Temple of the Inscriptions
by Humphrey Price
Chapter 8: The Key
part 2
Hetepheres yelled, “Khufu!” He yelled back in ancient Egyptian and waved the gun at Sneferu. Sneferu yelled back. Khufu’s spies had told him they were going to open the new vault, and he had hidden in the pyramid to steal the elixir. Khufu did not believe his father’s story that the vault was empty.
The shouting continued in an exchange that went on for almost a minute, and I noticed that Jangsu wisely managed to hide or slip away somehow in the hubbub. The crazy man with the gun was getting more upset and, he finally lost it, firing the gun at Sneferu who grabbed his shoulder and fell to the floor. Hetepheres screamed, and he swiveled to turn the gun on her.
A heavy sword came swinging out of nowhere, connecting with the gunman’s right hand. It was Karyn. She had hidden behind the sarcophagus when she heard the shots outside. Later, in the confusion of the gunfire, she had the opportunity to grab one of the swords on the wall to attack the gunman. He screamed, and the gun went clattering across the floor toward me. The gunman dove after it, so I kicked it away, and it got lost under a collection of funerary statuettes.
Karyn was thrusting at him with the sword, so he rolled away, jumped up, and snatched the other sword from the wall. She was between Khufu and the rest of us and was fending him off. Hetepheres was tending to the wounded Sneferu, and Jangsu was scrambling to locate the gun.
The gunman had to wield his sword with his left hand, since his right was injured and bleeding. Even so he was more than a match for Karyn. She was quite good at fencing with a foil, as I knew from many matches with her, but they were using real swords, and the gunman used a hack and slash approach rather than thrust and parry and was obviously more experienced at actual sword fighting. He was also stronger than Karyn. Even so, she was keeping him occupied and at bay while I looked for something to use as a weapon.
He was swinging his sword wildly back and forth, advancing on her. As she blocked the blows, she had a good angle on her sword to deflect them away, but she was definitely on the defensive. She would not have the strength or stamina to sustain this for long. She lost her angle for a couple of hard blows, and with the direct hits to her sword, she almost lost her grip and dropped the weapon.
The clanging sounds were loud, and I could hear the blades vibrating violently after each powerful strike. But she had two good hands to clutch the sword, and her opponent had only his left. She had intense focus and concentration, but I could hear her breathing become more labored, and I knew she was going to lose it soon. Her opponent also sensed this, and a wicked smile grew upon his face.
Then I heard a gunshot. Jangsu had found the pistol and was firing it at Khufu, but he was not a good shot and missed him. Hetepheres was yelling at him like she wanted him to stop, and I was worried that he would hit Karyn by accident. Then Karyn, with a clever parry, sliced her distracted opponent on his left hand. He held on to the sword but decided that he was outnumbered and was now on the losing end. He backed toward the exit passageway, and Karyn advanced to his retreat. He hacked and slashed back at Karyn as she pressed her advantage, deflecting and thrusting back.
I gestured for Jangsu to give me the gun. Just as she was about to follow him out the passage, I yelled, “Stop, Karyn, get down and out of the way!” She ducked and fell back, and as soon as she was clear, I fired a shot up the passageway at the retreating enemy.
Hetepheres yelled, “Stop, stop!” She cried, “He’s my son!”
Although I was flustered and shaken at this point, Karyn remained clear-headed and rushed over to Sneferu to take stock of his injury. He was losing blood. She calmly removed a clean shirt from her pack, peeled off his shirt, and tied a pressure bandage around his shoulder to stanch the bleeding.
I was amazed at her skill. “Where did you learn how to do that?”
“I was a Girl Scout.”
“Well, you seem to know what you’re doing here. I’m going to take Hetepheres with me, and the gun, and see if we have a clear way out to get help.”
I handed Hetepheres a sword, and with a flashlight led the two of us out the passageway holding Khufu’s gun out in front, ready to fire at any threat. As we emerged into the next chamber, we saw the beefy guard dead on the floor. We checked the two other chambers, and they were empty. No Khufu and no mirror holder people. We then ran up the long passage to the outside.
On the way up, Hetepheres told me, “Khufu knew we had a new stone to try and open up the vault. He has spies among our people. Some of our guards were infiltrated. He was certain that we had found more of the Drink of Life and were hiding it from him. He wouldn’t believe us when we told him the vault was empty. He wanted it all for himself, and he would kill his father to get it. I don’t know if he would kill me. He might.”
We emerged into daylight just in time to meet a group of people coming up the winding stairway from the base of the pyramid. Luckily, they were her people, and ones that she trusted. She spoke to them rapidly in Egyptian, and several of them headed back in with us to help Sneferu and get him out.
Karyn and Jangsu were relieved to see us return, and we let Sneferu’s army take over. Hetepheres returned the swords to the wall and put things back in order. As they carried Sneferu out, Hetepheres kept Karyn and me in the burial chamber to tell us something.
“I cannot thank you enough for helping us, despite our having placed you at great inconvenience and danger. I’m sorry that this has all turned out so badly. Khufu has vanished, but he will be back. His spies will be looking for you. The safest route for you will be to take the travel throne back to Palenque. Khufu has no magic stone and cannot follow you that way.”
She produced a small leather pouch with a drawstring and handed it to me. “You will need this. Trust me. Place it in your front pants pocket so that it cannot be lost.” So, I did.
She led us back to the second chamber and had Karyn close the door with her stone. We then went to the first chamber, and Hetepheres used the laser to locate the point where Karyn could open the passage down to the travel throne. When the doorway opened to the rough-hewn secret passage, we stood looking at each other.
“You both will need to sit on the throne at the same time so that you can go back together,” Hetepheres instructed. “We have done this before, and we know it is safe. You need to do this to ensure you arrive at the same time, since the exact time displacement from each transfer is unpredictable. Set the location pointer at the Mayan hieroglyph and the time indicator at the far right. That will minimize your travel into the future to about sixteen years.”
“Okay,” I responded. “I think I understand. Karyn and I will pile on together with our backpacks.”
“Can we take your laser pointer?” Karyn asked.
Hetepheres looked back at her thoughtfully, and then her expression changed slightly, like a light bulb had turned on in her head. “Yes, of course,” she responded, handing it to her.
Karyn gave it to me to clip in my shirt pocket, and then she strode quickly toward the passageway to the outside and picked up one of the large round mirrors that had been abandoned on the floor. She darted back and handed it to me. She went to Hetepheres and gave her a hug. The youthful ancient Egyptian queen smiled and said, “Happy hunting. The dose is one and one-half cc. You just drink it.”
I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I didn’t have time to worry about it. Hetepheres said, “Quickly, you must go.” We hurried down the passage, and the door closed behind us, sealing us off from Hetepheres and the Egypt we were leaving behind.
Our descent down to the travel throne was thankfully uneventful, and Karyn’s meteorite continued to be the key that opened all doors. It was tricky getting the two of us, our backpacks, and the large round mirror into the cramped steel cylinder, but we managed. After a few tries we figured out how to pile both of us onto the tractor seat pedestal. I sat in the seat first and Karyn sat in my lap with my arms stabilizing her. She in turn held our two backpacks and the mirror balanced in her lap. Karyn made sure the controls were properly set then pushed the button to activate the device.
Copyright © 2023 by Humphrey Price
