about the telepathic connection. ‘I apologise. I’m new to this psychic business and I don’t know the protocol. However,’ I stood and confronted him, ‘you seem to need a ride to where the action is and I am going that way. So what can you do for me in return? I have no desire to become a psychic.’
‘Look, that is ridiculous!’ I definitely did not want to believe him. ‘I haven’t had visions, seen ghosts, auras, alien beings or anything else magical before today!’
Albray just smiled and vanished.
‘I didn’t mean any offence,’ I appealed to the empty room, fearing he’d gone, when I suddenly felt a kind of tingly sensation, first through my back then all through my body. I felt strong and brave, until I discovered I no longer had control of my actions.
My hand clutched the hilt of an ancient broadsword which I had hung on the wall. I began to wield it with such style and confidence that my fear turned to elation, yet I could not make my mouth form a smile. Then I abruptly brought the sword to rest at my own throat, which made Albray’s argument all too clear.
As suddenly as I’d been seized, I was free again. My arm now felt the weight of the sword it held and the tip dropped to the floor so hard it left an indent in the timber.
‘Holy mother of god!’ I panted in the wake of my sudden burst of energy. I’d never felt so dizzy in all my life.
Fear gripped my heart. If what he said was true, I could be made to do anything. I had no desire to be possessed by an ancient wraith; I was a danger to myself and others. ‘If you agree to advise, teach and protect me, I shall take you to Mt Serabit.’ I was too overawed and terrified to debate the issue any further tonight.
LESSON 8
TRAVEL
I packed the green and blue volumes into my luggage, which made it weigh a ton once I added the other reference books I needed. I would have loved to continue reading Ashlee’s tale during the long flight, but the book was just too damn cumbersome to take on the plane as hand luggage. I packed the aged insect repellent in an airtight container to take along. Perhaps I could get it analysed and find out what the hell was in it? I attached a leather tie to Albray’s stone and wore it around my throat, like a choker; in the light of recent events it was reassuring to know he was close by and, unlike Ashlee, I had no fear of being branded as a pagan for wearing it.
During the flight I reviewed the archaeological history of the mount. I didn’t find any reference to the work Douglas Hamilton had done at the site, but Douglas was the first to admit that he had barely scratched the surface of the project. Serious excavation at Serabit began nearly a century later in 1903, when Sir William Flinders Petrie unearthed the Hathor Temple complex. The sacred shrine was full of alchemical apparatus dating from the time of the Third Egyptian Dynasty through to the Eighteenth Dynasty that spawned Tutankhamen, Amenhotep III, Akhenaton, Queen Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III.
In the Serabit temple complex, over fifty tonnes of white powder had been discovered—a substance which was currently classified as exotic matter composed of monatomic platinum-group elements extracted from gold, meteors, and some mineralrich soil of the Nile. It was conjectured that this white powder was one of the ingredients of the Bread of Light, the others being the asena bush and the acacia tree. The latter two ingredients were still being used to make a bread that was said to have great healing properties. The bread was shaped in a symbol sacred to the Egyptians—a circle with a hole in it, representing the eye of Ra.
I couldn’t help but consider the stone I wore.
Was Egypt the connection that predestined the shape of the enchanted stone? Ashlee had not recorded whether she had questioned Albray about the symbolism of the stone, for ring symbolism was rife among secret orders throughout the ages. I really liked wearing the ordinary little stone; I liked what it said about me: earthy, immaterial, and yet mysterious.
Many other curious items had been found within the courts and halls of the Hathor complex: carved stone rectangular tanks and circular basins, alabaster cups in the shape of lotus flowers, and a good collection of glazed plaques, cartouches and scarabs. Sacred ornaments worked in spirals or with spiral markings were retrieved from the earth, along with basketwork and two conical stones that differed in size. The most curious find, however— apart from the wands made of a hard material that Andre had mentioned on the phone—was the unearthing of a metallurgist’s crucible in one of the several chambers where the white powder had been found.
This white powder sounded suspiciously like that which Ashlee Granville claimed to have in her vial, although from all accounts the powder at the site was not glowing or levitating. My text mentioned that the powder made at Serabit combined three ingredients to produce the Bread of Life; was it only when all the ingredients were combined that the atoms of the substance achieved a high-spin, gravity defying state?
Since my acquaintance with Albray, I wasn’t doubting my great-great-grandmother’s sanity as much as I first had when reading her journal. Albray was proof that there was magic in the world, and if that much of Ashlee’s tale was true, then…?
I couldn’t wait until I had the opportunity to sit down and read on.
I switched planes at Cairo and caught a flight to Sharm el-Sheikh at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Andre’s email had advised that a helicopter would meet me there and take me to the site at Mt Serabit. The closest accommodation was too far away to serve the purposes of the excavation, so they had established a base camp closer to the mount.
My long flight ended at Sharm right on midday and it was stinking hot—and for an Aussie girl that was really saying something.
‘Dr Montrose?’
I turned from collecting my baggage to be confronted by a tall local fellow attired in black—I imagined he was an assassin for a second.
