The Red Pyramid -1 by Rick Riordan Page B

wouldn't you? And even then-"

    I raised my hand toward the door. I pointed with two fingers and my thumb--an odd gesture I'd never made before, like a make-believe gun except with the thumb parallel to the ground.

    "Ha-di!"

    Bright gold hieroglyphs burned against the largest padlock.

    And the doors exploded. Carter hit the floor as chains shattered and splinters flew all over the Great Room. When the dust cleared, Carter got up, covered in wood shavings. I seemed to be fine. Muffin circled my feet, mewing contentedly, as if this were all very normal.

    Carter stared at me. "How exactly--"

    "Don't know," I admitted. "But the library's open."

    "Think you overdid it a little? We're going to be in so much trouble--"

    "We'll just figure out a way to zap the door back, won't we?"

    "No more zapping, please," Carter said. "That explosion could've killed us."

    "Oh, do you think if you tried that spell on a person--"

    "No!" He stepped back nervously.

    I felt gratified that I could make him squirm, but I tried not to smile. "Let's just explore the library, shall we?"

    The truth was, I couldn't have ha-di-ed anyone. As soon as I stepped forward, I felt so faint that I almost collapsed.

    Carter caught me as I stumbled. "You okay?"

    "Fine," I managed, though I didn't feel fine. "I'm tired"--my stomach rumbled--"and famished."

    "You just ate a huge breakfast."

    It was true, but I felt as if I hadn't had food in weeks.

    "Never mind," I told him. "I'll manage."

    Carter studied me skeptically. "Those hieroglyphs you created were golden. Dad and Amos both used blue. Why?"

    "Maybe everyone has his own color," I suggested. "Maybe you'll get hot pink."

    "Very funny."

    "Come on, pink wizard," I said. "Inside we go."

    The library was so amazing, I almost forgot my dizziness. It was bigger than I'd imagined, a round chamber sunk deep into solid rock, like a giant well. This didn't make sense, as the mansion was sitting on top of a warehouse, but then again nothing else about the place was exactly normal.

    From the platform where we stood, a staircase descended three stories to the bottom floor. The walls, floor, and domed ceiling were all decorated with multicolored pictures of people, gods, and monsters. I'd seen such illustrations in Dad's books (yes, all right, sometimes when I was in the Piccadilly bookshop I'd wander into the Egypt section and sneak a look at Dad's books, just to feel some connection to him, not because I wanted to read them) but the pictures in the books had always been faded and smudged. These in the library looked newly painted, making the entire room a work of art.

    "It's beautiful," I said.

    A blue starry sky glittered on the ceiling, but it wasn't a solid field of blue. Rather, the sky was painted in a strange swirling pattern. I realized it was shaped like a woman. She lay curled on her side--her body, arms, and legs dark blue and dotted with stars. Below, the library floor was done in a similar way, the green-and-brown earth shaped into a man's body, dotted with forests and hills and cities. A river snaked across his chest.

    The library had no books. Not even bookshelves. Instead, the walls were honeycombed with round cubbyholes, each one holding a sort of plastic cylinder.

    At each of the four compass points, a ceramic statue stood on a pedestal. The statues were halfsize humans wearing kilts and sandals, with glossy black wedge-shaped haircuts and black eyeliner around their eyes.

    [Carter says the eyeliner stuff is called kohl, as if it matters.]

    At any rate, one statue held a stylus and scroll. Another held a box. Another held a short, hooked staff. The last was empty-handed.

    "Sadie." Carter pointed to the center of the room. Sitting on a long stone table was Dad's workbag.

    Carter started down the stairs, but I grabbed his arm. "Hang on. What about traps?"

    He frowned. "Traps?"

    "Didn't Egyptian tombs have traps?"

    "Well...sometimes. But this isn't a tomb. Besides, more often they