Read Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos-Theo 1 for Free Online

was any sign of bitterness. There didn't appear to be, but who could have blamed him if there was?
    Long ago, when I was only two, Father, after years of painstaking research and study, discovered the likely whereabouts of the tomb of Thutmose III, a powerful pharaoh in Egypt's Middle Dynastic Period. He and Mother made the trip to the Valley of the Kings (leaving me with my British grandmother, who I'm quite sure dressed me up in lacy frills and forced me to sit still for hours on end). Their expedition was a huge success except for the fact that they were betrayed by a colleague, and a man named Victor Loretti claimed the official discovery.
    Even worse, the British Museum, which Father was working for at the time, refused to back him and accepted the discovery as Lorretti's.
    That's when Father quit that stuffy old museum and came to work for the Museum of Legends and Antiquities.
    Anyway, for the last few years Father had been working on a theory about the location of Amenemhab's tomb. Amenemhab was Thutmose Ill's Minister of War, and some attributed the pharaoh's great military conquests to Amenemhab's brilliance.

    After two years of coming up empty-handed, Mother had finally found the adjoining tomb of Amenemhab.
    Father couldn't wait to see what she'd found. Neither could I, for that matter. I stepped closer to her and asked, "Was it scary, Mum, going into ancient sealed tombs like that? Were you the least bit frightened?"
    Before she could answer, Bollingsworth wandered in and distracted her. "Hello, Mrs. Throckmorton. Welcome back."
    "Thank you, Mr. Bollingsworth. It's good to be back."
    Just like Father, Nigel rubbed his hands together. "Did you bring us lots of treasure?"
    "Lots," Mum said, then threw open the trunk lid with a dramatic flourish.
    A chaotic jumble of foul odors slammed into me like a fist: the coppery tang of blood, the smell of rot and decay, wood smoke, and sulfur. I gasped and my knees nearly buckled at the force of the black magic rolling into the room from the trunk.
    Father gave me a sharp look. "What, Theodosia?"
    "Th-they're just wonderful. That's all," I replied, trying to look as if all was normal. Could no one else feel this?
    "But she hasn't even taken anything out of the trunk yet!"
    "Oh, but I know they'll be smashing. Mum always finds the best things."

    He narrowed his eyes at me, but was quickly diverted when Mum began unwrapping a large, flat package.
    Nigel came over to stand next to me. "I say, Theo. Are you all right? You look a bit peaked. Do you need to go lie down or something?"
    I shook my head and took small, shallow breaths as Mother lifted the final wrapping away. After the smell, I was half afraid it would be a severed mummy limb or some horrid thing. But it was a plaque carved with intricate symbols and a drawing of a large man wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. He held another man by the hair, his raised arm holding a large knife. My stomach bobbed like a cork as I realized he was about to chop the man's head off. Under his feet were rows and rows of other figures who had met the same fate.
    "I say," said Father, "this is rather bloodthirsty stuff."
    "Oh, this isn't the half of it," said Mother. "This fellow makes Kaiser Wilhelm look like a nursemaid!"
    She reached into her trunk and pulled out another flattish package and unwrapped it, revealing a long, curved knife with the small figure of Anubis on the handle.
    Father whistled. "This is marvelous, Henrietta."
    "Isn't it?" she beamed. "And there was so much more! All the walls were covered with detailed histories of every war Thutmose fought, his victories and his strategies. It will take years and years to decipher it all."

    I doubted that. I bet if they let me have a go at it, we could have it done in months.
    "It contained weapons of every sort imaginable," Mother continued. "Spears and daggers and long swords, quite a lot of them carved with Apep and Mantu."
    Father frowned. "I've never seen the