Theodosia and the Last Pharoah Read Free Page B

the exhibits. Perhaps we were heading for the refreshment first. I certainly wouldn't refuse something cool to drink and a place to sit down and grow accustomed to the thick pool of heka I was wading through.
    Except, as we went farther and deeper into the museum, we seemed to have passed all the offices altogether. A faint niggle of concern settled along my shoulders and I remembered the rather maniacal look he'd had in the train station when he'd first spotted us. "Mr. Bing, where are you taking me, exactly?"
    He looked over his shoulder at me and I was struck again by his intense eagerness. To make matters worse, his hair had escaped the confines of whatever tonic he'd combed it with that morning and was starting to stick up in odd places, which made him look slightly demented. "We're almost there," he said.
    I knew he meant it to be reassuring, but instead it was as if someone had just flipped a caution switch inside me. I wasn't sure I should be following him.
    I mean, what did I know about him, really? He said Wigmere had sent him, but surely any of the Serpents of Chaos could pretend he had been sent by the head of the Chosen Keepers. I abruptly stopped walking.
    It took Bing a half dozen steps before he realized I was no longer following him. He stopped, then looked around. "What are you doing back there?" he asked.
    I folded my arms and tried to look implacable. "I'm not taking another step until you tell me exactly where we're going."
    He quickly retraced his steps until he was standing right in front of me. "I told you. Wigmere sent me," he said in quiet tones.
    "Yes, but anyone could say that, couldn't he? And I would have no way of knowing whether or not he was telling the truth."
    He opened his mouth as if to argue, then closed it again. He looked crushed. "You mean you don't trust me?"
    I hated to hurt his feelings, but one thing I've learned in the past few months is that everyone is suspect until proven innocent. I thought briefly of asking to see his wedjat eye tattoo—the one that all Chosen Keepers had—but decided against it. For one, if he was an impostor, I didn't want to spill the beans about their secret tattoo. Second, it was beyond scandalous—even for me—to wander around demanding to see strange men's chests. "Let's just say I have a cautious nature."
    His smile put me a bit off balance. "And so you should, but really, there is nothing to worry about. We're almost there and then you'll see. Here, come." As he spoke, he reached out to grab my arm.
    I tried to leap back out of his reach, but he had rather longish arms and was able to snag me anyway. "Let go," I said, pulling on my arm with all my strength.
    "I told you," he grunted, trying to tug me down the hall. "We're almost there." Suddenly, he seemed to remember something and stopped tugging. Without him pulling on me, I tumbled backwards, nearly landing end over teakettle.
    "I forgot! I'm supposed to tell you, I'm a traveler, come from the West. "
    Hearing the code phrase that Wigmere had given me cleared my suspicions instantly. "Well, honestly! Why didn't you say so in the first place?" I asked, straightening my frock.
    "Sorry," he said with a sheepish grin. "I'm rather new at this."
    Clearly, I thought.
    Bing resumed walking and I fell into step behind him. He led me down the hall to a door, which led to another hallway, which in turn led to a back staircase of some sort. "Where are we going?" I asked.
    "Lord Wigmere wanted you to meet with one of our senior research and development team members before you left for Luxor." Mr. Bing stopped in front of a small door. At first it appeared to be a closet—a closet full of an amazing collection of ancient Egyptian bric-a-brac. There were medium-size obelisks leaning up against the wall, plinths, busts of ancient Egyptians carved from stone, unused stone tablets and stele stacked atop one another like dinner plates. A fine layer of dust lay over everything. Mr. Bing went over to a towering