Alex felt the need to go and speak to his father. He wanted to find out what was wrong.
Kate stopped him. Her reasoning was that Alex had been most insistent that they needed to get into the gold chamber tonight; at all costs. He had spelt this out to her and Cairo ever since Quentin went back to the dig. So now that they finally had the chance to get in, she did not want to waste another hour whilst father and son had a chat.
Alex somewhat reluctantly agreed. They were just about to move off when a previously unseen official called over to Quentin. Just out of sight from where they were hiding, Quentin stood and explained to the official that the workers had removed tonnes of rubble in an amazingly short period, only to reach a room with no obvious exit, despite much searching. That is why they had stopped for the night. He assured the official in less than confident tones that there would be an exit, and with fresh eyes tomorrow they would be able to locate it.
Once the official had gone and Quentin was in his tent, Kate, Alex and Cairo moved out from behind the packing boxes, where they had been sitting and talking quietly for the last few hours. Heading up the valley, it was not at all difficult to see where they were going, as it was almost a full moon, and that moon was directly overhead. The only way into this area was past the large armoured truck with all of its fire power, and then through the very well-lit tented area. This was good for them, as it meant that there was no security to worry about by the waterfall. However, with the dig now over for today, all the lights had been turned off and the associated generator shut down for the night.
“Do you think they would hear if we started the generator,” asked Kate, already knowing the answer to her own question. Alex gave her a look. “Oh alright, I just didn’t want to be below ground where our only light comes from torches yet again.”
It did not take long for them to make it down beneath the ancient, now long dried up waterfall. Initially, Cairo had taken some convincing, especially as they had not packed any food. Though now, looking up from the bottom of the deep shaft, they could each visualise the water cascading down.
Alex shone his torch around the walls where they stood. “This is a completely solid area. There is nowhere for the water to run out from here.” He wondered where the room was that his dad had been talking about, because this was no room.
Kate was already half way back up the wooden ladder they had descended by. “But the water could run out from here.”
All Alex could see as he shone his torch up, were Kate’s legs disappearing through a hole in the shaft’s wall. “Hold on, I’m coming.” Once back up the ladder he understood why his dad was so dusty. It was a small square tunnel, which judging from the weak light coming from the far end, a light which he knew must be coming from Kate’s torch, travelled horizontally for quite some distance. Its intensity changed as she searched whatever was ahead of him. Alex crawled on, though there was so little room to move that he was quite exhausted by the time he reached her. “Come on, Cairo,” he called back.
“I go back. Make sure we not missed,” came the reply.
“Wow, I have never seen such a banquet,” shouted Kate. It was as though Cairo was with them within seconds, though he was less than amused by Kate’s sense of humour.
This was clearly the place Quentin had been talking about, as they could all make out crows in bas-relief on the upper section of the walls, though only towards the left-hand side. It was obvious that it had originally been a square chamber. The lower part of which having been so deeply eaten into, by the flow of water, it had created an almost a perfect circle. There was agreement that the racing water had easily cut into the soft limestone walls as it must have spun violently.
“I think that this would have been a whirlpool. Anyone who went into the water below the waterfall back then, must have been dragged in here by its sheer force. They would have been spun so violently that had they still been alive, then they most certainly wouldn’t have been for long.”
Kate could not disagree with Alex as she shone her torch on the many bones and skull fragments on the floor. The wide black line around the walls, just above what was the ancient water line, did not take much working out. It was the remains of ancient blood.
The constant dampness of ancient times had taken its toll on the walls. In torchlight, the crows were fairly clear along with some of the hieroglyphs surrounding them, though there was not enough left for anyone to be able to read. There were some shapes on the walls to their right, possibly the owls that Quentin had mentioned, though these were not immediately recognisable.
“There is no obvious exit from this room,” said Kate. “Yet the water must have left from here, so the question is, how did it leave?”
“I think that’s why dad looked so dejected. If he cannot find a way through here, then he cannot progress. Nobody is going to allow him to knock holes in the walls in the hope of finding an ancient exit.” Alex was reluctant to feel them, as the ancient blood line was right in front of him. He could not reach much above this, and beneath it the walls were so white that any exit would have been obvious.
“Let’s take this back to basics.”
“What do you mean, Kate?”
“Well, we know that this room was square.”
“Wrong,” came from a voice from within the walls. It was the booming, though distorted voice of Cairo. Kate and Alex spun around only to realise that he was missing.
“Where are you?” they asked as one. There was a sliding sound and a thump, as Cairo landed in the corner of the room. A rather large cloud of dust rose from the floor, followed shortly by the sounds of the three of them coughing.
The room had not been worn into this shape, but had been made to look as though it had been worn into this shape. Even when Kate and Alex looked in the corner, under the square wall, they could not see any exit.
“Where’s the exit, Cairo?”
“It there, Mister Alex.”
“Where?”
“Right there.” To emphasise the point, Cairo stood in the very corner of the room and extended his arms upwards. The top of his head as well as his arms disappeared.
Neither Kate nor Alex were able make out any kind of exit, yet when they felt the area, there definitely was a very narrow vertical shaft. They checked each corner in turn, though they discovered no other way out.
“How did you find that, Cairo?” asked Kate.
“Simple, I stood up and not hit my head.”
Kate and Alex shared a shrug of their shoulders before she said, “It’s too narrow for us to get up there, so we cannot go any further tonight. I think that we must go back.”
Cairo wanted nothing more than to go back, but his enthusiasm at being the hero took over. He told them that there were two handholds that he had pulled himself up on, after which the shaft widened. He immediately regretted saying anything.
Alex put his torch in his mouth, ducked down to get into the corner, and then stood as he held his arms above his head. It took him a few seconds to locate the handholds, as they were lower down than he had expected. Pulling himself up as far as he could, he managed to locate a further hand hold. Then, stretching his body out to be as thin as possible, he was through to the slightly larger shaft. Alex called for Kate and Cairo to wait whilst he found out where the shaft led to. He was back within no time at all and most excitedly told them that they must come and see.
It was nowhere near as easy for Kate to get through, but with Alex pulling and Cairo pushing, she made it. Cairo was quickly through, and just a short time later they were standing in a room that made all their jaws drop.
The room itself was empty, but from floor to ceiling on every wall there was nothing except gold. So much so that they had to turn two of their torches off, to be able to see without squinting. Light bounced everywhere. The highly-polished gold made a single torch act more like a floodlight. There were ancient gods, hieroglyphs and even what appeared to be paintings made from solid gold. There were no gems of any kind.
Everything was gold. Nothing more, nothing less.
“This is no treasure deposit of Alexander the Great, this is a proper golden chamber of a pharaoh.”
“I hate to disagree with you, Alex, but if this was a golden chamber of a pharaoh, then we would be in big trouble, as this would most definitely be defended by extremely aggressive ancient gods.”
“Then what is it?”
“I don’t know what it is, I just know what it isn’t. Do you have any ideas, Cairo?”
Cairo did not reply to Kate’s question as he was sitting cross-legged on the floor with an expression of mesmerised lust. Previously Kate had only ever seen him look this way when there was a full trolley of sandwiches in close proximity.
“Look, we have two exits this time. Which one do you think we should take?”
Alex was busily looking at the walls surrounding the two exits as Kate spoke. He found one to be surrounded by golden crows, the other by golden owls. Apart from this, he considered both to be identical.
“Well, I vote we go through the one surrounded with owls. I have heard of ‘a murder of crows’ and I know that owls are wise. So, that would be the wise choice.” Kate was pleased with her deduction.
“Okay, I agree that I have heard of ‘a murder of crows’, though I have no idea what that means,” said Alex sounding far less convinced. “Yes, ‘a wise old owl’ is a familiar modern saying. Owls do worry me though, after that school project I did on Hieronymus Bosch.”
“The project that almost had you visiting the school shrink!”
“Yes, that one, thanks to my mum and her wonderful idea. Anyway, in his paintings owls were evil, so I do not see owls as harmless creatures in the same way as you.”
“Well, someone has to make a decision, so I’m off.” Kate went for the exit surrounded by the golden owls. Alex turned to follow her, and on realising that he would be on his own, Cairo quickly got up to leave as well.
“Do you realise that yet again we are following Kate? One day, Cairo, she is going to following us. One day!”
“I would personally not follow her this time, Alex. Do come and talk with me, my boy.” The voice that came from behind them spoke quietly, yet with authority, just as it had done earlier. It did not faze Alex at all, though it did cause Cairo to shoot off after Kate.
Alex turned to see the Nubian whom they had met earlier in the day. He was standing in the middle of the room. An imposing though not frightening figure, he stood as if to attention, whilst wearing the tunic he was given by Cleopatra. “Is your missing button the one my father found?”
“Yes, it is. We did everything we could to try and get him to see, but alas, he did not.”
“You are Aryamani, aren’t you?”
“Of course.”
“You are related to Nata … Nata something?”
“Nastasen is the name you are looking for, and yes, we are related.”
“Then are we related?”
“Oh yes, Alex, we are.”
Alex threw himself at Aryamani and hugged him, even though his arms would not reach around the big man. Aryamani pulled Alex tightly to him. “We are family, Alex, and we have found each other.”
Eventually Alex pulled away. “Then I am not related to Bucephalus?”
“What! Alexander the Great’s horse, of course not. Whatever gave you that idea?”
“Well, amongst other things I do go down onto all fours whenever I see Alexander.”
“We all do. It is the wisest thing to do when Alexander is around. He thought nothing of putting anyone to death, man, woman or child. Anyone he did not consider to be totally loyal. He was neurotic when he was alive, and he has not changed in death, so it has just become something that we automatically do when any of us see him.”
“Even Ramses?”
“Oh no, not the pharaohs or gods, just us lower beings. I am neither a pharaoh nor a king … though I was once a king, a long, long time ago. That was before I fell under Cleopatra’s spell, just as so many men did. For that I lost both my power and my country. A country that only welcomed me back to be buried. That way it was able hide its shame that a Nubian king lost everything to a Greek.” There was real sadness in Aryamani’s tone. “I could not go home, so I guarded and added to Alexander’s gold,” he said as he swung his arms pointing to all the gold in the room. “What you see here is all mine, this is all that I have to show of my life.”
“Wow, there is so much gold here. It’s fantastic.”
“This is as nothing when compared to Alexander’s gold. Nastasen started the collection, yet Alexander died before he could ever return to Egypt to see it. I rediscovered it in the time of Cleopatra, the Cleopatra. I thought that she loved me and I added to it greatly for her. I was going to make it my gift on our wedding day. Thankfully, I never got to show her the gold, as this has allowed Alexander and I to be,” Aryamani paused, and Alex could see that he did not know quite how to put it, “not friends as such, but friendly in the afterlife. Oh, Alex, I loved Cleopatra more than life itself, but I was such a fool.”
Alex did not know what to say or do in the ensuing silence. He was extremely grateful that the moment was broken by Kate’s shouts.
“Sometimes people amaze me, Alex. What made her think that I or anyone would leave two large unguarded doorways so that anyone could walk straight in to plunder Alexander’s gold? Whichever exit she chose, it would have had the same result. She will walk in circles forever, unless you help her. Go on, shine your torch down there so that she can find her way out, because this time, Alex, you will not be the one following.”
Chapter 22
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Alexander’s Gold
The beam of light from Alex’s torch penetrated deep into the darkness, allowing Kate to return to the room. On seeing Alex, she threw herself into his arms and sobbed. Cairo virtually did the same.
Alex, in his eagerness to tell Kate that he was not related to Bucephalus, but to Aryamani, failed to realise just how frightened she had become. She needed a hug and reassurance, yet Alex revelled in the knowledge that Aryamani was the Nubian they had met earlier and he was from the time of Cleopatra. As he continued to tell her of his conversation, he felt a distance between them that had never been there before. This, however, did not concern him, because his mind was racing as he tried to work out where the real exit was. The exit that would lead them to Alexander’s plundered gold.
Individually they each spent some time looking around the room, though none of them could find any sign of a third exit. There were two clear exits, one was surrounded by golden crows and the other by golden owls. Alex knew from Aryamani that neither of these exits would lead anywhere, and he had relayed this information to Kate and Cairo. This was yet another action which drove a wedge between him and Kate, due to what she felt was the smug, somewhat superior way he had said it.
“Look,” said Kate with real attitude, “if this Aryamani is so flipping wonderful, why didn’t he take us to Alexander’s gold room instead of all this cloak and dagger rubbish?”
Alex knew all too well that Kate was just being Kate. She, as they each did, knew the many possible answers to this question, so he said nothing. In fact, nobody said anything. They continued to look around the golden room until they had all reached the same conclusion.
“The secret exit must have some connection to those golden crows and owls,” said Kate.
“It has to,” agreed Alex as he tried to press, twist or remove owl after owl, though none would budge. Cairo and Kate tried the same with the golden crows, though none of these would move either.
The individual crows and owls faced in different directions. Some faced left, some right. Some looked up, whilst some looked down. “There must be a code within the birds,” said Kate, as she stood back to see more clearly the differences between the two doorways.
Alex and Cairo nodded in agreement, though just what that code was, none of them could decipher. Alex was trying to work out if there was possibly
a mathematical solution, whilst Kate was trying to see if she could make ancient Egyptian words from them, as if they were hieroglyphs. It was Cairo who floored them both. He broke the silence of the room to say quite unequivocally that the answer was in the picture of the fish.
“How on earth did you come to that conclusion?” asked Alex.
“I paired each crow with an owl, which left just one crow, and that crow is looking at the picture of the fish.” Cairo was now pointing at a golden picture of two fishes swimming through reeds.
Kate and Alex scrutinised every part of it. There was nothing out of the ordinary, except of course that the entire three-dimensional picture was made from solid gold.
Alex mumbled something, and Kate asked him to repeat it. Alex, however, was unaware of saying anything, so Kate really thumped him and he blurted out, “I will only believe it when I see the tears of fishes.” Alex rubbed his arm, as he vehemently told Kate to stop hitting him all the time.
“Well, it works, doesn’t it!” was her reply.
Alex could not disagree, though he really did not want to be hurt anymore.
“What is tears of fishes?” asked Cairo.
“It must be a saying,” said Alex, “though not one I have heard before.”
“But you said it, Mister Alex.”
“Exactly! So, it must be from my ancient memories and therefore it is most likely to be something that should help us. Though I really cannot see how it helps, as neither fish in the picture has a tear in its eye.”
“Then put one in it, Mister Alex!”
Kate was the nearest to the fish in the picture. On closer inspection, she thought that she could make out a really small hole at the very bottom of the larger fish’s eye. Moving her hands over the golden picture, she felt something move. It was only small, a fragment which formed the very tip of a reed. It did move very slightly when touched, though it proved to be difficult for Kate to get hold of. As soon as she had managed to remove it from the picture, it was clear to see that it was a pin with a golden teardrop on the end. Kate did not need to be asked twice. She pushed the pin into the hole at the bottom of the fish’s eye. Now they could all see a fish with a tear in its eye.
Death in Luxor Page 24