Cy grabbed aten by the arm and ran. ‘You keep to the left in a maze, don’t you?’
‘I thought that you turned right at each corner,’ gasped Aten.
Ahead of them in an opening was a crocodile.
‘Omigosh,’ said Cy. ‘There’s two of them. Go the other way!’ As he hared up another tunnel behind Aten, Cy tried to think. ‘It might be better if we run zigzag,’ he yelled. ‘I read somewhere it confuses them if you go from side to side.’
‘I know the best way to run away from a crocodile,’ Aten yelled back.
‘How?’
‘Very quickly,’ said Aten. ‘Egyptian humour,’ he added and dodged as Cy tried to punch him.
Cy skidded to halt. ‘Let’s take a second to think this out,’ he said. ‘I’m sure it’s left.’ He remembered when all the family had gone to Hampton Court maze. Lauren had insisted that they turned left at every junction. Although, Cy suddenly recalled, they had been in the maze for hours before they had found their way out. ‘When we got lost in Hampton Court maze,’ said Cy, ‘I’m sure Lauren said that the key to getting out was to keep left.’
‘Lauren?’ said Aten.
‘Lauren!’ yelped Cy, as he caught sight of his sister running along the tunnel.
‘Cy, what are you doing here?’ Lauren gave her brother a puzzled look. She looked around her. ‘What am I doing here?’
‘Omigollygosh!’ said Cy. ‘What’s going on?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Aten. ‘She was not with us in the assembly hall.’
‘I was with Baz and Cartwheel,’ said Lauren. ‘What is this place, anyway?’
‘How can she have got here?’ asked Cy.
‘I know!’ cried Aten. ‘It is because you mentioned her. You told me that’s what happened in your special dream, and you just said her name a moment ago.’
‘But where has she come from?’ said Cy. ‘Where should she be at this moment that she’s not?’
‘It is very strange,’ said Aten. ‘Her friends will not know what has happened to her.’
‘Hey, what gives?’ said a voice from the darkness. ‘Isn’t this the weirdest place?’
‘Absolutely.’
Cy whirled round. Baz and Cartwheel were now on either side of Lauren.
‘Terrific set for your band, Aten,’ said Cartwheel, looking about. She reached out and touched one of the walls. ‘These wall paintings are so realistic.’
‘That is certainly true,’ said Aten. In the distance there was the scrabbling sound of claws. Aten glanced nervously behind them. ‘May reality remain an illusion more real than I hope you ever find out.’
‘Sorry?’ said Lauren.
‘Let us pray that close by here there is a swampy underground lake where crocodiles may wish to stay,’ said Aten to Cy in a low voice. ‘Although, it is said that they are attracted by human voices.’
‘This is an amazing place,’ said Baz. ‘Kind of funky.’ She looked beyond Aten’s head. ‘Wow! Those two crocodiles look as if they’re actually alive!’
Cy and Aten looked at each other. Then Cy shouted out, ‘It’s not me that’s making it happen! It’s you!’
‘No. Way!’ said Aten.
‘Yes!’ yelled Cy. ‘Just a second ago you said that crocodiles are attracted by human voices and now they are here! And think back. Since we landed in this place every thought you’ve had has happened. We fall inside the pyramid, then you think a worse place to be would be in a maze with crocodiles. Next minute we are in a maze. You said we needed light. Zap! Torches appear. To me the tunnels seemed different. You said that you thought they were the same, and I look again, and they were! It’s you! You’re doing it!’
Aten shook his head.
‘You are!’ Cy insisted. ‘You mentioned Lauren, and her Boy Band groupie friends, and hey presto!’
‘Boy Ba—’ repeated Aten.
‘No! Don’t’ – Cy clapped his hand over Aten’s mouth – ‘say it!’ He held up his hand as Aten opened his mouth. ‘Don’t even think it. Think of something else. Think of anything else.’
‘My mind keeps coming back to crocodiles,’ wailed Aten. He stopped, screamed out loud and put both his hands over his mouth. ‘I said it! I said it!’ He moaned again and then squeezing his eyes tight, he shouted out, ‘A lake, a swampy lake. Crocodiles, please stay in the water.’
There was a splashing sound behind them, and the largest of the crocodiles flapped its tail around in a large, spreading pool of slime.
‘That’s so cool!’ said Baz. She took a few steps forward, knelt down, and held out her fingers. ‘Isn’t he cute?’
‘Omigosh,’ said Cy.
‘Here, boy,’ said Baz. ‘Come and I’ll scratch behind your ears.’ The large reptile heaved itself forward. Its huge jaws opened up.
‘Think of something,’ hissed Cy. ‘Fast!’
‘What?’
‘A muzzle!’
‘What’s a muzzle?’ asked Aten.
‘A cage-like thing which locks round its mouth.’
‘Like that?’
‘Good,’ said Cy. ‘Now think up another one.’
‘Oh, no,’ shouted Cy as he saw that the larger crocodile was now wearing two muzzles. ‘One each.’
‘Sorry,’ said Aten.
Being muzzled confused the crocodiles. They began to walk backwards, shaking their heads from side to side.
‘Listen!’ said Cy. ‘Remember at the beginning when you said the crocodiles were a bit like Chloe and Eddie? And . . . and,’ Cy’s voice rose in excitement, ‘you also said that people like that should stay in the dark. So . . .’ Cy grabbed the torch from Aten’s hand and pulled him further up the tunnel. ‘Let’s move away and see what happens. I think that the crocodiles will stay in the dark.’
‘You don’t mean,’ said Aten, ‘that those crocodiles could actually be Chloe and Eddie?’
Cy nodded. ‘Yes . . . No . . .’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know. Come on,’ he said to his sister and her friends. ‘We have to move on.’ Then he turned to Aten. ‘Think of a clear, dry space with some benches to sit on.’
The benches were an odd shape, but at least they now had somewhere to rest.
‘How is this happening?’ asked Aten. ‘I have never had dreams like this before.’
‘Your ankh.’ Cy pointed to Aten’s neck. ‘Remember I said the Dream Master was terrified that you would touch it? He was right when he thought that it might connect to the Dreamworld. And now everything you think of appears beside you. It’s making your imagination come true. A bit like dreaming. Perhaps you should take it off, until we can work out what to do.’ Aten lifted his hands to obey. Cy reached out and stopped him. ‘You’d better not handle it again. Let me take it,’ he said. Cy carefully untied the knot at the back of Aten’s neck. Just as he reached round to take the silver amulet Lauren leant over.
‘Hey, that’s pretty,’ she said. ‘Can I try it on?’ She lifted the amulet and slipped it round her neck. ‘D’you think this suits me?’ she asked her friends.
‘Looks great,’ said Baz.
‘Absolutely,’ said Cartwheel.
Aten spoke very slowly and distinctly. ‘Please. Give it back to me.’
Cy held his breath. His sister looked from one to the other.
‘Oh, all right,’ said Lauren. ‘If it’s going to upset you.’ As she began to undo the leather lace, her hand made contact with the ankh itself. ‘Were you practising down here with your band?’ she asked.
‘No,’ said Aten.
‘NO!’ shrieked Cy.
‘But I can hear music,’ said Lauren, her fingers still fiddling with the ankh.
‘Definitely not,’ said Cy. ‘Give Aten his ankh back.’
‘Are you sure?’ Lauren put her head to one side. There was a twang from an acoustic guitar. ‘That sound like a track from the new BearBoyz CD.’
‘Yes, I’m sure,’ Cy said hurriedly. ‘Now. GIVE ATEN BACK HIS ANKH!’
‘Too late, I think,’ said Aten.
Lauren was staring with huge eyes down the tunnel beyond them. ‘Do I see what I think I see?’
Declan, lead singer of the BearBoyz, who, Cy noticed, appeared to have both a quiff and a fringe, was gyrating along the passageway, crooning into a hand-mike.
‘I believe we are now in Lauren’s dream,’ said Aten.
Cy slumped against the wall.
‘My dream?’ said Lauren. ‘Is this my dream?’
‘This isn’t a dream,’ said Cy. ‘It’s a nightmare.’
“Cos, if it’s my dream,’ Lauren went on, ‘then I might as well have my wishes come true.’ She snapped her fingers. ‘Let’s have some music,’ she said. ‘And let’s have it LOUD!’
The crash of sound from eight twenty-thousand-watt loudspeakers reverberated round the walls. From deep in the darkness Cy heard one of the crocodiles whimper.
‘Now,’ said Lauren, ‘Declan needs a backing group,’ she looked at her two friends, ‘and we’re it!’
The sight of the three girls in day-glo lime-coloured lycra micros with black mini crop tops made Cy move himself. He leapt across and snatched the ankh from Lauren’s neck.
Now he had it. The Ankh of Aten. In his own hands, with its power released. As Cy clasped it between his palms he felt the charge from it surge inside him. Like a divining rod it tapped into his own psychic energy, and then, enhanced and increased, it soared, multiplying, force upon force. He was all powerful. What he wanted he could get. What he wished for he would have. He could create worlds, his dreams would come true.
‘I await your command, master,’ said a voice at his elbow.
Cy turned. He wasn’t really surprised to see a Jedi knight standing a respectful pace away. Cy blinked several times, closed his eyes tightly for a second or two, and then reopened them one at a time.
Princess Leia handed him his light-sabre. ‘Come, Obi-Cy Kenobi. We don’t have much time,’ she said.
‘Time.’ Cy repeated the word. The force-beam buzzed in his hand. A flickering white light of pure energy cut through the air. Cy felt the power in him. Now he had it all. He was invincible. But . . . only with the ankh.
Cy looked down at the silver amulet lying in his open palm. He needed the ankh, but it wasn’t his.
It belonged to Aten. It was his life force. He must give it back.
Slowly Cy’s fingers began to close.