The Tekhen Of Anuket Part 14

Everyone nodded.

"But how does that help us actually get in?" Marcus asked.

"I hadn't quite worked that out yet," Phoenix admitted. "I was hoping a riot would kind of give us an opportunity to slip in."

Jade groaned. "We can't just hope a chance will come up, Phoenix! Remember that the guards in Memphis had a special knock? We don't know the one they use here?"

Phoenix swore. "So even if we did distract the guards with a riot, the doorkeeper wouldn't let us in. Come on everyone...think. We need a way in."

Marcus knelt down with his back to the ocean and gazed up at the old buildings surrounding the Temple. Fluted stone and intricate Roman friezes rubbed elbows with sphinxes and hieroglyphs. He nudged Heron. The old man sat down with a crackling of knee joints and a relieved groan.

"Was this part of town Roman-built or Greek?" Marcus asked.

Phoenix blinked at his friend in bewilderment. "Is this an appropriate time to be admiring the architecture?"

Marcus sent him a level look and returned his gaze to Heron, who considered the question.

"I do believe that the Greeks built the original Rhakotis area, but that this particular part was rebuilt after it was destroyed when the Romans took over. The more affluent Egyptians wanted to copy our Roman style housing. Why?"

"One thing we Romans are very good at is drainage." Marcus remarked. He stood up and brushed off his knees, gazing west along the rocky sh.o.r.eline.

"First architecture, now drains?" Phoenix threw up his hands and caught Jade's eye. He circled his temple with a fingertip and mouthed, 'crazy' at her. She grimaced at him and shook her head. She was right, of course. Marcus was anything but crazy. Intelligent, methodical, patient; yes. Crazy; no. If he had an idea, it would be worth listening to.

Heron now scrambled to his feet, his lined face alight with understanding. "Yes, you're right of course. This was all low lying land and needs excellent drainage in the flood season. It should be this way," he pointed west and hurried away with his monk's robe flapping around his ankles as he crouched below the guards' line of sight. Marcus followed leaving Jade and Phoenix to trail along feeling lost.

"Any idea what they're on about?" Phoenix murmured.

"Nope," Jade shrugged. "But Heron's a genius and Marcus has never let us down yet, so I'm willing to give it a chance. Besides, I couldn't think of anything. All I can think about is poor Brynn. That horrible chanting and screaming we heard back in Memphis...."

Phoenix laid a hand on her arm as her voice trailed away. "It'll be ok," he rea.s.sured her. "Brynn will be fine. We'll save him, I promise."

She bit her lip and nodded but he could see that his promise didn't really help. Unless they found a way in soon it would be too late and they both knew it.

Their thighs were burning by the time they arrived at a corner of the harbour wall. The Temple walls rose steeply above, hiding even the feeble moonlight. Jade refused to light any witchlights so close to enemy territory, so Phoenix almost b.u.mped into Marcus. He and Heron were gazing with satisfaction at the mouth of a ca.n.a.l that emptied into the ocean. It held just a few feet of sludgy, stinking mud and debris-laden dirty water that reeked of sewage and swamp.

Phoenix gargled and blinked as his eyes began to water and the smell caught in the back of his throat.

"There's your entrance," Marcus nodded at the ca.n.a.l.

Phoenix shook his head. "That doesn't go into the temple, it's an open ca.n.a.l."

"No," Heron agreed, "but that does." He pointed at a man-sized, arched opening in the brick side of the ca.n.a.l. "All the sewers and storm drains around hear empty into the ca.n.a.ls. This one should lead you almost straight under the walls and into the temple."

"You have to be kidding," Jade moaned. "Please tell me we don't have to wade through sewage to get there."

Marcus raised one eyebrow at her and smiled slyly. He pointed to himself and Heron. "We don't. You and Phoenix do. At least, you do if you want to get in and save Brynn."

Jade sighed. Phoenix suppressed a grin. He figured she would do pretty much anything to save that brat and Marcus knew it.

"So," Phoenix wanted to make sure he had it clear. "You and Heron go stir up a decent riot by posing as Set priests while we find a place to lay low in the temple?"

Marcus nodded. "We'll walk south along the ca.n.a.l and come out in the Rakhotis sector. It will be easier to start our riot there, as the Roman patrols avoid that section at night and don't enforce the curfew. As soon as you hear a disturbance outside, open the doors for us."

Heron spread his thin, white hands. "When you open the doors we'll lead a swarm of rioters inside. That should occupy the monks and give you a chance to find Brynn, the stone door and destroy the Tekhen of Set."

"Why can't we just all go in this way?" Jade asked, frowning. "I don't like separating. We're stronger as a team."

"My dear girl," Heron said, pity in his eyes, "you are all formidable fighters, but remember: there are over a hundred monk-warriors in that temple. Zhudai and the High Priest will have them on full alert. You can't possibly save your friend and destroy the obelisk without some a.s.sistance. Ah... that reminds me." He pulled Jade aside and murmured into her ear.

Intent on his destination, Phoenix ignored the inventor and gripped Marcus' arm. "Good luck."

"Give us an hour," Marcus returned his clasp. "If you haven't heard any noise outside by then you can a.s.sume we've been captured or the riot has been quelled by the Roman patrols. If that's the case, you'll have to try to save Brynn without us. In fact," he unhooked Mjolnir from his belt and hefted it thoughtfully, "you'd better take this in case you need to destroy the obelisk. You probably won't get a second chance to get inside the Temple."

Stepping away from Heron, Jade fished the Bag out from beneath her shirt, slid her own staff into it then held it open to Marcus. He dropped the hammer and gloves into its black depths with a sigh of regret. Jade gave him a swift, tight hug then did the same for Heron. Phoenix frowned. It was worrying to think of how Marcus would fare if he were captured. He and Brynn had come to mean so much in such a short time. He didn't blame Jade for looking frightened as Marcus turned away.

Catching her eye, Phoenix raised an eyebrow. Jade swallowed, squared her shoulders and clambered down the steep, brick sides of the ca.n.a.l. He followed. When they reached the bottom and stepped gingerly into the mouth of the tunnel, he almost gagged at the smell. The stench of human waste, dead things and swampwater made him dry retch and cover his mouth.

He glanced at Jade, secretly glad to see she seemed just as affected by the smell. His mouth filled with saliva as he tried desperately not to throw up.

"Can you do anything about this smell?" He coughed. "Cast a cleansing spell up the tunnel like you did in the tomb, maybe?"

Jade frowned, blinking as raw methane rushed out and made their eyes water again. "Wouldn't work there's too much stuff decaying too fast. It would just come straight back again. But if I...." She tilted her head, a sure sign that she was thinking hard.

He waited as patiently as he could. There was no way they could breathe the air in this tunnel for long. A dead dog floated past in the ca.n.a.l, its body bloated, hairless and grey. Phoenix gulped and looked away.

"Got it!" She exclaimed. "Hold still."

He did as ordered. She wove her hands in a sphere shape around his head, muttering as she did. There was a flash of purple-blue from her fingertips. The world swirled and warped before his eyes before settling back into almost normality. Everything looked faintly bluish, but nothing too weird. He drew a quick test breath. The air smelled perfectly good.

"Cool," he grinned. His words bounced back with a faint echo. "This must be what a goldfish feels like. What'd you do?"

Jade finished working on her own head and smiled at him. Her face looked slightly distorted as though she was looking through the bottom of a gla.s.s bowl. "It's a shield spell combined with the air cleansing one. It means that only air molecules can come through the shield, rather than scent ones." Her voice sounded tinny and distant.

"Wow," he was genuinely impressed. "How'd you think of that?"

She shrugged but he could tell she was pleased by his approval. "Sometimes it helps having a modern education to go with this magic stuff. Means I can use it in ways people here haven't thought of yet."

They began to move into the dark tunnel, stepping with care on the slimy bricks. Luckily, there was only a trickle of water in the bottom, so their feet weren't soaked in the stuff. Jade sent a few witchlights ahead, but neither of them were keen to see everything they were walking through. There were some things you were better off not knowing, Phoenix reasoned. He shook his head and tried to concentrate on counting.

He'd estimated the distance from the ca.n.a.l to the temple itself at about a hundred metres. As he walked, he stretched his steps a little to cover what he thought was about a metre with each stride. Counting, he stopped and looked up when he reached a hundred.

"This should be it. Any tunnels leading off to the right from now on should be coming from inside the Temple of Set."

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

Jade nodded her understanding and peered into the gloom ahead. "There," she pointed. About twenty steps away was a smaller, black opening leading into a drainage pipe about half the size of the tunnel. Splashing over, the pair leaned down and looked hopefully into the opening. Not surprisingly, it was pitch black.

She c.o.c.ked her head, frowning. "I hear something," she whispered.

Phoenix strained his ears, but all he could hear was his own breathing and the gurgle of turbid water.

"It sounds like chanting the same sort we heard in Memphis," she said. Her eyes were huge in the darkness. "I hope it doesn't mean they're about to start the sacrifices."

"At least we know it's the right drain," he reminded her. "Let's not waste any more time."

They both looked down at the floor of the tunnel. In the faint light of Jade's witchlights, it was an unwholesome green and caked with filth and algae. A steady stream of putrid water flowed out of it, occasionally carrying nasty brown lumps. The roof was too low to stand under, even if they bent over. If they wanted to go on, they would have to crawl.

Jade gulped and looked at her hands. "I'm going to pretend I've never heard of bacteria."

Phoenix grimaced and got down on his knees at the mouth of the tunnel. "If it turns out Brynn has been sacrificed after we've gone through all this, I'll kill him."

"Ha, ha," she replied, giving him a shove in the back to get him moving. "Don't even joke about Brynn being sacrificed. We have to get there in time. He's our chosen Companion. We can't lose him now."

He nodded and began crawling, trying to ignore the sickening sliminess beneath his fingers. "I know what you mean. Brynn may only be a game character, but he's like a kid brother."

There was a brief pause, then Jade spoke again. "How many brothers or sisters do you have in the real world?"

He had to stop and think for a moment to separate his character's memories from his own. It was getting harder to do the longer he spent in this realm. His avatar had been brought up in a big family of eight and he remembered all the warmth and bickerings of having siblings. It contrasted sharply with Phoenix's own life, making it seem lonely by comparison.

"I'm an only child," he said.

"I have six older sisters in the real world," she returned with a hint of both bitterness and longing in her voice. "In this one I'm an only child, so I guess I kind of know how you feel."

Phoenix thought about his real father, years dead, and his unloving stepfather. Anger and hurt welled up in his heart again. At his hip, he felt Blodbal react to the emotion, trying to find a way into his head again through it. Grimly, he shut the feelings out. He couldn't afford to feel if he wanted to stay in control. He didn't have to reply to her comments, as they came to a junction at that moment.

The tunnel continued straight but another intersected it from the left. He paused, listening hard. Beside him, Jade pointed to the left and he nodded in agreement. She took the lead this time. The chanting echoed faintly from that direction. It was their only certain link to the temple. The other direction could lead closer to the door, but it might also lead somewhere outside the grounds and they couldn't afford to waste time checking.

Another ten metres or so brought them underneath what looked like a drain-hole of some sort. They say silently beneath its pale light for a few moments, listening. Eventually, Jade must have identified some of the noises. She turned to Phoenix and mouthed 'kitchen'. He nodded and indicated they should keep moving. A kitchen was far too busy to sneak in and out of.

A few more seconds crawling revealed an extremely unpleasant scene indeed. Ahead of him, Jade stopped abruptly and reared back with her hands up. He peered around her and was suddenly indescribably glad of the shield spell protecting his nose. Overhead, a series of small holes sent shafts of light down to expose several, sloppy, putrid mounds of human waste piled on the tunnel floor.

He looked up, realising what the openings above must be. They had found the toilets. He closed his eyes briefly, wondering how on earth he had got into this situation. Brynn had better be really, really frigging grateful.

When he opened his eyes, he found Jade examining the underside of the toilet seats. She reached up and cautiously pushed. The holes were cut into slabs of timber that were hinged in some fashion. It was probably to allow the facilities to be cleaned, although it didn't look like the cleaners did a very good job of it. Still, it meant they could get out of this gross place. Phoenix nodded when she glanced down at him.

She whispered something and listened hard. He guessed she was listening for people coming in to use the room. Well, if someone did, they'd get the fright of their lives.

With the coast evidently clear, she pushed the lid all the way open and grabbed the edges of the seat. Grunting, she pulled herself up and scrambled out of the way. Phoenix followed her.

Then they were standing in a plain, white-walled room with the row of toilet-holes in a raised bench along one side of the room and a long trough with constant trickle of water flowing along the other. There weren't any cubicles or mirrors and there didn't even appear to be any toilet paper. Phoenix tried hard not to wonder how they cleaned their backsides.

With obvious satisfaction, Jade cast a cleansing spell on their entire bodies, twice. Dirt and filth vanished from his hands and knees, but he wouldn't feel clean for a week, even if he bathed twice a day. Next, she dropped the spell around their heads. Phoenix sniffed his hands. Clean. It was a relief, especially when he got a whiff of the bathroom itself.

He decided they were taking too big a risk if they lingered any longer in such a high-traffic, nasty-smelling place. He pushed the bathroom door open a fraction and peered out. The hall outside was empty.

"That was possibly the most disgusting thing I've ever seen," Jade whispered in his ear. She pulled her staff out of the Bag and gripped it. "Let's get out of here and find a place to hide somewhere near the front door."

"What about Brynn?" Phoenix hissed. "The longer we wait, the less chance we have to save him."

"I know," she bit her lip. "But Heron's right. We can't possibly go up against a hundred monks on our own. We have to let the others in."

He scrubbed a hand restlessly over his face and head. He could feel the tension building again. He wanted to pull out his sword and run screaming through the halls, killing anyone who tried to stop him getting to Brynn. It took a huge battle of wills for him to subdue the bloodl.u.s.t pounding in his body.

"OK," he grunted. He pointed along the corridor. It led roughly south. "We'll head for the door. You listen ahead of us and I'll keep an eye out behind. Keep going that way and we should come to the door soon enough. Can you tell when Marcus' hour has pa.s.sed?"

She nodded once, eyes on the empty hall. Together, they slipped out of the bathroom and trod softly along the tiled pa.s.sageway. Phoenix drew Blodbal forth, steeling himself. The sword sang its tempting song in his head. He pushed it to the back of his mind and focussed on watching for enemies.

With incredible luck, they made it all the way to the front lobby without seeing a single person. In the distance, the chanting that had drawn them through the sewers was reaching some sort of peak. Ma.s.sed male voices swelled and resounded, echoing in weird disharmonies through the dark stone hallways. Most of the monks must be attending whatever twisted ceremony was going on in the depths of the Temple. Phoenix only hoped it wasn't something to do with Brynn.

Soft-footed, they slipped into the vast, dark entranceway of the Temple. They came out beside the left foot of an enormous statue of Set. It towered overhead, glossily black and silent. Phoenix couldn't help but wonder if the G.o.d was, somehow, watching them. He hoped not.

Directly opposite was the main door. A single, bored-looking monk-soldier stood beside it with his back against the wall; eyes closed. Phoenix decided to take a chance. It was too good an opportunity to miss. If they took out the doorkeeper, he could steal the man's robe and hide in plain view.

A quick look at Jade told him she must be thinking along similar lines. She whispered a soft command and the guard's legs crumpled beneath him. He fell to the floor with a gentle sigh and began to snore.

Phoenix sent her a grin and a quick thumbs-up then ran across the open foyer to drag the monk into the shadows. Together they tied and gagged him with strips of his own underclothes, then stuffed him behind a huge copper cauldron that stood to one side of the door. Jade stayed to make sure he didn't cause a ruckus if he awoke. Phoenix grabbed the curved sword, sheathed Blodbal and donned the robe. He pulled the cowl to hide his face then took up a post by the door and proceeded to wait with a thumping heart and sweaty palms.

So far so good.

Time had been flying past. Now it seemed to crawl at the speed of a half-dead snail. For the fiftieth time, Phoenix wished he had a watch. Jade had said she could tell when an hour had pa.s.sed. Surely it must be soon. How long could they wait before Brynn was murdered?

The far-off, eerie chorus stopped abruptly. There was a brief, uneasy silence followed by a sharp scream of pure terror and pain. Phoenix closed his eyes and gripped the hilt of the Egyptian sword tightly. He felt sick. That couldn't have been Brynn. Please. There was no way he could even ask Jade if she could tell, because, at that moment, she slipped past without speaking to him, heading toward another large cauldron that stood behind the second door. He stared at her, wondering what on earth she was doing.

His attention was diverted by a new noise. This one came from outside the thick doors he supposedly guarded. It sounded remarkably like a large, angry crowd getting closer.

There was a frantic thumping on the door. Phoenix stepped up and slid back a convenient eye-slot. The priest-guard outside didn't bother with a code or hand sign. He wasn't even looking at the door. He was too busy panicking at the sight of the square filling up with thousands of shouting, torch-bearing, armed protesters.

Phoenix grinned. Good old Marcus.

"Send out reinforcements, quick! There's a mob out here," the priest-guard hissed.

"Right away," Phoenix replied smartly, sliding the spy-hole shut again. He waited as long as he could, hoping that the noise wouldn't bring too many priests of Set running.

Jade appeared at his side. "It's time?"

"Yep. Seems that way," he said cheerfully. "Time to save the world again." In the back of his mind, he noted a strange hissing noise coming from the left and right.

"Oh, please," she rolled her eyes. "Just open the door and let the nice angry people in."

"Your wish is my command, my lady." Not wanting to be mistaken for a priest by the mob, he yanked off the monk's robe, swept her a bow then reached for the weighty wooden bar that held the door fast.