Ghosts by Gaslight - Jack Dann [38]
“I was also suggesting that it is effectively a Shaddowwes Box, such as Dr. John Dee was said to possess and even William Shakespeare. Not a Shaddowwes Box in intention, mind, more by circumstance, purest chance.”
“Right.” He turned to his partner. “I see that you have the advantage of me, Kray. Perhaps, Mr. Trenton, you might care to—”
But the door to the drawing room slammed open then and stopped his words. Through that doorway came an old bath chair in which sat slumped none other than Charles Minchin, clearly in a torpor, as if just now roused from an opium sleep. And that wasn’t the only cause for amazement. The chair was being pushed by another mummy, stilting and propping as best it could, and the door was now being closed by yet another.
“Minchin!” Bendeck cried, and Kray did too, more in astonishment at the sight of additional clockwork manikins appearing in the room than at seeing their colleague like this, both men rising to their feet, and doing so unsteadily, I noted, as the sedative took effect.
“Our final guest, gentlemen,” I announced, watching as Ahmose wheeled Minchin in alongside Bendeck’s armchair. Senawe had closed the door and now came prop-stilting over to join Ramose and Ahmose. Then, in startling unison, the three mummiforms began hooking away the bandages across their stomachs, each drawing forth a golden dagger concealed there, all three brandishing them in an inevitably comical but clearly menacing fashion.
“Trenton, what’s going on?” Bendeck demanded.
“Not Trenton!” Minchin slurred the words. “That’s Salteri! Lucas Salteri.”
“What’s that you say?” Kray cried. “Salteri?”
“Left ’im in the tomb,” Minchin managed, drooling as he spoke. “Left ’im in the bloody tomb!”
“You did, Minchin,” I said. “Took everything and sealed it up again. But the fellah I’d bought the papyrus from had sent his brothers to follow us. They meant to loot the place themselves, you see, but wanted to have this document translated first before attempting it. That’s why they sold it to me. They were being cautious. I mean, gentlemen, how many tombs have a papyrus in a sealed canopic-style vessel deliberately left at their main entrance, right beneath the traditional seal of the nine bound captives? Our vengeful vizier wanted posterity, possibly the great gods, to know Panuhe’s story. Anyway, the brothers released me, and we found this casket in its hidden annexe.”
“The brothers—” Kray could barely manage the words. “Not these?”
“My three friends here? Hardly. Well, parts of them at least.”
I was now moving to the doorway, about to close and lock it behind me. Mrs. Danvers had long since departed the premises. The mummies stood with their gilded daggers between the three men in the chairs and the room’s only exit.
“You surely do not hope to scare us with a few sideshow gimmicks, Salteri?” Bendeck called, his words slurred.
“No, Dr. Bendeck. They are mere diversions, window dressing to distract you from the sound of additional clockwork now operating at the casket behind you. If you turn your heads, if you can manage it, you will notice that a special mechanism has already been activated, is even now preparing to apply pressure to the casket.”
“What, an’ set ’nother mummy on us?” Bendeck said. The words were still recognizable.
“Hardly. Just as the papyrus says, the body in that coffin was never mummified.”
“I don’t follow,” Kray said, slumped heavily in his chair.
“Unlike Unknown Man E, this sorry fellow truly was interred alive in that casket, bound and helpless. He filled that darkness, gentlemen. Surely changed it in more than a casual way. I now give you that darkness. It is my gift to you.”
And with that I extinguished the remaining lights, closed and locked the heavy mahogany door, and arranged the special bolster at the bottom to shut out all hope of illumination.
All timed. All of it. The pressure edges would be touching the wood