Horus was still asleep a few hours later, in a sort of magic-induced coma. There was no need to rouse him for the short journey, or so they had decided. If everything went smoothly, which they were positive it would, Nefertari would be back before her protector even noticed she had gone; at least she hoped so.

  And then the war against Apep and Set would begin.

  Simon felt uneasy still when Thoth approached them, carrying in his hands a set of silvery objects.

  “I will be of no use to you on the battlefield,” he said to Nefertari in his composed voice. “I'm not a fighter as you are, descendant. Instead, I shall give you something more valuable than another warrior.”

  Thoth held out his hand to Nefertari; she accepted a silvery ring, inscribed with more unknown signs and symbols, all of which seemed to shift and writhe in Simon's head, as though his brain were attempting to deduce meaning from them. A single large ruby, matching Nefertari's khopesh, was embedded in the middle of the band.

  “That's an Atlantean weapon,” said Nefertari, evidently astonished, weighing the ring in her hands. As she slid it on her finger, a small, intricate blade materialized in her hand, crackling faintly, making Simon start; could this be the reason Horus never seemed to carry a weapon yet always had one at hand? “Thank you. You couldn't be of better use, Thoth.”

  “I promised to help you,” said Thoth, his expression neutral as always. “You should take special care when handling them, they are exceptionally powerful, and rather rare now that...” But he didn't continue and turned to Simon instead, who could barely conceal his surprise.

  “You've done a great deed, giving up the only treasure you had.”

  Simon suppressed an exasperated sigh: Was everyone in this world a mind-reader?

  “For that I wish to thank you, and give you this in exchange.” He opened the palm of his hand. A squarish silver bracelet, which looked a bit sci-fi, like the Infinity Key, with a single, round zircon embedded on top, lay on his palm. It was made from the same material as they key too, and even had the same symbol, the strangely shaped half-A... At the touch of his hand, the grooves on the zircon lit up in bright turquoise. And then Simon remembered what he had overheard the night Set had decided to lock him up – hadn't the god called the pattern the Crest of Atlas?

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  “I would like you to take it with you when you leave,” Thoth finished.

  “What is it?” Simon asked, somewhat fidgety, all the while trying to keep his mind from wandering to the upcoming battle he wouldn't fight in, and how wrong that made him feel.

  “It's an Atlantean blade,” explained Thoth, seemingly talking more to himself than either of the others. “One of the last in my possession... it was rather difficult to reprogram with my limited resources … will have to forage once again into the places of the ancient ones...”

  A frown flickered over Nefertari's face, then Thoth seemed to come back to the present.

  “As the Infinity Key, the blade will react to your thoughts. You can never know when you will need a weapon to defend yourself.”

  Simon looked down at the bracelet. This is a blade? He looked at Nefertari, who was gazing at him rather thoughtfully, and even as he thought it, the bracelet began to vibrate in his hands, as though it were going to lunge at him for doubting it. Could this be the reason Horus never seemed to carry a weapon yet always had one at hand?

  “I can't think of anything that'd want to harm me in London,” said Simon without thinking. He doubted he would ever need a weapon at all now that he was going back home. “My world is – er – very peaceful. There isn't such a thing as magic in the twenty-fist century.”

  Simon teetered for a moment on the verge of speech; if he were Perfectly Polite Morgan, it would have been easy to find something to say in a situation like this, but he was just Rude Simon, who never found the right words.

  Nefertari sighed exasperatedly.

  He looked down at the bracelet again. At least it was something, he thought, something to show for several weeks of absence, a kind of evidence for his more than hair-raising story...

  “Thank you,” he said belatedly (though Thoth, who seemed to be deep in thought hardly seemed to mind), and slid it into his pockets.

  Thoth inclined his head to him, apparently indifferent to rudeness; it made Simon wonder just how often people were discourteous to the god of wisdom, who had to be well over several millennia old and thus seen his share of impoliteness, whether they meant to be or not.

  “Magic is everywhere,” said Nefertari unexpectedly at that moment, though she didn't sound reprimanding. “Even if you don't immediately see it, magic can be found in almost anything.” Then she fell silent again.