Rose threw him her keys. “Take the Volvo.”
“Very funny, but this is important. What is the quickest way out of here?”
“Take the Volvo,” she repeated calmly though firmly. Alex started to show a rare sign of annoyance when Rose grabbed the keys from his hand, then started to walk to where her car had been. “If you will not take the Volvo, I will just have to drive you there myself. I’ll be back in a few minutes, Quentin, lunch would be nice.”
“It will be ready on your return.”
Rose called back as she walked away from the tomb of Ay, “Vegetarian, don’t forget, and no fish either!”
“It’s all in hand. Do not be long.”
Alex had had enough of this tomfoolery. He went off into a nearby tent, where he took two bottles of water out of a chest freezer. He came out, went over and said goodbye to his dad, then walked off down the valley at a pace, only to see the multi-coloured Volvo parked exactly where Rose had parked it.
“Are you coming or not?” she called back from the car as she fired up the engine.
Kate had decided to walk from the Ramesseum Café. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, especially as it was the last thing anyone would expect her to do. Nobody in their right mind would walk in this heat. She knew where she was going, so she decided to take the same route Quentin had, the time she had followed him.
She had walked along by the side of the road and fended off Egyptian guides who wanted to take her to the tombs of the Nobles, whilst walking diagonally through the tourist car park. Now on the wide expanse of the white desert, she headed towards the well at the end of the workers village at a pace. She was just turning back to check if she was being followed, when the ground beneath her gave way.
She did have a fairly soft landing because Ropet caught her. The hole she fell though closed, plunging her into darkness, though only for the few seconds it took for the torch Sanuba was holding to burst into flame. He placed a finger to his lips. Apart from a scream, more of a gasp during her fall, nothing more was uttered. She saw the wooden cart pulled by two craptors and expected to be taken somewhere. However, Ropet, the cart and the craptors were soon on their way and making enough noise to wake the dead. This was obviously a decoy. She followed Sanuba. Though bursting with questions, she dare not utter a word.
Chapter 12
-
Reunion of the Three Adventurers
“Shush, do not wake him,” said Henuttawy as Alex stepped into the tomb of Inherkhau. “I thought you had decided not to come.”
He did not mention anything about his earlier mistrust of her, because he knew it had been totally misplaced. “No, not at all, nothing like that. I had to get some information from my dad and then I had a little problem with a donkey and an exploding Volvo.” Henuttawy was curious, and whilst Cairo slept with an empty plate beside him, Alex explained. His explanation, however, did rather paint him as more of the hero than it should have done.
“Oh, how terrible to have suffered yet again this morning, especially on top of recent events. If you were not so bruised, I would hug you.”
Alex wished she would. “I’m okay, nothing really hurts,” he said more in hope than in truth.
“You are just being brave. I shall keep the hug and give it to you when you are fully recovered.”
“I’m glad Cairo made it here safely.” Actually, Alex was not glad at all. He had hoped to see Henuttawy alone, though with Cairo asleep, it made almost no difference.
“Yes, and he has done well.” Henuttawy pointed to a bag which was leaning up against the tomb wall.
Alex immediately went over, knelt beside the bag, then removed and untied a papyrus which he unrolled and held against the tomb wall. “This means nothing at all to me,” he said after he had looked through the main text, tried to work out what the various little diagrams were there for and why someone had felt the need to write in so many comments: these had clearly been written in a different ink and handwriting.
“Well, it means something to me.”
Alex spun around, papyrus still in hand, to see not only Gadeem, but also Inherkhau – Inky as he was more commonly known – with his wife standing behind him, and also Kate, who was just now entering the tomb the way they had last exited it. “So much for being able to chat to Henuttawy on my own,” he thought.
“Aren’t you going to welcome us?” asked Gadeem.
“Oh, of course, great to see you all,” and Alex was pleased to see them.
“It is our very great pleasure to see you again, Princess Kate, and you, Prince Alex,” said Inky who spoke on behalf of both him and his wife.
General pleasantries were exchanged, after which Gadeem apologised to Kate, because he felt it had become unsafe to meet at the Ramesseum Café.
“I liked the clues,” said Kate as she pointed to the place on the tomb wall where the knife, which looked like a feather, was being held by the cat.
“I thought you would understand.”
“How could I not understand? ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ made me think of ink. ‘The feather is mightier than the knife’ made me think of this tomb. So, ink changed to Inky. Your last line, ‘It is not the brain, but how we use it, which is important!’ totally convinced me that you wanted to meet me here, as who could forget Mrs Inky’s sandwiches. No offence meant,” Kate said as she looked at Mrs Inky.
“None taken,” she replied. “Anyway, today you need not worry about bulls’ head sandwiches, as your young sleeping friend there has eaten them all.”
“Well done, Cairo,” said Alex, but then he also apologised to Mrs Inky, as he had not meant to be rude.
Alex retold the story about the false note, the donkey and the Volvo. He was even more of the hero this time.
“When you did not arrive, I thought you had not understood my message,” said Henuttawy, who showed no sign of being nervous at Gadeem being present, “but when I spoke again with Inky, I knew you must have understood it.”
“Yes, it was just that I had not read it. When you asked me for lunch and wrote ‘This time you will enjoy it rather than return it’, I could only think of Mrs Inky.” He said sorry to Mrs Inky again, though she was rather enjoying her fame. “The ‘Oh, and mind your head’ comment at the end confirmed any doubts I may have had. I made sure I ducked down low before I entered this time.”
Kate had a question for Alex. “We have both been invited here, yet you wrote on the note you gave me that if we did not meet up before, we would meet here tomorrow evening. How come?”
“Yes, Mr Alex,” said a now awake Cairo, “I was told that what you wrote on the note to me.”
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” said Alex, “and very well done to get those old spells.”
“Ancient spells, Alex.”
“Yes, Gadeem, you are right, ancient spells. Can we use any of them to rid ourselves of the warlock?”
“First things first,” said Kate in a not to be messed about tone, “why did you write a note to me, as well as to Cairo, about meeting here of all places?”
“I thought once we had all carried out our tasks we would need to speak to …” Alex pointed to Henuttawy, at which point Gadeem confirmed that it was probably best if nobody mentioned her by name. “Anyway, I thought here would be the best way for us to contact her.”
“I am curious, why did you think of this as the best place to contact me?”
“Because of Inky, because of the way he reacted when Ramses’ name was mentioned.”
“Because of me!” Inky said in horror, “I would never betray you. You believe me, don’t you?”
“Of course, I believe you,” said Henuttawy as she placed a reassuring hand on Inky’s shoulder, “but Alex has been very clever and picked up on something. What was it, Alex, what gave the game away?”
“It was when Inky talked of Ramses the Great. He made a mock spit to show his dislike of him, yet he then went on to say something like ‘Praise their ego, an
d they are like putty in your hands’. If pharaohs were putty in his hands, why would he hate Ramses II so much? Once I found out you had been wrongfully accused, I wondered who else knew, and Inky immediately sprang to mind. This had to be the only reason why he hates Ramses so much.”
Inky went down on both knees and begged for Henuttawy’s forgiveness. Mrs Inky also went down on her knees to beg for her husband’s forgiveness. Henuttawy told them not to worry, because not everyone was as clever as Alex. And anyway, no harm had been done. She ended by asking if there was any possibility of them getting something to drink. Mrs Inky immediately left the chamber. Inky stood, though he still had tears in his eyes, as he felt he had so badly let Henuttawy down.
“Why didn’t you think of me,” asked Gadeem of Alex, “after all I am the one who came up with such a dreadful plan? Didn’t you think I would try and make it right in some way?”
“I did think of you, as I knew it was in your character to make the hard decisions, yet also to be compassionate.” Alex took an educated gamble. “It was you after all, who ensured that she never left Egypt.” Alex was not going to mention Henuttawy by name and he most certainly was not going to call her Nutty. “You set her up in an abandoned city and ensured she had the life she was entitled to.”
“What abandoned city?” asked Kate.
“Amarna, the city of Akhenaton. It had been deserted for around one hundred years when …” he pointed to Henuttawy, “she was sent from Egypt, yet it could offer the palaces and lifestyle a royal princess would expect. What’s more, it offered safety, as in the time of Ramses no Egyptian would dare to go there. They could not risk being accused of worshipping a single god and bringing shame upon their family.”
Gadeem confirmed to Alex that his assumptions were correct by his reply. “You really are the chosen one. I can see why Dr Margretti wants you to join him. Let us all hope you survive this with enough working limbs and want to join him. We in the afterlife need someone like you. Now, if you knew all that, why didn’t you contact me?”
“Because Kate was meeting with you as you know ancient magic. That was the most important issue to discuss. It was the subject that I needed Kate to keep you focussed on.”
Gadeem was even more impressed. Kate, rather than being annoyed, continued to like the fact that Alex was taking control. She had enjoyed her day so far, she had enjoyed being part of the team, and she even took pride in Alex’s achievements. Not having to lead the team, where she had to come up with every single thing everyone had to do, she found to be rather liberating. Kate was changing, though whether this was permanent or not, even she would have to wait and see.
“Well, we are all together now, so what was this about ancient magic you wished to discuss with me?”
Cairo passed Alex the bag of spells which he passed on to Gadeem. “Simple question, which of these spells will kill the warlock?”
“Finding the spell is the easy part, as though there are many papyruses here, there are only two spells. Finding the ancient ingredients, that is the impossible part, or we would have been rid of him by now.”
“Please, Gadeem,” begged Alex, “tell us which of these spells will work.”
Gadeem opened each papyrus in turn. After sorting through them, he held the two spells out to Alex. “You have your answer here.”
Alex looked at them both but he was unable read ancient Egyptian. Kate could and she spent some time reading before passing them on to Henuttawy. Cairo quickly looked at them before passing them back to Alex who gave them back to Kate. He asked her to check the items needed off against her list.
“What list?” asked Gadeem.
“I went shopping with Alex’s mother this morning, supposedly looking for presents. It was actually to allow me to write down every possible ingredient we can buy in Luxor that might be useful for a spell.” Kate took her time. She checked, then doublechecked, ticking every item she had on her list. “We are short of so many ingredients, this is hopeless.”
Gadeem beckoned for the papyruses, then for Inky to pass him a quill. He ticked off many more ingredients before passing them back to Kate.
“Now we are just five ingredients short for one spell and six for the other. Not as bad as I thought it was.”
“Yes,” said Gadeem, “but it is those five or six ingredients nobody has seen since ancient times. Without those, the spells are useless.”
“If we can get the ingredients, can you cast the spell?”
“Yes, Alex, of course, but you will never get all the ingredients.”
“Defeatist!” said Kate without really thinking. “Whoops, sorry!”
“No, you are right. Anyway, I cannot think of any other way to bring this to an end, as we must fight magic with magic.” Gadeem looked quite dejected.
“Can I ask you,” Alex directed his question to Henuttawy, “why you came back to Luxor at this particular time? What really made you come back?”
“I have, more than anything, wanted to rid the world of the warlock. My wish is not totally altruistic, as once he is gone, I hope my father will let me come back home. This is the first time ever, yes, ever, I can see that we may be able to do it, so I thought returning was worth the risk.” She locked eyes with Gadeem, “And, of course, Gadeem asked me to come back!”
“Because I also feel we can succeed, though trying to find ingredients for an ancient spell is not the way forward I had anticipated.”
“Then what is the way forward, Gadeem?” asked Alex in a vaguely irritated tone. “It’s okay for you to sit there and tell us what will not work, but I do not hear you telling us what will work.”
Kate was totally blown away by how Alex had matured these past few weeks. She had wanted him to get a backbone, and he most certainly had done.
Gadeem had no words with which to reply as having discounted any magic spell, he had no other idea of how to rid the world of the warlock. After Kate had looked at the spells again and taken in the missing ingredients, she asked him which would be the best one to use. He gestured for her to give him the papyruses. He took some while to read through each spell before speaking. “They would both be equally effective, though this one,” he held up the spell which only needed five unobtainable ingredients, “would be my preference.”
“Why?” asked Alex.
“Because this is a spell I have used before, and though the last time was well over three thousand years ago, the results were exactly as I expected. The spell is known to be rather flexible and still work. By that, I mean, it is not as exacting as the other spell to prepare.”
“So, we only need to find five ingredients. That sounds good to me.”
“Yes, only five, Kate, but five impossible to find ingredients is just as bad as six impossible to find ingredients.”
They mulled this over for a while, whilst the young explorers and Henuttawy enjoyed tamar-hindi, Gadeem and Inky the red wine. They talked through all the options over dinner, then continued after dinner. Nobody knew what the time was, but the night before caught up on Alex. He drifted off to sleep. Cairo was not long behind him, though he did not fall asleep until every plate was empty and the chance of any refill had gone. Mrs Inky brought in large cushions and blankets. Soon everyone was sleeping, even Inky and Gadeem. Tomorrow was going to be a tough day. It would be the day the three young adventurers would start their impossible search for the missing ingredients.
Chapter 13
-
Who Said This Was Impossible?
Kate read through the list of ingredients which Gadeem had assured them could be obtained, though to her some sounded to be quite unobtainable. “What on earth is Baby Grout? What on earth is …” she thought to herself time after time, as she read down the list. Kate read out loud the five items they must obtain if the magic was going to work. The five items which Gadeem was positive they would not be able to locate:
Dried Bullsblood
Pure Red Cinnamon
A ring from the nose of the Apis bu
ll, freely given
The six sacred scuta from a single Nile crocodile
Ten grains of sand of the Sun
“Well … how hard can this be?” said Kate more to herself than anyone in particular.
“Very hard.” Gadeem was only just waking up. He stretched out his arms, yawned, then said, “Very hard indeed.” He was eager to prove it was impossible to obtain these ingredients, because he did not want them wasting their time, so, despite still being sleepy, he was about to give them the specifics on each item when he saw Kate look to Alex.
Instantly he read her expression as ‘Don’t ask me, as I have no idea what most of these things are’.
“She does not have to ask you, Alex.” Gadeem had a smug smile on his face as he crossed his arms. He was now sitting on a large, overstuffed cushion whilst wobbling slightly. “I have access to everything I need for the spell, except for the five items highlighted. I and many others have spent hundreds of years looking for them. We knew, your family knew, that magic was the only sure way to fight magic. It is obvious, is it not?” Gadeem unfolded his arms to gesture: hands outstretched, palms uppermost. He received nods of agreement from the three adventurers, Inky, Mrs Inky as well as the newly arrived Ramses.
Alex span around full circle, he then span around again. He was both sad and pleased that he could not see Henuttawy.
“Alex,” said Gadeem, “if you are thinking of taking up ballet, then here is not the place to do it!”
He blushed as he sat down.
Upon seeing Ramses, Inky immediately stood and ran. He did not get far before crashing into Sobek, who was squeezing himself into the tomb. Held aloft by the crocodile god in one hand as if he was a bag of shopping, and a light bag of shopping at that, Inky’s legs continued to run, though he was going nowhere.
Mrs Inky begged Ramses for forgiveness, for her husband’s expectoration at the mention of his name.
“Now that is something I did not know.” He called for his Thoth, who reluctantly entered the tomb behind Sobek. The normally nervous scribe was even more nervous than usual. Sobek did not help, as he would insist in having an ibis bone hanging out of his mouth, which he used as a toothpick. Ramses continued, “Thoth, what is the punishment for expectorating at the mention of my name?”
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