Chapter Four

Kahmunrah joined his brother in the Egyptian wing, where Ahkmenrah was pacing and chewing his lip. "It's times like these when I wonder what's going on in your head."

"I can't stop thinking about her, about everything."

"Am I to assume 'her' refers to Tally?"

"Yes."

"Well, why don't you tell her you like her?"

Ahkmenrah gave his brother a look which spoke for him: "You think it's that easy." He looked away again, shaking his head. "It's almost dawn," he said.

"We still have a few minutes, time with which to see whether we're wrong."

"We still have tomorrow night, and we can't get caught now. Better safe than sorry."

Kahmunrah nodded in assent and prepared for the coming sunrise.

Tally tossed the key she snuck home onto the coffee table, alongside the notes, and collapsed onto the sofa. She hadn't realized she'd fallen asleep until her cell phone rang, woke her up, and she had to feel for it. "Hello?" she said after she found it.

"Hello, this is Linda from the debt settlement company."

"Yeah."

"Through negotiations with the credit card company, we were able to settle your grandfather's debt for seventy-five hundred dollars."

Tally collapsed onto the sofa again. "Oh, thank you so much. I'm recommending your company to everybody I know."

"That's good to know. You'll still have to pay that bill, though."

"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it ASAP."

"Alright, have a good day."

"You, too."

"Bye."

Tally hung up and tossed the phone aside, considering going back to sleep, but then she remembered the key. She sat up and began flipping through page after page, notebook after notebook until she found a matching image of the key she brought home. She read the passages carefully, aloud.

" 'Basement thirteen is never to be entered, under any circumstances, because anyone who enters never leaves, is never seen or heard of again. I alone hold the key, the only key. If I'm dead and anyone is reading this, find the key and have it destroyed.' "

Tally set the notebook down and examined the key, pieces of the puzzle only just beginning to fit together in her mind.

That night, just before the late crowd arrived but just after the sun set, Ahkmenrah caught up with Larry just as the latter walked in the door. "Where's that paper you showed us a couple nights ago?"

"Wha-oh." Larry fished around until he pulled out the sheet of paper he'd shown Ahkmenrah and Kahmunrah roughly forty-eight hours prior and handing it over. "This it?"

"Yes." Ahkmenrah examined the paper closely and walked over to the threshold of the Hall of Miniatures, laying the paper next to the Eye of Horus, which was still there, amazingly. The eye combined with the image of an almost completely inked out sun was enough to completely bring Ahkmenrah to his knees. He shook his head, blinked a few times, even wiped his eyes, but the connection couldn't be mistaken.

Larry walked over to see what all the fuss was about, but all he saw were a couple of pictures that made no sense either separate or together. Ahkmenrah was murmuring in his mother tongue, but only God knew what he was saying.

Suddenly, Ahkmenrah shot to his feet and launched into a nonsensical monologue about defiling the symbol of Ra and how it shouldn't be done.

Jedediah and Octavius watched Ahkmenrah's pacing and babbling like it was some kind of amateur movie from a freshman at a B-list film school. Finally, Ahkmenrah said, "That's it! It absolutely has to be it!" and he ran off, leaving Larry, Jed, and Octavius staring, in some cases slack-jawed, in all cases speechless.

"Okay, then," Larry finally said, attempting to break the thick veil of silence which hung over the Hall of Miniatures.

"What is it?" Kahmunrah asked the instant Ahkmenrah crossed the threshold to the Egyptian wing.

"Shadows. Soul-stealers." Ahkmenrah's tone of voice instantly darkened. "The obscurers of the light of Ra."

"Soul-stealers?"

"I thought you knew exactly what we were talking about."

"I did. It was a silly old legend."

"One which seems to be coming true. Kahmunrah, what did they say to you before they died?"

"Why?"

"It might save our lives within the next two days. What did they say?"

"I can't remember. I haven't thought on it in millennia."

"Oh, you're a huge help."

"You asked."

Akhmenrah sighed. "Now isn't the time for all this. We need a plan."

"You're pharaoh," Kahmunrah said with a shrug.

"I already told you! Until his death, a pharaoh is not a god, he is a man."

"Still, the pharaoh does most of the planning."

"Unless he delegates it. You think about this. It's night show time."