'I don know what to expect, but whatever it is, it isn't happening he
grunted with disgust.
'There is still the last part of the quotation,' Royan whispered. ''The
river flows towards the earth. Beware, you violators of the sacred
plain, lest the urrath of all the gods descend upon you!''
'The river?' Nicholas asked. 'As Sapper might say, I don't see no
perishing river.'
Royan did not even smile at the cockney accent.
Instead she searched the profusion of writing and images that covered
all the walls around them. Then she saw it.
'Hapi!' Her voice was shrill with excitement. 'The god of the Nile! The
river!'
High up the wall, on a level with the head of the great god Osiris, the
god of the river looked down upon them.
Hapi was'a hermaphrodite, with the breasts of a woman and the genitals
of a man protruding from under the pendulous belly. The mouth in his
hippopotamus head gaped wide to display the great curved tusks that
lined his cavernous jaws.
Standing on a pile of ammunition boxes, Nicholas was able to reach the
Hapi image at the full stretch of his arms.
As he touched it he exulted, 'This one is raised also.'
''The river flows towards the earth,'' she called up to him. 'It must
move downwards. Try it, Nicky.'
'Give me a chance to clear the edges.' He used the point of the blade to
chip the outline of the god free, and then he probed the plaster beneath
it and found another vertical slot running towards the floor.
'Ready to give it a go now. He folded the knife and tucked it back into
his pocket. 'Hold your breath and say a little prayer for me,' he
instructed.
He settled both hands on the image of the god and began to pull steadily
downwards, Gradually he brought more pressure to bear upon it, until he
was hanging all his weight on it. Nothing moved.
'It's not working, he grunted.
'Wait!' she ordered. 'I am coming up.'
She scrambled up on to the boxes behind him and tight,, placed both
hands around his neck. 'Hang she ordered.
'Every little bit helps, I suppose,' he agreed, as she lifted her feet
and hung her full weight on his shoulders.
'It's moving!' he shouted. Suddenly the image of Hapi gave way under his
hands, and with a sharp grating sound travelled down to the bottom end
of the groove in the wall.
Nicholas lost his grip on the smoothly rounded shape as it came up hard
against the end of its slot. The stack of boxes under them toppled, and
both he and Royan dropped back to the floor of the gallery. She was
still hanging around his neck, and he lost his balance as she pulled him
over backwards. The two of them sprawled on the agate floor in an untidy
tangle of arms and legs. Nicholas scrambled to his feet and pulled her
up beside him.
'What has happened?' she gasped, looking up wildly at the damaged Hapi
