and Nicholas are doing here. Everything. I am sorry, Mek. I betrayed
you."
"Who was it? Who did this to you?"
"Nogo and the American, Helm,' she said, and although he embraced her as
gently as a father with his infant in his arms, his eyes were terrible.
/4P- -I he lowed chamber of the tunnel was cleared of gas at last.
Hansith's fire burned bright and steady in the middle of the floor, the
rising hot air wafting away the noxious vapours and dispersing them
through the upper levels of the maze, where they mingled with
the'cleaner oxygen-rich air and lost their toxicity. By this time Royan
had fully recovered from the physical effects of the gassing, but her
confidence was shaken, and she allowed Nicholas to lead the way up the
steps that rose from the far side of the chamber.
"It's the perfect gas trap," Nicholas pointed out to her as they climbed
cautiously. "No doubt at all that Taita knew exactly what he was doing
-when he built this section of the tunnel."
"Surely he must have expected any interloper of his period to have
either succumbed to his hellish devices, lost his way in the maze, or
given up and turned back by now," she reasoned.
"Are you trying to convince me that this was Taita's last line of
defence, and that he has no more tricks in store for us? Is that it?"
Nicholas asked as he took another step upwards.
"No. Actually I was trying to convince myself, and not having much
success. I just don't trust him one little bit any more. I have come to
expect the worst from him. I expect the roof to collapse on me at any
moment, or the floor to open and drop us into a fiery furnace or
something worse." They had descended forty steps down into the se they
were now climbing was a chamber, and the stairca mirror image of that.
It rose at the same angle and the tread of each step was the same depth
and width. As their heads rose above the fortieth step, Nicholas played
the beam of the lamp down the spacious, level arcade that ened before
them, and they were dazzled by a riot of OP
colour and pattern, bright and lovely as a field' of desert blooms after
rain. The paintings covered the walls and ceiling of the arcade,
stunning in their profusion, wondrous in their execution.
"Taita!l Royan cried in a voice that quivered and broke. "These are his
paintings. There is no other artist like him, I could never mistake it.
I would know his work anywhere."
stood on the top step and gazed around in They wonder. When compared to
these, the murals in the long gallery seemed pale and stilted, the
tawdry sham that they the work of a great master, a timeless really
were. This was genius, whose art could enchant and enrapture now just as
readily as it had four thousand years ago. involuntarily, They moved
forward slowly, almost down the arcade. It was lined on each side with
small ntal bazaar. The entrance chambers, like the stalls in an orie
ched up to the to each was guarded by tall columns that rea roof. Each
column was a carved statue of one member of the pantheon of gods.
Between them they held the high vaulted ceiling suspended.
As they drew level with the first two stalls, Nicholas stopped and
squeezed her arm.
"The treasure chambers of Pharaoh he whispered.
The stalls were packed from floor to ceiling with wonderful and
beautiful things.
"The furniture store." Royan's voice was as reverential as his as she
recognized the shapes of chairs and stools and beds and divans. She went
to the nearest chamber and touched a royal throne. The arms were twining
serpents of bronze and lapis lazuli. The legs were those of lions with
claws of gold. The seat and back were chased with scenes of the hunt,
and wings of gold surmounted the high back.
Stacked behind the throne was a great Profusion of other furniture. They
recognized a screened divan, its sides enclosed in an exquisite lacework
of ebony and ivory. But there were dozens of other items besides, most
of them broken down into their separate Parts so that it was not
possible to guess what they were. They gleamed with precious metals and
coloured stones in such confusion and variety that it was too much to
take in in a single glance.
Both the alcoves on either side of the arcade were stuffed with these
marvelous collections. Royan shook her head in wonder, and Nicholas led
her on. The walls that separated the alcoves were decorated with panels
illustrate in the Book of the Dead, and the journey of Pharaoh through
the pylons, the dangers and the trials, the demons and the monsters that
awaited him along the way.
"These are the paintings that were missing from the mock tomb in the
long gallery," Royan told him. "But just look upon the face of the king,
You can see he was a real person. Those are perfect royal portraits."
The mural beside them depicted the great god Osiris leading Pharaoh by
the hand, protecting him from the crowded close on either hand, waiting
thei monsters that showed the face of the king as he chance to devour
him. I with a kind and gentle, if must truly have been, a man rather
weak, face.
"Look at the figures," Nicholas agreed. "They are not forward with the
right stiff wooden dolls always stepping foot. These are real men and
women. They are anatomic and had cally correct. The artist understood
perspectiv studied the human body."
They came to the next pair of alcoves, and paused to peer into them.
"Weapons," said Nicholas. just look at that chariot The panels of the
chariot were covered with a skin of old leaf, so that it dazzled the
eye. The harness and traces the horses that would draw it into seemed
only to await and the quivers strapped to the side panels behind battle,
elins. The each tall wheel bulged with arrows and jav was emblazoned on
the side panels.
cartouche of Mamose significant vehicle were war bows Piled beside this
of electrum and bronze whose stocks were bound with wir ays of daggers
with ivory handles and gold. There were arr and swords with blades of
glistening bronze. There were racks of spears and pikes. There were
shields of bronze, the targets decorated with scenes of war and the name
of the se. There were helmets and breastplates made divine Mamo from the
skin of the crocodile, and the uniforms and regalia of the famous
regiments of Egypt dressed the life-sized the wooden statues of the king
that stood in rows against walls of the alcoves.
a They walked on down the isle, between more paint, death of the icting
the life and the ings and murals dep ters and danking. They saw him
playing with his daugh nt son. They saw him fishing and hunting and
dling his infa isn'omarches, hawking, in council with his ministers and
dallying with his wives and concubines, and feasting with the priests of
the temple.
What a chronicle of life in ancient times," Royan breathed with awe.
"There has never been a discovery remotely like this before." Each of
the persons in the panels had obviously been drawn from life. They were
real breathing living men and women, every face and every expression
different, captured with the keen eye, the humour and he great humanity
of the artist.
"That must be Taita himself." Royan pointed out the self-portrait of the
eunuch in one of the central panels. "I wonder if he took poetic
licence, or was he truly so noble and beautiful?"
They paused to admire the face of Taita, their adversary, and looked
into his searching, intelligent eyes. Such was the skill of the artist
that he watched them as keenly as they studied him. A small, enigmatic