“Thank you, Joe,” said the Doctor.
“Did you want me to explain about Crocodilopolis?”
“No thank you, Joe, I think we should leave that up to David.”
Alex had now thought better of asking if they were going to pick up Emmy as he would only have to suffer unwanted, as well as extremely annoying, comments from Kate.
“Why we don’t all go into Amarna and get rid of him?” asked Cairo.
“For many reasons,” said Dr Margretti, “but mostly because of his magic. He would be aware we were coming for him, so he would be ready for us, therefore we would fail.”
As there were no more questions, they continued onward in silence. Each of the three adventurers had questions, though not questions they were willing to ask, not when they were going to receive honest answers. Dr Margretti had previously made it blatantly clear that they had been very foolish if they thought for one moment they could all survive this adventure.
Not being the athletic sort, Alex had taken a mouth full of sand as he dropped from the ARM. The idea had been for the vehicle to keep going as each of them, one after the other, slipped down through a door in the floor which had opened to form a slide. Alex still did not know how he managed to exit the ARM face down and end up choking as he hit the desert. Everyone else had managed to lie on their backs, cross their arms and slide out virtually unnoticed. He created such a cloud of dust that anybody watching, even from a great distance, would have known that they had left the ARM. His only hope was that nobody was watching, as when David had joined them, he had confirmed that the warlock was indeed still in Amarna.
Alex had also been very happy to welcome Emmy on-board the ARM, though now as he choked and fumbled for his water, he wished she had not witnessed his failure.
“That was great, Alex,” said Kate through a grin, so he knew there was something more coming, and he was not about to be disappointed. “I am not sure which I liked best, the sound effects, the cloud of dust or the way you cartwheeled so freely.”
“Funny, very funny,” was all Alex could bring himself to say between swilling water around in his mouth before spitting it and sand out. A process he had to repeat many times before the grittiness finally left him, though his embarrassment remained. Emmy said that if he was short of water he could share hers, which he appreciated.
“We go down here,” called out David from some distance away.
Kate went down first. Cairo was so eager that he almost landed on top of her. David dropped out of sight. Emmy made sure Alex was okay before she dropped down. Alex looked all around, but there was no sign of the ARM. In fact, there was no sign of anything, just sand, sand and more sand. He, quite uneventfully, arrived with the others.
“What, no encore?” asked Kate. Her rudeness was ignored.
“I have been here several times before,” said David as he sat crossed legged in the tunnel. The light coming in from above allowed them to see well where they sat, but there was only darkness ahead. “This is Crocodilopolis, and its location is well known to archaeologists, so, if we are to find what we are looking for, then we have to find areas that have not yet been discovered. I think I can help you there, in fact I know I can, as I have spent quite some time here. As for finding the six sacred scuta from a single Nile crocodile, that is quite another thing.”
“What are they?” asked Emmy, and Kate, Alex and Cairo were all pleased that she had. Gadeem had explained in excessive detail, though they still did not know exactly what they were.
“Well, you will not find what I am about to tell you in any history books,” said David. “You will, however, be able to look up scuta, and then you can find out exactly what scuta are for yourselves. I will call them scales, as to me that is what they are. Crocodilopolis is the largest centre of worship to the ancient god Sobek. It was a very large city by ancient Egyptian standards. Today there is virtually nothing left, but we do not need the city, we need the crocodile breeding grounds.”
“Underground and through tunnels again?” asked Emmy.
“Right first time,” replied David. “Anyway, as I said, what we are looking for are the crocodile breeding areas. So, as we explore this place, look for any sign of eggshells. They should be fairly easy to make out, even if they are crushed, because a single female can lay upwards of fifty eggs.”
“Have you seen any eggshells here?”
“Most likely, Alex, but that was not what I was looking for.”
“What about scuta?”
“Again, not what I was looking for. I know nothing about magic and spells, but I do know what scuta are. Let me explain. Each new-born crocodile would have been checked by the priests on the soft fleshy underside, where there should have been no scales … scuta. Crocodiles which had six scales on the underside were deemed to be sacred. However, these scales would drop off as the crocodile grew. The priests would collect these, then pronounce that crocodile to be a direct descendent of Sobek. We are not looking for a crocodile, we are looking for anywhere the priests may have kept these scales.”
“So, crocodiles lay over fifty eggs. I get rid of chickens and keep crocodiles from now on.” There was a small ripple of laughter.
“They are quite a bit larger than chicken eggs, Cairo, though probably not as big as you may think. Typically, I would say, they are between sixty and eighty millimetres in length.”
“We need the male egg area, not female,” said Cairo.
“Yes, we do, as only males were thought to be gods.”
“Say one word, and I will smack you,” said Kate to Alex. Cairo opened his mouth to speak. Kate looked directly at him and said, “Same goes for you!” He closed his mouth without uttering a word.
“Kate!”
“Sorry, Dad.”
“Male and female eggs would have been kept in different areas.”
“How did they know which egg was male and which was female?” asked Alex.
“The sex of a crocodile was determined by the temperature the eggs were kept in. If they were kept somewhere in the region of thirty-two to thirty-four degrees they would have all hatched as males. Hotter or colder than this, and they would have been born female.”
“I not keep crocodiles. Bulls’ head sandwiches much better.”
David was about to ask about the sandwiches, but Kate assured him that he did not want to know. He decided it was time to move on. “Look, I know a couple of entrances to the underground chambers, we are in one now. The other one has been well excavated so we will not find what you want there. I have never felt confident enough to go deep into this one on my own. Far too many shafts, so you will need to be careful. What we come across from this point is as new to me as it is to you. I seriously doubt we will find what you are looking for, but I really hope that we do, as this is the only place in Egypt where these scales were kept.”
“Do we have to worry about running into any live crocodiles?” asked Emmy as they stood and checked their torches.
“I don’t think so.”
“That reply did not fill me with confidence.”
“Well, perhaps this reply will. We are in the middle of an extremely dry desert with the Nile over thirty kilometres to the east of us, and Lake Moeris, I cannot remember its modern name, well over thirty kilometres away to the northwest. As Nile crocodiles only live in close proximity to water, we are quite safe.”
If Kate had not had her own worries about coming face to face with a fully-grown crocodile, she would have told Emmy to shut up.
“Why do we always end up walking through dark, cobweb infested, ancient tunnels?” said Alex, as he attempted to rid himself of a particularly sticky cobweb.
“We don’t,” replied Kate, “sometimes they are not dark, as we have flaming torches.”
“Funny, very funny, but if there are cobwebs of this size then I would hate to see the spider that made it. It must be the size of a dinner plate.”
Kate grabbed onto her father’s arm. He proceeded to assure her that
as there was no water here, there would be no life here.
Alex bent down to brush a cobweb from his trousers. It was then that he froze. Minute spots of light were coming up from between the joins in the flagstones. It was almost nothing, and he would not have been aware of it, had he not bent down, but there was light where there should have been no light. “We are not alone!”
Chapter 34
-
We Are Not Alone
“Sorry, what did you say, Alex?” asked Emmy.
“We are not alone.” It came out a little louder this time.
“Not funny, Alex,” Kate said with plenty of attitude. “If you want to scare us, you–”
“Quiet!”
“Who the hell are you to tell–?”
“Shut up. Everybody, turn your torches off, now!”
In the darkness pinpricks of light appeared between every flagstone. The realisation that Alex was indeed correct, they were not alone, coincided with the floor beneath their feet dropping away to form a slide. Nobody was quiet now, not even Alex, whose arrival at the floor below was no less disastrous for his ego than when he had left the ARM.
Cairo had been able to remain standing as he slid, almost surf-like, down the slope. The combination of sand and flat bottomed flip-flops certainly gave him an advantage. He was off and running just as soon as he reached the floor below. Kate, out of blind panic, ran after him. Initially a soldier had grabbed at her, but the anger she had built up inside, mostly at Alex telling her to shut up, was translated into a hefty kick to the groin. Emmy and David were each restrained by two soldiers.
Alex lay crumpled on the floor with his legs up in the air against the far wall. This had not been a good day for him, and there appeared to be no prospect of it getting any better. As soldiers pulled him to his feet, through blurred vision he tried to assess what was happening. Ahead of him, though almost on the far side of the room, he saw a group of soldiers, ancient soldiers, about fifteen in total. Emmy and David were standing with their backs to the wall on his right, about half way between him and the main group of soldiers. He was being restrained just as they were. Six soldiers, who from their look and build were not to be messed with, each securely held onto an arm.
He had not seen Cairo or Kate run off, but he could see that they were not in the room. He could also see that one soldier was in pain. “I hope they got away,” he thought. The room, which showed all the signs of being a natural chamber, certainly had enough exits. The flickering of the flaming torches was not helping Alex to focus in his slightly concussed state, however, when the main group of soldiers split into two, he saw all too well. There, before him, was not only Nefertiti, but also the warlock.
“But you are in Amarna,” said David, who immediately realised the stupidity of his statement.
“Obviously, you are mistaken,” said the warlock through a malevolent grin, “just as you are mistaken in thinking that you can defeat me.”
“We do not want to defeat you. All we want to do is to live our lives in peace.” David sounded very nervous.
“Well, I for one want to defeat you,” thought Alex, “as a leopard cannot change its spots.” He also needed to avenge himself for the warlock’s murder of his parents, as well as those of Emmy.
“I let you live in peace, David, and how do you repay me? You come here with those children in a ridiculous attempt to remove me, yes me, the warlock of warlocks from the afterlife.” The strangely weak asexual voice of the warlock made it difficult to take what he was saying seriously, though his actions were all too serious. “My leniency towards you has been proven to be misplaced. I should have killed you when I killed the others. For the life of me I do not know why I spared you. I suppose it is because I do not enjoy killing, however deaths are unavoidable, necessary even, if I am to enjoy the power I deserve, the power that should have been mine by right. The pharaohs worked against me, they plotted against me because they knew the people of Egypt loved me more than them.”
“It is not for you to decide who lives and who dies. My parents did not deserve to die,” shouted Alex, who had recognised definite signs of paranoia in the warlock’s speech.
Kate and Cairo were pleased to hear Alex’s shouts, as it drew their attention to the fact that they were now heading at speed back to where they had just escaped from. Within the warren of tunnels they had become so disorientated that they had no idea where they had been heading. They stopped as they listened to what was being said, though they were at a loss as to why no soldier had attempted to follow them. Kate’s kick had connected with force, but that was no excuse.
“You are quite wrong there, they all deserved to die. I cannot let anyone live who works against me.” The warlock pointed towards David and Emmy, raising his voice slightly as he gave his order, “Hurt them.”
The soldiers did indeed hurt them, though they stopped as Nefertiti approached. “Hold the girl up straight,” she ordered in a far deeper and much more intimidating voice than that of the warlock. Emmy had tears running down her cheeks as Nefertiti looked at her with detest. “You came into my bedroom, you laughed as you tied me up, me, Nefertiti. It was all a silly girly game to you, wasn’t it? But did you really believe I could let your actions go unpunished?”
David, seeing the anger building up in the eyes of Nefertiti, spoke in defence of Emmy. “She was only doing what I ordered her to do.”
“Idiot man, be quiet.” She hit David so hard. It was a real hit with a clenched fist, for as beautiful as she looked, she packed a man-like punch. David was obviously seeing stars, and even from where Alex was standing, he could see that a swelling would soon close David’s eye.
“So, according to him you were only doing what he ordered you to do. Men make me sick, and do you know what makes me even sicker?” Emmy knew that she was not looking for an answer, so she said nothing as Nefertiti pulled a broken fingernail from the palm of her hand, so tightly had it been clenched. “That is just wonderful, because of him I now have a broken nail and blood pouring from my hand.”
“You did not have to hit him, it was your choice,” said Emmy. The next second her face spun and she was bleeding from right cheek to left. The jagged edge of the broken fingernail had ripped at her skin as Nefertiti’s open hand made forceful contact. A few seconds later blood poured freely from her nose.
“I may not have had to hit him, but I had to hit you, and there is more where that came from. I am far from finished with you.” She turned, taking the few paces back to the warlock.
It was not lost on Alex that they had left him unharmed. It was also not lost on him that the warlock had so far not used any magic. Despite being appalled at how David and Emmy had been treated, he took this as a good sign.
“Let the boy go,” said the warlock, though as he did, he motioned to the soldiers who were holding David and Emmy. They both screamed.
“Leave them alone, I will not try and escape,” shouted Alex.
“Clever boy, I am glad you can see reason, but I must warn you, I do not take kindly to being shouted at.”
Alex heard what the warlock said, but he had no intention of playing his game. He walked purposely over to Emmy, taking out a clean handkerchief as he did. After unfolding it, he proceeded to wipe the blood from her face. She was still bleeding far too much for Alex to be able to really make any impact, but he was able to whisper that somehow he would get her out of here.
He turned and walked over to the warlock. This really was the time to keep friends close and enemies even closer. He had been told by Gadeem that should he ever find himself up against the warlock, he should either be a long, long way away or right up close. Both made it difficult for him to use magic. Too far away, and there was little accuracy in where the magic would end up or who or what it would hit. Too close, and the warlock may well become a victim of his own spell. Alex doubted that the warlock had any magic on him which he was willing to use, but he was not prepared to take any chances.
“So, what
do you want from me?” asked Alex with an almost Kate type attitude, as he looked down on the warlock.
With some flair, the warlock removed his full-length cloak, clasped his hands behind his back and paced back and forth. Alex could not take his eyes off the faux general’s uniform. There was far too much ornamentation in gold alone, though there was even more in silver. Alex knew from his father that silver was far more expensive than gold in ancient Egypt. There were also inlays of lapis lazuli as well as red and yellow gems. “I am looking at a psychopathic peacock with a Napoleon complex,” he thought.
“What I want from you is for you to tell me what Ramses is planning, and more to the point, what Gadeem is up to with all those ingredients you and your idiot friends have been searching for.”
“My friends are not idiots!”
“No need to get annoyed. Bad choice of words on my part, but as they are not on the winning side, they cannot be very clever now, can they?”
“We have right on our side.”
“Oh, you do have so much to learn. Being right, as you put it, is quite different to being on the winning side.” The warlock stopped pacing so that he could look directly at Alex. “Graveyards are full of people who had right on their side. I prefer to have might on my side, which is why the combined armies of Ay and Merenptah will be arriving here just about now.”
“What?”
“I see that surprised you … good, as now I know it will surprise Ramses. Now, do tell me what Gadeem is up to.”
“In one word … NO!”
“You also are not as bright as I hoped you would be, because that was four words.”
Luxor Lost and Found Page 27