Page 26 of Her Dark Priests

Chapter nine

TORY

Icouldn’tgetto sleep that night. Despite the exhaustion I felt from travelling and the heat, I tossed and turned on the camp bed, my mind whirling from thought to thought, unable to settle on anything—guilt at running from West and Davenport, knowing they were undoubtedly going to get into trouble for losing me, guilt at deceiving my parents and causing them worry, guilt about letting down Jasper and embarrassing him, and then for some random reason, the conversation with Jabari about ghosts kept popping up in my head, as if I didn’t have enough to obsess about. Attempting to turn those thoughts off, I went back through the people I’d met that day, trying to remember names and jobs, and then I got stuck on a certain doctor with warm green eyes, which made me even more restless.

Eventually, I gave up trying to sleep. I pulled on my trousers and shirt over the underwear and camisole I had chosen to sleep in, laced up my boots, and grabbed my phone. Rosie didn’t stir as I unzipped the tent and crawled out into the silent camp. I felt better as soon as the cool air washed over me. It had been hot and sticky in the tent with two of us, even with the air vents open, and I took a few deep breaths of the night.

The embers still glowed in the campfire that had been lit after dinner, but other than that, there was no light other than the stars and the moon. In the distance, I could just make out the faint sounds of the city of Zagazig, and I listened, amazed at how close people lived to something so incredible such as a giant temple complex for an ancient god. I turned slowly, facing south, away from the temple site where I had been told the city of Bubastis had stood. Its people had not only worshipped at the temple but were its lifeblood, supplying not only priests and priestesses who would work one month at the temple and then two months at their regular jobs, but also cooks, cleaners, scribes, guards, builders, architects, and so much more. Maybe there were people to look after the cats. I felt a slight pang as I remembered my own feline friends back home, and I prayed that the servants were looking after them for me. I smiled to myself. Maybe I should direct the prayer to Bastet instead of the universe.

I grinned and turned back towards the temple. “Oh, Bastet, Goddess of Felines, I miss my kitties. Look after them for me.” I laughed quietly to myself. Hattie would think I’d gone mad. I had a sudden thought to text her, but when I opened my phone, I realised even an hour behind, it was still the middle of the night. I set a reminder on my phone for the morning. I’d sent her a brief text in the airport telling her there’d been a change of plans and I wouldn’t be seeing her in France as I was sneaking off to Cairo, but not to worry, I was going to make sure I had fun. Once she’d heard of my disappearance, however, she might start to worry anyway.

I switched the phone off and blinked as the screen seemed to appear as a floating white rectangle everywhere I looked. I headed for one of the tables, blinking to try and get rid of the light blindness.

“Dammit,” I cursed as I bumped into one of the benches, hitting my shin against the rough wood. A stab of pain shot through me and I winced, but it wasn’t bad. It would probably leave a bruise tomorrow though. I was about to sit down when I heard a sound off to my right, almost like a faint cry of some kind. I stood and listened for it, and it sounded again, like a small child or more likely a creature, maybe a nocturnal bird or animal out there in the ruins. I stared out into the darkness and suddenly sucked my breath in sharply. There, out in the darkness of the temple site, two glowing eyes stared back at me.

I blinked, but they didn’t fade, they just kept staring at me. The cry came again, and this time I recognised it—a cat’s miaow. I remembered reading somewhere that cats don’t naturally miaow. It was something they learned to do to communicate with human owners. If that was the case, this cat was tame and out in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t fancy its chances if the dogs woke up and heard it. Worried I might end up with a hunt on my hands, I moved away from the campsite and headed towards the eyes.

I didn’t dare switch on the phone again in case I scared it off or disturbed the dogs, so I made my way by the very faint moon and starlight. I wished it had been a full moon, as I bumped into several smaller boulders. My legs would be black and blue tomorrow. The eyes stayed where they were until I got close, then they backed away a little. I hesitated, dropping into a crouch and holding out my hand. I rubbed my finger and thumb together, making a faint friction noise that usually worked on my cats to attract them. Food would have been more helpful, but I didn’t know where the supplies were kept. I could find out in the morning, but I had to catch the creature first. I sat still and patient, and after a few moments of watching me, the creature came closer.

It was not a large cat, probably still quite young, though no longer a kitten. It had a striped coat, but in the darkness, I could only make out the darker stripes and not what colour the lighter pattern was. It came towards me slowly and began to sniff my fingers. I slipped them around its head, rubbing the top and along its jawline until it began to purr and rub against my legs. Pleased I had earned its trust, I started to slide one hand under its chest, the other around its rear, but it suddenly pulled away from me and darted over a boulder.

“Shit, come back, you daft cat,” I called quietly. Almost as though it heard me, the cat appeared on top of a boulder off to my left and stared at me, miaowing. Shaking my head, I moved towards it, reaching my hand out slowly again. This time, it headbutted my fingers then jumped to the ground and looked back at me. I took a few more steps towards it, and it moved away, looking back at me and meowing again.

“Okay, seriously, what is this?” I asked out loud. The cat simply miaowed again. I took a few more steps forward and it moved farther out of my reach.

“You know Lassie was a dog, right? Or are there some kids trapped down a fallen mineshaft somewhere?” Wonderful, I was out here in the middle of the night talking to a cat when goodness knew what was out here in the darkness. No sooner had the thought crossed my mind when Jabari’s comments about ghosts came flooding back. I shivered and looked around. It was dark, with no glowing eyes except those of this damn cat. I moved forward again, but this time I didn’t stop. The creature led me through the huge stones, and finally between two massive carved pieces that I guessed had been part of enormous columns at one time.

As I passed through, I felt something flow across my body, as though a warm wind had swept over me, except that my hair and clothes didn’t move. I froze at the strange sensation, turning and looking back the way I’d come. I almost expected to see something hanging across the two column sections, but there was nothing. The cat miaowed again, and I turned back, following him deeper into the temple site. I wondered briefly where we were. I’d had a glance at the site map that afternoon, but the temple and its outbuildings, not to mention tombs, were in such disarray that no actual outline of the buildings had ever been decided on. The stones were just too strewn about to get any concrete idea. I did have the vague notion of the direction that the temple faced, and working on the assumption it was designed like most Egyptian temples from that era, I was probably in the huge entrance hall.

I stood for a moment, trying to imagine what it had been like here thousands of years ago, but a small head started headbutting my shins. Rolling my eyes, I began to follow my feline guide. Just where it was guiding me too, I had no idea. We moved steadily through the silent ruins, and even though I still got no impression of what the place might have looked like, I did get this weird feeling of peace, reverence, and even comfort, like that feeling when you had been away on holiday and enjoyed it, but you finally got home and there was this feeling of rightness...

“Oh, get a grip, Tory,” I said out loud. “And stop wandering around in the dark. If that cat doesn’t want to be caught, it won’t be.”

I heard a sound behind me and whirled around, convinced Jabari or someone had just come across me following a cat and talking to myself in the middle of the night. Thankfully, there was no one there to witness my insanity. I went to turn forward, but some kind of movement caught my eye in the shadows. For a moment, I thought I saw fabric moving in the breeze, but then there was nothing. I blinked and shook my head, turning back to the cat who was now miaowing very loudly.

“Come here, you little devil. Oh, for pity’s sake!”

The little monster darted through the temple. I chased after it, noticing that I was moving between rows of columns as I passed. I paused to look at them. They were incredible. Most were too weathered and damaged to possess the incredible decoration they would have had when the temple was built, and none of the columns stood much taller than myself, but I could tell by how wide they were that they must have been colossal.

“Whoa, kitty cat, this must have been some place once upon a time,” I murmured, looking up through the columns at the band of the Milky Way that shone brightly across the night sky. The cat gave a sharp mew, and I glanced over at it. I knew from my own studies that these columns were only the entrance to the temple itself, and the cat was making its way through the main temple towards where the shrine to the goddess would have been.

“What? You want me to say thank you?” I asked, grinning at the cat as I headed towards it. “I say I’m missing my cats, and the great and powerful goddess sends me you, does she? And now I have to come say thank you? Well, that’s fair enough.” I kept my voice low and soft, and the cat sat and watched me come closer. It was only when I got a few feet away that I noticed something strange about the large, flat stone the cat was sitting on. It lay fairly flat on the ground, and another huge boulder lay just next to it. A huge crack had split the flat stone, and I guessed it had happened when the large one had fallen on it. I had seen several broken in half pieces across the site. It wasn’t unusual. What was unusual, though, was that right under where my furry friend was sitting, the crack seemed to be glowing.

Not even glowing, it was as though someone had a light beneath it and it was shining through the crack. It was not a bright light, but something soft, like a candle. I crouched down next to the cat, who for once didn’t immediately run away. Frowning, I reached out and ran my fingers along the crack. It was wide enough to dip my little finger inside. I bent down, trying to see through the fracture to what was underneath it, but I couldn’t make anything out.

“Well, that’s strange, kitty cat,” I murmured. “There is definitely something down there. It’s probably nothing though.” I ran my hands around the edge of the stone, feeling to see if I could get my fingers under it. I could. “Probably nothing, maybe some bioluminescent creature that lives in the jungle.” I gave it a sharp tug, just to see if it would shift. It did, and I heard a slight rustle of sand falling. “I mean, there is no way I could lift this stone myself.” I looked up at the cat who had jumped up on top of the boulder and was now watching me silently. “Unless...” I ran my fingers over the crack again. “Well, that’s very interesting, kitty cat. It looks as though this crack stretches the entire length. I might just be able to...” With an irresistible feeling of curiosity, and a general feeling of “Fuck it” that I had been following ever since I’d made my plans to come here, I bent my knees, braced my feet against some nearby rocks, and with a huge heave, pulled the larger piece of the stone up until it toppled back over onto the other side.

I stumbled to my feet, breathing hard with the effort. I stared at the gaping hole where the stone had been. Very faint, golden light filtered up from the depths of the earth, revealing a flight of stone steps leading downwards. “Well, bloody hell, kitty cat, I think you just led me to the entrance of Jabari’s tunnels. Now what do we do?”

I glanced up at the creature, suddenly feeling slightly unnerved that it had actually led me into a temple and to a secret passageway. I looked at him suspiciously. “Okay. So you got me here. Now what?”

I swore the blasted thing rolled its eyes at me, even though I was fairly sure cats didn’t roll their eyes or even understand human speech, but considering the circumstances, that was just mildly annoying. It jumped down onto the top step in the hole I’d created and padded softly down the steps, looking back and giving a loud miaow.

“You have got to be kidding me. Look, I get it, and it’s awesome and all, but I’m going to wait for sunrise and wake up the professor, and then we can all come and look with ropes and safety supports. You know, the kind of thing that’ll stop several-thousand-year-old tunnels from collapsing on me.” I started to back away. The cat looked at me, then I watched the fur stand up on its back as it arched and started to hiss. “No, really, I appreciate it, but I...” The cat continued to hiss and then darted between my legs. I turned quickly, narrowly avoiding falling into the tunnel entrance, and watched in confusion as the thing stood in front of me, hissing loudly.

“What’s the matter, kitty cat?” I asked, peering into the darkness. Suddenly, I jerked back. Something had moved near the columns. My heart began to thud loudly in my chest as I saw more movement in several different places. Dark shapes appeared to move through the boulders. I froze, but there were no sounds, just a faint rustle like sand falling through an hourglass. I couldn’t even tell if the shapes were human, they just seemed to blend in with the darkness. As my mouth grew dry and my pulse raced, the utter stupidity of my actions came crashing down on me. Less than an hour away were two men who were utterly devoted to my protection, and now because of my actions, here I was alone in the dark surrounded by only God knew what. An eerie sensation crept up my spine, a sickening fear that I was being hunted. I scanned the ground for something, a weapon, to protect myself, but there was nothing.

My eyes fell on the hole beneath the stone I had moved. I’d only managed to shift half of the stone, and the gap, although big enough for me to squeeze through, wouldn’t let much else pass. The faint golden light still shone up from the ground, so I quickly made my decision, glancing back at my feline friend.

“Coming, kitty cat?” I asked with a sliver of fear in my voice. It turned at the sound of my voice and hissed at me, then turned back to face the dark shapes that were slowly moving closer. As they reached the columns, a wave of terror swept through me. Small golden orbs of light hovered at various heights from the ground, like eyes shining in the darkness.

“Jabari, is that you?”

Silence.

“I don’t believe in ghosts,” I told the floating orbs. They didn’t reply, just floated closer. “Screw this,” I muttered. I turned and slid into the hole, wriggling down under the half that still covered the entrance. It was a tight fit, and my back scraped painfully against the edge of the stone steps. The cat was now full-on growling, a sound that was getting deeper and louder by the minute. It seemed odd that such a tiny cat could produce a sound like that, but I wasn’t going to stick around and ponder it. I forced my body farther down the steps until I could finally sit up and shuffle down on my bottom. Several steps later, I could stand. Standing meant I could run, and I did, as fast as I could down the steps into the tunnels below, taking care not to trip. I hit the ground at the bottom with a thud and raced flat out, thinking of nothing but putting as much distance between myself and those shadows as I could.

The tunnel widened around me, the walls straightening up and arching over. Impressions of painted figures, scenes, and hieroglyphics flew past as I ran. Other passageways appeared, branching off from the main one, but they were dark, and I didn’t dare leave the light. It still shone ahead of me in the distance, though underground it was hard to tell how far.

My chest burned and my heart thudded painfully. I felt the sharp pain of a stitch in my side, and I tried to take deeper breaths, but I kept running until I reached a tall, narrow doorway, and then I skidded to a stop. Two columns arched up with papyrus reed designs at the top. In front of each column stood a tall statue of a sitting cat made of black polished stone, their eyes set with rubies that reflected the golden light that streamed out of the room beyond. The light was bright after the darkness of the night and the tunnel, and I held up my hand to shade my eyes as I stepped through the doorway and into the light.