The Cult of Osiris

‘Thanks. And it’s Nina,’ she added, after a moment. ‘Call me Nina.’

The young woman’s expression brightened a little. ‘Okay. Nina.’ She walked back into the chamber.

‘So,’ said Eddie, ‘what’ve we got?’

At first glance, what Macy had discovered seemed nothing special, a symbol less than two inches high carved into the stone just below the ceiling. It was a stylised eye - the same one featured in the logo of the Osirian Temple.

Eddie checked a compass. ‘Okay, so it’s looking . . . towards two hundred and ten degrees.’ He took out a map and spread it on the stone floor. ‘So we’re after a canyon on that heading, right?’

‘The silver canyon, yeah,’ Nina confirmed.

He used the compass to align the map with the real world. ‘There’s a fair few canyons out in the desert that way,’ he said. ‘What did the zodiac say, exactly?’

‘Just that the second Eye of Osiris sees the way to the silver canyon. To its start, presumably, because the rest of the hieroglyphs said where to go once you reached its end.’

‘Okay, so we want a canyon mouth.’ He looked more closely at the contour lines, bunched tightly where streams had cut their way down from the desert’s relative highlands. ‘Here,’ Eddie continued, tapping a spot on the map. ‘This canyon leads up to a big open plain, and it starts right in line with where the eye’s looking. It opens out here,’ another tap, ‘so going seven miles west takes you to . . . here.’

Nina leaned closer. The point Eddie indicated on the map contained nothing. Literally nothing; the contours were so widely spaced as to make the region practically flat. ‘If that’s the right canyon.’

‘It’s about fifteen miles from here, and the terrain’s not too bad. We can drive out there, if we’re careful.’

Nina gazed at the expanse of emptiness on the map. It didn’t seem likely that an unknown pyramid could possibly be out there, but she had discovered other incredible sites in equally barren environments. ‘We’ll check out the canyon first - and if it seems to be the right place, we’ll follow it and see if it really leads to the Pyramid of Osiris.’

‘It must do,’ Macy said excitedly, standing up. ‘Everything fits. It’s got to be there!’

‘Let’s actually find the bloody thing before we start celebrating,’ Eddie cautioned.

‘We will, I know it! Oh, my God! We’ll be famous! Okay, you’re already famous, but I’ll be famous too!’ She hurried outside, pausing to collect the scattered pages with a slightly embarrassed look back at Nina. ‘If the canyon’s only fifteen miles away we’ll be there in no time!’

‘She’s never driven in the desert, has she?’ said Eddie as Macy splashed back across the hall. He noticed Nina staring after the younger woman with an expression somewhere between wistful and jealous. ‘What?’

‘I used to be that enthusiastic once,’ she said. ‘I kinda miss it.’

‘You are still that enthusiastic,’ he told her, folding the map. ‘Christ, once you start on about something I can’t shut you up.’

‘No, I mean . . .’ She sighed again. ‘I’m only twelve years older than her, but it feels like a lot more. Where the hell did the time go?’

‘You’re not going to get all depressed again, are you?’ said Eddie, mock-chiding. ‘I’ve had enough of that recently.’

‘Yeah, thanks for the sympathy.’

‘No, really, if anybody should be getting depressed, it’s me. I’ll be forty in a couple of years. Forty! That’s all old and grown up and stuff.’

‘I don’t think you’ll be growing up any time soon.’

‘Tchah!’ They followed Macy out of the chamber.

Their battered Land Rover Defender picked its way across the sun-seared desolation. Even with the windows open and the blower on at full blast, the cabin was sickeningly hot, the elderly 4?4 lacking air-con. Eddie, at the wheel of the right-hand-drive vehicle, dealt with the heat with frequent sips from his water bottle, while Nina tried to move as little as possible.

Macy, between them on the centre seat, seemed unaffected by the temperature, almost bouncing with anticipation. ‘Are we there yet?’ she asked, peering at the GPS unit on the dash.

‘Another mile,’ said Eddie. ‘And if you say that one more time, you’re walking the rest of the bloody way.’

Through the shimmering air ahead, something took on form - a cliff stretching from one horizon to the other, cut by Nile floods over millions of years. But as they drew closer, Nina picked out a dark slash gouged into it, something shadowed from the pitiless sun. ‘Eddie, you see that? Could be our canyon.’

‘Could be,’ he agreed, heading for it.

They stopped at the canyon mouth. Nina exited and donned a baseball cap, glad to be out of the draining heat of the Land Rover even if it meant exposing herself to the sun’s full fury. Something in the canyon wall caught her eye. ‘Take a look at this.’ The rockface was a pale yellow-grey, sunlight glaring off the sandstone - but in places the reflected light was brighter still, glinting.

‘Is that silver?’ Eddie asked, making out very fine threads running through the stone.

Macy lowered her sunglasses for a better view. ‘Guess that explains the name. You think there’s more of it?’

‘There must be,’ said Nina. ‘It’d justify the effort of coming all the way out here. Egypt’s got almost no silver deposits, which is why it was considered so valuable back then. Anyone who found a seam would be very rich.’

Eddie looked up the canyon, which rose at a shallow angle. The sandy floor was easily wide enough for the Land Rover, only occasional fallen rocks presenting any likely obstacles. ‘Think there might be any left? Maybe we could scrape up enough for a silver egg cup or something.’

Nina grinned at the odd image. ‘We can see.’

They returned to the 4?4. Eddie carefully guided the Defender up the canyon, dropping them into shadow. Before long the ascent steepened, the turns becoming tighter.

Nina spotted something to one side and told Eddie to stop. ‘I think that’s our silver mine.’ Several roughly rectangular recesses had been dug into the cliff. ‘You’ll have to live without your egg cup, though. All the best stuff ’s been taken.’

‘Well, arse. Must be the right place, though.’

‘I told you,’ said Macy. ‘We just have to follow the direction of Mercury from the zodiac and we’ll find it.’

‘I dunno,’ Eddie said, sceptical. ‘A temple being buried by sand I can go for, maybe even something the size of the Sphinx . . . but a pyramid? They’re not exactly hard to miss.’

He started the Land Rover again. The ground became even steeper, the walls closing in. The Defender rounded another turn, and entered a tight channel, beyond which was visible nothing but open sky. They had reached the far end of the ravine.

Eddie stopped as they came out of the canyon, checking his compass and the GPS before pointing. ‘That’s the way the zodiac said to go. Macy, there’re some binocs in my rucksack - can you get them for me?’

Macy handed him the binoculars. ‘Can you see the pyramid?’

‘I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with . . . S.’

‘Syramid?’

‘Sand,’ was Nina’s more realistic guess.

Eddie nodded. ‘Shitloads of sand, I was going to say, but near enough. How far away is it meant to be?’

‘One atur,’ said Nina. ‘Six point eight-five miles.’

He checked to each side, still finding nothing. ‘There’s definitely nothing pointy.’ He entered new co-ordinates into the GPS. ‘If it’s there, this should take us right to it.’

They set off again, the vast empty plain opening out all round them. Nina kept watch on the GPS, its display counting down the distance. Four miles, three, two . . . There was still nothing visible ahead, no lost monument rising from the dunes. She looked at Macy. The eagerness on the young woman’s face was visibly fading with almost every foot they travelled.

One mile. Still nothing in sight. Eddie gave Nina another glance, his expression warning of impending