Doubt set in that she would have enough energy to do anything, when, or indeed if, she made it to the top. “It really didn’t look this high or this steep from the ground,” she thought. Quite unexpectedly the hill plateaued. She could see right across to the ruins, which were still many metres away. There was absolutely nowhere for her to hide.
Seeing the shadow of a figure on a remaining piece of ancient mud brick wall, a figure who had not yet seen her, all logic went out of the window as adrenaline kicked in. Kate ran as fast as she could. She arrived at speed. Stepping up onto the remains of a low wall, she launched her attack to where she thought the person had been … she was wrong, she had dreadfully miscalculated. She flew past two somewhat shocked figures before hitting the ground. Grunts emanated which said that she had at the very least severely winded herself.
Having landed at the lowest part of the fort, at the start of a dark tunnel which headed downwards at a steep rake, her momentum was unstoppable. In her desperation to stop, all she managed to do was slip out from her backpack. Sliding and screaming, she was some way down the dark and dirty tunnel before she finally came to a halt. Lying on her back, winded and in pain, she did not have the energy to get up, let alone climb out. As she gasped for breath, she became aware of a smell which she had encountered before. Turning her head to look back towards the entrance, the light kept coming and going which confirmed her worse fear … BATS!
Adrenaline did its trick again, giving Kate the boost she needed to be able to scramble out of the tunnel on all fours. Upon making it to daylight she collapsed. Just as it was the last time she had encountered bats, they came out as one dark cloud, only to turn in the tightest of circles before disappearing back into the tunnel.
It was now quiet apart from a ripping and tearing sound. “Wild dogs,” thought Kate, “I have survived all this only to be ripped apart by wild dogs.” Kate was not going to go down without a fight, so she rolled over, in pain, exhausted, bleeding, but ready to fight for her life, only to see Cairo sitting on the low wall she had launched herself from, munching on a pack of sandwiches, her sandwiches. He had helped himself from her backpack.
“Hi, young Madam,” he said through a mouthful of sandwich, as a piece of torn food wrap floated gently down to rest beside her.
Chapter 5
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Ancients, Antiques
and Assassins
Alex bent down to help Kate up, and to his surprise, she let him. No rebuke, no slap, and best of all, no abuse. “Most unlike Kate, this holiday has been really good for her.” It was a thought which pleased him. She limped slightly as he helped her to sit on the low wall, which just minutes before she had used to launch her ill-fated attack. Alex suppressed a chuckle, as even though he knew exactly what he had meant, anyone seeing Kate now would certainly not consider this holiday to have been good for her.
Since the death of her mother she had been angry at everyone. Having seen the other side of Aggie, the drinking and abusive side, he thought he now understood from where Kate’s anger stemmed. Here, in Luxor, she had found a life beyond Aggie, beyond the abuse, and she was mellowing.
Kate was feeling … well actually she did not know how she was feeling. Every part of her body ached. Looking down at her arms, her legs, it appeared that every part of her body had also been grazed. There were patches of bright red blood showing through wherever her clothes had been torn, along with a few dark patches of already dried blood where they had not. This did not bother her as much as the smell. A smell that became distinctly worse every time she made the slightest movement.
“It’s the bats,” said Alex as he sniffed his arms. Until this moment he had been blissfully unaware that the awful smell was not all emanating from her. Some of the pungent bat droppings, along with the even more foul-smelling bat urine, must have rubbed off on him.
“I’m covered in their bloody poo!” exclaimed Kate.
“That’s the second time today that you have sworn. Don’t let it become a bad habit,” said Alex with a smile and a non-serious wagging finger. His regret was immediate.
“So, what else has Rose ratted on me?”
“It wasn’t like that, Kate!”
“Well, what was it like then?” As she said this, she picked up a hand sized rock which she threw at him as hard as she could. It failed to travel far.
“It not,” interjected Cairo who was finishing Kate’s very last sandwich.
“So, the munchkin there is siding with you, what a surprise. Boys of a feather stick together.”
“I think that you will find it’s birds of a feather,” said Alex without thinking. Actually, he said it without any thought at all, because if he had, he most certainly would not have said that, but he recovered well. “And anyway, if you give me a moment, I can explain.”
“Whatever,” she said more in resignation than exclamation.
“Look, Kate.” Alex moved to sit on the ruined wall beside her. “We were never going to let you come out here on your own. Just after you left the hotel, so did we. You are not the only one with answers, you know.”
“Oh, so you have all the answers now. I suppose Rose gave them to you as well!”
“Not at all, and do stop this Rose nonsense, as you are the only person responsible for the mess you are in right now.” Alex stood, stepped in front of her, then bobbed down. He wanted to look her straight in the eye. “You weren’t the only one who was up all night working out what is going on. We needed to talk this morning, but oh no, the mighty Kate was off on her own private crusade.” Alex stopped there, as he had not meant to be rude. It was not his abruptness that stopped him, it was the sight of Kate’s eyes welling up before evolving into free-flowing tears. Seeing her sit so dejectedly on the wall would have stopped anybody from speaking, anybody who had a heart. To Alex, Kate had always appeared to be older than her years, though before him now, she appeared as a lost child whose mind was in absolute turmoil.
It came to him, though he did not know from where, that the more independent Kate became, the angrier he became. If this was part of her transition to womanhood, and his to manhood, then he did not like it. Sitting back on the wall, he put an arm around her before pulling her in close, which was exactly what she wanted, as the closer he was the more the punch would hurt.
Alex took Kate with him as he fell backwards from the wall. Winded, he was unable to hold on to anything apart from his stomach. Rolling on the floor, he gasped for breath.
Cairo clapped his hands as he bounced up and down, because to him this was far better than all this ‘I love you’ rubbish.
Kate struggled to sit back on the wall, ever so slightly regretting what she had just done, though her face belied her thoughts. She was beaming from ear to ear. She was also sweating profusely whilst smelling fouler by the minute. With the midday sun fast approaching, the minimal shade offered by the ruined fort had gone.
Alex eventually made it to his feet, though he needed the low wall for support as he gasped for air. Extremely hot as well as extremely dry air.
Startled upon hearing a voice call in an ancient tongue, they looked towards the mouth of the tunnel. As they did, an ancient figure stepped out into the light, then, on feeling the heat, stepped back in very quickly. It was Ropet, Cairo’s ancient relative.
Cairo was excited.
Alex was pleased.
Kate was confused.
“Come on, Madam Kate, quickly,” called Cairo, as he moved towards the tunnel.
“Oh no … no, no, no, … wild horses wouldn’t get me back in there,” said Kate as she looked around for an easy way down.
“Come on, Kate, this will be fun,” said Alex, who moved over to the mouth of the tunnel, still holding his arms across his stomach, though now breathing in a much more relaxed fashion.
“It’s full of bats and bat–”
“Excrement is the word you are looking for,” said Alex cutting right across her. “They, or it, will not be a problem the way we will be
travelling. Trust me. Come on over.” Kate looked at him in an extremely suspicious way, causing Alex to repeat, “Trust me.”
She walked over to him rather like a ninety-year-old, though unlike an old age pensioner, she threatened to kill the first person who laughed. A threat which Alex and Cairo took extremely seriously, though one which failed to have any impact at all on Ropet, who laughed like a drain. Even if he could have understood any of what Kate had just said, he would not have worried at all, having already been dead for slightly over three thousand years.
The three youngsters were unable to make anything out as they exchanged the brightness and extreme heat of the top of the hill for the pitch black and cold of the tunnel. Ropet guided them to their seats, though he did not do the best job of guiding Kate. She virtually fell into place, her seat being much lower than anyone could have reasonably expected it to be. Aware that she was next to Alex, she could hear Cairo talking ancient Egyptian to Ropet. They were sitting in front of her, but as this was the language of the soldiers, she was only able to understand a word or two. Certainly not enough to understand what was going on. Acutely aware that she could hear growls coming from beyond then, in the blackness she could make nothing out, though she was not sure that she actually wanted to.
Alex risked slipping his arm around her. “This is how we got up here, you will like this.” Oh boy, was he wrong. They sped off down the tunnel at a ridiculous pace. Kate was screaming all the way, only for her screams to be joined by those of Alex after they hit a particularly large bump. Momentarily airborne, the little cart swerved violently upon landing. It seemed to take forever for Ropet to get it back under control.
“What am I doing here?” thought Kate between screams. “I’m heading downhill at a ludicrous speed in the pitch black, with what sounds like roaring animals ahead of me. I’m in an ancient cart that so very obviously has no suspension, driven by a driver who is already dead!” Nothing that went through her mind reassured her, hence her screaming continued. From the thudding noise bouncing off the walls, Kate could only imagine that the cart must have wheels of solid wood. Though however much noise the cart was making, it was nothing when compared to her screams. She was being bounced around like a ragdoll in a washing machine on its final spin.
Whenever Kate went to a theme park she always avoided the latest death defying rides, preferring to queue for one which had some limited excitement. The one she did not consider she would die on. This was like the worst of the worst rides, only with added darkness and a total lack of any safety features.
A spot of light appeared before them. It soon flashed overhead. Several more spots of light were coming up. As each one flashed past, Kate and Alex looked up to see that these were shafts, probably old burial shafts, which reached up to the surface. From the fraction of a second that shaft after shaft now flashed overhead, they knew they were going ever deeper underground. Alex held on to Kate in an attempt at reassurance, however, the slight shake in his grip only told her that he had never experienced anything like this before. When he and Cairo had been taken up the tunnel to the top of the hill, it had obviously been at a much more sedate pace.
At last Kate felt that she could stop screaming. The previously uncontrolled bouncing of the cart became much more controlled as it slowed, though it slowed only slightly. No longer going straight, they were now turning clockwise in an extremely large arc which still headed down, though at a much shallower rake. The light went completely after passing the last shaft, however, it was not long before they came upon flaming torches in the walls, torches which appeared to reach far off into the distance.
This allowed Kate, for the very first time, to see the wooden cart they were travelling in. Almost sitting on the ground, they were slung low between wheels that were, as she had suspected, solid timber. One of these was only a few centimetres behind her left shoulder. They were now slowing much more quickly. She wanted to know what they were being pulled by, though from the angle she was sitting at she was unable see around either Cairo or Ropet. With the tunnel rising and the cart slowing, the wooden wheels made less noise. She could make out pounding feet. These sounded powerful yet soft at the same time. Deep breaths, between which was an occasional growl, became much more audible.
“Is this where you came from this morning?”
“No! We only went from the bottom to the top of the hill. This is much further than we travelled. It was also much, much quicker.” Alex emphasised the ‘much’.
Ropet turned and spoke to Cairo, after which Cairo turned to look back at Kate and Alex. “We there now.”
The footsteps of the animals reduced to a walking pace, as a solid wall ahead came ever closer. Once stationary, there was no other sound than the panting of the animals. The echo from their breath bounced off the wall, which must have been no more than a few millimetres away from their noses.
“I think that we are very close to where we had the banquet,” said Alex, reluctant to mention Pharaoh Nakhtifi by name.
“It’s not the same corridor though,” said Kate, not wishing to be outdone by Alex. She knew that he had an excellent sense of direction, so that he would be correct with their general location.
“It could be the same tunnel, though I can’t be certain.”
“It isn’t.” She pointed to the wall. “Look below the flaming torches. The other tunnel didn’t have gold figures in little niches.”
“No, you’re quite right, it didn’t!” Alex stepped from the cart. “Do look at this, it’s beautiful,” he said as he took a close look at a small though incredibly detailed golden statue. It was of an ancient god that was, as yet, unknown to him. Just like Bast’s scarab, it was inlaid with many coloured gems. In this case, they represented the god’s clothes and his headdress. “I think its eyes are diamonds. It really is the most beautiful piece.”
Kate had not taken her eyes off the solid wall ahead, as she had a theory, a theory which was to be proved correct almost immediately. The whites of two pairs of eyes appeared simultaneously, quickly followed by two of the largest smiles that showed off the whitest teeth. Ropet stood with Kate, whilst Alex and Cairo marvelled at the golden antiquities. Nakhtifi’s Nubian guards moved in quickly and silently. One took Alex to the floor whilst the other did the same to Cairo. In a single continuous movement, they managed to gag, blindfold and restrain the boys before disappearing with them slung over their shoulders, through the now open doorway.
“Excellent, Kate, really excellent,” said Nakhtifi. “You were gripped with fear from your ride down, yet you could still see it was a trap. Truly excellent. Now, for the first time ever, I consider that we really do have a chance of solving this problem … once … and … for … all.”
Kate thought that Nakhtifi looked resplendent in his royal robes. She immediately wondered why he had not worn these for their banquet, as he now looked like a pharaoh. Unlike his father, Ramses II, who once seen nobody would ever forget, it was Nakhtifi’s robes, rather than the man, which gave him presence. Kate knew she would remember the faces of his two Nubian guards. One stood to each side of him, both half a pace behind. However, she would not be able to remember his face. To put this to the test, she closed her eyes briefly, and yes, she could still see the faces of the Nubians in her mind, as well as Nakhtifi’s robes. His face was a blank.
As she pondered on why this was, Nakhtifi pulled out some treats which he fed to the cheetahs. Or that was what Kate had initially thought they were. Moving closer, she could see that they had the markings and sleek lines of cheetahs. They did, however, have much larger paws and a generally bigger frame. Most distinctly, and also most concerning for her as she tried to leave the tunnel, was that they each had a short though slightly curved horn on the bridge of their nose. Not dissimilar to that of a rhinoceros, except for the serrations along both the front and rear edges. There was no doubt in Kate’s mind that they could rip flesh very easily.
Once safely past them, Nakhtifi held out both arms in welco
me. As she took a step closer, he took a step back. Her smell was too much for him. His gestures of welcome changed to ones of ‘halt, do not come any closer, now go that way’. Kate followed his hands with her eyes. Looking to her right she saw the two handmaidens who had prepared her for the banquet, just a few days before. Immediately moving towards them, an involuntary thought of her dead mother popped into her head. “If that was Mum, she wouldn’t have pushed me away, she would have been so happy to see me. She would have hugged me, however bad the smell.” Where this thought came from, Kate did not know, but on smelling the incense from the bathroom, her step quickened, as once in the water, nobody would be able to see her tears. Tears that were of pain, both physical and emotional.
Slightly less than half an hour later, Kate entered a palatial room, in the centre of which was an overly-large square table. She could see the backs of Alex and Cairo. They were going through what appeared to be papyrus maps. Cairo was standing on a small wooden box. Neither was aware of Kate’s arrival, which gave her the chance to take in the room. It was large, square, and, just as with the banqueting suite, the doors, once closed, virtually disappeared. Also, as in the banqueting suite, there were flaming torches around the walls, though here every torch had the addition of a curved polished metal dish fitted just above, though behind, the flame. These had been angled to reflect as much light as possible directly onto the top of the map table. Life-sized statues of the gods stood on small plinths at equal distances around the edges of the room in unusual, sometimes almost comical poses. To her it all looked far more Greek than Egyptian. Everything was white, even the statues.
Her attention was drawn back to the centre of the room as she became aware of Thoth looking at her. Kate had to blink several times, before finally realising that there was nothing wrong with her vision. There were two Thoths standing on the far side of the table, and both had now seen her. Kate gave a half-hearted wave.
Aware of both Thoths looking across the room, Alex and Cairo turned to see Kate. Alex ran over and gave her the biggest hug. Cairo attempted to run over, but in his excitement he forgot that he was standing on a box and ended up face down on the floor.
Death in Luxor Page 6