“Kate, come on. Sanuba is trying to help us.”
“How can he, Alex? Tell me, how can he? Out there he would walk through the area as it was in his time, a time before the Greeks, a time before all of this.”
Sanuba nodded to say that Kate was right in what she said, as he could do no more, though the look on his face said that she was far from right with her attitude. He stood up, wished Cairo and Alex well, ignored Kate, and headed back into the darkness. Ropet gave a slightly embarrassed wave before heading off just a few paces behind his brother.
“Well done, Kate, really well done! You managed to insult Sanuba, so it is just the three of us yet again. And what are we up against? I shall tell you, we are up against a mighty warlock who is intent on killing us in the most painful way possible.” Alex gave a slightly manic smile before he said in a most melodramatic way, “We are all going to die!”
“Come back here now!” said Kate in her sternest voice, as on hearing Alex’s comments, Cairo had immediately started to run off down the tunnel after his ancient relatives.
“I only going to see if they have sandwiches,” Cairo said by way of an excuse, as he somewhat reluctantly came back and resumed his squat position on the floor.
“Quite amazing,” thought Alex. “Cairo is afraid of dying at the hands of a mighty warlock, yet he is even more afraid of Kate. Perhaps we will not die today after all!”
Looking diagonally out from the tunnel entrance to their right, Kate and Alex could see two sides of an ancient mud brick wall – the south and east. It was so high that they were unable to see what it surrounded. What they could all see, as Cairo had now joined them, was that it was in amazingly good condition for its age. It undulated more than slightly, it also suffered from a crack here and there, however, it remained complete and very much doing the job that it was intended for. The south wall, which faced towards the tourist entrance of the workers village, had two entrances. One was small by Egyptian standards, the other was large by any standard. Both were secured by slatted wooden gates, and both were in direct line of sight of the Tourist and Antiquity Police. The east wall, the wall that the Tourist and Antiquity Police could not see, appeared to offer no entrance of any kind.
“Well, that was built to keep people out, and it’s certainly keeping us out,” said Alex.
“There’s absolutely no way that we can get in from this side without being seen, or the other side without ropes and climbing gear, or at least a very tall ladder. Anyone have any of those items in their backpacks?” As Kate said this, Alex pulled out a small, though very thick book, which she could see was entitled Tombs and Temples of the Theban Hills. “Now is not the time to read, but a time for action,” she said, as much in frustration as anything else.
“We don’t know what is behind that wall, Kate.”
“Come on, Alex, you must have been here before?”
“Yes, of course I have. I have been to the tombs by the car park at least twice, but I have never been down to this end of the workers village before!”
“Your dad is an expert on the Greek period, so you must have been to this temple.”
“That, Kate, is why I haven’t been down this end of the village before. Because if I did, I would have to listen to Dad go on and on and on all day. All I know is that there is definitely some sort of temple from the Greek period.”
“Once we are inside we will know what is in there, won’t we!”
“It’s no good becoming agitated with Sanuba and now me,” said Alex, who was no longer looking at either the mud brick wall or his book. He looked Kate straight in the face in order to challenge her attitude. “How can we know what is in there from a square drawn on an ancient papyrus? I need to see what we are going into, because, I for one, don’t want to die today.”
Kate said nothing.
Alex bobbed down right by the entrance to what they had called a tunnel, though now could see from the hieroglyphs carved on the stone lintel above, that it was in fact the entrance to an ancient tomb. Its location meant that it could not be anything except a worker’s tomb, and one from the time of Sanuba and Ropet, or perhaps of a somewhat earlier period, otherwise they could not have brought them this close to where they needed to be. Alex opened his book. He carefully unfolded the map that was attached to the inside of the back cover. As he did, he spoke without lifting his eyes from it. “We need to know more than we know now, before we go barging in. There could be a small army waiting for us on the other side of that wall.”
“There could also be fairies and piles of gold waiting for us, but unless we get in there we will never know … will we!”
Alex chose to ignore Kate’s outburst as it was well overdue.
Cairo had become oblivious to anything that Kate said after the word ‘fairies’. He was now saying something about having never seen a fairy. He became overly excited at the thought that he might actually see one.
Kate did not have a clue as to what they were going to do. There was only one thing she knew for certain, she was not going to let Alex take over. In her thoughts, she sometimes wished for someone else to take over. At times, she genuinely believed that she wanted someone else to lead their quest, though in reality Kate was never going to let it happen, unless, of course, it was on her terms. The problem here was that no plan came to her, not a single idea of what she was going to do, not even the minute spark of an idea.
Alex momentarily stood to slip his backpack on, before he bobbed back down by the entrance. “So much better,” he thought, as he leant back. The rough stone had been digging into him. Within a couple of seconds his head was well and truly back in the book. He resumed his search for detailed information on what lay beyond the wall which they could all see so clearly.
Kate was looking out, looking for inspiration, when from nowhere a man appeared from between a pair of stone pillars, perhaps a stone arch, she could not quite see, as it was towards the far end of what they had thought was a solid wall. It was out of sight of the Tourist and Antiquity Police, so if there was a way in, it would be perfect. She watched. He must have been a gaffir, as he dropped a very large set of keys into the outer pocket of his galabeya. Keys which were so big that even from this distance they could not have been mistaken for anything else. Keys the size of which she had only ever seen in a museum.
A spark ignited in her mind, a spark that within a second caused her to turn from despair to action. “This is our way in,” she thought, “I must have those keys.” It turned out to be much more than a spark, it was a lightning bolt. Now she literally sprang into action, though without fully thinking her plan through, as was so often the case. In a single movement she spun around towards Alex, grabbed the guide book out of his hands, continued her spin, then kicked him, donkey fashion, out of the entrance to the tomb.
Almost ball-like in shape when Kate kicked him, with as much force as she could muster, he would have easily rolled far enough to achieve her aims. However, the short though reasonably steep slope outside of the tomb entrance had the effect of dramatically magnifying the power of Kate’s already powerful kick. He rolled and rolled, and as he did, he kicked up voluminous clouds of white dust before coming to a halt, almost directly at the feet of the gaffir … the gaffir who had the keys.
He had been walking away from the temple, up the unmade white stone path, towards the much more touristic end of the workers village. Kate came running out of the tomb screaming utter gibberish. Alex had not even had the time to comprehend what was happening to him, let along think about getting up. His head was spinning crazily as he coughed and spluttered, having inhaled so much dust. Kate threw herself at the gaffir. She hugged him as if her life depended on it. The gaffir grinned proudly as he accepted Kate’s gratitude for saving a damsel in distress.
All Kate needed was an excuse to get close enough to relieve him of his heavy bunch of keys, which she had with ease. He was totally unaware of the theft, as Kate replaced their weight with Alex’s small, thick, thou
gh quite heavy book. What was not so easy was finding somewhere for her to put the keys, so as she stepped away from the gaffir, she kept both hands behind her. Continuing to walk backwards, she held the large ring that the keys were on in one hand, whilst using her other hand to hold all the keys together, in a successful attempt to stop them from making any noise.
The gaffir had no real idea what was going on, but seeing a screaming teenage girl come out of a noble’s tomb, after pushing a teenage boy out, he thought back to his youth. He then immediately knew what he had to do – escort the boy to the entrance and eject him. This would have been very difficult for any gaffir to do without getting himself into trouble. Alex was, after all, a tourist, and tourists had to be treated well. When he failed to be able to produce a valid entrance ticket, in fact, any sort of entrance ticket, the gaffir was well within his rights to escort him out of the workers village. After all, thought the gaffir, he was not ejecting a tourist, he was only helping a tourist to find the location of the ticket office. The fact that Kate did not have an entrance ticket was not a problem, as she was never asked to produce one.
Alex soon gave up protesting. He realised, even with his head still spinning, that whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation were, the gaffir was ejecting him for one reason and one reason alone – he had no entrance ticket. Once at the tourist car park, the gaffir pointed a long way off into the distance, to the ticket office by Medinet Habu. He spoke loud enough for all to hear, “You get ticket from there,” after which he turned to Alex, and as was the Egyptian way, he held out his hand.
Alex decided to shake it rather than put baksheesh into it, and as he did, he gave a slight smile, which he had hoped would convey the words “It is not your fault, you are only doing your job, and I shall kill Kate later.”
As the gaffir left him to walk over to a new group of arriving tourists, he thought, “I would smile too, if I was your age and had a pretty girl like that.”
Alex knew that Kate was heading for trouble. With no sign of Cairo, it looked as though she was going to get him into trouble as well. He had to get back to her as quickly as he could, but it was going to take some time to get to the ticket office and back. In this heat, it was much too far away to be able to run to. He looked around the car park for a taxi, but there were only large tour busses. He was left with no option except to walk as quickly as he could to the ticket office, where, hopefully, he would be able to get a taxi back. As he started on his way, his emotions were going haywire. He was angry with Kate, but he also wanted to save her, to protect her. He hated her and he loved her. One thing that did not go around in circles in his mind, one thing that he was certain of, was that he had little chance of picking up a taxi on the way to get his ticket. The workers village was a dead end, so there was no passing traffic. Alex was pleased that he was walking downhill as this made his journey just a little easier. He even managed a slight smile at the thought of the workers tombs being at a dead end!
His smile was fleeting. Having to walk fast in the extreme temperature, with no shade of any kind, he wondered if he would even make it half way to the ticket office. Despite his pace, it failed to look any closer. Wiping the sweat from his brow, he became aware of a black cat moving very quickly across the hot sand. It then ran up the road straight towards him. Alex looked, blinked twice and looked again. It was not a mirage, it was a miracle. The cat had something glinting around its neck, as well as a piece of coloured paper hanging from its mouth.
“Bast,” called Alex, as he bobbed down, holding his arms open. The cat leapt into his arms and collapsed, panting away. He felt his arms burn as she was far too hot, which concerned him greatly, though he was extremely pleased to see an entrance ticket which he removed from her mouth. Bast could now pant even faster. Being black, she had absorbed the heat rather than reflected it, and therefore was dangerously hot.
Standing up, he carried her quickly into the nearest open tomb. The hills here were literally littered with them, so he did not have far to go. Being an ancient god, she was not constrained as to where she could go, and with these tombs being the tombs of nobles, he did not have to worry about coming up against angry ancient gods. Fortunately, he had walked far enough away from the workers village to be out of sight of the Tourist and Antiquities Police. Had he not, they would have been straight down to where he was, ejecting him not just from the tomb he had just entered, but from the West Bank.
Sitting in the dark, he cooled down outside whilst he heated up inside. He was fuming. He could not come to terms with what Kate had done, how she had treated him. Yet again she was not working as part of a team. She had gone off doing what she wanted to do, and this was only a few hours after being so pleased that she was no longer on her own.
“Thank you, Alex.” A voice came from the dark, with a slight purr in it. Bast had obviously changed into her female form, though as hard as he peered into the darkness, he was unable to see her. “You look angry. What are you thinking?”
Alex wanted to tell Bast of Kate’s selfishness, but thought better of it. He decided instead to succinctly tell her of the events of today. Bast did not interrupt him, she just gave an appropriate “yes” or “oh” when needed. Even as he was speaking, he wondered how much of this she already knew. She had, after all, come running up to him with the entrance ticket he needed. His thoughts changed to thinking about what may be happening to Kate right now. “Sorry, Bast, I really appreciate you bringing the ticket, and I don’t want to be rude, but I must go.” He turned to leave.
“Wait, Alex!”
“So sorry, Bast, but I really must go and help Kate and Cairo.”
“Yes, you must, but you must also wait.”
“Wait for what?”
“Wait until you have thought it through. Do you know how you will get in, or what you will do, once you are on the other side of that wall?”
“Haven’t got a clue. Why don’t you come with me?”
“I cannot. This is not an area I am comfortable with.”
“Well, if you can’t come with me, then you had better wish me luck,” and with that Alex ran out of the tomb and back towards the workers village, waving his ticket and shouting his thanks as he went.
“I do wish you luck, Alex,” said Bast quietly to herself, “all the luck in the world.” And although she knew that luck would play its part, she also knew that he would need much more than luck if they were going to finish the warlock once and for all.
Waving his ticket towards anyone who looked even vaguely official, he ran through the workers village. He was back at the mud brick wall in no time at all, though he was now sweating more profusely than he ever thought possible. Thankfully, there was no sign of the gaffir who had ejected him, in fact there was no sign of anyone up by the wall. Up close it was definitely too high to consider making any attempt to climb over. In his desperation to save Kate from whatever peril she had gotten herself into, Alex, in a rare moment of rashness, decided to enter by breaking through one of the two entrances in the south wall. These were barred to him by no more than flimsy looking slatted wooden gates. His rash thoughts, however, did not last long. The waving policeman, to whom Alex returned a half-hearted wave, all too abruptly confirmed that he could not attempt any entry on this side.
Turning back, he walked briskly along the east wall. Sweat ran off him like a waterfall. It stung his eyes so much that he lifted the front of his T-shirt to wipe them. A T-shirt which was another of his father’s famous, or infamous, T-shirts, depending on the point of view.
Before he and his parents had left for Luxor, Alex had been so busy at the British Museum checking things out for Kate, that his mother had done his packing, forgetting to pack him any shirts. The only good thing about his father’s T-shirts, as far as he was concerned, was that by this point in his holiday everyone had become so accustomed to him wearing them that they did not comment anymore. On realising which one he was wearing, he thought this to be rather prophetic. On the front was
written, ‘Archaeologists rediscover your history without charge’. On the back, ‘It is your government that charges you to see your history’, below which there were red letters in a red square, printed in a stencil typeface, ‘Keep Museums Free’.
He walked on as he wiped his eyes, only just managing to avoid walking straight into a small protrusion from the wall. Taking the few paces needed to reach a small area of shade supplied by a nearby tomb, he looked back, only to be amazed that he had missed what was obviously the main entrance, yet it was an entrance that was blocked to him. He needed water, so he slid off his backpack. From where he stood, he was able to see through the bars of a very strong metal gate into a courtyard. A small single storey building was set well back. It was an Egyptian temple of the Greek period, the temple they needed to get into.
Taking a swig of what he had expected to be warm water, he spat it out immediately, as it was hotter than many cups of tea he had experienced. Carefully taking just a little sip this time, he moistened his throat before returning the bottle to his backpack. Once over at the gate, he could see that there was a very large lock built into it, which from the size of the keyhole would require a very large key.
Suddenly everything cascaded into place as his thoughts came into focus. “Kate obviously saw the gaffir when we were all at the entrance of the tomb. The key must have been so large that she could not have failed to see it. Of course … She pushed me out so that she could pretend to be in distress. That way she had an excuse to hug the gaffir, which she had to do, if she was to relieve him of his key, possibly keys. Clever Kate!” He no longer felt angry. She had seen the opportunity, and she had taken it. He was extremely relieved that he had not said anything bad about her to Bast. He then tried to remember what he had said, before pushing this thought to one side.
Now back to concentrating on how to get in, he realised that he had not made any attempt to open the gate. His presumption was that it would be locked. On turning the large metal handle, he heard a satisfying click. He gave a push. It steadfastly failed to open. He pushed a little harder, then a lot harder, and even gave a push using his whole-body weight, which left him rubbing his shoulder. The gate, however, failed to open.
Death in Luxor Page 8
