The room beyond was huge. We had to be underground because a room of these dimensions wouldn’t have fitted inside the pyramidal structure above ground.
The room was oblong in shape and had been fashioned so that one half was about five feet higher than the other. The lower floor was littered with statues, canopic jars, furniture, and sarcophagi. The upper floor was bare but on the wall there was what looked like a lens with dark red mist swirling behind it. The lens was surrounded by a border of gold that had been etched with hieroglyphs like the door I’d just passed through but in a much larger scale.
“That’s the prison,” Meyer said. “Rekhmire is trapped behind it.”
“And here’s all the treasure you could want,” I said, indicating the chaotic arrangement of items in the lower floor.
I turned to Mallory. “Tia’s mummy must be in one of the sarcophagi. Do you know which one?”
She shook her head. “I have no idea but she might know.”
“Okay, can you ask her or whatever it is you do?”
She nodded. “I’ll have to let her out.”
I nodded. She dropped the upper part of her body forward. Her hair covered her face.
The sound of clattering armor and weapons came from the stairs we’d just descended. Leon turned in that direction. “Shit, we’ve got company.”
“Can you hold them off?” I asked him.
He grinned. “Of course. Michael, let’s go.” They both disappeared through the gold-edged door and up the stairs.
I turned my attention back to Mallory. She was breathing hard, her ribcage expanding and contracting rapidly. She lifted her face and I saw the hieroglyphs beneath her skin and the black eyes.
“It is here,” she said, her voice sounding like a needle scratching over parchment. “My body. It is here.’
I indicated the sarcophagi. “Can you find it among all of this?”
She nodded and stepped forward, trailing her hieroglyph-covered hand over the sarcophagi as she passed them. I followed closely.
“Somewhere here,” she whispered. “This way.” She led me between the piles of riches and artifacts, stopping to touch each sarcophagus. Her mummy seemed to have been squirreled away somewhere. We’d already walked the length of a football field and there were plenty of areas we hadn’t explored yet.
“Over here,” she said, increasing her pace. She went over to a sarcophagus that was leaning upright against the wall. The box was decorated with gold and paints to represent a beautiful woman. “This,” she said, pointing at it and looking at me. “This is my body.”
She was holding the Box of Midnight, clutching it to her chest. “Mallory must replace the heart.” Her head fell forward.
While she was bringing Mallory back, I removed the sarcophagus’s lid and set it aside. Inside, Tia’s mummified body was wrapped in linen.
“Alec, it’s time,” Mallory said from behind me.
I stepped aside. She reached for the linen swaddling that covered the mummy’s chest and tore at it, revealing the dead, blackened skin beneath. Mallory pulled at the linen some more, uncovering a hole in the chest cavity. This was where Tia’s heart had been before Rekhmire had ripped it out. Now, we were going to reverse that wicked deed.
Mallory opened the box and took out the blackened, shriveled heart. Holding it in her right hand, she placed it back inside the mummified body. This was what Felicity had seen in an ancient image and had realized was the way to lift the curse. I wished she could have been here to see this. It wouldn’t have been possible without her.
“Nothing’s happening,” Mallory said. Then her eyes opened wide and she gasped. “The heart just beat in my hand.”
“It’s working,” I said.
She smiled and tears sprang from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks as she let out a laugh. “I can feel the heart reconnecting to Tia.” She removed her hand and stepped back.
We both watched as the shriveled form beneath the linen filled out, stretching the fabric. The exposed hole in the chest began to close and the skin that had been dead only moments before now became living tissue.
Tia stepped out of the sarcophagus and ripped the linen coverings from her body. Her naked body was covered with tattooed hieroglyph that were probably an ancient version of my own magical tattoos.
“We did it,” Mallory said. “We actually did it.”
Tia nodded and smiled at her. “The curse is lifted, Mallory.” Her voice didn’t sound like a papyrus scratch anymore; now, it was rich and melodic.
She turned in the direction we’d come and pointed at the raised part of the floor where Rekhmire’s prison was located. Meyer and Chance were up there, reading the hieroglyphs on the gold rim of the lens. They were so far away, it was difficult to know exactly what they were doing.
Tia looked at me and said, “They are breaking the seal. They are releasing Rekhmire.”
21
Felicity woke up disorientated, wondering where she was. It took her a couple of minutes to realize she wasn’t in Maine anymore and that the bedroom she was looking at was her new bedroom in Manchester.
Sunlight was streaming in through the curtains. She must have overslept. The clock on the bedside table told her that she had indeed overslept. It was almost lunchtime.
She slid out of bed and went downstairs to the kitchen. Maybe a cup of tea would wake her up. She put the kettle on and sat at the kitchen table while she waited for it to boil. Her phone was on the table so she picked it up and checked it out of habit. She had three missed calls from Jessica Baker.
She decided to ring Jessica back after she’d had a cup of tea. She had plenty to tell her.
While she was pouring the boiled water into a teapot, the phone rang. It was Jessica again. Felicity answered it.
“You did it,” Jessica said before Felicity even had a chance to say hello. “I can’t believe it. You’ve seen the News, right?”
“No,” Felicity said. “What’s happened?”
“Put BBC News on right now.”
She went into the living room, found the remote and turned the TV on. After some wrangling with the remote, she found BBC News.
Behind the female news presenter was an inset image showing a white police tent that had been set up on the canal bank. Uniformed officers and forensic scientists were going about their work. Felicity recognized the location; she’d been there last night.
“…was arrested this morning after an anonymous tip led police to the location by the canal in Manchester,” the presenter was saying. “The police, who had no leads up to this point found evidence that this was the place where Linda Dean was murdered. A CCTV camera at a nearby car park had captured an image of the killer’s car. This led to the arrest of Mr Dugan. Police are also questioning him regarding three other similar murders in the area.”
“Did my mother show you that place?” Jessica asked. “Did you call the police?”
“Yes,” Felicity said.
“I knew it. She came to me last night while I was in bed. But she wasn’t distraught or pointing or anything like that. She just sat on the bed and stroked my hair until I fell asleep. I think she was saying goodbye.”
“She probably was,” Felicity said.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Jessica said. “Make sure you send me an invoice for your services.”
“There won’t be any invoice,” Felicity told her. “I’m just glad I could help.”
“Thank you again. I have to go, there are reporters on our lawn and Rob’s getting mad with them.”
“Okay, bye, Jessica.” She hung up and decided that she’d place some flowers on Linda Dean’s grave today. It only seemed right since Linda had helped her solve her first and only case. After she’d done that, she’d ring Nigel Lomas and tell him where to stick his fake P.I. job. If he wanted bait to attract a “target” he was going to have to get someone else to do it.
She showered, dressed in warm clothes, and drove to a local florist where she bought a s
pray of pink peonies. She also bought a small rose that she intended to give to Charlie Sutherland to thank him for his help. He seemed to like flowers and the rose—which was a lovely vibrant yellow—would look nice wherever he chose to plant it.
She got to the cemetery in the early afternoon. The sun was bright in the sky but the November chill was still in the air and she made sure to don her hat and gloves before going through the open gates. The cemetery office was open today and through the glass in the door, she could see two female employees hard at work.
As she followed the gravel path among the headstones, she looked for Charlie but couldn’t see him. It would be just her luck to buy him a present on his day off. She went to Linda Dean’s grave and placed the peonies in a plastic vase that was standing by the headstone. “I hope you find peace now,” she said, touching the headstone gently.
She looked around for Charlie again but it was obvious that he wasn’t here today. Perhaps she’d have to come back tomorrow. On her way out, with the yellow rose still in her hand, she decided to ask in the office when Charlie would be back. They’d probably know his shifts.
She pushed through the door and was greeted with friendly smiles from the two ladies in the office. “Hello, how can I help you?” one of them asked.
“I was just wondering if you know when Charlie Sutherland will be back on duty.”
The woman frowned. “Charlie Sutherland? I haven’t heard that name in a while, have you, Karen?”
“No,” Karen said from her desk.
“I don’t understand,” Felicity said. “What do you mean?”
“Charlie used to work here but it was well before our time,” Karen said. “We hear his name every now and then though when people ask about him. They think they’ve seen him. Some even think they’ve spoken to him. He’s one of our local ghosts if you believe in that sort of thing.” She chuckled.
“Oh,” Felicity said, taken aback. She wasn’t sure what to say or do. “I bought this rose for him.”
“Aah, that’s nice,” the woman who’d first spoken to her said. “Well you can give it to him. His grave is at the back of the cemetery.” She produced a map of the plots and pointed out where Felicity was to go.
Felicity barely understood what she was being told. Her mind was racing. Charlie was a ghost. Did Jessica know that it was a ghost she’d spoken to after her father’s death? That a ghost had helped her?
If not, Felicity saw no reason to enlighten her. She thanked the office staff and went back outside into the cold sunlight. She walked the path again, this time all the way to the rear of the cemetery. A short trek over the grass brought her to an overgrown grave whose headstone bore the name Charlie Sutherland. He’d died in 1942. Felicity checked the surrounding stones but couldn’t see any other Sutherlands. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t moved on; he had no one waiting for him on the other side. So he’d chosen to stay here and help people who were grieving.
Using her hand, she dug a small hole in the grave and planted the yellow rose in it. She stood up and smiled at her memory of the friendly old man who’d spoken to her and even opened the cemetery gates for her. “Thank you, Charlie,” she said.
She walked back along the path to the gates and turned to take one last look at the place before she left.
Standing by his grave at the back of the cemetery, she saw Charlie. He was standing there watching her. When he realized she’d noticed him, he touched the brim of his tweed cap and grinned
Felicity waved to him and left.
22
“We have to stop them!” I shouted, running back between the rows of treasure to the magical prison.
Mallory joined me. Together, we sprinted toward Meyer and Chance.
Until we both became frozen mid-stride. All of my muscles had become like blocks of granite. Even though I only had one foot on the ground, I didn’t fall over because I was being suspended in the air by some sort of magic. Mallory was in the same position, frozen in a running position and hanging in the air by some unseen force.
“I cannot let you stop them,” Tia said, walking between us. “I must have my revenge on Rekhmire. I cannot do that while is locked away behind a magical door like a coward.”
I tried to speak, to plead with her to stop Meyer and Chance, but my mouth was as immobile as the rest of my body.
“Once they have opened the prison, I will kill them if you wish,” Tia said. “But at the moment, they are of more use to me alive than dead.”
I couldn’t let them release Rekhmire. I had to get out of this binding spell. My mind raced for a solution but nothing presented itself.
Tia walked away from us and stepped up onto the raised floor by the prison. The dark red smoke behind the lens swirled in a clockwise circle, first slowly and then faster while Meyer and Chance spoke strange words and drew mystical patterns in the air.
Tia simply watched them, waiting for her arch enemy to emerge from the red smoke.
I had to do something. A magic circle materialized in my thoughts. This had happened to me before and it usually meant I was able to tap into the enchantment that had been engraved on my bones. In the past, I’d been able to cast an energy ball, raise a magical shield, and heal. The magic circles for those abilities had been blue, green, and red respectively.
The circle that presented itself to me now was black. It was also the most complex of the circles I’d seen, made up of Enochian letters, Egyptian hieroglyphs, runes, a pentagram and a unicursal hexagram combined, along with other symbols I didn’t recognize.
I knew that if I concentrated on the symbol, some sort of power would be raised. I also knew that it would knock seven kinds of hell out of me afterward. I’d collapse from exhaustion and probably black out. Could I risk that here in Rekhmire’s lair?
Did I have a choice?
I concentrated on the black symbol.
As soon as I directed my attention to the symbol, I felt the spell that was holding me begin to weaken. Limited movement came back to my limbs and my bodyweight brought me closer to the ground as the unseen force that suspended me in the air began to fail.
I concentrated harder on the symbol.
Tia’s spell broke. Mallory and I fell to the floor. As I got up I noticed that our swords, which should be glowing blue because they were enchanted, had lost their magic. Their glow was gone, the blades now simple steel.
“What was that?” Mallory asked, getting to her feet.
“I don’t know. Some kind of anti-magic. We can worry about it later. Right now, we have to make sure Rekhmire stays in his prison.”
We ran forward. Tia saw us and her brow creased with confusion. She raised her hands, ready to cast another spell, but the red smoke suddenly spilled out from the lens, obscuring everything in the room.
“We’re too late,” Mallory said.
A figure stepped from the prison. He was at least seven feet tall, wrapped in linen, the same as the bindings that had been around Tia’s mummy. Rekhmire’s linen ended at the neck, though, exposing his face. It was virtually a skull with thin skin stretched over it like parchment. From within the deep eye sockets stared two yellow eyes with red irises. The only adornment he wore was a scarab beetle made of blue stone. It hung around his neck on a leather cord.
“Rekhmire!” Tia shouted. “You will pay for what you did to me!” She leapt at him, hands glowing with a luminescent green light.
He raised his own hands to ward her off. His glowed dark red, the same as the smoke that had come out of the lens and was now dissipating.
They tussled. Meyer and Chance stepped out of the way.
“Lord Rekhmire,” Meyer said, “Don’t waste you power on this woman.”
Still fighting Tia, Rekhmire looked at Meyer and said, “Don’t tell me what to do.” He raised one hand and shot a red bolt at Meyer. The Cabal member went crashing into the pile of antiquities. Judging by the force that had pushed him and the distance he’d traveled, I doubted he was still alive.
Seeing what had happened to his partner, Chance hunkered down into a child’s pose and kept his mouth shut.
The blue glow on our swords was slowly returning. They flickered like faulty light bulbs before finally reaching full illumination. So the anti-magic blast had a limited lifespan. Good to know. I didn’t want to inadvertently deactivate all my enchanted weapons.
Returning his attention to the sorceress, Rekhmire used one hand to grab her neck and lift her off her feet. He brought back his other hand as if he were about to plunge it into her stomach. His fist glowed with crimson power that rose from it like oily smoke.
“I see you have your heart back,” he sneered. “I’ll just have to rip it out of you again.”
Suddenly, Mallory was leaping through the air. I hadn’t even noticed her leave my side. She brought her sword down in an overhead chop. It sliced through the arm that was holding Tia.
Both the sorceress and the severed arm fell to the floor.
Rekhmire howled and used his good hand to hold the stump that now protruded from his left shoulder. For a moment, he was distracted by his pain. This was our only chance to get out of here alive.
I rushed forward and grabbed Tia, hefting her over my shoulder and making for the gold-edged door. Mallory stayed close behind me. “Go ahead,” I told her. “Tell Leon and Michael we have to get out of here now. They need to clear a path to the exit.”
She ran ahead up the stairs.
With the weight of Tia on my shoulder, I had a long climb ahead.
Doug Chance appeared behind me. “You were going to leave me!” he moaned.
“Yeah, I was,” I told him truthfully. “You didn’t come here to loot the temple; you came to release Rekhmire. Anything that happens after that is on you.”
“We were going to make a pact with him,” he said. “Have him join our cause. With him at the head of the Midnight Cabal, we’d be unstoppable. I hadn’t counted on that stupid bitch ruining everything.”
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