The Lost Army of Cambyses (38 page)

drew it back and drilled it into Khalifa's neck—

He woke with a start.

The pathologist's report had slipped from his

knees and lay scattered on the floor. Behind him he

could hear the sound of the backpackers' cassette

player. He looked round. They were both asleep,

leaning against each other. Khalifa shook his head,

relieved, and bent to gather up the report.

320

29

LUXOR, THE THEBAN HILLS

The snake came straight up the corridor towards

them, eyes gleaming in the beam of the torch.

'Just keep very still,' Tara repeated.

'Oh Christ,' groaned Daniel. 'What is it?'

'Naja nigricollis,'
she said. 'Black-necked

cobra.'

'Is that bad?'

'Mm-hm.'

'How bad?'

'If one of us gets bitten we won't make it back

down. They're very aggressive and very, very

venomous. And they spit too. So no sudden

movements.'

The snake's belly made a dry slithering sound as

it swirled across the floor. Daniel tried to keep the

torch on it.

'Fuck,' he shivered.

The cobra came to within a few paces of them

and paused, rearing slightly, its hood distended, its

eyes black and menacing. It was big, over two

321

metres, its body thick and hose-like. Beside her

Tara could feel Daniel beginning to shake.

'Try to keep calm,' she whispered. 'It'll be OK.'

The cobra swung to and fro for a moment and

then dropped back to the floor and slithered

forward again, right up to Daniel's boot, its black,

pronged tongue seeming to lap at the dusty

leather. It reared and began to explore his ankle,

curling slowly around his leg.

'Turn the torch off,' said Tara.

'What?'

'Turn the torch off. Now. The light's exciting it.'

The snake's tongue was flicking up his calf. His

breath was coming in short gasps.

'I can't,' he stammered. 'I can't be in the dark

with it.'

'Do it!' she hissed.

'Oh Jesus.'

He flicked the switch and they were plunged

into impenetrable blackness, as though their eyes

had been bound with a length of thick velvet. The

silence pressed in upon their ears, disturbed only

by the swish of the cobra's tail and Daniel's

rasping breath.

'It's going up my leg,' he choked.

'Just stay as still as you can.'

'It's going to bite me!'

'Not if you stay still.'

'It's all around my leg. I can't stand this, Tara.

Please do something. Please!'

He was starting to panic. The snake would be

able to feel his fear and that in turn would frighten

it, making it more likely to bite.

'Tell me about Mery-amun,' she said desperately.

322

'Fuck Mery-amun!'

'Tell me about him!' she hissed.

He was panting with terror.

'Second son of King Amasis,' he gasped. 'Lived

around 550 BC. High priest of Amun at Karnak.

Jesus!'

'Keep talking!'

'Carter found an ostrakon with his name on it

in the valley. Seemed to give the location of his

tomb. Beside the Southern Path, twenty cubits

from the Water in the Sky. We think Water in the

Sky is a cliff at the top end of the valley.'

He fell silent. The air around them seemed to

throb.

'What's happening?' she asked.

'I don't know. It's not on my leg any more. I can

still feel it though.'

She was silent for a moment, thinking.

'Tara?'

'OK, I want you to turn the torch on again. But

point it upwards. Not at the floor. Upwards. And

do it very slowly. No jerky movements.'

A beat, and then a thin column of light speared

up to the ceiling. By its glow she could just make

out the cobra. It was between his legs, slightly in

front, its head reared up almost to the level of his

crotch.

'It likes you,' she said.

'I guess I'm that sort of guy,' he muttered

through clenched teeth.

Slowly she dropped to her haunches. The

snake's tail swished around the back of Daniel's

boot.

'Lower the beam a bit. Carefully.'

323

The shaft of light slid across the ceiling and

down onto the floor.

The cobra was swinging back and forth, its

hood stretched wide, like a cupped hand. Not a

good sign. It was getting agitated. Slowly she

reached into her pocket and pulled out a handker-

chief, holding it away from her and fluttering it to

attract the snake's attention. It rocked to and fro,

looking first at the handkerchief, then at her, then

at the handkerchief again. It continued swaying

for a moment, then reared back and, with a sound

like it was sneezing, launched a jet of venom at the

white material. She felt globs of it spatter on her

hand and arm, making the flesh burn.

'What's happening?' hissed Daniel, trying to

look down without moving his head.

'Just stay still. I'm going to try and get it off.'

'You're not going to touch it, Tara! Please tell

me you're not going to touch it!'

'It'll be fine. We've got a cobra at the zoo. I

handle it all the time.'

Only with a snake hook, though, she thought to

herself. And wearing protective gloves and gog-

gles. She tried to block out memories of the time

she'd been bitten and, continuing to flutter the

handkerchief with her left hand, began moving her

right one towards the cobra, aiming for the collar

of blackish scales just beneath its head, trying not

to tremble too much. Blood was pounding in her

ears.

'Jesus Christ!' groaned Daniel.

She ignored him and concentrated all her

attention on the snake. Twice it arched its head

back and spat at the handkerchief, twice she

324

stopped her right hand dead and snapped her eyes

shut, waiting for several agonizing seconds before

slowly opening them again and continuing to

move her fingers towards the snake's neck, expect-

ing at any moment to feel the snap of fangs

puncturing her flesh. I have to get this just right,

she thought. If I take it too low I'll leave it enough

room to switch round and bite me. Too high and

I'll end up putting my hand right into its jaws. I

have to judge it perfectly.

'What's going on?' Daniel's voice was desperate.

'Almost there,' she whispered. 'Almost . . .'

Her hand was just a few inches from the cobra's

neck. Droplets of sweat were stinging her eyes.

The tips of her fingers were shaking so badly it

looked like she was waving.

'Please, Tara, what's . . .'

The snake lunged. It went for the handkerchief

rather than her hand and, driven purely by

instinct, she snatched her left hand back while at

the same time whipping her right one forward and

up, grasping the cobra just below the head. It

writhed furiously, tail lashing against Daniel's leg.

'Christ Almighty!' he screamed, leaping back-

wards, dropping the torch.

'It's all right,' she said, 'I've got it. I've got it.'

The cobra coiled and flailed around her arm,

struggling furiously. It was strong, but her grip

was firm and it was unable to break free.

Trembling, Daniel picked up the torch and shone

it at them. The snake's mouth had levered open in

fury, revealing dripping, needle-like fangs.

'Jesus, I can't believe you just did that!'

'Neither can I.'

325

She moved past him back to the doorway and

clambered outside, the cobra flipping about in her

hand as though she was waving a streamer.

Carefully she edged her way down the gully till she

was almost at its mouth and then, dropping her

arm, threw the snake out into the void. It spiralled

through the air, like a thin line pencilled against

the sky, and fell out of sight. She made her way

back up the gully and into the tomb, breathing

heavily.

'Right,' she said, sounding calmer than she felt,

'let's have a look what's in here, shall we?'

The chamber at the end of the corridor was

rectangular in shape, small, no more than eight

metres long by four across, its walls decorated with

columns of black hieroglyphic text and vivid scenes

in red, green and yellow. Around the bottom of the

walls ran a continuous line of rearing serpents like

the ones on the plaster fragment they'd found at

Saqqara. The place was completely empty.

There was a metre drop from the level of the

corridor to the chamber floor. Tara jumped down

immediately. Daniel remained where he was for a

moment, playing the torch back and forth across

the floor, then jumped down too. He circled the

torch around the floor again, then lifted the

beam and slowly ran it over the walls, images

appearing and disappearing as the light passed

over them. He seemed uneasy, his gaze flicking

constantly downwards and back towards the

chamber entrance. Gradually, however, as his

attention focused on the painted images – the

brilliant colours, the strange faces, the teetering

326

columns of hieroglyphs – he seemed to relax. A

smile spread slowly across his face and his eyes

began to sparkle.

'It's good,' he muttered to himself, nodding.

'Oh, it's very good.'

He shone the torch up at one of the painted

scenes: a jackal-headed figure leading a man

towards a set of scales, on the far side of which

stood another figure, this one with the head of an

ibis, a pen and tablet in its hand.

'What is it?' asked Tara.

'From the Book of the Dead,' he replied, gazing

up at the scene. 'Anubis, god of the necropolis,

leads the deceased to the scales of judgement. His

heart is weighed and the result is written down by

the god Thoth. It's a typical Egyptian tomb scene.

Like that one . . .' He ran the torch along the wall

to another image: a man, red-skinned and wearing

a white kilt, extending his arms with what looked

like a jar clasped in each hand. In front of him

stood a woman, yellow-skinned, her head sur-

mounted by a pair of bull's horns with between

them a circular disc.

'The deceased making offerings to the goddess

Isis. Red for the man's skin, yellow for

the woman's. Wonderfully painted. Look at the

precision of the lines, the richness of the colours. I

can't believe I . . . It's just incredible.'

He stared up, spellbound.

'What about these figures?' asked Tara, point-

ing to a scene on one of the side walls: two men

with intricately braided wigs and beards facing

each other, one sitting, one kneeling. 'They look

different.'

327

Daniel shone the torch at them.

'You're right,' he said. 'Stylistically they're

Persian, not Egyptian. You can tell by the way

they wear their hair and beards. Go to the ruins of

Susa or Persepolis and you'll find this sort of

tableau everywhere. You don't see them in

Egyptian tombs, though. Same with this one.' He

flicked the torch round to an image on the oppo-

site wall: a bearded man in a white robe standing

in front of a table piled high with fruit.

'Here the style's Greek,' he said. 'See, he's wear-

ing a toga and his skin is pale, and the beard's

shorter, more ragged. Again, it's extremely

unusual to find this sort of figure in an Egyptian

tomb. It's not entirely unheard of – the tomb of

Petosiris at Tuna el-Gebel has the same sort of

thing. And the tomb of Si-Amun at Siwa. It's still

very rare, though. Unique if you factor in the

Persian scene as well. It's almost as if three differ-

ent people have been buried here. It's incredible.'

He turned round slowly, circling the torch beam

over the walls, something hungry in his eyes,

possessive, as if by analysing the tomb he was

somehow claiming it as his own. Tara wandered

over to a small recess at the back of the chamber.

'The canopic niche,' he said, coming up behind

her. 'For the canopic jars. When the deceased was

mummified his internal organs were removed and

placed in four containers – one for the liver, one

for the intestines, one for the stomach and one for

the lungs. This is where they would have stood.'

He sounded as if he was giving a guided tour.

She smiled to herself, remembering how he had

dragged her around the British Museum when

328

they had been lovers, giving lengthy explanations

of every object they came to.

'And what about this, Professor?' she asked, in-

dicating a painted panel just to the left of the

recess. 'What's this all about?'

He ran the torch beam over the panel. It was

divided into three sections, one above the other. In

the upper one a line of figures was marching

across a yellow landscape. In the next one down

the figures appeared to be tumbling and cart-

wheeling, a creature with the body of a man and

the head of some long-snouted animal towering