by Dawn Carter
Excited, all they could talk about as they drove back to Cairo were the possibilities of what they had discovered, but when the time came to investigate the location on the map, her team had suddenly come down with food poisoning. Claire thought it was a strange coincidence, and wondered if someone was trying to sabotage her success by causing her team to become sick. She couldn’t risk any more delays, so she and her assistant, Sophia, had packed up their gear and prayed they could set a claim. While wiping the sweat from her face with a handkerchief, she surveyed the golden landscape and sighed.
“This is screwed.” Claire grumbled as she reached into the Jeep and retrieved several torches, handing one to her apprentice. Dressed in shorts, a tank top and hiking boots, her skin still glistened with sweat in the heat, but no matter how much the weather aggravated her search, it just made Claire more determined to get to the truth. “Let’s do this,” she huffed.
“Why does everything we discover have to be turned over to the Egyptian government?” Sophia asked, gesturing at the surrounding barren land.
“Not everything,” Claire admitted. “Because of my knowledge of Egypt, we are valuable, and I have leverage to excavate certain ruins and keep what we find.”
“How much funding did they give?”
“We have two years of funding, so until that runs out, we have a job.”
Claire eyed her assistant. The young, pale, red-haired intern seemed to be lost in thought. They had been working for days; the latest find had led them to this location, and Claire prayed their luck was about to change. Halfway up the steps, she paused, then wiped the sweat from her brow with a bandana. The sun had started its descent over the pyramid, but the humidity didn’t help to make the climb easy.
“Maybe we should come back tomorrow.” Sophia was young and smart, but not tough, and that was starting to get on Claire’s nerves. But she was the only intern brave enough to return with her.
“It’s not much further, maybe another fifteen minutes. Just watch your step,” Claire instructed, pausing to sip from her flask. The water felt cool as it slid down her throat.
They were both hot and tired, but they had a job to do. Sophia climbed slowly behind Claire as they once again began their arduous ascent. According to the ancient parchment, the opening was close; she just needed to find the lever that had been buried over the years by dust and sand. A lever that would open a secret door, which would allow them inside.
The top ledge was small, but as she peered over the slender space, she saw the lever barely sticking up out of the sand. “Let’s hope this is it.” A small trickle of sweat dripped down her neck as she pulled down on it. Just as she retracted her hand, a crackling sound filled the space, and before Claire could react, the stone gave way, and they went tumbling down a slide into the pyramid, which surrounded the duo in utter blackness.
They landed on a hard, cold structure. The force of it knocked the breath out of both of them. A sharp pain struck Claire in her ribs, but her adrenaline seemed to wash it away.
Sophia complained as she pulled herself up and dusted off her face.
Claire hissed as her eyes began to adjust to the cold, damp darkness surrounding them. “Shut up!” she groaned as she clutched her ribs. On her knees, she searched for the flashlights, luckily, her search was not long. When she flashed the light from side to side, it showed them that they were in a small chamber, with only one way out, and one way further into the mound. The problem was, part of the shaft had caved in on itself, and would have to be dug out.
“Stay here.” Averting her eyes, Claire took several steps through the small opening, lit the torch, and shone it into the shaft. She could tell from the way it had collapsed inwardly that there had been no human activity since the time it had been abandoned. It was deathly dark, but her torch illuminated the way just enough for her to see the figures on the walls, painted by the hands of men long since dead. Cautiously, Claire crouched down and made her way into the darkness, feeling the sand crunch beneath her boots, and the familiar stale scent of dust and dirt.
Sophia stood back, her torch illuminating Claire and the surrounding walls. For a brief moment, she saw a slender silhouette with beautiful dark eyes, bronze skin, and an angelic face before it faded back into the blackness.
The further Claire descended down the shaft, the darker it became, and her torch seemed to struggle to stay alight. Breathing was hard in the stale, dust-filled air, so she covered her mouth with the rag she’d tied around her neck. Surrounded by the darkness of the shaft, with no sign of light apart from her torch, Claire crouched down, her body dripping with sweat as she turned the light around to examine the hieroglyphics.
The further she went, the colder and damper it became; the walls were a rough stone. There was nothing around except the passage, which led deeper into the mound. The sound of her footsteps bounced off the stones. Five hundred feet down, she noticed something at the end.
Choking on the dust, Sophia covered her face. “Remind me again why we’re here,” she moaned from the small opening. Her slightly chubby physique would not fit into the small space Claire had climbed into, so from the opening, she attempted to help light the way for Claire.
“Because this is what we’re paid to do.”
“Fuck!” Claire’s voice shot through the opening. “We did it! We fucking did it!” The excitement in her voice gave her pause. She could not believe she had discovered the ancient subterranean ruins of the city. It had been owned by one of the wealthiest families in history, and the city placement was as strange as it was old...and rich with treasures. According to a historical tablet she had happened across while excavating another site, it had been undisturbed and forgotten for over ten thousand years. A legend had evolved from the very few additional historical records of the city, a prophecy.
Sophia turned her bright flashlight down towards the forgotten city from a cliff above it, trying to see what Claire was talking about. “What is it?” she gasped.
“It’s amazing, everything is so well preserved.” Obscured beneath the sand and stone, an entire city lay as if it had been constructed within the large cavern that enclosed it. Spires of grey stone shot hundreds of feet high, like the surrounding stalagmites. The inner passages were tubular, like the workings of the cave system that surrounded it. Some of the spires resembled ancient spiraling staircases. The bases of the outer wall had turned into crystals that glistened in the artificial light they reflected.
She immediately drove a metal stake into the cave surface, fastened a rope to it, and descended down the wall. What she met once her feet touched the ground below caused tears to well in her eyes. In every direction, there were engravings that depicted the history of those who had once lived there. She was biting her lower lip and sweating profusely, as she moved along the walls. She stopped breathing heavily when she came upon a likeness of a familiar face. Not just any face, but an exact likeness of her own. Her eyes darted back and forth rapidly while she mouthed each translated symbol to herself. The only sound came from the heels of her boots clicking against the stones beneath her feet as she moved toward an opening, following the winding path that led through a wide staircase without rails or sidings. It brought her to a wide, stone platform, which was quite high. At first, she hesitated.
From behind her, she heard footsteps and, ready to strike, she spun around. Covered in dirt, Sophia stood only feet from her. “I told you to stay put.”
“I would have, but you weren’t answering me, so I was worried.”
“I thought you couldn’t fit. How did you get through?”
“I moved a few of the smaller stones and some of the larger ones gave way.” Sophia stopped talking and shined her flashlight against the walls. “Wow, you’re right, we’ve found it.”
Pleased with their discovery, Claire motioned her hand upwards. “After you,” she insisted.
They began the ascent. Their steps echoed throughout the ruins in the dead abyss of the cave. It took them f
ifteen minutes to get to the top. They walked under an archway that led into a balcony with low walls encircling it. They sat down against the stone enclosure to rest. Both of them looked around and saw nothing but the surrounding stone.
“Ah, great, a dead end. All that way for nothing!” Sophia moaned.
Claire went to the edge of the balcony. It was then she noticed a shape resembling something familiar. Below her to the left was a peculiar spire all by itself, surrounded by a wall with no entryways. Beyond that, she saw a courtyard made in the exact shape of a diamond. Finally, she noticed the wavy pathway they’d just walked through. Then something occurred to Claire as she noticed in the center of the balcony one brick raised slightly above the ground. An arrow pointed to the left. She moved the brick, and the wall to her right creaked, revealing an opening before them.
Claire carefully walked up the steep stone steps, remarkably free of dust. When she shone the light, the color drained from her face. In mounds taller than herself, were gold coins, artifacts, scrolls, golden statues, and small brass pots littering the entire room. In the center of the room stood a coffin-like case that gleamed gold and blue in the firelight, with hieroglyphs etched on the bottom that ran all the way around. “Wow, this find ought to be worth billions,” Claire muttered to herself. Most of the digs she’d done in Egypt had pertained to one Pharaoh or another. This, however, was very different. This was the sort of stuff she lived for! It was about time her work in archaeology yielded more than grime beneath her fingernails. The years she’d spent frying under the hot sun for little more than bones and trinkets, with nothing to show for her efforts but sweat and dirt, were over. This time, things would be different. Her excitement ceased when she thought about the carved likeness of herself. If she reported the find, she would have to ensure that it was she who excavated the site, and no one else. There was a story hidden beneath the sand, and something told her it was her story.
“I think it's time to get the team and get this all catalogued.”
●●●
Spencer opened her eyes from her alcohol-induced sleep. For a long while, she lay staring across the room, toward the covered windows. During her much needed rest, she’d worked over every feeling that had gone through her since she’d arrived—fear, confusion, hope, and the latest, astonishment. The meaning of what was to come became fully clear, and it scared the shit out of her. Deep inside, she knew it was something greater than the universe that was steering things now—it was her fate.
This realization, as confusing to her as it was, filled her with relief, and she finally covered her head and started sobbing into the bed sheets. Firstly, the fear she hadn't allowed herself to feel before, came pouring out into the pillows. Then came the guilt she had felt for what she had done in her past life. Who had known how the words she had spoken would set things in motion? Next came her bewilderment, and her anxiety upon discovering how truly small, yet apparently important, she must be, in the great scheme of things.
Hours had passed, and she had wept herself dry, then fell silent, her breath still harsh. She tried to think of what might happen next. Her thoughts brought a hint of the fear and anxiety back to her. What if she didn’t find Anai, or what if she did, and she rejected her?
Turning over, she reached for the bottle of booze that she had found comfort in, and chugged down a swig, coughing as the dark liquid burned her throat. It had been two days since she’d sat in the dimly lit library, reading from deciphered scrolls. Before then, she had been eager to find the beginning, and ready to face her future, until she had scanned the page of data the young priest had given her. He had deciphered it, but was unable to grasp the meanings behind it. It talked of a prophecy where the two souls would meet—it would be then that they would be welcomed in the afterlife for all eternity, ending the curse. Spencer was not ready to die, and if finding her lost love meant giving up her life, it was something she was not willing to risk.
●●●
The next morning, Spencer slowly placed the last item in the suitcase. Second-guessing herself, she combed her hand through her hair and sat on the edge of the bed. “Am I doing the right thing?” she asked under her breath, pressing the phone to her ear with her shoulder. She listened to it ring in her ear—it rang several times, then the call dropped. Spencer held the phone up and tried to dial the same number again, but there was no reception. Frowning, she tried again, but there were no bars on her phone. “What the hell?”
She was not sure if running from her fate was the right thing to do. “Should I stay and risk it all, or should I just fly back home and put it all behind me?” Tossing the phone on the bed beside her, she cried, “I need my mom.”
Chapter 12
The group moved deeper still into the tunnels, Claire’s slim fingers clutching tightly to the torch, moving it around occasionally to check for insects or other potential dangers. Her other hand adjusted strands of jet black hair that had come loose from their tie behind her ear, while focused eyes traced the floors, inspecting for danger. The still evident darkness was a bit unsettling. Despite the fact that she had been going on expeditions since she was sixteen years old, the dank chill caused a shiver to run up her spine.
She believed herself fortunate that she’d been taught the Egyptian language by her father, an Egyptologist, who had brought her to Egypt at the age of eight so she could begin her own studies. By the time she had started graduate school, she was fluent. All she had left to learn were hieroglyphs. She was a fast learner, and had quickly mastered them. She had no idea what her driving force was, but she was sure she would find it. It was something she had always done. Once she came of age, she moved to Cairo; even then she had no idea why, but she was drawn to the area, and it was there she worked her first excavation. Her professor had taken her under his wing, and taught her everything he knew, and when his health had begun to fade, he had turned his team over to her.
Claire had promised she would not let him down, and that she’d find all the answers that were buried beneath the sand. She had still not found anything substantial, until now.
Her assistant, Andrew, immediately stepped beside her, holding a map in his hands. “The tomb, whose is it?” he asked, loud enough for the others to hear. Claire frowned lightly, but upon hearing mumbling from the others, she began to tell what she knew.
“This is the tomb of a young queen, who served alongside her father.” Her voice became soft. “From what I could decipher from the carvings, she killed herself when she was promised to be wed, and despite being dead, she rose up from the sands of the desolate oasis, and lived as a human until she was reunited with her one true love,” she said absently, while holding the torch up to the wall, lighting the hieroglyphs etched into the stone. She had read them several times since they’d found the underground city, hoping to learn something new.
Several “aw’s” later, Claire searched their faces. “For a thousand years, she has returned, only to live until her heart could take no more, and each lifetime she would take her own life. It’s said that she cursed the land when she plunged the dagger into her heart.”
“That’s so sad,” a soft, heartbroken voice broke the silence.
“If it’s a curse, can it be broken?” Sophia asked from behind.
Claire thought about her question, and took a minute to consider before answering. “I sure hope so.”
“Maybe this is her eternal punishment for taking her life,” Jordan Rickard, a six-foot-tall African-American with a thick mane of black hair, laughed. “There isn’t much history here. When will we see the Scorpion King’s tomb?”
There’s always that one. Claire inhaled and averted her eyes, did an about face and walked away. “He will be the first to go,” she mumbled loud enough for the others to hear. After a moment, Claire pressed her shoulder to the stone, and the wall slid inward with a loud screech, one that brought protests from her group. Once she had pushed it far enough to where they could fit through, she cast her torch aroun
d, revealing a set of very old rock steps.
With a small sigh, she started down, the others following behind at a slight distance. They walked in silence, all too tired to even care about making conversation. Claire half wished the group was bigger; at least the silence wouldn’t have been so awkward. But then again, she had refused to take more than five people down with her—it was too easy to get lost, and she couldn’t keep track of everyone in a larger group. In case they did get separated, she had given everyone walkie-talkies. She insisted that each of them keep it on and hooked to their belt loop. There was no way she was going to lose anyone on her watch.
It was another hour and a half before they got to the next corridor. This one seemed to be made of limestone or crystals, and had more hieroglyphs etched clearly across the center. Claire raised the torch to study them, and muttered quietly to herself, “What lies beyond this door has been damned for all eternity.” She paused, frowning deeply.
“Is it the Scorpion King?” Chris drawled.
Claire elbowed him hard, and he grunted. “Hey!”
“Shut up,” Claire growled, and handed him the torch. “Hold this.” Once her hands were free, she shoved hard on the wall, which slid inward with a similar noise, only much louder, and squeakier. Once it was open far enough for everyone to fit, she took the torch back from him and stepped into a large room with a staircase and several tall statues on each side.
“Be careful, everyone,” Claire warned. “If you trip and fall, it’s the benefactor’s money paying for the hospital bill.”