Gary Gygax - Dangerous Journeys 2 - Samarkand Solution (22 page)

With an almost unconscious protective sign to ward off the attention of that dread serpent, Setne agreed. "Right. The Lord of Serpents is greatest of all in sheer power. The only ones able to give us any description of the uab say he was dusky, but we know he isn't the Dahlikil. We also must infer that he used some relatively potent heka to make those around him unable to recall his true appearance. Therefore Absobek-khaibet, the imposter posing as him, rather, is as follows:

"Dark of skin and tallish, knowledgeable enough in ecclesiastical matters pertaining to Set to perform ceremonies and rituals properly, able to employ magick outside the sphere usual for priests, and, lastly, wholly devoted to Evil."

Tuhorus understood. "Even Set himself would hesitate to object to a servant of Aapep donning the mantle of one of his own uab priests."

"Just so. And where is the serpent most venerated? The only place?"

"Darfur!"

"Your knowledge is excellent. This is correct, and therefore, Chief Inspector Tuhorus, we are seeking a skilled kheri-heb of Aapep—a malign counterpart of myself, as nearly as you like— who is a native of Darfur and is somewhere nearby as well."

"Down there someplace?"

"Not likely at all! No, I think we'll find him elsewhere, although we must venture down to have a look around."

The detective was still trying to fit the whole together. "So there is a plot fostered by Darfur, dissident Nubians, and a few renegades hereabouts? A racial war pitting black against red?"

"That would be damned awful, Tuhorus, but it's worse. This whole dirty business stems from an ^Egyptian, I fear. One who is quite willing to use any means—racism, greed, even murder. In that one's mind, Set, even Aapep, are tools to use in gaining the end he desires. Have you ever run across the
Accursed?"

The policeman thought a moment, then shook his head. "What are they?"

"A loosely organized network of the most wicked sorts imaginable. This affair is just their sort of thing, but their usual stamp is not on it. No matter. We'll know for sure when we get our man."

"Who is this arch-fiend, then?" Tuhorus demanded.

"One whose guilt cannot be proved easily, but yet might be caught unaware—if we are careful and quick enough." Setne went to the secret egress from Chemres' private sanctum and summoned Chief Inspector Tuhorus to follow. "Once again, we must do a little underground exploring, my friend. Then we'll move on to the most dangerous bit."

As the two descended the hidden way, they examined the steps. Splayed bare feet had been here, the prints identical to those on the staircase in the burned wing of the governor's residence. "You knew about this all along."

"Suspected," Inhetep corrected.

"That's how you could state that you knew where Chemres' missing three volumes of notes were," the policeman said.

"Where else but hidden—or carried off by a secret way? The priests here saw no one with them and no magickal means were used to spirit them hence—that would have sounded alarms. The books had to have been physically removed, and this is the way it was accomplished."

Inhetep's sweeping gesture included the concealed entrance they had just passed through, the steps they were on, and the tunnels which lay below. "Either the uab-pretender, or Ya-keem, or both operating in tandem, came here and removed the evidence. There was no other way."

"And so too the murder of Prince-Governor Ram-f-amsu?"

"Ahemm .. . Well, I do believe that this secret way plays a part, but as yet, there's nothing conclusive. Shall we proceed with our investigation below? Perhaps there's something down there which will help us undo yet another knot holding fast this conundrum."

They went on down the staircase, a seemingly endless flight of steep and uneven steps hewn from the sandstone bedrock of the place. "The sandstone is soft, Magister, but these risers aren't particularly worn. What do you think?"

"A very private way, Tuhorus. I'd say that only the hem-neter-tepi of the temple used this stair."

"There has been usage, so what might be awaiting below?"

"There's the landing for the temple cellars,"

Inhetep noted. "Let's have a look at the steps further down." Both of them stopped after a few stairs and examined the wear to the stone there. "Far less here, but still ..."

The policeman concurred. "There has been something which brought many of the high priests of Set down here, Magister. I mislike this!"

Finally, they came to the end of their descent, at least a hundred feet underground. The little room at the bottom was also carved from living rock, and in its center there was a shaft which went down still further. "Smell that? This is a well, Tuhorus."

"That can't be the principal reason for so much secrecy, can it?"

"No, I think not." Inhetep gazed around the oval chamber, which was decorated with idols, each statue standing in a niche around the curve of the wall. "Six figures, Inspector, and not one of Set or his associates. And here! Take a look at this," the priest-wizard urged his comrade. "The stone of Hapy's head is worn," he said pointing to the figure of the Nylle god in a nearby recess. "Let's have a look at the rest."

Each of the stone figures showed the same sort of wear. Tuhorus was about to do the obvious thing and test one to see what it operated, for the idols were obviously the means to get beyond the room. The magister stopped him. "Hold on there, Chief Inspector. Have a care! Something is odd. all of this is too obvious, and the number is wrong, too. There should be seven here for the Seven Evils, and none of these deities are correct at all. Do you have the capacity of reading auras and heka?"

"To a limited extend, Inhetep. I've already noted a strong preternatural radiance pervading this whole chamber."

"Yes, and it's particularly strong around the figures, but I see it as a screen. Nothing comes from the leftmost curve there—the place unadorned by any statued niche."

"I can sense no magick there at all, Inhetep. Do you mean ... ?"

"That's where we seek egress, Tuhorus. Help me examine the wall there." Minute stains on the floor indicated others had passed there. Tactile impressions finally revealed that the seemingly smooth wall actually had etched into it shallow glyphs, the Seven Evils surmounted by three of the aspects of Set—okapi-, ass-, and warthog-headed. "I think we have three exits," the ur-kheri-heb said. "Let's open them and see."

"How is it that we could feel nothing while watching our hands at work, Magister, but with an averted gaze we could feel the markings?"

"The effect of the casting laid here. The heka makes eyes blind and sovereign over the other senses."

"But there's no aura!"

"None we can read, Inspector, but there's power here. This should come as no surprise after all that's occurred to date." Inhetep was pressing the glyphs with his fingers as he spoke, and pressure activated first the right and then the left of the slabs which hid exits from the chamber. Finally, the middle one opened, drawing back and removing the glyphs from the wizard-priest's touch. "There are the proper means of leaving, Tuhorus, but which of the three is the one for us?"

"Yakeem went along one of these ways?"

"I'm certain of it. Is there any trace of his passage?"

"No, but the central corridor has been most frequently used. That to the right is almost abandoned, while the other is nearly as neglected— note the floor and the cobwebs."

Inhetep paused and considered. One of the passageways must lead to the general complex of subterranean tunnels honeycombing the rock beneath On. That would lead them to the riverside exit he was sure existed. What of the other two? Somewhere in the stygian depths there was probably a forbidden altar, one dedicated to human sacrifice and rites too horrible to contemplate. Set's high priest must attend such services, but for what congregation? Even he had to shudder at the thought, especially when the officiating entity was considered. Such a place had to be at the leftmost. That was fitting. The center of the three ways seemed used, but no place such as this would be unguarded. The six obvious portals were the first line of defense.

Certainly they led to dead ends or worse. Even trying to activate some of them might prove fatal. Despite the careful concealment of the actual route, its malign architects wouldn't be satisfied. Left would lead to danger and death from the denizens which dwelled there. The magister snapped his fingers as a means of determination came to him. "Watch, Tuhorus, as I go into the rightmost of the ways." Thrusting aside the drooping cobwebs, the magister entered.

The policeman shouted after him, "The passage looks as if you've never been there, Inhetep! Dust has reappeared, and the veil of webs has returned as drooping and unbroken as ever."

"This is the one then, Chief Inspector. Leave them all as they are, and follow me." In the space of a few heartbeats, the policeman caught up to Setne, and the pair advanced into the unknown. It didn't take long for the nature of the way to change; the priest-wizard quickly determined that they now had come to the main artery of the maze. "The cross passage is familiar, isn't it? The same workmanship as we saw under the governor's place. It begins to ascend in that direction—must be the Nylle dock area exit I anticipated. With Yakeem having almost an hour's lead on us, there's no point in chasing that way now. Let's go and see if we can't unearth Absobek-khaibet."

"But that will allow the assassin to completely cover his trail and evade capture entirely!"

"I know where he is going, and he'll be there when we want him," the ur-kheri-heb assured Tuhorus. "Since the supposed uab has evidently fallen out with his masters, I believe he's the one to get to now."

"You think he's down here someplace?"

"Where else would you hide if the Dahlikil was seeking you?"

"Doesn't Yakeem know this labyrinth as well as the imposter priest?"

"Yes and no. Don't forget that the one posing as Absobek-khaibet is an imposter only in the sense he's not a uab of Set—he's a kheri-heb whose priestcraeft experience might have taught him these ways as a rat knows its tunnels, Tuhorus. Even Yakeem would shun venturing into a place dedicated to such things as the evilest of our subterranean realm and the netherbeings that dwell in the foul regions of the Duat."

"Yes, I understand. So there is a Blood Temple active in the city," the policeman said softly, revulsion plain in his tone. "That accounts for the rash of disappearances last year and this. . . ."

Slaves and vagrants were commonly used for the forbidden sacrifices. On special occasions, though, worshippers of the vilest Evil lords might kidnap other persons. Now the chief inspector was correlating such events with the disappearances in his prefecture.

"Tuhorus, I'd look to religious and political foes as well as . . . ah . . . those who are typically considered possible victims of human sacrifice."

"The other disused way, the one on the left.

That's the route to the outlawed temple, isn't

it?"

The ur-kheri-heb of Thoth nodded. "Let's see for ourselves. Because of the complete outlawing of Aapep in /Egypt, my guess is that the Blood Temple is his—with lesser shrines, of course, for Set, Seker, Sobk, and the others."

After returning to the oval room, the two detectives went into the other seemingly neglected passage. It soon carried them downward and into an arched corridor decorated with
has
relief work and wall paintings of the foulest sort, depicting unspeakable things. The wide passageway continued downward, with irregularly spaced adits along its length. What degenerate humans from above passed along this route to form the congregation for the hideous sacrificial ceremonies? Such a place would be likely to have lurking within it all manner of ghoulish things: light-hating vampires, humanoids who had for so long a time dwelled in the depths as to become alien, and demoniacal creatures, too. Here would be the worst of subterranean
Mrth
met in horrid revel! Inhetep used his gold ankh to englobe them both in a silvery light which was brighter than a full moon, and whose radiance bathed their skin with a crackling energy which invigorated them.

"Does this do more than what I sense?" asked Tuhorus.

"Not to us," the magister replied, "but those with unnatural life—zombies, undead, and even unliving made strong by the vitality of dark heka, the negative—are adversely affected. Their eyes are blinded by the illumination, their substance destroyed, as acid would attack our flesh, by the wash of positive force. As our bodies are aided, those of a malign nature are hindered and harmed by this heka."

"Powerful stuff," Tuhorus commented with admiration. "Not many can bind such magick."

"Let us hope that the servant of Aapep we seek cannot, for otherwise the false Absobek-khaibet might counter my own dweomer with its opposite, an anti-sphere."

Sounds of furtive movement and lambent, evil eyes glittering from the pitch darkness of the side passages made Tuhorus fervently second that wish of his associate. "At least I have this," he said, gripping the hilt of his leaf-bladed dagger.

"Better a sword, Inspector. That little knife will—"

"Better?"

"Yes, bet—" Inhetep cut his word short as he realized that his companion was asking a question regarding the weapon he held, not questioning the magister's remark. Setne grinned at the policeman, for Tuhorus had altered the dagger before his eyes, changing it to a moderately-sized stabbing weapon similar to a Grecian short sword. "Better! It has a subtle dweomer, Inspector. Can you do other tricks with that blade?"