The Serpent's Shadow

The following morning, Carter and Zia set sail aboard the Egyptian Queen. Though less than 24 hours remain until the attack at the Egyptian stronghold and Apophis’s rise, Carter is determined to enjoy his time with Zia. While Zia pesters a badly-dressed Setne into giving Bloodstained Blade directions, Carter receives a visit from Set—the god of chaos and evil. Carter accuses Set of trying to destroy Amos’s mind again. Set argues that Amos chose him and that Set has no such plans. Like all the gods, he desires power, but he doesn’t want everything destroyed, assuring Carter that, “if it comes down to Ra or Apophis, I fight on Ra’s side” (207). Set also warns Carter that Apophis has sent a giant hippo to stop him, just as the creature rises from the river.

Setne offers Carter a spell to help defeat the hippo. Not trusting the magician, Carter attacks the beast, only to have it easily toss him away and ram the Egyptian Queen, damaging the hull. Out of options, Carter uses Setne’s spell to summon a ridiculously cheerful giant named Hapi, who bats the hippo away like nothing and rescues the others from the river. 

With the ship destroyed, Hapi offers Carter and Zia “Hapi” pills to take them to their destination, which Setne reveals as the temple of the Apis Bull. Though the pills look disgusting, Carter and Zia take them and dissolve into liquid as Hapi cheerfully yells that they are walking into a trap.

Carter, Zia, Setne, and the Egyptian Queen arrive in the desert outside the entrance to the tomb. When Setne was alive, he built this place for the eternal rest of the bulls who embodied Osiris’s spirit until they were ceremoniously slaughtered. Setne leads Carter and Zia through ancient catacombs, disarming traps as they go. Finally, they reach a larger chamber with mosaics of Osiris and bulls. A statue of a bull stands atop a pedestal at the room’s center, and the group just has to wait for the bull to move and reveal which compartment of the pedestal holds Setne’s copy of The Book of Thoth.

While they wait, it’s revealed that Setne is Khaemwaset, son of Ramses the Great. Setne is clearly annoyed at the mention of his father and complains about how Ramses has forever overshadowed him. He compares it to Carter being overshadowed by his father, and though Carter has never felt resentment toward his father before, he starts to a little. Finally, Setne works around to talking about the bulls. He explains how the running of the bulls in Spain was inspired by Setne’s bull ceremonies. Thus, the bull statue will come to life, and when it does, Carter and Zia will have to outrun it while he gets the book.

The bull comes to life and charges. Carter and Zia run through the twisting catacombs with the bull right behind them. They reach a room with a circular opening in the ceiling that lets in sunlight, which the bull seems hesitant to enter. Instead, it shoots a laser beam from its forehead at Carter. Zia shoves him clear and creates a shield around herself. In a rumbling voice that doesn’t sound like her, she addresses the bull: “I am Khepri, the rising sun. I will not be denied” (237). She summons a blazing, fiery comet that destroys the bull before she collapses.

Carter scoops her up and finds Setne, demanding that the magician get them out of the tomb. Back aboard the Egyptian Queen, Carter uses his minimal healing supplies on Zia. As he works, he realizes Zia was chosen by Ra and that she holds the secret to fully awaken the sun god. In a haze of grief and anger, Carter gives Setne permission to give Bloodstained Blade orders. Sometime later, the ship enters the Duat and drops onto the river. Shortly after, Bloodstained Blade arrives with the intent to kill Carter.

Meanwhile, Isis deposits Sadie and Walt in the Nile, where they ride a giant crocodile shabti upriver. As they travel, Sadie gets upset about Walt’s impending death. She doesn’t want to hear about whatever Walt and Anubis have been discussing and how wonderful Walt’s afterlife will be. Walt starts to laugh, but before he can explain, they arrive at their destination, the ruins of the city of Sais.

The ruins are little more than piles of mud and rocks. Amid it all, surrounded by a cluster of bees, is the goddess Neith, who has already killed Russian magicians and a group of demons who’d come to destroy Sadie and Walt. Neith agrees to help them find Bes’s shadow, which is in her realm, among ancient times. She shoots an arrow into the air, and suddenly, their surroundings change to Sais at the height of its glory, complete with a massive temple. Neith proposes a deal: If Walt and Sadie can avoid her until sunset, she’ll help them find Bes’s shadow and fight Apophis alongside them. Since Neith is a goddess of hunting, Walt and Sadie don’t like their odds, but they agree because it’s the only way.

Walt and Sadie make a plan to split up and use their shen amulets that allow them to communicate and teleport each other. Sadie crashes through the swamp and trees until Neith finds her. After a harrowing few seconds, Walt teleports her to where he’s sitting on a tree branch. Relieved, Sadie kisses him, thinking of the old school rhyme, “Walt and Sadie / sitting in a tree / K-I-S-S-I-N-G” (259). The two split up again. Sadie ends up back at Neith’s temple. She enters and receives a distress call from Walt, whom she teleports to her side. 

As the two look around the temple, the sun starts to set, and shadows peel away from a wall to reveal Bes’s shadow. Before Walt and Sadie can figure out how to capture it, Neith arrives and points her bow at them.