My hope, of course, was to create a sympathetic bond, as I’d done with Carter and the wax figurine in Alexandria. The rocks in our replica pile came from the collapsed tunnel, so our pile and the original were already connected in substance, which should have made it easy to establish a link. But moving something very large with something very small is always tricky. If we didn’t do it carefully, we could collapse the whole room. I didn’t know how deep underground we were, but I imagined there was quite enough rock and dirt over our heads to bury us forever.
“Ready?” I asked.
Walt nodded and pulled out his wand.
“Oh, no, cursed boy,” I said. “You just watch my back. If the ceiling starts to fall and we need a shield, that’s your job. But you’ll do no magic unless absolutely necessary. I’ll clear the doorway.”
“Sadie, I’m not fragile,” he complained. “I don’t need a protector.”
“Rubbish,” I said. “That’s macho bluster, and all boys like to be mothered.”
“What? God, you’re annoying!”
I smiled sweetly. “You did want to spend time with me.”
Before he could protest, I raised my wand and began the spell.
I imagined a bond between our small pile of rubble and the debris in the doorway. I imagined that in the Duat, they were one and the same. I spoke the command for join:
“Hi-nehm.”
The symbol burned faintly over our miniature rubble pile.
Slowly and carefully, I brushed a few pebbles away from the pile. The debris in the corridor rumbled.
“It’s working,” Walt said.
I didn’t dare look. I stayed focused on my task—moving the pebbles a little at a time, dispersing the pile into smaller mounds. It was almost as hard as moving real boulders. I went into a daze. When Walt put his hand on my shoulder, I had no idea how much time had passed. I was so exhausted I couldn’t see straight.
“It’s done,” he said. “You did great.”
The doorway was clear. The rubble had been pushed into the corners of our room, where it lay in smaller piles.
“Nice job, Sadie.” Walt leaned down and kissed me. He was probably just expressing appreciation or happiness, but the kiss didn’t make me feel any less fuzzyheaded.
“Um,” I said—again with the incredible verbal skills.
Walt helped me to my feet. We headed down the corridor into the next room. For all the work we’d done to get there, the room wasn’t very exciting, just a five-meter-square chamber with nothing inside except a red lacquered box on a sandstone pedestal. On top of the box was a carved wooden handle shaped like a demonic greyhound with tall ears—the Set animal.
“Oh, that can’t be good,” Walt said.
But I walked straight up to the box, opened the lid, and grabbed the scroll inside.
“Sadie!” Walt yelled.
“What?” I turned. “It’s Set’s box. If he’d wanted to kill me, he could’ve done so in St. Petersburg. He wants me to have this scroll. Probably thinks it’ll be fun watching me kill myself trying to awaken Ra.” I looked up at the ceiling and shouted, “Isn’t that right, Set?”
My voice echoed through the catacombs. I no longer had the power to invoke Set’s secret name, but I still felt as if I’d gotten his attention. The air turned sharper. The ground trembled as if something underneath it, something very large, was laughing.
Walt exhaled. “I wish you wouldn’t take chances like that.”
“This from a boy who’s willing to die to spend time with me?”
Walt made an exaggerated bow. “I take it back, Miss Kane. Please, go right ahead trying to kill yourself.”
“Thank you.”
I looked at the three scrolls in my hands—the entire Book of Ra, together for probably the first time since Mad Claude wore little Roman diapers. I had collected the scrolls, done the impossible, triumphed beyond all expectations. Yet it still wouldn’t be enough unless we could find Ra and wake him before Apophis rose. “No time to waste,” I said. “Let’s get—”