Ramose and the Tomb Robbers Read Free

before.
    “The earth will be covered with water. We’ll drown,” said Hapu who was almost in tears.
    “It’ll stop soon,” said Ramose, trying to reassure his friend, but he was scared himself.
    As if to contradict Ramose’s words, there was another rumbling noise. This time it didn’t come from the sky but from the ground. It didn’t fade or end in a crack, it grew. It was coming from the direction of the Gate of Heaven, the cobra goddess’s mountain home.
    Ramose watched the familiar slopes of the mountain turn to liquid mud as water foamed down them. Then a wave of water appeared over the edge of the high desert on the western side of the mountain and rushed down its slopes in a foamy surge. The ground beneath their feet began to shake. The noise of the advancing water turned from a rumble to a roar as water continued to pour from the high desert down the mountain slopes. As the size of the wave grew, so did the noise.
    It was like nothing Ramose had ever heard before, deafening and frightening. A wall of water crashed down the lower slopes and began to surge across the valley floor. The water was brown with mud. Stones and rocks were carried along in the flow, gouging a deep rut in the sand. Boulders the size of houses were washed down from the slopes of the mountain as if they were pebbles. The wall of water was rushing across the valley at such a speed that Ramose and the other tomb workers stood and stared at it in disbelief.
    As it got closer the wave grew bigger. Ramose calculated that it must be at least ten cubits high. The cook’s cat yowled again and struggled out of her master’s arms and darted out of the tomb. Ramose suddenly realised that the terrible wave was heading straight for them.
    “We have to get to higher ground,” Ramose yelled, “or we’ll be washed away.”
    The tomb makers suddenly leapt to life and ran out of the tomb entrance. They didn’t have time to get across the valley to the path that led to the village. Instead they followed the cat which was clambering up the cliffs around the tomb entrance. Hapu didn’t move, he was mesmerised by the awful brown wave.
    “Hapu, come on!” shouted Ramose, but the roar of the approaching water drowned his feeble voice.
    Ramose grabbed his friend’s arm and pulled him along. Hapu finally tore his eyes away from the water and started scrambling up the cliff. The rain battered down on them. Rivulets of water pouring down the cliff loosened stones, making it hard for them to climb. Every time they grabbed a stone for a handhold it would slip out of its muddy hole and fall to the valley floor.
    Ramose turned to look for Hapu who was struggling below him. The wall of brown water was coursing across the valley. The storehouse and the workers’ makeshift huts were smashed by the crest of the wave. The place where minutes before they had sat in the sun eating their meal disappeared beneath the surging water.
    The wave would be on them in a few seconds. Ramose looked for a way up the sheer cliff face. Water was sluicing down it like a waterfall. Other men were trying to climb up the cliff, but it was too steep and slippery with rain. He saw someone slip and fall. He knew that if he didn’t think of something quickly he and his friend would face the same fate.
    The familiar dirty-yellow colour of the cliff had turned brown in the rain. Ramose saw a darker brown stripe in the rock face to his left. It was a crevice, a vertical split in the cliff. Hapu’s hands were groping wildly around Ramose’s feet. Ramose reached down, grabbed his friend’s arm and yanked him up. He shouted at him, telling him to shelter in the crevice. His words were completely swallowed by the roar of the water. Hapu was blinking the rain out of his eyes, too frightened and stunned to comprehend what Ramose was trying to do.
    Ramose pushed Hapu into the crevice, but didn’t have time to squeeze in himself. The wave of water hit the cliff with a crushing force. Ramose