Burton waved his hand at the heavy stone walls surrounding them. “If there is no other way out, then your secrets die with me.”
“I must have your word in any case.”
“You have my word that I will never speak of what I have seen or what you tell me. I swear upon the life of the only person I love, the light of my heart, Isabel.”
Kaji nodded. “I see in your eyes you do love her. I believe you will keep your word.”
“You called these tunnels the Roads of Rostau. You say you are the guardian of the Highland of Aker. You have shown me the Black Sphinx that holds the Hall of Records. Tell me what it all means. Who built this and why?”
Kaji closed his eyes, and his voice was low as he spoke through his pain. “My order is an ancient one. Going back before the time of Mohammed. Before the Christian’s prophet you call Jesus. Before even those old ones who are written of in the Koran and the Jew’s Torah. Before the twelve tribes of Israel, before the first pharaoh, Menes, before Babylon.”
“You are a priest of an ancient religion?”
“No, I am a man.”
Burton’s confusion showed on his face. “But you said your order?”
“I am one of the wedjat.”
Burton knew many languages, and in his time in Egypt he had studied the hieroglyphics and language of the Old Kingdoms of Egypt. “One of the ‘eye’?” Kaji used his good hand to point to his eye. “A Watcher. In the old tongue, a wedjat. Different names in different tongues around the world, but Watchers nonetheless.”
“What are you watching?”
“There are others who walked our Earth before the dawn of time. The ones who built the Hall of Records. Who placed the Box of Death under the Great Pyramid.”
“Who are they?”
“Ones Who Are Not Men.”
The words echoed off the stone walls and died in the silence that followed. Burton reached down and wrapped his hand around Kaji’s right hand. “You are telling me the truth?”
Kaji nodded. “Al-Iblis. Did he seem like a normal man to you?”
“I met him only once, and it was in a dark room. I could not tell.” Burton did not add the sense of evil he had picked up from the man.
“We have watched Al-Iblis and those like him since the very beginning of man,” Kaji continued. “And we have guarded the special places. Places even they have forgotten as the millennia have gone by. That is my job. To watch this place. The Highland of Aker, as it was known in the old days. The Great Pyramids and the Giza Sphinx above. And more important, these tunnels… the Roads of Rostau, which lead to the six divisions of the Duat.”
Burton was trying to absorb the information. “The Duat is the sky… the night sky. How can there be parts of it down here?”
“Much has been lost over the years. I know only what I was told by my father, who in turn had it handed down to him from his father. My son will replace me and knows all I know. I have seen only three of the divisions of the Duat, one of which you have just seen, which holds the Hall of Records. The others are farther along the Roads.”
“What is in the other divisions?”
“That was not part of my promise.”
“Who are they? The Ones Who Are Not Men?”
“We don’t know exactly where they came from, but the records say they came out of the skies. From the stars. They are called Airlia. That is one word that is not different among the Watchers, even though the name among the peoples of the world have changed. I believe it is the name they call themselves.”
Burton’s grip on Kaji’s hand relaxed. “You are telling me a story, not truth.” Kaji’s dark eyes locked into the Englishman’s. “I am telling you this on death’s doorstep, facing the final darkness. You can choose to believe it or not.” Burton ran a hand through his coarse beard. He thought of the Black Sphinx with the eyes of fire he haft just seen buried deep under the Plateau. The statue between the paws. He did not think men had built that. In many of the places he had been around the world there were legends of powerful creatures from the stars, of “gods” with strange appearances and powers. If there was anything his travels had taught him, it was that man knew very little, particularly with regard to the past. “Go on.”
“There are two groups of these creatures, the Airlia. The legends that have been handed down among the wedjat say they warred against each other long ago. Before the pyramids were built, before even the Sphinx above was formed. My ancestors in Egypt transformed these creatures and their wars into our gods and legends. Both sides used, and continue to use, men for their own ends in this war.
“We call one group of men who are used the Guides. These are men who have been affected.” Kaji’s good hand reached up and touched his head. “Here. In the mind. They no longer are in charge of themselves, but do the bidding of the aliens even if they desire not to, but there are those who desire to serve even before their mind is changed. Al-Iblis is one of these. His name has passed down through the years as an enemy of man.
“The other group is called The Ones Who Wait. They are like men, but not men. They are different not only in the mind, but their eyes are not like ours. Elongated like the large cats of the southern jungles. And the eye itself is red inside of red. I have never seen one, but the legends say it is so. And they are not born of woman.”
“How can that be?”
“I only repeat what my father told me.”
Burton absorbed the other man’s words. It was incredible, the words of myth, but he had seen the Black Sphinx. He had read the old scrolls, talked with aged priests and monks, and they had all hinted at something like this. And he had met Al-Iblis in Mecca. Even though he had not clearly seen the other, Burton had picked up a very strange feeling from him.
“These Records…” Burton’s excitement overwhelmed the hopelessness of the situation. “That is what I came here for. The Hall of Records. You said it was inside the Black Sphinx?” Kaji nodded. “The Black Sphinx is the Hall. The Records are supposed to be inside. Your search is why you have to die.”
“But these Records… why must they be hidden?”
“I do not know. It is the law of my order to protect them and watch.”
“Why only watch?”
Kaji looked down at his trapped hand. “I did not think it would end like this. You were very cunning, Englishman. I have left others to die in the tunnels.”
“Why do you only watch?” Burton repeated.
“Two reasons. One is we cannot fight these things; They are more powerful than we are. There have been times in the past when men have tried to fight them, and every time we were crushed. Many people have died at their hands. There have been times when men have tried to look at the Records, and it has always brought a storm of evil and death. Our primary goal as Watchers is to keep the line of man alive.” Kaji’s last words trailed off and his head slumped against the wool shirt.
“The second reason?” Burton prompted.
Kaji stirred. Burton could see that the man’s eyes were becoming unfocused. He had seen that before and knew death was not far away. “Because we don’t know which side are the ones we must fight.”
“But if the Hall of Records is here, why do you not just look it up?”
“It is not allowed. And as I told you, we do not have the key.”
“Who has the key?”
“I know only what I need to know to do my duty,” Kaji said. “I have heard there is a place to the south of here. Beyond the source of the great river Nile, where these things had a city. Under a mountain with a white top. That one of the Airlia went in that direction long ago. Legend has it that this Airlia was killed before he could complete his journey and that the key was later buried with him.”
“Who killed this creature?”