Chapter 26-

Ravena blinked her eyes in disbelief. She clutched onto Ardeth’s arm and stared with wide eyes. The Medjai looked as if they were in such a bad state of shock. Mist enveloped them, and the beatings of their frantic hearts slowed down as if some cosmic force were in the middle of soothing their pulses. Ardeth stared with a stoic face before trying to push the fog out of the way to get a closer look. He ignored the dizzy, yet exhilarating feeling that started to pound in his head. Ardeth ventured more into the eerie room, with everyone except for Ravena practically hiding behind their leader. Ravena slowly sauntered to the side, riveting her glances from the walls to the ceilings. There were tablets scratched into the marble walls, and small, rectangular platforms formed a semi-circle around the room. Every single one of the platforms shone with illuminating, rainbow multihued colours. In the middle of the semi-circle, was a medium sized podium. It was carved with jewels of all kinds such as emeralds, diamonds, rubies, sapphires and amethysts, etc... It was also etched with silhouettes of winged creatures, similar to dragons.

“Its gorgeous.”, whispered Ravena.

Everyone else nodded their heads although their thoughts had gone astray. Their eyes were still on the large podium. They couldn’t help but notice a gold chest on top of the podium. It stood out the most amidst the other intoxicating objects. It was small, but it was as if it were beckoning them. Ravena could swear she could hear harmonious singing somewhere off in the distance, but there was still a huge chance that it was her imagination. Ardeth raised his chin as if pondering something, and looked around at his men. His jaw clenched for half a second before he took a sharp breath and walked briskly over to the gold chest. With his back turned to them, and his eyes still locked on the chest, he spoke to them in a hurried manner.

“We must hurry, we are wasting precious time. Imhotep has probably caused much despair by now.”

The Medjai shuffled themselves just a few inches closer, while Ravena stepped up to peer over Ardeth’s shoulder. With a deep swallow, and a look of immensely strong determination, he placed a hand onto the side of the chest. He inhaled a sharp intake of breath. The chest itself had its own pulse, its own beating, and its own rhythm of life. Ardeth had trouble believing there was anything more magnificent in the depths of this anonymity of a world. With his muscles tense with anticipation, he flung open the latch of the chest. Everyone else cringed away as if expecting an explosion of some kind. Ardeth automatically covered his body in front of Ravena’s, and shut his eyes in case of a terrible possibility. Ravena clutched his arms and pressed her forehead against his strong shoulder blades, afraid. After a moment’s silence, they realized nothing happened. Ardeth opened an eye and raised his eyebrow in both surprise and relief. Ravena lifted her head and once more peered over his left shoulder. Sati smirked.

“Well, talk about a close call.”

Ardeth swung his head around.

“How was that a close call?”

Sati replied with a small grin.

“Oh c’mon, here we are, expecting this huge explosion or something, and nothing happened. That's what I call a close call.”

Ardeth shook his head and glanced quickly back at the chest. What he saw disappointed him deeply. There was NOTHING inside of it, no star, no anything. A huge waste of time.

“Damn.”, he muttered loudly.

Ardeth was about to turn away, when suddenly Ravena grabbed onto his shoulder, excited.

‘Wait a minute, look inside!”

He glanced nonchalantly inside of the chest. He suddenly understood Ravena’s excitement. Although the chest was empty, there was a small hole, like a keyhole and also there were markings on the bottom, a message. Another wave of despair washed over him, it was written in ancient Egyptian. Neither him or his men could understand that ancient tongue, but, Ravena WAS an archaeologist, maybe she could understand. Ardeth swivelled his head expectantly towards her, but before he could say a word, she was already nodding.

“Don’t worry, I know how to speak ancient Egyptian.”

Ravena stepped in front of his and looked closely inside. She studied the markings for a split second, before bobbing her head up and down in complete understanding. She turned back to Ardeth, her face deadly serious.

“Ardeth, could you please tell each of your men to kneel on one platform each and hold hands. Any extra men should immediately leave the room. Once everyone is kneeling and prepared, you and me will stay right here and I will place the amulet into the hole. We will then hold hands and pretty soon our fingers will connect everyone here. I will then chant one of the verses in this chest. Understand?”

Ardeth nodded his head and proceeded to tell his men this. It didn’t take too long, the Medjai had already started to clamber up a platform of their own. There were only two remaining Medjai left, and they left the room right away. His men then, hesitantly of course (because they are sadly men, lol) held hands. Ravena and Ardeth placed themselves behind the podium and held hands. Ardeth connected one arm to Sati, who was kneeling on the platform to his left. Ravena took out the amulet that she had placed in her pockets and stared at it for a split-second. In her mind she said a prayer, because that amulet was the last thing that her father had touched while he was alive, and she felt that part of his spirit was somehow in there. With one last gulp, she placed the amulet through the hole, and watched it disappear from the upper-world forever, gone.

“Well, here goes.”, whispered Ravena.

She placed one of her slender hands into the hand of a Medjai who was kneeling on a platform to her right, and placed the other hand into Ardeth’s rugged, bronze hand. Ravena closed her eyes in concentration before looking back into the chest and started to chant in ancient Egyptian. Everyone else closed their eyes, in rhythm to her lips and words. A bright light seemed to appear around the edges of the chest, and suddenly everyone felt an extra heartbeat, passing through each of their veins and connecting them all. It was like new life. When Ravena said the last word, and iron hand gripped the hearts of everyone, practically squeezing the life out of them. They all gasped for breath, unable to comprehend what was going on. Suddenly, a bright beam of golden light burst out of the chest, and circled the room. There was a loud roaring sound, like the screaming of thousands of children, and then the singing of something like angels. Images of loved ones and family members raced through the minds of Ardeth, Ravena, and the Medjai. All of a sudden, there was silence. The pain-rippling ordeal was over. Everyone opened their eyes and let out a huge breath, taking in the sweet scent of life. Ravena ripped her hand away and rushed towards the chest. She let out an exhilarating laugh. She gazed into the chest before feeling Ardeth’s dark eyes burning into her cheek

 “Look, come here, its the Star!”

Ravena once again gazed into the chest, a huge grin lighting up her face. Ardeth rushed to her side and peered in. He let out a deep laugh as well. Inside the golden chest lay what seemed to look like a rock, but on closer inspection one could tell that it was really an emerald meteor of some sort, with etchings of ancient markings.

“I guess we have our Star.”, whispered Ardeth, his hand placed over Ravena’s willowy shoulder.

It was starting out to be a very good day after-all.