"It will be dawn in about an hour. Get ready fast and eat something. We'll have to go into the pyramid as soon as the spell opens the door."
He pouted and said in a childish voice, "I am not going anywhere without a proper good morning."
"Are you crazy?" she hissed, "Doubar, Firouz and Talia are still here. What if they see us?"
"Not even an I love you?" he gave her the puppy dog look.
"How about, I'll KILL you?" she said slyly.
"Then the world will know that Sinbad the Sailor died for his love, of his love and BY his love." He grinned.
She rolled her eyes and gave him a quick kiss and said, "Happy now? Now, get up. I'll go wake up Talia." Saying so she left him and went to Talia. Sinbad grinned and stretched again. He sat up and yawned he looked to where his brother and childhood friend were asleep. They were both soundly snoring. He heard Talia yawn loudly, and saw Maeve walking outside the tent, before disappearing he caught her eye and winked at her. She blew him a flying kiss before leaving. He turned to see Firouz stirring. He yawned and crawled over to them and woke them up.
Maeve yawned and went up to where Mike and the others were having some warm tea. It was very cold; she shivered, and hugged herself. She was sure it would snow later. Tessay was sitting and composing herself for the spell. She went and sat near Mike, who patted her leg.
Sinbad came out with Firouz following him. The latter's hair was all frizzed up and he was half-asleep. Doubar followed Firouz rubbing his eyes. They all shivered as the chill seeped into their skins.
"Whoa! It's really cold out here," said Sinbad as he accepted the tea Rongar was handing over to him.
"Yeah," said Maeve, "it's going to snow later."
"When do we go in?" asked Firouz yawned.
"Well, in about half an hour Tessay starts the spell, the minute the sun rises, the first ray of light that reaches the pyramid opens the door."
Talia dragged herself out of the tent. She stretched and exclaimed, "wow! It's freezing…in the middle of a desert, it's actually freezing."
Maeve handed Talia a cup of the tea as she went inside the tent to get her book. She was rummaging through her bag when Duraid walked in. She smiled at him as he started picking up the blankets that were around. He said, "Is there anything that you want to keep here that should be safe from that wench?"
Maeve smiled and shook her head. She stood up and dusted herself off. She was about to head out of the tent when Duraid said, "He really loves you, Lynn." She stopped in her tracks with a heavy sigh. She turned around and looked at Duraid, "Duraid, Mike means a lot to me, but not in that sense."
"It's that sailor, isn't it?"
She took a deep breath and nodded, "Yes, and I have other reasons too."
"What other reason could there be?"
"Duraid, please, I don't want to talk about it."
"Just answer…"
"Duraid…"
Duraid sighed and nodded. She turned around and walked out of the tent feeling miserable. She knew that Duraid always wanted her and Mike to be together, she hated to have to break both Duraid's and Mike's hearts. She smiled when Dermott flew down to her arm to comfort her. She sighed again and walked with the hawk perched on her arm to where the others were sitting. Bacheet was packing all the stuff they would need in the pyramid. Firouz was yawning and saying something about atmospheric pressure at great heights. She sat in between Mike and Sinbad who were obviously not interested in talking to each other.
They ate breakfast quietly mentally preparing themselves for the mission they would undertake. Tessay gave instructions to Talia who had reluctantly agreed to stay behind. Sinbad and Maeve walked up to her, Sinbad said, "Talia, take care of yourselves."
She smiled and suddenly jumped on Sinbad and gave him a steamy kiss. Maeve glared at Sinbad and Mike was a bit happy at this. When Talia broke it, she said, "For luck!" Then to Maeve she said, "take care of yourself there, Red."
Maeve smiled her mock smile and said, "you too, Talia, don't get yourself killed."
Talia was surprised by her cockiness as she walked away. Sinbad chuckled and followed Maeve. Tessay was staring at the face of the pyramid with the falcon head marked on it. Maeve motioned for the others to form a semicircle behind Tessay. Tessay would have to conduct the spell all by herself. The older woman closed her eyes and raised her hands in the air. She started chanting so quietly that only she herself could here it. This chanting gradually grew louder. They all heard the last part of the chant,
"…Oh Ye who casts the light over the dark,
Oh Ye born of nature and the judge,
I implore thee, let us in, where thou rests,
Let us in, so we may complete our quest."
They realized that the sun would rise pretty soon. They could see the first beam of sunlight falling on the falcon head. Dermott suddenly screeched, as the ground began shaking. They all looked around in both surprise and fear, except, Maeve and Tessay who stood steady as if nothing seemed to affect them at all. The panel suddenly slid up. Their eyes widened in surprise. Tessay lit a torch that she had in her hand and walked in. Maeve followed her, letting Dermott fly in, she lit her torch and walked in. She motioned for the others to come.
"Good Luck!" Talia called out. They nodded and walked towards the threshold. Sinbad went in first lighting his torch, followed by Mike and Duraid. Doubar hesitated to go in, but Firouz pushed him in. The last one to go in was Bacheet. They all frowned when they found themselves in a closed room. They heard a sliding of the door, and turned around to see it close. They looked all around. Tessay said, "Well, this is it. One of the walls in this room have to be pushed."
They all nodded dumbly. Dermott squawked, and Maeve said, "where do we start?"
"Where did Juan first find the wall?" Firouz asked.
Maeve opened the book and said; "well the first time he went in, it was the left wall, then it was the right."
"Well, in that case I'm willing to bet that this time the wall is the one we are facing."
"Well, we have to try all the walls anyway, so we might as well start with this one." Said Sinbad.
They all nodded. Everyone except Tessay, started pushing it. Maeve refused to let Tessay help since she was weak from the spell. They pushed and pushed when finally the wall showed signs of budging.
"It's moving," said Maeve. They pushed till finally it started to move back on it's own. But that wasn't in. The left and right wall moved back, the front wall suddenly split and moved sideways to reveal five passageways. Suddenly, they heard something to their left. A panel of the left wall seemed to move in; and the same happened to the right well. They were in the way.
"Get out of the way." Yelled Sinbad. They ran towards the five passageways and turned to see the panels stop when they came in contact with each other, to reveal two more passageways to the left and right respectively. The panels suddenly seemed to slide into the ground, clearing the way. The place seemed very spacious. The only sources of light were the torches that were in their hands.
"Well there are seven passageways as Juan said," sighed Sinbad, "Which one do we go into?"
When We Were Thieves - Part 14 Section 4
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