Beltasar was much more cooperative with me since that day, too. She kept me apprised of the progress the Scarabs were making. In fact, I was even present when the hardworking beetles laid the final stone on the third tier. I couldn't take credit for it, but there were fewer accidents on site since the pyramid had been reseated. There was never a day when there wasn't one, but Doctor Cobra had had to make fewer pyramid calls.
The very next day the first stone of the fourth tier was laid, to great fanfare from Samwise. He made a speech and everybody was given an extra measure of beer. I was starting to like the Valley of Zyx. It wouldn't be a bad place to spend eternity.
One more milestone, so to speak, occurred during that next week. Aahz managed to sell a stone on the ground floor of Phase Two, and nagged the carvers into getting started on it so there would be something to show his potential customers. That meant laying out the foundation underneath the invisible ramps.
Swarms of the Scarabs walked backwards on their hands to roll the debris off the site. They smoothed it out in two days flat and tamped the thick foundation into place, all in less time than it would take me to paper a single wall. I was incredibly impressed. With a crowd of customers and workers on Camel-back and magik carpets sailing alongside, the slab itself, chosen by Aahz and the master scribe for its smooth sides and perfection of proportion, was transported by Beltasar's crack team over the surface of the desert. The weather, as usual, was perfect. Emissaries from the Pharaoh Suzal's court were in attendance. I wasn't happy to see Gurn there, sneering at everybody as if that was in his job description. I looked around, hoping to see Chumley, but he didn't show up. Aahz and I had not wanted to send a message to him directly, worrying that we might blow his cover in the court.
The Scarabs settled the stone at the edge of the new foundation, placing it just where Aahz and the purchaser had agreed it would go. It wasn't at a corner or in the center of any of the walls, so it must have been cheap as slabs went. Still, it was an impressive hunk of rock. We all gathered around to watch. The Scarabs hung onto people's clothes and headdresses or hovered in mid-air to get a better view. Gurn insinuated himself just ahead of me. I had no trouble seeing over his head, but having him so close made me feel as though something slimy had wriggled into my clothes.
The master scribe, Ay-Talek, a Ghordess with the head of a fishing bird, invited us to watch from the front row as her finest stonecarver began the first line of text on the stone. Cay-Man, a Ghord with a long, reptilian face, bowed to us all and picked up his tools.
'Here we go, partner,' Aahz said, his hands on his hips. The client, a used-carpet salesman from the Bazaar, stood beside us with his family clustered around him. 'This is our message to the future.'
Cay-Man set the chisel against the face of the smooth slab and raised his hammer. I found myself holding my breath. He brought the hammer down.
Tap!
A flake of stone leaped away, leaving a curved mark. The Ghord scribes watching broke into tremendous applause.
'What's the big deal?' I asked. 'It's one little chip.'
'Oh, you know,' said Ay-Talek. 'There's nothing more daunting than a blank slab. You can hardly think of what to write first. Once you break the gray space, it seems to go so much faster.'
And Cay-Man did go faster. Tap tap tap tap tap! Tappity tappity tap! Tap! Tap! The first sign took shape immediately, the client's name, and was joined in swift succession by six more. I had been studying the glyphs since our arrival. I could identify a few of the signs as Cayman dug out a thin layer of rock around them and brought them up into relief. I saw the sign for the ancient Ghordess Hat-hed, followed by three eagles and a birdie.
'Golfer,' Ay-Talek translated.
Cay-Man acknowledged the applause of his fellows, then went on to chisel out the figure of a man kneeling with his arms wide apart over his head. I thought back to the lexicon. That sigil meant 'this fish was that big, I swear on my life!' My guess was confirmed as an upside down fishhook was added beside it.
'Going great guns, partner,' Aahz said. 'A few more hundred thousand like that and we're immortal.'
Just as he said that, Cay-Man struck the head of the chisel. The carving tool seemed to spin in his hand. The next thing I knew, it was facing the wrong way. The point plunged into his palm. The carpet salesman's wife screamed.
Cay-Man knelt, clutching his hand. Tears rolled down his scaly face.
'I have an owie!' he cried.
'Don't pay any attention to him, folks!' Samwise said, holding up his hands for calm. 'Someone go get Doctor Cobra.'
I hurried to the carver's side and looked at the wound. To my surprise it was less than an inch long and barely bleeding.
'It's just a scratch,' I said.
'It's not!' the carver wailed. 'I'm going to die. Everything is starting to go black ...' He raised the uninjured hand to his forehead. The crowd crooned sympathetically.
I rolled my eyes. He was enjoying having an audience.
Between a pair of Ghordesses barged a male with a snake for a head.
'I'm Doctor Cobra,' he said. 'Where'sss the patient?'
Cay-Man waved a feeble hand. The doctor homed in on him. He seized the injured limb and examined it, the snake-headed male's beady eyes scrutinizing the wound.
'It is not a serious injury,' he stated, 'but you will require immunization against infection.'
Without further warning, he bared his fangs and jabbed them into the palm of Cay-Man's hand.
'Yow!' the carver yelled. 'I hate injections!'
'Yes, yes,' Cobra said, as if he'd heard it all before. 'But, see? It is already healing.'
To my amazement, the wound started to close up from one end to the other.
'That's remarkable,' I commented.
'Nothing, really,' Cobra said, modestly. 'It's the second most common injury on the site.'
'Let's move this slab out of the way,' Beltasar ordered. 'It can be completed later on! Let us place it in the Phase Two work area.' She zipped over the corner of the foundation and hovered above a perfectly level floor of flagstones that had been laid down beside it.
'Let me help,' Aahz said. He and the used-carpet salesman joined the horde of Scarabs and Ghords who swarmed up to move the historic stone.
'No, we do not need you!' Beltasar insisted. 'Ghords and Perverts ruin everything!'
'Knock it off,' Aahz growled. 'This is my project!'
'On your head be it.' Beltasar flitted back to the stone's destination. 'Proceed!'
'Together now,' bellowed Inhstep, Beltasar's assistant contractor.
Hundreds of Scarabs burrowed down and lifted the huge block. Aahz stooped and got his fingertips underneath the edge.
'Hoist!' cried Inhstep.
The huge stone rose a couple of feet. Aahz's muscles popped under his fashionable tunic as he helped move it. His strength was far greater than mine. Even with help, I couldn't have moved that slab without magik. Together, the team edged slowly over the rammed foundation, backed slowly onto the new work area, and started to lower it.
A loud rumble began. I felt the ground start to shake under my feet. I was thrown to one side. I kept from falling by grabbing onto the air with a handful of magik and hanging on.
'Yeow!'
A familiar bellow reached my ears. I flew to Aahz's side. 'What's wrong?' I asked.
'Stone. On. Foot!' he gritted out. I looked down and realized his toes were partway underneath the gigantic slab of rock. The Deveel merchant, by virtue of having hooves instead of feet, missed out on the same tragedy, but his fingers got caught. He was on his knees trying to tug them loose. Hundreds of
Scarabs had been knocked flat on their faces, their six limbs spread out around them. They flexed their legs to try and heave upward.
'Gee, that's awful,' I said. 'Does it hurt?'
'Of course it hurts!' Aahz bellowed. 'Do something!'
