Chapter 17: The End Is Not Yet
Remi sat right on the table in Shehrazad’s courtyard, surrounded by Anemo, Professor Simoon, Samir and, of course, Shehrazad. Anemo and the professor needed to touch her collar to understand her, but Samir and Shehrazad shared the same superpower that Fleur had gained—they could understand the language of animals.
“I was there when the twins were born!” Remi said. “I saw the two sisters again, and they look exactly like I did at their age... Everything I’ve been through this year, ever since the summer solstice, is absolutely unbelievable.”
“I can’t believe it either, Remi!” Anemo added. “From now on, we’ll have plenty of material to send to Archibald.”
“Don’t remind me of him! Who knows how many missed calls and emails I have from him. Let’s focus on the here and now!”
“Yes,” Shehrazad added. “We want to bring that stubborn boy back to us. Why won’t he wake up? What is he trying to do in there?”
“He wants to save his mother... to warn her somehow, but we couldn’t communicate properly with the cats. The Queen’s sister had changed into a cat, and she saw us.”
“Really? That might give Demir a bit of hope,” the boy’s grandmother added. “Do you know what’s strange? Nowhere in the inscriptions about Akhenaten did I find the name Meritmut or Meritbastet... nothing at all about twins.”
“That’s not so unbelievable, Shehrazad,” said Professor Simoon. “You know very well that the High Priest Ay and General Horemheb tried their hardest to wipe out everything... Damnatio Memoriae.”
“Another thing that struck me was how easily Meritbastet changed from one form to another. I have to wait for the equinoxes, solstices, and portals to open in certain places, but she... she moves from one form to another as easily as we walk from the living room to the kitchen. What is the story with that map, Professor? Where did you copy it from? Where is the original?”
“Ah, the original is in the museum, and as for the copy... well, I wasn’t the one who made it.”
“What do you mean, Dad? I could have sworn it was your handwriting,” Anemo said, his eyes widening.
“I sold it to you, Professor,” Samir chimed in. “On the day I slipped the collar into your backpack. Don’t you remember me?”
Professor Simoon stood up and walked to the other side of the table to be close to Samir.
“My goodness, boy! You’re right, but back then you looked so poor and messy... You asked me for 150 pounds, and I gave you 1500.”
“My grandmother taught me... She drew the map from memory too... but I think you’ve already figured that out.”
“The original map was drawn by the Pharaoh’s mother herself, Simoon. You won’t believe it, but I saw her drawing it,” Shehrazad sighed deeply. “I don’t understand everything either. I don’t know why the collars worked one way back then and a different way now.”
The professor took his phone out of his pocket and looked for the photo of the map. “Look here! To my mind, based on what is written here, it means that if Remi misses the last portal of the year—which is at the winter solstice—she will stay stuck as a cat.”
Hearing the professor’s words, Remi’s heart began to race.
“I can’t miss that silly portal, even if it is in the Cave of the Cats, Oweynagat!” She stood up, leapt onto the courtyard tiles, and walked straight over to the Mirror of Time, which was now reflecting the sky and its sea of stars.
Right then, as if on cue, every single light in the house and the courtyard switched on at the same time. Within seconds, everyone’s phones started to beep; notifications were pouring in like a secret Morse code typed by invisible fingers.
“The end is not yet!” whispered Anemo, who had quietly stepped up next to the white cat.
***
At the exact same time, at the House of the Winds in Dublin, Fleur and her furry friends were fast asleep on the living room carpet. Suddenly, they were woken up in a very shocking way by the deafening noise of house alarms blaring all down the street, across the neighborhood... probably across the whole city.
Fleur opened her eyes at once, dizzy, scared, and practically blinded by the bright light pouring from the chandelier.
“What is it? What’s happening? Did I fall asleep here? Mum is going to be so cross with me!”
“Mon Dieu! I can’t hear you, Tufty, there’s no point talking!” Mistral shouted over the noise. “Let’s turn off the alarm!”
“What did you say, Mistral?”
“Let’s turn off the alarm!” all the animals shouted together. “Only you can reach the panel if you stand on your tiptoes!”
In two seconds, the whole gang crowded around the alarm panel next to the front door. Fleur stood up on her tiptoes and lifted the cover.
“Come on, tell me the code! Who knows the code?”
Aeolus, who was perched right on top of Mistral’s head, put his tiny paws over his ears and shouted at the top of his lungs:
“One, one, eight, eight!”
The little girl stood stretched on her tiptoes, concentrating hard with the tip of her tongue sticking out, and tapped the numbers into the keypad. Nothing happened.
“That’s not it, Aeolus! Think!”
“Oh, this awful noise is lobotomizing me!”
Hearing the big words, Sirocco opened his mouth to ask what they meant, but Mistral raised one of his black paws to stop him.
“Not now, little one, not now!”
Aeolus scratched his head again, tugged at his ears, and scolded himself:
“Remember, you bookworm! Get a grip!”
“Calm down, mon ami! Just breathe! I’m so sorry I was never curious about these numbers, otherwise I could have helped you now,” Mistral said.
“One, eight, one, eight. That’s the one!”
Fleur typed the new numbers, and this time, the alarm stopped.
From out on the street, a few other alarms could still be heard, but Fleur and the furry gang sighed with relief.
“The end is not yet!” Mistral whispered. “I love you, friends!”
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