Sea Green Eyes

Demigods & Magicians - Part Five

Percy stepped towards her, but the coils of sand pushed him back. There was still no sign of Carter and whatever the explosion was Cressida seemed a lot more sluggish as she tried to haul herself to her feet.

"Setne!" Percy yelled, trying to keep the attention on him.

The magician brushed the lapels of his smoking jacket. "You really should stop interrupting me, demigod. The deshret crown was originally a gift to the pharaohs from the earth god Geb, you know. It can defend itself with some cool earth magic!"

Percy gritted his teeth at the mention of the earth. After everything with Gaia, the last thing they needed was more dirt sorcery.

Sadie struggled, her legs still encased in mud. "Clean up all this dirt right now, young man. Then give us that crown and go to your room."

The magician's eyes glittered. "Ah, Sadie. Delightful as always. Where's your brother? Did I accidentally blow him up? You can thank me for that later. Right now, I must get on with business." He turned his back on us and resumed chanting. The wind picked up. Rain whipped around him. The floating lines of sand began to stir and shift.

Percy managed a few steps forward as Cressida managed to crawl a little ways towards him, but she wasn't having much luck. Sadie managed to pull one of her legs free, minus her combat boot. She cursed almost as badly as Cressida as she retrieved the boot. Setne's weird earth spell was loosening, but not fast enough.

In front of him, a wisp of darkness grew into the form of a queenly woman. Rubies embroidered the collar of her black dress. Gold bands circled her upper arms. Perched atop her braided black hair was a white conical crown. And Percy inwardly laughed at the bowling pin she chose to wear when she was a powerful immortal.

"You!" she snarled at Setne.

"Me!" he agreed. "Wonderful to see you again, Nekhbet. Sorry we don't have longer to chat, but I can't keep these mortals pinned down forever. We'll have to make this brief. The hedjet, please."

The vulture goddess spread her arms, which grew into huge black wings. Around her, the air turned dark as smoke. "I do not yield to upstarts like you. I am the protector of the crown, the shield of the pharaoh, the—"

"Yes, yes," Setne said. "But you've yielded to upstarts plenty of times. The history of Egypt is basically a list of which upstarts you've yielded to. So let's have the crown."

More smoke billowed from her wings.

All around the clearing, Setne's earth magic shattered. The tendrils of red sand fell to the ground with a loud slosh.

Sadie struggled to her feet as Cressida did the same and Percy ran to her side.

Setne didn't even seem to care about them. He gave Nekhbet a mock bow. "Very impressive. But watch this!" He didn't need to read from the scroll this time. He shouted a combination of Greek and Egyptian."

Sadie raised her muddy piece of papyrus. "Cress! You and Percy get Nekhbet out of here. GO!"

Cressida and Percy ploughed into the goddess like linebackers and pushed her across the field, away from Setne. Behind them, Sadie yelled, "Ke-rau-noh!"

And while Cressida would have loved to praise Sadie for her perfect pronunciation, her explosion was so impressive that neither she nor Percy saw it.

Both of them were thrown forward and landed on top of Nekhbet who let out an indignant squawk.

Percy had tried to take the brunt of it and cushion Cressida on top of him, but both of them were still groaning in pain as they managed to get up.

Where Setne had been standing was a smoking crater. Sadie's hair was singed at the tips. Her scroll was gone. Her eyes were wide with surprise. "That was brilliant. Did I get him?