Everything was a blur of sand and a tangle of limbs as the children spilled into the corridor. Leah’s entire body tingled with adrenaline as she rolled across the floor before coming to a stop. Dizziness made her head spin and it was hard to know which way was up. For a moment, there was silence as the five of them lay in a dazed heap amongst the sand dunes, the sound of their ragged breathing filling the corridor. Leah’s heart was hammering in her chest. The terror she’d felt just moments before had given way to a relief so sharp it almost hurt. She couldn’t believe they’d made it.

‘That was way too close,’ Khalid squeaked, pushing himself upright. Panic filled his face for a moment as he looked left and right, searching for Bast. He found her, half-submerged in the sand, her tail wiggling as she tried to extract herself. Finally, she popped free, shaking her triangular ears and sending sand in every direction. Khalid sighed in relief and gathered her to his chest, ignoring her bewildered meow of protest.

‘We were almost squished like bugs in there,’ Mimi panted. Next to her, William sat up and spat out a mouthful of sand.

‘Are you okay, George?’ Leah said. He was splayed out on the floor, his arms and legs wide, staring up at the ceiling. His cheeks were still streaked with tears.

‘I don’t like this place, L,’ George rasped. He wiped a hand across his face, and then sat up, shaking his head. ‘The sooner we get out of here the better.’ He gave a small hiccup and let Mimi haul him to his feet. She flung her arms around his neck and gave him a comforting squeeze.

Leah cast around on the floor, searching for the torch she’d been holding. She couldn’t find it. Her stomach sank. The pyramid was so dark, there was no way they’d be able to find their way without a light.

‘Look,’ George said, bending to pick the second torch up from the floor. ‘This one is still lit.’ He raised it above his head and it cast a warm glow over the gloomy corridor. Leah exhaled in relief. They’d have to be even more careful now that they only had one light source.

‘Well, we definitely can’t go back that way,’ William said. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears as he lurched upright and staggered over the sand towards the doorframe that led back into the hieroglyphics room. It was now entirely blocked by sand. Leah could see the watch poking out of his pocket and she inwardly breathed a sigh of relief that it hadn’t been lost.

She forced herself to smile. ‘Well, we’ll just have to keep going forward, won’t we?’

‘Do we still have the map?’ George asked anxiously. ‘We can’t get to the Pharaoh’s Fortune without it. And if we can’t get to the Pharaoh’s Fortune . . .’ he trailed off gloomily. If they couldn’t find the lost amulet, they’d never get out of this pyramid and they’d never get home.

Khalid dug around in his pocket for a few nerve-wracking seconds, but then he pulled the scrap of papyrus out. ‘Got it!’ he said triumphantly.

The others breathed a sigh of relief.

‘We’ll have to be super careful now,’ Mimi said. She frowned. ‘Although, that room wasn’t marked on the map, was it?’

Khalid studied the paper and then shook his head. ‘The room is on the map – see that little square there? But there’s nothing on here to tell us it was a booby trap.’

‘So, there might be booby traps in here that aren’t on the map?’ George croaked fearfully.

‘You’ve got to remember that this entire pyramid has been undisturbed for hundreds of years.’ Khalid stopped, closed his eyes and took a breath. ‘I’m confident the map is mostly accurate, but there’s no way to know for sure.’

‘Well, you could have told us that before,’ William retorted sharply, running his hands through his hair so that it stuck up in blond, sweaty spikes.

‘Let’s not get into a fight,’ Leah interrupted. ‘We’re here and there’s nothing we can do about it. That map is our best chance of getting out. So let’s just use what we have and try to get back to the tent.’

They huddled close to Khalid, staring at the complex pattern of lines that had been drawn on the papyrus. In the middle of one line, there was a box shape.

‘This is where we are now,’ Khalid said, pointing next to the box. Leah looked at the map and then glanced down the corridor. It looked very similar to the one they’d come from on the other side of the hieroglyph room. Narrow, dusty and very, very dark. But after the spiked pit, Leah knew that just because the corridor might look empty, that didn’t mean that it was.

‘What do those mean?’ she asked, pointing to a series of small black dots on the map that had been inked on either side of the line.

‘It’s hard to know for certain, but . . .’ Khalid trailed off, shaking his head. He reached into his satchel and dug around, looking for something. ‘Aha!’ he exclaimed finally, and he brought out a familiar white paper bag. It was filled with the hard-boiled sweets Khalid had bought at the bazaar yesterday.

Was it really only yesterday? Leah thought to herself. She could hardly believe that only a day had passed since they’d met Khalid and explored the bazaar. So much had happened.

‘How are sweets going to help right now?’ William asked dubiously.

Khalid flashed him a mysterious grin. ‘Just you watch!’ He took out one of the shiny red globes from within the bag and threw it down the length of the passageway like a marble.

It bounced across the stones, visible even in the dim light from their torch. Finally, it came to a stop. There was silence, and then an ominous click.

‘Get down!’ Khalid shouted. Instinctively, Leah dropped to her knees, covering her head with her hands as stones flew through the air, pinging off the walls and ricocheting around the small space. Someone cried out in pain, but Leah couldn’t afford to lift her head, not if she wanted to protect herself from the pyramid’s trap.

Finally, the hail of stones halted, the last few dropping to the floor with a clatter. For a moment, no one moved, all of them huddled like tortoises, breathing heavily.

Finally, Leah lifted her head. ‘Is everyone okay?’ she asked.

There was a pained groan in response.

‘William’s hurt!’ Mimi cried.

He was lying on the floor, clutching his foot. His sock was ripped and blood seeped through from a long cut on his ankle, staining the fabric crimson. The children clustered around him, their faces full of concern.

‘I have some bandages,’ Khalid said, rummaging through his satchel. Leah remembered how they’d laughed at him when he’d packed them back in Cairo. Now, she was thankful that he’d ignored them.

‘It’s not that bad,’ William said through gritted teeth. He probed the cut with his fingers and hissed. ‘Okay, maybe it hurts a little.’

‘It would be better if I had some water to clean it with, but we’ll just have to wash it properly when we get back to camp. Try not to get any sand in it if you can help it,’ Khalid said, leaning forward and winding a bandage round and round William’s ankle, securing it with a tight knot. ‘There. That should keep it protected, at least until we get out of here.’

‘If we get out of here,’ George muttered.

‘We should keep moving,’ Mimi said, glancing towards the dark corridor ahead of them. ‘Who knows how long we’ve been in here?’

Leah and George looped their arms around William’s back and pulled him up. But when William tried to put weight on his injured ankle, he gasped in pain, sagging between them.

‘I . . . must have . . . twisted it,’ William panted. They led him over to the wall, and he braced himself against the rock.

George chewed his lip anxiously and looked at Leah. ‘What are we going to do?’ he said. ‘We need to keep moving.’

Leah frowned. George was right, but William couldn’t even take a single step on his own.

‘I’m so sorry,’ William suddenly said, his voice very small. ‘This is all my fault. If I hadn’t been so stubborn and stupid and so desperate to get home, we wouldn’t even be in this situation!’

‘What are you talking about?’ Leah said. ‘This isn’t your—’

‘Of course it is!’ William exploded. ‘I stole the map and charged up here without even thinking about how dangerous it was. And look where it got us. But . . . I just couldn’t stand it any more!’ His voice broke, and he looked like he was close to tears. ‘You and Mimi and George – you’re always so good at everything! And you actually like each other.’ He swallowed. ‘And I thought if I could be the one to save us, if I could be the one to get us out of this mess, you’d all stop looking at me like I was . . . like I was a bad smell, or something.’ William was breathing hard.

‘But . . . William,’ Mimi stammered. ‘You don’t even like us!’

‘Of course, I don’t like you! You’re always so smug in your little trio. Like you’re all in on some big secret that the rest of the world doesn’t know about. I’ve never had friends like that.’ William’s eyes were bright.

‘What about Katie and Toby?’ George said.

‘Ha! They’re not my friends. They only pretend to be because I’ve got a big fancy house. And I think they’re a bit scared of me, as well,’ he laughed scornfully. ‘The truth is . . . the truth is, I don’t have any friends. Not any that matter.’ His voice was bitter.

‘You’re not that scary,’ Leah said, trying to be reassuring. ‘And . . . and sometimes, you can even be quite nice. When you try. If you’d just focus on being yourself once in a while, instead of being who you think you should be, Katie and Toby would be your actual friends. And maybe we’d want to be your friends, too.’

‘Er, guys,’ Khalid said apologetically. ‘I hate to interrupt, but could you hurry this up? We probably shouldn’t stay here too long. You know, booby traps? Pharaoh’s Fortune? Remember?’

But William wasn’t listening. Instead, he was staring hard at Leah. Finally, he just sighed and shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter now, anyway.’ He gestured hopelessly at his leg. ‘I’m stuck. I can’t walk. So, you’re just going to have to leave me here.’ He bit his lip, and a tear rolled down his cheek.

‘Oh, William!’ Mimi huffed. She marched forward, grabbing one of William’s arms and draping it over her shoulder. ‘You really should leave the dramatics to those of us with actual acting potential. Of course we’re not leaving you. We’d never leave a member of the Wonder Team behind, even if you are just an honorary guest. Right, L?’

Leah went to William’s other side. ‘Right,’ she agreed, taking his other arm. ‘We’re in this together.’

William looked at them, bewildered. ‘But . . .’

‘Just let us do something nice for you for a change, okay?’ Mimi said, giving him a little smile.

William grinned in return. ‘Okay. Just . . . thanks, I guess.’

Leah turned to Khalid. ‘What does the map say? Is this part of the tunnel safe now?’

Khalid consulted the paper and then gave a nod. ‘I think so . . .’

‘Then let’s get going,’ Leah said. She and Mimi started shuffling forward with William strung between them. ‘The sooner we get started, the sooner we can find the lost amulet and get out of here.’