Final Season

By John Porter

As the Western World was reaching out to investigate the remains of long-dead civilisations, the increasing speed of technological advances - the motor car, the telegraph and photography - seemed to push out all the Mumbo-Jumbo of the native peoples from whose lands ancient artefacts were exhumed and taken back to New York, London, and Paris. No-one seriously believed that the past was anything other than a series of tomb murals, partly decayed fabrics, old bones, and, if they were fortunate, perhaps some golden treasures to provide a little profit for all the archaeologists' hard work. But words have a way of hanging in the air, waiting sometimes for millennia before being acted upon.Protective incantations spoken long ago were meant to be eternal by those who expected immortality. Dismissing such enchantments is a dangerous pastime, and disturbing the remains of those who cast them is foolhardy in the extreme... This new take on the tale of the 'Mummy's Curse' is one in a series of ten short stories by the same author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Porter
• Release date: Jan 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465848819

John Porter

John Porter was born in Massachusetts and he started climbing at the age of twelve, serving his apprenticeship in the White Mountains, Rockies, Cascades and Yosemite. He moved to the UK in the early 1970s to do postgraduate work at Leeds University where he joined a team of climbers dedicated to clean ethics, alpine-style and the fostering of international partnerships. Ascents of the North Face of Koh-i-Bandaka (1977) and the south face of Changabang (1978) with Alex MacIntyre and Polish friends were achieved in the middle of the cold war. Other climbs include lightweight attempts of the west ridge of Everest in winter, the north-west ridge of K2, the east face of Sepu Kangri, first ascents of Chong Kundam I and V in the Eastern Karakoram, and many other notable climbs around the world over a period of fifty-five years. In 1980 he founded the Kendal Mountain Festival with Brian Hall and Jim Curran, and in 2011 he and Brian founded the online adventure film website SteepEdge. John lives in the Cumbrian Lake District working as a consultant in the energy sector. He is a vice president of the Alpine Club and has previously been a vice president of the British Mountaineering Council and secretary to the Mountain Heritage Trust.

Book preview

Final Season

By

John Porter

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(One short story in a series of ten by the same author)

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SMASHWORDS EDITION

Published by

John Porter at Smashwords

Final Season

Copyright © 2012 John Porter

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

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Introduction

At a time when the world Western World was reaching out to investigate the remains of long dead civilisations, the increasing speed of technological advances seemed to push out all the Mumbo-Jumbo of the native peoples from whose lands ancient artefacts were exhumed and carried back to New York, London, and Paris.

No-one seriously believed that the past was anything other than a series of tomb murals, partly decayed fabrics, old bones, and, if they were fortunate, perhaps some golden treasures to provide a little profit for all the archaeologists’ hard work.

But words have a way of hanging in the air, waiting sometimes for millennia before being acted upon. Protective incantations spoken long ago were made to be eternal by those who expected immortality.

Dismissing such enchantments is a dangerous pastime, and disturbing the remains of those who cast them is foolhardy in the extreme...

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Final Season

As he grasped his daughter’s supporting arm and stumbled towards the rope bridge, Lord Cardiff mused over the season’s victories and calamities.

The decade had been a fine one for him personally, and for Egyptian archaeology in general, but the personal cost to the families he had employed was horrendous. He too had been personally touched by tragedy when several of his own staff to whom he had grown quite close had perished in a number of freak accidents. Indeed he had almost lost his own life, and that of his beautiful daughter Lady Carolyn Cuthbert.

They were headed towards their supply camp on the other side of the rope bridge over the deep wadi, where they hoped to be able to drive the ex-army truck over the stony track to the Nile and cross the river on a native ferry-boat. From there they would travel to Luxor and await the arrival of his chief of staff, Jeremy Wheeler, who would accompany them on their trip back to England.

Cardiff and his daughter were looking forward to their return to the family estate at Upmist Castle in Surrey, and taking a well-earned rest from the rigours of the hot desert and the nightmarish events that had closed off the season’s otherwise successful dig. He hoped that it would be no more than two or three days before Wheeler joined them, but if he took longer, there was enough to occupy his pretty young daughter in Luxor for a week or so. Souvenir hunting through the bazaars would take her mind off what she had been through over the past few weeks.

His own keepsakes were already tucked into his pockets and portmanteau – the rest could await their return to the site