Jack scanned it, too. ‘But it’s been closed off because Sphinx didn’t come in here alone and unchallenged. He has competition, so he has to go the long way and defeat the Labyrinth like the rest of us.’

Lily frowned. ‘Any idea what ascending the pinnacle of Life and sitting in the embrace of Death mean? Not another human sacrifice, I hope.’

‘I don’t know,’ Jack said, concerned. ‘Not yet.’

He turned to his right, now the only way they could go.

The tunnel in that direction was shorter. It went for about ten metres before it opened onto a wider space. A gentle breeze blew from there.

Jack ventured down it and stopped at its end.

‘Okay, this is interesting,’ he breathed.

THE SIX CHOICES

TO ENTER THE ENDLESS TUNNEL

(FROM JACK’S POINT OF VIEW)

For the second time that day, Jack found himself standing on a ledge at the mouth of a tunnel overlooking a sheer drop.

This shaft, however, was much narrower than the earlier one—it was only maybe thirty metres across—and Jack’s tunnel was situated right up near its flat ceiling. It was rectangular in shape, with sheer sides that dropped away into infinity.

Across the space from Jack, perched above the drop, were six tunnel mouths. Four were on the wall facing him while two were on the side walls.

All six were trapezoidal in shape and beautifully constructed with ornate brickwork. Each had a small stone ledge protruding from it like a balcony.

Ominously, each doorway was flanked by two grey man-shaped statues like the ones they had seen in the first cavern: silvermen covered in greystone.

Even more ominously, the statues that had ‘guarded’ the third door from the right had been broken open: they looked like eggs that had cracked from within and were now just empty open shells.

Above each tunnel mouth was an image carved into the wall. Each image was contained within a rectangular border and they all looked similar, depicting stylised circles and snakes.

Six lines of hand-rungs ran across the ceiling, originating just above Jack’s tunnel and extending out to each of the six tunnel mouths in separate branches, ending about twelve feet above each doorway.

Jack deduced the intent of the chamber instantly.

‘You have to climb across the ceiling and drop down to the correct tunnel mouth.’

‘Only which one do you choose?’ Lily said. ‘How can we know which is the correct one?’

Jack thought about that.

He pulled out Imhotep’s mummified skull, with its dark dry skin covered in tattoos.

‘Lily,’ he said, ‘can you read the Thoth markings on this skull for me again, please?’

Lily leaned in.