The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 135

• Предыдущая
• 135/177
• Следующая

the exposed groove in the wall. It reached the top of the slot and

Nicholas jumped down from the crate. They both stared expectantly at the

disembodied head, now disfigured by the chipped and damaged plaster.

After a long, breathless wait, Royan whispered dejecr edly, "Nothing It

hasn't changed anything."

"The rest of the quotation from the stele," he reminded her. "There was

more to it than just the vulture and the sun."

"You are right." She looked around the rest of the wall eagerly. "'The

jackal hops and rests Upon his tail.

She pointed with a trembling finger at the small, almost insignificant

figure of Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the graveyards, on the wall

opposite the vulture that they had mutilated. Standing at the foot of

the huge, towering painting of Osiris, he was only a little larger in

size than the ringed and bejewelled big toe of the husband of Isis and

father of Horus.

Royan ran to the wall, and the moment she touched Anubis she felt that

his image too was raised. She flung all her strength against the tiny

figure, trying to twist it first one way and then the other.

"'The jackal turns upon his tail"," she panted as she wrestled with him.

"He must turn!'

"Here, let me do that." Gently Nicholas pulled her away, and knelt

before the black-headed god image. Once again he used the blade of his

clasp knife to chip away the plaster and the thick layer of paint from

around the outline.

"It seems to be carved in some sort of hard wood and then it's been

plastered over," he told her, as he tested the construction of the

figure with the point of the blade.

When at last he had chipped it clear he tried to twist it in a clockwise

direction, and grunted with the effort.

"No! He gave up at last.

"They had no clock dials in ancient Egypt," she reminded him agitatedly.

"The other way. Turn it the other way-$

When he tried to turn it counter-clockwise, there was another rasping,

gritty sound from behind the wall panel.

The tiny figure revolved slowly in his hands, until the black head

pointed down towards the yellow tiles.

They both stood well back from the wall, looking expectantly at it, but

after another long wait even Nicholas was disheartened.

"I don know what to expect, but whatever it is, it isn't happening he

grunted with disgust.

"There is still the last part of the quotation," Royan whispered. "'The

river flows towards the earth. Beware, you violators of the sacred

plain, lest the urrath of all the gods descend upon you!"'

"The river?" Nicholas asked. "As Sapper might say, I don't see no

perishing river."

Royan did not even smile at the cockney accent.

Instead she searched the profusion of writing and images that covered

all the walls around them. Then she saw it.

"Hapi!" Her voice was shrill with excitement. "The god of the Nile! The

river!'

High up the wall, on a level with the head of the great god Osiris, the

god of the river looked down upon them.

Hapi was'a hermaphrodite, with the breasts of a woman and the genitals

of a man protruding from under the pendulous belly. The mouth in his

hippopotamus head gaped wide to display the great curved tusks that

lined his cavernous jaws.

Standing on a pile of ammunition boxes, Nicholas was able to reach the

Hapi image at the full stretch of his arms.

As he touched it he exulted, "This one is raised also."

"'The river flows towards the earth,"' she called up to him. "It must

move downwards. Try it, Nicky."

"Give me a chance to clear the edges." He used the point of the blade to

chip the outline of the god free, and then he probed the plaster beneath

it and found another vertical slot running towards the floor.

"Ready to give it a go now.  He folded the knife and tucked it back into

his pocket. "Hold your breath and say a little prayer for me," he

instructed.

He settled both hands on the image of the god and began to pull steadily

downwards, Gradually he brought more pressure to bear upon it, until he

was hanging all his weight on it. Nothing moved.

"It's not working, he grunted.

"Wait!" she ordered. "I am coming up."

She scrambled up on to the boxes behind him and  tight,, placed both

hands around his neck. "Hang  she ordered.

"Every little bit helps, I suppose," he agreed, as she lifted her feet

and hung her full weight on his shoulders.

"It's moving!" he shouted. Suddenly the image of Hapi gave way under his

hands, and with a sharp grating sound travelled down to the bottom end

of the groove in the wall.

Nicholas lost his grip on the smoothly rounded shape as it came up hard

against the end of its slot. The stack of boxes under them toppled, and

both he and Royan dropped back to the floor of the gallery. She was

still hanging around his neck, and he lost his balance as she pulled him

over backwards. The two of them sprawled on the agate floor in an untidy

tangle of arms and legs. Nicholas scrambled to his feet and pulled her

up beside him.

"What has happened?" she gasped, looking up wildly at the damaged Hapi

figure and then around the walls of the gallery.

"Nothing," he said. "Nothing has moved."

"Perhaps there is another-' she began, but broke off at a sound from the

roof above them. They both stared upwards, startled and filled with

sudden trepidation. There was a ponderous movement from above the high

plastered ceiling.

What is thatV Royan whispered. "There is something up there. It sounds

like a living thing."

A giant was moving, coming awake after slumbering for thousands of

years, stretching and turning as he awoke.

'is it-?" She could not finish the question. She had an image in her

mind of the great god himself stirring in a hidden chamber in the rock,

opening those baleful, slanted eyes, rising on one elbow to discover who

had disturbed him from his eternal sleep.

Then there was another sound, a creaking and rumbling as though the arm

of a mighty balance was swinging slowly across, as its equilibrium

altered. Softly at first, then louder, the movement gathered momentum,

like the beginning of a mountain avalanche. Then there was a report like

the shot of a cannon.

A crack appeared in the high ceiling, running the length of the gallery.

Dust smoked from the jagged opening, and then, slowly as a nightmare,

the roof began to sag down over where they stood. Both of them were

paralysed with superstitious horror, unable to tear their gaze from the

slow, inexorable collapse of the ceiling upon them. Then a chunk of

plaster struck Nicholas's upturned face, slamming into his cheek,

tearing the skin and sending him staggering backwards against the wall.

The shock and pain aroused him at last.

"The warning!" he blurted. "Taitals warning. The wrath of the gods." He

sprang to her side and grabbed her hand, "Run!" He pulled her after him.

"Taita has booby-trapped the roof!'

They raced back along the gallery towards the opening in the seated

entrance. Lumps of stone and plaster began to rain down and dust filled

the passageway, halfblinding them. The dull rumble overhead became a

• Предыдущая
• 135/177
• Следующая