Читать книгу Egyptian Curse - Chris Blake - Страница 9

Snap! The foreman’s whip whizzed through the air and cracked on the sand, right by Tom’s feet.

“I don’t have time for weaklings!” the foreman shouted, grinning nastily.

Tom braced himself for the whip’s sting. But suddenly a young man, dressed in a pleated loincloth, ran up to the foreman. He whispered urgently in his ear.

The foreman frowned at Tom and Isis. “It’s your lucky day – I don’t have time to give you a beating. Get over to the old temple wall and help chisel off the picture of Aten!” He pointed at a stone building in the distance.

Tom, Isis and Cleo ran off before he could change his mind.

The temple was full of workers hacking away at a picture of a large disc carved into a lump of pink granite.

“Yikes. That was close,” Tom said. “Who’s this Aten?”

Isis shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said.

One of the workers, who’d stopped chiselling to wipe his sweaty brow, looked at Isis and chuckled. He pointed to the disc.

“This is Aten, silly!” he said. “The Sun God, of course.”

“Nonsense!” Isis scoffed. “Everyone knows the Sun God and creator of all things is Ra! Amun-Ra!”

“What? Where have you two been?” the man asked. “The whole reason we’re getting rid of this carving is because the old pharaoh made everyone worship just one god, Aten. His son, the new pharaoh, has gone back to worshipping the old gods – so there’s a lot of work for us changing all the temples back.”

“Quite right,” Isis said, frowning at the giant carved disc. “Whoever heard of having just one god? How ridiculous!”

Seeing a new foreman glaring at them, Tom and Isis each picked up a chisel and hammer and began chipping away at the rock. Even Cleo scratched at the carving with her claws.