Eve of the Pharaoh: Historical Adventure and Mystery
Page 32
The treasure hunter shook his head. “I’m in charge from now on. You’ve failed us too many times and allowed Maddie to get kidnapped. People like you are too weak to accomplish anything.”
Angry tension built inside my jaw until it burned. Lunging at him, he threw out a stiff arm and knocked me back.
“Give it to him, Paul!” Kaylin shouted. “He knows something and we’re running out of daylight. Maddie could be hurt!”
Jenkins pulled his firearm, aiming at the ground.
Reaching into the back of his jeans, Mr. Scalone yanked out a handgun of his own. Pointing its black barrel at my chest, the treasure hunter tossed his hair out of his face. “Where do we go?” he asked.
Jenkins’ barrel lifted, his sight settling on Mr. Scalone. “Give the pyramid to Gavin,” he said.
“Or what?” Mr. Scalone asked. “You’re going to shoot me?” He laughed. “Then I’ll shoot Gavin. I can wait all night, but I don’t know if Maddie can.”
Rage tore through my body like lightning. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. “Back to the colossi!” Dashing away, the others chased after me.
Mr. Scalone’s breath rasped through the dry air as I stopped before the guardians and motioned to him. With his firearm firmly in one hand, he held the glass pyramid out to the fading rays of sun. Refracting colored light sprung out in multiple directions, kissing the silhouetted features of both the north and south Amenhoteps. No message revealed itself. But this small pyramidion and its position influenced where the light fell.
“Now what, genius?” Mr. Scalone asked.
“Align the stone with the cardinal directions,” I said. “Like the pyramids.” I brought up the compass on my phone and he rotated the object. Light danced in the growing dusk. Etching on the thrones, shallow and worn with time, were highlighted under an array of blue, red, green, yellow, and purple light. Kaylin recorded the laser light show with her phone. Nothing made sense. “Don’t align the sides of the pyramid with the cardinal directions,” I shouted, realizing his mistake. “In the New Kingdom they aligned the corners of the pyramids south to north with the flow of the Nile and east to west for the rise and fall of the sun!”
Scalone pivoted his hand and light swept across the timeless monuments. Ringing stung my ears, arising from the northern statue. I stumbled back, and the sound ceased. Was that a message from the colossus? A faint image was illuminated high above on the chest of the guardian, but the lines faded quickly.
Snatching the stone from Mr. Scalone’s fingers, I bit down on the dog collar and scrambled onto the base of the northern guardian.
“Give that back,” Mr. Scalone growled, grabbing my ankle.
My hands slipped into crevices in the worn stones.
“You’ve been a pain in my ass for too long.” Yanking on my leg, he pointed his gun at my face and cocked the hammer. “Give it to me.”
“Let him go!” Jenkins yelled, cocking his own gun.
Swallowing in fear, I hung onto the monument.
Mr. Scalone’s trigger finger twitched.
“No!” Kicking out, my heel smashed the treasure hunter in the face.
Collapsing, he grabbed his nose and dropped his gun. Blood gushed from between his fingers in dark streams. He groaned.
I scaled up the blocks, my arms throbbing with adrenaline.
“Be careful,” Jenkins said, confiscating Mr. Scalone’s gun and holding him at gunpoint.
I’d rock climbed in a gym but never outside. Thankfully, the crumbling blocks offered plenty of holds. Scaling nearly forty feet, I reached the top of a titanic knee. My companions cheered from below … so far down. The ground swirled as the wind whipped at my clothing with a shrill gale. My fedora took flight and my head wobbled, as if I’d faint. Stumbling, I nearly toppled several stories to the rocks below. But I clung to the knee of Amenhotep with a death grip. Dripping cold sweat, I struggled onto the lap of the colossus and closed my eyes.
The sunlight! Holding the prism pyramid in front of the statue’s body to capture the last rays, I aligned the corners. Colors twisted and dazzled, but no hieroglyphs revealed themselves.
Damn it! “Maddie!” I screamed, almost throwing the stone into the desert twilight as I pounded Amenhotep’s chest. But light refracted by an Egyptian pyramid, made up of four symmetric triangles and a square base, would be affected by the sun’s position. Maybe I could come back tomorrow and sit here all day, watching as the sun climbed and then fell … or maybe the peak of the stone was supposed to face the solar disc. Like the benben stone, the first mound of earth arising from the waters of chaos, and how it beckoned the Aten—the supposed fiery phoenix who had landed on the pyramid and cried out, marking the beginning of time.
Keeping the corners aligned, I tipped the pyramid so its apex faced the Aten. The last strands of sunlight landed upon the stone. A color spectrum refracted back onto the body of the colossus. A faint image glistened in dark green upon the center of its chest. An inverted representation of a sphere between two mountains. The primeval cry of the granite—or the phoenix—rang again, drowning out my shouts of elation. The crest of the sun sank below the horizon, blanketing the vast desert and river in purple and orange twilight. Ringing vibrated my ears. The statue quaked. I slipped …
Present Day
SLAMMING MY LAPTOP CLOSED with a thud left only a dim lamp to illuminate the hotel room. I’d been searching for sounds from ancient Egypt that could correspond to the ringing groan of Amenhotep. No luck. “I still know where we need to go,” I said.
The solace of achievement in the face of almost giving up again filled my mind, body, and soul. Squeezing my Egyptian-style bracelet, I celebrated with my dad’s memory. But my thoughts returned to Maddie. It was my fault she’d been abducted. Where was she? I had wanted to leave and start searching for her tonight, but we couldn’t get transportation until morning. If she was dead then I’d already lost everything dear to me. I shuddered, the cold of the Devouring Monster’s bite puncturing my own heart.
Kaylin stood beside me with a thin, raised eyebrow. “I believe we’ll find Maddie and she’ll be just fine.”
A knock sounded at the door. Mr. Scalone peeked in. Black circles surrounded both of his eyes, his nose bent. Pressing an ice pack to his cheek, he said, “Kaylin, can I get you anything to eat or drink before bed?”
“No, thanks,” she replied with a smirk.
Glancing at me with cloudy eyes, his hand trembled. He ducked back out.
Did rage or vengeance lurk under his demeanor? Earlier, we’d discussed what to do with Mr. Scalone for threatening me with a gun, but decided for Maddie’s sake it was best to keep him around and utilize his resources. “Jenkins still has Mr. Scalone’s gun, right?” I asked.
Kaylin shrugged. “I don’t think he’d give it back.”
Smiling, the joy of triumph washed over me. Usurping the arrogant bully’s power meant at least something had been made right.
Tender hands felt their way up my shoulders and down inside my shirt. I tensed. Kaylin wouldn’t need to manipulate me now. What did she want, then? Me? I loved Maddie, but she even admitted she hadn’t been able to reciprocate the emotion with the real me … could Maddie turn out like Nefertiti? Should I give Kaylin a chance? No, at least not until Maddie was back safe and sound.
Breathing onto my neck, Kaylin leaned over, her floral scent strong on my heightened senses. “Where is the Hall, Gavin?” she asked.
My body tingled with excitement, but I clenched my jaw. “One of two places,” I said, fighting the urge to turn and kiss her. I shrugged away. “We’ll continue along the path and find the men who took Maddie … or they’ll find us.”
“And what are these places?” she cooed, running her tongue across her upper teeth.
There was a tomb nearby where the images inside transformed in style virtually overnight, from the beginning of Akhenaten’s Amarna period. I’d look there before heading out to the site of his capital, el-Amarna—the forbidd
en city of the rising Aten.
“You’re, like, so hot right now,” Kaylin whispered, pressing her lips to my neck and tearing my attention from the upside-down hieroglyph of the sunrise between two mountains. “Let’s take a break.” Shoving me back onto the mattress, she climbed on top of me …
About the Author
R.M. SCHULTZ has been enthralled with ancient Egypt and its lost secrets for decades. This is his first book series. He lives with his wife and daughter in the Pacific Northwest.
Note from the Author:
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