Amos poured himself a cup of coffee. His clothes were similar to those he’d worn the day before, and I had to admit the guy had style. His tailored suit was made of blue wool, he wore a matching fedora, and his hair was freshly braided with dark blue lapis lazuli, one of the stones the Egyptians often used for jewelry. Even his glasses matched. The round lenses were tinted blue. A tenor sax rested on a stand near the fire pit, and I could totally picture him playing out here, serenading the East River.
As for Sadie, she was dressed in a white linen pajama outfit like me, but somehow she’d managed to keep her combat boots. She’d probably slept with them on. She looked pretty comical with the red-streaked hair and the outfit, but since I wasn’t dressed any better, I could hardly make fun of her.
“Um…Amos?” I asked. “You didn’t have any pet birds, did you? Khufu’s eating something with pink feathers.”
“Mmm.” Amos sipped his coffee. “Sorry if that disturbed you. Khufu’s very picky. He only eats foods that end in -o. Doritos, burritos, flamingos.”
I blinked. “Did you say-”
“Carter,” Sadie warned. She looked a little queasy, like she’d already had this conversation. “Don’t ask.”
“Okay,” I said. “Not asking.”
“Please, Carter, help yourself.” Amos waved toward a buffet table piled high with food. “Then we can get started with the explanations.”
I didn’t see any flamingo on the buffet table, which was fine by me, but there was just about everything else. I snagged some pancakes with butter and syrup, some bacon, and a glass of OJ.
Then I noticed movement in the corner of my eye. I glanced at the swimming pool. Something long and pale was gliding just under the surface of the water.
I almost dropped my plate. “Is that-”
“A crocodile,” Amos confirmed. “For good luck. He’s albino, but please don’t mention that. He’s sensitive.”
“His name is Philip of Macedonia,” Sadie informed me.
I wasn’t sure how Sadie was taking this all so calmly, but I figured if she wasn’t freaking out, I shouldn’t either.
“That’s a long name,” I said.
“He’s a long crocodile,” Sadie said. “Oh, and he likes bacon.”
To prove her point, she tossed a piece of bacon over her shoulder. Philip lunged out of the water and snapped up the treat. His hide was pure white and his eyes were pink. His mouth was so big, he could’ve snapped up an entire pig.
“He’s quite harmless to my friends,” Amos assured me. “In the old days, no temple would be complete without a lake full of crocodiles. They are powerful magic creatures.”
“Right,” I said. “So the baboon, the crocodile…any other pets I should know about?”
Amos thought for a moment. “Visible ones? No, I think that’s it.”
I took a seat as far from the pool as possible. Muffin circled my legs and purred. I hoped she had enough sense to stay away from magic crocodiles named Philip.
“So, Amos,” I said between bites of pancake. “Explanations.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “Where to start…”
“Our dad,” Sadie suggested. “What happened to him?”
Amos took a deep breath. “Julius was attempting to summon a god. Unfortunately, it worked.”
It was kind of hard to take Amos seriously, talking about summoning gods while he spread butter on a bagel.
“Any god in particular?” I asked casually. “Or did he just order a generic god?”
Sadie kicked me under the table. She was scowling, as if she actually believed what Amos was saying.
Amos took a bite of bagel. “There are many Egyptian gods, Carter. But your dad was after one in particular.”
He looked at me meaningfully.
“Osiris,” I remembered. “When Dad was standing in front of the Rosetta Stone, he said, ‘Osiris, come.’ But Osiris is a legend. He’s make-believe.”
“I wish that were true.” Amos stared across the East River at the Manhattan skyline, gleaming in the morning sun. “The Ancient Egyptians were not fools, Carter. They built the pyramids. They created the first great nation state. Their civilization lasted thousands of years.”
“Yeah,” I said. “And now they’re gone.”
Amos shook his head. “A legacy that powerful does not disappear. Next to the Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans were babies. Our modern nations like Great Britain and America? Blinks of an eye. The very oldest root of civilization, at least of Western civilization, is Egypt. Look at the pyramid on the dollar bill. Look at the Washington Monument-the world’s largest Egyptian obelisk. Egypt is still very much alive. And so, unfortunately, are her gods.”
“Come on,” I argued. “I mean…even if I believe there’s a real thing called magic. Believing in ancient gods is totally different. You’re joking, right?”
But as I said it, I thought about the fiery guy in the museum, the way his face had shifted between human and animal. And the statue of Thoth-how its eyes had followed me.
“Carter,” Amos said, “the Egyptians would not have been stupid enough to believe in imaginary gods. The beings they described in their myths are very, very real. In the old days, the priests of Egypt would call upon these gods to channel their power and perform great feats. That is the origin of what we now call magic. Like many things, magic was first invented by the Egyptians. Each temple had a branch of magicians called the House of Life. Their magicians were famed throughout the ancient world.”
“And you’re an Egyptian magician.”
Amos nodded. “So was your father. You saw it for yourself last night.”
I hesitated. It was hard to deny my dad had done some weird stuff at the museum-some stuff that looked like magic.
“But he’s an archaeologist,” I said stubbornly.
“That’s his cover story. You’ll remember that he specialized in translating ancient spells, which are very difficult to understand unless you work magic yourself. Our family, the Kane family, has been part of the House of Life almost since the beginning. And your mother’s family is almost as ancient.”
“The Fausts?” I tried to imagine Grandma and Grandpa Faust doing magic, but unless watching rugby on TV and burning cookies was magical, I couldn’t see it.
“They had not practiced magic for many generations,” Amos admitted. “Not until your mother came along. But yes, a very ancient bloodline.”
Sadie shook her head in disbelief. “So now Mum was magic, too. Are you joking?”
“No jokes,” Amos promised. “The two of you…you combine the blood of two ancient families, both of which have a long, complicated history with the gods. You are the most powerful Kane children to be born in many centuries.”
I tried to let that sink in. At the moment, I didn’t feel powerful. I felt queasy. “You’re telling me our parents secretly worshipped animal-headed gods?” I asked.
“Not worshipped,” Amos corrected. “By the end of the ancient times, Egyptians had learned that their gods were not to be worshipped. They are powerful beings, primeval forces, but they are not divine in the sense one might think of God. They are created entities, like mortals, only much more powerful. We can respect them, fear them, use their power, or even fight them to keep them under control-”
“Fight gods?” Sadie interrupted.
“Constantly,” Amos assured her. “But we don’t worship them. Thoth taught us that.”
I looked at Sadie for help. The old guy had to be crazy. But Sadie was looking like she believed every word.
“So…” I said. “Why did Dad break the Rosetta Stone?”
“Oh, I’m sure he didn’t mean to break it,” Amos said. “That would’ve horrified him. In fact, I imagine my brethren in London have repaired the damage by now. The curators will soon check their vaults and discover that the Rosetta Stone miraculously survived the explosion.”