Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan

Author:Rick Riordan [Riordan, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2007-11-14T20:06:58+00:00

My vision turned red. I screamed, expelling the water from my lungs in one huge blast.

WHOOOM! The Nile exploded. I collapsed on a field of mud.

At first I was too tired to do anything but cough. When I managed to stagger to my feet and wipe

the silt out of my eyes, I saw that the river had changed its course. It now curved around the ruins of the village. Exposed in the glistening red mud were bricks and boards, trash, old clothes, the fender of a car,

and bones that might’ve been animal or human. A few fish flopped around, wondering where the river

had gone. There was no sign of the water demons. About ten feet away, Bes was scowling at me in

annoyance. He had a bloody nose and was buried up to his waist in mud.

“Usually when you part a river,” he grumbled, “it doesn’t involve punching a dwarf. Now, get me

out of here!”

I managed to pry him free, which caused a sucking noise so impressive that I wished I had recorded

it. [And no, Sadie, I’m not going to try to make it for the microphone.]

“I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I didn’t mean to—”

He waved aside the apology. “You handled the water demons. That’s what matters. Now we

gotta see if you can handle that. ”

I turned and saw the tomb.

It was a rectangular pit about the size of a walk-in closet, lined with stone blocks. Steps led down

to a closed stone door etched with hieroglyphs. The largest was the symbol for the House of Life:

“Those demons were guarding the entrance,” Bes said. “There may be worse inside.”

Underneath the symbol, I recognized a row of phonetic hieroglyphs:

“Z—I—A,” I read. “Zia’s inside.”

“And that,” Bes muttered, “is what we call in the magic business a trap. Last chance to change

your mind, kid.”

But I wasn’t really listening. Zia was down there. Even if I’d known what was about to happen, I

don’t think I could’ve stopped myself. I climbed down the steps and pushed open the door.

C A R T E R

14. At the Tomb of Zia Rashid

THE SARCOPHAGUS was made of water.

It was an oversize human figure with rounded feet, wide shoulders, and a larger-than-life smiling

face, like other Egyptian coffins I’d seen; but the whole thing was sculpted from pure glowing liquid. It sat

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