the_kane_chronicles__book_one__the_red_pyramid

“Wait, why did he want Osiris?”
Sadie gave me a troubled look. “Carter, Osiris was the lord of the dead. Dad was talking
about making things right. He was talking about Mum.”
Suddenly the morning seemed colder. The fire pit sputtered in the wind coming off the
river.
“He wanted to bring Mom back from the dead?” I said. “But that’s crazy!” Amos
hesitated. “It would’ve been dangerous. Inadvisable. Foolish. But not crazy. Your father is
a powerful magician. If, in fact, that is what he was after, he might have accomplished it,
using the power of Osiris.”
I stared at Sadie. “You’re actually buying this?”
“You saw the magic at the museum. The fiery bloke. Dad summoned something from the
stone.”
“Yeah,” I said, thinking of my dream. “But that wasn’t Osiris, was it?”
“No,” Amos said. “Your father got more than he bargained for. He did release the spirit of
Osiris. In fact, I think he successfully joined with the god—”
“Joined with?”
Amos held up his hand. “Another long conversation. For now, let’s just say he drew the
power of Osiris into himself. But he never got the chance to use it because, according to
what Sadie has told me, it appears that Julius released five gods from the Rosetta Stone.
Five gods who were all trapped together.” I glanced at Sadie. “You told him everything?”
“He’s going to help us, Carter.”
I wasn’t quite ready to trust this guy, even if he was our uncle, but I decided I didn’t have
much choice.
“Okay, yeah,” I said. “The fiery guy said something like ‘You released all five.’ What did
he mean?” Amos sipped his coffee. The faraway look on his face reminded me of my dad.
“I don’t want to scare you.”
“Too late.”
“The gods of Egypt are very dangerous. For the last two thousand years or so, we
magicians have spent much of our time binding and banishing them whenever they appear.
In fact, our most important law, issued by Chief Lector Iskandar in Roman times, forbids
unleashing the gods or using their power. Your father broke that law once before.”
Sadie’s face paled. “Does this have something to do with Mum’s death? Cleopatra’s
Needle in London?”
“It has everything to do with that, Sadie. Your parents…well, they thought they were
doing something good. They took a terrible risk, and it cost your mother her life. Your
father took the blame. He was exiled, I suppose you would say. Banished. He was forced
to move around constantly because the House monitored his activities. They feared he
would continue his…research. As indeed he did.” I thought about the times Dad would
look over his shoulder as he copied some ancient inscriptions, or wake me up at three or