Spirit and Dust - By Rosemary Clement-Moore Page 0,98

Which I’m sure comes in handy when doing the master’s bidding.”

Then she looked at me and asked the question I’d been dreading. “How many pieces of the Jackal do the Brotherhood have?”

“All of them.” There was no sense in hiding it. “The shade of Oosterhouse—his ba, I guess—tricked me into opening the Veil for him.”

Carson spoke up, surprising me. “It wasn’t her fault. She was trying to save me.”

Ivy’s image wavered with alarm. “It doesn’t matter why. It matters what he and his acolytes can do now. Where is he?”

“On the first floor, in the Egypt exhibit,” I said. “I managed to bind him, but the Brotherhood have us trapped in here.”

“You must keep them from getting the book. If the Jackal gets loose, he can draw on all the ghosts in Chicago for power. And if he completes the ritual, he can go anywhere, have access to all the souls in history.”

I fell into a chair, vividly recalling Phin telling me we live in a finite world. But all the souls in history? Maybe not infinite, but that would make little difference to the people he would rule.

“How can we stop that from happening?” I asked.

She considered the question grimly. “You have him bound. You could entomb him and leave him for later generations to deal with.”

I rubbed my pounding head. “I don’t think the city of Chicago would be thrilled with my collapsing their nice museum on him. So entombing isn’t really doable.”

“Then we have to think of something else,” she said. “The book has instructions for unbinding the Jackal’s ka from his grave. That can only be done once the spirit is rejoined. You didn’t do that, did you?” When I shook my head—I’d only had the grave remnant half untied from the Anubis statue—she looked relieved. “Then I’ll wager his acolytes are preparing for that ceremony, hoping it will work on your new binding as well.”

“And once it’s unbound?” asked Carson. “What then?”

“The reborn pharaoh is still just spirit,” she explained. “He needs a body. The last step of the ritual will transfer the binding from the tomb to a living person. A host.”

“Like possession?” Carson asked, more calmly than I would have managed.

Ivy paused, as if reviewing the text in her mind. “Even with a perfect translation, this subject matter is esoteric. But there’s more a connotation of a symbiotic partnership.”

Whatever Carson was thinking, it etched a deep V between his brows. “So the host would have the Jackal’s power?”

I didn’t want to let it get that far. “What if I sent his spirit back beyond the Veil?” It seemed an awfully simple solution.

“That might work.” She seized the idea with growing enthusiasm. “The book warns that the gods would be jealous of a new brother and might try and cast him back to the afterlife. Rending and sundering of spirit flesh was mentioned.”

“That sounds promising,” I said.

“But you’d have to do it before he’s bound to a host, or more than spirit might be torn asunder.” Her frown deepened even more. “If the Jackal knows you can open the Veil, you’re in terrible danger, Daisy. You are the biggest threat to him. And the biggest prize. If he kills you, he might be able to take your power over the gate to the afterlife. And then …”

And then the Jackal would not be confined to the spirits on this side of the Veil. Not just all the remnants in history, but all the souls in eternity. What was more infinite than that?

“That’s not going to happen,” said Carson. I didn’t know if he meant the raiding of the afterlife or the possibility of the Jackal sending me there. When he used that steely voice, I really didn’t care. We stood apart, but his conviction warmed me.

Ivy measured him with a long look, but didn’t say anything. She didn’t have a chance before Lab Coat popped his head out of the office door.

“Hey, guys,” he said. “You might want to come look at this. Either we’re about to get rescued, or things are about to get weird.”

Carson and I exchanged glances and headed for the librarian’s office. Halfway there, I realized Ivy was following, and turned back.

“Aunt Ivy,” I began, aware that Carson had paused as well, watching the exchange. I thought about dropping the psychic connection that let him hear Ivy, but worried that would put another pebble in the shoe of our limping partnership. “You know it’s really dangerous for you here, right?