Ramose and the Tomb Robbers (10 page)

Hapu had stopped crying. They were both waiting for death. Ramose remembered a passage from the papyrus.

Do not give in to the terror of thick darkness. The heart is not made strong if it is not tested. The light that guides you may be invisible
.

It was as if whoever wrote the papyrus had known what would happen to them. But Ramose couldn’t help but give in to the darkness. What choice did he have? Perhaps the invisible light would lead him to the afterlife.

Ramose opened his eyes. There was no difference whether his eyes were open or closed. He’d been sleeping. He had no idea for how long. It could have been a few minutes. It could have been many hours. He wondered how long it would take him to die, if it would be painful or if he’d just go to sleep again and never wake up. He was cold. He wished he had his cloak so he could at least die warm. He sat closer to Hapu, so that they could share what little body warmth they had.

Ramose woke suddenly. He’d dreamt that something soft and warm had brushed against his leg. A noise had awoken him. A loud animal sound.

He was definitely awake now, but he felt the sensation again on his chest. It took his breath away. He felt it brushing his face. He could smell something too. A fishy smell. There was another noise, a soft rumbling in his ear. Then he felt sharp teeth sink into his nose. Ramose sat up and reached out. His hands touched something warm, soft and mobile.

“Hapu,” he said. His voice was hoarse. “Hapu, it’s Mery.”

Hapu stirred beside him.

Ramose stroked the cat from its nose to the tip of its long tail. He felt the earring in its left ear and the ceramic Horus eye amulet around its neck.

“It’s not a dream, Hapu. She’s real.”

Ramose reached out and found his friend’s hand and touched it on the cat’s head. Hapu pulled his hand away as if he’d just dipped it in a pot of boiling water. He sat up. Ramose felt him tentatively reach out and touch the cat again.

“Are you sure we’re not imagining her?” said Hapu croakily.

Mery miaowed.

“I’m sure,” said Ramose feeling his mouth shape into a smile. “She bit me on the nose.”

“How did she get here?”

“I don’t know. We have to follow her.”

“How can we do that in the dark?”

“She’s the invisible light.”

Ramose felt for the hem of his kilt. There was a small rip where he’d caught it on a sharp rock as he was lowered into the tomb. He tore it further until he had ripped a strip off the bottom of his kilt. He tied one end to the cat’s collar.

“Okay, Mery,” he said. “Where’s Karoya?”

The cat started to clamber up the rocks blocking the passageway. Hapu held on to the end of the strip of linen. Ramose felt along the length of it.

“Where’s she gone?” he said. “Has the knot come undone?”

“No,” said Hapu. “I can still feel her tugging on it.”

Ramose moved his fingers along the length of linen. He rested his foot on one of the lower rocks so that he could lift himself up. The strip of linen disappeared through the stone barrier.

“Up here,” he shouted, his fingers feeling the rocks in the top corner of the blocked passage. “There’s a hole. It’s tiny. Just small enough for Mery to fit through.”

“That’s no good for us.”

“I can fit my hand through though.” Ramose reached his hand through the small hole. From behind he could loosen a few small stones. They heard the sound of them clattering to the floor on the other side. Ramose strained, his feet were slipping off the smooth surface of the boulders.

“Help me up,” he said.

Hapu knelt down so that Ramose could climb on his back. He reached his arm into the hole up to his armpit. He loosened more small stones, then a larger one about the size of a pomegranate fell away.

“The passage was blocked from the other side,” said Ramose, his breath coming in gasps. “I should be able to…” He strained and grunted. “Get out of the way!”

Ramose pushed a larger rock. It moved only slightly. Ramose pushed again, the exertion was making him feel faint. He gave the rock one final shove and it tumbled into their side of the passageway. Hapu reached up and pulled down more rocks until there was a hole big enough for them to wriggle through. They tumbled into the passage on the other side.

“I’ve lost the linen strip,” Hapu cried out. “I don’t know where Mery is.”

Ramose was lying on the floor where he had landed. He felt the cat nudge his arm. “She’s here!” He reached out and grabbed the linen strip. “She’s leading us. Come on!”

Ramose tried to get to his feet and bumped his head on the passage ceiling. “This passage is very low,” he said. “We’ll have to crawl.”

He felt Mery tug on the linen strip and he followed the cat on his hands and knees.

The passage continued on. Ramose’s knees grew sore. Then his knees bumped into something. His hands were resting on a higher level. He felt angular shapes. He knew this meant something, but he’d been so long in the dark, he couldn’t picture what it was he was feeling.

Slowly an image formed in his mind.

“Steps!” he called out to Hapu. “There are steps leading up.”

He raised his head and above him he could see something bright, something glaringly white. His eyes took a while to make sense of it.

“Daylight!” he said.

It was only a chink of light, but it was dazzling. Ramose stumbled up the steps. Hapu followed him. At the top, Mery disappeared through a small hole. There was a rectangular slab covering the shaft. Ramose and Hapu pushed at the slab. It didn’t move. They could hear noises on the other side. The sound of someone moving rocks off the slab. The boys pushed again. The slab lifted a little, less than a finger-width. Someone pushed a stout piece of wood through the gap. With the help from above, the boys managed to lift the slab far enough so they could clamber out.

The light was blinding. Ramose couldn’t open his eyes. A hand grabbed him and pulled him along. He stumbled forward. The ground began to slope down steeply. Ramose could hear the faint trickle of water. The glare softened and his skin grew cool. He knew they were somewhere shaded from the sun. He could see an image swimming in front of his eyes: a dark circle framed with red and green, and in the middle of it a bright white curve. It was Karoya’s smiling face.

Karoya’s face wasn’t smiling for long. “A temple guard discovered that the pyramid has been broken into,” she said. “The temple workers are searching for thieves. We can’t stay here.”

“But we aren’t tomb robbers,” said Hapu.

“We’re strangers with no reason to be here,” said Ramose. “It would be hard to convince them.”

The boys both took a deep drink of water from the waterbag that Karoya offered them. Ramose stroked Mery who purred loudly as if she was very pleased with herself. After the time of darkness, the cat’s sandy stripes seemed bright and beautiful. Her green eyes were like jewels. She stepped into Karoya’s lap, circled round and settled down to sleep.

“I don’t want to ever hear you complaining about Mery again, Hapu,” Karoya said.

“I won’t. Never,” said Hapu as he swallowed the last of the water.

“We have to get away from this place as soon as possible,” Ramose said.

“We’ll have to wait till night and then go back to the river.” Karoya was anxious that they would be caught again.

“How can we travel by boat to Memphis?” asked Hapu. “We haven’t got any gold.”

“Yes we have.” Karoya held up Ramose’s bag. “I found the tomb robbers’ hiding place.”

Ramose opened his bag. Inside were the remaining rings of gold, his scribal tools, his cloak and his heart scarab. After Mery had emerged from the bag spitting and scratching, the robbers hadn’t looked in it again.

Karoya produced bread and figs from her own bag. Ramose and Hapu ate hungrily. As his eyes slowly got used to light again, Ramose began to look around. They were in a marshy hollow where a small stream flowed. An outcrop of rock shaded them from the sun and, more importantly, kept them from being seen. Ramose couldn’t believe how his luck had changed in the last couple of hours.

“We must get back to the river,” he said. “I have to see my father.”

They waited until the sun was setting before they started off again. Ramose watched the yellow disc sink behind the old pharaoh’s pyramid, wishing it hadn’t disappeared so quickly.

“Can’t we sleep?” asked Hapu. “I’m so tired.”

“We have to get as far away from here as we can,” said Karoya. “Then you can rest.”

Ramose couldn’t remember anything about his journey from the river to the pyramid, but Karoya seemed to know where she was going, even in the dark. He was happy to let her lead.

After walking for an hour or so, Ramose could go no further.

“We have to rest, Karoya,” he said.

Hapu groaned and slumped to the ground. Karoya found an empty grain store where they could sleep and they crawled inside. Ramose was asleep in seconds.

The next day, they decided they were far enough away from the pyramid to risk walking in daylight. They travelled through rough swampy ground and saw no one. By midday they were back on the banks of the river.

“We’ll have to find a village,” Ramose said. “There won’t be any boats stopping here in the middle of nowhere.”

They rested a while and then headed north along the river’s edge. They reached a small village in the late afternoon. The villagers were finishing their work in the fields and walking back to a huddle of mud brick houses. A few simple reed boats were tied up to a wooden mooring platform. Ramose inquired about a boat, while Hapu and Karoya went in search of food.

“There’s a farmer taking grain to Memphis,” said Ramose when he returned to his friends. “But he isn’t leaving till the day after tomorrow.”

“Did he want to know who we were?”

Ramose nodded. “I told him the same story, we’re apprentices sent to work in a temple in Memphis. Karoya is our slave. I said we’d argued with the captain of the naval boat we were on and been left behind to make our own way.”

“Did he believe you?”

“I think so.”

They sat down by the river’s edge within sight of the place where the boats were moored. Karoya laid out the fish, lentils and fruit that she and Hapu had bought from a kindly woman. She gathered dry reeds and animal dung and made a small fire in the sand. She pulled the cooking pot from her bag. Ramose smiled. Through all their adventures, Karoya hadn’t lost any of her things.

“The people are friendly in this village,” said Karoya. “We can wait. Hapu, put some water in the pot.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” grumbled Hapu as he picked up the pot and took it to the water’s edge. “How come you never ask Ramose to do your errands for you?”

Karoya opened her mouth to reply, when a sudden cry interrupted the argument.

“There they are!”

Ramose whipped round. The farmer he had spoken to was pointing at them. Behind him was a man dressed in the robes of a high priest.

“They’re tomb robbers,” shouted the farmer. An angry crowd of villagers and temple workers gathered and started to surge in their direction.

Hapu dropped the pot in the river and ran back to Ramose and Karoya. “Now what do we do?”

Ramose didn’t know what to do. Karoya gathered up Mery and their food, ready to run.

“Don’t run,” said Hapu. “We can explain.”

The villagers surrounded them and grabbed hold of Ramose.

“We’re not tomb robbers,” he said.

“Search his bag,” said the high priest as he arrived, out of breath.

The farmer snatched Ramose’s bag. He pulled out the gold rings and Ramose’s ebony palette. The gold, ivory and turquoise glinted in the sunlight. The growing crowd muttered angrily.

“He is a thief!”

“That’s my palette,” said Ramose. “I’m a scribe.”

“You’re not old enough to be a scribe,” said the high priest, “and what sort of apprentice scribe has a palette inlaid with gold and ivory? You must have stolen it from the tomb.”

The priest pulled a linen bundle from Ramose’s bag. He undid the wrappings and stared at the lapis lazuli scarab that lay in his hand.

“That’s his,” cried Hapu. “It belongs to him. He’s not a tomb robber, he’s not even an apprentice scribe, he’s—”

“Shut up, Hapu,” said Ramose.

The priest searched Ramose. He found the papyrus which was still tucked in the belt of his kilt. As he pulled it out, a shower of beads fell to the ground, released from a fold in his kilt where they’d been caught since the old pharaoh’s collar had broken. The old woman who Karoya had bought the food from fell to her knees and picked up the beads.

“Turquoise and gold,” she said turning to Karoya accusingly. Her face was no longer kindly.

“What more proof do you want?” shouted a villager. “Look at that. Beads from a royal neck.”

The priest was studying the papyrus. “This could be coded instructions for how to find the pharaoh’s tomb inside the pyramid.”

The crowd was surging forward, ready to grab the thieves. The priest was looking at Karoya.

“What’s the slave girl got in that basket?”

He grabbed hold of the basket. Karoya refused to let it out of her grasp. Others grabbed her arms and she was forced to let go. The priest opened it and Mery sprung out hissing and spitting like a demon. She sunk her claws into the priest’s chest and snarled in his face. The priest leapt backwards and dropped the heart scarab. The startled cat took one look at the angry people around her and leapt into the river. The villager holding Ramose loosened his grip.

“Look!” he said, pointing downstream.

The villagers and the high priest looked down the river. So did Ramose. A huge barge was sailing majestically into view. This was not a rough village boat, it was skilfully made from cedar wood. The prow and the stern turned up and were carved into the shape of papyrus stalks in flower. The boat was travelling south, so a white linen sail was billowing from a mast. Ramose wasn’t looking at the structure of the boat though. He was already very familiar with it.

“It’s the royal barge,” he whispered.

He was staring at the people on board. Standing at the front of the boat with his bony, insect-like hands clasped behind him, his robes fluttering in the breeze, was Vizier Wersu. Sitting in a gilded chair eating grapes and being fanned by two of her servants was his sister, Hatshepsut. She was talking to a woman alongside her who was sipping from a golden goblet. The woman wore an elaborate wig topped by a crown. It was Queen Mutnofret. A young boy dangled a fishing line over the side. Three servants stood by watching him anxiously. It was Prince Tuthmosis, Ramose’s half-brother.