The luxor curse, p.21
The Luxor Curse, page 21
part #1 of Kathryn Black Series
“Then we friends, Mr Alex.”
“Friends disagree, Cairo, but it doesn’t mean that we are not friends.” They shared a smile of relief.
Kate opened her eyes as she attempted to get up. “Isn’t it time we got out of here?” she said. She had failed at her first attempt, though with the help of Alex this time she managed to stand. “I’m going to need some help, but we really do need to get out of here. The only reason Merenptah’s soldiers would have left, is if they thought that they had completed their mission. As soon as they find out they are wrong, they will return.”
Alex and Cairo could not have agreed more. Across the wooden bridge and through the doorway they went, startling the defending soldiers. They knelt and bowed their heads at the sight of Kate, then stood to attention. Alex failed to understand anything that was being said, though it was obvious to him that Cairo understood every single word. He continued to support Kate, who was drifting in and out of consciousness, until two soldiers took her from him. Heading out, they carried her up through the tomb at a decent pace. “Even though she is only semi-conscious, we are still following her,” said Alex to Cairo. They shared a much-needed chuckle.
Once they and the soldiers were up by the entrance to the tomb, the lead soldier spoke, to which Cairo nodded. The fly screen door was not at all easy for Kate to get through, though Cairo and Alex were out in seconds. Standing in the courtyard, Alex looked around for a quick exit. It was then that he saw a black cat run up some steps, right in the corner, that none of them had noticed on their way in. Alex turned to ask Cairo what the soldier had said, but he was already half way up the staircase. Kate said, “Later, just follow.” She was obviously struggling, but managed to raise a smile when Cairo shouted down, “Come, come.”
“Come on, Alex, we need to run, the boss has spoken.” Despite Kate’s bravado, Alex knew that she would never make it up any steps unless he helped her. Supporting her under one arm, they quite quickly, in the circumstances, made it up the staircase and out onto the white rock desert above the tomb. Cairo had held the framed corner of the netting cover up which had allowed them an easy exit.
“Don’t let it go, Cairo,” called Alex, as he could see an automatic catch which could only be opened from the inside. Removing the metal bar from Kate’s backpack, which he had kept over his free shoulder, he slid it in-between the wooden framework so that once down, it looked closed. This would allow them to get back in, as he was sure that they would have to.
“Cairo, can we get to Africa?” asked Kate, meaning the restaurant, as they were already in Africa, the continent, though few visitors ever thought of Egypt as actually being in Africa. Cairo ran off in the direction of the car park without saying a word. He returned just a few minutes later in an old battered blue and white taxi that bumped over the rough desert to collect them.
Alex had had the presence of mind to wrap Kate in Cairo’s tasteful orange and white sheet. He suspected that Cairo would have had to tell the Tourist and Antiquities Police that a tourist was very sick, in order for a taxi to be allowed to drive across the desert. This was a great help, just as long as nobody saw a tourist covered in her own blood, and blood that had so freely flowed from a wound created by a dagger, which had been thrown by a three-thousand-year old attacker. This most certainly was not something which Alex ever wanted to even attempt to explain, otherwise he could see that he would be the one wearing white in some European home for the insane.
Chapter 16
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Revelations at Africa
As they slowly made their way up to the roof at Africa Restaurant, Alex, who was supporting Kate, stopped on the first floor where he ushered her into the toilets. It was a further ten minutes before they were back on their way. Kate was wearing a new turquoise galabeya, whilst Alex was carrying a bag, containing not only her bloodied top, but also Cairo’s now bloodied sheet. Slowly, he helped her up the final few stairs, only to find, much to their surprise, that Three was sitting there with Ali, as if it was something he did every day.
Cairo was definitely more shocked than either Kate or Alex, as his dad seldom left the Winter Palace. On the infrequent occasions that he did, it was more often than not to attend a family wedding, as he didn’t do funerals or anything to do with babies. Cairo only knew of his vast family from weddings, when they would all get together on a Thursday evening to celebrate the union of yet another happy couple. Even then, Three was often absent, as work was more demanding of his time, and if the truth was to be told, he was not going to waste all of his very few holiday days attending weddings. Yet here he was on the roof with Ali, for no obvious reason.
Ali motioned for the three returning explorers to come over to their table. Kate’s legs were giving out after all those stairs, and though Alex was doing his best to support her, she was very gradually sliding to the floor. Cairo, being short, was unable to offer any really useful help, though he tried his best. A waiter slipped a chair behind Kate, onto which she sank, before he rather quickly slid her over to where Three and Ali were sitting. She folded her arms on the table, her head dropping down into them. Kate’s head remained slumped in her arms whilst Alex and Cairo had heads which were overflowing with questions. Three and Ali looked at them with a knowing eye, though it was Three who spoke, “Once Kate is back with us, we shall talk.”
“How long will that be?” asked Alex politely when he really wanted to scream, “What the hell is going on?”
“Once we have eaten she should be okay. It was a very small scarab, as all the larger ones had already been found, but thankfully it was very powerful.” Three said this as if it was the most natural thing in the world, whilst Alex wondered how he knew what had happened, when he had not been in the tomb with them. Nobody should have known except the three of them, and they certainly hadn’t had time to tell anyone. Alex wanted to explode, but something inside restrained him, as it always did. This had the effect of making people think that he was a push over, when in fact, mentally, he was the strongest of them all. He listened, took it all in, and analysed everything. Letting other people do the ranting and raving, he watched for those little tell-tale signs which people missed whilst their tempers got the better of them. Right now he was having a major internal battle to retain control.
His thoughts were momentarily diverted by the meal arriving, a meal they had not ordered. Both Three and Ali tried to get Kate to eat some small pieces of white fish. Raising her head, she pushed the fish away. Pressured by Three, she somewhat reluctantly took a piece. On swallowing it, she felt a warmth come over her, a warmth which had nothing to do with the heat from the sun.
They were protected by a canvas cover whilst being cooled by a large ceiling fan which was most welcome, even if it did have the most annoying squeak. After her reluctance to eat the fish, she was now reaching out to take another small piece, then another. Alex and Cairo both went to try a piece, however Three motioned for them to try the battered fish from a different plate. “That is special Nile fish for health, and Kate needs it all. You will enjoy the Red Sea fish, and do not worry, as we will all be able to talk soon. Things are moving much quicker than we could have hoped for.”
Alex was not sure if Three meant ‘things are moving much quicker’ in reference to what had just occurred in the tomb, or with regard to Kate’s recovery, which did seem to be coming on a pace. The expectation that they may actually find out, sometime soon, what was going on, didn’t mean that Alex was content to wait, though he would, especially as with so many questions spinning in his head, he had no idea which one to ask first. He hoped that Three would answer many of them without any prompting, leaving him to ask just those which remained unanswered.
Cairo was really concerned that his father might have lost his job, so he just had to ask. “Oh no, son, management knows that I am here, as there are greater forces at work. Everything is well, or it will be, once you have completed all your chores this evening.” Three then continued in Arabic. With every sentence the expression on Cairo’s face brightened. As Three finished speaking, Cairo was absolutely beaming.
There followed a few minutes of silence where everyone picked at their food rather than ate it. Alex, for the first time since they had arrived, became aware of his surroundings. They were the only people on the roof as even the waiters had disappeared. Ali must have closed the restaurant, so this was going to be a most secretive conversation. It then dawned on him that they were not at Ali’s table, where they could see across the Nile, but in the middle of the roof, where they could not be seen by passers-by.
He was worried by just how little he had taken in of their immediate surroundings, before trying to convince himself that it was down to his mind being on ancient soldiers, pharaohs, and of course the near fatal injury to Kate. After taking all this into consideration, it still worried him, as it had meant that he was vulnerable, and if he was vulnerable, then they were all in danger. “This will not happen again,” he thought, as he mentally beat himself up. Noticing the small details was what keep them safe. He felt extremely disappointed because he knew he was brighter than this. His mind flashed back to the wooden seating area, a major clue, which he had also missed, yet it had been so glaringly obvious. He thought of his parents talking to Aggie over dinner last night, as if he was not with them. When they were going on and on about him not being university material, and though it had hurt at the time, he now began to wonder if he was as bright as he thought he was, and of the possibility that they were correct after all.
Working hard to suppress his negative thoughts, he was succeeding, until a black cat leapt from the floor onto the end of their table. The cat gave a knowing nod, then jumped down, but despite Alex looking, he could not see where it had gone. His negative thoughts returned as he mentally kicked himself. He should have been aware of the cat, aware of everything around them, as it may not have been a cat that had gotten this close. It could well have been someone who was trying to hurt them … perhaps kill them. It really did get far too close, actually sitting on the end of their table, before he noticed it.
From nowhere he heard Cairo’s voice in his head saying, “Our ancestors can only follow us on their path. We cannot make them follow our path.” He now knew that Kate’s theory was indeed correct. The cat reminded him of Bast, and Bast was not an ancestor, and neither were Thoth or Anubis, they were ancient gods. Gods were gods, so they must be able to go anywhere, whereas ancestors could only move on routes that were there in their time. It was only a theory, his theory, but this thought relaxed him somewhat, even though he was now paying far more attention to his surroundings than he had previously. In his mind he still had a very large question mark over how the attacking soldier had managed to get his dagger into Kate. She had been so convinced that they were in a safe area.
It was as though Kate had been listening to his thoughts, because for the first time since they arrived on the roof she spoke. “I was such a fool. We should have gone beyond the wooden bridge in the first place, as then I would have been safe. We all would have been safe.” There was a pause as she nibbled on another small piece of fish. “I saw it, but I saw it too late. The ceiling was curved and rough where we were, not flat and smooth like the rest of the tomb. It was a natural chamber, so it had always been there.”
“But two soldiers came through whilst others couldn’t, which doesn’t make sense,” said Alex.
“Doesn’t it?”
“Sorry, Kate, it doesn’t.” Then something came to him out of the blue, causing him to change his mind. “The false door, it is the false door. It was there in the time of the soldiers in the green and not there in the time of the soldiers in red.”
“Exactly! The false door couldn’t have still been there in the time of Merenptah. Keydora’s tomb must have already been broken into. I would bet anything that because the false door sounded hollow it had been smashed through,” said Kate, feeling somewhat better than she had earlier, though in reality she could have hardly felt any worse. The pain had been all too real and so was the blood. Pulling her galabeya away from her, she peered down, expecting to see a large gash, however, there was no gash to be seen, just a deep red line. Her skin appeared to be unbroken, yet this could not be. Kate slid her hand down inside her galabeya, running her fingers over the area where the knife had entered. This confirmed to her that there was in fact no break in her skin, just a very small lump which appeared to move as she touched it.
Seeing the look of confusion on Kate’s face, Three spoke: “It is the scarab working, and it appears to be doing very good work.”
“Scarab!” exclaimed Kate. Alex and Cairo took her through the sequence of events in the tomb, but it was Three who added in the detail, confirming much of what the boys had already presumed. His long, rambling explanation boiled down to the fact that the scarab had immense healing powers. It would continue to work until it had been completely absorbed by Kate’s body. Hopefully, as seemed to be the case, she would be fully restored to health by that time. After taking in everything that had been said, it felt to Kate as though they had been talking about somebody else, as this could not have happened to her, but of course it had. Feeling down inside her galabeya yet again, she could still feel the lump, or rather the scarab, though it was now slightly less pronounced.
Kate and Alex shared a glance which spoke more than words ever could. Some things did not need to be said. It had been a hard day for them, both emotionally and physically.
Looking to Three, the anger rose in Alex, but his calm exterior said, “It’s you, Three, who is giving Cairo all these words of wisdom. Please don’t deny it.”
“Yes, it is, Mr Alex.”
Alex thought, “Don’t you start with the Mr Alex crap as well,” but he just listened as Three continued.
“I do not deny it, but what I did was for the best.”
“For the best,” said Alex, raising his voice only slightly, “you almost got Kate killed!”
“No, Mr Alex, Kate almost got herself killed.”
Alex’s cool exterior continued to belie how he felt inside, as at this very moment he wanted to throw Three off the roof. Kate’s hand on his arm, her assurance that Three was correct, brought him down from an internal boiling point to a quiet simmer. They both knew that they were normally far better at seeing clues, otherwise how would they have survived school! The pressure of having to complete everything within the space of a two-week holiday, whilst at the same time working around the oldies, had drastically reduced the time where they could sit, talk, think and plan. It was this discussion time that they needed, if they were to pick up on the small clues that they had so far failed to see.
“You have not said much, Cairo, yet you have been so full of wisdom,” said Kate.
Cairo bowed his head. He started to speak whilst looking at the table top, though Three asked him quite politely to let him explain, as after all it was he who knew what Kate was here for. There was no surprise when he admitted to being behind the phrases which Cairo had come out with, or when he revealed that he had pushed Cairo into making contact, though when he finished his sentence with, “as they were all family,” that was a surprise. He obviously knew far more than he was willing to say. The reason he gave for not being upfront from day one, was that regardless of what Kate had seen at the British Museum, she would never have accepted such a life changing story from a small Egyptian, who walked with a limp, and waited behind the bar at a five-star hotel.
Alex, who always supported the underdog, did not agree with this at all. “So everything Steven Hawking says is rubbish, because he is in a wheelchair and speaks through a computer. I think not! We are all important, and together we make the cogs that make the wheels turn.”
“All very noble, Alex, but if I sat and told you that my ancestor was an unknown pharaoh of ancient Egypt, you would have laughed at me. Perhaps you would have been kind enough not to have laughed to my face, but there was absolutely no way that you would have taken me seriously, no chance at all that you would have believed me.” Alex could see Three’s point, yet he hoped that Three could also see his.
Kate spoke whilst wearing her wisest head. “We are where we are right now, and it had to be like this, or we would not have believed. Now, whatever is said between us, we will believe, and we will all be safer for it.”
Seeing Kate look close to her old self, Alex asked how she felt. He regretted asking, as she smacked him on the arm with such force that it almost brought tears to his eyes. “I would feel a whole lot better if I wasn’t sitting here in a sequinned turquoise galabeya. Whatever possessed you to buy turquoise? It’s a flipping dreadful colour.”
Despite the pain, a smile came across Alex’s lips as he was happy that his Kate had returned, though she did actually appear to be a little bit stronger than she had been before. He started to say that it was the only galabeya that the shop had in her size, but she told him to shut up, before hugging him like she had never hugged him before. “I love you, Alex,” she whispered in his ear before letting him go. She continued talking as though those four most wonderful words had not been spoken. Alex had his head so far in the clouds, that he was unable to take anything in. It had been Kate who had nearly died, but it was he who was in heaven.
They talked and they talked, yet despite all the words nobody was really saying anything of any real substance. It was as if there was a line which Three could not cross. Kate was confused by it all. Alex was only now leaving heaven and re-joining the conversation in a meaningful way. In over thirty minutes of conversation, all Three had confirmed was that the soldiers who wore the green and gold were connected to his family, that they were protecting Kate, but the more he explained, the less sense anything made.
