Tashi and the Royal Tomb (Tashi Series #10)
Tashi and the Royal Tomb (Tashi Series #10)
eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781741760323 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Allen & Unwin Pty., Limited |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2007 |
| Series: | Tashi Series , #10 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 2 MB |
| Age Range: | 5 - 8 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Tashi and the Royal Tomb
By Anna Fienberg, Barbara Fienberg, Kim Gamble
Allen & Unwin
Copyright © 2003 Anna Fienberg and Barbara FienbergAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-74176-032-3
CHAPTER 1
When Jack and Tashi raced to the classroom one Monday morning, they screeched to a halt at the door. Was this the right room? The walls were splashed with paintings of pyramids, mummies lying in tombs, strange writing made up of little pictures. From the ceiling hung masks of jackals and fierce-looking kings, and the heavy air smelled sweet, musty like Jack's jumper drawer where Mum kept a bag of dried flowers.
'Look!' cried Jack, pointing to gold pots of incense burning on the windowsill. The smoke hung in a curtain above their heads, mysterious, exotic.
'In ancient Egypt,' Mrs Hall, the teacher, said grandly as she swept into the room, 'pharaohs were buried in mansions of eternity – '
'Pyramids!' called out Angus Figment.
'Magnificent tombs,' agreed Mrs Hall, 'with burial chambers inside, filled with everything the king might need for the afterlife –'
'And the pharaohs were made into mummies before they were buried,' put in Angus Figment. 'All their livers and stomachs and whatnot were pulled out first, and then the bodies were washed with palm wine and covered with salt, and the priests used to burn incense to take away the pong because all the gasses in the bodies must have stunk like crazy –'
'Thank you, Angus,' said Mrs Hall.
Angus looked around the room happily. He'd been mad on ancient Egypt since kindergarten, and knew all sorts of interesting details about burial methods and coffins. His mother had grown worried about him in Year 1 when he'd talked about embalming the cat, but the school counsellor told her Angus just had a terrific imagination, and soon he'd move on to other things. His mother (and the cat) were still waiting.
'The Viking kings used to have their slaves and warriors buried with them,' Jack put in.
'Back in my country,' Tashi said quietly, 'we had tombs, too.'
Mrs Hall looked at him. Her eyes were round with interest. 'Did you ever see any?' she asked. 'Were there any ancient burial sites near your village?'
'Oh yes,' said Tashi. 'A royal tomb was discovered, and I was nearly buried alive in it!'
'Like a Viking slave!' cried Jack. 'Tell us what happened!'
'Yes,' said Mrs Hall, eagerly pulling up her chair near Tashi. 'Please do.'
'Well,' said Tashi, 'it was like this. Big Uncle had decided he needed a new well. You see, he lived quite far from the village and his wife was tired of having to trudge all that way for their water. So he asked our family to help him dig a new well on his land. Of course, when I told the teacher that I had to miss a day at school, Ah Chu and Lotus Blossom wanted to come too and help.'
'And did they?' asked Jack enviously.
'Oh yes,' said Tashi. 'You know how Lotus Blossom always gets her way. It was fun at first. We poked about in the soil, the men carried away buckets of stones and we built castles with them – that is until Ah Chu sat on them to eat his lunch.
'But the really thrilling part came when the men dug deeper and began to scoop out marvellous treasures, one after the other.
'Ah Chu found a bowl decorated with a golden dragon and then, right next to me, Lotus Blossom gently brushed the soil away from a beautiful bronze tiger.
'When Big Uncle himself uncovered a full-sized terracotta warrior, he told everybody to stop work.
'"This looks like an important find," he said. "We'll have to send word to the museum in the city and let the archaeologists come out and see it."
'Well, I was disappointed – I'd been hoping to find some exciting thing, too. I stepped over to look more closely at the warrior's battle robe and touch the scarf around his neck. I examined the warrior's face, and looked into his eyes. And then, it was spooky, everything around me went still for a moment, like when the wind stops in the middle of a storm. I could have sworn the warrior was holding my gaze. There was a circle of silence around us, with just our eyes speaking.
'"What?" I whispered, and perhaps I heard a faint sound. But now Big Uncle and my father bustled up to move everyone away from the digging and to fence it off with a rope.
'Just then, too late, the Baron came charging up the hill. "What's this I hear?" he shouted. "I don't believe it! A burial site found here on your land?"'
'Typical,' groaned Jack. 'That selfish money-bags ruins everything!'
'Yes,' agreed Tashi. 'He's got snake oil running in his veins instead of blood, I bet. Well, he blustered "Why wasn't I told?" and "This will be worth a fortune! To think, the number of times I've crossed this very field, never suspecting what was lying under my feet."
'"Well, if it is a King's tomb," my father said gravely, "the government will claim it, you know. It won't be our fortune."
'The Baron looked at us with contempt. "These people simply have no idea," I heard him mutter to himself. No one was supposed to go near the dig until the experts from the city arrived, but the Baron jumped the rope fence and went in to take a good look around.
'Big Uncle gloomily went searching for another spot for his well and I tried to be patient. But I kept picturing the warrior's eyes and how he seemed to be speaking to me.
'On the fifth day, the team of archaeologists from the city arrived, and they were very excited. "This is a small tomb," Director Han explained, "but very important."
'Teacher Pang had brought the whole school up to hear the verdict and nearly everyone else in the village had followed. They crowded closer to listen.
'"We'll dig out this fallen soil and restore the walls and the brick floor of the tomb, and then we'll put all the warriors and their swords and things back just as they were," Director Han told them. "Unfortunately, as often happens, it seems the King's burial chamber itself has been robbed and destroyed, but there are still many precious things here in the outer tomb. I'm sure we will find more."
'Teacher Pang was excited. "Imagine, children, we'll be able to step into the tomb and go back two thousand years in time!"'
'How marvellous!' Mrs Hall couldn't help exclaiming, knocking Tashi's pencils off the desk. 'Do you know, when the Great Pyramid was opened up, hot air rushed out and an Egyptian archaeologist said, "I smelt incense ... I smelt time ... I smelt centuries ... I smelt history itself!" Imagine, children, what that would be like!'
'I'm going to be an archaeologist when I grow up,' said Angus Figment.
'Well,' Tashi went on, 'several people from the village were given jobs digging, and I begged so hard that Director Han said I could be in charge of the teapot for the men's refreshments. This meant I often passed by my particular warrior, and always I felt the soldier's eyes were following me. But there was so much to see and do, with amazing finds each day: strange coins, weapons, buckles of gold, and even a terracotta chariot and horses.
'So it wasn't until the dig was almost finished that I felt the pull of the warrior's gaze. Glancing around to make sure no one was near, I knelt down and whispered to him, "What is it?"
'To my amazement, I heard a faint voice: "Help me."
'"How? How can I help?"
'"My wife has just been unearthed over there by the chariot. I will never be able to rest until we are standing side by side."
'"That can't be," I told him, "there aren't any women in the tomb."
'"My wife dressed as a warrior. No one suspected she was a girl. We were part of the King's guard, and after I discovered her secret I fell in love with her and we married. Could you bring her over to my side so that we will have at least this short time together?"
'I thought for a moment. It was fine in the day when all the workers were talking and singing around me, but I must say I didn't like the idea of coming to the tomb at night. Still, I heard myself saying, "All right, I'll come back after dark when everyone has gone home."
'I was really glad there weren't any ghosts about when I arrived at the dig that night. I had great trouble finding the warrior-wife, even with the lantern I'd brought, and still more trouble lifting her into a wheelbarrow that luckily was lying about.
'I saw the warrior's eyes glow with joy. I was just unloading her beside him when I heard voices. So I ducked down behind a rock and waited.
'The light of the lanterns lit the faces of three men as they drew near. I gave a little snort of disgust. Of course! Who else would it be, to come robbing the tomb? The beastly Baron. He and two of his men were arguing. The men were saying that it was unlucky and dangerous to steal from a tomb.
'"Nonsense!" snapped the Baron. "No one has even seen these golden drinking vessels yet, so they won't even know they're missing."
'The men very reluctantly agreed to do what he wanted and they moved closer to where I was hiding. I jumped back and stumbled on a stone. Wah!
'In the blink of an eye the men seized me, and just as I'd said a moment before about him, the Baron growled, "Who else would it be? Why is this boy always under my feet plaguing me?"
'"What do you want us to do with him?" asked the fiercer of the two men.
'The Baron considered and looked at the sky. "It's growing light – too late to get rid of him now. Tie him up and gag him, and put him in a corner at the back of the site." He threw a piece of carpet to one of the men to cover me and told me, "Someone will be watching you every minute – one movement and it will be your last."
'Then the men bundled me up and stashed me away as if I were nothing but a bag of old rags.
'"We'll have to leave the sack of golden goblets here for now," I heard one of them say. "Put them back under the warrior's feet. Now let's go. That Han always arrives at first light, and the diggers from the village won't be far behind."
'The morning crept on. The sun rose high in the sky, glaring down on me. My throat was so dry it felt as if it had been scraped with sandpaper. My tongue grew huge in my mouth. I could hardly breathe under the heavy dusty carpet and although I sneezed several times, no one heard because of the tight gag over my mouth. The cords around my wrist cut into my skin. And all the time, when I wasn't dreaming of water, oh beautiful water, I was thinking, just how were they going to "get rid of me"?
'My brain was hurting with trying to think of a way to raise help. And how could I think properly when there was this strange voice in my head telling me to "Push back, push back ..." What did it mean? The voice was inside me, but it wasn't my own. It was as if someone else had got hold of my head and was telling me what to think.
'I could hear Lotus Blossom and Ah Chu, sometimes passing so close, calling my name, asking if anyone had seen Tashi.
'"It's not like Tashi to just disappear, leaving us with no tea," Big Uncle grumbled.
'By late afternoon, only the last two warriors needed to be moved back into place. The Baron's men made sure they were there on the spot. "It will be dark in a moment," they pointed out to Director Han. "Perhaps it would be better to start throwing the rubbish over the cliff and leave the two warriors till morning? We don't want to drop them because we can't see what we're doing."
'"Yes, I agree," Director Han nodded, "and we'll cover the rubbish up with soil before we go."
'"Waaah!" I screamed silently under my carpet. "They'll dump me over the cliff with the rubbish. If I don't die from the fall, I'll be buried alive under the soil." And all the time the strange voice in my head was growing stronger – it was shouting now, "Push back!" I could no longer ignore it. I focussed my mind on the voice. And as I listened, a picture came into my mind. I saw the eyes of my warrior – they were wide and staring at a small ledge jutting out of the wall behind me. "Push back," he said to me urgently.
'I pushed back into the wall of the tomb. Something moved behind me. A door was opening in the thick stone wall. There was nothing to hang onto and I fell backwards down a flight of steps into the darkness of a small room.
'By the dim light coming from the open door above, I could see that I had fallen down into the King's secret burial chamber. I saw an open coffin, and inside lay a skeleton in a magnificent jade burial suit. My heart leapt, but there was no time to look further. I glanced around quickly. There were two crossed swords at the foot of the coffin. I rolled myself over to one, and pushed it up against the edge of the coffin with my shoulder. Then I began to saw at the cords around my wrists. The sword was as sharp as it must have been two thousand years ago.
'In a moment my arms were free. Quickly I released my ankles and pulled away my gag. The relief! But there was no time to waste. I could hear footsteps running towards me.
'The Baron's men were at the doorway. I saw in horror that they were starting to close the door on me – they wanted to seal me in the tomb with the dead King! A bolt of fear sent me hurtling up the stairs like lightning, yelling and screaming, "Ai-eee! Help! Down here!"
'"That's Tashi calling!" I heard Lotus Blossom shouting, "Over here, everyone!"
'They came bursting through the doorway, ducking around the Baron's men, who suddenly remembered their wives wanted them somewhere else. The Baron was close behind them but when he heard Big Uncle and Director Han hurrying down after him, he called out, "So this is where you have been, Tashi. We were looking everywhere for you."
'I gave the Baron a long hard stare.'
'I would have given him a great hard kick!' exploded Jack.
'I would have cut out his organs and put them in a canopic jar!' cried Angus Figment.
'What's a canopic jar?' asked Jack.
'The thing was,' Tashi went on, 'I had no real proof that the Baron had been stealing from the tomb and meant to kill me. There was nothing concrete, really, so when I finally answered him, I said, "Yes, this is where I've been," and raising my voice so that everyone could hear, "and before I found the King's tomb, I came across a big sack of golden goblets. You'll find it over there, buried by the last two warriors."
'The Baron's jaw dropped. "What a clever Tashi," he said quietly.
'But Director Han paid no attention to them. He was skipping about the secret tomb, crooning with delight over the richly decorated burial chamber and the jade suit.'
'So it was you, Tashi, who made the most important find,' crowed Jack. 'Just think, the King's tomb.'
'Well,' said Tashi modestly, 'the inner tomb did make the find complete. Director Han was given a promotion and he presented our family with jobs and free passes to the tomb for the rest of our lives. My two warriors still stand side by side and every time I visit them, their eyes seem to glow with happiness.'
There was silence in the classroom for a moment as everyone tried to imagine the tomb, and the treasures, and warrior love beyond the grave.
'Did they used to mummify kings in your country, Tashi?' asked Angus Figment.
'No,' replied Tashi. 'They buried them in these splendid tombs.'
'Oh,' said Angus thoughtfully. 'Because in Egypt, well, they used to mummify all sorts of things. Even cats. Of course when the cats were dug up in my great-grandfather's time, most of them were made into garden fertiliser.'
'Thank you, Angus,' said Mrs Hall, 'and now, if you can manage not to turn our stomachs any further, perhaps you would like to share with us some more of your interesting facts about the ancient people of Egypt.'
Angus did like, and his information about Egyptian medicines and the hooks used for removing brains from mummies was enjoyed by all – well, everyone except Alex Pickle, who was sick into the potplant in the corner.
THE BOOK OF SPELLS
'What are you going to do for your project on ancient Egypt?' Dad asked Jack one afternoon.
'I don't know yet,' said Jack, scratching his head. 'Angus Figment is writing a Book of the Dead.'
'Good heavens,' said Mum, coming into the room. 'What does his mother say about that?'
'She thinks it's fascinating, actually,' said Jack. 'See, the Egyptians used to write magic spells on sheets of papyrus, and put them inside the tombs with the mummies. That way, people's afterlife was sure to be happy and safe.'
'How can you be safe when you're dead?' asked Dad.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Tashi and the Royal Tomb by Anna Fienberg, Barbara Fienberg, Kim Gamble. Copyright © 2003 Anna Fienberg and Barbara Fienberg. Excerpted by permission of Allen & Unwin.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.