In the Pit

“Sabu? ” Miu called down into the deep pit. “Cousin? ”

“Don’t waste your sympathy, Miu, ” Khepri said. “They’re both guilty. ”

“What do you mean? ” she said. “Sabu is on our side…”

I was just as confused. Taking care not to fall over the edge, we peered into the pit. In the deep shadows, you could just see them both: Bek breathing but unconscious next to the cracked Anubis mask, and Sabu licking his face.

“Sabu, don’t! ” Miu cried. “He’s a thief and a kidnapper. ”

Sabu looked up and snarled at her. “And he almost got away with it, too

—until you poked your nose in. ”

“You mean, you knew he was guilty? ” Miu said uncertainly.

“Of course I knew, ” Sabu bragged. “We’re a team. I helped him. I was there in the tomb with him, and I put together an alibi—” “You lied? ” Miu said.

“—and I got that goose to back me up, ” Sabu went on.

“How? ” I wanted to know.

“Blackmail, ” Sabu said, preening over his cleverness. “I told her I’d keep her goslings safe—no cat would touch them—but only if she did what I told her to do. ”

That explained why the goose had threatened to report me to Sabu.

“And that wasn’t all, ” Sabu went on. “When Lord Fancypaws and his beetle started asking too many questions, I’m the one who pushed the brick onto them. ” His green eyes glittered balefully at me. “Too bad I missed, but it shut you up for a while. Just not long enough. That’s why I had to plant that earring in Pentu’s paint box. ”

Miu’s ears flicked in disbelief. “And here I thought you were our partner. ”

“Partner to Lord Fancypaws? ” Sabu sneered. “Never. I was hoping the jackals would finish you off. I told them they’d find a good meal at the tombs tonight—”

“You told the jackals where we were going? ” I was floored.

Sabu laughed. “Sure. They’re old friends of mine, and they’d do almost anything to please Bek. They love the meat he feeds them. ”

“So that’s how Bek got the jackals on his side, ” Khepri murmured to me.

“I bet it’s why we found bits of spiced goose in the tomb. ” Miu let out a plaintive meow. “Sabu, that’s practically murder. ”

“I’d do it again if I could, ” Sabu said coolly. “Not just for Bek’s sake, but for my own. ” Far below us, his tiger face twisted. “Why should Lord Fancypaws get a perfect afterlife, when I don’t? That golden sarcophagus should be mine. ”

He spat at us, and Miu gazed down at him in dismay.

“Ignore him, ” I said to her. “We need to look after Kenamon. ” Miu crossed over to our side of the pit and joined us at the boy’s side.

“You’re limping, ” Khepri said to her.

“I twisted my paw, ” she said, “but it’ll be okay. I’m more worried about

Kenamon. ”

I was, too. The boy’s eyes were barely open.

“His breathing doesn’t sound good, ” Miu said. “Maybe that gag is choking him. ”

“Let’s chew through the ropes and free him, ” I suggested.

As Sabu yowled and swore at us from the bottom of the pit, we worked in turns.

When I took over from Miu, she tucked herself by Kenamon’s shoulder. “I never thought a cousin of mine would do something so terrible. ”

“He had us fooled, too, ” Khepri said. “At least for a while—until Ra found the vital clue. ”

“And what was that, Ra? ” Miu asked.

Thankfully I was chewing the rope, so I just pointed my tail to Khepri. Let him answer that.

“When Ra felt the ‘breath of Anubis’ in Bek’s tomb, he was sitting near the secret entrance to this much grander tomb, ” Khepri explained. “The chill he felt was the air from the ancient tomb flowing out. That was the first clue that it was Bek. ”

“Goodness. ” Miu blinked. “How clever of you to figure that out. ” “Um-hmmmmmmmph, ” I said, gnawing at the rope.

“Well, you had other things on your mind, ” Khepri said to Miu. “You were trying to save us from the jackals. ”

“I thought we’d ruled Bek out, ” Miu said. “He wasn’t a suspect because he wasn’t part of the crew that cleaned out the abandoned tomb. ”

“That was our mistake, ” Khepri admitted. “We didn’t consider that there might be another way to work out how to get into Setnakht’s tomb. But when we first came here, we heard that Bek’s father and forefathers had been sculptors in the Valley of the Kings, working on all the pharaohs’ tombs. That means they would have worked on Thutmose the Second’s tomb when it was first made, and on Setnakht’s tomb, too. And since they were sculptors, working with stone, they were more likely than most to notice a loose block—or to engineer one. ”

The rope that held the gag was starting to give way.

“My guess is that they passed the secret on, from son to son, ” Khepri said. “Maybe it was a joke at first, or simply an observation. But with Bek, it became the start of a plan. He thought the gods were calling to him. And

Sabu agreed with him when he saw that cat sarcophagus. ”

I bit down hard on the rope. Poor Pamiu! He hadn’t stood a chance.

Khepri waved his foreleg at the golden case, still glowing in the fading light of the torch. “That was the other clue. Most thieves would have melted the sarcophagus down, or shoved it in with the rest of the treasure. Instead it was set carefully aside, as if it was being saved for a one-of-a-kind cat. That sounded like Sabu to me. After all, he’s the leader of the cats in Set Ma’at. So I started thinking about all the obstacles and dangers we’d faced in solving the case, and I realized that Sabu could have been behind them all. ”

As Miu shook her head sadly, I nipped at the last strands of rope that held the gag tight. “There! ”

The rope snapped, and Kenamon spat out the gag. As soon as he croaked out his thanks to us, his eyes shut and his head slumped back on the floor.

Miu brushed her tail over his face, but that didn’t revive him. “Oh, dear. ”

“We have to get him out of here. But how? ” Khepri sounded as worried as I felt.

Miu pulled her tail back. “We need some humans to help us. ” “And that means getting past the jackals, ” I pointed out.

There was a long silence.

Miu couldn’t go, not with her sore paw. Khepri wouldn’t get there till next week. So that left me. But after the worst day of my life—and the scariest night—was I up to facing the jackals again?

Pharaoh’s Cat would volunteer. Pharaoh’s Cat was braver than brave. But I didn’t feel much like Pharaoh’s Cat anymore. Once all the fancy trappings were gone, maybe all that was left was a not-very-brave cat.

Kenamon opened his eyes and struggled to smile at me.

Then again, maybe I was braver than I thought. What was it Miu had said earlier? What matters is how we treat others in this life. That’s the true memorial. Much as I hankered after a marvelous tomb, I suspected she was right.

I brushed against Kenamon’s cheek. His face pale with effort, he breathed, “Ra…the…Mighty. ”

Well, that settled it. The boy needed me. Me, Pharaoh’s Cat. Even if I felt like a not-very-brave cat on the inside.

I rose. “I’ll go to Set Ma’at now. ”

“And the jackals? ” Miu said, eyes wide with concern.

I was already headed out. “If they try to stop me, they’ll be sorry. ”

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