The Serpent's Shadow

Aboard a ship named the Egyptian Queen, which is captained by a demon named Bloodstained Blade who has a double-bladed axe for a head, Carter and Walt pick Sadie and Zia up from the shore of the lake near the nursing home. Despite the fact that Bloodstained Blade is under a binding order to obey the Kanes, Sadie fears the captain will betray them. Sadie explains her idea to use Bes’s shadow as a trial run. Walt agrees because he’s the only one who knows the spell and wants to show the others in a safer environment before he dies.

The group sails to Osiris’s Hall of Judgment to meet with Carter and Sadie’s father. A trial is in session. Regardless, Sadie charges into her father’s arms, remarking, “for a moment I felt like a little girl again, safe in his embrace” (182). The moment ends quickly, and the trial continues. Sadie poses questions to her friends as they wait their turn, surprised and unsettled to find Walt suddenly knows a great deal about underworld rules and procedures. The proceedings are interrupted again when Ammit the Devourer of Souls (a mix of a lion, hippo, and crocodile with the personality of a puppy) runs to greet Sadie instead of weighing the heart of the man on trial.