“I must be a direct descendent of Alexander the Great as I can read all these walls.”
“Not quite, Alex,” replied Bast, “but you are close.”
“You cannot be direct descendent of Alexander. You darker skinned than me,” said Cairo, meaning for his comments to be helpful.
“Oh no,” said Alex as he slumped to the floor. “Please don’t tell me that I am descended from his flipping horse!”
Chapter 19
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Ay See Anger
“Look, you must be able to see the difference between the two tombs,” said Kate as she shoved plans of both Tutankhamun’s and Ay’s tombs under the nose of Alex.
“After a night like tonight I’m not sure that I can see anything. My ancient ancestor was a–”
“Stop right now, before you swear, or it will become a really bad habit.”
“Yes, Kate, you are quite correct,” said Alex in a most dejected tone and as he shook his head, “though I still cannot quite believe it.”
“At least you have seen. Do look on the bright side, as this must give us a much better chance of beating that flipping warlock. Now come on,” Kate stabbed her finger on the table, “do look at these plans which Bast was good enough to get for me. You must be able to see the difference. Do tell me that you can see the difference. Oh, come on!”
“Yes, there is no treasury in the tomb of Ay,” said Alex as a rather throw away comment. This was so glaringly obvious that this could not be what Kate had wanted him to say. The lack of any rebuke from her, the lack of any comment at all from her, allowed Alex the time he needed for the penny to drop. Probably a million or two of them as it was so glaringly obvious. The tomb of Ay had originally been started for Tutankhamun, though due to the boy king’s premature death, the workers had been unable to finish it within the required seventy days, or that was how the story was told to him by his father.
“Exactly,” said Kate. “I do not believe–”
“What do you not believe, Kate?” asked Quentin, as he cut across her upon entering the bar.
“Where’s Mum?”
“She is in bed, Alex, which is somewhere you should all be.”
Not wanting to go to bed just yet, Kate risked trying her theory on Quentin. “I do not believe that the tomb of Ay had anything to do with Tutankhamun.”
“Interesting! What makes you say that, Kate?” Quentin was instantly hooked and sat down with them. A steaming hot pot of coffee, which he had not ordered, was in front of him in no time at all.
“Well, Ay was a general, a noble if you like, that is why there is a hunting scene, the only hunting scene in any tomb of a pharaoh, when these scenes are frequently found in the tombs of the nobles. In life, General Ay feared nobody and was happy to kill Tutankhamun.”
“Nobody knows if he did or did not kill Tutankhamun,” interjected Quentin.
“Okay, but let us agree that he rather stole the title of pharaoh just as soon as Tutankhamun was out of the way. He moved from being a general to being a king, a pharaoh. This is my point! His fear was not of living people, his fear was of the ancient gods – of judgement. That’s why he didn’t have the courage to be buried in the Valley of the Kings, however, he most certainly was not going to be buried amongst the nobles, which he saw as beneath him. This is what caused him to have his tomb made in a completely new valley. He did not use a tomb created for Tutankhamun, he copied the only tomb of a pharaoh which he had any knowledge of.”
“But added his own hunting scene,” interjected Quentin.
“Yes, exactly! So, you need to dig in the tomb of Ay, as then you will find his undiscovered gold,” said Kate looking straight into Quentin’s eyes.
“It is not quite as easy as that, and that is also quite a leap without anything to back your theory up. I am not saying that your theory is incorrect, but what makes you think that all the great archaeologists have missed the gold in the tomb of Ay? The tomb was robbed in antiquity after all.”
Kate spun the two tomb drawings around and asked Quentin what was missing. He pushed his coffee to one side in order to really study the plans, something he had not done since before he had left university. They were virtually the same, even down to the baboons painted on the walls, yet the tomb of Ay had no treasury. “Could it really be this obvious?” he thought.
“The tomb of Tutankhamun is just that, the tomb of Tutankhamun. The tomb of Ay is a copy of the tomb of Tutankhamun, so why wouldn’t there be a treasury? Every pharaoh wants to make his tomb bigger and better than the previous pharaoh, so why is Ay’s smaller? You know how small Tutankhamun’s tomb is. According to archaeologists like you, this was only due to his untimely death and the seventy-day deadline between death and burial. There were no time constraints on Ay’s tomb, so tell me why it is smaller than an already small tomb?”
Quentin could not immediately answer this as he experienced disappointment as to why he had not seen this himself. “Well, Kate, you have certainly given me something to think about. I shall contact Dr Margretti at the British Museum in the morning and put this to him as a theory. He is in a much better position to read up on everything associated with the tomb of Ay, and we can trust him to say nothing. You certainly do have a point, and you make it so forcefully.”
“Can Alex, Cairo and I go to the tomb of Ay tomorrow?”
“I can see no reason why not, as I will have to think about this and contact London. Just do not go knocking any walls down. Sorry, did you say something, Alex?”
“Oh no, he didn’t,” said Kate, “it was just a calèche horse outside.” She and Cairo struggled to contain their laughter, whilst Alex fumed.
Kate, Alex and Cairo arrived outside of the tomb of Ay early. The sun was not yet high enough to reach into the valley, so they were all happy to wait outside, whilst the gaffir and their driver went down to unlock the generator room.
Happy to wait outside was one thing. His discovery that he was related to the horse of Alexander the Great was quite another. Out of anger he kicked a stone which disturbed a sleeping gerbil. It ran frantically in circles until it was pounced upon by a black cat.
Bast morphed into her human form, spat out the unhurt gerbil, whilst at the same time frantically gestured for water. “Oh, I do so hate it when that happens.”
“Not as much as I hate being related to Alexander the Great’s horse,” mumbled Alex.
“What about that snake god, Bast? Is it safe for you to be here?”
“Oh yes, Kate, as Meretseger looks after the Theban Hills, and this valley is far away from them. What worries me is not Meretseger, it is that you are about to go into the tomb of Ay without any backup.”
“We understand,” said Kate to which Alex and Cairo nodded. They were all too aware that this tomb would be protected by Ay’s gods, making it impossible for a rescue by Ramses, Nakhtifi or any of their friends. “I’m confident that this is where the gold is coming from. It’s the only conclusion that makes sense.”
“Yes, it makes sense, especially knowing Ay as I do, so that is an even better reason to be careful.” Bast turned back into a cat and ran off, just before the gaffir and driver returned. The drone of the generator could now be heard.
Heading down towards the burial chamber, Kate, Alex and Cairo did not feel anywhere near as brave as they had outside. Kate grabbed ever harder onto Alex’s arm.
Cairo walked down backwards because he wanted to be facing in the right direction for when he had to run, not if, WHEN!
It did, however, turn out to be a total anti-climax, because nearly an hour later, with the gaffir now demanding that they leave, nothing bad had happened, in fact nothing had happened at all. They had failed to find any new clues, had not met any ancients, and had found no gold.
On exiting the tomb, they sat in the shade of the covered tourist waiting area feeling dejected. Their driver revved the engine of their mini-bus in order to get the air-conditioning to kick in. Once the internal temperature had been reduced
from unbearable to just about tolerable, they would be heading back to the Winter Palace.
Alex stood to take the couple of paces needed to look at the simple diagram his father had stood by. It was then that something came to him. Excitedly he turned to Kate and Cairo, and said, “Trust me.” They looked at each other as Alex walked, almost ran, over to the mini-bus. Just a few seconds later it was leaving with the gaffir, though without them.
“Are you stupid or what!” bellowed Kate. “It is well over forty degrees out there, well over a flipping kilometre to the entrance of the Valley of the Kings, and all we have is half a bottle of water and a pack of sandwiches.” Kate was looking in her backpack as she said this. She could not find the sandwiches. Looking up she could also no longer see Cairo. “Forget the sandwiches,” she said.
“Please let me explain.”
“You had better, Alex, as yesterday you were beaten up by a three-thousand-year-old woman. I promise you that that is nothing compared to what I can do to you.”
“She might have been over three thousand years old, but that means she had lots of time to practice.”
“Okay, I will give you that,” she said as she tried to stifle a slight smile. “So now what is this gem of knowledge?”
“Dad said that here we are at the very end of the Valley of the Baboons, and that this valley is also known as the Valley of the Monkeys. I think that that is the clue.”
“What clue?”
“Well, you can control monkeys by surrounding them by water.”
“What!”
“Monkeys are frightened of water.”
“Yes, I saw that in Planet of the Apes, but what has this to do with the gold?”
“I really don’t know. It seemed to all make sense a few seconds ago, now nothing does.” Alex sat down and put his face in his hands.
“Okay, get down on all fours, Bucephalus, as you are taking Cairo and me to the nearest taxi.”
Anger rose in Alex. “Oh, do shut up, that was a waterfall,” he said as he pointed to a narrow groove at the rocky end of the valley, just beyond where they were standing. “The entrance to the gold chamber is directly below that.”
Cairo, who had now returned after finishing the sandwiches, was clapping away.
“How the hell do you know that?” asked Kate as she held Cairo’s hands together.
Alex did not respond immediately. “I really don’t know,” he eventually said with confusion written across his face.
Kate stood and swung her arm for all it was worth. As the blow connected, it almost sent him flying.
“What did you do that for, because the gold is there? All we have to do is follow the waterfall, or rather the water, as it splits into two and surrounds the gold chamber before it heads deeper underground.”
“I did that because you were confused, so I helped you to focus.”
Even though Alex was initially annoyed with Kate, he was becoming aware that his ancient memories only came to him when he was stressed. No … when he was angry.
“Perhaps Ay built his gold chamber away from his tomb, due to so many tombs being robbed in ancient times.”
“Sorry, Kate, I might be more than a little confused, but I don’t think that this has anything to do with Ay.”
“Why?” said Kate as she put her hands on her hips.
“Why? Because both you and Cairo have memories from the time of Nakhtifi and Merenptah, whilst mine–”
“Yes, yours are of a horse,” said Kate cutting right across him.
“Yes, mine might be of a horse, but this horse knows that Alexander, whilst only being in Egypt for a short while, left a complete military unit in Thebes who collected all their finds down there.” Alex jabbed his hand towards the ground to emphasis his point and then suddenly calmed, looked at Kate, and half smiled. “You said that to get me angry, didn’t you?”
“Yes, and it worked. Did you notice that you called Luxor, Thebes? Your dad does that, you never do.” Kate turned to walk over to where Alex had said that the waterfall had existed in ancient times. She did not have to walk far, and thankfully, as it was such a deep vertical groove in the rock, it was out of the sun, which was now high up over the valley. Just the few paces she took in the bright sunlight caused Kate to perspire excessively. Alex and Cairo now had something else on their minds, as they watched a yellow, orange and blue car approach.
“It’s Rose,” thought Alex.
“It is food,” thought Cairo.
It was indeed both Rose and food. “Hey, Kate, Rose is here.”
On hearing Alex call over, Kate, who was already hot, sweaty and dusty from just the short while that she had been crawling around on the ground, in her attempt to locate any sign of an entrance, ran over to Rose. “Wonderful,” she thought, as they shared a quick hug before heading out of the sun.
Once under the most welcome shade of the tourist waiting area, just outside of the tomb of Ay, the picnic was brought out. Rose had even brought a reasonably sized fan with her, which drew its power from her car. It rattled and shook as it swung from left to right and back again, though nobody was complaining, as it offered them all the chance to really cool down.
“Well, that is excellent news,” said Rose after hearing of Alex’s revelations. “You are totally convinced that this is the site of Alexander’s plunder. If you are indeed correct ...” Rose gestured for the youngsters to hush as they had all interjected that they were indeed correct. “Okay, I accept that you are correct.” Rose stared at the site of the ancient waterfall. “This is the most wonderful news, because if that is indeed Alexander’s depository for, shall we say, found artefacts, it is not a tomb, so it could not be better.”
“Because there will be no ancient gods guarding it!”
“Exactly, Alex.”
Kate was a little miffed that Alex had got in before her. She tried to think of something to add, though she could not. Suddenly a thought came to her. “Couldn’t Sobek swim through to the gold, like he did when he brought us out of the well?”
“Good thought, I can see your thinking. He, like any ancient god, has much more freedom to move around. Now let me think … Firstly, what you are trying to get into is from the Greek period, so for the Sobek you know, it is well outside of his time. Once excavated and open, yes, he like any ancient god could enter, in just the same way as we will enter.”
“So, we need a Sobek from the time of Alexander to get in for us,” said Kate rather excitedly.
“This is where my second point comes in. There is no Sobek from Alexander’s time, Kate.”
“Why is that, as we saw Alexander’s Thoth, as well as his Horus, in Luxor Temple?”
“Because, as you well know,” said Rose in a gentle and caring way, “the pharaohs of ancient Egypt created the gods they needed. And Alexander, when he was made pharaoh, obviously did not feel that he needed a Sobek.” Rose paused before saying, “It was still a really good thought.”
Even though she was not the hero of the moment, Kate considered that she had recovered well.
“I am now going to see your father,” said Rose to Alex as she looked at her watch. “Yes, we still have time.”
“Time for what?” asked Kate.
“Never you mind, young lady, but I think, with just a modicum of luck, that I can make things happen quite quickly.”
“What things?”
“Now, does anybody want to come back to the hotel with me?” asked Rose as she ignored Alex’s question.
“No, they can stay here and talk to me about what they have discovered,” said Bast who appeared from nowhere. “You will get things done much quicker on your own. You always do!”
The three youngsters had been chatting away to Bast for quite some while. They were talking about the warlock and possible ways to defeat him, when they became aware of a rumble, a drone, which became ever louder. A black Mercedes with just the single numeral ‘one’ painted on the number plate approached. It was the Governor of Luxor’s car,
though the tinted windows failed to let anyone see who was inside.
It was followed by a procession of three cars, all black, though these did not have tinted windows. They were full of people, one of which was Ali, who was waving frantically, along with everyone they knew from Africa restaurant. The final vehicle looked like something out of an Indiana Jones film. It was a large army armoured truck that was painted in desert colours with guns pointing out in every direction. A much larger turret gun sat on top, complete with an Egyptian soldier. He was wearing big black goggles and an oversized helmet which wobbled as the vehicle approached. It turned out that his helmet was unstrapped, which was the norm. His boots were probably unlaced as well. This had the effect of making him look both menacing and comical at the same time.
“It must have been a very smart car when it was clean,” thought Alex, because now the Governor’s extremely dusty black Mercedes looked a dirty shade of grey. It pulled to a halt by the entrance to the tomb of Ay with the following vehicles parking wherever they could behind it. There was a delay to let the dust settle before anyone even attempted to open a door.
Kate went to run over to Ali, though Alex stopped her. “There is an order here, we are not in England now.” And just as Alex said that, the driver of the Governor’s car got out and opened a rear door. A cowboy hat appeared.
“Oh no, it is that Hawass bloke, he will do nothing, yet he will take all the credit,” said Alex as his shoulders slumped.
The youngsters stood there and their faces said it all. They had gone from three extremely excited, happy faces, to faces that would look more at home at a funeral. “Only joking,” said Quentin as he stepped out of the car in high spirits before throwing the hat onto the rear parcel shelf.
Rose stepped out of the far side of the car and then, they guessed, so did the Governor of Luxor. Introductions were made. Kate curtsied as if she were meeting the Queen as she shook the Governor’s hand. Official photos were taken, even a short video. They had not initially noticed it, but the driver had already polished all the dust off the car, allowing it to shine yet again.
Death in Luxor Page 22
