"That's why none of them could find it!"
Bill's eyes shone astonishingly brightly in the moonlight, his face wearing the smug look of someone who had been waiting for that very question.
He pulled the replica papyrus map from his pocket and spread it across the Land Rover's hood, like a professor about to begin a lesson.
"Everyone assumed the tomb was fixed-a point, a set of coordinates. But they were all wrong. Ankh-Ka's tomb is alive."
Bill took out a quill, dipped it in the ink he carried with him, and began rapidly sketching in the blank space beside the map.
"In ancient Egyptian astrology, the Big Dipper wasn't called the Big Dipper. It was regarded as a leg belonging to Seth, the god of darkness and storms."
His quill danced across the paper, sketching a vague human outline in just a few strokes, with those seven stars forming one incomplete thigh.
"Legend has it that Seth coveted the light. He lost the battle for kingship against Horus, and it cost him a leg. The gods hurled that leg into the sky, where it revolved around the north celestial pole forever, becoming a ruler for measuring the night."
Bill stopped writing and tapped the star-formed "thigh" with the shaft of his quill, like a craftsman showing off his latest invention.
"It points in different directions in different seasons and at different times of night. It isn't a landmark, Doug. It's a clock-a gigantic divine clock that tells the time and the season!"
Douglas looked at the drawing and understood at once.
"So the entrance to the tomb moves with the positions of the stars."
"Exactly!"
Bill waved a hand excitedly.
"And it isn't just the key to the entrance that moves, but the entrance itself! Look at these dunes.