“A keyhole?” Xander’s voice was laced with disbelief. “Even if there was one, we would need a key.”
“Don’t you worry about a thing.” Drake’s hands stopped on the Eye of Horus. “This one.” Drake reached into her shirt and pulled out a pendant, similar to the one Abdullah had given Leila. Drake pressed the flat end into the pupil of the eye.
Nothing happened.
“Hmm.” Drake took a step back. “You have yours with you, Leila?”
“No.” Her shoulders dropped. “It was confiscated after I got arrested.”
Xander looked between them both, his gaze pausing on the pendant in Drake’s hand. He dropped his backpack to the ground and opened one of the front pockets. To Leila’s astonishment, he pulled out her pendant. “I slipped this into my pocket back at the safe house. Don’t know what made me think to grab it. Good thing I did, I guess.”
Leila grinned and snatched the pendant. “You’re the best.” She paused, debating whether she should give him a kiss. Just a quick one. A show of appreciation. But he stepped away and shoved his hands into his pockets. She swallowed the sting, spun around, then stepped up to the wall.
A quick study of the eye showed faint carvings in the pupil—carvings that looked exactly like the marks on the bottom of her pendant. She placed the flat end onto the hole. It was a perfect fit. She pressed it down.
Nothing happened.
The three of them exchanged uneasy glances. Leila frowned at the pendant sticking out of the wall. She had been so sure… It was the same symbol. It was the right size. She removed the pendant and, with a sigh of defeat, slipped the string over her head.
A deafening scraping noise roared through the cave. Leila jumped back with a yelp as the ground shook, filling the tunnel with dust.
Xander grabbed her arm and pulled, causing her to stumble back. Flakes of stone broke off the walls and ceiling, plummeting to the ground between streams of dust that billowed from the cracks. Drake pressed herself against the opposite wall and squeezed her eyes shut.
Heart pounding, Leila threw up her arms to shield her head. Not that her arms would do any good. The ceiling was going to come crashing down on them any second. They’d be crushed. Slowly, the shaking stopped, and dust swirled in the air.
Leila coughed against the powder coating her mouth and waved a hand in front of her face. She blinked, trying to see through the curtain of dust, unsure if her eyes were playing tricks on her. A black, rectangular opening had appeared in the wall.
CHAPTER 17
Nobody moved. Leila’s heart hammered as she stared at the doorway, speechless.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before…” Xander took a step toward the opening, shining his flashlight around the perimeter. “What sort of mechanism is this? That’s extremely advanced for ancient Egyptians.”
“The Medjay have a few tricks up their sleeves,” Leila managed.
“Watch your toes.” Drake approached, her voice scratchy from coughing. “We like to install booby traps.”
“Isn’t that peachy?” Xander scowled.
Leila caught his eye and gave him what she hoped was a reassuring glance, even though nervousness buzzed in her veins.
The three of them directed their flashlights into the doorway, no one speaking, no one volunteering to take the first step into the blackness.
Leila wet her lips as she studied the entrance. The floor was even, the walls were smooth and plain. It seemed to open into a hallway with straight walls and right angles. There were no obvious dangers. It was what they couldn’t see that worried her, especially after watching the doors vanish. Xander brushed past her.
“Don’t.” She grabbed his upper arm, stopping him. “We don’t know what’s in there.”
“Well, there’s only one way to find out.” He watched her with an even gaze and finally, with curiosity glinting in his eyes, she saw a hint of the Xander she used to know.
She dropped her hand, and he continued into the hallway. Leila watched his back for a moment. He was right; they wouldn’t find any scrolls if they didn’t keep going.
She glanced at Drake, who waved her hands at the opening. “After you.”
Leila studied the entry, waiting, listening. Only the sound of Xander and Drake’s breathing met her ears. Dust particles still floated lazily in the white flashlight beam, harmless. She swung the light toward the ceiling, which seemed to be in good shape, then swung it back down to examine the floor. The floor was smooth, with no signs of damage. She started walking.
Drake followed behind a few paces. Their three beams crisscrossed as they filed down the corridor, their shoulders brushing the sides of the walls. The passage ended at another rectangular opening leading into a chamber. The three of them stopped in the doorway.
Leila grinned as she scanned the room. Four thick, round pillars stood from floor to ceiling, evenly spaced throughout the chamber to support the ceiling. Paintings and hieroglyphics covered the walls while shelving filled the space in the center, the units crammed with books and scrolls.
Drake stepped into the room. “Welcome to The Archive.”
“This is a brilliant hiding spot.” Xander placed his hands on his hips as he glanced around, nodding.
“This is… amazing.” Leila approached the shelves. “What are all these documents?”
“From what I’ve heard, there’s a bit of everything in here.” Drake joined her in front of the first shelving unit. “Ancient texts, stories, recipes, diary entries. Medieval manuscripts.”
“Bomb plans,” Xander added.
“The Medjay have collected a lot over the millennia.”
“Where do we start?” Leila examined the shelf fronts, hoping to see some sort of organizational system. The shelf was blank. “How are these organized? I’m guessing there’s no Dewey Decimal Classification here.”
Drake studied the shelves, eyes narrowed, and lips pursed thoughtfully. “Start reading the texts and see if there’s some sort of pattern to it.”
“This could take years.” Xander sighed, then walked around the corner of the unit. “I’ll start in the back.”
Leila left Drake to sort through the first shelf and walked around to the next unit. The flashlight beam illuminated another row of overflowing scrolls, papers, and leather volumes. She stood still for a moment, too nervous to touch anything. What if the document disintegrated the second she touched it? She didn’t even have gloves with her. Then again, not all the documents looked ancient. Many were probably still pliable.
