In the time loop. Secrets of past lives 2

As we moved through the galleries and halls, the light grew fainter and fainter until we were almost in total darkness. Here the priest took my hand and said reverently, “We have come to the sanctuary of our goddess Isis. Here you will receive a revelation, a Secret of Secrets, you will be left alone in total darkness. Staying awake half the night, you will spend in meditation and prepare yourself for the terrible moment when the sacred Veils will fall on you.” And after these words, the priest solemnly ascended the steps to the gallery.

“Oh, oh,” I watched him go, “how you scared me, A Mystery of Secrets, a terrible moment. Don’t think I’m a fool. I know very well what a terrible ordeal this is.”

Yes, I do not dispute that a woman specially trained to seduce a man is still a test for a man. The initiate will stand, he has passed the initiation completely, but he will not stand and… here is the question, what will they do to him for the physical possession of the priestess? Moses couldn’t resist, and I think he even enjoyed it. Hence the myth that Moses seduced either the Pharaoh’s daughter or the daughter of a priest, for which he was expelled from the temple. In retaliation, he raised his people to revolt, and very successfully, and even captured a gesheft in the form of an Ark. But with Christ, history is silent. But there is no doubt that he was here, in these labyrinths. I know that a woman should be here right now. Beautiful as a dream itself, the ideal of beauty for the man under test. And it was not for nothing that they showed me this beauty there in the valley. According to the test conditions, this particular girl should appear.

Chapter 5

I peered hopefully into the darkness. She should appear, I need to make her my ally. And let her help me find my friends, get out of here with me. But will I be able to convince her of this, maybe she is an ardent follower of her cult. It’s going to be a bummer, it’s time for me to appear as a seducer.

While I was thinking this way, I came across a pillar in the dark and leaned against it, waiting. Suddenly, light flickered along the walls, as if a curtain were rising in one corner of the hall, a female figure flashed there and seemed to disappear again. At the sound of light footsteps, my heart began to race. I no longer doubted that this was her, my dream, my ideal of feminine beauty.

As if in clouds of smoke, the girl was slowly approaching. She danced, lasciviously swaying her hips, gracefully waving her arms with ringing bracelets and bells, tapping her heels to the beat of castanets. She was wearing a semi-transparent robe, intercepted by a luxurious belt with tassels on her hips, and she was already dancing so fast that it was almost impossible to see her face. Stopping abruptly, she stood in front of me at a short distance.

Despite the slender figure of the young girl, there was an unfathomable regal beauty about her. Her thin, almost childish arms were covered with bracelets, her black hair was braided into small pigtails, and on her chest hung an amulet — a figurine with a seven-tailed whip in her hands. The amulet of the priestess of Isis.

Softly swaying her hips, she stepped forward a little, holding out her arms to me in inviting movements. She was breathing evenly, and only the blush on her cheeks showed the fire of her body. Her burning gaze slid over my figure with a mysterious expression. There was no question of my calm state either. I was completely restless, and I couldn’t take my eyes off the beauty. Why, I was just devouring her with my eyes. I swear, it was simply impossible to resist such an inviting beauty. I took a step towards her.

The girl stood on tiptoe and touched my face with a swift light kiss. Then she started dancing and fluttering around me again, sometimes leaning back, sometimes throwing her head back. She danced with her eyes half-closed, her limp hands exhausted, her hair flying in all directions. It was as if she were not a strict priestess, but a Bacchante. With her dancing, she conveyed everything — love, sensuality, ardent passion, and promises of incredible happiness. My heart was beating violently and some kind of unfamiliar but powerful feeling was taking over my whole being.

The girl stopped abruptly in front of me again. Her eyes shone with heat and voluptuousness, and a burning flame radiated from her entire body, which aroused. This flame immediately spread to me, I was shaking all over, I stretched out my hands to this creature. She came closer and took off her veil, Strangely, but the belt inexplicably remained on her hips. The girl became more and more beautiful, burned stronger and stronger, her chest heaved more and more often, all this gave her extraordinary brilliance and seduction.

She was of perfect beauty, and of the purest Egyptian type. Shiny, almond-shaped eyes, a thin, elegant nose and puffy lips. It seemed to me that I had never seen a face of such breathtaking demonic beauty. Large, velvet-black eyes with long lashes and an unbearable brilliance stared at me intently. Finally, she stretched out her arms to me, and I felt her hot embrace, my eyes burned into that burning radiance of her eyes. She tore off my tunic, and I was drowning in her bare breasts, everything in me was boiling, all my senses were strained like a string, her hands wandered over my body — and I gave up

Afterwards, with the slightest recollection of those minutes, my composure left me. With extraordinary skill, she made me a slave, aroused me, and she herself flared up in my arms with real passion, I completely lost control of myself, and more and more dissolved into her. And the girl was melting more and more into passionate raptures from my burning kisses and daring hands, and our hearts merged together.

It was only after a while that we began to cool down in our passion. I was the first to come out of a passionate swoon, and I was still weakly recovering, sitting with my head in my hands and swaying to somehow relieve the remnants of tension. Finally, she woke up, already assuming an indifferent look, as if leaving me no hope for the future.

I got up, turned her around and took her head in my hands, carefully examining her face. The obsession abruptly left me. It wasn’t the girl I saw in my visions. The wrong one, damn it! Another. What’s the catch? Why was such a substitution made? I was stunned, but not disappointed. Although the face of this beauty was familiar to me. I’ve definitely met her somewhere. And at the same time, how similar she is to that one, how similar. Very. But it’s not her for sure. Wow, what a strange obsession I experienced when she appeared, how my mind instantly turned off. She’s a genius seductress, no doubt about it.

And then the unexpected happened. The girl put her finger to her lips and showed me that I should be silent, then she quietly took my hand and whispered: “Come on, I’ll take you to your friends and help you get out of here.”

I stood at a loss and did not think clearly, in fact, by that moment I was already completely ready to perform another action again, what she so persistently called me to do with her appearance and body. I didn’t know how to interpret her words, provocation, or miraculous rescue. At this time, the girl had already wrapped herself in her clothes. Without further thought, I obeyed and staggered after her. My fate was now in her hands, and the fate of my friends.

The girl quickened her pace, and we moved silently through the winding dark galleries, dimly lit by lamps on the columns. Suddenly she stopped, and in a broken whisper she said, “Your friend Sergei is here, and the girls in the other half, the women’s half, are being trained to become priestesses of our goddess.”

I almost screamed. Priestesses! What the hell kind of priestesses! They’re sly bastards, these priests drugged them or something. Sergey was lying on the couch with a dejected look, when he saw me, he jumped up, but noticing my sign to be silent, he stopped with his mouth open. I quietly waved my hand, indicating to follow me. We raced through the dark corridors again.

The girl stopped again and signaled us to be careful and stay in place: “Wait here,” she said softly and disappeared behind the curtain.

“Where the hell did you go?” Sergei whispered to me, “I almost lost my mind. There are no girls, you’re not here, and there are these young cherubs with sweet faces all around.”

“We were separated while we were sleeping.” “Did everyone sleep so that they didn’t feel anything? What kind of gas was allowed into the room?” “Maybe.”

A few minutes later, a girl appeared with our girlfriends. Elsa silently threw her arms around Sergei’s neck. Lida stood like a somnambulist. This adventure seemed to have a bad effect on her.

“What’s you name?” I turned to our guide.

“Nuita,” my beauty answered briefly, then paused a little, looked at me questioningly, and mournful folds formed at the corners of her beautiful mouth, “don’t you remember?”

No, I didn’t remember, and this question put me in a bit of a stupor. She handed us the bags of our clothes and motioned for us to follow her. I had no doubt that we would get out of this underground world, and Nuita was helping us. Maybe she’s tired of being here.

Our way lay up the narrow slimy steps. This path seemed endless, but the girl stopped and opened a small door. It was not an entrance, but a small hole, but diving into it, we were pleased to feel the real earth wind blowing.

“Everyone, sit down here,” and Nuita pointed to the cart on wheels.

Then I saw that it was a cart standing on rails. “A miracle of hostile technology,” as our unforgettable Alexei Vitalievich would say. We quickly jumped into this miracle, there was a snap of a spring, it was Nuita who was setting some kind of mechanism in motion, the cart jerked, suddenly took off and rushed down into the darkness.

“That reminds me of something!” Sergei shouted over the screeching and screeching of the wheels on the turns. “A roller coaster?” Elsa shouted.

“No, Indiana Jones. I just don’t want us to jump out into some cliff above a river teeming with crocodiles!”

Really! We sometimes took our breath away on turns. But our transport smoothly drove into the sand and stopped. We found ourselves in a cave, at the exit of which the blue water of the lake could be seen. A real terrestrial lake. After leaving the cave, we discovered that we were on an island.

“What kind of island is this?” I turned to Nuita. “This is Bige Island, and you can see the entrance to the temple of Osiris, but the way there is dangerous, no one comes out.”

“However, the girl speaks Russian well,” Sergei remarked.

“They all spoke Russian to us from the very beginning, didn’t you notice?”

“We are being trained, and each new adept is assigned a guru who speaks his language.”

“And how did you become a priestess of Isis?”

“I don’t know, I’ve been there all my life, as long as I can remember.”

“Why did you decide to help us?”

Nuita didn’t answer that question, just stared into my eyes. I couldn’t stand the look in those eyes. A hot wave of excitement swept through me again. I love her, I want her, I want her by my side all my life.

“How do we get out of here further?” “Let’s look for a boat.” Everyone started to change into their mundane clothes, only Nuita remained in her translucent cape.

“Nuita, put on Lida’s robe.” Don’t tempt the people with your beauty,

I jealously handed her the robe. This is my woman, and as a true male, I don’t want other men to admire Nuita’s body.

My pet fetchy helpers came out of the pockets of my windbreaker. Oh, how glad I was to see them. I immediately felt for an object and took it out. It was the Eye of Ra. Nuita, seeing the amulet, started in fright.

“Where did you get the Eye of Ra?”

“Where did you get the Eye of Ra?”

“Some Arab handed it to me on the streets of Cairo. And what?” “It’s dangerous to keep it with you.” “Why, what is its danger? Doesn’t it protect you from danger?”

“It’s not an amulet, it’s a key.” Nuita repeated Klaus’ words.

“The key? And which door does he open?”

“The door to the past centuries.”

“Nuita, you’re talking in riddles,” Sergey listened attentively to our conversation, “is it possible to get into the past times with this key?”

Nuita looked around fearfully, “We need to hurry before the priests start chasing us. I messed up the mechanism of that cart, and the priests won’t be able to put it back in its original place for a long time. But we’d better leave now.” Meanwhile, I was looking at the steps leading down into the darkness of a small hill next to us. And I quietly started going down there.

“Hey, are you looking for an adventure on your ass again?” Elsa was excited, “aren’t you tired? It’s time to get out of here, before the priests really send a chase after us.”

“Don’t go there,” Nuita sounded worried. “What’s in there?”

“There is the tomb of the Great Osiris, and no one dares to invade it, Isis takes revenge and punishes the brave souls who dared to encroach on the holy of holies, there is a great Mystery. Isis protected the tomb with spells and poisonous gases.”

“There are great mysteries all around, I remember, quite recently, a priest also promised me a Secret from the Mysteries behind the Great Veil. And you came out of there, Nuita. Although I don’t mind such secrecy. I won’t go far there, just take a look.”

“And how is it that the archaeologists have not yet reached this tomb,” Sergei came down with me. The girls stayed at the entrance.

“Maybe it’s true, Isida doesn’t allow it. I remember a group of British disappeared here in the 1920s.”

Chapter 6

Going deep into the pit, we found a door sealed with an ancient seal with the name of Osiris. In the center was a recess, which in shape and size exactly matched our amulet. “So this is the Golden key to the secret door behind the canvas in Papa Carlo’s closet,” Sergei and I joked. I reached out to insert the key into the slot, but Sergey stopped me.

“Don’t, not now at least. We need to leave, in case the priests really are organizing a chase.” “By and large, they shouldn’t. We didn’t pass the tests, they send us back from the labyrinths themselves. But Nuita may well be in danger, and the priests may not forgive her for running away.” And we went back.

“What’s up? What did you find?” Lida whispered impatiently, “we’ve already been through a lot of fear here. Let’s get out of here.” “They found the door with the seal of Osiris.” “Shall we come in?” There was a hellish light in Elsa’s eyes.

“Look, I’ve got a taste for it.”

“But it’s dangerous!” Nuita exclaimed.

“Something tells me, intuition or something, that Klaus didn’t just send us into the mazes,” Sergei reasoned matter — of-factly, “we need to take a chance.”

“Oh, I wasn’t, let’s go.” Something also pushed me to this adventure. “Klaus is a cunning guy, he dragged us to Egypt for a walk under the pyramids for a reason. And he said he’d be waiting for us at a certain place. But there’s no sign of him here.”

And the whole group of us went down and went to the door. I took out the amulet key, and with trembling hands inserted it into the notch. The door opened. No, she just disappeared, disappeared, as if she had never existed. There was a deep silence, as if the world around us had frozen and become numb. The feeling of modern life has disappeared.

“The time is out of joint.” Sergei whispered and added, “Shakespeare. Hamlet.”

Some kind of religious horror seized us, as if the hourglass of Eternity had turned over and carried us into the centuries of history. The walls of the hall were covered with murals and hieroglyphs, symbolic paintings of the procession of souls. Torches burned near the flat ceiling. It was a strange and magnificent sight. The gilded walls of the hall were ablaze with beauty. Red, white, and blue colors carved on the gilt surrounded the figures of people and animals. The walls seemed to be covered with colorful wallpaper, and the freshness of the colors, which had not been lost in time, struck with extraordinary purity and vivacity.

It seemed that Isis was shaking her arms decorated with bird feathers, beetles were beginning to spread their wings and were about to take off, the arks of the gods were moving on skids or floating in the waves of the river, and half-naked rowers were swinging their oars, lotuses were slowly opening their buds. All these frozen movements at the same time were animated in an incomprehensible way.

On both sides, small rooms-niches were cut into the rock, filled with funerary figurines made of enameled clay and bronze. Crossing the hall, we came to a staircase with steep steps leading us down to a gallery also painted with hieroglyphs and figures. At the end of this gallery there is another staircase leading to another room. The interminably long corridors alternated with rooms, and in the middle of them were deep wells, to which we descended by spiral stairs. These wells led us back to rooms and galleries.

“Where are we going, no, well, where are we going? Eh?” muttered Sergei. “Time seems to have disappeared, and there is no end to our journey.”

“I’m already tired, and so are the girls,” Elsa echoed him. Nuita and Lida maintained a doomed silence.

But now we came out into a hall so vast and vast that it seemed there was no end to it. Gigantic columns stretched as far as the eye could see. Between these columns, the great lords of ancient times sat on thrones. Their mummies were perfectly preserved, they looked quite alive. On their heads were golden tiaras, breastplates embroidered with precious stones. Behind the pharaohs stood groups of their subjects, accompanied by animals — cats, birds, crocodiles with bracelets on their paws. Probably all the pharaohs reigning in Egypt of all times were here. But further on, on a high platform, sat absolutely gigantic figures of the gods. The strange vision that I experienced as a child came back to my memory. A huge cave with giants in the city of the sons of Enoch in the mountains of the Levant, where I was initiated into the secret of the blue blood dynasties, coming from Cain, the son of Eve and Lucifer.

“Who’s that?” I whispered. Something unusual, incredible power emanated from these statues, “some unknown gods, or kings?” And then, as if hearing my words, one of the gigantic statues seemed to come to life. Lifting her heavy eyelids, she fixed her gaze on us.

“Who are you, and what business are you here for? From which country?” The voice of this elder suddenly thundered. Everyone froze in fright.

“We… we…,” I mumbled, “we’re from a new world, I didn’t know what to say next, “from the 21st century of modern times.”

“New times?! New Times… You who have forgotten how to preserve your flesh, you whose bodies are only a handful of dust, have come here. Look, you see before you the pharaohs who reigned many centuries ago, you see before you the kings who have reigned on earth since before the flood, since the time of Adam, his son Cain, who built the city of Baalata with a temple in honor of his son Enoch, known to you as Baalbek. And there, in the depths of the Lebanese Mountains, there are 72 kings with their seventy-two peoples who reigned on earth even before Adam. So what’s your purpose in coming here? Do you need the treasures so desired in your world? Do you also want to take the Casket of Power, which you call the Ark? Or do you need the same Staff or Wand?”

I’m emboldened, the main thing is not to give in to fear, they don’t like it. “I need the Elixir of Life!” I suddenly blurted out. But what the hell do I need it for? How did my tongue twitch? But the words are like a sparrow, yes, they flew out of my mouth.

“Ha ha ha! He’s an impudent bastard,” the patriarch drawled, “really, and why do you need him, and how did your tongue twitch?” There was sarcasm in his words. He clearly read my mind. “You had it in your hands twice, but you didn’t use it for yourself. With this tool, you saved the lives of nine people. And now you’ve been given a third chance, and once again you’ll value your friend’s life more than yours.” The giant paused, lost in thought. “Okay, you’ll get what you ask for.” As if waking up, the elder continued. “So use it wisely this time, and remember… one drop saves a life, three drops give power. Go back, you’ll find him there.” An hourglass appeared in his hands, and he turned it over and slammed it down next to him on the arm of his throne.

Relieved, we turned around and walked along the rows of pharaohs, and it seemed that grins were playing on their faces. Did we lose our way, or were we deliberately led through other corridors, but suddenly we found ourselves in a huge funeral hall. A gigantic sarcophagus stood majestically in the middle of the hall, its walls were covered with drawings of fine knitting, as if in openwork rings. My imagination refused to understand how those ancient people could carve such filigree drawings on basalt. It’s impossible to do this with iron tools, and back then they only knew bronze.

On the four sides of the sarcophagus were finely crafted vases with the heads of Egyptian gods. I could only recognize Anubis, and that was the end of my knowledge. And in the center, on the lid, stood a golden rook, on which rested the head of Osiris, with a braided beard, and on each side of the outstretched bow of the rook, the eye of the god Ra looked at us. Several large caskets stood on the lid next to the rook. There were statues of women on the right and left of the sarcophagus. One of them clearly depicted Isis.

“If we’re in the tomb of Osiris now, then this is the greatest discovery in archaeology,” Sergei whispered in amazement.

“Don’t even think about reporting or writing about it in public. Say thank you if they let us get out of here alive,” I said.

A rustle distracted us from our contemplation of the tomb. A young man stood by the wall with a niche, bowing his head in a pose of deep reverence. He was wearing a kind of skirt, wrapped tightly several times around his hips with many folds, tied at the waist with a leather belt with gold plates, and his naked torso was shiny and smooth, as if carved by a skilled craftsman. “That’s a man,” Elsa drawled admiringly, and catching herself, she glanced guiltily in the direction of her husband.

The young man said something, and bending almost to the ground, handed over a small chest inlaid with enamel and gold plates. We exchanged glances, I shrugged my shoulders and approached the young man. He knelt down and placed the chest on the floor in front of me… and was gone. “Have you all been taught this trick, like disappearing into thin air?” I asked Nuita a question.

She didn’t answer, her gaze was fixed on the box.

“Well, let’s see what’s in there?” I opened the lid. In the chest, on a satin pillow, there was a small bottle carved from ivory, all covered with an openwork pattern with a hair-thin gold wire, and a cord was tied to the sealed neck. Something far away stirred in my memory again and immediately melted away.

“And remember… one drop will save your life, three drops will give you power,” the giant’s words seemed to echo in my ears as I hung this bottle around my neck, hiding it under my shirt.

“What’s that? The elixir? Why do you need it?” Lida asked with undisguised interest in her voice.

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe Klaus needs him, and that’s why he sent us into this wilderness.” Sergey suggested thoughtfully.

“Maybe, maybe…” I put the chest on the table next to it. “Where should we go now? Unclear.”

As if in answer to my question, a wrought-iron gate appeared in the place where the young Egyptian appeared and then mysteriously disappeared. Beyond it was a garden. We entered, and the path led us into a lavishly furnished pavilion that looked more like a room. In the middle of the room was a round table and chairs made of gilded wood. And to the side there are several sofas with lots of pillows. There were large vases of fine workmanship in the form of figures of girls. There were fresh flowers in all the vases. Everyone was immediately overwhelmed by a feeling of incredible fatigue from their walk, which lasted for an unknown amount of time. We definitely lost track of time, and everyone just collapsed on these sofas, no longer thinking about any danger. Everyone really wanted to rest and get some sleep.