Grace crawled through the dusty passageway on her hands and knees. At the end was a dark hole in the floor.
She peered down – it was a narrow shaft. Her heart thumped as she swung her legs over the edge of the hole and let herself fall. She landed in a long, wide corridor with flaming torches flickering on the walls. The air was hot and sticky.
Beset climbed after her, followed by Olivia.
“Yuck,” Olivia muttered, pausing to brush the thick dust from her skirt.
Beset walked ahead, her snake bracelet glinting in the torchlight. “There are many, many corridors,” she said. “Cuddle and Cleo could be anywhere.” She shook her head. “We will never find them in time. The Pharaoh will be very unhappy if Cleo does not come to her own celebration.”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure we can find them in time,” Grace said as she and Olivia hurried after Beset.
Passages led off in all directions, their entrances casting shadows on the smooth yellow floor.
Olivia twisted one of her curls round her finger. It was damp from the warm air. “How do we decide where to look first?” she asked.
Beset frowned. “The men who build the pyramids hide riddles and games inside them – like the secret passageway. Maybe we need to use a riddle to find the way.”
Grace began to chant, moving her finger from one corridor to the next with each word. “Eeny, teeny, tiny cat – can you tell me where she’s at? Strokes and snuggles, she loves all that, eeny, teeny, tiny cat.” On the last word she was pointing towards a corridor on the right. “Let’s try that way.”
The girls walked down the corridor, calling the two kittens’ names. It was lined with tall ceramic jars. The lid of each was shaped like a bird’s head with jewelled eyes that twinkled as the girls passed. The corridor twisted round a corner – and finished at a blank wall.
“It’s a dead end,” Grace said with a groan.
Disappointed, they wound their way back – and saw a little kitten curled up on the floor where they had started.
“Cuddle!” Olivia cried.
Cuddle rolled on to her back and stretched her paws towards the girls. Grace tickled her tummy and Cuddle purred loudly.
“We’ve found one kitten,” Beset said. “But now we must find Cleo.”
Grace said her rhyme again, and this time they went down a corridor on the left. Cuddle sat on Olivia’s shoulder, her head poking through Olivia’s curls.
The corridor swung left, then right, then left again, winding backwards and forwards until the girls had no idea which direction they had come from. They came to a stop by a tall statue of a bird with a hooked beak.
“This place is a maze,” Olivia said.
“That’s not a real bird, Cuddle!” Grace said. “It’s just – ”
Olivia put her finger to her lips.
“Miaow.”
“That’s not Cuddle miaowing,” Olivia said. “It’s coming from far away.”
Beset clapped her hands in delight. “It must be Cleo!”
