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The art on the door, Neville went on deliberately, is also divided into sections more like tiles set in
place, than sculpture carved directly into the stone and one tile is missing.
Stephen reached out and tapped the surface of the door with his finger.
These tiles are stone, he said, but I see what you mean. The gap is interesting. Did one fall out, or
was it left this way deliberately?
We didn t try anything, Neville admitted. I wanted you to inspect it before we monkeyed with it. The
door ornamentation is very Egyptian, but somehow it looked I don t know how else to put it wrong
to me.
Stephen inspected the art for so long that Neville began to fear for their candles. He forced himself to
remain patient reminding himself that they had packed both candles and lantern oil in quantity.
You were right! Stephen said suddenly, clearly excited. Look here. The design is made up of lotus
and papyrus flowers stylized, of course around a central border. They re interspersed with these
round figures I ll get back to them but only in the central border is there anything that doesn t fit the
overall pattern.
He pointed and continued, Four figures: a scarab, a mongoose, a snake, and a hawk wearing the
uraeus the cobra crown.
Is that last Horus again? Eddie asked.
He sounded genuinely curious. Neville swallowed hard. It could be the information would be useful.
Maybe, Stephen said, but I think it s someone else, someone associated with the scarab.
Neville couldn t help himself. Stephen! This is not the time for a lecture.
Sorry, Stephen said. He shook his disordered hair out of his face. The scarab represents the rising
sun: Ra in the morning, also known as Khepri. There are various theories why . . .
He took a look at Neville s face and stopped.
In that context, the crowned hawk probably represents Ra at midday. In later periods, he did get
merged with Horus, but in Neferankhotep s day, he wasn t. That s important, because it gives us a clue
as to who the mongoose is meant to be.
Neville tried to look encouraging.
Yes?
Ra at evening was called Atum, and Atum was usually depicted as a human wearing the double crown.
However, there s evidence that Atum had an animal avatar as well . . .
Why not? Eddie said reasonably. Everyone else seems to have had at least one.
And if I recall correctly, Stephen concluded triumphantly, that avatar was a mongoose the creature
that kills the snake. Ra at night, in the underworld, is threatened by the monster snake, Apophis. If my
guess is right, Apophis is represented by the snake tile.
Neville looked at the mural.
They re not in that order, though, he said. The hawk comes before the scarab, then the snake, and the
mongoose last.
I think that in order to unlock the door, Stephen replied, The tiles need to be put in the correct order.
I suspect that the empty space was left deliberately to permit sliding the tiles within the frame.
He put up a hand and pushed down against the tile above the open space. It slid stiffly, grating against
sand in the track, into the opening.
Amazing that it still works after all these years, Eddie murmured. But then, these are the people who
built the Great Pyramid.
Neville leaned forward eagerly. Then it s just a matter of readjusting the tiles until they are in the correct
sequence?
That s at least the first step, Stephen said, and I don t think it s going to be simple. Remember I said
I d come back to the round figured tiles?
Neville nodded.
Given the overall context, I d say that they re meant to represent the sun in the phases of his journey,
rather like the phases of the moon, only with the amount of colored in space indicating the sun s
position.
Neville bent closer to look at the monochrome stone tiles.
You mean, he said, this one that s completely textured or colored in indicates noon, while the
one with only a little shading on the left edge would be, say, early morning?
That s right, Stephen said. My guess is that the phase tiles need to be set in order with the signifier for
the start of a phase dawn, midday, evening, and night, set in the appropriate place. It s going to be
tedious, but I am sure it can be done. By the way, Sir Neville, you were right that it looked off. The
puzzle has two settings this one and the correct one. In this one, some of the alignments on the flowers
and other borders are slightly wrong. I think that s what you saw.
Neville was pleased by the compliment, but he didn t want to make too great a fuss. Instead he slapped
the younger man heartily on the shoulder.
If you re sure you have this figured out, Neville said, then get to it. We ll bring you water and
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