The Cult of Osiris

by Andy McDermott

  And the chamber's occupants were also affected. 'Jesus!' Nina gasped, a nauseating sensation rising in her chest cavity. Her own organs were vibrating in sympathy with the booming bass note. She tried to lift the fallen gate, but it refused to budge.

  Eddie had no more luck with the other gate. He turned to the pipes. Block it! Shove something in it!

  Nina could barely hear him over the thunderous din, but got the gist. She shrugged off her pack and tipped out its contents, balling up the nylon. Macy followed suit. Eddie was already at the pipe, face screwed up in discomfort as he jammed his jacket and his own empty pack into the slot. The note's pitch changed slightly, the escaping air screeching shrilly as its exit was obstructed.

  The women staggered across the trembling floor to him. He grabbed their balled-up packs and stuffed them into the gap. Nina dropped her flashlight and clapped both hands over her ears, but it made no difference; the sound was inside her, trying to shake her apart from within.

  It was doing the same thing to the pyramid. Pieces of masonry fell down the shaft and shattered on the stone floor - small lumps at first, but the cracks spreading across the walls warned that there would be larger ones coming.

  Unable to shield his ears, Eddie was finding the noise agonising - but it eased slightly as he twisted the makeshift bungs to block the gaps. Pipe organs were closed at the top, air only able to escape through the slot. If he could completely seal it. . .

  The vibration began to die down. All he had to do was hold everything in place and endure the noise for as long as it took for the machine to run out of air—

  A clanging shudder ran up the length of the pipe as the pressure rose - then rippled back down it. A blast of compressed air hit the mouth like a sledgehammer blow, Bring the blockage out of the slot and bowling Eddie to the floor. With a ground-shaking whump like the clearing of the world's mightiest throat, the terrifying bass note resumed - at full volume. Plaster splintered from the walls, even the paving cracking.

  The noise was so overpowering that Nina could barely think. The beam of her dropped flashlight illuminated the bottom of the pipes. Blocking the mouth had failed, but there had to be another way . . .

  Something Eddie had said forced its way through the disorientation.

  Two pipes, a piston in one, forcing the air ahead of it as it dropped. The air itself acted as a cushion slowing its fall - there was only one relatively small hole through which it could escape, and the hourglass-shaped pinch at the bottom of the organ pipe restricted it further.

  She knew what to do.

  She grabbed a mallet from Eddie's discarded gear. With her ears exposed, the sound became unbearable - she screamed, but couldn't even hear it. A piece of falling stone hit her arm. More debris crashed around her, a crack leaping up the wall—

  She swung the mallet.

  It hit the pinch, tearing the metal. A piercing shriek escaped from the rent. Nina hit it again, and again - and the pipe ripped apart.

  Air blasted out, the awful bass note dropping in volume. She whacked the pipe again, trying to close off the section producing the sound. The metal bent across the torn hole.

  The note faded.

  Head ringing, Nina stepped back. The escaping rush of air was still roaring like ajet engine - and there was another sound, a metallic clung-clung-clung rapidly getting louder—

  Eddie threw her backwards as the bottom of the other pipe blew apart, something inside it hitting the ground so hard that it smashed a crater into the flagstones. The piston. With air now freely able to escape from the pipe, there had been nothing to slow it, and it had plunged downwards as fast as gravity could take it.

  A last few fragments from high above hit the floor, then the rain of debris stopped. The quiet and stillness was almost shocking. Nina brushed dust from her face, then looked at Eddie. His mouth moved silently.

  Oh, God, she was deaf—

  Just kidding,' he said, grinning.

  She hit him. 'You son of a bitch!

  Hey, we're okay. I think.' Concern crossed his face as he clicked his fingers beside one ear. Shit, that doesn't sound right.

  You're surprised, after that?' She retrieved her flashlight, finding Macy. Are you okay?'

  Macy slowly took her hands from her ears. Jeez. My mom and dad were right - you can play music too loud.

  Nina helped Eddie up. Let's try those gates.'

  He went to the exit and strained to lift the gate. It was heavy, but it moved. When they had recovered their gear, he hauled the gate up high enough for Nina and Macy to get underneath, then they supported it as he slid through. He looked back at the wreckage of the trap. Five down, two to go.'

  Yeah, but the last two sound really nasty,' Macy pointed out. 'The Hewer-in-Pieces and the Cutter-off of Heads? Not good.'

  We can beat them/ said Nina, oddly buoyed by their survival. And then . . . we'll meet Osiris.' They set off down the next passage.

  Over two hundred feet above, Osir led his expedition to the Lady of Tremblings. Dust drifted through the room, stirred up by the sound from the massive pipe. T think we've found where that noise came from,' he said, directing a powerful torch beam across the shaft.

  The rest of his group followed him on to the ledge. Although there were several men in military-style uniforms, wearing equipment webbing and carrying weapons, they were not soldiers: Khaleel, though accompanying Osir out of curiosity, had chosen to leave his men aboard the hovercraft. The troopers were members of the Osirian Temple, Shaban's personal security force.

  Shaban gazed at the long drop below. Some sort of trap. Wilde and Chase, and the girl -they must have triggered it.' He smirked malevolently. Tin in two minds, brother. It would be amusing if they died setting off a trap that we then walked through safely, but I'm also hoping they survive - so I can kill them myself.'

  All that matters is that they can't get out,' said Osir. He turned to Berkeley. What do you make of this room?'

  The hieroglyphs in the entrance chamber definitely suggested that each arit is booby-trapped.' Berkeley pointed at one of the large cogwheels. 'This would be the Lady of Tremblings, at my guess. Wilde and the others must have activated it when they crossed - and survived.'

  They didn't fall?' asked Hamdi.

  That noise? I think it's safe to assume that was the Goddess of the Loud Voice, which is the fifth srit. They got that far, at least.'

  Which means they've cleared the way for us,' said Osir. He stepped on to the bridge.

  Are - are you sure it is safe?' said Hamdi nervously.

  Osir took another step. The bridge stood firm. 'Either the trap has been sprung, or it's broken.'

  Lead on, Khalid,' said Shaban as his brother negotiated the crossing. Once he reached the other ledge, he signalled the others to follow.

  The cogwheel creaked, the stone jamming it shifting slightly, but nobody noticed.

  Another set of columns marked the sixth arit

  Okay,' Nina said, pausing outside. 'Hewer-in-Pieces in Blood, huh? I think we'll need more than a few Band-Aids if this goes badly, so let's figure out how to make it not go badly.'

  She and Eddie directed their lights through the opening. The level passage ahead was decorated with the now-familiar disapproving Egyptian gods and grim warnings of the fate awaiting intruders . . . but there was also something new.

  Something ominous. Set into the walls were numerous horizontal slots, lined top and bottom with rust-red plates of iron.

  Eddie aimed his torch into the nearest slot. There was something within, another long piece of metal on a hinge at one end . . . but this was considerably thinner along its edge. Okay,' he said. Blades inside the holes. I get it. We go down the tunnel and they spring out and chop us into chunks/

  They're kinda rusty,' said Macy. Maybe they won't work.'

  You want to bet your life on that?' Nina asked. Each slot was almost as long as the passage was wide, leaving no room to escape the blades by pressing against the opposite wall - though the sh
eer number of slots on both sides made finding arty kind of hiding place almost inconceivable. 'How the hell are you supposed to get through?

  Eddie took out the mallet, crouching with his arm outstretched to tap the floor just past the columns. Nina winced in fearful anticipation of a blade's slicing out from the wall, but nothing happened. He edged closer and tried again, still with no result.

  Trigger's probably somewhere further along,' he said, standing. 'So you're right in the middle when it goes off.' The far wall was a good forty feet away - and even then it only marked a corner rather than the end, the tunnel continuing to one side.

  There's got to be some way through without setting it off,' said Nina.

  Eddie hefted the mallet. Let me try something.' He tossed it through the columns to land a few feet inside the entrance. The blades remained in place. 'Okay, so that far's safe, at least. Probably.' He stepped forward to retrieve it.

  Don't say "probably" and then walk right into it!' Nina yelled as he returned with the heavy hammer. And what are you planning to do, throw it a foot farther along each time? There's no way to guarantee you'll hit the trigger - and unless you've got some mad boomerang skills I don't know about, you can't get it round that corner either.'

  Okay, so what do you suggest?' he demanded. 'We can't just walk into the bloody thing and think light thoughts so we don't set it off.'

  We don't walk,' said Macy, looking more closely at the hieroglyphs. T think we're supposed to run. This text here's another warning that horrible death awaits, yadda yadda, but it finishes with something like "hurry to Osiris". Or "hasten ", maybe. "Hasten to Osiris." '

  They left a clue?' Nina said, surprised. None of the other arits had them.

  It's only a few extra characters.' Macy pointed them out at the bottom of a block of text. Everything else is the same as we've been seeing all the way down. Easy to miss. There might have been others, but we just didn't notice them.'

  So we're meant to peg it down the corridor, then?' Eddie said, illuminating the passage again. 'Bit of a risk - we don't know what's round that corner.

  The Cutter-off of Heads, probably.

  Yeah, that's reassuring/ He returned the mallet to his pack, steeling himself. 'All right. So we have to run like an Egyptian.' He looked at Nina. Ready?'

  Let's do it,' she said.

  If I get chopped into Oxo cubes I'm going to kick your arse in the afterlife. Macy?' Macy nodded at him. Okay. Three, two, one . . . go'

  They ran across the threshold.

  The blades remained stationary.

  Nina's light swept along one side of the passage, Eddie's the other, as they ran with Macy just behind. Ten feet along, twenty, their clattering footsteps echoing. Thirty, the corner coming up fast—

  A dusty crunch as a block shifted beneath Nina's foot.

  Her heart clenched with fear - but there was still no movement from the walls.

  There was a sound behind them, though. A hollow clonking, some mechanism turning and repeatedly knocking metal against metal.

  Counting down.

  Definitely run,' Eddie gasped, slowing at the corner to let the women get ahead of him. Torch raised, he glanced back—

  Kshangl

  Ranks of rusty blades shot out from the slots at the entrance, some swinging forward and others back to dice anyone unlucky enough to be caught between them. Corrosion and time had taken their toll, some swords snapping or wrenching themselves from their hinges to clash against the opposite wall - but the result was still as lethal as its creators had intended.

  And it was getting closer.

  Shiiiiitf' Eddie burst back into a sprint after Nina and Macy as more blades sprang out one after the other, a wave of death chasing them down the tunnel. 'Runrurw un

  Nina didn't need to see what was happening to be spurred on; the rapidly approaching sound was terrifying enough. In her torch beam she saw what she at first thought was the end of the passage - before realising the ornate columns marked the entrance to the next arit.

  The Cutter-off of Heads.

  Out of the frying pan—

  The advancing blades reached the corner, rounded it, continued after the running trio without pause. Gaining.

  Nina saw something on the walls beyond the columns. More slots - but only one on each side, at about neck height.

  And they were running straight at them.

  She didn't even have time to shout a warning to Eddie and Macy - they were almost at the columns, and the iron wave was upon them—

  She swept up her arms to grab the surprised pair round their shoulders - and yanked her feet off the floor. The extra weight made Macy trip, Nina in turn dragging Eddie down as they tumbled through the next entrance - just as two large spinning discs burst from the walls ahead of them, swinging back and barely clearing their heads as they fell.

  Son of a bitchV Nina spluttered, scrambling out from under the whirling serrated blades. 'They weren't kidding about the name!'

  Eddie waited for the two discs to grind to a halt before rising and returning to the entrance, experimentally pushing one of the swords. He expected resistance, but it moved freely, if noisily, on its rusted hinge; the force of its release after six millennia had broken the mechanism. 'Least we'll be able to get back out.

  We made it,' Macy said, panting. 'We got through - that was the last trap!' She hesitated. Right?'

  If the hieroglyphics were telling the truth, then yeah,' Nina assured her. Even so, she still stood with a degree of caution. Ahead was another bend, the passage angling downwards.

  She looked round the corner. Steps led down a short distance to another set of columns.

  But these were not the kind that marked each srit. These were something altogether different.

  And magnificent.

  Oh, you've got to see this,' she said softly, barely breathing despite her recent exertion.

  Macy gasped at the sight, and even Eddie was impressed. 'Pretty flash.

  The columns were carved in the form of an Egyptian god, mirror-images facing each other. But they were not any of the figures that had watched their descent into the heart of the pyramid. This was another, a man in a tall headdress, bearing a crook in one hand and a flail in the other. His body was encased in tight bindings, like those of a mummy, but his face was exposed, skin an oxidised copper-green. Both figures were liberally adorned with gold and silver leaf.

  Osiris.

  Between the twin statues was the entrance to a dark chamber. Nina raised her flashlight. More gold and silver glinted within, treasures stacked round the walls, but her gaze was fixed on what lay at the centre of the large room: a bulky, rounded-off object, its skin pure silver.

  A sarcophagus.

  Nina slowly advanced, checking the two figures for any sign of some last, sneaky trap. There was none. They had reached their goal, the final chamber.

  We found it,' she said, looking at Eddie and Macy in wonderment. 'We found the tomb of Osiris.'

  25

  262

  They entered the chamber, a match to the Osireion in dimensions and form, torch beams flashing over the artefacts and treasures inside. They ranged from the astounding to the prosaic - gleaming statues of pure gold beside simple wooden chairs; a full-sized boat bearing a silver and gold mask of Osiris upon its prow against which had been propped bundles of spears. ]t was a find to exceed even the tomb of Tutankhamun. The famed pharaoh had been a relatively unimportant ruler of the New Kingdom, less than three and a half thousand years ago, but Osiris was a myth given flesh, a foundation stone of Egyptian civilisation dating back almost twice as far

  And they were the first to reach him

  Nina examined the sarcophagus. The lid was a larger than life representation of the man within. The sculpted silver face gazed serenely at the ceiling, kohl-lined eyes wide.

  'The craftsmanship's absolutely incredible,' she whispered. 'AH of this is.' She gestured at the objects surrounding them. T never imagined the pre-dynastic Egypt
ians were this advanced.'

  'It'sjust like Atlantis,' said Macy. 'They were really advanced for their time too, but nobody knew about them. Until you found them.'

  Nina smiled at her. 'Y'know, this is really more of a joint discovery, Macy.

  Macy beamed. 'Not bad for a C-student, huh?'

  Eddie took a closer look at a set of painted wooden figurines, symbolic representations of the servants who would attend their king in the afterlife, then eyed a cruder statuette carved from an odd purple stone before moving to the other side of the sarcophagus. 'All right, so what do we do now we've found all this?'

  'Normally I'd say photograph, catalogue, then examine,' said Nina, but this isn't exactly a normal case. First thing we need to do is secure it. We'll have to contact the Egyptian government, go to Dr Assad at the SCA.'

  'So what about this bread Osir was after?' He looked for anything resembling food. On a small wooden table was what might once have been loaves, but they had long been reduced to mouldering dust. Don't think he'll get any sarnies out of them. Is there anything else?'

  Look down.' Eddie did, seeing a recess set into the coffin's base, a pottery jar about ten inches high inside it. Canopic jars. The Egyptians used them to store the body's vital organs after they were removed during mummification. Osir thinks there'll be yeast spores in his digestive system/

  Macy saw another jar on the floor by Nina, then went to the head of the sarcophagus to find a third. There's one here, too - and there should be another down by his feet.' Eddie checked, and nodded. One for each compass point. This one's got a monkey head, a baboon - it's the god Hapi. That means it's got Osiris's lungs in it.' She was about to pick up the jar when she realised what she had just said and flinched away. 'Gross.'

  Which jars are which?' Nina asked.

  'Hapi represented the north, so . . .' She worked out the compass directions. The one on your side should be a jackal - that's Duamutef.'

  Nina shone her light on the jar, revealing that the painted cap was indeed in the long-eared shape of a jackal's head. 'Yep.'