Moffitt

Hamunaptra? Was she crazy? Hamunaptra was a myth, a legend, like the Seven Cities of Cibola. It did not exist. I was ignoring the very solid proof that we were someplace that had once been important to which neither my father nor I had been before. What she uncovered was indeed a statue of Anubis, much weathered, but in tact.

I looked over at Sam to see what he was making of the woman. She wasn't an Arab, but she could certainly be German. My eyes traveled back into the oval face framed by hair so black it shone blue in the sunlight. Her pale skin showed no signs of sun exposure, which I found odd given her familiarity with archeology She looked up at me, worry lines creasing her forehead. So, she knew the legends.

"Hamunaptra is a legend," I assured her.

She rose to her feet in one graceful, almost feline move. Those remarkably green eyes focused on me for a moment, then traveled over our surroundings, including the nearby cliffs as though seeking something. Looking back out over the ruined wall, she seemed to spot what she was looking for. I couldn't help following her gaze. A line of black on the horizon moving toward us - tribesmen.

"Troy!" I called his attention to the line. We moved almost as one to the vehicles. Individual guns might not make an impression on a massed opponent. The .30s on the Jeeps would. We were in the seats and starting the engines before we realized she was not with us.

Cheri walked toward the wall, stepped over and sat down, waiting. There was tension in her slim body. What was she expecting? We moved the Jeeps forward to the open space between the tents and the wall, skirting the sand she'd disturbed with her digging. The line approaching resolved into black robed men on horses. They stopped about a quarter of a mile out. One continued in, a large man seated at ease on a tall deep brown horse. As the rider neared, I could make out black markings on his cheeks and forehead, as well as dark curling hair escaping from his headdress.

She called out a greeting. It sang on the breeze and snapped the man's head to face her. He walked his horse up to where she sat, ignoring us and answered her. At first I thought she spoke to him in some dialect of Arabic just outside my understanding, but I was wrong. The fluid syllables sounded more like what my father had taught me when reading demotic script or hieroglyphs.

I motioned for Hitch to cut the engine. I strained to follow their conversation, for it was indeed Egyptian. I felt as though thousands of years fell away as they talked. They spoke of the Creature, of Hamunaptra and the Hom-Dei as though they were real. He was surprised by her knowledge even as she presented him with what sounded like a pass code. Something about "I come from the East seeking ...".

"What?" Troy demanded of me, unusually monosyllabic for him.

"They are discussing this place. He also refers to it as Hamunaptra. There was something about a Creature and a word I don't know. Hom-Dei."

"Well, they're coming over." Standing in his seat, Troy settled himself against the windscreen, balanced to act if needed.

The man on the horse was cast in a noble mold. The tattoos on his face looked like demotic script, but were undecipherable. Perhaps the symbols had changed with time.

"Sgt. Troy. Gentlemen," she included the rest of us. "This is Ardeth Bey of the Tribes of the Medjai. He and his people are guardians of this place. He would appreciate it if we would vacate the area while they take care of … the rest of this temporary encampment."

"It would be best," Bey's heavily accented English assured us. "While the curse has been … broken, this is not a good place to be. Too many deaths, too many memories."

"Any idea why these men were camped here?" Troy asked.

"Rumors of gold," Bey answered. "The city of the dead holds much that mortals want. Only the curse kept the grave robbers out of the area. And us." There was no feeling of duplicity to the man as he sat at ease before us. He was tense, but we were not the cause. There was a breeze and slight speckling of sand against my face. Bey's tension grew, but not greatly. "There is no love for the German's among my people. Nor for the Allies, although we have ties of friendship with some English. I wish only to see you leave. What is here is for the past. Keep the Germans away and we will deal with this scum." He nodded toward the tents and the dead.

"Why should I trust you?" Troy asked.

I almost opened my mouth to answer him, but decided against it. Troy's judgment was excellent in most cases. I would trust it now.

"Me? No reason. She speaks for you. She knows us, although I do not know how. Until she betrays us, I will trust her." Unspoken that his trust of us hinged on her.

"Thanks," Cheri shot back wryly before looking at Troy. "What treasure lies here is beyond the technology we can bring to bear to dig it up. And there are other dangers, however much you would wish to discount them. Your war is out there." She pointed back the way the Medjai had come. "You want this when the war is over, come back with a crew that understands how not to use bulldozers to find china cups."

There was a certain appeal to what she said. I looked to Troy. A nod. Hitch started our engine. Tully, seated in the back for once, instead of leaning on the gun, nodded also. Troy led the way out, past Bey, then through the opening the black clad horsemen provided. There was something honorable about these men, even if they were Arabs. I found myself praying that the Germans never caught these people.

Troy suddenly circled back to the woman. With a wry grin, she stepped into the passenger seat. She waved at the Medjai as our leader drove away, giving me too much to think about.

Ardeth

Word came to us that there was activity at Hamunaptra. At first the news struck a chill in my heart. Then my head reminded me that if the Creature was still alive in any sense, he was at Ahm Shere, not here. Still, with a foreign war raging across our land, it was wise to check on the report. So far, the European war had not caught up to my people. I hoped it had not chosen now to do so. With the son of my English friends visiting us, I would not have his "vacation" disturbed by someone else's war. Given his family's ability to find trouble, I was uneasy enough about his presence without an incursion at Hamunaptra.

Fifty of my men rode out with me. Our standard arms lay against our sides, blades honed sharp to take the heads of our foes. We also carried newer weapons, rifles provided by my friends in England, smuggled to us via the museum in Cairo. I found it amusing that the weapons came into Egypt tucked safely away in a sarcophagus being "returned" by the British Museum. My friend's wife is a wise and devious woman.

There was little activity at the city. Given the Europeans, I expected more. As we approached, one figure took a seat on the wall while others drove two small vehicles into the opening between the tents and the same wall. I could see the guns mounted on the vehicles and motioned for my men to wait. I would investigate the intruders, see if there was a peaceful solution to their presence.

As I approached, I could see the four men on the Jeeps were concerned about our presence. But it was the woman seated on the wall that called to me in a common language that was not Arabic. Like Anck Su Namun, she was slender of build, dark hair crowning her head, her skin silken pale. Eyes the color of Irish grass met my gaze, unwavering and calm. It was a struggle not to pull my rifle and shoot her. Yet there was something more like Evie O'Connell in her look. She smiled and addressed me again, asking if this was truly the city she had heard tales about.

I answered and she asked more questions, about the Creature and the Hom-Dei, having doubted that such things could truly occur. There was only one source for this information. O'Connell. "You know O'Connell?" I challenged her.

"Uhm – that's difficult to answer. If you called him and asked if he knows me, he'd say no. But I know him."

There was an earnest tone to her voice that made me think she told the truth. She then introduced me to the soldiers. Three Americans and a British Sgt. working together. I am not that familiar with Americans, although O'Connell was born one. I know warriors, and each of these was.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" Their names would mean nothing to me, but the answer to why they were in the city would give me the information I needed.

"I'm Cheri Yuconovich. They were captured by the Arabs here, detained for the nearest German force, I think. I … um … showed up and changed the odds."

She made a face I recognized as she spoke. Only part of the answer had been voiced. Yet there was no hint of threat here. How she arrived was not relevant to what she had done. I could smell death and see where the bodies were laid out to be dealt with in the European fashion.

I turned to the men who sat or stood at the ready, regarding me with measuring eyes. She introduced them swiftly. Their leader asked me why the Germans and Arabs would be in the ancient city of the dead. My answer was judged satisfactory, allowing them to decide to leave me and my men to deal with the bodies. They started to pull out, leaving the woman standing near me. Her eyes sparkled with silent laughter as Troy returned for her, curtly ordering her into the vehicle.

I caught the American woman's eyes as she climbed into the Jeep and knew we would meet again. She knew the answer that my friend O'Connell tried so hard to ignore. She walked the sands of time itself, although I did not understand how I knew this about her. Allah in his wisdom and the ancient gods were not inclined to do more than give hints to mortals.

My men rode in as the Allied warriors drove out. I watched them until the last speck disappeared across the horizon, wondering whether we would meet again. Then I joined my men in disposing of the tents and horses, leaving the bodies to the covering of sand. The Creature was no longer at Hamunaptra, so we did not fear to leave him henchmen to recall to this world. As we reburied the statue of Anubis, a light breeze sprinkled sand over us. Some of my men made the sign of the evil eye, warding off the workings of the Creature that lay beneath those sands for so long.

As we left, I worried that this would bring us hardship, that somehow the Creature would use this to his advantage. Some of those in the city thought to use the Europeans and the Americans against each other. It was much in my thoughts that to stay out of the conflict was wiser than to become involved. Once before we played the game for Europe and in the end destroyed the Englishman who would have given us our place in the world of peace that ensued. Then the Medjai had sent men to fight with Faisal. This time, we would not be moved to enter into the fight for our lands until it came to us. Though we might defend what lay beneath our sands.

We returned to our encampment to watch and wait. We had contacts in the nearest towns and in Cairo. I would know more of this small patrol and the woman with them.