“The riddle of the Sphinx?” I gulped. How was I going to manage that? I walked out of the temple towards the banks of the Nile with Tiy and the High Priest and Priestess of Anubis.

The High Priest stopped beside a huge man-lion statue. He beckoned for me to go and stand next to him.

“Will you give me back my bag and let me go if I crack this riddle?” I asked timidly.

“I will set you free, yes,” said the High Priest.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Still, how was I going to crack the riddle?

Tiy held my bag in her hands and swung it about, “I’ve never seen such an ugly bag before!” she said. “No gold, no jewels – you must be so poor. I knew as soon as I met you that you were nothing but a little insect…”

“Excuse me,” I said, knowing she was only teasing me, and so I teased her back. “If it wasn’t for me you’d be served up on a plate as zombie food right now. And who are you calling ‘insect’, dung beetle!”

“Dung beetles are sacred animals to us,” she smiled.

“Enough!” the High Priestess shouted, holding up her hand.

The High Priest turned to face the Sphinx and said, “It is time…”

The stone statue of the Sphinx suddenly moved to reveal eyes of gold. It opened its mouth to speak. “Who is the warrior attempting to solve the riddle of the Sphinx?” it asked.

“I am,” I answered, straightening up to look as tall as possible.

“Answer it correctly,” said the Sphinx, “and you will pass. Answer it incorrectly and you will die.”

A shiver ran down my spine and beads of perspiration broke out on my forehead as the Sphinx continued.

“What has one voice, and goes from four legs, to two legs, to three legs?”

As far as riddles go, the riddle of the Sphinx was mega-tough. The sun started to rise over the horizon as I stood there and thought about it – no way did I want to get it wrong. My heart was thumping as I tried to figure out the answer.

What walks on two legs? As soon as I got that part of the riddle then the rest of it made sense too. I knew it – I knew the answer!

“A human!” I answered confidently. “Humans use four limbs when they crawl as a baby, two legs when they walk as an adult and three legs when they’re old and need a walking stick.”

“Correct,” the Sphinx declared. “You may live.”

I couldn’t believe it! I had cracked the riddle. I literally jumped for joy. But I didn’t get much of a chance to celebrate. The High Priest had summoned one of his servants from the bank of the river. The servant led Tiy and me down to the water where we stepped into a small boat and began to cross the river.

I spent the journey back across the river explaining who I was to Tiy.

“You’re a time traveller!” Tiy said in disbelief.

“Yup,” I replied.

The boat we were sailing on was getting closer to the far bank of the Nile so I didn’t really have time to go into great detail. Besides, I was desperate to get back to Plato and the others.

“Do you have to go back now?” Tiy asked me. “Maybe you could stay and we could be friends. Maybe I could even marry you instead of the Pharaoh?”

“Nah, you’re alright, thanks,” I laughed awkwardly. “You wouldn’t want to do that.”

“No, perhaps you’re right,” Tiy smiled. “Although my family would give you the protection of Anubis and 10,000 camels!”

“Er, no use for camels back home,” I replied quickly, “but thanks anyway.”

The Egyptian servants moored the boat on the riverside and Tiy and I hopped out – I couldn’t wait to get home. As we walked through the long grass on the riverbank and into the desert, I thought about everything that had happened.

“Around here will be fine,” I said, pointing to the desert floor.

All I needed was a flat bit of ground to activate Morph, and where we were standing would do the trick.

Tiy watched in silence as I pulled Morph out of my bag. She gave a small scream as I activated it and then she jumped backwards as Morph sprung up into a huge time machine.

“Wow!” she exclaimed as Morph whizzed and whirled into life. Her eyes looked like they were about to explode.

“Better than a magic amulet?” I grinned at Tiy. She smiled back.

I was walking towards the time machine door, about to say goodbye to Tiy, when she tugged on my arm and pulled me around to face her.

“Take me with you?” she said, her eyes welling up with tears.

“I don’t think I can,” I said. “It doesn’t really work like that.”

I didn’t exactly know what the rules were about taking people out of their natural times – but if what happened with Rex was anything to go by then it probably wasn’t a good idea. Tiy seemed to understand that, and stepped back a little.

“Will you promise to always remember me?” she asked. “Tell others about me. I don’t want to be forgotten after I die.”

“Of course I will,” I replied. “Look, why don’t we do a deal? How about I promise to remember you if you promise not to put any more curses on people?”

Tiy didn’t say anything. Instead, she took the magic amulet from around her neck and placed it into my hands. “No more curses,” she said. “And actually, I would like to give you two more things.”

“OK,” I said hesitantly.

“First, there’s this,” she said, placing half a gold coin in my hand.

“Where’s the other half?” I asked.

“Don’t be greedy,” she laughed. “The coin will bring you luck. Keep it with you, always.”

“What was the other thing – you said you wanted to give me two things?”

Her face turned bright red and she took a step towards me. She closed her eyes and pouted her lips, as if she wanted to kiss me.

I didn’t know what to say – no one had wanted to kiss me before. I felt embarrassed.

“Bye!” I said quickly, stumbling back towards Morph and shutting the door firmly behind me.

There wasn’t a moment to spare. Morph had fired up and was lifting into the air. Before I knew it, I was whizzing through time again and clutching my stomach as my guts churned.

We landed with a bump and I opened the time machine door – I was back in Tiy’s tomb, but it looked completely different this time. For one thing, the pictures on the wall had changed. People looked happy – there was no war, no famine. Tiy had clearly led a long and happy life.

There was a picture of Tiy as a grown woman, marrying the Pharaoh. They looked happy. I walked up to Tiy’s coffin and looked at her mummy.

Carefully, I placed the amulet that she had given me onto the mummy’s chest and closed the lid. The tunnel where I’d fought the zombie mummies was empty as I walked back through it.

Voices were coming from outside…they were arguing about who should go into the tomb first.

“Will, where have you been?” It was George. “I looked around and you’d just disappeared,” he went on. “How can we get to work on lifting this curse if you just go off like that?” But he didn’t wait for a reply – he stomped off ahead of me.

I smiled as Plato bounded up to me, his tail wagging happily.

“I think you might find it’s already lifted,” I said.