Page 14

Inside a Dark Tomb

M eanwhile

“You should probably remove your cravat,” Diana suggested, watching as her second cousin took off his top coat and hat and left them on the stones just outside the Robber’s Tunnel entrance. “Salman said it’s very hot inside.”

David glanced into the passageway. “I thought it would be much smaller,” he said, undoing his knot and unwinding the long cloth from around his neck.

“It appears we won’t have to bend down for this part,” she said, lighting his lantern. “But there is a passage further on where we will.”

With one last look in the direction of Cairo and their group below, the two set off into the pyramid.

“Why do you suppose this passage is so accessible while the other entrance is not?” David asked, glancing about as they made their way.

“This is tall enough for something large to be brought in,” she replied. “Tall but not too wide,” she added, pausing so she could lift her fanoos higher.

“Didn’t pharaohs require a means to make the trip to the afterlife?

” he asked, following suit with his own lantern.

Given how small the other passageways were that they had seen on the schematic of the pyramid, it hardly made sense that there be one near the exterior that allowed one to walk upright.

Diana inhaled softly. “A ship, yes,” she said. “But would they have brought it inside the pyramid?”

He shrugged. “If so, it was probably brought in this way.”

Although the going was easy at first, the limestone walls far enough apart that they could practically walk side by side and the ceiling high enough so they didn’t have to crouch down, circumstances changed when they reached the sharp bend to the left.

A number of blocks seemed to have been moved around, and it was apparent why.

“That’s the way down,” David said, noting how the entrance to the descending passage had been blocked.

“And this is the way up,” Diana said, finding the square opening to her right. She crouched down and held out the lantern in front of her, the light illuminating the smooth-walled gray stone passage for several feet.

“Allow me,” David said. When she seemed about to argue, he added, “I promised Randy I would go first.”

She stepped aside and let him enter first, and once she was inside the upward-sloping tunnel, she understood why her husband hadn’t wanted David behind her.

Her view was of his bum.

“Is there a rope?” she asked.

“Not sure we’ll need it,” he said, his booted feet gripping the stone well enough that he didn’t slip backwards. “But here it is.”

The thick coarse hemp was tucked into the corner. Diana gave it an experimental tug to be sure it was attached to something.

“If you don’t mind, I’m going to pick up the pace,” he said.

“Good idea,” she said, anxious to get through this part of the pyramid.

David scrambled up the passageway, his breathing becoming more labored until he reached the end. He turned and took her lantern as she stepped out and straightened. “Oh,” she said in surprise, her gaze immediately going to the high ceiling.

“I think this is the gallery,” David said, holding the lanterns up to the walls. No paintings or carvings adorned them, though, and he scoffed. “It appears it’s all gone,” he said with disappointment. “There should be paintings, at the very least,” he added.

“According to those books you bought, everything was taken a long time ago,” she replied, reaching for her fanoos . “We have some more climbing to do.”

David turned around and understood what she meant.

At least the sloping passageway was wider and its ceiling rather high, but it was also longer than the others they had been through and the temperature was noticeably warmer.

“Do you suppose the air in here is over four-thousand years old?” he asked.

“Some of it, no doubt,” she replied. “But without the casing on the outside, the structure isn’t completely sealed. The blocks are fitted together rather well, though.”

“Is that what you were examining outside? While you were climbing?” he asked as they made their way up.

“Indeed. I was curious as to how precise the blocks were cut. They are exceptionally well fitted,” she claimed. “But inside?—”

“They are not,” he finished for her, his lantern illuminating some blocks to prove her point. “I suppose they didn’t need to be.”

They remained silent for the rest of the climb, conserving their breath until the floor beneath their feet suddenly flattened and the walls of the passage disappeared.

“We’re in a chamber,” he said in a quiet voice, his words echoing. Even the sound of his breaths seemed to resonate off the smooth stone walls.

“The burial chamber,” she agreed, rushing forward. Her boot steps echoed loudly on the stone floor, and she didn’t stop until her lantern lit a rectangular stone box.

“Is ... is that a sarcophagus?” David asked, his excitement evident.

“Such as it is,” she replied, lowering the lantern into the hollowed out block of granite.

There was no lid, and one corner at the top had been damaged at some point—probably when the lid had been pried off.

Knowing the lid would have been slid into place along a series of grooves and held in place with pegs pounded into holes, she swept her light around the upper edge, pausing it upon finding the pegs broken off. “Damn tomb robbers,” she whispered.

David chuckled at hearing her curse, watching as her fanoos showed the inside bottom corners to be straight and square.

“There’s no decoration on this at all,” David said, using his lantern to illuminate the exterior of the coffin. “And the marks from chisels and drills are definitely evident.” His disappointment sounded in the tone of his voice.

“It was probably quite beautiful at one time,” she guessed, sighing as she held out the fanoos and walked the perimeter of the chamber. Although the sound of her sigh was amplified inside the empty chamber, only gray stone walls showed in the light.

Gray stone walls and a human face.

Her gasp of surprise and David’s mighty yowl of fright echoed off the walls.