They found it. She pulled herself up, whooping for breath as she cleared the surface.
‘She made it!’ Macy cried.
‘Thank Christ,’ Eddie said. ‘Nina! Are you okay?’
She made out his voice over the rumble and snap of fire. ‘Super fine,’ she croaked, giving him a weak thumbs-up. ‘There’s a path on the bottom of the pool. The Eyes of Osiris look in the direction you’ve got to go - just follow them!’
Eddie rubbed an ear. ‘Did you get that?’
‘Follow the direction the Eyes of Osiris are looking on the pool floor,’ Macy paraphrased. ‘Couldn’t you hear her?’
‘My ears are getting a bit dodgy,’ he admitted. ‘Too many explosions.’ He surveyed the pool. Nina’s path was clearly visible, a weaving line of disturbed oil. ‘I’ll go next,’ he told Macy, giving her one of the helmets. ‘You get in right behind me, and keep hold of my jacket.’
He lowered himself into the pool, took several deep breaths to get more oxygen into his system, then submerged and duck-walked into the short tunnel. Macy hesitated, then slipped in behind him and took hold of his jacket’s hem.
Knowing what to look for allowed them to make the crossing more quickly than Nina - though the handle inside Eddie’s helmet was still painfully hot by the time he reached the other pool. He stood and tossed the globe aside, breathing deeply as Nina helped him out. ‘Ow, bugger,’ he said, swishing his scorched fingers in the water. ‘And that was my wanking hand, too.’
‘Oh, Eddie,’ Nina chided. ‘Anyway, I should be enough for you.’
‘Well, we’ve got a fire, we just need a rug . . .’
Macy burst out of the water. ‘Oh, my God!’ she gasped, glowering at the lake of flames. The floating oil had now been mostly consumed, the fire dying down. ‘What kind of twisted bastard would think up something like that?’
‘You have to wonder,’ said Nina as she checked that her waterproof flashlight had lived up to its advertising. ‘But you know what’s really worrying me?’
‘What?’
‘There are five more arits to go.’
‘I can’t wait,’ Eddie said sarcastically, running his hands over his clothes to squeeze out the water. ‘So what’s next?’
‘The Lady of Rainstorms,’ said Macy, following his example.
‘Great. Like we’re not wet enough already.’ Dripping, they entered the next sloping passage.
23
The tunnel spiralled deeper into the pyramid. More Egyptian gods adorned the walls, warning of certain death for intruders.
Nina was less concerned about supernatural threats than physical ones. Experience had given her painful first-hand lessons that the more grand and important an ancient edifice, the more sadistically ingenious the traps protecting it.
And the Pyramid of Osiris was very grand and important.
Pillars marking the next arit appeared in her flashlight beam - but there was no new chamber beyond them, the steep passage continuing. ‘I just realised something,’ said Eddie. ‘This’ll take us underneath the room we were just in.’
Nina mentally backtracked through the turns. ‘Think it’ll be a problem?’
‘Well, the next trap’s about rainstorms, and we’ll have a big pool of water right over our heads.’
‘Good point.’ She directed her light at the ceiling. Unlike the painted walls, it was just blocks of plain stone. ‘I don’t see any holes.’
Eddie performed his own examination. ‘Ceiling looks okay . . . but these are new.’ He turned his light to the floor. On each side against the wall were recessed channels, about four inches wide and somewhat deeper.
‘They look like gutters,’ Macy observed.
‘Nothing like ’em up there,’ said Eddie, looking back past the pillars. ‘Yeah, I think we’re going to get wet again.’
‘But what’s it going to do?’ Nina asked. ‘Turn the place into a giant waterslide of death?’
‘Don’t give them ideas,’ said Macy, with a nervous glance at the watching gods.
‘This is the only way down,’ said Eddie, ‘so we’ll find out sooner or later. Unless you want to turn round - ah, who am I kidding? I shouldn’t even bother asking.’
‘It would be a waste to give up after getting this far,’ Nina pointed out with a smile. ‘Besides, the first trap was broken, and we got through the second one without too much trouble.’
‘Oh, yeah,’ he snorted, holding up his reddened hand, ‘wading through a lake of fire was a doddle!’
‘Okay, a little trouble. But we’ve been through worse. So long as we keep our heads, we’ll be fine.’
Macy raised a finger. ‘You remember that the final trap was called the Cutter-off of Heads, right?’
‘Then we’ll duck!’ She shone her flashlight down the slope. The passage continued in a straight line for some distance. ‘We’ll just be really careful and take things slow, okay?’
Eddie put a hand on her damp shoulder. ‘Okay, squishy. But I’m definitely going first, okay?’
‘Lead on, squashy,’ she replied, clapping a hand to his butt.
‘Get a room,’ Macy muttered. ‘Or get a tomb! Ha!’ Nina and Eddie both groaned. ‘What, he’s the only one allowed to make jokes?’
‘That’s ’cause all mine are good,’ said Eddie as he started down the slope.
Nina followed. ‘That’s a matter of opinion, honey.’
‘Tchah.’ His expression became more serious as he went on, alternating his torch beam between the floor and the roof. Something caught his eye, and he stopped. ‘Ay up,’ he said, indicating part of the ceiling. ‘The gaps between the blocks are getting bigger.’
Nina ran a fingertip along the joint. Fine dust trickled out. ‘The mortar’s crumbled.’
Macy bit her lip. ‘Just what you want when you’ve got giant stone blocks right above you, huh?’
‘Definitely take it slow,’ Nina suggested as Eddie set off again.
He nodded, noticing that the apparent shoddy workmanship continued along the ceiling - and also the floor. ‘Whatever this Lady of Rainstorms business is,’ he said, ‘I think she’s about to piss down on us any sec—’
The paving slab beneath his foot dropped slightly.
Everyone froze. From behind the walls came a faint clicking, a domino effect working upwards to knock out a final trigger . . .
A hollow clonk, wood being hit with metal - then an unmistakable rushing noise.
Water.
‘Bollocks,’ Eddie just had time to say before streams gushed from the cracks in the ceiling.
The downpour emerged from about a thirty-foot stretch of the roof, growing in strength - but not nearly enough to sweep anybody away down the slope. ‘I don’t get it,’ Nina said. ‘This couldn’t hurt anyone.’
‘This isn’t the trap,’ Eddie said with alarm. He pointed down the passage. ‘That’s the trap!’
She saw the cracks in the floor widening rapidly as the water rushed over them. ‘Oh, crap. Forget taking things slow - run!’
The substance binding the blocks together wasn’t mortar or cement. It was a mixture of sand and finely crushed limestone, just barely strong enough to hold everything in place . . . and now being rapidly eaten away as the limestone dissolved and the sand was washed out by the flowing water. The slabs shifted, clonking against each other as the trio raced over them, sinking—
And falling.
With the fragile binding disappearing, the floor did the same. Slabs dropped away into a deep pit below.