** The horror slumbers buried under many meters of rubble and desert sand. Nameless cartouches, desecrated relics, and a sarcophagus containing an ancient riddle. **
"Ancient lands lost in time.
Storms of sand, walls of lime
Surround this mask of de...
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The thought of grave robbers possibly getting ahead of them weighed a little on their minds. Perhaps it was also due to the heavy and stale air, which made it harder for them with every meter they advanced into the earth's interior. At some point, the paths no longer branched off in three directions, so their plan to always go straight ahead failed for the first time at this point.
"We shouldn't go too deep, professor. Especially not without proper trail markings." Mr. Thornten's voice already sounded admonishing in the narrow corridors since the last bends but fell on deaf ears.
He might just as well have been talking to the dead in the corridors, whose remains they had now found in the numerous side caves of the passageways. Unfortunately, they were not intact mummies but destroyed and torn-apart remains of poor souls who, according to Egyptian belief, could now indeed not find their final resting place in the next realm. No more than a few decayed and yellowed linen bandages and piles of bones were left, found among the shards of vessels and also decayed wooden boxes. But it was not these that aroused Arabella's curiosity and skepticism. But those piles of bones suddenly appeared in the middle of the corridors and were swept aside like heaps of sand.
"Servants and slaves to accompany the owner of the tomb into the next life," she had been told, though her uncle had been noticeably puzzled by the condition of the bones.
Some were blackish or of a dark brown coloring, so they looked like they lay much longer than others.
"Not all of them have been prepared for the afterlife," Mr. Thornten had observed, which only sent a new shiver down her spine.
"Does that mean these poor people may have been locked up here alive? Or maybe they got lost and starved to death here?" The question just wouldn't leave her mind. Mr. Thornten must have noticed her concern because the young man regarded her a little longer before launching into an answer.
"Well," he began, but the American cut him off.
"It's obvious; that's why they're lying all over the place," Mr. Gates returned in a precocious tone, giving her a condescending look. "They probably looted all the grave goods at some point in their hunger and desperation. That's why everything is just junk now, even though the tomb was still sealed. But there was simply nothing edible to be found at some point." The tall man grinned as if amused by the resulting thought, "When there was nothing left, they bashed each other's heads in... poor bastards." With that, he leaned a little closer until his back shielded the light of the lanterns from the front, pushing them with the shadow into the darkness of the corridor. "Pretty scary, isn't it? Down here in the dark, with all the dead. You must be pretty scared by now, aren't you, Missy?"
"Mr. Gates!" rumbled Mr. Thornten between them, turning the American sideways with a firm grip on his shoulder so he had to look at him. "Your behavior is inappropriate!"
"Inappropriate?" Mr. Gates laughed unrepentantly and full of irony. "A woman just doesn't belong in places like this!"
"However, that is not for YOU to decide, Mr Gates," Thornten retorted polishedly.
