Page 135 of Shadow Charms

“And nothing on the walls,” Paige added, swinging the flashlight beam around the bare stone walls. “So, I guess we’ll move on.”

They wandered out of the ship room and worked their way to the left, entering the next door which led to a long corridor. Hieroglyphs and paintings filled one wall. Paige ran the flashlight’s beam over them.

“Well, there’s a nice drawing of Cleopatra here, but she’s not holding a magenta crystal.”

“Keep moving,” Dewey said.

Paige hurried down the passage and entered another chamber at the end. She stared out across it while standing on the raised platform with stone steps flanking each side. “It’s a huge, empty room.”

“Any murals? I can’t see anything past this stone half wall,” Dewey complained.

“Oh, sorry,” Paige said, hefting the bag up higher. “There are a few. Let’s check them out.”

She descended the steps and waved her flashlight around at the paintings. The first few contained no information about their crystal.

She continued toward the rear of the chamber, aiming her flashlight at a large mural painted on the wall. In the center, a glowing magenta crystal hovered above the hand of Cleopatra. Three figures bowed in front of her.

“Dewey, this must be it!” Paige tilted the carrier up as she shined the flashlight beam on the depiction.

“Yeah. Okay, we know she had the crystal. But where did she put it?”

Paige swung the beam around the empty room. “If it was in here, it’s gone now.”

“Tarik said they didn’t find anything like it, so it must not have been in here.”

Paige heaved a sigh and returned her flashlight beam to the mural. “I wonder if–“

“Hey! What are you doing down here?” a female voice shouted.

Paige’s blood ran cold. Her knees wobbled as she spun to face the woman.

CHAPTER 27

“Oh, uh, hello,” Paige said with a smile plastered on her face as the strawberry blonde thundered down the stairs and headed for them.

She swallowed hard, beads of sweat forming on her brow.

“Who are you?”

Paige shifted her weight from side to side, shoving the carrier as far behind her as she could while the woman trained her flashlight beam on Paige. “Uh, I’m Paige…Learner. And I’m new here.”

“Paige Learner?” the woman responded. “There is no Paige Learner working on this dig.”

Paige studied the woman’s delicate features. She looked somewhat familiar, but she couldn’t place her. “Well, like I said, I’m new. This is my first day, actually.”

“I’m the dig coordinator. I know everyone here. You are not on this dig.”

Paige nudged her glasses up. “Well, I just came, like I said. And I was trying to get the lay of the land so I can hit the ground running.”

The woman raised her chin, and her eyes narrowed again. She shifted the beam of light to Paige’s hip. “What’s in the case?”

“Oh, uh, that’s my…dog,” Paige stammered.

“Ruff, ruff,” Dewey mimicked from inside his carrier.

“You brought a dog into the desert and then brought it into the tomb?”

“Well, he is a service animal, so he is allowed.”

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