The Buried Pyramid by Jane Lindskold

Author:Jane Lindskold
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: New York : Tor, 2004.
Published: 2004-05-10T01:00:00+00:00

Steven examined the partially completed cipher.

“ ‘The -a--a- trai-s the -ion.’ The letter ‘X’ occurs three times there. Either ‘L’ or ‘N’ would work in ‘trai-’, but we already have ‘N.’ ”

“So it must be ‘L,’ ” Jenny concluded triumphantly. “The -a--al trails the lion.”

“Jackal!” Neville said, so loudly that several of Reis Awad’s sailors looked nervously toward the shore.

Each of them felt a chill of horror as they recalled their nocturnal burglars.

“Got it,” Jenny said, keeping her voice down as she filled in the new letters. “ ‘The -ockin--ir- -is-laces the ro-ins e--,’ ” she continued. “There sure are a lot of sixes in that line.”

“A double letter,” Stephen said. “Not overly common in English, especially when you eliminate most of the letters we already have.”

“ ‘G’ ” stated Neville. “It has to be ‘G.’ That makes the final word ‘egg.’ I’ll bet my estate that the long word is ‘mockingbird.’ ”

“Another bird right after that,” Jenny said, already filling in. “Robin.”

“The mockingbird somethings the robin’s egg,” Stephen said. “ ‘Displaces’ would be my guess.”

“Looks good. We almost have it,” Jenny said, continuing to pencil in. “Could the next word be ‘love’?”

Neville noticed that she very carefully did not look at him as she said this, and didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or annoyed. He settled for reading the completed message aloud.

“ ‘The jackal trails the lion. The mockingbird displaces the robin’s egg. Love is more dangerous than either one.’ Why bother to encipher this at all? It doesn’t make any sense even translated.”

Jenny frowned at him. “You’re going to be angry with me, Uncle, but I’d say that it makes perfect sense—and fits in with the Sphinx’s other messages quite neatly.”

Stephen frowned. “I thought that cuckoos were the birds that pushed eggs out of other bird’s nests, not mockingbirds.”

Jenny scowled at him. “So the Sphinx made an ornithological error. The sense is the same. Jackals are scavengers. Mockingbirds—or cuckoos—push other birds’ eggs out of the nest and replace them with their own.”

“Mockingbirds,” Stephen added helpfully, “could be said to steal the songs of other birds. They’re fabulous mimics.”

“Right,” Jenny said. “In any case, we have animals that have a reputation for living off the labor of others. It sounds like a warning against someone who would try to benefit from our labors.”

“And this bit about love?” Neville said, daring her to say it.

Stephen interjected, obviously in the hope of keeping Jenny from being too blunt, “Love itself can be very dangerous. More evil has been done for love—whether for a country or a religion or another person—than we like to admit. We prefer to think of it as a tender emotion.”

Jenny wasn’t going to be dissuaded.

“Stephen’s right. Love makes a wonderful excuse for not seeing the truth about the motives of a country, a religion… or a woman. Uncle Neville, don’t you see…”

“Enough,” Neville interrupted sharply. “I assure you I have not betrayed our plans to… anyone. If you’re so clever, tell me this. Who do you

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