I’m not sure how it happened, but one minute we were alone, and the next there was a guy standing at the railing. He was lean and tall, with messed-up hair and pale skin, and his clothes were all black, as if he’d mugged a priest or something. He was probably around sixteen, and even though I’d never seen his face before, I had the weirdest feeling that I knew him.
Sadie stood up so quickly she knocked over her split-pea soup—which is gross enough in the bowl, but running all over the table? Yuck.
“Anubis!” she blurted.
Anubis? I thought she was kidding, because this guy did not look anything like the slavering jackal-headed god I’d seen in the Land of the Dead. He stepped forward, and my hand crept for my wand.
“Sadie,” he said. “Carter. Would you come with me, please?”
“Sure,” Sadie said, her voice a little strangled.
“Hold on,” I said. “Where are we going?”
Anubis gestured behind him, and a door opened in the air—a pure black rectangle. “Someone wants to see you.”
Sadie took his hand and stepped through into the darkness, which left me no choice but to follow.
The Hall of Judgment had gotten a makeover. The golden scales still dominated the room, but they had been fixed. The black pillars still marched off into the gloom on all four sides. But now I could see the overlay—the strange holographic image of the real world—and it was no longer a graveyard, as Sadie had described. It was a white living room with tall ceilings and huge picture windows. Double doors led to a terrace that looked out over the ocean.
I was struck speechless. I looked at Sadie, and judging from the shock on her face, I guessed she recognized the place too: our house in Los Angeles, in the hills overlooking the Pacific—the last place we’d lived as a family.
“The Hall of Judgment is intuitive,” a familiar voice said. “It responds to strong memories.”
Only then did I notice the throne wasn’t empty anymore. Sitting there, with Ammit the Devourer curled at his feet, was our father.
I almost ran to him, but something held me back. He looked the same in many ways—the long brown coat, the rumpled suit and dusty boots, his head freshly shaven and his beard trimmed. His eyes gleamed the way they did whenever I made him proud.
But his form shimmered with a strange light. Like the room itself, I realized, he existed in two worlds. I concentrated hard, and my eyes opened to a deeper level of the Duat.
Dad was still there, but taller and stronger, dressed in the robes and jewels of an Egyptian pharaoh. His skin was a dark shade of blue like the deep ocean.
Anubis walked over and stood at his side, but Sadie and I were a little more cautious.
“Well, come on,” Dad said. “I won’t bite.”
Ammit the Devourer growled as we came close, but Dad stroked his crocodile head and shushed him. “These are my children, Ammit. Behave.”
“D-Dad?” I stammered.
Now I want to be clear: even though weeks had passed since the battle with Set, and even though I’d been busy rebuilding the mansion the whole time, I hadn’t stopped thinking about my dad for a minute. Every time I saw a picture in the library, I thought of the stories he used to tell me. I kept my clothes in a suitcase in my bedroom closet, because I couldn’t bear the idea that our life traveling together was over. I missed him so much I would sometimes turn to tell him something before I forgot that he was gone. In spite of all that, and all the emotion boiling around inside me, all I could think of to say was: “You’re blue.”
My dad’s laugh was so normal, so him, that it broke the tension. The sound echoed through the hall, and even Anubis cracked a smile.
“Goes with the territory,” Dad said. “I’m sorry I didn’t bring you here sooner, but things have been...” He looked at Anubis for the right word.
“Complicated,” Anubis suggested.
“Complicated. I have meant to tell you both how proud I am of you, how much the gods are in your debt—”
“Hang on,” Sadie said. She stomped right up to the
throne. Ammit growled at her, but Sadie growled back, which confused the monster into silence.
“What are you?” she demanded. “My dad? Osiris? Are you even alive?”
Dad looked at Anubis. “What did I tell you about her? Fiercer than Ammit, I said.”
“You didn’t need to tell me.” Anubis’s face was grave. “I’ve learned to fear that sharp tongue.”