Death in Luxor

by Graham Warren

  However, the old ladies did not proceed into the well-lit area, as they crossed the road and walked up to the point where Kate had seen the ancient woman run off with her David Roberts print. Raising their ‘carpets’ well above their heads, the old ladies walked through the modern railings whilst Alex and Cairo passed overhead. They were deposited, more like dumped, still unconscious, in the southernmost corner of the sun court of Amenhotep III. This was an area of Luxor Temple which could not easily be seen by any late night passing tourist, as though the temple was now closed, it remained very well lit. Everything took on a yellow glow with fine jet black shadows. This allowed the intricate shallow cut hieroglyphs, which were virtually invisible under the harsh Egyptian sun, to be read with ease.

  Alex had no idea where he was or what was happening as he came to. All he could feel was a foot or feet pushing him in the back. Trying to make sense of a world of total darkness that was spinning in a never-ending spiral, he heard a muffled voice, a gagged voice. It took him a few more minutes to fully come around. Once he did, he rolled left and right like a man possessed, in a desperate, though ultimately successful attempt to free his head of the heavy material.

  “Kate,” he attempted to say, though being gagged it came out more like a growl. His initial relief at seeing that she was alive was overtaken by anxiety, as they were both very well bound. Alex pushed at the bundle beside him. It had to be Cairo, though all he could hear was a light snore. “That boy can sleep anywhere,” he thought.

  “Some rescue mission this is,” thought Kate. “Some flipping hero!” She had been working things out for some while. Understanding that their captors were waiting for someone important to arrive, she realised that this was the only reason that they were still alive. She had not been knocked out like Alex and Cairo, and neither had she been covered in a heavy cloth, as she had quite literally bumped into the ancient woman who had run after her just recently, as she ran to the ferry.

  Kate had, as everyone had suspected, been on her way to the Aboudi Bookshop, when the woman had managed to convince her that she was on their side, that she had the David Roberts print which had been stolen from her. Kate had gone with her willingly, eagerly in fact, though she would never let anyone know this, because what a fool she had been.

  There had, however, been some compensation as during the time she had been sitting, gagged and bound, she had seen much more of Luxor Temple than most. She saw the long gone outer walls appear and the hieroglyphs in all their splendour. The colours were absolutely amazing. She saw statues, priests, guards and solid gold urns containing exotic flowers. She smelt incense and even saw Tutankhamun and his bride oversee the work in his colonnade.

  She then saw many of the walls disappear, with those that remained, being covered with mud from the Nile, as the early Christians turned the area they were now in into a church. Religious paintings were lovingly applied directly to the mud, which filled every inch of the remaining walls. This mud then crumbled, allowing the hieroglyphs and ancient gods to reappear in all bar a small section, where there remained a painting of the Last Supper.

  Kate was unsure if this was her mind playing tricks or if this painting was still in place today, as when her vision reverted to seeing the temple as it was now, she could still see that painting. Her ancient thoughts had shown her so much, though also left out much that she would have liked to know.

  It was then that the woman, the ancient woman who Kate had trusted and Alex and Cairo had half trusted, appeared from the rooms just beyond them, at the very south of the temple. She had changed out of what she had been wearing. Kate thought, just as she had done when she had seen the map room, that what she was looking at was more Greek than Egyptian. The woman wore a white sleeveless dress, split up each side and held together with a golden tie. Her henchmen, or rather henchwomen, remained dressed as they were, in black, and most certainly could not be described as anything except Egyptian.

  “There is only the very slightest chance that we might be seen from road on the Nile side of the temple, but I want no chances,” said the woman in white. “Move them into the Sanctuary … quietly!”

  Kate and Alex were carried whilst the still sleeping Cairo was dragged, though after being bumped over quite a large step, he showed signs of stirring.

  The Sanctuary was a small square room which led on to one, or more than likely, two rooms of about the same size. Kate was unable to see clearly. The only light came from a few chunky white candles which had been placed randomly on small golden ledges around the walls. The last two candles showed what appeared to be a dead end, something that raised a chuckle in Kate, as ‘dead end’ seemed all too appropriate for their situation. She then thought back to Alex telling her of his ‘dead end’ at the workers village. Her chuckle turned into a smile, though a smile that could only be seen in her eyes, as the gag around her mouth was proving most effective.

  “I would have thought that you would be doing anything except laugh at a time like this,” said the woman in white.

  Kate tried to tell the woman to remove the gag if she wanted to know, though Alex was otherwise occupied.

  He was reading the walls, actually reading the walls. He was unable to make everything out on the wall directly opposite, though the further he looked down towards the dead end, the more he was able to understand. He wanted to read more and would have done so, if the light had let him. Now he was also smiling through his gag.

  The woman in white could take no more of this and pulled down Kate’s gag. One of her henchwomen tried to stop her, but she was having none of it. “So, what do you find so funny?”

  “Nothing that would interest you,” said Kate, as her mind worked on what she should say in order for the gag not to be replaced. She knew that she should not scream or call out. Her hope was that if she kept the woman talking in English, there was a chance that the family, her ancient family, may locate them in time to save them. It became clear to Kate, as the woman in white remonstrated with her henchwomen, that they were only able to converse in English. “They are from different times,” she thought, though she said, “Have you forgotten that we are over here?”

  “Not at all, though you will not live to remember this day.”

  Kate, Alex and the now awake Cairo were all sitting with their backs to the wall. Kate and Alex were struggling to release their hands, though to no avail. Cairo just sat there, though he was now smiling.

  “What are you smiling at, Cairo, as there are no sandwiches in this tomb,” said Kate, just to get a few more English words out there.

  “It is not a tomb, it is a temple you stupid girl,” snapped the woman in white, which was exactly what Kate had wanted. English spoken by an ancient.

  “Well, if we are to die here, then surely it is our tomb?”

  “You are beginning to bore me, you and your …” The woman in white abruptly ceased speaking. Her face relaxed to almost reveal a smile, as she smoothed her hair and then her dress. She had heard something, something that gave her the feeling that someone important was about to appear.

  Kate was hoping that this was the start of the rescue, whilst at the same time she was wondering if this woman was in some way related to the late Aggie, because she was so incredibly rude. It was then, in the silence of anticipation, that Alex stopped reading little sections of the hieroglyphs on the walls, as it dawned on him who the woman was waiting for. He moved his head wildly in an attempt to remove his gag, though this only had the effect of making his head spin. Cairo shuffled along to Alex, and, putting his head on his shoulder, started to cry.

  “See, that is how you weaklings should behave, you should all be crying. If you show fear, then your deaths will be quick and merciful. If not, you will be made to cry, to scream for mercy, before you die.”

  “You never went to acting classes … did you?”

  “Of course not. What has that to do with anything here?”

  “It shows!” Kate’s gag was back on before she could prot
est. Inside she was kicking herself as to why she had been so childish and also quite stupid.

  On the other hand, Alex, with the now sobbing Cairo almost lying on him, felt a little hand go behind his back and attempt to remove his ties. Cairo was obviously free and all his sobbing had been for effect. “Cairo does not need to go to an acting school,” thought Alex, “he’s a natural.”

  With his hands now free, Alex pulled down his gag, and before anyone had time to react, he shouted, “She is not coming, she is dead.”

  Momentarily the woman in white looked shocked. “She cannot be. She is the magician’s emissary. Now gag him, and this time tie him properly.”

  Alex was not going to be bound and gagged without a fight, though with his ankles still bound, this turned him into a bucking bronco. One of the ancient ladies sat on him whilst two more held his arms.

  Kate, though initially taken by surprise by his outburst, now thought that if Alex had been able to get free, then she must be able to get free. She struggled and struggled so that they might have a chance of escape, though to no avail. Her ropes were not budging. She had no way of knowing that it was Cairo who had untied his hands, and if she had, it would have made no difference at all, as Cairo was blocked from getting to her by the scuffle on the floor. He did attempt to pull one of the ancient women off Alex. It was, however, over all too quickly.

  They were both retied and gagged, though not before Alex had screamed out that the Victoria Ramolino doppelganger and Napoleon were dead. He screamed this with so much conviction that this time the woman in white was unable to ignore it. The blood drained from her. She went as white as her dress.

  “Take them all to the far end,” she shouted in anger, as blood forced its way back into her face at alarming speed. So much so, that she now resembled a beetroot. There were nervous mumblings of protest from her henchwomen, which made it obvious to the three youngsters that there was a real reluctance to carry out this order. They each wondered why. It was also extremely obvious that nobody here had the power to disobey her order, so down to the dead end they were dragged.

  Whilst Kate and Cairo worried about what was going to happen to them, Alex was incredibly happy. He could not believe his eyes, because here he could read and understand everything that was carved into the walls. He read that this inner room had originally been a barque chapel, whatever that was, which had been converted into a shrine to the ancient god Amun, the god of all the Egyptian gods. What Alex went on to read astounded him, as it quite clearly stated that where they now sat had been converted by Alexander III of Macedon. Until he read this, he had been totally oblivious to the fact that Alexander the Great had ever been to Thebes. He wondered why his father, the world expert on Egypt under Greek rule, had never mentioned this, as Alexander the Great was most certainly Greek, when all of a sudden he was pulled back into the real world.

  His gag was roughly removed as the woman in white demanded to know more. She also pointed out to him that he could scream and shout as much as he liked, as they were so far inside the temple that nobody would be able to hear them, not even the ancient gods.

  Alex was far from convinced that the ancient gods would not be able to hear them, but like Kate, he knew the more English was spoken, the more likely they were to be rescued. “Look, Napoleon was killed yesterday by the doppelganger, the one your warlock’s magic made look like Victoria.”

  “That is good. She did well. He was nothing to the magician.”

  “Warlock!”

  “What!”

  “You must move with the times, he is a warlock in modern English.”

  “Whatever you may wish to call him is up to you. What I do know is that he is the most powerful, most loving person I have ever met. I would die for him.”

  “Then I am here to grant your wish,” boomed a voice from nowhere. The ancient Egyptian women in black ran as if for their lives. Cairo had already freed his hands again and was untying Alex. The woman in white had fear written across her face, which was yet again as white as her dress.

  Out from a bas-relief stepped a muscular and quite handsome man with a full head of curly hair. There was no doub that he was Greek.

  Alex, now free from his restraints, immediately went down on all fours.

  “For the sake of the ancient gods, stand up,” said Kate as Cairo removed the last of her restraints.

  “Do you know who he is, Kate?”

  “He’s a man, so what?”

  “He is Alexander the Great. That’s who he is!”

  “Okay, we need to show him some respect, but not on all fours. Get up, as this is embarrassing.”

  “This is my temple, my shrine to Amun,” bellowed Alexander at the woman in white, “how dare you, you who is nothing more than a hand maiden in my household, take a life in my shrine, and what’s more, take a life in the name of …” He stopped there and looked at Kate, Alex and Cairo, gave a fleeting shallow smile, before he carried on: “And what’s more, take that life in the name of the warlock.” He had obviously been listening to their conversation. “You have sealed the fate of your family and forfeited your place in the afterlife.” He shot out an arm, grabbing her by the neck, before pinning the woman to the wall with so much force that she was almost knocked unconscious.

  A Horus appeared, unlike any Horus the three youngsters had seen before. His searching and destroying of all the instances of her name was extremely efficient. She faded to a shimmer and then was no more, in the space of less than thirty seconds.

  Slow hand claps came from the entrance as Ramses II walked in, followed by his Thoth. “Customs control, Thoth.”

  “Oh, do I really have to, my Pharaoh?”

  “If you want, I can call Sobek to help you to do it.”

  “My Pharaoh, there is no need to call Sobek, as I will attend to the matter immediately.” Thoth turned to Alexander. He gave a little cough before he started. “You have entered this country illegally, so I will need to have your full name.”

  “Alexander III of Macedon, and after all these years, Thoth, you really should stop worrying.”

  “Yes sir, I shall try. Your country of residence?”

  “Greece.”

  “Occupation?”

  “Not this time, Thoth. This time I am just here for a holiday. I left my army at home.”

  Ramses and Alexander hugged and laughed as this was obviously a ritual they went through every time they met.

  “Do you have any of your excellent red wine to share with me, Ramses?”

  “After the way you died, I would not have thought that you would ever want to drink red wine again.”

  “Look, I am dead, so what have I got to lose? Stop trying to keep it all to yourself, you old rogue.”

  “You see through my plan so easily.”

  “That really was not much of a plan, Ramses, my old friend.”

  “No, you are quite correct. I left two bottles with Gadeem. He is really looking forward to meeting up with you again, so we must not be long, as you know what he is like when left with the red wine.”

  “Yes, I do know all too well, he is just like Ramses!” They both laughed, though the laughter left Alexander as his Thoth appeared. He screamed at the most effeminately dressed Thoth to go and change into normal clothes.

  “Oh, Ramses, I should have been born an Egyptian, all this Greek frilliness really gets to me. I am the greatest leader …” Alexander deliberately held the pause to see Ramses scowl before continuing, “of my time.” The smile returned to the face of Ramses. “Why do I have to put up with a cross dressing Thoth? What have I ever done to deserve Greek ancient gods? And you, Horus, is that nail varnish I see you wearing? Get out of my sight, and get out of it now.”

  “You are Greek, my friend, you are Greek!” Ramses offered by way of explanation. “Shall we go?”

  “What about us?” Kate asked with more attitude than neither Alex nor Cairo thought wise.

  “Sorry, but there is only enough red wine for the thr
ee of us,” replied Ramses in a dismissive, though not unfriendly tone.

  “That is not what I meant, Ramses, and you know it wasn’t.”

  “Oh, come now, Kate. Do you think for the slightest moment that we would rescue you just to let you be captured again?” Ramses made a sweeping gesture with his arm, which ended up pointing towards the exit and at a lady who was entering. “Welcome, Bast. Alexander and I are just off, so you will see that everyone gets safely back to the Winter Palace. Won’t you?”

  “Of course, Ramses.”

  “And then you must come and share wine with us,” said Alexander in such a way that the answer could only be yes.

  “If Bast does, her wine comes out of your share,” said Ramses as he smiled his little boy smile at Bast. She knew that he was only joking and nodded to confirm that she would be along soon.

  “Oh, I cannot go without meeting the legendary Kate, Alex and Cairo.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake get up, Alex, as you are so embarrassing,” bellowed Kate, as he had gone down on all fours the second that Alexander had spoken his name.

  “I see what you mean about her, feisty just does not start to describe her. I shall check on Bucephalus and then I shall be along,” and with that Alexander slid back into the wall. Ramses stepped out of Alexander’s room and the three youngsters did the same.

  “Bucephalus is his wife?” asked Kate.

  “No, Bucephalus is his horse,” replied Bast. “He loves him more than any man could love any wife. Without him he is nothing. Rose will look forward to seeing Bucephalus. She always has treats ready and loves brushing Bucephalus’ dark brown coat until it shines.” Bast moved over to Alex and gave him a truly emotional hug. “You have seen,” she whispered in his ear as she tried to hold back a tear.