“Tell me. Does this belong?”
Djet’s brow furrowed in concentration. “Sand can’t flow through solid rock. Which means—”
“Which means,” Karim broke in, standing back to survey the wall before them, “It’s not a wall. It’s a door.”
***
Time passed, and the shadows grew long.
The sun was past its zenith, and Karim knew that Hager and Babu would be growing increasingly impatient with their delay.
It will be worth the wait, Karim thought, and put his worries about the other Jackals out of his mind.
He and Djet worked tirelessly, using copper chisels to carve out the edges of a door, which had been packed tightly with dirt to appear flush with the cliffside. That done, they concentrated on widening the gap on one side. When it was large enough, they wedged two sturdy tree branches into the opening and began working together, heaving at the levers with all their might, trying to shift the massive stone slab away from the valley wall.
“Push!” Karim grunted as he strained against the branch forwhat felt like the hundredth time. Djet threw his whole body into it, sweat streaming down his face. “Now, pull!”
They shifted their feet forward, leaning their bodies away from the poles in unison. Finally, Karim felt the slab move, grinding a fingerbreadth across the ground.
“Again!” Karim shouted. The two of them pushed and pulled with renewed vigor. The slab moved slowly, but it moved.
“Enough, enough,” Karim said after a while, removing his branch from the crevice and leaning against it for support. His muscles throbbed with pain. He rotated his arm in its socket, trying to loosen the tightness there.
Djet dropped his branch and stepped toward the narrow opening in the valley wall. “What do you think is in there, hey?”
Karim pulled the covering back from his head and wiped his brow with the back of his hand. Scrabbling in his pack for his bow drill, he knelt and spun the drill until he got a spark to light the candle he’d brought. Once the wick was burning, he placed a palm on the stone slab and poked his head into the mouth of the cave, holding the candle out in front of him. Turning his body sideways, Karim held his breath and squeezed through the crevice, taking a single experimental step inside. As he did, a burst of wind blew through the opening and into the tunnel beyond, ruffling his curly brown hair and nearly extinguishing the candle. It sounded like whispers. There was a smell too. It was faint, but it reminded him of a fire long turned to ash, and something sweet and intoxicating.
Karim swept the candle around him, beating back the thick darkness. He couldn’t see much at first, just more piled rocks and walls stippled with axe strikes. But then the light illuminated something on the ground. He bent to pick it up.
“Well?” Djet called impatiently. “What do you see?”
Karim held the object close to the flame. It was a ring, its bandwrapped in fine gold wire, and its two arms holding a block of gold with engravings on each of its four sides.
A cobra.
A feather.
An eye.
A scarab.
Karim slipped the ring over his knuckle and smiled.
“Something wonderful,” he murmured. “Bring the torch.”
A moment later, Djet squeezed through the narrow opening, pulling their packs through after him. From one he removed a long clay object with a cup at the top, into which he’d stuffed several handfuls of dry scrub. Karim took it from him and used the candle to ignite the kindling. When it was bright and crackling, he handed the candle to Djet, and directed the flaming torch into the corridor ahead.
“There are steps, heading down,” Karim said, a tingle of excitement growing in his belly. “Stay close.”
The air was cool and still as they descended the rough stone stairs, and there was no sound except the ones they made themselves. It was the kind of ambient silence that Karim never got used to, no matter how many times he found himself scavenginginside some dark tomb. His breath seemed unnaturally loud, and the pulse of his heart made him uncomfortably aware of the flow of his own blood. It was difficult to forget his delicate hold on life when stealing into the home of the dead.
Still, it wouldn’t do to reveal any of his morbid thoughts to the impressionable young Djet.
“So,” Karim said brightly, his voice echoing through the tunnel. They’d reached the bottom of the steps and now progressed down a sloping hallway leading deeper underground. “What will you do with your share of the riches, hey?”
Djet chuckled nervously. “Oh, well… there is this girl…”
Karim laughed. “Isn’t there always?”
