3 Stolen!

Chapter Three STOLEN! Bek's home was larger than the ones along the riverbank. Its flat roof had a canopy, making a shady area to sit. Gustavo knew that the family would sleep up there on hot nights. "It seems to be built of bricks," Kiki whispered, sounding surprised. "And the windows are tiny!"

"They're not like our bricks," Gustavo whispered back. "They're made of mud and straw. And the windows are small and high up, to keep out the heat and dust." Bek led them up to the house. Three men hurried past, carrying armfuls of white linen. "They work for my grandfather," Bek explained. "He's a mummifier." Gustavo felt a thrill of excitement. He knew the ancient Egyptians mummified the dead to preserve their bodies, because they believed they would need them in the afterlife.

"My grandfather was in charge of mummifying Pharaoh Khufu's body," said Bek. "See the biggest pyramid? Khufu's mummy is buried in there." Kiki nudged Gustavo. "The people from the museum spoke about Khufu," she whispered. "Maybe we're about to find out how to complete our mission!" They followed Bek up a ramp, through the front door, and into a large room. There were shelves piled with scrolls. Blocks of ink stood on a table beside a stack of brushes. "These are our writing materials," Bek explained, as they all put down their bags.

Kiki picked up some round objects. "What are these?" She sniffed them. "Mmm, they smell like cinnamon." "They're incense pellets," said Bek. "I like to burn them while I practice writing. The scent helps me concentrate. Here, take a couple." "Thanks!" Kiki tucked two incense pellets into her belt. "I'll use these when I'm building things." Just then Gustavo's eye was caught by a sheet of papyrus on another table. On it were drawings of a frog and a bird. "Those are hieroglyphs, aren't they, Bek?" he said. "Egyptian writing?" Bek was stacking scrolls in a basket woven from rushes. He glanced around.

"That's right. They look like pictures, but most of them stand for a sound. Don't you have hieroglyphs in Discoveria?" "Where?" said Kiki. Gustavo nudged her. "Oh, right, Discoveria," she said. "No, we write with joined-up letters." "So do I, in school," said Bek. "That's called hieratic writing, and it's quicker than

writing in hieroglyphs." He sighed. "But I really want to train to be a scribe, and write perfect hieroglyphs." He pulled a sheet of papyrus from a box under the table. "I'm learning, though. Look." The papyrus was completely covered with Bek's attempts at hieroglyphs. Most were smudged, but Gustavo could make out birds, snakes, feathers, and a lot of legs. "I want to write as well as this," Bek said, taking a scroll from the back of a shelf. He unrolled it and Gustavo and Kiki leaned in to look. The scroll was covered in very neat, black and red hieroglyphs. There was a drawing of a pyramid at the top, then rows of hieroglyphs beneath. Gustavo recognized a leg, a hippo, and what looked like a pair of doorways. "What does it say?" asked Kiki.