His eyes wide with fear, Fayed scrambled back up the Grand Gallery. ‘Yes, spiders. Thousands of them.’
‘What if,’ Shavi said, ‘the entire pyramid is filled with them. A repository, a base, perhaps even the place that allows them passage into our world.’
‘Now you’re just trying to upset me.’ Hunter bounded up the slope behind Etain.
‘Stating-the-obvious time: we can’t go back,’ Church said, watching the spiders spilling into the Grand Gallery. ‘We have to stick with her.’
They followed Etain into the stark King’s Chamber, which contained only an empty granite sarcophagus.
‘No exit.’ Church cursed under his breath. The Grand Gallery was now alive with spiders rushing across every available surface towards the entrance to the King’s Chamber.
‘Might as well draw your sword,’ Hunter said. ‘We could probably squash a couple of dozen before they take us apart.’
As the torrent washed towards the entrance, Etain stepped past them and placed one hand on a barely visible indentation in the stone. Instantly, a block fell from above and crashed into the door space. Once the dust had settled, they saw they were sealed in.
As they breathed with relief, Shavi held up a hand to his ear; from every side of the small chamber came the sound of spiders.
‘Let’s review our situation,’ Hunter said. ‘We’re trapped in a tiny room, at the heart of a mountain of stone, surrounded by what could very well be ten billion lethal spiders.’ He looked to Church. ‘Now’s the time to tell us your plan.’
Etain gently edged Church towards the sarcophagus and made it clear that she wanted him to lie in it. Unsure, he complied. When he was lying flat in the cold stone box, Etain pressed something out of his line of vision. The bottom of the sarcophagus fell away, and Church plummeted into the dark.
2
Miller wrung his hands together. ‘Where are we? Inside the pyramid? Or not?’
‘You’ll get used to it.’ Ruth watched the door for any sign of Veitch returning. He’d been gone for at least two hours with the Anubis Box. Ruth had tried to accompany him, but the gods had barred her way.
She waited with Miller in an opulent state-room covered in hieroglyphics and decorated with gold and lapis lazuli. Water splashed from a graven lion’s head into a large rectangular pool that reflected the torchlight. Everywhere appeared cool and peaceful, but there was an underlying air of tension.
Way out of his depth, Miller hugged his knees. ‘Are they really gods?’
‘They like to think they are. Higher powers, say. None of them can be trusted — they’ve all got their own agendas.’
‘I wish Ryan would tell me why he needs me.’
‘Why do you keep giving him the time of day?’ Ruth replied with frustration. ‘You should brain him with a rock the first chance you get.’
‘Ruth!’ Miller tried to see if she was joking. ‘He’s a good man. He just doesn’t know it.’
‘He’s murdered hundreds of decent people, if not thousands. That’s not any definition of “good” that I know.’
Miller shook his head defiantly, but Ruth noted he didn’t press her with any more questions.
‘I’m sorry you got dragged into this,’ she said. ‘You seem all right.’
‘I just don’t understand what part I have to play.’
‘A big part.’ Ruth put a maternal arm around his shoulders. ‘You’re not alone, Miller. We’re all pawns that those higher powers shuffle around the board, and most of the time we’ve got no idea what part we’re playing in this big, incomprehensible game.’
‘I wish I was like you. Confident.’
Ruth was surprised; she didn’t feel confident. Most of the time she was acting on instinct, trying to hold it together. Was that really how others saw her?
‘And that spear you’ve got. Sometimes when I look at it out of the corner of my eye, it doesn’t seem like a spear at all. It’s like a …’ He thought for a moment, then shook his head.
‘I’m surprised Veitch lets me keep it.’
Miller laughed. ‘You don’t know how he feels about you!’
‘What?’
‘He thinks you’re special. He trusts you. And he … oh, it’s not for me to say.’ He looked away shyly, but his meaning was clear.
‘You’re joking. He really thinks he’s got a right to fall for me?’
‘If you knew how strongly he feels-’
‘Shut up. I don’t want to hear it.’
The great gold doors at the far end of the room swung open soundlessly. Four guards in headdresses and silver kilts flanked Veitch, who held the Anubis Box tightly against his chest. The guards had a plastic quality to their faces that Ruth had seen on the younger members of the Tuatha De Danann, as if they had been newly constructed.
‘Sold the human race down the river yet?’ Ruth asked.
‘You’ve got it all wrong,’ Veitch replied. ‘The gods are as scared of this as you are. They don’t want to use it, just keep it safe somewhere.’
‘That doesn’t make sense. They created it.’
‘Who cares? All I know is that it’s going to buy us safe passage across all the Great Dominions. No more of these bastards preying on us. Then I’ll be able to find the Second Key without any hassle and get down to business.’
Miller eyed the box warily. They could all feel some kind of force coming off it in waves. ‘Why haven’t they taken it away from you?’
‘They said they need to prepare for it.’
‘You trust them?’ Ruth asked.
‘No. But they know — like you — that if anyone tries to screw with me, I’m taking the lid off this thing. Then we’ll see what happens.’
3
Ethereal string music echoed distantly and the sweet aroma of incense filled the air. Laura opened her eyes. She was lying on a cold slab, unable to move her arms or legs. The last thing she remembered was stepping out of the oasis of Blue Fire and following in the footsteps of Osiris. Craning her neck, she saw that she was bound from feet to waist with linen mummification strips; further wrappings pinned her hands to her sides and continued up her arms to her shoulders. She only perceived these details peripherally, however, for her attention was almost immediately transfixed by a horror so great it took a second to comprehend. Her chest had been cracked open. She could see her organs glistening from her breastbone to her navel, yet she felt no pain. As the shock subsided, she screamed long and hard and blacked out briefly.
When she came round again, it was with the reassuring thought that she wasn’t human. She could survive this, had already survived things that would have killed anyone she knew. Unable to bear the view, she closed her eyes, calming herself. And when she opened them next, she was not alone.
His skull-head yellow in the flickering torchlight, Osiris sat on a stone throne at the end of the chamber beyond her feet. Beside him stood many other beings, a number of them with animal heads, which Laura guessed were his fellow gods.
‘You have been brought into the Court of the Two Ma’ats to declare innocence of wrongs before the great god, and before the full tribunal of forty-two divine assessors,’ Osiris intoned. ‘You must defend yourself successfully or be destroyed for ever.’
‘You told me I wouldn’t be wiped from Existence,’ she said angrily. Laura was shocked to hear her voice, a rustle of autumn leaves, barely holding on.
‘And you will not. If you defend yourself successfully.’
Laura released a foul-mouthed tirade that at least made her feel a little better.
‘The Brothers and Sisters of Dragons are an anomaly in this world,’ Osiris continued. ‘You were created for a world that does not exist, by a power that does not rule, which is an echo of the one true god that made this place.’
‘I get it. You’re just a bunch of arse-kissing collaborators. You see who’s in the driving seat and you get right behind them. “Yes, boss, no, boss.” I’ve seen your kind in every awful job I’ve tried to do in my miserable life.’ She was proud that she sounded so defiant.