Kane 2 - The Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan Page A

to Brooklyn to study the path of Thoth, god of knowledge, and we’d already pegged her as our future librarian; but when the dangers were real, and not just in the pages of books…well, she had a tender stomach. I hoped she could make it to the edge of the terrace if she needed to.
    “The—the scroll,” she managed, “you said there are two other parts?”
    I took the scroll. In the daylight it looked more fragile—brittle and yellow and likely to crumble. My fingers trembled. I could feel magic humming in the papyrus like a low-voltage current. I felt an overwhelming desire to open it.
    I began to unroll the cylinder. Carter tensed.
    Amos said, “Sadie…”
    No doubt they expected Brooklyn to catch fire again, but nothing happened. I spread out the scroll and found it was written in gibberish—not hieroglyphics, not any language I could recognize. The end of the papyrus was a jagged line, as if it had been ripped.
    “I imagine the pieces graft together,” I said. “It will be readable only when all three sections are combined.”
    Carter looked impressed. But honestly, I do know some things. During our last adventure I’d read a scroll to banish Set, and it had worked much the same way.
    Khufu looked up from his Jell-O. “Agh!” He put three slimy grapes on the table.
    “Exactly,” Bast agreed. “As Khufu says, the three sections of the book represent the three aspects of Ra—morning, noon, and night. That scroll there is the spell of Khnum. You’ll need to find the other two now.”
    How Khufu fit all of that into a single grunt, I didn’t know; but I wished I could take all my classes from baboon teachers. I’d have middle school and high school finished in a week.
    “So the other two grapes,” I said, “I mean, scrolls…according to my vision last night, they won’t be easy to find.”
    Amos nodded. “The first section was lost eons ago. The middle section is in the possession of the House of Life. It has been moved many times, and is always kept under tight security. Judging from your vision, I’d say the scroll is now in the hands of Vladimir Menshikov.”
    “The ice cream man,” I guessed. “Who is he?”
    Amos traced something on the table—perhaps a protective hieroglyph. “The third-most powerful magician in the world. He’s also one of Desjardins’ strongest supporters. He runs the Eighteenth Nome, in Russia.”
    Bast hissed. Being a cat, she was quite good at that. “Vlad the Inhaler. He’s got an evil reputation.”
    I remembered his ruined eyes and wheezing voice. “What happened to his face?”
    Bast was about to answer, but Amos cut her off.
    “Just realize that he’s quite dangerous,” he warned. “Vlad’s main talent is silencing rogue magicians.”
    “You mean he’s an assassin?” I asked. “Wonderful. And Desjardins just gave him permission to hunt Carter and me if we leave Brooklyn.”
    “Which you’ll have to do,” Bast said, “if you want to seek the other sections of the Book of Ra. You have only four days.”
    “Yes,” I muttered, “you may have mentioned that. You’ll be coming with us, won’t you?”
    Bast looked down at her Fancy Feast.
    “Sadie…” She sounded miserable. “Carter and I were talking and…well, someone has to check on Apophis’s prison. We have to know what’s going on, how close it is to breaking, and if there’s a way to stop it. That requires a firsthand look.”
    I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. “You’re going back there? After all my parents did to free you?”
    “I’ll only approach the prison from the outside,” she promised. “I’ll be careful. I am a creature of stealth, after all. Besides, I’m the only one who knows how to find his cell, and that part of the Duat would be lethal to a mortal. I—I must do this.”
    Her voice trembled. She’d once told me that cats weren’t brave, but going back to her old prison seemed like quite a courageous thing to do.
    “I won’t leave you