“Another guy barked orders to a small army of brooms, mops, and buckets that were scuttling around, cleaning up the city."Like that cartoon," Sadie said. "Where Mickey Mouse tries to do magic and the brooms keep splitting and toting water.""'The Sorcerer's Apprentice,'" Zia said. "You do know that was based on an Egyptian story, don't you?”

“I woke to a bucket of ice water in my face.“Sadie! Get up,” Zia said.“God!” I yelled. “Was that necessary?”“No,” admitted Zia.”

“What a pure blessing it was to have a bath in a tub alone in a room where all you had to do was pump the water, not tote buckets. Then all you had to do was pull out the cork, not tote more buckets to the back porch--that kind of thing is easy to take lightly until you don't have it.”

“Oh, god,” I said. “Sorry, sorry. Do I die now?”--Sadie to Zia”

“There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's house. That says enough.”

“Zia," I said, "that's a goddess. She defeated Bast. What chance do you have?"Zia held up her staff and the carved lion's head burst into flames - a small red fireball so bright, it lit the entire room. "I am a scribe in the House of Life, Sadie Kane. I am trained to fight gods.”