The rest of the party shook their heads.
Mahmood disappeared for a moment to open another trapdoor in the floor of the Flame Room.When he returned, he cleared his throat.“Allow me to take you into the sanctuary of Hathor,” he said, waving in the direction the three-walled inner room near the back of the temple.
He lit another torch and handed it to Tom, who held it aloft as they made their way past openings into the chambers that lined the interior of the temple.Straight ahead was the sanctuary, but before they entered, a high-pitched squeaking sound had Helen pausing.
“What was that?”she asked.
Directly behind her, Tom paused and slowly swept the torch through the air in an effort to light the area around them.
“What waswhat?”Stella asked, from directly in front of her daughter.A gust of air had her gasping.“Oh!”she cried out.“I felt something touch my cheek.”
Barbara and Will quickly joined her, Will waving his torch about in an effort to determine what might have startled the countess.
The sound of flapping wings had them gasping.
“There is no need to be fearful,” Mahmood said calmly.“It is merely a?—”
“Bat!”Stella yelled.
The sound of more flapping wings had Helen backing up until she collided with Tom.Her exclamation of surprise had him placing a protective hand at her waist.“I’ve got you,” he whispered.
“Oh!”Barbara turned, ending up pressed into Will’s side as he wrapped an arm around her waist while making sure to keep the flame from his torch away from everyone.
“Shh,” he said as loudly as he could manage.Although Stella allowed another whimper, the movement in the air around them seemed to cease.
“We have merely disturbed the bats that use this temple as their cave,” Mahmood said in a quiet voice.“There is nothing to fear from them.”
“Are there any down below?”Randy asked, thinking of his wife and cousin.
“I do not believe so.The trapdoors are kept shut.Let us continue.”
“I think I would prefer to go back to where those large columns are,” Stella said.“Where it’s lighter.”
“As would I,” Barbara said, hooking her arm into Stella’s.The two took off toward the light at the front of the temple.
Will sighed.He was about to join the women to provide protection, but it was Tom who offered to do so.“Allow me,” he said, handing the torch to Mahmood.
The four who remained behind watched them go before Mahmood led them into the sanctuary.Like all the other walls in the temple, these were covered in hieroglyphics.A gilded wooden structure meant to house a statue of Hathor was in the middle.
“Here the pharaoh is offering Hathor a copper mirror, a sacred emblem of the goddess,” Mahmood said, waving to one of the images.The light from his torch illuminated the illustration, but when the sound of a bat reached them again, he sighed.“I apologize.They are usually not this active,” Mahmood said.
“I think we have seen enough today,” Will said.
The guide nodded his understanding.“I shall go down to see how the rest of them are doing in the crypts.”He headed toward the first trapdoor while the other four made their way toward the entrance.
Tom offered his arm to Helen and was relieved when she accepted.Perhaps she had forgiven him for what had happened the week before.
Once they were back in the hypostyle, Tom and Will saw to extinguishing their torches and resumed their study of the carvings on the walls and columns.
