Chapter 17 : The House of Life wants us alive? Nah

(Sadie)

We raced to the entrance of the museum. My brother and I and this new kid, that showed up out of nowhere and my cat told him to help us. Yeah, we are following the advice of my cat who is also a giant glowing Cat woman.

"Who the heck are you?" Carter asked while we ran across 5th Avenue.

"Percy Jackson already told you that right?" He said without slowing down. He was clearly used to running.

He saw our confused faces and added, "look this is all confusing and so on but this is all part of your life now. I can explain it later, but I need you two to cover me okay? From now on I am a member of the 21st Nome who just joined."

I decided to trust him because he seemed chill and wanted to help us despite not knowing us. [No not because Percy is handsome!]

I nodded but Carter asked, "how can we trust you?"

He stopped running for a brief moment and said, "I swear on the river Styx that you can trust me"

I had no idea what the river Styx was but the moment he said that I felt something tugging at my stomach. I instinctively knew that Percy's promise wasn't something to be taken lightly.

I turned around and saw Bast fighting a hopeless battle. "We can't just leave Bast!" I shouted.

"Look!"

Percy ignored me and kept running, dragging Carter and me along, but I could see quite clearly what was happening back at the obelisk.

A mass of scorpions had crawled up Bast's glowing green legs and were wriggling into the hologram like it was gelatin. Bast smashed hundreds of them with her feet and fists, but there were simply too many. Soon they were up to her waist, and her ghostly shell began to flicker.

"Don't worry about her. She is a Goddess in the worst case scenario she will die and return within a few years."

'YEARS!" I shouted as we entered the museum.

Percy shrugged, "for a Goddess a hundred years more or less is nothing."

He saw Carter's sceptical face and added, "trust me, I know a lot about Gods."

Not 'the Gods' but Gods as in general. Multiple Gods. Like there were multiple different kinds of Gods.

The museum entrance was not very special in my opinion.

Huge entry hall, lots of columns and so on. I can't claim I spent much time admiring the decor. I do remember it had queues for the ticket windows, because we ran right past them. There were also security guards, because they yelled at us as we dashed into the exhibits.

Percy yelled things like, "dangerous package, Emergency, Gas Leak!" which made all the people step back from us clearing the way.

Percy led us through the museum, occasionally bumping people out of the way and shouting hasty apologies.

By luck, we ended up in the Egyptian area, in front of a reconstructed tomb sort of place with narrow corridors. Carter probably could've told you what the structure was supposed to be, but honestly I didn't care.

"Why don't they follow us?" I asked. "The guards I mean."

Percy shrugged.

"When Gods are involved mortals usually act different and avoid it."

Well, I think if I need to make a bet on who was most likely to survive the demon days it was Percy. I could even swear he was smiling excited for the dangers that might come.

Strangely, no one seemed to notice the enormous sword on Carter's back, which surely must've been a security issue (and much more interesting than the exhibits). A few old people did give us odd looks, but I suspect that was because we were dressed in linen pajamas, drenched in sweat, and covered in grass and leaves. My hair was probably a nightmare as well.

"It's the mist." Percy explained, still running not even exhausted a bit. "It hides goddy things for mortals."

"Goddy?" I wondered.

"Blame Meg," Percy said, not explaining a bit and turned to Carter.

"Where is the temple?" Percy asked Carter.

"I think there's a rebuilt temple down that hall...or is that in the Brooklyn Museum? Maybe the one in Munich? Sorry, I've been to so many museums with my dad that they all get mixed together." Carter looked down.

"Ugh I should've brought Annabeth." Percy mumbled but I ignored him.

I sighed in exasperation. "Poor boy, forced to travel the world, skip school, and spend time with Dad while I get a whole two days a year with him!"

"Hey!" Carter turned on me with surprising force. "You get a home! You get friends and a normal life and don't wake up each morning wondering what country you're in! You don't—"

The glass case next to us shattered, spraying glass at our feet. Carter looked at me, bewildered. "Did we just—"

"Like my exploding birthday cake," I grumbled, trying not to let on how startled I was. "You need to control your temper."

"Me?"

"Yes, you two are powerful, that was the reason you two were separated at a young age, we need to keep moving." Percy said, and he ran away forcing us to follow him. How did we know we had been separated at a young age?

"Let's finish arguing later, shall we?" I told Carter. "Come on!"

Percy was hopelessly lost even though he did not want to admit it, as far as I could tell, the Egyptian part of the museum was designed to be as confusing as possible, with dead ends and halls that doubled back on themselves. We passed a lot of Egyptian stuff which Percy completely ignored unlike Carter who wanted to make a comment on some kind of boring rocks from Egypt.

Finally, Percy rounded a corner and smacked straight into someone. I yelped and hit Percy and scrambled backwards, only to stumble into Carter. We all fell down on the ground looking at the girl I had seen at the other Museum.

The one where my father died after exploding the Stone of Rosetta.

She looked a bit taller than me. Probably older, too, but not by much. Her black hair was trimmed along her jawline and longer in the front so that it swept over her eyes. She had caramel-colored skin and pretty, vaguely Arab features. Her eyes—lined in black kohl, Egyptian style—were a strange amber color that was either quite beautiful or a bit scary; I couldn't decide which.

She had a backpack on her shoulder and wore sandals and loose-fitting linen clothes like ours. She looked as if she were on her way to a martial arts class. God, now that I think of it, we probably looked the same way. How embarrassing.

She looked at us then at Percy, "who are you?"

Percy got up and scowled at her, "Percy Jackson, a new recruit from the 21st Nome."

"Yeah, he's with us." I exclaimed which resulted in a grateful glance from Percy.

"Well give me the children so-" The girl began but a bronze silver sword appeared in Percy's left hand.

It was really weird, but I could only see it that way if focused on it, if I looked at it without focusing it was just the same sword Carter carried around to impale himself. It was like the house of Amos, two layers of reality.

"Wait you're not-" the girl began but Percy snapped his finger and said, "I am just a new recruit Amos was about to introduce at the next Egyptian group session or whatever you call them. You just trust me as much as you trust Carter and Sadie."

The girl looked at Percy with glazed eyes before nodding and said. "Yeah I remember you Amos told me about this new recruit," she seemed to think about something before moving on, "just stay out of the way."

Percy had to teach me this new trick. I hoped it would work on Carter as well.

"Where is Amos?" She asked.

Percy looked at me and I told her. "Amos is gone. He left this morning."

"And the cat demon?"

"That's my cat," I said. "And she's a goddess, not a demon. She saved us from the scorpions!"

"What's your problem?" Percy asked angrily.

"Hanging around with Gods is a crime!"

________

(Percy)

'Busted' Chaos snickered.

_________

(Sadie)

"Who are you?" he demanded. "What do you want?" Carter asked.

"My name is Zia Rashid." She tilted her head as if listening.

Right on cue, the entire building rumbled. Dust sprinkled from the ceiling, and the slithering sounds of scorpions doubled in volume behind us.

"And right now," Zia continued, sounding a bit disappointed, "I must save your miserable lives. Let's go."

"Well, we're on our way 'till you stopped us." Percy mumbled softly.

To be honest if I had to choose between Zia, I wanted to kill you at the museum, Rashid and Percy, I can shoot fire and I am your best friend, Jackson, I preferred Percy.

Carter, however, looked at Zia with the eyes of a lost puppy.

Carter and Percy followed her which left me not much of a choice.

Zia passed a case full of statues and casually tapped the glass with her wand.

Tiny granite pharaohs and limestone gods stirred at her command. They hopped off their pedestals and crashed through the glass. Some wielded weapons. Others simply cracked their stone knuckles. They let us pass, but stared down the corridor behind us as if waiting for the enemy.

"Hurry," Zia told us. "These will only—"

"Buy us time," Percy finished. "Yes, I've heard that before."

"You talk too much," Zia said without stopping.

We entered the temple room.

The room was the size of a football stadium. One wall was made completely of glass and looked out on the park. In the middle of the room, on a raised platform, an ancient building had been reconstructed.

There was a freestanding stone gateway about eight meters tall, and behind that an open courtyard and square structure made of uneven sandstone blocks carved all over on the outside with images of gods and pharaohs and hieroglyphs. Flanking the building's entrance were two columns bathed in eerie light.

"An Egyptian temple," I guessed.

"The Temple of Dendur," Zia said. "Actually it was built by the Romans"

"When they occupied Egypt," Carter said, like this was delightful information. "Augustus commissioned it."

"Yes," Zia said.

"Nerds." Percy coughed.

Zia scowled at him and so did Carter.

"At any rate, the temple was dedicated to Isis, so it will have enough power to open a gate."

"To summon more gods?" I asked, remembering Bast said something about needing more Gods to fight Seth.

Zia's eyes flashed angrily. "Accuse me of that again, and I will cut out your tongue. I meant a gateway to get you out of here."

"Whoa...you really have a grudge against the gods huh? "Percy said.

"Gods only cause chaos."

"Don't use her name like that." Percy said angry but looked away after that.

I had no idea what they were talking about but it was clear they did not like each other.

I felt completely lost, but I was getting used to that. We followed Zia up the steps and through the temple's stone gateway. The courtyard was empty, abandoned by the fleeing museum visitors, which made it feel quite creepy. Giant carvings of gods stared down at me. Hieroglyphic inscriptions were everywhere, and I was afraid that if I concentrated too hard, I might be able to read them.

Zia stopped at the front steps of the temple. She held up her wand and wrote in the air. A familiar hieroglyph burned between the columns.

Open—the same symbol Dad had used at the Rosetta Stone before it exploded and unleashed the Gods instead.

I expected it to explode, to release even more Gods. I waited for something to blow up, but the hieroglyph simply faded.

Zia opened her backpack. "We'll make our stand here until the gate can be opened."

"Why not just open it now?" Carter asked.

"Portals can only appear at auspicious moments," Zia said. "Sunrise, sunset, midnight, eclipses, astrological alignments, the exact time of a god's birth—"

"Like in the Lord of the Rings, the entrance of Moria."

We all looked at Percy who just grinned, "what? I like throwing in random references."

We collectively decided to ignore him and I asked zia, "Why should we trust you?" I asked. "As I recall, at the British Museum, you wanted to gut us with a knife."

"That would've been simpler." Zia sighed. "Unfortunately, my superiors think you might be innocents. So for now, I can't kill you. But I also can't allow you to fall into the hands of the Red Lord. And so...you can trust me."

"Hey, Sadie, want to make a bet? If they want to kill us within 24 hours, you buy me an ice cream."

"Sure why not."

"We don't-," Zia began but Percy interrupted her.

"You don't what? Would you not kill us if we hung around with the Gods?"

Zia bit her tongue and instead reached out to her backpack and took out four little statues—animal-headed men, each about five centimeters tall. She handed them to me. "Put the Sons of Horus around us at the cardinal points."

"What?" I asked. "I know compass directions! But—"

"That's north." Zia pointed out the wall of glass. "Figure out the rest."

I did what she asked, though I didn't see how the little men would help. Meanwhile, Zia gave Carter a piece of chalk and told him to draw a circle around us, connecting the statues.

"You help me fight Selqet." She told Percy who shrugged at that, like it wasn't a big deal.

"Wait, you want to fight a God?" Carter asked, eyes widened.

Zia was about to say something but Percy interrupted her.

"Carter, my boy, I fought Gods and primordials for ages."

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