Sita didn’t move. She stared down into the hole, her faceunreadable.
“Are you all right, sena?” Karim asked.
Sita swallowed, then bent to retrieve the other pack. “I’m fine. Let’s go.”
Using his bow drill, Karim lit the torch and took the first cautious step down. The torchlight illuminated the stone steps ahead, but he could not see where they led.
They descended slowly, and before long, the square of daylight behind them shrank to a pinprick.
It was all so familiar: the cool darkness, the quiet, the muted aroma of old and forgotten things. It made Karim think of his life before—his family, his tribe. Djet. Suddenly, he felt as if the boy was at his side again, whispering excitedly in his ear.
What do you think is in there, hey?
“Answers, I hope,” Karim murmured.
“Did you say something?” Sita asked from behind him.
“Just talking to myself.” He squinted into the gloom. “I think we’re close to the bottom. I see a landing ahead.”
Once he reached the landing, Karim stepped out into an open chamber. Although it was difficult to see beyond the small circle of firelight, the shadows of monoliths loomed above him. Karim could feel the vastness of the space in the air, could hear it in the way his breath broke the stillness. A chill ran up his spine.
He swept his torch around him and saw what looked like two parallel trenches built into the stone floor, each about a hand’s breadth wide, that ran straight into the darkness ahead. Each trench was filled with what appeared to be animal fat, with a thick rope set along the middle, as if placed there while the fat was liquid hot.
In all his travels, Karim had never seen anything like it.Could it be what I think it is?he wondered. Curious, Karim lowered his torch to the tip of one rope and set it aflame.
The effect was instantaneous.
Karim laughed, delighted, and lit the second channel.
Twin trails of fire blazed forward from where Karim and Sita stood, racing into the distance, illuminating everything along the way.
They were standing at the end of an enormous columned hall, the ceiling so high above them that it remained lost in darkness. Every surface boasted pictures painted in red and black and gold: sharp-beaked vultures, sycamore trees, and dark-eyed women who watched Karim with eerie intensity. Many of the columns were cracked and leaning, and bits of loose stone littered the ground. It was as Karim had thought: Over time, the underground structure had shifted and sunk, causing the earth above it to sink too. Arched doorways—so many that Karim lost count—ran along both sides of the hall.
Sita gasped and raised a hand to her mouth. “By Amun, I’ve never seen its equal.”
Karim whistled. “I’m accustomed to cramped tombs with no more than four chambers. There must be hundreds of rooms in this place! It would take days, perhaps weeks, to explore each passage. What are we going to do?”
Sita shrugged. “What else? Start at the beginning.” She strode past him toward the first door on their left, inspecting the wall paintings as she went.
Karim meant to follow her, but he found himself rooted in place. A strange, familiar sensation overtook him, just as it had on that plateau in the desert. As if instructed by an unseen force, he fell to his knees, leaned forward, and touched his forehead to the ground.
Faintly, he heard Sita call to him. “Come over here. There’s something you should see…”
Karim sat up, and time shifted. Around him, the broken columns were restored, and the fire burned more brightly, fillingthe hall with dazzling light. Red-robed priests flowed in and out of the archways carrying all manner of items, and the chamber echoed with hymns chanted in the name of Set. Karim could hear the words being spoken on his own lips, though not with his voice, and when the hymn was finished, he felt himself rise to his feet. He towered over the priest standing beside him.
“Is the temple to your satisfaction, my king?” the priest asked.
Karim heard himself say, “It is as I envisioned. Tell me: How many of my acolytes perished constructing it?”
The priest pressed a finger to his mouth. “At least a hundred, my king. Perhaps more. I’d have to refer to my records to be precise.”
The deep voice said, “Make sure they are all entombed here, in the arms of Mother Night. They died in her service and shall be rewarded in the Duat. Save the largest chamber for my beloved. For as Set tore his betrayer into fourteen pieces, so the seventh door to the seventh door shall lead to the house of my queen.”
Sita’s voice sliced through the vision like a knife. “Karim! Are you coming?”
Karim heard that deep voice say one final prayer as the scene vanished around him. “May she live forever in the West.”
Karim gasped. He was prostrate on the floor, bathed in a cold sweat, his heart hammering.
