to Montu.”
The men’s faces were pale ovals in the darkness, their features ill-defined, their bodies lost among their mates, each voice one among many but speaking for all.
“Some of those old tombs are filled with gold,” yet another said. “Would it not be worth the risk?”
A grizzled oldster at the front of the crowd spoke up. “A lot are empty, too, long ago rifled by men who’ve defiled the dead to satisfy their greed.”
“I’d wager my father’s donkey that the malign spirit is one of the disturbed dead,” said the water boy standing beside him. “Who else would wish us ill simply because we spend our days toiling in this valley?”
The surrounding men murmured assent, their voices rising in a chorus of agreement.
Bak muttered an oath under his breath. His plan to set to rest the workmen’s belief in a malign spirit had gone badly awry. “Are you certain, Pashed, that the old shaft in which they threw me leads nowhere?”
The chief architect stood, hands locked behind his back, looking toward the ruined temple. “There is a burial chamber, I feel sure, but it’s long since been closed. The mountain above has settled through the years. It collapsed the robbers’
shaft and I’d guess the tomb itself. A man braver than I-or far more foolhardy-might venture inside with mallet and chisel, but I’ve no wish to be buried alive.”
“You’ve never been inside?”
“Perenefer has crawled to the end, but no one else, and he only the one time.”
“I suggest you send him down in the morning to be sure no new attempt has been made to reopen the tunnel. I’ll go with him.” Bak made the offer reluctantly. For a task so perilous, he could not expect another man to go alone.
He doubted they would find any sign of fresh digging. If the intruders had been excavating there, trying to reach the burial chamber, they would not have thrown him into the hole, drawing attention to the tomb and losing their chance to continue within. An inspection must be made nonetheless.
“Also, assign the crew who’ve been removing stones from the old temple to another task elsewhere. I mean to seek for signs of the intruders, and I want no fresh disturbance to destroy or hide any traces they might’ve left.”
“Who do you think they were, sir?” Hori opened his mouth wide in a deep yawn. “Tomb robbers or men pretending to be a malign spirit?”
Bak spread his borrowed sleeping mat on the rooftop of Ramose’s hut and sat down on it. He much preferred slumbering under the stars to sharing the crowded and smelly quarters of the workmen. “I’m too tired to guess, Hori.”
The scribe got down on his knees before him and wrapped a swath of linen covered with a sour-smelling poultice around his skinned arm. “If they were the malign spirit, wouldn’t they have been carrying a light to frighten the workmen?”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Bak spoke through gritted teeth. The salve burned like fire.
“If they were tomb robbers, do you think they found a likely target?” Kasaya asked.
“Other than the shaft they threw me into, I noticed no signs of burials when we explored the temple today. Tomorrow we’ll look again.”
Finished with the knots that held the bandage in place, Hori plopped down on his sleeping mat, took off his broad collar and bracelets, and laid them with his scribal pallet.
“Would you recognize them if you saw them, sir?”
“I’d recognize only the one. The second man struck me from behind.” Bak heard again the words “Let’s get rid of him” and his expression hardened. “If ever we meet-and I vow we will-I’ll look forward to repaying him in kind for dropping me into that shaft.”
The next morning soon after first light, Bak returned with Hori and Kasaya to the ruined temple of Nebhepetre Montuhotep. They found Pashed and Perenefer there ahead of them, waiting beside the old tomb robbers’ hole. The foreman did not hesitate to let himself down into the shaft, taking a torch with him. It was no more than two and a half times the height of a man, he assured them, and so Bak found it when he allowed himself to be lowered. Which made him wonder if the previous night’s intruders had wanted him dead or had simply used him as a distraction while they made their escape.
At the bottom, the tomb robbers had cleared a rough chamber in which to stand while they excavated deeper and raised the dirt and rocks to the surface. A pitch-black hole about the size of the one above led off at a downward slope in a westerly direction. A close examination around its mouth revealed that the material through which it had been cut was the debris used to fill the tunnel after the ancient king’s burial. A slight discoloration off to one side hinted at an earlier attempt to reach the burial chamber.
Other than the sandal Bak had let fall the night before and Perenefer’s footprints, the light sprinkling of sand on the floor showed no sign of intrusion. Both men were convinced no one had been inside the shaft since the foreman’s last ex-pedition, but they agreed that one of them should go on to the end while the other remained behind to call for help if he became stuck or if the tunnel collapsed. Perenefer, who had been there before and knew what to look for, was the most suitable of the pair to enter the hazardous tunnel, and he took for granted that he would be the one to do so. Bak made no secret of his relief.
“If the tunnel’s as it was when last I saw it, it’s not very long. Only six or eight times the height of a man.” Perenefer handed a coil of stout rope to Bak and tied one end around his own waist. “If I yell, pull as if the lord Set himself was after you. If you can’t pull me out, call for help. I’d not enjoy spending my last moments buried alive.”
The thought made Bak’s skin crawl.
Taking an oil lamp with him, Perenefer got down on hands and knees and crawled head-first into the dark, con-fined passage. Bak knelt at the entrance, paying out the rope as the foreman moved forward. All the while, he prayed to the lord Amon that the tunnel would not collapse.
The chamber where he waited was hot and smelled musty.
The torch sputtered, giving off the noxious odor of rancid oil. At times bats would squeak somewhere within the tunnel and several would fly out, their daytime slumber disturbed by the man who had invaded their dwelling. Bak could not begin to imagine how uncomfortable Perenefer’s passage must be, how many other denizens of the darkness he must be encountering.
The time seemed endless, but finally Bak heard Perenefer’s muffled words. “I’m coming out. Keep the rope taut.”
Bak had not realized how long he could hold his breath until the foreman backed out of the tunnel and he allowed himself to breathe once again. Perenefer rose to his feet.
Neither he nor Bak said a word; they just looked at each other and grinned.
“Has the tunnel been extended?” Bak asked.
Perenefer shook his head. “No, as you thought. You’ll have to look elsewhere for whatever those men were after.”
Pashed and the foreman returned to their duties at Djeser Djeseru. Bak, Hori, and Kasaya spent the morning searching the ruined temple, repeating their previous day’s effort, but looking now for signs of a tomb and for minute traces of the intruders. In the end, they summoned Perenefer and Seked, who brought a team of men to help. They found nothing.
Whatever the two men had been doing the night before, they had left no visible sign. If a tomb other than that of the long dead king had been dug beneath the temple, it was too well hidden to find.
“If the malign spirit always makes himself known, as the workmen believe, either carrying a light or somehow making himself look. .” Lieutenant Menna paused, frowned.
“What did the artist say his friend Huni saw? A white ghost-like figure?”
Bak walked with the guard officer along the river’s edge, looking at the dozen or so skiffs drawn up on the narrow beach. “He’s probably wearing a white tunic. Made of a sheer linen, I’d guess. Something that picks up the light of the moon and makes it appear to glow.”
“Here’s the skiff I thought your father might like.” Menna stopped in front of a nearly new boat much like the one the fishing boat had destroyed. As usual, he looked superb, making Bak wonder how he managed to stay so neat and clean on so hot a day. “One man should be able to sail it easily.
Ideal for a physician, I’d think.”
