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By Root 993 0

of the constellation we call Sirius, which the Egyptians took as the celestial incarnation of Isis, and to thank her for her assistance guiding Atum-hadu to—we must seriously consider the likelihood that the pillars contain valuable material cached within their hollow forms, and must somehow be stabilised and opened—the ancient robbers whom Atum-hadu feared more than anything would have found their progress through the tomb stymied by fine threads running between all twelve pillars, making the Pillar Chamber nothing less than a deadly spider’s web entrapping the fat flies in filaments laced with a lethal poison known only to the ancient magicians of— Twelve tribes of israel twelve months in the year twelve provinces of canada twelve days of christmas—what would Carter do faced with such a room? He would look and measure and say little, just nod, hold his cards close to his chest. “It is too soon to say,” he would say, but his manner would imply that he knew far more, that glimmer of arrogance shrouded in humble quiet.

Friday, 24 November, 1922

Noon. I worked myself to mental exhaustion last night. Strain of the men’s betrayal, excitement at the new chambers. And today is my birthday and my original target date for success. My early hopes for this day have surely been exceeded.

The Pillar Chamber’s significance is elusive at this point, though of course an expert can easily produce myriad hypotheses, one of which may well be true. We must simply keep our counsel for now, and await further data. We may, however, reasonably expect that whatever awaits us behind Door G (the sepulchre, the treasury) will also explain the geometry and function of the Pillar Chamber, placing this majestic example of ancient Egyptian tomb architecture and mystical thought in its proper context. [RMT—Door G must now be Door D. Go back, redraw affected maps and edit references. Door B admittedly destroyed, Door C stabilised with canny plastering, no doors until D (formerly G).]

(FIG. F: THE FIRST SIX CHAMBERS, 23 NOVEMBER, 1922)

Painstaking work, and no sign of Ahmed and the new team. Clear debris from the Empty Chamber and the three Royal Storage Chambers, scooping it into canvas bags, carrying it out to the cliff path. I have become Atum-hadu’s limping charlady. Leave the bags just outside the tomb, as I suspect I will need to seal my discovery for a return to town.

Work takes until nightfall. No Ahmed. Finish the food. Prepare to sleep again in the Pillar Chamber, where I collapsed last night. Might it have been designed as some sort of game? The simulation of a chamber in Atum-hadu’s Theban palace? Too soon to tell, must keep my counsel on this point, fruitless speculation is the wine stomping of unconfident dilettantes. I have pins and needles up past the ankle. Will need to go back to Villa Trilipush for bandages, as fluid seems to be an issue again.

I realise here tonight, rereading letters from home and a tattered copy of Desire and Deceit by the flickering light of my smoking lantern in the Pillar Chamber: I know more about Atum-hadu, his impulses and purposes, than I do about my fiancée or my patron. This despite kissing the former and engaging in equally intimate business with the latter. There is more clarity in Atum-hadu, distilled by the millennia down to the essential: sixty verses. Each verse brings to light another crystalline, objective facet of his immutable self. But she whom I love? Each of her changeable moods dictates an entirely new view of her and new futures for us both. Should I pity the sick, or love the endearing? Fear the furious, correct the spoilt, ignore the teasing? Rescue the oppressed? Scold the fickle? And what of my Master of Largesse, brutal and cowardly, loving and perverse: what can one make of such an equivocal figure? I look at them, yet can hardly see them, as if the smoke in this very room is too thick, as if my eyes were covered with a strip of translucent linen.

Saturday, 25 November, 1922

Odd dreams, as can be expected, sleeping in such a room. I spend the morning covering the tomb opening