“It says that there is a black box along the Roads, in another chamber, that can destroy this entire structure. If one tries to get in and doesn’t have the key, the black box will self-destruct.”
“An Airlia nuclear weapon or power source?” Gwalcmai guessed.
“Most likely,” Donnchadh said. Several such devices had been used on their home world with devastating effect. It made sense that the Airlia would booby-trap their most precious artifact.
The six men listened to them without comprehending. Donnchadh did not want to take the time to explain. She reached into her pack and pulled out the scepter they had brought from so far away. She placed it on the image on the pedestal, where the faint outline of it was etched. The glowing orb overhead blinked briefly, then quickly lit again. The surface of the stone shimmered and the scepter began to sink into it. Donnchadh released her grip.
The stone slid down, revealing a six-foot-high opening leading into the body of the Black Sphinx. The passageway had several steps going down. The tunnel was almost three meters high. A thin line of blue lights ran along the center of the ceiling. They flickered, then came on. The corridor seemed to open up about fifteen meters ahead.
“It looks like the world has not been destroyed,” Gwalcmai noted.
Donnchadh ignored him and entered the Hall of Records. Gwalcmai began to follow, then noticed that the six Judeans were hesitating. He gestured angrily and they reluctantly shuffled after him.
Donnchadh walked through the corridor, feeling the weight of the alien metal all around her. The Hall on her own planet had been lost when the Airlia headquarters was destroyed. They’d only had the Airlia records of it.
She entered a room in the belly of the Sphinx. The ceiling was seven meters high, the walls the same distance to either side and the far wall ten meters away. In the center of the room were four poles that held up four horizontal rods. At the top of each pole was an exact replica of the head on the staff, red eyes glittering. Thick white cloths hung from each of the rods, hiding whatever was enclosed. To the left, against the wall, were several racks of garments. Gwalcmai joined her, the six Judeans hanging back.
“Is it my imagination or are those things looking at us?” Donnchadh asked, as she pointed at the four heads.
“Let’s move right,” Gwalcmai suggested. They did so, and ever so slightly the heads turned, tracking them.
“I would assume the Ark is behind those curtains,” Donnchadh said.
“We will get it,” one of the Judeans said.
“I don’t think—” Gwalcmai began, but the one who had spoken and another stepped forward. The four heads locked in on them and before they made their third steps, red bolts shot out of the eyes of the two closest heads, hitting both men.
The bodies dropped to the floor, lifeless, with smoke rising from the holes in their chests. The other four Judeans bolted, and Gwalcmai chased after them. Donnchadh stared at the four heads, trying to figure out a way around this unexpected development. Gwalcmai returned, marshaling the four surviving Judeans into the chamber, where they clung to the wall, as far from the center as possible.
“The garments,” Donnchadh said. “They must be for whoever handles the Ark.” She moved along the wall, toward the racks. One of the heads tracked her while the other three remained trained on the others in the room.
“Are you sure?” Gwalcmai asked, with a concerned look at the two still-smoking corpses.
Donnchadh made it to the racks without getting fired at. She lifted a white linen robe and slipped it over her head. Then she examined the rest of the accounterments. She glanced over her shoulder at Gwalcmai and the four survivors. “Care to join me?”
Gwalcmai herded the four men along the wall to her position. Donnchadh noticed that the garments were arranged ina specific order and she figured that was the way she should put them on. She took a sleeveless blue shirt with gold fringe and put it on top of the robe. Then a multicolored coat. She noted that metal threads were woven throughout the fabric of the coat but it was missing something to connect it at the shoulders. There was a shelf on top of the rack and she picked up a wooden box. Opening it, she found two stones nestled inside. She used those to fasten the robe. As she did so, a strange tingle passed through her body.
“Are you all right?” Gwalcmai asked. He had put on one of the white linen robes and a red coat. There were about a dozen similar garments hanging from the racks, and the four Judeans dressed themselves in these.
Donnchadh nodded. “There’s some sort of field built into this outfit.” She grabbed a breastplate festooned with a dozen jewels and looped the neckpiece for it over her shoulders. The entire outfit was heavy and she felt the tug on her shoulders from all the weight.
“You’re missing something,” Gwalcmai noted, pointing at two empty pockets on the shoulders of the breastplate.
“The urim and thummin,” Donnchadh said. “The stones activate the Grail. They might be stored with it in the Ark or in a separate place. I have a feeling Aspasia would not put them here, though.”
Also on the shelf was a crown consisting of three bands, each stacked on the other. Done dressing, she turned toward the center of the chamber. The four guard heads were aimed directly at her.
“Ready?” Donnchadh asked. She didn’t wait for an answer. She moved toward the white curtain, the heads tracking. She paused, heart racing, as a flash of light came out of the eyes of one of the heads and struck the ground in front of her, then ran up her body, stopping on the breastplate for a couple of seconds, then moving on to the crown. She must have passed the test, because the light went out. Gwalcmai and the others were in single file behind her. Donnchadh reached the veil. She knelt and lifted the white cloth, then passed underneath, the others following.
The Ark rested on a waist-high black platform. It was a meter high and wide, and a little more than that in length. The surface was gold. There were rings on the bottom through which two long poles — obviously to be used to carry it — extended.
And there were two more heads on top of the Ark on either end. As soon as she had entered, they had turned and fixed her with their inhuman gaze. Red light flashed out of both and the process she had just gone through was repeated as the light went over her garments, pausing on the breastplate and crown, then both lights went out. The two heads turned back to gazing at each other over the lid of the Ark.
Donnchadh was tempted to open the Ark, but she knew that time was of the essence. Also, even if the Grail was inside, without the two stones, they could do nothing with it. Gwalcmai issued orders and the four Judeans moved into position on the poles. They grabbed one of the white curtains and ripped it down, draping it over the Ark. Then the four surviving Judeans lifted it, and Donnchadh led the way out of the Hall of Records.
XII
It appears that the Pharaoh has changed his mind,” Gwalcmai said as they observed the column of dust many kilometers to their rear. There was a similar column ahead of them — the thousands of Judeans whom they had freed. They were currently three days’ march from Giza, and Gwalcmai had been complaining for the last forty-eight hours about the extremely slow pace of the Judeans. They had left the fertile land around the Nile and were now well into the desert but they were not making much progress — at least according to Gwalcmai’s standards.
Moses was at the head of the Judeans along with the four who bore the Ark. Behind was what Gwalcmai had in his better moods referred to as a gaggle of people and in his worse moods described using various expletives in their own tongue. Families, animals, wagons, were spread across the desert with little organization, simply following the man who had rescued them out of bondage — for the time being at least.