Creator. Sharing in this divine awareness is the most natural form of existence.” He leaned forward and planted a finger on Kit’s chest. “See here, if we can establish an affinity with the eternal, ever-living Creator, then is it not likely that this affinity, this relationship, if you like, will endure beyond the death of the material body?”
The doctor did not wait for an answer. “I tell you it is,” he declared triumphantly. “And it is because we can establish an affinity with the eternal Creator that immortality becomes more than a fairy tale. At the very least, you must allow, it becomes a most reasonable hope.”
Just then they heard raised voices echoing up from the open stairwell behind them, and Khalid’s head and shoulders appeared in the excavation hole. “Come quick, sirs!” he called, waving them towards him. “The doorway is revealed.”
Once inside, Thomas inspected the work and approved it. “Well done, Khalid. Have this rubble cleared away, and then we shall dismantle the sealing blocks.”
The Egyptian overseer bowed his head to show he understood, and then turned to command his crew. “Yboud!” he ordered, and the workers began scooping rubble into baskets of woven hemp.
“It is of utmost importance not to rush at this stage,” the doctor explained when they returned to the wadi. “Everyone is always curious to see what lies beyond the door, what treasures may appear. In haste, irreparable harm often results—injury to artefacts and grave furnishings that can easily be avoided allowed sufficient patience and care.”
“That sounds like the voice of experience,” Kit observed.
“Oh, aye,” agreed Thomas ruefully. “It has been my misfortune to have arrived on the scene of several digs too late to prevent the stampede, and I have witnessed what can happen when excavators contract gold fever. In the race to get their hands on the treasure, they will trample valuables still more precious to the scholar and scientist. Some of these items are in an utterly fragile and delicate condition.” Thomas turned to gaze at the dark rectangular hole as the first workman appeared, bearing a heaping basket on his shoulder. “We will be having none of that on my digs!”
“Glad to hear it,” remarked Kit. “I expect the map is especially fragile. It’s just an old piece of skin, after all.”
“And, if you are right, Mr. Livingstone,” added Thomas, “that old piece of skin is one of the most uniquely valuable artefacts the world has ever seen.”
Once the room had been cleared and swept clean, more oil lamps were lit and placed all around the area to be excavated, and under Dr. Young’s eagle eye, the sealed doorway was opened, block by carefully chiselled block. As the hole grew bigger, Kit’s pulse quickened. When the hole was big enough to reach through, Thomas took up a lamp and, standing on some of the blocks, passed the lamp through the breach.
“See anything?” asked Kit, edging forward.
“Objects,” replied Thomas, stepping down once more. “The room is filled with grave goods.” He nodded to Khalid. “Take it down.”
The bricks came thick and fast now, and soon the last of the sealing blocks was removed; Thomas ordered more lamps to be lit. He passed one to Kit, and one each to Khefri and Khalid.
“After you, Dr. Young,” said Kit, indicating the darkened doorway with his lamp.
The archaeologist hesitated.
“Seeing as you’re the leader of this excavation and its benefactor, I insist.”
The doctor gave a nod and stepped to the threshold and, holding his lamp high, peered into the darkened room. He stood motionless—as if frozen in an attitude of searching expectation.
“Doctor?” said Kit. “What do you see?” He glanced at Khefri, who held his hands clasped beneath his chin, his dark eyes aglint in the flickering lamplight.
“Indescribable,” breathed the doctor, edging farther into the doorway. Turning slowly, he beckoned Kit and Khefri to join him. “You had better come and see for yourselves.”
The two stepped through the darkened doorway. In the faint illumination of the single lamp, he saw a confused and jumbled wall of objects and furniture crammed floor to ceiling and jammed into every available space: boxes large and small; chests of cedar, lime wood, and acacia; latticework room screens; collapsed bed frames; stools and footrests and headrests; chairs both simple and ornately carved; bronze-rimmed chariot wheels and disassembled harness trees; innumerable jars of all shapes and sizes; weapons—spears, swords, daggers, throwing sticks—both functional and ceremonial; a collection of painted rods and flails of office; and a host of small clay models