How It All Goes Down
We Run from Four Guys in Skirts
- Carter opens this chapter by saying, "So… our cat's a goddess."
- Bast makes Carter get his father's workbag from the library, but then they need to leave ASAP.
- Carter interjects that Amos told them the house would be safe, and Bast responds that it was clearly sabotaged by another magician. Magicians are pretty devious, according to her, so there're a billion reasons why they might backstab each other.
- Bast drags Carter and Sadie out of the house and into the cold, pausing to talk to a scarred tomcat who was offering to help by telling all the local cats to be on alert.
- Suddenly, Bast pauses as though danger might be imminent. Carter looks around, but only sees some construction equipment, like an old wrecking-ball crane.
- Bast has the same look of excitement in her eyes that kittens have when stalking a piece of string. Bast leaps for the crane, rips the giant metal ball off its chain, and destroys it.
- Carter and Sadie look at each other, thinking: did an ancient goddess really just destroy a piece of construction equipment because it resembled a cat toy? Apparently, the answer is yes.
- Bast announces that it's safe now—but right then, the mansion explodes, so they start running.
- In order to save time, Bast "borrows" a silver convertible, explaining that since she's a cat, everything she sees is hers.
- Besides, when Carter and Sadie look back at the mansion, they see four men carrying a large box (coffin-sized). The men have coppery metallic skin and are wearing kilts and sandals. Bast declares this to be very bad, so they pile into the car and go.
- As they drive through Brooklyn, Bast IDs the dudes as carriers, summoned straight from the Duat. It's really, really bad when they follow you, because their only objective is to beat their prey senseless, throw it into a box, and take it back to their master.
- Carter asks why Bast can't just banish or disintegrate these dudes, since she's a goddess. Bast replies that it's because her power in her mortal host—Muffin the cat—is limited. Sadie's call for help allowed her to assume human form, but even if she had a more powerful host, Set is still stronger than she is.
- Sadie says that she's still weirded out that Bast is the same critter that ate crunchy treats and slept on her head.
- Apparently Bast had made a deal with their father that she could stay in the mortal world as long as she assumed the form of a housecat in order to watch over Sadie.
- Carter puts two and two together and asks whether Bast's release into the mortal world had anything to do with their mother's death at Cleopatra's Needle.
- Bast closes the subject by saying that what's important now is that she get the kids to safety.
- Carter asks why, if the gods are so helpful and powerful, the House of Life forbids magicians from summoning them. Bast basically says that magicians are paranoid jerks.
- The best plan, according to Bast, is to get away from New York, find safety, and then get help challenging Set.
- What help? Sadie asks. Well, Bast wants to summon more gods.