However, I had more urgent business to attend to right then. I slipped the grimoire inside Miss Sharpe's copy of Virgil and got to my amulet research.
Nearly an hour later, I pushed the volume away with a sigh of disgust. There had been nothing in there on how to protect mummies against the Staff of Osiris. I guess this made sense, now that I thought about it, as none of the books even acknowledged the staff's existence.
Even more disturbing, all of the normal amulets of general protection could actually end up making things worse! The healing eye of Horus, for example, could very well end up healing the mummies, and what if it "healed" them back to life? Disastrous!
And my other trusty favorite, the ankh, was just as useless in this instance. It was the Egyptian symbol for life, and I most assuredly did not want these mummies any more lively.
This meant I would have to improvise, and that was always a tricky business. In the end, I decided the best course was to use a simple Blood of Isis amulet for each of our mummies. Whoever possessed the amulet was said to be protected by Isis from all other magical influence.
However, the Blood of Isis amulet required a red stone, either carnelian or jasper. Even red glass would do in a pinch. But could I find enough for all the mummies? Thirteen on display, plus seven in the catacombs. That made twenty—well, twenty-one counting Tetley.
I quickly jotted down the recipe, then dashed to my closet to check my supplies. I knew I had some carnelian and jasper in my curse-removal kit, as well as a length of gold wire.
Unfortunately, there were distressingly few bits of red stone in there: nine tiny pieces of carnelian and only four pieces of red jasper. Which meant I'd have to hunt something up for the other eight amulets. In the middle of the night, no less.
Honestly! I deserved a fancy medal like the one Admiral Sopcoate wore pinned to his chest.
The best selection of stones was bound to be up in the workroom on the third floor. Unfortunately, so were Mother and Father, who would ask all sorts of awkward questions. That left short-term storage down by Receiving. Hardening my resolve and trying very hard not to think of Nigel Bollingsworth skulking through the museum in the dark, I stood up.
Isis, who'd been wrapped around my ankles, meowed in protest. Remembering her excellent stint at guard duty the night before, I whispered, "Is there anyone else out there? Care to check for me?" Although really, what was the point? It wasn't as though cats ever did anything you asked them to.
But Isis blinked her golden eyes at me, then sauntered out into the hallway. Brilliant! I followed cautiously as she led me down the hall toward the stairs.
When we reached the short-term storage area, I turned up the gaslights, the familiar hiss of gas filling up the eerie silence.
While Isis began prowling around the corners looking for mice, I went over to the old, battered Canopic jar on the shelf where I stored stray bits. There were two more pieces of jasper in there. Excellent. That made fifteen—only six more red stones and I'd have enough.
I crossed over to the worktable, wondering if anything from Amenemhab's tomb would work. There was a lovely spread-wing pectoral amulet, but it was in good condition, and as badly as I needed those red stones, I wasn't going to destroy a perfectly good artifact.
I knelt down to examine a crate under the worktable and began picking through the contents. An old silver mirror, an eye-makeup palette, six little scarabs (none of them red), and a flint-bladed knife. Then, far in the bottom corner, I found something.
It was an elaborate falcon-headed collar made up of rows and rows of cylindrical faience beads. Red faience beads, to be exact. But many of them were loose. Usually things in these crates were items that were of a low priority, either too broken or damaged or unimportant to be worked on until the rest of the dig's artifacts had been prepared for exhibit. Which meant I could most likely borrow six of the beads to make the Blood of Isis amulets, then return them once the Staff of Osiris had been ... what? Returned? Located? Well, I could return the beads later.
I worked the loose beads free from the setting, then slipped them into my pocket. Just then Isis meowed, and I heard a squeak on the stairs. I froze as a beam of torch light flashed on the wall. "Hello? Who's down here?"
It was Flimp!
"It's just me! I was looking for Isis!" I reached down and picked her up for emphasis. She began purring and rubbing her head against my arm.
"Oh, sorry, miss. Gave me a scare, you did, what with all the strange goings-on lately."
"I'm sorry, Flimp. I didn't mean to."
"You'd best scamper back up to the sitting room and wait for your parents. Until the police find out who's behind all this recent mischief, you shouldn't be wandering around alone so late."
"Excellent point, Flimp! Thank you. I'm coming up right now." Holding Isis firmly in my arms, I scurried up the stairs, not liking one bit Flimp's reminder about how unsafe the museum was at the moment. As if battling the normal everyday mut and akhu weren't enough, now I had evildoers to contend with as well!
Back in my carrel, I quickly settled down to make the amulets. I had no idea how long it would take Chaos to activate the staff and start using it, but I was guessing not long.
Ideally, I would have liked to have carved the stones into the shape of a tyet, which basically looks like a knotted rope. However, I wasn't much good at carving and didn't have the time. Instead, I cut twenty-one small pieces from the last of my gold wire and fashioned them into the tyet shape.
Next, using sticky sap from a silver birch (it should really have been the sap of a nh-imy plant, but I didn't have access to one of those, whereas we had plenty of birch trees at nearby parks), I dabbed a bit on the red stones, then pressed the gold wire tyets into the sap, making sure they were secure and wouldn't fall off.
When I was done, I had exactly twenty-one amulets. Perfect. Now I had to invoke the spell that would make these work.
I glanced back at the book and committed the ancient words of power to memory. Then, not wanting to repeat any unpleasant incidents such as the one that had happened last winter, when I accidentally directed a foul curse into her, I checked to see where Isis was. She was safely curled up by the door. Certain she was out of harm's way, I began to chant.
"For you who wear this, the power of Isis shall be the magical protection of your limbs and Horus the son of Isis shall rejoice. The way will be blocked against you, and you shall be protected against any who would do you harm or cause you an abomination."
There. That ought to do it. All I needed now were pieces of bast to string them around the mummies' necks. Once again I had to substitute what I had on hand, which was quite a bit of raffia from two summers ago when my best straw bonnet fell apart. (In spite of what Father claimed, I had had no idea that fiddling with the loose end would have caused the entire thing to unravel!)
Once all twenty-one amulets were strung onto raffia, I placed them in my pocket, careful not to tangle them. Now I just had to put them on the mummies, and my night's work would be done.
I left the reading room, trying to decide whether to begin with the Egyptian exhibit or down in the catacombs. It seemed best to get the most unpleasant part out of the way first, much like eating one's Brussels sprouts before pudding.
As I stepped into the foyer, there was a faint rustling, as if the shadows were sighing. Reminding myself that I had twenty-two Blood of Isis amulets on me, not to mention my normal three, I glanced overhead at the skylights and saw that thick cloud cover had thoroughly hidden the moon. That cinched it. Best to visit the catacombs now while the moonlight was as dormant as possible, lest it wake any spirits. Although it was true that none of the actual moonlight shone in the catacombs, sometimes curses didn't need the light itself, only the power of the moon.