same old pair of Brooks, yellow shoelace on the left, black shoelace on the right. I raised my sword arm to make sure I could still control my muscles.
Relax, demigod. The voice of Nekhbet spoke in my mind. Let me take charge.
‘I don’t think so,’ I said aloud. I was relieved that my voice still sounded like my voice. ‘We do this together or not at all.’
‘Percy?’ Annabeth asked. ‘Are you okay?’
Looking at her was disorientating. The ‘Percy’ part of me saw my usual awesome girlfriend. The ‘Nekhbet’ part of me saw a young woman surrounded by a powerful ultraviolet aura – the mark of a Greek demigod. The sight filled me with disdain and fear. (For the record: I have my own healthy fear of Annabeth. She has kicked my butt on more than one occasion. But disdain? Not so much. That was all Nekhbet.)
‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘I was talking to the vulture in my head.’
Carter walked a circle around me, frowning like I was an abstract sculpture. ‘Percy, try to strike a balance. Don’t let her take over, but don’t fight her, either. It’s kind of like running a three-legged race. You have to get in a rhythm with your partner.’
‘But if you have to choose,’ Sadie said, ‘smack her down and stay in control.’
I snarled. ‘Stupid girl! Do not tell me –’ I forced my lips closed. The taste of rotting jackal filled my mouth. ‘Sorry, Sadie,’ I managed. ‘That was Nekhbet talking, not me.’
‘I know.’ Sadie’s expression tightened. ‘I wish we had more time for you to get used to hosting a goddess. However –’
Another red flash illuminated the treetops.
‘The sooner I get this goddess out of my head, the better,’ I said. ‘Let’s go smash Setne’s face.’
Setne really could not decide on his wardrobe.
He strutted around the soccer field in black bell-bottomed slacks, a frilly white shirt and a glittery purple trench coat – all of which clashed with his newly combined red and white crown. He looked like Prince from one of my mom’s old album covers, and, judging from the magic lights swirling around him, Setne was getting ready to party like it was 1999 B.C.E.
Having only one hand didn’t seem to bother him. He waved his stump conductor-style, chanting in Greek and Egyptian while fog rose at his feet. Bursts of light danced and bobbed around him, as if a thousand kids were writing their names with sparklers.
I didn’t understand what I was looking at, but Nekhbet did. Having her sight, I recognized the Duat – the magical dimension that existed beneath the mortal realm. I saw layers of reality, like strata of glowing multicoloured jelly, plunging down into infinity. On the surface, where the mortal and immortal worlds met, Setne was whipping the Duat into a storm – churning waves of colour and frothy white plumes of smoke.
After Annabeth’s adventure on Rockaway Beach, she’d told me how frightening it was to see the Duat. She wondered whether the Egyptian Duat was somehow related to the Greek concept of Mist – the magical veil that kept mortals from recognizing gods and monsters.
With Nekhbet in my mind, I knew the answer. Of course the Mist was related. The Mist was simply a Greek name for the uppermost layer between the worlds – the layer that Setne was now shredding.
I should have been terrified. Seeing the world in all its infinite levels was enough to give anybody vertigo.
But I’d been dropped into oceans before. I was used to floating in the depths with endless thermal layers around me.
Also, Nekhbet wasn’t easily impressed. She’d seen just about everything over the millennia. Her mind was as cold and dry as the desert night wind. To her, the mortal world was a constantly changing wasteland, dotted with the carcasses of men and their civilizations. Nothing lasted. It was all roadkill waiting to happen. As for the Duat, it was always churning, sending up plumes of magic like sun flares into the mortal world.
Still, we were both disturbed by the way Setne’s spell tore through the Mist. He wasn’t just manipulating it. Magicians did that all the time. Setne was strip-mining the Duat. Wherever he stepped, fractures radiated outwards, cleaving through the layers of the magic realm. His body sucked in energy from every direction, destroying the boundaries between the Duat and the mortal world, between Greek magic and Egyptian magic – slowly transforming him into an immortal. In the process, he was ripping a hole in the cosmic order that might never close.
His magic pulled at us – Nekhbet and me – urging us to give up and be absorbed into his new glorious form.
I didn’t want to be absorbed. Neither did the vulture goddess. Our common purpose helped us work together.
I marched across the field. Sadie and Annabeth fanned out on my right. I assumed Carter was somewhere on my left, but he’d gone invisible again, so I couldn’t be sure. The fact that I couldn’t detect him, even with Nekhbet’s super vulture senses, gave me hope that Setne wouldn’t see him, either.
Maybe if I kept Setne busy, Carter would be able to cut off Setne’s other hand. Or his legs. Bonus points for his head.
Setne stopped chanting when he saw me.
‘Awesome!’ He grinned. ‘You brought the vulture with you. Thanks!’
Not the reaction I’d been hoping for. I keep waiting for the day when the bad guy sees me and screams, I give up! But it hasn’t happened yet.
‘Setne, drop the crown.’ I raised my kopis, which didn’t feel heavy with Nekhbet’s power flowing through me. ‘Surrender, and you might get out of this alive. Otherwise –’
‘Oh, very good! Very threatening! And your friends here … Let me guess. You keep me occupied while they set some amazing trap to contain the newly made god?’
‘You’re not a god yet.’
He waved off the comment. ‘I suppose Carter is lurking around here too, all stealthy and invisible? Hi, Carter!’
If Carter was nearby, he didn’t respond. Smart guy.
Setne raised his stump of a wrist. ‘Wherever you are, Carter, I was impressed with the hand-cutting-off spell. Your father would be proud. That’s what matters to you, isn’t it? Making your father proud? But think what would be possible if you joined me. I intend to change the rules of the game. We could bring your father back to life – I mean real life, not that horrible half life he’s got in the Underworld. Anything is possible once I’m a god!’
Around Setne’s wrist, the Mist curled, solidifying into a new hand. ‘What do you say, Carter?’
Above the magician, the air shimmered. A giant blue fist the size of a refrigerator appeared over Setne’s head and pounded him into the ground like a nail into soft wood.
‘I say no.’ Carter appeared across the field, Annabeth’s Yankees cap in his hand.
I stared at the crown of Ptolemy – the only part of Setne still visible above ground.
‘You were supposed to wait,’ I told Carter. ‘Set the trap. Let me deal with Setne.’
Carter shrugged. ‘He shouldn’t have brought up my father.’
‘Never mind that!’ Annabeth said. ‘Get the crown!’
I realized she was right. I would’ve sprung into action, except Nekhbet and I had a moment of paralysis. The goddess wanted her hat back. But I took one look at the crown’s eerie glow, remembered the way the cobra goddess had been devoured and decided I was not touching that crown without latex gloves and maybe a hazmat suit.
Before Nekhbet and I could resolve our differences, the earth rumbled.
Setne rose from the ground as if on an elevator platform and glared at Carter. ‘I make you a perfectly fair offer, and you hit me with a giant fist? Perhaps your father wouldn’t be proud, after all.’
Carter’s face contorted. His whole body glowed with blue light. He levitated off the ground as the avatar of Horus took shape around him.
Setne didn’t look
worried. He curled his newly regrown fingers in a come here gesture, and Carter’s avatar shattered. The blue light swirled towards Setne and was engulfed in his growing aura. Carter collapsed, motionless, on the wet ground.
‘SETNE!’ Sadie shouted, raising her staff. ‘Over here, you little weasel!’
She blasted the magician with a jet of white fire. Setne caught it on his chest and absorbed the energy.
‘Sadie, hon,’ he chided. ‘Don’t be mad. Carter has always been the boring one. I didn’t really want to grant him eternal life. But you – why don’t you work with me, eh? We can have tons of fun! Tearing up the universe, destroying things as we see fit!’
‘That’s – that’s not fair,’ Sadie said, her voice trembling. ‘Tempting me with destruction.’
She tried for her usual sassy tone, but her eyes stayed fixed on Carter, who still wasn’t moving.
I knew I should do something. We’d had a plan … But I couldn’t remember it. The vulture goddess in my head was flying circles on autopilot. Even Annabeth looked like she was struggling to concentrate. Being so close to Setne was like standing next to a waterfall. His white noise drowned out everything.
‘You know,’ Setne continued, as if we were planning a party together, ‘I think this island will be perfect. My palace will go right here, in the new centre of the universe!’
‘A muddy soccer field,’ Annabeth noted.
‘Oh, come now, child of Athena! You can see the possibilities. That old fool Serapis had the right idea: gather all the wisdom of Greece and Egypt together in one place and use that power to rule the world! Except Serapis didn’t have my vision. I’ll consume the old pantheons – Zeus, Osiris, all those dusty deities. Who needs them? I’ll just take the bits and pieces I can use from all of them. I’ll become the head of a new race of gods. Humans will come here from all over the world to make offerings and buy souvenirs.’
‘Souvenirs?’ I said. ‘You want immortality so you can sell T-shirts?’
‘And snow globes!’ Setne got a dreamy look in his eyes. ‘I love snow globes. Anyway, there’s room for more than one new god. Sadie Kane – you’d be perfect. I know you love breaking rules. Let’s break all of them! Your friends can come along too!’
Behind the magician, Carter groaned and began to stir.
Setne glanced back with distaste. ‘Not dead yet? Tough kid. Well … I suppose we can include him in our plans. Although, if you’d prefer, Sadie, I can certainly finish him off.’
Sadie let loose a guttural cry. She advanced, but Annabeth caught her arm.
‘Fight smart,’ Annabeth said. ‘Not angry.’
‘Point taken,’ Sadie said, though her arms still trembled with rage. ‘But I’ll do both.’
She unfurled the Book of Thoth.
Setne just laughed. ‘Sadie dear, I know how to defeat every spell in that book.’
‘You won’t win,’ Sadie insisted. ‘You won’t take anything else from anyone!’
She began to chant. Annabeth raised her borrowed khopesh, ready to defend her.
‘Ah, well.’ Setne sighed. ‘I suppose you’ll want this back, then.’
Setne’s body began to glow. Thanks to Nekhbet, I realized what was going to happen a split second before it did, which saved our lives.
Carter was just struggling to his feet when I shouted, ‘GET DOWN!’
He dropped like a sack of rocks.
A ring of fire exploded outwards from Setne.
I discarded my sword and lunged in front of the girls, spreading my arms goalie-style. A shell of purple light surrounded me, and the flames rolled harmlessly over translucent wings that now extended on either side of me. With my new accessories I was able to shield Sadie and Annabeth from the worst of the blast.
I lowered my arms. The giant wings retracted. My feet, floating just off the ground, were now encased in large ghostly legs with three long toes and the talons of a bird.
When I realized I was hovering at the centre of a giant glowing purple vulture, my first thought was: Carter will never stop teasing me about this.
My second thought was: Oh, gods. Carter.
Sadie must have seen him at the same time I did. She screamed.
The fire had blackened the entire field, instantly turning wet mud into cracked clay. The Mist and magic lights had burned away. My new sword was a steaming line of bronze slag on the ground. Carter lay right where he’d dropped, wreathed in smoke, his hair charred, his face red with blisters.
I feared the worst. Then his fingers twitched. He croaked out a sound, like ‘Gug’, and I could breathe again.
‘Thank the gods,’ Annabeth said.
Setne brushed some ash off his purple trench coat. ‘Well, you can thank the gods if you want, but they won’t be around much longer. Another few minutes and the magic I’ve started will be irreversible. Now, Percy, please drop that silly avatar before I take it away from you. And, Sadie, I suggest you give me the Book of Thoth before you hurt yourself. There’s no spell you could read that would harm me.’
Sadie stepped forward. Her orange-highlighted hair whipped around her face. Her eyes turned steely, making her look even more like a young Annabeth.
‘No spell I could read,’ Sadie agreed. ‘But I have friends.’
She handed the Book of Thoth to Annabeth, who blinked in surprise. ‘Um … Sadie?’
Setne chuckled. ‘What’s she going to do? She may be smart, but she can’t read Old Egyptian.’
Sadie gripped Annabeth’s forearm. ‘Miss Chase,’ she said formally, ‘I have one word for you.’ She leaned in and whispered something in Annabeth’s ear.
Annabeth’s face transformed. Only once before had I seen her with such an expression of pure wonder: when she beheld the gods’ palaces on Mount Olympus.
Sadie turned to me. ‘Percy … Annabeth has work to do. I need to tend to my brother. Why don’t you keep our friend Setne entertained?’
Annabeth opened the scroll. She began to read aloud in Ancient Egyptian. Glowing hieroglyphs floated off the papyrus. They swirled in the air around her, mixing with Greek words as if Annabeth was adding her own commentary to the spell.
Setne looked even more surprised than I was. He made a strangled noise in the back of his throat. ‘That’s not … Hold on now. No!’
He raised his arms to cast some counter spell. His crown began to glow.
I needed to move, but Nekhbet wasn’t helping. She was a little too focused on Carter, who smelled chargrilled and yummy.
That one is weak, she murmured in my mind. Dead soon. The weak must die.
Anger gave me the upper hand. Carter Kane was my friend. I would not sit around while my friend died.
Move, I told Nekhbet. And I took control of the vulture avatar.
Before Setne could finish casting his spell, I grabbed him in my spectral claws and carried him into the sky.
Now … I live and breathe weirdness. It goes with the territory when you’re a demigod. But there are still moments when I do a mental double take: like when I’m flying upward inside a giant glowing vulture, flapping my arms to control make-believe wings, holding an almost-immortal magician in my talons … all so I can steal his hat.
That hat was not coming off, either.
I spiralled into the storm, shaking Setne, trying to knock the crown off his head, but the dude must have fastened it to his pompadour with superglue.
He blasted me with fire and flashes of light. My bird exoskeleton deflected the attacks, but, each time, the purple avatar dimmed, and my wings felt heavier.
‘Percy Jackson!’ Setne writhed in my claws. ‘This is a waste of time!’
I didn’t bother responding. The strain of combat was quickly taking its toll.
During our first encounter, Carter had warned me that magic could literally burn up a magician if he used too much at once. I guessed that applied to demigods, too. Every time Setne blasted me or tried to wriggle out of my grip with his near-godly strength, my head throbbed. My eye
sight dimmed. Soon I was drenched in sweat.
I hoped Sadie was helping Carter. I hoped Annabeth was finishing whatever super-weird spell she’d been chanting so we could trap Setne, because I couldn’t stay airborne much longer.
We broke through the top of the cloud layer. Setne stopped fighting, which surprised me so much I almost dropped him. Then coldness began to seep through my vulture avatar, chilling my wet clothes, soaking into my bones. It was a subtler kind of attack – probing for weakness – and I knew I couldn’t allow it. I curled my vulture feet tighter around Setne’s chest, hoping to crush him.
‘Percy, Percy.’ His tone made it sound like we were a couple of bros on a night out. ‘Don’t you see what an incredible opportunity this is? A perfect do-over. You of all people should appreciate that. The Olympians once offered you their most valuable gift. They offered to make you a god, didn’t they? And you – you lovable idiot – you turned them down! This is your chance to correct that mistake.’
My avatar flickered and blinked like a bad fluorescent tube. Nekhbet, my brain buddy, turned her attention inward.
You turned down immortality? Her voice was incredulous, offended.
She scanned my memories. I saw my own past from her dry, cynical point of view: I stood in the throne room of Mount Olympus after the war against the Titans. Zeus offered me a reward: godhood. I turned him down flat. I wanted justice for other demigods instead. I wanted the gods to stop being jerks and to pay attention to their kids.
A stupid request. A naive thing to wish for. I gave up power. You never give up power.
I struggled to keep my grip on Setne. ‘Nekhbet, those are your thoughts, not mine. I made the right choice.’
Then you are a fool, the vulture goddess hissed.
‘Yeah, pal,’ Setne said, who apparently could hear her. ‘I gotta agree with Nekhbet on this one. You did the noble thing. How did that work out? Did the gods honour their promises?’
