Page 135
Story: Shadow Charms
“And nothing on the walls,” Paige added, swinging the flashlight beam around the bare stone walls. “So, I guess we’ll move on.”
They wandered out of the ship room and worked their way to the left, entering the next door which led to a long corridor. Hieroglyphs and paintings filled one wall. Paige ran the flashlight’s beam over them.
“Well, there’s a nice drawing of Cleopatra here, but she’s not holding a magenta crystal.”
“Keep moving,” Dewey said.
Paige hurried down the passage and entered another chamber at the end. She stared out across it while standing on the raised platform with stone steps flanking each side. “It’s a huge, empty room.”
“Any murals? I can’t see anything past this stone half wall,” Dewey complained.
“Oh, sorry,” Paige said, hefting the bag up higher. “There are a few. Let’s check them out.”
She descended the steps and waved her flashlight around at the paintings. The first few contained no information about their crystal.
She continued toward the rear of the chamber, aiming her flashlight at a large mural painted on the wall. In the center, a glowing magenta crystal hovered above the hand of Cleopatra. Three figures bowed in front of her.
“Dewey, this must be it!” Paige tilted the carrier up as she shined the flashlight beam on the depiction.
“Yeah. Okay, we know she had the crystal. But where did she put it?”
Paige swung the beam around the empty room. “If it was in here, it’s gone now.”
“Tarik said they didn’t find anything like it, so it must not have been in here.”
Paige heaved a sigh and returned her flashlight beam to the mural. “I wonder if–“
“Hey! What are you doing down here?” a female voice shouted.
Paige’s blood ran cold. Her knees wobbled as she spun to face the woman.
CHAPTER 27
“Oh, uh, hello,” Paige said with a smile plastered on her face as the strawberry blonde thundered down the stairs and headed for them.
She swallowed hard, beads of sweat forming on her brow.
“Who are you?”
Paige shifted her weight from side to side, shoving the carrier as far behind her as she could while the woman trained her flashlight beam on Paige. “Uh, I’m Paige…Learner. And I’m new here.”
“Paige Learner?” the woman responded. “There is no Paige Learner working on this dig.”
Paige studied the woman’s delicate features. She looked somewhat familiar, but she couldn’t place her. “Well, like I said, I’m new. This is my first day, actually.”
“I’m the dig coordinator. I know everyone here. You are not on this dig.”
Paige nudged her glasses up. “Well, I just came, like I said. And I was trying to get the lay of the land so I can hit the ground running.”
The woman raised her chin, and her eyes narrowed again. She shifted the beam of light to Paige’s hip. “What’s in the case?”
“Oh, uh, that’s my…dog,” Paige stammered.
“Ruff, ruff,” Dewey mimicked from inside his carrier.
“You brought a dog into the desert and then brought it into the tomb?”
“Well, he is a service animal, so he is allowed.”
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135 (Reading here)
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162