“By whom?” Rhiow said. “And why?”
“By British nitrate wholesalers,” said Wallis, “for fertilizer.”
“What?”Auhlae said.
Wallis looked uncomfortable.“You’ll understand that, even as dry as Egypt is,” he said, “sooner or later, if you simply bury things in the sand, they’ll decay: and if you mummify them and bury them in the sand, they decay in a very controlled manner, so that finally very little is left but material which is very high in nitrites. Some bright lad got the idea of bringing huge cargo ships down there, digging up the mummies, or what was left of them, and shipping them home to England to be sold as fertilizer forehhifgardens and farmland.”
“Dear Iau,” Auhlae said, “how …” She broke off, apparently unable to think of a word strong enough to describe her feelings.
“Now as I understand feline thought from the writings of the old priests,” Wallis said, “once you leave the body, there’s no great concern for it: you’ve another life waiting, and you go to it and get on with it. So in that regard, whether one ends as fertilizer or food for some scavengeris probably moot. But what troubles me is how many of those mummies were buried with a specific kind of protection. Most of my fellow translators have rendered it as a charm against extreme heat and cold. But I’m not sure they’re right in this. I read it as a spell, a piece of wizardry intendedto protect against the Great Fire and the Great Cold that the spell insists will follow it. Some kind of destruction, ‘like the sun falling’, that’s the usual phrase—and then ‘a winter without end’.”
“Iau,” Rhiow said softly.
“And now,” Wallis said, “suddenly all these mummies, many of them with one version or another of this spell in place, are being taken away and destroyed. Ground up and thrown on people’s gardens,” Wallis said, with a grimace of distaste. “Whatever else we know about the Egyptians of that period, we know they were not foolish people. Their priests in particular. I am sure some of them were wizards—possibly wizards of great accomplishment. I don’t believe that anyone would be so careful, over a space nearly fifteen hundred years, to make sure that all these cat-mummies had one version or another of this particular spell written in their bandages. And there are some disturbing hints in the carvings in the great tombs that suggest removing these massed spells would be dangerous. There are mentions of some great destruction that would come. First fire, a terrible fire that will devastate the world. And then ice, ice forever …”
Urruah looked at Rhiow: the others all exchanges glances.“There were visionaries among thoseehhif,”Arhu said,“and they worked with the wizards of other species who lived then. Almost certainly with our people too. What did they see?” He looked at Rhiow. “Whatwecame to try to prevent?”
“It’s not beyond probability,” Rhiow said softly. “They might not have understood the science behind the idea of a nuclear winter … but they might have foreseen it, all right, and devised a defense. It wouldn’t surprise me that it would involve our people, either:ehhifalways connected us with warmth and the sun … with reason. We told them often enough about Aaurh the Mighty, and how she warred the world free of the cold at the beginning of things … something for which sa’Rrahh always hated her.” She looked up at the youngehhif.“Hwallis,” Rhiow said, “how much of this spell against the Great Fire do you know?”
“Most of it,” he said, “but not all. The whole thing, the ‘master’ version of the spell, was only rarely written out because it was so long and complicated. Most often it was sketched on the bandages in an abbreviated form. Even in the earliest days of the mass mummy burials, few mummies contained it, or the carved version of it on an amulet, again because of the complexity. I had hoped to lead another expedition this year to go back to Bubastis and hunt specifically for the full form of the spell, which the carvings in the Pyramids suggested could reconfirm its protection of the world if it was pronounced by a ‘person of Power’ in the right time and place. But now the cemeteries are almost empty: their contents are in the holds of cargo ships, ground to powder. Even if I went now, I wouldn’t likely find what I’m looking for. What I fear is that protection against thisGreat Fire, this Great Ice, whatever they may be, is being lost … and that the way is being opened for something terrible to happen. So I asked Ouhish to see if he could get in touch with some wizards, people who might know what to do.” He shrugged. “And here you are …”
“It sounds like the Lone One has been purposely dismantling this protection,” Urruah said. “Using pawns, as usual, to do Its work.Ehhif,and their innocent greed …” He glanced up at Wallis. “Sorry. Nothing personal.”
“No offense taken,” Wallis said.
“So what do we do?” Siffha’h said.
“I would imagine try to find the whole spell,” Rhiow said, “and reinstate the protection. It could very well help with other matters.” She glanced at the others. “It might even make those other occurrences impossible …”
“Might,” said Auhlae.
“I take your point,” Rhiow said. “Hwallis—would it help if we were able to look for your full version of the spell, the master spell of which these others are fragments, in other museums?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Our collection of cat-mummies here is the biggest in the world.”
“Not in a hundred years, it won’t be,” Urruah said.
Wallis looked perplexed.“I beg your pardon?”
“He means,” Arhu said, “that we’re from the future. And the collection of that British Museum is a lot bigger thanthisone.”
“My God,” theehhifsaid. He fell silent for a moment, then said,“I can give you a description of what to look for, both in the written and the carved forms. Will that help?”
“Very much indeed,” Rhiow said. “Ruah?”
“Show me what you have in mind,” Urruah said. “No, I don’t need a drawing: do it in your head. While we’re both working in the Speech, I can see what you’re thinking, a little. Don’t rush, just make pictures …”
They spent a few minutes about it, until Urruah was satisfied.“That’ll do,” he said. “I should have no trouble passing it on.”
“And I think I know someone who might be able to help us,” Rhiow said. “Come on—let’s get on with our other business for the day. When we get back home, we can start making some inquiries.”
They all got up. Wallis rose as well.“This has been most extraordinary,” he said. “When can I expect to see you again?”
“I really don’t know,” Rhiow said. “We’re in the middle of a fairly complex business at the moment … but I think you may have helped us with it, for which we thank you very much. Ouhish, we don’t have a lot of time to linger: will you tell Hwallis about what we were discussing with you earlier?”
“Gladly. I hope we see you again soon,” Ouhish said, “for this problem has us both frightened …”
“We’ll be in touch as soon as we can,” Auhlae said. And she waved her tail, amused. “It’s been charming to speak with anehhif who knows our language.”
Wallis bowed.“Dai stih?,”he said.
“Thank you,” Rhiow said. “I hope we may go well on this business of yours … and others.”
Ouhish saw them out, down to the great flight of stairs reaching down to the Great Russell Street entrance. The walk back to the street where the timeslide spell was sited went a little more swiftly than the walk to the Museum had, partly because of familiarity and partly because all of them were getting bolder in dealing with the traffic: though it hardly moved much faster than the fifteen miles an hour at which London motor traffic moved in their native time, the vehicles were a good deal less lethal. They found the street conveniently empty, and Urruah found his“tripwire” under the mud and activated the spell-circle. It rose up in an instantaneous, blazing hedge of fire around him, and hard behind him came Siffha’h, straight onto her power point, and the others all close behind.