The Eye of the Serpent Read Free

It was as though Tom had new flesh – flesh that wriggled and squirmed with unspeakable evil.
    Sir William began to scream, and as he screamed, loud and shrill like a child, the small part of his brain that remained methodical noticed one last puzzling detail.
    The breast pocket of Tom’s shirt had been torn open and there, lying against his ruined chest, was the serpent’s eye, gazing steadfastly up at Sir William as he lost consciousness.

C HAPTER O NE
Return to Luxor

    ALEC DEVLIN STOOD on the deck of the steamship
Sudan
and gazed thoughtfully across the calm waters of the Nile to the far shore. He and his valet, Coates, had embarked at Cairo three days ago, and though life aboard the
Sudan
was comfortable enough, progress was maddeningly slow. Every inch of Alec’s fifteen-year-old frame longed to be at his destination – the archaeological dig in the Valley of the Kings, where he was due to spend his school holidays.
    Alec’s father, Hugh, was a diplomat, working at the British embassy in Cairo. His busy scheduleleft little free time to spend with his son; and Alec’s mother, Hannah, had been dead more than six months now. During term time Alec attended an English boarding school in Cairo, but holidays had always been a problem; at least until Uncle Will had started inviting him down to help out on his archaeological digs.
    It had started when Alec was thirteen. A letter had arrived from Uncle Will (Alec could somehow never bring himself to call him ‘Sir William’) inviting Alec to go and make himself useful. Alec’s father had thought it a capital idea, but his mother had been less impressed.
    â€˜He’s too young,’ she’d argued. ‘That’s a lawless part of the world. He could get into all kinds of trouble.’
    â€˜Nonsense!’ his father had answered. ‘It’ll make a man of him . . . and it’s better than having him mooching around the house, bored out of his mind. Look, if you’re so worried, we’ll send Coates with him – he’ll make sure he doesn’t get into any scrapes.’
    Coates was the family valet. He had been around for as long as Alec could remember, a big, shambling fellow with brilliantined black hair and a face like a slab of granite. Though heseemed tough, Alec knew from experience that he could bend Coates around his little finger if he needed to: taking him along shouldn’t be a problem.
    So for the past two years Alec had made this trip down to Luxor to work alongside his favourite uncle, and in the process had become totally absorbed in the study of Egyptology. Uncle Will was a brilliant teacher, and consequently Alec knew more about the subject than any other child his age. Everything about it fascinated him: the tombs, the relics, the incredible history of a race of people who had built fabulous temples and monuments when the rest of the human race was still scuttling around in rags. And nothing – absolutely nothing in the world – could ever rival the thrill of finding something that had lain hidden from human eyes for thousands of years.
    The previous winter, two things had happened that had changed Alec’s life for ever. The first was the death of his mother. He’d been back at school in Cairo, working through some history revision, when he’d been summoned to the headmaster’s office. He was initially delighted to find his father waiting for him. But the look onhis face had told him very quickly that this wasn’t to be good news.
    Alec’s mother was dead.
    She had been bitten by a mosquito, his father said, as Alec listened incredulously. Mosquito bites were nothing – people suffered them on an almost daily basis in this part of the world – but something must have been different about this particular bite, because it had turned septic. She had fallen into a raging fever and within a few hours she was gone. Alec couldn’t believe