Who Is She? | Jaz Anderson

• five •

Ayden fell down. She struggled to get up, her mind just begging to fade out.

Nope, she told herself. Stay awake.

She struggled to her feet and looked around. Everyone else was out cold.

She swore, concentrating to summon her toolbox. Her attention was stolen, however, by the sight of a god in a white loincloth and an ostrich feather headband.

"Shu?" she asked incredulously.

The good spun around to face her, wearing an old fashioned aviators costume.

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, it's you. Ayden Kane. Using those ridiculous Roman spirits to sent over things for a dangerous statue!"

"Hey!" she complained, dodging a flying piece of debris.

"Stick with the pilot's outft," Sadie said. "The ostrich feather really doesn't work for you."

"Sadie, shut up!" Ayden hissed. "Let me handle this."

Shu made an unfriendly whooshing sound. "I'd prefer to be invisible, thank you very much. But you mortals have polluted the air so badly, it's getting harder and harder. It's dreadful what you've done, the last few millennia! Haven't you people heard of 'Spare the Air' days? Carpooling? Hybrid engines? And don't get me started on cows. Did you know that every cow belches and farts over a hundred gallons of methane a day? There are one and a half billion cows in the world. Do you have any idea what that does to my respiratory system?"

"Uh..."

From his jacket pocket, Shu produced an inhaler and puffed on it. "Shocking!"

Sadie and Ayden raised an eyebrow at Anubis, who looked mortally embarrassed (or perhaps immortally embarrassed).

"Shu," he said. "We were just talking. If you'll let us finish —"

"Oh, talking!" Shu bellowed, no doubt releasing his own share of methane. "While holding hands, and dancing, and other degenerate behavior. Don't play innocent, boy. I've been a chaperone before, you know. I kept your grandparents apart for eons."

The air god waved his hand in disgust at the unconscious mortals, some of whom were just starting to groan and stir.

"And now, Anubis, I find you in this den of iniquity, this morass of questionable behavior, this... this —"

"School?" Ayden suggested.

"Yes!" Shu nodded so vigorously, his head disintegrated into a cloud of leaves. "You heard the decree of the gods, boy, You've become entirely too close to this mortal. You are hereby banned from further contact!"

"What?" Sadie shouted. "That's ridiculous! Who decreed this?"

Shu made a sound like a blown-out tire. Either he was laughing or giving them a windy raspberry. "The entire council girl! Led by Lord Horus and Lady Isis!"

Ayden felt as if she were dissolving into scraps of trash herself.

Isis and Horus? She couldn't believe it.

The girls turned to Anubis, hoping he'd tell them it was a lie.

He raised his hands miserably. "Sadie, I was trying to tell you. Gods are not allowed to become directly... um, involved with mortals. That's only possible when a god inhabits a human form, and... and as you know, I've never worked that way."

Sadie gritted her teeth.

Unlike other gods, Anubis had never taken a human host.

It was so unfair. They hadn't even dated properly. One kiss six months ago, and Anubis was grounded from seeing Sadie forever?

"You can't be serious." Ayden wasn't sure who made her angrier — the air god chaperone or Anubis himself.

"You're not really going to let them rule you like this?" Sadie demanded.

"He has no choice!" Shu cried. The effort made him cough so badly, his chest exploded into dandelion fluff. He took another blast from his inhaler. "Brooklyn ozone levels — deplorable! Now, off with you, Anubis. No more contact with this mortal. It is not proper. And as for you, girl, stay away from him! You have more important things to do."

"Oh, yes!" Sadie said. "And what about you, Mr. Trash Tornado? We're preparing for war, and the most important thing you can do is keep people from waltzing!"

The air pressure rose suddenly. Blood roared in Ayden's head.

"See here, girl," Shu growled. "I've already helped you more than you deserve. I heeded that Russian boy's prayer. I brought him here all the way from St. Petersburg to speak with you. So, shoo!"

The wind blasted them backward. The ghosts blew away like smoke. The unconscious mortals began to stir, shielding their faces from the debris.

"Russian boy?" Sadie shouted over the gale. "What on earth are you talking about?"

Shu disbanded into rubbish and swirled around Anubis, lifting him off his feet.

"Sadie! Ayden!" Anubis tried to fight his way toward them, but the storm was too strong. "Shu, at least let me tell them about Walt! She has a right to know!"

Ayden could barely hear him above the wind.

"Did you say, Walt?" Sadie shouted. "What about him?"

Anubis said something Ayden couldn't make out.

"I'll get back to you!" Ayden shouted.

He nodded. Then the flurry of debris completely obscured him.

When the wind died, both gods were gone. Ayden and Sadie stood alone on the dance floor, surrounded by dozens of kids and adults who were starting to wake up.

They were about to run to Carter to make sure he was all right. Then, at the edge of the pavilion, a young man stepped into the light.

He wore a gray military outft with a wool coat too heavy for the warm September night. His enormous ears seemed to be the only things holding up his oversized hat. A rifle was slung across his shoulder. He couldn't have been more than seventeen; and though he was definitely not from any of the schools at the dance, he looked vaguely familiar.

St. Petersburg, Shu had said.

Yes. Sadie had met this boy briefly last spring. Carter and she had been running from the Hermitage Museum. This boy had tried to stop us. He'd been disguised as a guard, but revealed himself as a magician from the Russian nome — one of the servants of the evil Vlad Menshikov.

Sadie grabbed her staff and Ayden her toolbox from the Duat — successfully this time.

The boy raised his hands in surrender.

"Nyet!" he pleaded. Then, in halting English, he said, "Sadie Kane. We... need... to talk."

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Hello, hello! Ayden can talk to Anubis so she can be an open line of communication... I'm wondering where I can fit in a flashback.