Cursed Times - What Now?

Chapter 18 - Sweating

Trueth peered into the dusty dark tunnel looming ahead of her. She had not enjoyed this place the first time round and things had not improved in the meantime.

'Are you ready?' Metjen asked.

Even a boring lecture was preferable to whatever might await her at the temple. So she nodded, and they followed the professor through the half light of the underground passage into a courtyard awash with the first sunshine of the day.

Metjen's father stopped to point out the craftsmanship of the lintels and other peculiarities of ancient architectural feats his son seemed to take for granted as he kept checking his watch. Trueth noticed he was sweating despite the early morning cool.

For once, the professor attempted to keep the interest of his audience, a challenge given it still was unclear what the purpose of the building had been. 

'It wasn't part of a funerary temple, the layout and the general orientation is wrong, it wasn't a tomb—noble or otherwise. And it's unlike the symbolic palaces around Djoser's pyramid. It's just there.' The professor's friendly face drooped with genuine bafflement. He polished his glasses, then beckoned for them to follow him towards the passage the archaeologists had found first. 

He shone his flashlight inside. 'This runs on straight into the distance, until it meets up with the wall of another structure from the New Kingdom. Its builders even nicked stones from this place. Nobody has left us any inscriptions, we don't have little greetings from the stonemasons. That is rather unusual. At least, this corridor was only filled with ordinary rubble, not that crazy stuff we found crammed into the other one. I will show you something else.'

He took a golf ball out of his pocket and threw it into the gloom. It came rolling back.

'What do you make of this?'

'It slopes towards the courtyard,' Metjen said with a groan. 'Sorry, I don't feel so hot. Can we hurry up a bit.'

The professor stiffened slightly, but turned around and directed them to the opposite end of the stone square where heat had already started to pool.

Pointing back, the professor said, 'Access must have been through that western tunnel behind us. I have no clue what the purpose of this courtyard was, but you can see the remains of pillars here—and there.' He indicated two undignified heaps of rubble. 'And we found broken slabs that make me believe this once had a ceiling. Until it blew up in a major explosion.'

'Father—that's impossible!' Metjen said.

'Well, the Servants started off in the Old Kingdom, didn't they? And they were a lot more powerful back then. So how about somebody was in a shitty mood and hit the roof...literally?'

The professor grinned at his son who pursed his lips then smiled briefly.

The lecture continued. 'Okay, on this side we have the eastern corridor. It was a real nightmare to excavate. I had to get special drills. I even paid for them, but back at the institute they still think me mad.' Concern flitted across the face of Metjen's father and Trueth felt like hugging him, but she was not sure whether he would appreciate such a display of unwarranted emotion. Instead, she watched Metjen as he entered the tunnel

The professor brightened again. 'We managed, and I tell you it was well worth the effort.' With that, he turned around—an oriental maestro, ready to introduce the tabla fortissimo.

Together they went down a few steps into the corridor and Trueth would have continued along the straight passage lined with crooked stones had the professor not stopped her. He joined Metjen, who was fingering a set of raised hieroglyphs next to the doorway.