The Thief

By The Inspector

Chapter 12

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Disclaimer:  I don't own.  Nope, not mine.  No plagiarism is meant.  Blah blah blah, don't sue me.  Blah blah blah, thank you.

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Kura slept through the day, waking only once to turn over so that the sun could warm his other side.  After a night in the cold river, the sun was more comforting than a fleece blanket and he didn't stir again until it began to set.

He had been dreaming again, about the woman in white.  There was a thick collar around her slender neck made of gold and inset with green and blue precious stones.  Kura could see that her face was a golden brown color, but her skin was darker.  She used an ibis feather pen to put a second mark next to his name.

Kura was going to ask her where the temple was, where the alter and the statue of Horus were, when the smell of coffee woke him.  Groaning, Kura stretched his arms over his head and opened his eyes.  Ryou was standing over him with a small cup of coffee that he placed in Kura's hand.

At Kura's suspicious look, Ryou laughed and shook his head.  "Don't worry," he said with a bright smile.  "I didn't make it.  It's Odion's."

Kura grinned, flashing his teeth, and took a sip of the hot brew.  It was dark and sweet and he hummed softly in content.  "Gods bless you," Kura thanked Ryou gratefully.

Ryou blushed and looked away shyly.  "You're welcome," he said.

Kura took another sip and looked up at Ryou over his cup.  His pale face was full of color.  Like pink roses on new snow.  "You're cute when you blush," he teased, which only made the poor boy blush harder.  Kura laughed and stood up, taking his coffee with him.  "Magus!" he yelled, "Where are you?  I'm hungry!"

Ryou looked at Kura's retreating form, still yelling at Kaiba, and shook his head.  Just when he thought he had Kura figured out…

"Ryou!"

Ryou yelped and jumped in surprise, whirling around to see Malik standing behind him.  "Malik," he said, hand at his chest.  "You scared me!"

"Yeah, well, that's not hard to do," Malik smirked.  "Come on.  Odion has dinner ready.  We need to get it before the thief does."

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Kaiba said dryly as Kura plunked himself down near him, the thief looking pleased as a cat with a saucer of cream.  "You can have your food after you've answered some questions."

Kaiba had a lot of questions for Kura.  First, though, he had Kura describe in fine detail his experience from the other night.

Kura told him about the maze and corridors of solid rock.  He told him about the trap, though not that he almost got stuck in it, and he told him about the pool of bones.

"How many bones?" Kaiba asked curiously.

'Ghoul,' Kura through.  "I saw parts of four or five.  Does it matter?"

"My predecessor came here looking for Horus's Gift," Kaiba explained.  "But he came alone.  That would make some of the bones older.  I wish I knew…"

"Knew what?" Kura prompted when the magus fell silent.

Kaiba looked up, almost having forgotten that the thief was still there.  "Knew why whole expeditions have disappeared after this goal."

Kura rolled his eyes and moved over so that Ryou and Malik could sit by the fire.  Who cared about why they disappeared?  "I wish I knew how the bones came to be piled up in the back of the maze and none of them left in the trap at the front."

A thoughtful look appeared on Kaiba's face.   "An astute observation," he said.  "Maybe somebody moved them?"

Kura shrugged.  He didn't know why someone would want to move the bodies.  Besides, the thief would have to be pretty smart not to get himself locked in the trap in the first place.  Kura looked around the campsite and another thought occurred to him.  "I'd move camp if I were you," he said.

"Why?"

"The river turns here," Kura pointed out.  "And we're right across from the falls.  If the water came back faster than it did last night, it would jump the falls and land on top of you.  You, Odion, and Ryou would be washed across the sandbar and end up somewhere downriver, probably drowned."

"Hey, what about me?" Malik asked, having been listening in on Kura's conversation for awhile.

"Good riddance to you," Kura sneered, earning himself another bop on the head with Kaiba's heavy ring.

"We'll move," Kaiba said as he settled back down. 

Odion came over and handed Kura his plate.  "Eat."

While Kura practically inhaled his food, he asked Odion if he had any rope or twine.  He needed a longer piece than the ones he had in his pockets.  After dinner he waited for the river to go down and same as the night before, it disappeared just after midnight.

Inside the maze, Kura found both his wayward shoes bobbing in the water.  Kura put them on and scowled.  They were cold and felt squishy on his feet.  But by the time he got the first lock open, he'd forgotten about them.

Locks are not difficult to open, Kura knew.  They all work on the same system: Little tumblers keep the lock closed in this position and open in that position.  The more tumblers you have, the more expensive the lock, but if a thief can open a lock with four tumblers, he can open one with six or eight or twelve almost as easily.  He just uses a longer false key with adjustable strikes to move the tumblers.

"If you want to keep something safe," Kura muttered to himself, "Hire a guard.  At least until someone invents a better lock."  That or hide your treasure where no one will find it.  That's what most people do.  Being able to find valuables hidden in boxes behind bed frames, moving through a building with no one the wiser, those were important skills for a thief.  Those, and a good head for heights.  From his experience, people usually don't hide their emerald earrings in the cellar.

Kura blocked open the doors with rocks he had brought from the river and made his way to the back of the maze where the pool of bones was.  It was the one place in the maze that he could think of that might hold Horus's Gift.

Kneeling in the water, Kura began to rank his fingers through it, disturbing silt and bones.  He found rings, gold buttons, silver buttons, brass buttons, cloak pins, and brooches.  The thieves who had come before him had certainly been a wealthy bunch.  But nothing Kura found was Horus's Gift.

Kura pocked one ring with a large green emerald on his finger and shoved everything else he had found back in the water, offerings to the gods.

With the bones searched, all that was left to do was measure the maze, using the rope that Odion gave him.  It took him all night.

When he was ready to leave though, Kura found that all his door blockers failed to hold the doors open.  Kura could feel the river coming back in and hurried to get the doors open.  His foot kicked the pry bar, but he didn't stop to pick it up and hurried out, breathing a sigh of relief.

This time Kaiba was waiting for Kura.  "Any luck?" he asked.

"No," Kura scowled, shaking out his wet hair.

"Dammit.  What have you been doing all night?" Kaiba snapped.

"Tripping over pry bars," Kura retorted smartly.  "Where's my breakfast?"  After he finished eating, Kura asked Kaiba for a piece of paper.

"Going to write a letter to your sweetheart?" Malik chirped as he poked Kura in the side.

"What makes you think my sweetheart can read?" Kura scowled, pushing Malik away from him.  To the magus he said, "Just get me a piece of paper."

Kaiba rolled his eyes and pulled himself up to grab his bag.  He tore a sheet of paper from the back of his journal and handed it to Kura with a flourish.  "I hear and obey," he said, "Which is more than you have ever done."

Kura snatched the paper from his hand and used a charcoal stick from the fire to mark out the measurement he'd stored in his head from the maze.  Presently he looked up from his work to see Ryou sitting across from him.  "What?" Kura asked, suspicious.

Ryou bit his lip for a second before blurting out, "Do you really have a sweetheart?"  Then he blushed, his cheeks turning bright pink and adding pretty color to his pale face.  "No, t-that's not what I meant," he stammered.

Kura smiled and shook his head.  "No, Ryou," he said.  "No, I don't have a sweetheart.  In my line of work it's not worth it.  Besides," he smirked, "I'm told I'm difficult to get alone with."

Ryou giggled and nodded enthusiastically.  "You are," he teased, reseating himself beside Kura.  "Not to mention that you're obnoxious and disliked."

"Ouch, Ryou," Kura clutched his heart and fell over onto his side, trying to keep his face straight, "That hurt.  Right in the heart.  Talk about kicking a man when he's down!"

Ryou giggled and pounced on him like a kitten ambushing his littermate, causing a short wrestling match.  Kura, easily the stronger of the two, pinned Ryou to the ground with his weight and held his captive's hands over his head. 

"You're in for it now," Kura purred, grinning evilly down at Ryou.  He stiffened his free hand into a claw and ran in down Ryou's side, making the boy squirm and giggle.  "Tickle torture!" Kura crowed and began to tickle his captive, reducing Ryou to a shaking, giggling, helpless mass.

"I give, I give!" Ryou finally gasped amidst laughter.  "You win!"  With a smirk, Kura released his hands and rolled off him.  Just in time too.  Kaiba stomped back over to them and crossed his hands over his chest.  Odion, who glanced suspiciously from the sand on Kura's clothes to Ryou's bright eyes and rumpled hair, was right behind him.

"Are you done yet?" Kaiba asked impatiently.  Kura nodded and handed him the map of the maze he had made.  "What's this?" Kaiba asked, pointing to a smudge on the paper.

"A mistake," Kura answered, standing up and then lending a hand to Ryou.  "I keep getting my measurements turned around.  That big piece of obsidian I told you about is here."  Kura made another smudge on the paper.

Kaiba snorted at it with little interest.  "If I were here to get rich, I'd be a happy man.  As it is, I'm not.  How long is the rope?"

Kura shrugged.  "About thirty feet," he guessed.

"Thirty exactly," Odion corrected.

"So this space here," Kaiba pointed to a spot on Kura's map, "Might be as much as eight by six?"

"I guess so," Kura said.  "But there is no door anywhere.  I've searched every inch of those walls.  If there was a door there, I would have found it."

"What about the bones?" Kaiba said quietly, lowering his voice.  "Did you search among the bones?"

"Yes."

"And did you find anything?"

Kura looked down at the ring on his finger, and all eyes followed.  Malik whistled and bent closer for a better look.  In the sunlight, the emerald gleamed and Kura could see that it was a very old seal ring.

"The writing is pre-invader," Kaiba said, removing it from Kura's hand to get a better look at it.  Whoever lost it here with his life either had it in his family for a very long time, or he lost it a very long time ago."

"Hey," Kura complained when Kaiba passed the ring to Odion, "Give that back.  I found it, I keep it."

"Oh fine," Kaiba said, handing the ring back.  "Tomb robber."

Kura snickered.  "I'm attempting to rob a god's temple, what care do I have of the spirits of a few dead men?"  With the ring back in his safe possession, Kura lay down and fell asleep to get ready for his last night in the maze.

Again he dreamed of the woman in white.  But this time, she called him by name.  Kura flinched and hesitated a moment before calling out, "I'm here."

She nodded her heavy head.  "Many have sought twice in the maze and yet gone away," she told him quietly.  "If you go a third time into the maze, you will not leave without what you seek."

"And I will go," Kura informed her.  Her tail twitched, almost nervous.

"There is no shame if you do not," she said, concern for the thief coloring her face.  It reminded Kura of a way a mother car looks when her kitten climbs a tree.  "Who brings you here?" she asked.

"I bring myself," Kura said firmly.

"Then you will go?"

"Yes."

And she made a third mark next to his name.

Kura woke with still an hour before sunset.  The sand under him was warm and he was quite comfortable.  When he finally opened his eyes he saw Kaiba, Odion, and Malik sitting around the cold fire ring talking quietly.

"Hey," Kura said, yawning as he staggered over to the group.  "Where's Ryou?"

"I sent him to find more wood," Kaiba said dismissively.

'Knowing Ryou,' Kura thought to himself, 'He probably fell in the river.'  "Can he swim?" Kura wondered aloud.

Kaiba glanced at Odion, who shrugged and glanced at Malik, who scratched his head in confusion.  Without another word they all stood, brushed the sand off their clothes, and went to look for Ryou.

Not five minutes later, Ryou came up over the ridge behind Kura with a bundle of brush.  "Where is everyone?" Ryou asked as he dropped next to Kura.

"Looking for you," Kura explained.  "We thought you might have fallen in the river and drowned."

A dark shadow crossed Ryou's face and he turned away with a huff.  "I'm not completely helpless you know," he groused.

"Of course not, kitten," Kura teased, patting him on the head and drawing out another blush.  "Your claws just haven't grown in yet."

They sat in easy silence for the next half hour, looking down the path to see if the others would be back any time soon.  Personally, Kura didn't mind if they lost Malik on the way.  But he wasn't that lucky.

"I swim very well," Ryou said pointedly when Kaiba and Odion sat back down beside him and Kura.

As soon as Kura got his dinner from the magus, he moved away from the fire to sit in the dark.  Ryou went with him and Kura was grateful for his company.

"Kura?" Ryou asked sleepily as he lay his head against Kura's shoulder, "Can you hear the river coming back inside?"

"Not really," Kura said.  "But sometimes it's like I can feel it, like an instinct or a warring shout in the dark."

"You will be careful, right?"

"Yes."

"Promise?"

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On his third night in the maze, Kura finally remembered to pick up the pry bar at the entrance to the maze.  Then he went to work, feeling every inch of the inner wall, looking for something he had missed.  It took most of the night.  But he found nothing.

Kura leaned against the wall and pushed his hair out of his face.  It didn't make sense!  Why go through all the pain of making this stupid maze if it weren't hiding something?  He shook his head and felt a small snag in his hair before hearing a quiet plink as something hit the stone floor.

Kura's hand flew up to his neck.  Ryou's good luck charm was gone!  He dropped to his knees, one hand holding the lamp to cast light on the floor, and search frantically with the other for the missing item.

He stubbed his fingers on the uneven floor a few times before he brushed something cool.  It was the giant piece of obsidian.  He looked up and got an odd feeling of déjà vu.  Kura stood slowly, looking at with new eyes.  It was easily the size of a double doorway.

As if in a trace, Kura retrieved his pry and slammed it into the glass.  A small chunk chipped away and he turned his face aside and swung again, harder.  A small hole appeared now and Kura stuck his hand through, feeling dry air on the other side.

Now he began to smash the rock glass in earnest.  Huge pieces of the glass crumbled and fell, sending dust particles everywhere until there was a hole large enough for Kura to slip through.

Kura looked through the hole and saw a staircase leading up and out of sight.  That's where he needed to go, he could feel it.

Picking up his lamp again from where he had dropped it, Kura picked his way though the rubble and climbed up the stairs.

He was so concentrated on not slipping on the stairs that it wasn't until he looked up at the top that he realized that he was in a room full of people.  Kura gasped and held his breath, but no one moved.  Was it possible they hadn't heard him?  No, not with all the noise he'd made when taking down the door.

'They're just statues, stupid,' he chided himself, and forced his feet to move forward.

They were all perfect.  Unblemished and unreal.  Tall, taller than even Odion, and majestic.  Some had human forms, others had the heads of animals, and some where completely animalistic.  But they were all wonderful and terrible.  Kura didn't dare touch them.

Away from the aisle and towards of the back of the room, Kura saw the woman from his dream and he smiled.  Sekhmet.  He should have known.  The Lion Headed goddess who doled out divine punishment to the enemies of the gods.  She had been his mother's patron god.

Kura turned away and his mouth dropped open.  At the front of the room was a throne and sitting there was the statue of the Great Falcon Headed God Horus.  His clothes were blue and white.  A double crown of red and white sat finely on his head and two cobras were entwined around his arms.  On his knees was a polished silver tray that held a single little gray stone.

Kura crept forward slowly and extended his hand.  His heart was beating like a wild bird in a cage in his chest.

One of the snakes moved.

Kura gasped and jerked his hand away.  This was not some cleverly sculpted replica of Horus and the other gods.  This was the Great God, and he was surrounded by his court.  Kura swallowed hard and looked up at the being he had mistaken for a statue.  Horus looked beyond him, impassive and distant.  Not unaware of the thief, but unmoved by him.

There was a murmur of voices behind Kura, but he couldn't make out the words.  He felt frozen in place.  To move forward or back would surely earn him his death.  Then something moved from the dark corner near Horus's throne.

He was shorter than the other gods and was dressed simply in plain gray and red cloak that fell to his ankles.  He almost looked shabby next to the finery of the others but he held himself like a king.  His skin was dark but his hair was light as moonlight.  On the side of his face, near his eye, was a scar made of two lines intersected by another.

"Congratulations," Bakura, the god who had once been mortal, said with a smirk.  "The gods are pleased your determination and with your offering," he opened his hand and Bakura saw Ryou's good luck charm resting innocently on his palm.  "The prize is yours.  Take it."

Kura did not move.

The patron of thieves came closer.  "Nerve fail you?" he asked with a laugh.  "Well, you are still here."

Kura swallowed hard and inched forward, never taking his eyes off the dark thief.  "Take it," Bakura insisted, and Kura plucked the stone the tray and bolted.  He could have sworn he heard the gods laughing.

Kura clutched the stone close to his chest, the returning river roaring in his ears as he stumbled down the stairs.  He had taken too long!  Kura fought the river as he tried to open the doors.  Twelve inches rose to two feet in the time it took to get one door open. 

He sloshed through the water, breathing hard.  Was he now to die after finally achieving his goal?  Would the obsidian door be repaired and the stone taken back up the Horus?  No, he could die now.  Hadn't he promised Ryou?

Kura pushed on and sighed in relief when he saw the outer door of stone.  He pushed against it with his whole weight and his very soul, when the under current dragged him under.  Kura fought to turn over and get up, but the river had him pinned.  Darkness swallowed him whole.

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TBC

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Author's Note:  Answering Questions and Such

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Kyoko-san, thank you so much for pointing out that error.  I fixed it right away.

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TeeDee, yup, the list holds the names of everyone who has tried to steal the stone.

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NOTE:  Just in case anyone wonders, this story is going to be updated every Thursday until it's finished.

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The Inspector

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