Seven Ancient Wonders

BUT ONE EON, BUT YOU SHALL LIVE NO MORE.

ENTER NOT AT ALL, AND THE WORLD SHALL BE NO MORE.

'What do you reckon?' West asked suddenly, not turning to face her.

Lily froze, put on the spot. 'I ... I don't know . . .'

West swivelled. 'I'm thinking it's about death and the afterlife, in the form of an address from Amun to the Jesus-like character, Horus. 'The embrace of Anubis' is death. If Horus accepts his death willingly, he will rise again and confer a benefit on his people. A bit like Christ dying on the cross. But enough of that. What brings you here today, kiddo?'

A vigorous discussion followed about Australian-American relations, about the rise of America as a sole superpower, and the concerns of Australia that its friend was becoming something of a global bully. 'Sometimes a good friend,' West said, 'has to show tough love. It's also much better to get taught a difficult lesson from your friend than from your enemy.'

West then abruptly changed the subject. 'Lily, there's something I have to tell you. When all this comes to a head, if it turns out as I

hope it will, I'm probably going to have to go away for a while—'

'Go away?' Lily said, alarmed.

'Yes. Lie low. Go someplace where no-one can find me. Disappear.'

'Disappear . . .' Lily gulped.

'But I want you to be able to find me, Lily,' West said, smiling. 'Now, I can't tell you where I'm going, but I can point you in the right direction. If you can solve this riddle, you'll find me.'

He handed her a slip of paper, on which was written:

My new home is home to both tigers and crocodiles.

To find it, pay the boatman, take your chances and journey

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of Hell.

There you will find me, protected by a great villain.

'And that, kiddo, is all I'll say. Now scram.' Lily scampered out of the study, gripping the slip of paper. She would pore over West's riddle for months—even going so far as to punch every word of it into Google—trying to figure it out.

She had other questions, however, which were answered.

Such as where West had acquired Horus.

'Horus's former owner was once Huntsman's teacher,' Wizard said, as the two of them sat outside in the brilliant African sunshine.

'He was a nasty man named Marshall Judah. Judah was an American colonel who taught Jack how to be a better soldier at a place called Coronado.

'Judah would walk around the Coronado base with Horus on his shoulder, yelling at the troops. And as an example to them, he would beat Horus if she didn't perform as she had been trained. He would say, 'The only way to get obedience is through discipline and brute force!'

'Huntsman didn't like this. Didn't like seeing Judah being so cruel to the falcon. So when West left Coronado, he stole the bird

from her cage in Judah's office. Ever since, Jack has treated Horus with kindness and love, and she returns his affection tenfold.

'Lily, as you grow up, you'll find that some people in this world are not very nice at all. They favour cruelty over kindness, power over sharing, anger over understanding.

'These people think only of themselves. They seek to rule over others, not for others' sakes, but for their own desire for power. Lily, one day you are going to be very powerful—very powerful— and I hope that if you learn nothing else from us here, you learn that the truly great people think of others first and themselves last.

'For an example of this, look no further than Huntsman and Horus. A beaten bird will obey a cruel master out of fear. But a kind master it will die for.'

One day, Lily was helping Wizard organise some of his ancient scrolls.

She loved all his old stuff—the parchments, the tablets. To her, they held within them all the mysteries of ancient faraway times.

On that particular day Wizard was collating everything he had on a series of Egyptian architects all named Imhotep.

Lily noticed some design plans for a quarry-mine in a place called Nubia, with four rising levels and lots of water-driven booby traps. Marked on the plans were descriptions of all the traps, and in the case of a set of concealed stepping-stones, five numbers written in Egyptian hieroglyphics: 1-3-4-1-4. Wizard placed those plans in a file marked 'Imhotep V.

She also saw a really old drawing that looked like an ancient game of Snakes and Ladders. It was titled: ' Waterfall Entrance— Refortification by Imhotep III in the time of Ptolemy Soter' and it looked like this:          .__                         —.

Wizard noticed Lily's interest and so he taught her things about the various Imhoteps.

Imhotep III, for instance, lived during the time of Alexander the Great and his friend, Ptolemy I, and he was called 'the Master Moat Builder'—he had been known to divert entire rivers in order to provide his structures with uncrossable moats.

'This waterfall entrance,' Wizard said, 'must have been a beautiful decorative cascade at a palace in ancient Babylon, near modern-day Baghdad in Iraq. The lines dictate the course of the flowing water. Sadly, in all the excavations of Babylon over the years, it has never been found. Such a shame.'

Lily spent the rest of that day curled up behind some boxes in the corner of Wizard's study, reading all manner of parchments, absolutely rapt.

She hardly even noticed when Zoe came in and started chatting with Wizard. It was only when West's name came up that she started listening more closely.

Zoe said, 'It's been good to see him again. Although he seems to have changed since we studied together in Dublin. He's become even quieter than he already was. I also hear he's quit the Army.'

Lily listened, although she never looked up from the parchment she appeared to be reading.

Wizard leaned back. 'Gosh, Dublin. When was that—1989? You two were so young. Jack's been down a long road since then.'

'Tell me.'

'He quit the Army soon after Desert Storm. But to understand why, you have to understand why he joined the Army in the first place: to both please and spite his father.

'Jack's father was a great soldier in his time, but Jack was better. His father had wanted him to join the military straight after high school, but Jack wanted to study, to go to university. But he acquiesced to his father's wishes . . . and quickly became a much more formidable soldier than his father had ever been.

'Jack rose through the ranks, was fast-tracked to the SAS Regiment. He particularly excelled at desert missions; he even set a

new record on the desert survival course, lasting 44 days without being captured.

'But unlike his father, Jack didn't like what they were turning him into: a killing machine, an exceptionally good killing machine. His superiors knew this, and they were worried that he'd quit—that was when they sent him to study with me in Dublin. They hoped it would satisfy his intellectual needs for the time being, and then he'd stay on with the Regiment. And I suppose it did satisfy him, for a time.'

'Hold on a minute,' Zoe said. 'I need to backtrack for a moment. Jack told me once that his father was American. But he joined the Australian Army?'

'That's right,' Wizard said. 'Thing is, Jack's mother is not American. To please his father, he joined the military, but to spite his father, he joined the military of his mother's birth-nation: Australia.'

'Ah . . .' Zoe said. 'Go on.'

Wizard said, 'Anyway, as you know, Jack's always had a sharp mind, and he started to look at Army life