Chapter25
Crypts are Creepy
Meanwhile, down below
When Diana finally reached the bottom of the stairs, she was surprised to discover David hadn’t moved very far.“What’s wrong?”she asked.Although it was warm, it wasn’t nearly as hot as when they had been inside the pyramid at Giza.The air held a slight odor, although it was not unpleasant.
“I thought to wait for you to tell us what we’re seeing,” he whispered.“And which way to go.”
“Why are you whispering?”
“Because of the echo,” Harry answered for David.He joined them, the light from his torch and the other two making it possible to see most of the corridor in front of them.A number of passages led off of it.
As if to reinforce his comment, his words echoed off the hard surfaces.
“Understood,” she replied, keeping her voice low.She lowered her torch to better illuminate the stone floor.“There’s very little sand here,” she commented.
“You were expecting some?”Harry asked.
“More sand would indicate a number of visitors in here.Perhaps the trapdoors have remained undiscovered for a long time.”
“How many of these chambers do you suppose there are?”David asked, holding his torch high.The stone ceiling didn’t include any decoration.
“If they’re all this size...mayhap ten or twelve,” she guessed.
“Mahmood said the trapdoors are usually hidden,” Harry said.“Maybe they haven’t all been discovered.”
“They’re covered with moving stones,” Diana murmured.“But you must know which stones to move.”
“I do wish I could read these symbols,” Harry commented, holding his torch to illuminate a series of bas relief carvings along the wall.
Diana furrowed a brow at seeing a depiction of a pharaoh making what appeared to be an offering of jewelry.“Since we’re below the Throne Room?—”
“Are we?”David asked.“That staircase was...not straight,” he commented.
“True.”She continued down the corridor, studying the carvings.“These are in relief rather than etched,” she commented.
“So?”David replied.
“It’s far more difficult to carve in relief than simply cut into the stone,” she replied.“It’s like a story that just keeps going.”
“Or a series of stories,” Harry murmured.
“I believe these are pharaohs making offerings to the gods,” she said before she turned and went down one of the passageways, the light from her torch showing it was a dead end.The carvings continued on both sides of the wall, though, and she continued to study them.
Meanwhile David headed down another, parallel passageway.When he turned around at the end of it, he let out a shout of surprise.
Harry, who was still out in the main corridor studying one of the walls, stiffened while Diana rushed from the end of the passageway she had been studying.“What was that?”she asked in alarm.
“I have no idea, but I think we are not the only ones down here,” Harry whispered.
“Why do you say that?”she asked.Despite trying to remain calm, she could feel her heart race and hear her pulse in her ears.She glanced in both directions, expecting to see the light from David’s torch.“David?”she called out.
“In here!”he responded from somewhere farther down the corridor.“Don’t move.I’m coming to you.”
She listened intently, sure she heard footsteps, but not from where his voice was coming.Light flickered from somewhere off to her left, and she was about to head in that direction when David’s face suddenly appeared to her right.
Apparently Harry saw him before she did.
