Then I tumbled out onto a cold tile floor, and Sadie and Zia crashed on top of me.
“Ow!” I grumbled.
The first thing I noticed was the fine layer of sand covering my body like powdered sugar. Then my eyes adjusted to the harsh light. We were in a big building like a shopping mall, with crowds bustling around us.
No...not a mall. It was a two-level airport concourse, with shops, lots of windows, and polished steel columns. Outside, it was dark, so I knew we must be in a different time zone. Announcements echoed over the intercom in a language that sounded like Arabic.
Sadie spit sand out of her mouth. “Yuck!”
“Come on,” Zia said. “We can’t stay here.”
I struggled to my feet. People were streaming past—some in Western clothes, some in robes and headscarves. A family arguing in German rushed by and almost ran over me with their suitcases.
Then I turned and saw something I recognized. In the middle of the concourse stood a life-size replica of an Ancient Egyptian boat made from glowing display cases—a sales counter for perfume and jewelry.
“This is the Cairo airport,” I said.
“Yes,” Zia said. “Now, let’s go!”
“Why the rush? Can Serqet...can she follow us through that sand gate?”
Zia shook her head. “An artifact overheats whenever it creates a gate. It requires a twelve-hour cooldown before it can be used again. But we still have to worry about airport security. Unless you’d like to meet the Egyptian police, you’ll come with me now.”
She grabbed our arms and steered us through the crowd. We must’ve looked like beggars in our old-fashioned clothes, covered head-to-toe in sand. People gave us a wide berth, but nobody tried to stop us.
“Why are we here?” Sadie demanded.
“To see the ruins of Heliopolis,” Zia said.
“Inside an airport?” Sadie asked.
I remembered something Dad had told me years ago, and my scalp tingled.
“Sadie, the ruins are under us.” I looked at Zia. “That’s right, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “The ancient city was pillaged centuries ago. Some of its monuments were carted away, like Cleopatra’s two needles. Most of its temples were broken down to make new buildings. What was left disappeared under Cairo’s suburbs. The largest section is under this airport.”
“And how does that help us?” Sadie asked.
Zia kicked open a maintenance door. On the other side was a broom closet. Zia muttered a command—“Sahad”—and the image of the closet shimmered and disappeared, revealing a set of stone steps leading down.
“Because not all Heliopolis is in ruins,” Zia said. “Follow closely. And touch nothing.”
The stairs must’ve led down about seven million miles, because we descended forever. The passage had been made for miniature people, too. We had to crouch and crawl most of the way, and even so, I bonked my head
on the ceiling a dozen times. The only light was from a ball of fire in Zia’s palm, which made shadows dance across the walls.
I’d been in places like this before—tunnels inside pyramids, tombs my dad had excavated—but I’ve never liked them. Millions of tons of rock above me seemed to crush the air out of my lungs.
Finally we reached the bottom. The tunnel opened up, and Zia stopped abruptly. After my eyes adjusted, I saw why. We were standing at the edge of a chasm.
A single wooden plank spanned the void. On the opposite ledge, two jackal-headed granite warriors flanked a doorway, their spears crossed over the entrance.
Sadie sighed. “Please, no more psychotic statues.”
“Do not joke,” Zia warned. “This is an entrance to the First Nome, the oldest branch of the House of Life, headquarters for all magicians. My job was to bring you here safely, but I cannot help you cross. Each magician must unbar the path for herself, and the challenge is different for each supplicant.”
She looked at Sadie expectantly, which annoyed me. First Bast, now Zia—both of them treated Sadie like she should have some kind of superpowers. I mean, okay, so she’d been able to blast the library doors apart, but why didn’t anyone look at me to do cool tricks?