3. Hidden Traps
The Sphinx seemed to fall asleep. The pauses between words grew even longer and the lights in the eyes already extinguished. “That is … correct!”
The Sphinx’ head sank into the ground, revealing a long corridor inside its body. They ran inside—and the head immediately shot back into position.
Behind them, Shadowshifters scratched the sand in vain.
Both heaved a sigh of relief. They trudged to the end of the hall, where a large hole revealed more desert landscape.
“Why didn’t we just walk around it?”
“Can’t be done. Without you realizing, magic sends you the wrong way. You can only find pyramids through a Sphinx.”
They stepped through the hole. It was lighter than where they came from, even though the sun was still down. Faint rays of light illuminated a path. Large footsteps pressed deep into the sand, followed by many smaller ones.
They followed the meandering path. In the distance, a bright light loomed and they heard the waves lapping at the land. Just a few steps later, they found the source.
“Now I understand why it’s called the Pearl Pyramid,” said Gidi, her mouth agape.
“Beautiful, isn’t it? Just as the legend describes.”
A gigantic pyramid hid the moon and replaced its light with thousands of tiny stars: pearls. The shimmering glass decorated the pyramid like a Christmas tree.
“Who placed all those pearls there?”
“No one. Under the right conditions, like extreme heat from the sun and water nearby, sand turns into glass. So according to legend, Ra also did this. It’s called Desertglass, though only the prettiest ones become pearls.”
How does that whole legend fit on such a small piece of parchment? Gidi still couldn’t close her mouth. Jaco scanned the ground for crumbled pearls to put in his bag.
The path ended far before the pyramid. The entrance was nowhere to be seen and the ground was discolored, clearly darkened. He gently pushed her behind him and took the rope from around his neck.
“I want you to listen closely to me and always stay behind me, understood? From here on it gets dangerous. The gods pull out all the tricks to protect pyramids.”
“Why? Don’t they want people to worship them?”
“No, that’s the issue. The Followers of Ra believed in life, not death. They believed gods walked among them in animal form. When they died, they would go to the afterlife, where they lived on forever.”
“Oh. I’m starting to like them more and more. Eternal life sounds exciting!”
“… unless you lived badly and did nasty things, then your existence would end immediately. No worse punishment was imaginable.”
Jaco cracked his rope on the ground like a whip. The brown mud splattered and burst apart, but nothing else happened. He studied the grains closely, then struck the ground right in front of him.
They heard a loud rumble, as if a building collapsed, and suddenly the ground was gone.
Gidi peeked carefully over the edge. A deep chasm led down into a dark place full of spikes.
“What … nice beings, those pyramid builders.”
“Ah, well, if you know what you’re doing, that treasure is easy to find,” said Jaco.
He gently pressed his paw to the ground that was left. It felt sturdy. He walked over it towards the pyramid; Gidi followed after some hesitation.
“Treasure? What treasure?”
“I meant the final piece of the puzzle to finding Isis, of course. The treasure is a fragment of text that completes the legend.”
“Awesome!”
She forgot about the abyss around her and hopped cheerfully alongside Jaco. They stood at the foot of the pyramid, but still no gate revealed itself.
“But, if they believed in life, why do they try to murder intruders?”
“If an intruder steals even one thing from the pyramid, eternal life ends. The objects inside are your payment for getting into the afterlife. If stolen, whoever is buried here disappears, forever.”
Jaco pressed his ear against the sloped pyramid wall. From afar it looked smooth, but up close it was more like a wide staircase upward. The bricks often stood askew, or crumbled, and the limestone had round dents and protrusions. Gidi swore she saw skeletons of fish.
The sun rose as they reached the backside. Finally, Gidi thought, some warmth.
Jaco slowed down and removed his ear from the wall. “This is it.”
“This wall looks exactly the same as all those others.”
“That’s true, but I hear wind blowing behind this wall.”
Gidi also put her head against it. A gentle breeze ruffled her fur.
Jaco brushed past her shoulder. “Do you have enough food with you? Once we’re inside, we can’t easily get back out.”
“I … think so?” It’s more important that YOU have enough food, she immediately thought.
“Good, then we’re going in. Prepare for a grand adventure!”
“How do you want to break through this wall? With your dagger?”
“No, no, it’s an optical illusion.”
“Is that also an old word for waves?”
“No. It means you think you see something, but it isn’t actually real. Your eyes are fooling you. Look.”
Jaco struck his paw against the wall. To Gidi’s amazement, however, it flew through. A few seconds later, he pulled the paw back, not showing any signs of pain.
Gidi carefully pushed her nose against it and also went through. It felt soft. Together, they lifted two large pieces of cloth painted to look like stones.
The hall was dark, with nothing but a single torch on the wall. Jaco grabbed this and scraped its tip along the rough stones, like a match. A flame ignited that allowed them to see the end of the hall.
Gidi immediately ran forward, but he jumped in front of her.
“Careful! Traps are always invisible at first glance.”
The torch illuminated the wall. A short text was scratched into a square. Gidi didn’t recognize the symbols, though they seemed fun. She saw a feather, a flat outstretched hand, and even an owl drawn identically dozens of times.
“Hieroglyphs. Don’t worry, you’ll learn to decipher them in time. Let’s see. Here sleeps Osiris. Before one finds his final resting place, one must pass through the Hall of Truth.”
A series of arrows in the middle of the wall pointed to the end of the hall. Above each arrow, an increasingly larger figure was drawn, but it was currently too small to recognize.
Step by step they moved towards the dark end.
“What is the Hall of Truth?”
“Anubis, one of Osiris’s children, leads dead souls to this hall. Once there, Osiris places your soul on a scale. On the other side he places a feather. If your soul is lighter than the feather, because you were a good person who did nothing cruel, you move on to eternal life. If not, your soul disappears.”
She swallowed. “And we’re going through that now?”
He shrugged and walked on with determined steps. “It’s just a legend, you know, and we’re not dead souls. Besides, I assume your soul is lighter than a feather!”
She had to run to keep up with him. “I don’t know if I want all that just for a fragment of text. Even if we might find Isis.”
Jaco screamed in panic. “Watch out!”