Masks of the Lost Kings (Suzy da Silva Series)

by Tom Bane

  Summoning every ounce of energy, she brought her left foot out of the hole, regaining her footing. In front of her yawned a vertical pit thirty feet deep. At the bottom, she knew, there would be razor-sharp rocks. In the dark, she had somehow stumbled through the circle of metal railings surrounding the hole.

  Gently, she edged back to safety with Omid’s hand still gripping her arm.

  Neither of them spoke for a few moments. It was becoming difficult to get enough air into their lungs.

  “Miss Suzy, I want you to see something. Look.” Omid broke the silence, shining his flashlight along the blocks. “Chisel marks. See? Everywhere.”

  She could see them clearly. They were unmistakable.

  “This chamber may have been used as a decoy for tomb raiders to divert them from the King’s burial chamber,” Omid spoke quietly, trying to reduce the natural echo in the room.

  The silence was as total as the blackness had been before Omid produced his flashlight. Suzy had never experienced silence like this before. She could hear the blood pulsing around her body it was so quiet. She could not believe that it was a diversionary tomb. No tomb raiders would have the guts to come down here for long, would they?

  “So what does it really signify to you, Omid?”

  “I don’t know, some say this place is the Underworld in sculpture, that the pit is the entrance to this Underworld and that its waters would bring new life beyond death. Others think it is a dead end for those poor souls that do not make it, the horizontal tunnel with no end for those who have to live like ghosts trapped in the pit of despair.” He paused. “I think we should head back-up now where there is more air.”

  They made their way out through the same narrow passage and back up the cripplingly low descending passage.

  Clink, clink

  “What’s that?” Suzy’s voice sounded in her ears like someone else screaming as it reverberated back, the echo carried and amplified by the harsh rock wall and the tunnel’s strange acoustic properties.

  “Nothing,” Omid whispered. “Could be a rat or a rock tumbling over. Don’t worry and don’t shout too loud—my ears will bleed.”

  It sounded to Suzy like he was as nervous as she was. It didn’t seem likely they would hear either a rock or a rat down at this level.

  “Perhaps we can take a breather when we reach the top,” she murmured, her voice still clearly audible.

  HHHGGHHHHUPPPMM

  It sounded like a giant horse exhaling right next to her ear.

  “What was that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “But you heard it, yes?”

  “Yes. Maybe a spirit. I’ll turn the flashlight off; it might be raising the spirits.”

  They were plunged back into the pitch black.

  The total darkness inside the pyramid amplified every little noise, including the whoosh inside Suzy’s ears as her blood pressure continued to climb. She wished she could order Omid to turn the light back on but she didn’t want him to know how deeply frightened she was. Forcing herself to stay calm, she followed his slow progress as they crawled up the steep passageway, her heart pounding as the heat grew more intense. The noises continued.

  GRUNT, AAAAGGHHH

  It was getting louder, maybe moving toward them, but it sounded like a hungry lion this time.

  “Come on, Omid,” she hissed, “we need to move. Let’s get going.”

  “Relax, you are fine. I am your loyal steward. No harm will come to you, Miss Suzy.” He seemed to take her fear as a personal affront to his expertise.

  RRRR, AAAAGGGGHHH, GRUNT—RRRRR

  The noise was rasping and flat as it echoed off the walls, closer and closer. Suzy paused and tried to peer round Omid’s hunched form to see if there was anything ahead, but there was only blackness.

  It felt like it was taking an eternity to reach the top, almost as if Omid was deliberately blocking her progress. Something inside her head snapped. She couldn’t stand the tension for a moment longer; she was going to run for it. She barged past Omid, smashing him against the wall in her rush, moving on her hands and knees like a chimpanzee. She scuffed her knuckles painfully on the hard rock, tearing the skin on her palms and knees. Suzy crawled faster and faster, ignoring the pain and the blood on her hands and legs. What was happening? What was the terrible growling sound? She had to get to the entrance. She had to get back out!

  Omid switched the flashlight on behind her, casting long spiky shadows on the tunnel walls.

  AARRRGGGGHHHH

  The noise was right behind her and the flashlight shut off again, plunging her back into blackness. She stopped dead still for a second. There was no noise.

  GRR, GRRR

  It was right next to her but she couldn’t see a thing, didn’t know which way to run. She could feel that the walls were narrowing even more.

  “Get out! Get out! Get out!” She was screaming as she ran, until she finally found herself at the top of the tunnel, where there was just enough moonlight to see around her.

  She had reached the metal grille. Her chest was heaving. She was now just twenty feet from the entrance to the Great Pyramid. She leaped up toward the main entrance tunnel and looked behind. “Calm down! Calm down!” she scolded herself. There was nothing there.

  She rested for a few seconds, trying to get her breath, aware of the pain in her hands and knees and the aching of almost every muscle. She felt better to see the light of the heavens. She could see the stars of Orion through the gate but the entrance grille was still locked. She had better wait for Omid. She hoped he was OK. The noise had gone, thank God.

  “Omid,” she shouted, hearing the frightened sound of her own voice echoing back. Damn! Calm down, calm down, you sound like you’re losing it.

  “Suzy, it’s OK, relax, relax, there is nothing to fear,” Omid called back from the descending passageway.

  “OK, OK,” Suzy took deep breaths of the cool night air beyond the grille.

  Then the rasping cry came again, echoing through the passages of the pyramid making her scream with shock.

  HUMMMPPPPHHHHH, ARRRGGGHHH

  It sounded like a giant wild animal, and it was getting nearer, very near.

  “Suzy, we must find out what it is!” Omid shouted as he finally appeared from the passageway, his face drenched in sweat and smeared with dirt. “It’s coming from inside the pyramid. Let’s go toward the inner sanctum.”

  “OK, but I’m not going there in the dark,” she replied.

  “But I want to save the batteries on my flashlight.”

  “Don’t worry; I’ll buy you some new batteries when we get out!”

  Omid looked faintly affronted by the offer but said nothing.

  “Omid, what is that noise? It sounds like a trapped lion!”

  “It may be Khufu’s guardian spirits. I have not heard it before, but they are not evil as long as you show respect.”

  Willing herself not to scream, Suzy followed Omid and the flashlight, her heart racing like never before. She kept her focus on the floor in front of her, not wanting to stumble and cut herself any more. Khufu’s guardian spirits? What on earth were they doing going nearer to the terrible noise?

  They had to bend double again to get into the three-foot high passage and every fiber of her body wanted to get out of the pyramid and stretch in the cool, moonlit night air.

  Omid switched the flashlight off again and she felt a wave of irritation.

  “Switch it back on,” she commanded.

  “No need.”

  “Omid, do I have to make you switch it back on again?”

  She didn’t actually know how she was going to achieve that, but it seemed worth trying anything. Omid appeared not to hear her. After a few moments, she tried a different tactic. “Omid, the spirits of Khufu may not see us coming in the dark!” she whispered.

  Still he did nothing to switch the flashlight back on, and they continued to crawl up the ascending passageway.

  BANG! BANG! CRACCC
CK!

  The deafening noise filled the tunnel, knocking them backward like a physical force.

  Then the lights exploded back on, flickering as a steady hum of electricity coursed through the fabric of the stone corridors. Now they could see perfectly and there was nothing there, only smooth rock. Suzy sighed with relief.

  Before them they could see through the entrance to the Grand Gallery, with a corbelled ceiling and an enclave in the middle of the pyramid. At last they could straighten their backs again, the vaulted roof rising spectacularly high above them.

  “Ah, the gods are with us,” Omid whispered, gesturing around them and beckoning Suzy forward.

  ARRRGGGHH, GRRRRRR

  The noise was right beside her and she spun round as something grabbed her leg hard like a steel trap.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Suzy let out a piercing scream, frantically trying to kick free. Looking down she saw a small, red-robed figure lying at her feet, a man with his eyes tight shut, who was clinging to her ankle. “It’s Hamid,” Omid said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “He works here. He must have been snoring. He waits to guide the tourists.”

  He bent down next to the sleeping body and shook the man roughly by the shoulder.

  “Baksheesh, Baksheesh,” Omid whispered into Hamid’s ear, startling him awake as if he had shot a bolt of electricity through him.

  “Arrrghhh … ohh, ohhh … my friend, my friend, what is this, I have slept and had a nightmare … Where are you going?” said the man, releasing his hand from Suzy’s boot as he woke.

  Omid was laughing. “Hamid, don’t fall asleep, my friend, not in here. You will end up being beamed up by Captain Kirky. We are going up the Grand Gallery, my friend. Stay here and look out. Oh, and no loud snoring—it frightens the pretty tourists!” Omid patted him on the shoulder like a pet dog and beckoned Suzy to follow him up the sloping steps. Glancing back over her shoulder, she saw that Hamid had settled back to sleep on the stone floor. She laughed to herself, feeling a liberating rush of relief. She could see now that the walls of the Grand Gallery had acoustically transformed an innocent snore into the blood-curdling cry of a devil. She felt foolish and embarrassed. She vowed to keep her composure better in the future.

  She could see now that the security in Giza was all machine guns and mirrored sunglasses; dig beneath the surface and it was ridiculously casual. Imagine locking a guide inside the pyramid at night.

  “Suzy, look here!” Omid pointed first at a large hole in the wall and then the ground beneath him. “This is the top of the tunnel that runs down to the subterranean chamber, where we just were—it is also called the well shaft. It is a roughly cut passage connecting the lower portion of the Grand Gallery with the lower portion of the descending passageway. We passed it as a gap in the wall on the right hand side below us, remember?”

  “Yes,” said Suzy, “I remember.”

  “It is about twenty-eight inches square throughout its course and there are some rough footholds. There is a belief that this passageway was cut to act as an escape for the pyramid masons who would slide the large portcullis blocks into place to seal the King’s burial chamber. Portcullis blocks were lowered into place in the antechamber sealing off the burial chamber, and then three seven-ton granite plug stones were slid into the ascending passageway sealing off the entire array of upper chambers to where the sarcophagus of the Great Pyramid of Khufu lay in the King’s Chamber. The workers responsible for the plugging would be trapped in the Grand Gallery to die otherwise, and so it is theorized that the well shaft was cut to allow for escape. One of the portcullis stones was found halfway down the well, in a small isolated hole-shaped room called the grotto, which provides evidence of this theory.”

  Omid paused in his flow and looked to see if she was following him. He was used to seeing at least some of the tourists he lectured to looking puzzled and confused, but it was clear that Suzy understood exactly what he was talking about. It was a pleasure to talk to someone so knowledgeable.

  “But wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of the plugging blocks?” Suzy asked. “Any tomb raider could simply climb up the well shaft and reach the main burial chamber in the same way that the masons descended it to escape.”

  Omid thought for a moment. “But the secret is that the passage along the well shaft is passable only one way—downward. It descended through from this point like a slide. Try to climb up it and you would fail. That is another reason we did not try to climb up it.”

  They walked further up the Grand Gallery.

  HUURRRGGGGH

  A deafening snore reverberated against the walls. Suzy’s heart leaped and then she smiled, remembering the slumbering Hamid.

  She had been surprised to see straw and reeds, wood and fragments of rope and pieces of organic matter scattered around the pyramid, although not here in the Grand Gallery. It made her feel that she could see the footprints of the people who built it. This was undoubtedly the work of men, not aliens. It was built by the sweat of ordinary people under the guiding hand of some great architect.

  It was intriguing that some of the blocks were not precision-guided, that large gaps had been filled clumsily with mortar, up until this moment she had only seen tourist shots of the King’s Chamber where the eighty-ton granite blocks were aligned so perfectly that not even the finest piece of tissue paper could fit through. It was still a stunning piece of engineering, even if down in the guts of the pyramid there was a little less finesse.

  “Look here, Suzy, there are some notches in the walls and grooves in the stonework,” Omid said, pointing at the walls of the Grand Gallery. Suzy could see that on either side of the grand staircase there were some deep notches and she could see slightly etched grooves in the wall.

  “This, Miss Suzy, is the work of the ancients. Some say the Grand Gallery had huge granite blocks sliding up and down on wooden slides. The blocks were lowered with a huge counterweight. These notches are where the wooden slides fitted.” Suzy had to admit he was a mine of useful information.

  “But how did they build the rest of the pyramid? The blocks above this level?”

  “They say that the pyramid has a hidden entrance on the ground level that has been resealed. Originally the entrance was open and led to an internal spiral ramp that they hauled the blocks around and up.”

  Suzy had no idea where this theory came from, but it was interesting and quite plausible. She made a note to look into it further. She looked again at the groove marks in the wall. Indeed, it did look like they had been etched by stones as they were dragged past.

  As they ascended the Grand Gallery on the wooden steps built for tourists, the masonry work became increasingly more perfect. When they reached the top of the Grand Gallery they took the short walk to the main burial chamber, also known as the King’s Chamber.

  Suzy was growing increasingly excited, stimulated by all the adrenaline of the previous few hours. She now wanted to savor the moment as she stepped inside this most famous of the inner sanctums of the largest and most ancient tomb in the world. She paused and took a deep breath before stepping inside the chamber behind Omid. It was surprisingly ordinary and yet awe-inspiring at the same time. The walls were made of special blood-red granite as if this room was designed to be the heart. The walls were five blocks high and the roof had nine granite beams stretched across the roof. The masonry was perfect despite the fact that she knew each block weighed more than twenty-five tons; the biggest ones were as much as seventy tons. In the south end of the room was a red granite sarcophagus. Despite all her research she had never imagined it would be this foreboding.

  “There is no evidence that Khufu was buried in this sarcophagus, just supposition,” Omid broke the awed silence. “The sarcophagus is too big to get inside the door, so it was constructed inside the pyramid in situ.” Omid was in full flow now, as eager to share his knowledge as Suzy was. “This stone in the corner is loose fitting.” He beckoned her over to the corner of the room
, “Look, it was filled in with cement in ancient times. Nobody knows what lies behind it.”

  “Air shafts? Where are the air shafts?”

  “Oh, they are here, Miss Suzy.” Omid pointed to two holes opposite one another on the south and north walls.

  “They are bigger than I expected.” She found it difficult to see up them, but she knew they purportedly stretched from the King’s Chamber all the way to the outer surface of the pyramid.

  “One of the shafts is said to point to Orion and the other to the star Alpha Draco. In the Queen’s Chamber, the shafts point to the Dog Star Sirius and the star Kochab at certain times of the year, although not all the shafts are straight, and some are blocked by ritual stones. The famous scientist Rudolf Gantenbrink built a tiny robot buggy with a camera and sent it up the air shafts of the King’s Chamber, but it was stopped by a blocking stone.”

  “Yes I’ve seen that, not air shafts but passageways for the ascent of the soul, then the soul would pass through a stone. It’s just like a hidden doorway.”

  “Do you see this, Miss Suzy?” Omid pointed at one of the blocks in the floor. Suzy could see that it looked slightly different from the others. “This block is number thirteen. It is set at an angle, whereas all the others are parallel. Nobody knows why it lies on an angle.” He straightened up and looked at his wristwatch. “We are running out of time. We still need to see the Queen’s Chamber.”

  Suzy would have liked more time—she felt she was in the presence of a solemn spirit, something she had not felt since she was a little child looking up at the stars, evoking a feeling of the insignificance of man inside this small room.

  ERRRGHHH

  Suzy looked over her shoulder. That would be Hamid turning in his sleep. She smiled; she was enjoying the eccentricity of her newfound friends now that she had relaxed.

  “Come.” Omid was hurrying her on. “We must go to the Queen’s Chamber.”

  Proceeding down the Grand Gallery to the bottom of the wooden steps, they could see the ascending passage and the route to the Queen’s Chamber.