Serves him right.
The guard unlocked the padlock on the gate and allowed the three of them to pass through. They approached the opening for the crypt, which was almost a perfectly cut square of stone around a dark opening. Before entering, they donned their hard hats and leather gloves. Leila avoided any more eye contact with Xander, which was easy enough. He had gone back to ignoring her too.
Soliman waited by the doorway as Xander entered first and motioned for Leila to follow. They each switched on their flashlights and made their way down a narrow tunnel, keeping their heads down to avoid bumping them on the wooden beams installed on all sides, until they came to a small room. The ceiling was too low to stand upright. It hadn’t been constructed with modern humans in mind. She took in a deep breath, the thick, dry air weighing down her lungs. At least the earthy smell was bearable.
“This is an antechamber,” Soliman said, his hard hat knocking against the ceiling. He pointed his flashlight at the walls. “If you look at the walls, they are well decorated, but no artifacts were found in here. It had probably been robbed thousands of years ago. To get to the burial chamber, we’ll have to go through the next corridor.”
Leila grimaced as a black scorpion scurried down the wall and vanished in the shadows. As common as the creatures were, she couldn’t bring herself to stop loathing the sight of them. Thankful for her thick boots, she took a daring stride toward the wall and moved her flashlight over the colorful hieroglyphics. Even though the colors were likely not as vibrant as they once had been, she could make out the scenes depicting everyday life from three thousand years ago.
“Has anyone already translated and interpreted these?” Leila asked.
“Most of it, as far as I know,” Soliman replied. “I’m waiting for some of the old reports about the excavations to arrive from Cairo.”
Xander crouched at the opening of the passageway on the right side of the room, shining his flashlight into the tunnel, examining the ceiling. He whipped out a notepad and jotted something down.
“Looks safe enough to continue,” he called. “Shall we?”
They joined him at the entrance, and Soliman led the way into the narrow corridor with Leila following and Xander at the end.
“We’ll have to get new lights installed,” Soliman mused as they entered the burial chamber.
The room was much larger than the first, and while any artifacts that had survived the plundering had been removed, the stone sarcophagus of Thutnekhbet stood at the far end of the room, undisturbed.
Leila gazed at the walls, which were covered with more hieroglyphics, as she inched toward the sarcophagus.
She came to a stop in front of the giant stone rectangle. “Is the coffin still inside?”
Soliman joined her. “Yes. They decided to leave him here instead of storing him in the basement of some museum. Our friend Thutnekhbet will stay well preserved here, as long as he isn’t exposed to the elements.”
Leila took a brush from her satchel and began to swipe away the dust sprinkled on the top. The hieroglyphics had been intricately etched into the stone rather than painted as they were on the walls. They were written in neat vertical columns, but she was not as well versed in hieroglyphics as Soliman was and couldn’t make out what the entire script said. Although she could recognize many of the depictions, she had a long way to go until she was as fluent in the language as the professor.
She glided her brush over the sarcophagus’ surface, wiping away the thin layer of dust, which most likely had accumulated since the last time the tomb had been studied. From what she’d heard, newly discovered tombs were hardly dusty at all, being completely sealed off from the outside world. A smile twitched as she imagined the moment they found Neferkheri’s tomb and opened the doors to glittering, golden artifacts—
The brush slipped from her hands and clattered to the floor. Flakes of stone broke away from the sarcophagus.
I broke it. I can’t believe I broke it. Soliman is going to kill me. Her heart pounded as she lightly pinched the broken flakes between her fingers and held them up against the spot they had fallen from.
Idiot. Why’d you have to start daydreaming and… Leila frowned and studied the newly exposed stone. It wasn’t broken at all. More hieroglyphs had appeared. Frowning at the broken pieces, she compared them to the stone. The flakes weren’t stone at all but some kind of plaster that had blended in perfectly. As if an ancient architect had changed his mind and decided to write something else on the stone. Although such a circumstance wasn’t unheard of, her curiosity was piqued.
She dug a dental pick from her bag and began to trace the freshly uncovered symbols. With pursed lips, she inspected it for a moment, connecting it with the other hieroglyphs on the sarcophagus. Once the meaning registered, she made a small gasp.
“Neferkheri!”
Soliman appeared behind her and nudged his spectacles to the top of his nose. With narrowed eyes, he studied the hieroglyphs at the tip of her finger.
“Dewa-netjer, it is!” he exclaimed, using the ancient Egyptian words for praising a deity. Leila could hear the smile in his voice.
Xander came over and peered over her other shoulder. “It speaks of their relation, brother and sister,” he muttered then fell quiet again to continue reading. A minute later, he pointed to another hieroglyph. “And here it describes him as her guardian.”
“Her guardian?” Soliman raised his eyebrows and shuffled around Leila to stand next to Xander.
“In the afterlife,” Xander finished. His voice sounded as if he didn’t believe what he was reading.
“Do you think that means,” Leila breathed, her heart skipping a beat, “her tomb could be adjoining this one?”
“That’s not unheard of,” Xander said, giving Soliman an expectant stare.
“It has certainly been seen before.” Soliman rubbed his chin and leaned against the sarcophagus. “For example in the 1930s, the French archaeologist Pierre Montet was excavating in Tanis. He cleared out what was left of King Osorkon’s tomb, only to find a hidden entrance to the burial place of King Psusennes I, whose grave was undisturbed. The findings were equal to Pharaoh Tutankhamen.”
“There could be an entire undiscovered tomb complex under our feet,” Leila said.
“We’ll have to see if we can find anything that could be an opening to another corridor.” Soliman glanced around the chamber, his brow furrowed. “They’ve hidden it well.”
Xander lowered his voice. “If we do find something, we have to be careful not to bring attention to this. Not yet. After the looting incident in Dahshur, I wouldn’t take the risk. Grave robbers will be all over this.”
“I’ve said as much to Miss Sterling,” Soliman agreed. “For now, we won’t mention this to the others. What do you say, we come back later this week after nightfall to study the tomb?”
“In disguise,” Xander added, “in case the site is being watched. They’ll be suspicious if archaeologists are seen poking around in the middle of the night.”
“I like the way you think.” Soliman chuckled. “I’ll get it all arranged. Are you up to it, Leila?”
A nighttime excavation for the discovery of a lifetime. The idea was alluring. She twisted the dental pick in her hands, her gut giving a nasty lurch. Of course, there had to be a catch. She had to work with him. Yet up until now, she’d forgotten all about their conflict. If they stayed on topic, she could stomach this. Couldn’t she?
With a confident smile to hide her unease, she confirmed. “Count me in.”
Soliman and Xander left together, but Leila stayed behind, brushing off more dust from the sarcophagus. She was crazy, wasn’t she? But it wasn’t like she’d be alone with Xander. Soliman would be there. Voices echoed in the antechamber, drawing her from her thoughts.
She made her way back to the smaller room to find Emma grimacing and gagging as something crunched loudly under her boot. Karl was busy examining the wall paintings.
