Eddie knocked on it, drawing a yip of complaint. ‘You won’t get much air in there.’
She lifted it again. ‘You don’t need to. Just enough to get across.’ She gestured at the pool. ‘I don’t think the holes are connected by a tunnel - they’re just ways to get in and out of the pool without touching the oil. Once the rim of this thing is under the surface there’ll be air trapped inside it so you can breathe, and then as long as you don’t raise it high enough to let in any oil you won’t get burned. Then you go through the tunnel into the water hole at the other end, climb out, and hey! You’re across.’
Eddie sceptically examined another globe. ‘It’s too thin to keep the heat out for long.’
‘It’s the only way to get across without being fried. I’m pretty sure there’ll be something to stop people just swimming straight there under the oil.’ She held up the primitive helmet. ‘I don’t think we have a choice.’
Eddie made an aggrieved noise as he shook his head, but acquiesced. ‘Okay. But I’ll go first.’
‘No, I will,’ Nina insisted. ‘If there are any obstacles under there and I bang into them, I’ll need you to tell me which way to go.’
‘Are you sure about this?’
‘No,’ she admitted, going to the water pool. She hesitantly dipped a foot under the surface, then steeled herself and slipped all the way in. ‘Oh, ew. I just realised this water’s been sitting here for thousands of years.’
‘Just don’t drink it,’ said Eddie. ‘Although you could say that about any water in Egypt!’
Nina carefully crouched until her head was just above the surface, then reached up to take the helmet from Eddie, gripping the internal handle firmly.
‘Last chance to let me go instead,’ Eddie said.
‘I’ll be fine,’ she replied as he gave her the globe. ‘Hopefully.’ Bringing it down to rest on her shoulders, she submerged.
The helmet took a surprising amount of effort to hold down, wanting to float. The water level rose alarmingly as the air inside was compressed, but stopped just short of her nostrils. Acutely aware of her limited oxygen supply, she dropped as low as she could and shuffled into the tunnel. The helmet scraped against its ceiling.
Something tugged across her chest, a momentary resistance . . . then it was gone.
She had broken the thread.
Eddie and Macy reacted in alarm as a scraping sound echoed from overhead. ‘What is it?’ Macy asked, trying to pinpoint the source.
‘Sounds like a lighter,’ Eddie began, before the sound’s meaning struck him. ‘Shit! Nina, you’re going to have a fire any second!’
He stared at the ceiling in horror as the sound spread, ancient rollers grinding against metal, producing sparks . . .
Lights flared in the small holes.
Something dropped from one, a wad of cloth trailing a thin line of grey smoke. Only a small piece of it had caught light, the glow barely more than an ember . . .
But it was enough.
The cloth hit the surface, the dusty oil rippling around it. For a moment nothing happened - then a flame leapt up, rapidly expanding outwards. More pieces of cloth fell. Many were unlit, the sparks not having caught the material, but it only needed a few for the surface of the entire pool to erupt.
A lake of fire, just as the hieroglyphics had warned.
And Nina was in it.
She emerged from the short tunnel. The echo of her breathing and the almost total darkness were unnerving . . . but not nearly so much as the sudden light. The pool’s floor lit up in rippling orange as the floating oil ignited - and she almost immediately felt the heat, the handle she was clutching warming with alarming speed.
‘Oh, shit. Big mistake. Huge,’ she gasped. Forced to crouch, the best she could manage was an awkward waddle, the water slowing her movements to a slow-motion nightmare.
But this was no nightmare. It was real.
Eddie watched, appalled, as fire surrounded the slowly moving globe. Oil had stuck to it when Nina surfaced, and that too caught light, turning the helmet into a spherical torch. ‘Jesus! Nina, turn round! Get back in the tunnel!’
But she could barely hear him, the crackle of flames consuming all other sounds. Filled with fear, she pressed on. The pool was only thirty feet long. It wouldn’t take long to cross.
Would it?
Another step, then another. Water lapped at her nostrils, making her splutter. Glancing through the globe’s open bottom, she noticed markings on the floor. Hieroglyphs, the Eye of Osiris among them. They almost certainly served a purpose, but she had no time to think what it might be.
The heat coming through the handle was becoming uncomfortable. Not painful, yet - but it wouldn’t take long—
The helmet clanged against something.
Shocked, Nina almost let go of the globe. She tugged it back down and groped ahead with her other hand, finding a stone block that rose almost to the surface. As she’d feared, the pyramid’s builders had ensured that nobody could simply swim straight across below the fire.
She moved crab-like to the left, feeling for the block’s edge. Her fingers found nothing but flat stone. Another couple of steps. Still nothing. She forced herself to slow her breathing, trying to conserve her limited air.
Oh, God, what if the Egyptians had built a maze? If she went into a dead end . . .
There had to be a way through. If the builders had wanted to stop anyone from ever reaching Osiris’s tomb, they could have filled in every tunnel. The ‘right’ people, the priests who turned a king into a god, would have known the path. She just had to find it.
Quickly. Very quickly.
The hieroglyphs . . .
Holding her breath, she tipped her head down into the water. The markings on the floor shimmered in the hellish light from the surface. She had no idea what they said, but the Eye of Osiris was a repeated symbol, its dark iris staring blankly back at her from each.
Except for one.
That iris looked to the left, along the length of the stone slab.
She followed it, hand still outstretched. The handle was now on the verge of actual pain. She flexed her fingers, trying to stave off the moment when it became too hot to bear.
Her other hand was still rubbing against flat stone, stretching on, and on—
A corner!
She gripped the edge, pulling herself round it. A look down revealed another Eye of Osiris, this time gazing ‘up’ towards the chamber’s far end. She went in that direction, quickening her pace. A second upward-looking eye, then one pointing her back to the right.
The smoke from the burning oil swirled up the chimney, but the room’s temperature was rising. Arms raised to shield his face from the heat, Eddie watched the globe slide through the flames on a seemingly random path. It was over halfway across, but there couldn’t be much air left.
Nina was now fixated entirely on following the trail of eyes. The air was becoming foul - and hot.
Another eye. Forwards. Pain rose in her fingers. How much further? Her chest felt tighter with every breath, a groggy sensation washing over her.
Still another eye, directing her to the right. Her fingers were burning, her trembling hand shaking the globe. A bubble of air escaped from the rim, water rising to replace it.
The next eye looked up - and she caught a glimpse of shadow ahead.
The other tunnel!
She pulled the globe back below the surface, ducking as low as she could to force herself through the low passage. The helmet clanged like a bell as it bumped against the stone. Just a few more steps . . .
The air in the globe popped it sharply upwards as Nina cleared the tunnel and her burned fingers lost their grip. Stagnant water hit her face. She coughed, trying to stand. Her legs had turned to rubber. She fell against one side of the little pool, hands scrabbling weakly for the edge above.