The Sands Of Time Part 8

It took eight of them to carry the heavy sarcophagus, holding it on their shoulders like pall bearers. They made their c.u.mbersome way down towards the river, their path lit by the two lines of cloaked figures ahead of them. Ra.s.sul and another, darker figure followed behind.

When it reached the bridge, the procession slowed and halted. The bearers turned so that they held the sarcophagus out, over the parapet.

'So be it,' said Ra.s.sul, his voice all but lost in the fog. And the men carrying the casket let it drop into the river below.

Ra.s.sul and the other figure leaned out over the edge. As they watched, the casket resurfaced, water sliding off its lid. Then it sank back into the river, almost disappearing from sight as it was swept downstream. It turned slowly as it was washed away, out of the torchlight.

'It is done,' breathed Ra.s.sul, although he did not sound as if it was a relief.

'I have just one more journey to make,' the figure beside him croaked huskily. It turned and, in the flickering torchlight, Ra.s.sul could see inside the hood the figure wore. 'But for you, it continues.'

Ra.s.sul nodded. 'But the end is approaching,' he said, unable to look away from the ruined remains of the figure's hooded face, trying not to inhale the stench of rotting flesh. 'Soon the G.o.ddess will live again.'

In the kitchen of Kenilworth House, Susan Warne stirred a pot of vegetable broth and wondered where Henry Atkins had got to. Perhaps this evening he would thank her for her efforts. She knew that almost certainly he would not. But there was just a possibility that he might value her kindness, might show her some appreciation.

The Legend of Horus The sarcophagus bore the body of Osiris down the great river, the Nile. It travelled for many days, until it washed up on the sh.o.r.es of the river at Byblos. The sarcophagus stuck fast in a hollow tree by the flowing water.

And there it remained while Seth ruled the kingdoms of Egypt in his brother's place.

But Isis searched along the Nile for her husband's body. After many days she found the casket, and she brought it back to Egypt and concealed it in the marshes.

Disguised as a kite, Isis visited the hidden body of her brother-husband.

Each day she tried to breath new life into the bones of Osiris. She spoke the words of power, the spells she learned from Thoth. And Osiris stirred in death and began to re-awaken. As he slowly recovered and gained strength, Osiris remained hidden in the marshes of Egypt. After a while Isis conceived, and was with child by her husband.

But Seth discovered his brother was again alive, and ordered that Osiris be found. And when his soldiers had found where Osiris was hidden, Seth had his brother torn to pieces, and he scattered his brother's remains into the river Nile.

Isis wept again for her husband. And again she searched along the river for him. She spent many days and months until she had recovered all the pieces of her brother's body. Then she placed them together, reforming his once n.o.ble form. And she bound it together with strips of linen - the first mummy.

So Osiris became an Ankh, travelling down to the underworld to become King of the Dead. Meanwhile on Earth, Isis gave birth to the son of Osiris.

And she called him Horus - the falcon who sees all.

Until he came of age, Isis trained Horus in the arts of war and taught him the wisdom of his father. When the day came that Horus ascended to adulthood, he went to his uncle Seth, and he challenged him for the throne of Osiris. The G.o.ds watched the conflict that followed, and they helped Horus to avenge his father.

Seth and his sister-wife Nephthys were defeated and imprisoned. And the G.o.ds declared Horus the rightful king of all Egypt.

(Translated by Tobias St.John, from the inscriptions of the tomb of An'anka) An'anka)

Chapter Four.

The desert air was hot and dry. As the sand dunes gave way to the greener banks of the Nile, the air was a little more humid, but the breeze soon drove away what moisture there was. The reeds waved in the wind and shimmered in the heat haze as the river ran quietly on. A single tree stood on one bank, towering over the reeds, split and blackened and dying. It was still even as the reeds around it waved and swayed quietly.

Then the calm of the river bank was broken. A noise like thunder rose from the river, swelling and vibrating. The sound ground its way heavily into a grating rhythm louder than the cry of a hippopotamus. It grew louder with each discordant strain until it crescendoed with a thump of achievement.

The tree quivered and shook as a heavy object washed up against it, jamming hard in the mud. In a moment it was quiet again. Just the river, the breeze, the reeds and the tree. And the solid blue box of the TARDIS stuck fast in the muddy bank of the ancient river Nile.

Atkins was beginning to lose his cool. And not before time, thought Tegan.

He seemed to have taken being accosted by cloaked and hooded figures and bundled into a large sarcophagus almost in his stride. But Tegan had been pleased to see that he took slightly longer to adjust to the fact that the sarcophagus was in fact a dimensionally transcendental TARDIS in which

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the Doctor and Tegan were quite relieved to find themselves. Even so, he seemed remarkably unperturbed considering.

'An interesting phenomenon, Doctor,' he had commented. 'I'm sure his lordship would be most intrigued to examine it. He has an interest in such things, as I am sure you are aware.'

After that he seemed perfectly happy to stand straight and still, with his hands firmly clasped behind his back. He watched the image on the scanner together with Tegan and the Doctor, but apart from verifying that the pictures being relayed showed that the TARDIS was being carried from the British Museum, over a bridge and then dropped into the Thames, he displayed very little interest in the technology behind the display of the images or the stability of the floor considering the movement of the exterior.

'It's merely a window, is it not?' he replied when Tegan asked him why he was not surprised.

She saw the Doctor stifle a grin. She hung her cloak on the hatstand and thought about this. Perhaps Atkins was right. From her twentieth century perspective, everything had to be a technological marvel. From Atkins'

point of view, it was a new version of an established and unremarkable concept. The difference was in what he a.s.sumed, and in his att.i.tude of disinterest.

'Actually, it's very sad,' the Doctor murmured to Tegan as she stomped off to join him at the console.

'What is?'

The Doctor nodded towards where Atkins stood watching them with apparent disinterest. 'No sense of wonder,' the Doctor said quietly. 'He's lost the fascination and awe, thrown out the child when he became an adult. Sad.'

Tegan looked at Atkins again. He did not look particularly sad, or as if he had any notion that he was missing out on anything. Particularly wonder.

'Boring, more like,' Tegan said as they landed.

Without bothering to check the scanner, the Doctor pushed the red lever which opened the door, and ushered Tegan and Atkins out into the heat.

And that was when Atkins began to lose his cool.

Tegan too had felt the heat immediately. Leaving the TARDIS was like walking into a spongy wall. But while the sudden change had seemed to disorient Atkins and leave him even more perplexed that the interior of the TARDIS, to Tegan it was like coming home to Brisbane in high summer.

The Doctor stood hands in pockets, hat on head, and surveyed the scenery. Atkins stood, mouth open without saying anything. Tegan called out that she was off to change into something cooler as she hurried back into the TARDIS, her long skirts sweeping a trail of damp mud after her.

By the time she re-emerged, back in her rather lighter and cooler chemise and culottes, Atkins and the Doctor were engaged in conversation. Atkins was pointing into the hazy distance while the Doctor stared at his feet, which were shuffling in the sand. Tegan climbed up the muddy river bank to join them.

'Doctor,' Atkins was saying, 'I am quite prepared to accept your word for it that this is indeed Egypt.'

'Thank you.'

'I have been to the country with his lordship on several expeditions and recognize the general climate and landscape.' Atkins gestured round, nodding to Tegan as he noticed she had rejoined them. His nod stopped short as he noticed her attire. But he recovered himself almost immediately and returned to his point. 'However, I cannot accept that those are the great pyramids.'

'Why not?' Tegan asked as she shielded her eyes from the bright sun and stared in the direction Atkins had indicated. 'At least they don't look too far away.'

Atkins and the Doctor both stared at her.

'Er,' Tegan felt she ought to say something. 'They are quite big, though.'

'Bigger than you think,' the Doctor said. 'Several days' walk, at least.'

'You're kidding.'

The Doctor shook his head. 'Remember the first time you saw a wide-bodied airliner?'

She nodded. Atkins looked blankly from the Doctor to Tegan.

'Was it as big as you had imagined?' the Doctor asked.

Tegan laughed. 'Much bigger. Huge. I though it might be as big as a small house, but it was bigger than a street.'

'Well,' the Doctor pointed to the largest of the pyramids on the horizon.

'Inside that one, you could fit nearly nine hundred of those, and leave room to walk round and look at them.'

Tegan thought about this. 'Big, then.'

'Huge,' the Doctor agreed.

Atkins coughed politely and broke the ensuing silence. 'I would contend, however, that the suggestion that those are the great pyramids of Giza is not sustained. While their configuration and size is, I shall admit, the same, Miss Jovanka -'

'Tegan,' she cut in.

'Miss Tegan,' Atkins corrected himself without hesitation, 'you will see at once that their const.i.tution is entirely different. You will observe, for example, that they are rather lighter in colour, almost shining as they reflect the sunlight. The tops too are of quite a different appearance.'

As Tegan's view cleared and her eyes adjusted to the heat-haze, she could see what Atkins meant. The pyramids were on the horizon, the sun seemingly right above them. And they gleamed in the reflected light. Tegan had never been to Egypt before, though she had seen numerous photographs and films of the pyramids. The structures she knew were of sand-coloured stone, ragged at the edges and blunted slightly at the tops.

These buildings were subtly different.

They were gleaming white, clean as porcelain. And their perfectly outlined shapes were topped with gold. The pyramids Tegan knew were magnificent; these were magnificent too, but they were also splendid.

Beside her, the Doctor sighed. 'Those are, I'm afraid, the pyramids you know, Mister Atkins.' He gazed at them for a moment, shaking his head in obvious admiration. 'Inexplicable splendour of ionian white and gold,' he muttered. Then he turned back to Atkins. 'There is just one small thing I should explain, though.'

'Don't tell us, Doctor,' Tegan said. 'This is ancient Egypt, right?'

The Doctor nodded.

'Terrific.'

' Ancient Ancient Egypt?' Atkins asked. 'I am not familiar with the place, I'm afraid.' Egypt?' Atkins asked. 'I am not familiar with the place, I'm afraid.'

'It's not a place,' Tegan told him, 'it's a time.'

Atkins gaped again. He was getting rather good at it, Tegan thought.

'No,' he said at last. 'You cannot seriously expect me to believe that I have been transported back thousands of years in time. That is simply incredible.'

'Oh really?,' the Doctor smiled. 'More incredible than being transported thousands of miles? You seemed to accept that with equanimity.'

Atkins considered. And while he did, Tegan edged closer to the Doctor. 'I thought you said we couldn't prevent what happened to Nyssa,' she said quietly. 'So why are we here?'

'I don't think we can,' the Doctor replied. 'Time is already set in its course, crystallized upon a particular web-way. But we have to try.'

'That's not what you said when we wanted to go back and save Adric.'

There was a note of accusation in her voice. Atkins had been about to say something, but he seemed to sense the tension, and kept his peace.

The Doctor did not answer at once. He looked down at the TARDIS, and then back towards the distant pyramids. Finally he turned to face Tegan, and looked her directly in the eye. 'When Adric died, I knew we couldn't save him. Just as I know we can't stop what happened to Nyssa.