He ducked as a bullet whistled against the sand beside his head. There were two of them and they had him pinned down. A break came in the rain of bullets and he rolled up, bringing his guns to bear and sent a hail of his own bullets their way… but they were sheltering… sheltering behind the bodies of their horses. Rick shook his head. It was a god-awful thing to do.
The whine of a bullet ricocheted past his ear off the side off a piece of stone that had become uncovered by his constant sliding on the side of the dune, he tried to drop back down the curve of sand, but a second whine came out of the sun and a bolt of searing heat bounced along the top of his shoulder. He threw himself down, breathing hard and tried to resist the temptation to count the stars that had suddenly exploded in his head. Dear god it hurt!
With his head so close to the sand the first thing he heard was the thunderous sound of hoof beats. He closed his eyes and groaned. There was no way they were going to be able to fend of a second set of attackers – with so few in the camp anyway they were hardly holding off the first. Breathing hard, he tried to raise his head, to ignore that his shoulder felt as though someone had taken a hatchet to it…
"Ya-llaaaaah!"
No sound had ever been sweeter to Rick in that moment than the sound of enraged Medjai flying into the fray. It gave him the strength to roll to his stomach and peep his head up over the top of the dune in time to see the two men that had previously had him pinned into place running in panic from a black robed giant of a man, atop a powerful Arabian stallion. He saw a flash of silver as a scimitar glinted in the sunlight as it was drawn from its sheath. It momentarily dazzled him, and when he looked again, the running men had separated. He snatched up one of his weapons from where they had somehow fallen to the sand. Aiming quickly, he squeezed the trigger and the man felt to the ground just as his partner in crime screamed. Rick turned his head in time to see the man go down in a spray of red as the scimitar sliced through him like butter. Breathing harder still with the extra pain the recoil had caused his injured shoulder, he fell back against the sand and slid lower down the dune.
The Arabian slowed, before leaping away again, and a black shape lowered to his side. He looked up as Ardeth pulled down the veil that was covering his face, his expression a picture of concern.
"Decided you wanted in on the action, huh?" he gasped, as the Medjai's eyes travelled over his body. He held out his uninjured arm toward his friend. "Gimme a hand up would ya?"
"O'Connell, are you all right?" Ardeth asked, his deep voice full of concern. He clasped Rick's outstretched hand and braced him as he climbed to his feet.
"Just a little kiss, I'll be all right," he answered looking over at his shoulder. Trying to ignore the blood, he picked up his guns. He put one back into the holster, the other one he kept in his hand.
"I cannot leave you alone for a moment before you get into trouble, putting your nose in where it should not go." Ardeth said lightly.
"Believe me buddy, I would have been quite happy to leave this one well alone, but you know Evie," Rick shrugged, forgetting his injured shoulder until it bellowed in pain and threw more stars to cloud his vision. He felt Ardeth catch and steady him.
"Where is Evelyn?" he asked.
"Don't worry." Rick nodded that it was all right for Ardeth to let go. "She's safe."
**
Evelyn yelped in surprise as one of the attackers decided that her sheltered spot would be an excellent place for him to hide and pick off his opposition one at a time.
"Oh no you don't," she murmured under her breath, though not quietly enough because he turned and gave her a most unsavoury grin. She wiped it off his face with a solid right hook.
She shook her hand, she'd hit him so hard it had hurt her knuckles. It hadn't pushed him back much but at least he had dropped his gun. It didn't do much to put him off however, in fact seemed to make him all the more determined to get to her. As soon as he could get his head back on an even keel, he started toward her again.
He reached out for her, grabbed her by the shoulders and started speaking rapidly and in Arabic. Ancient Egyptian she could manage, Hieratic also presented no problem whatsoever, but Arabic had somehow escaped her, all but a few selected phrases.
Feeling his hands on her made her feel almost physically sick, and his personal hygiene left a lot to be desire. As one of his hands slipped in a deliberate caress she balled her fist and brought in down hard into the centre of his gut. "Ana la," as he doubled over and she joined both fist together and brought them up under his chin, "afham!"
He staggered backward and for a second only lay stunned against the fallen pillar, before black clad arms closed around his and pinned him in place. Evie looked up, startled and then alarmed at the look of outrage she saw in Tarek's eyes and by the long knife he held against the man's exposed throat.
"I think you understood perfectly, my Lady," he said and even as she opened her mouth to try and stop him, he pulled back on the knife and released the man, who felt lifeless to the sand.
"Tarek…" she said utterly shocked, perhaps it was the sun that was getting to her, or the left over smell of the now dead man who had attacked her, but she was starting to feel a little light headed.
"He touched you." Tarek said almost angrily. "It is our way!"
"Well it isn't my way!" Evie didn't know why she was so angry… what was the difference between shooting a man, as she had been doing since the beginning of the fight and taking his life with a blade? She moved back away from the creeping red stain on the sand.
"Forgive my, my Lady but my duty is clear." Tarek answered. He met her angry gaze with a steady expression. "Come… Let me take you to safety."
Evie started to argue but a stray shot hit the pillar close by and showered her with shards of stone. Her gun was empty, she had no more ammunition… she had to take care of herself. Wordlessly, she nodded.
**
A blazing battle was always the perfect cover for sneaking into somewhere you were not supposed to be. But Anck-Su-Namun was not the kind to sneak. She walked… boldly… her steps conveyed a sense of ownership.
Her boldness made Anton feel nervous, a nervousness heightened by the battle around him and the sudden appearance of his black robed nemeses.
"This is insane!" he breathed urgently.
"Exhilarating," Anck-Su-Namun corrected him, and curled her fingernails into his shoulder. "Don't worry, my little friend, they'll keep them busy until we're done here." She exaggerated her concern and sneered, "I'll keep the big nasty Medjai away – don't you fret."
Anton slapped her hand away and she laughed as she entered the shrine. He followed her moments later, jostled by the two men whom she had awed into obeying her every command.
Almost immediately he set his eyes on the armour and he felt a flush of admiration for its beauty, but did not underestimate the danger it presented to any man touching his hand to the cruel power of the ancient artefacts.
In front of him, Anck-Su-Namun ran her fingers lovingly over the gold, obsidian encrusted breast plate, and picked up the sword, swinging it through a circle. It was impossible not to feel the power humming through the chamber as she touched the blade.
"You feel him, don't you Anton?" she purred. "Do you know what it feels like for a woman?" She closed her yes and for a moment her head fell back and her face showed a picture of rapture.
The man he controlled,
a weak willed, terrified little foreigner, a man trying to be bigger than he
was, crept in through the door of the shrine and for the first time with eyes
that properly saw, he beheld the cruel beauty that had so intoxicated him – to
his ultimate downfall.
"Anck-Su-Namun," he
murmured. It sounded strange coming from
the mouth of his puppet.
She turned as the
newcomer entered and spoke her name, fixed the pale skinned man with a look of
mixed threat and confusion and stalked toward him with her arm outstretched,
holding the sword in front of her. Something in her expression told him she had heard more than just a
stranger call to her.
"You are not welcome
here…" she hissed and laid the sword on the shoulder of the man. His puppet screamed, but he heard the voice
of the blade – the angry hiss that penetrated through to his ethereal mind in
an agonising intrusion.
"Asar Saa… this is MY
time… I will prevail!"
Horrified, he watched as Anck-Su-Namun pulled back the blade and almost effortlessly drove it into the heart of the man before her. The puppet cried out in disbelief, as too did he. Without a vessel, the energies of the shrine expelled the spirit of the Osirian High Priest to scream in impotent rage and hover outside, over the rapidly escalating battle.
"Are you insane!" Anton trembled as the enraptured look passed onto Anck-Su-Namun's face again as she pulled the blade free. He backed up as she turned toward him.
"Do not presume to know my mind, little man!" she hissed. "Suti will come and all will be well… and if you get in the way…" she left the threat hanging and turned to the two others with them.
"I don't intend…" he started, but realised that she had already dismissed him.
"Pick it up… and bring me the pendant!" She snapped. They rushed to obey, already terrified by the display they had just witnessed.
**
"Meiri, stop pacing and come to sit down." Rashid caught her gently by the arm as she walked back and forth over the same ground. She looked down at the groove she was making in the sandy desert floor and then up into his concerned face.
"I can't help it, Rashid," she said quietly. "I'm worried about him."
"He has taken with him ten of the finest warriors among the whole of the twelve tribes," he answered. "Nothing will happen to him. Now come and sit down." He tugged on her arm to draw her closer to where the horses rested, and where his injured companion leaned against one of the saddle bags that Rashid had taken down to provide him with support.
"Are you Medjai always this bossy?" she frowned in irritation, pulled her arm from his gentle grasp and turned to face the way the Ardeth had ridden, hoping to see him come riding back as he had promised.
Rashid chuckled and said playfully, "Bossy? I am only thinking of your welfare."
She sighed and finally came with him to sit down. She sat for a long time thinking of Ardeth… thinking of what it must be like for the women of the Medjai to live with the constant uncertainty of whether their husbands and brothers would return to them safely. It made her wonder more about the way the Medjai lived. Eventually she asked, "What is it like?"
"What is what like?" Rashid asked.
"Your home."
"Home is home," he said and sounded confused.
"Yes of course," she said, "but living out in the desert… it must be hard."
"It is relative, Meiri, to what you are used to. It is all I have known. All any of us have known so it is usual for us."
"Tell me about it," she reached over and squeezed his hand. "Please."
"You think it will help you to understand Ardeth." Rashid took his hand from hers.
"Did I do something wrong?" she asked, indicating his hand.
"Not wrong exactly," he explained. "Open and public displays of affection between a man and a woman are not usual among the Medjai."
She started to laugh and then realised he was serious. "But we're not in public."
"Are we not?" He glanced over at Bursuq. She followed his eyes and then looked back to him.
"Oh come on Rashid," her tone was incredulous, "He's one person, and one of your brother's in arms at that, not a crowd."
"To the Medjai it makes no difference." Rashid explained patiently, "If you are not alone, then you are in public and if you are in public you display restraint."
"Even in front of your family?" Meiri frowned, wondering how many other customs she might have accidentally have broken since she had been with the Medjai.
"Less so, but yes." Rashid sighed, "Meiri, what is your real question? If you are asking me to explain why Ardeth will not act on the way he feels, I have told you that already. He is his duty… first and foremost a Medjai warrior. What you really need to do to guard against becoming hurt is to understand your own feelings of love for him."
"Who said anything about love?" Meiri snapped, his words penetrating to her heart, not words she wanted to hear.
"You did," Rashid told her, "And you do, with every breath you take when he is near. The way you speak; the way you behave; the tears in your eyes now when you fear he does not…"
"He said something to me before he left," she interrupted, not wanting to hear the words, does not love you in the same sentence. "What did it mean?"
"I did not hear," Rashid said quickly… too quickly.
"What rot!" she threw the words at him. "You people hear his every word, even if he hardly speaks louder than a whisper. What did he say, Rashid? Please… I need to know."
He looked at her for a very long time, until she became uncomfortable. She could almost see his internal debate. If Ardeth had wanted her to know he would have spoken the words in English… but then again, if he did not, he would not have spoken them at all. At last he sighed.
"He called you his salvation." He looked down at the sand between his feet. "And named you the angel of his heart."
For a moment, Meirionnydd could not breathe. Her mind reeled and her senses turned inside out and screamed at her for mercy from the agony of separation from the man who so moved her, that she felt somehow incomplete without him. Fresh tears found their way into her eyes. "Then why…?"
Rashid looked up and met her gaze. "I do not know," he said and shook his head.
**
He didn't understand how the battle could still be raging. It seemed to have been going back and forth for far too long with neither side gaining the upper hand. There was something weird going on and suddenly, without any shadow of doubt, Jonathan Carnahan knew that it somehow originated inside the shrine.
Besides, his satchel was in there, with all his extra ammunition for his little gun and he needed that. He was almost out… still he thought, with Ardeth and his bunch here now it won't be much longer.
"You!" The shocked exclamation exploded from his mouth before he could find his way past the sudden paralysis of meeting Anck-Su-Namun in the doorway of the shrine. He tried to raise his gun, realising that's what he should do, but she was stalking towards him and instead he moved away in a circle until his back encountered the wall of the shrine.
"Mister Carnahan," she stepped up close and waved the sword under his nose, like she had the asp before. "So interesting to see that you're still poking around where you shouldn't be."
"Me?" He pressed himself harder against the wall as if he could pass through it to get away from her. "No… you've got the wrong man again, really…" he swallowed, "I'm just here with my brother-in-law. You know what O'Connell's like." He squeaked when she put a hand onto his chest.
"I don't think you're quite telling me the truth, are you Jonathan?" She pouted, and started to unfasten the buttons on his shirt.
"Um… I say… now look here!" Under any normal circumstances, quite the ladies' man, he would have welcomed the thought of a beautiful woman undressing him… but this was not the place, or the time… and she was certainly not the woman. "Now you're a nice girl and all that, but really…"
"I want the necklace, Carnahan." She stood on tiptoes and whispered the words against the side of his face as her fingers found their way inside his shirt, walking slowly toward the charm nestled warmly over the centre of his chest.
"Oh," he said, somewhat with relief, but then something happened. He suddenly felt as though someone had said to him the most offensive thing he had ever heard in his entire life. Anger flooded through him and his hands, once claws against the outer rock wall of the shrine came up to grab her wrists and pull them away from where her fingers just brushed against the obsidian and gold that had been warmed by the heat of his body.
"Mine!"
The word that came from his lips chilled his own blood. It made his throat ache and his head started pounding. Suddenly he wanted to call out for Rick, for Evie… anyone. In front of him, Anck-Su-Namun chuckled and moved back.
"Give it to me," she said in amusement.
Yes, all right, go on… take it… Jonathan desperately tried to raise his hands to the necklace and tried to slip it off over his neck.
"Oh but you can't, can you?" Anck-Su-Namun pressed up against him again, her hands against his naked chest as she leaned up to whisper. "Because you started to let him in didn't you?"
"I… erm…" He hated this. It was the same out of control feeling he'd had in his nightmare. Wanting to run… to get as far away from the woman as he could, but unable to move.
"Well if you won't give it to me…" she quickly snaked out a tongue and ran it over his cheek. "I guess I'll just have to take you with me."
**
Fatigue.
He'd simply never felt so tired as he and Ardeth fought their way over toward where Tarek was fighting to keep Evelyn safe. Another head popped out from behind a dune and Rick let of a couple of shots while Ardeth fended off a closer attacker with the rapid thrusts of his scimitar. There was something wrong… something dreadfully wrong with the way this battle was going. He turned his head to look at Ardeth in time to see the Medjai intercept an incoming swing that wouldn't even have come close to hitting its target even if he hadn't brought the blade up to block it.
"Ardeth…" he started
"I know." The Medjai answered, showing no such reticence when it came to injuring and killing his opponent. "O'Connell, what did you find here?"
"A shrine… a wall full of mixed up hieroglyphics." Rick yelled, letting off another couple of shots as they moved towards his wife.
"No," Ardeth argued, "not enough." He saw him look toward Evie and shake his head. Something in the way he did made him follow the direction of his gaze, she had pulled Tarek's knife from the sheath at his back and fighting side by side with the man. Tarek glanced her way, clearly not pleased. Rick snorted in wry amusement… that was Evie… always in trouble. "What about the chamber beneath? Apart from the statue?"
"Apart from the statue?" Rick wasn't sure he'd heard Ardeth right as they finally got Tarek's side.
"Yes." the Medjai confirmed as the four of them formed up backs together to form a square.
"Armour… and a sword." Rick yelled as a small group of vicious looking men came at them. He fired a shot and dropped the lead one to the ground. "Made of gold and obsidian why?"
Ardeth turned his head and fixed him with a horrified expression. "Did you touch anything?"
"What?" They were forced to seek shelter as the ground at their feet erupted in gunfire, spraying them with sand that stung their eyes.
"Did you touch anything!" Ardeth repeated the question, shouting to be heard.
"Evie!" Jonathan's frantic cry stopped either Rick or Evie from answering Ardeth's. "Rick!" He turned his head, as did the others to see Jonathan, struggling in the arms of two men; being dragged towards a waiting group of horses. His heart skipped as he saw the look that crossed Evie's face at seeing her brother so manhandled.
"Jonathan!" she started to get up, trying to come out from their cover.
Rick grabbed her around the waist and pushed her back against Ardeth who almost automatically caught her arms. "You can't help him if you get your head blown off!"
"He's my brother," she cried.
"We will get him back, Evelyn" Ardeth answered even as he opened his mouth to tell her the same thing.
But Ardeth did more than just that, releasing Evie into his arms he called, "Entaha!" Then to the three others he said, "Stay here!" and before Rick could stop him, he took off, dodging the gunfire toward his horse being led at speed by one of six other Medjai. Tarek and the other four gave covering fire
"Now why in the hell didn't I think of that?"
**
He'd never been happier to see pursuing Medjai streaming out of the camp after them. He let out a little laugh, which seemed to annoy Anck-Su-Namun as she turned a baleful stare his way.
"You think a handful of Medjai are any match for the power of Usert!" she snapped. He watched as she pulled something from the folds of the dress she wore. It was gold. It glinted in the sunlight and made and sound that somehow began to pull at the ache left in the wake of him fighting the intrusion he had felt at the shrine.
He started to feel nauseous, his stomach spinning and pulling his head in its wake. He began to lose awareness of who he was… where he was and the gold and stone against his chest… the necklace he so wished he had never taken burned at his skin in white hot rage.
**
From nowhere, out of a cloudless sky, hail fell to the desert sands that began to shift and boil, like liquid until even the Medjai's well trained horses refused to go on and reared up in fear.
Leaning forward to avoid being thrown, Ardeth tried to peer through the rising sand to watch the progress of the party that had kidnapped Jonathan. He couldn't let them take him. The grains of sand stung his eyes, but he refused to yield to the terrible reality that this time he might be beaten… might not be able to reach the stricken man through the sudden storm of hail and sand.
"Be steady, Maharna." He soothed the stallion, pulling the head around as soon as his forelegs touched down. He tried to get his horse to go forward, into the whirling sand, to take him through, but the animal refused and reared again.
"Anck-Su-Namun!" he called through the chaos. "Harm one hair on his head and I swear you will pray for eternity to end to free you from torment!"
The ride back to the encampment was a slow and melancholy one. He had no idea how he would explain to Evelyn how and why he had failed. He didn't have to. She looked up from where she was tending to Rick's shoulder as the Medjai returned.
"She has him, doesn't she?" she said, quietly. Ardeth closed his eyes and sighed. He opened them again when he felt her hand on his arm. "Ardeth?"
"She has him." he confirmed. "I believe she has somehow taken control of the power of the sistrum that the man she travels with had and uses it for herself. Evelyn… I am sorry."
Evelyn shook her head. "I have to get him back."
"Evie," Rick eased her down onto his lap. Ardeth looked away. "We'll get him back. We'll regroup and go after them."
"I must ask you," he said so quietly that he could hardly hear his voice himself. "Do you still have the bell?" He turned his head and fixed Evelyn with a serious look.
"I still have it." She said.
"Whoa, whoa… bell?" Rick eased her off his lap and drew himself up to his feet.
"The seventh bell from the sistrum of Usert," he said. "It was given to me by the Usertim woman you brought me to and I asked that Evelyn keep it."
Rick's face turned harder than he had ever seen it before as he looked between Evelyn and himself. As he spoke his voice rose, getting more and more irate. "You're telling my you gave my wife an ancient artefact to keep a hold of. Something that has already gotten one woman killed and neither of you saw fit to actually tell me about it!"
"Rick, it…" Evie tried to calm her husband.
"No, Evelyn, not this time," he said angrily, taking her by the shoulders and leaning down right into her face. "How many times in the last few days have I asked you… no told you that we weren't getting involved this time and yet here you are keeping god-dammed secrets and…"
Ardeth stopped him. He planted a tattooed hand firmly in the middle of his friend's chest and pushed him away, moving between his two friends. "If the blame lies in any direction, O'Connell then it is mine. Take your anger out on me if you must, but I will not have you speaking with Evelyn in such a manner."
"You won't have
me…?" Rick pushed his hand away from his chest. "Just who in the hell do you think you are? She's my wife!"
"Stop it, Rick! Ardeth… that's enough!"
"And you are both my close friends. I will not see you hurt each other because of something that I have done." He didn't flinch from saying what he needed to say. "I remind you that it was you brought me to the Usertim woman against everything the Medjai have believed in many thousands of years. In doing so you have begun a chain of event that threatens not only my life, but also the continuing existence of the twelve tribes. Should the Medjai fall then there would be nothing to stand between the power that has been unleashed and the continuation of all that we know of life."
"Oh please," Rick walked away a few paces and turned around again, his mouth open to go on, but he interrupted.
"By my estimate Anton Ferrier has spent perhaps eighteen or nineteen years systematically hunting down seven women to take from them the bells they carried from the Sistrum of the Goddess Usert that was broken into nine parts in the time of Seti the first. It was broken to prevent an unspeakable evil from being born into the world. I don't think you understand…"
"No, I don't think you understand." Rick poked his chest. "You went behind my back and gave the woman I love something that could have put her life at risk."
"Now just a minute!" Evelyn had kept quiet until that moment, but she pushed against Ardeth's chest to ease him away from Rick. "Ardeth asked me to carry it; he didn't just give it to me. I chose not to say anything to you because I knew you'd over react, just like you are now!"
"Over react?" Rick protested. "You're defending this guy!"
"O'Connell," Ardeth started.
"And you!" she rounded on him then. "I asked you once not to fight with Rick any more… I have put up with you ordering me about as if I were one of your men; having your men treat me as though I were some kind of prisoner half the time and their bloody leader or something the next, but I will not put up with the two of you fighting because of something I chose to do."
"Evie," Rick said sheepishly.
"Evelyn," Ardeth said in exactly the same manner at the same time.
"No!" she snapped. "No more! My brother is out there
somewhere in the hands of an evil, self centred, maniacal creature and all you
two can do… two people I love very much and are supposed to be the best of
friends… is fight about something that really is not an issue. My life… my decision and that's an end to
it. I need you two together on this… I
need to get Jonathan back."
**
She was so wrapped up in her newly acquired plaything she didn't notice him slipping further and further behind. It had gone far enough. He had taken enough abuse from the creature he had summoned as a tool… a tool to help him, not take over and control him. There was one more bell and only the girl could lead the way to that.
He would stop Anck-Su-Namun's plans once and for all.
If the Medjai were at the camp by the shrine, that meant the girl would be there too… he knew she was still alive… when the creature had tricked him, had passed on to him the effects of the drugs he had put in her food he had felt her… her life force…
**
"Are you sure you're all right?" Meirionnydd looked up as the woman, Evie, came over toward her with a cup. As she handed it to her she added, "You've been awfully quiet since you've got here."
"Yes I'm fine," she answered, "I'm just rather tired. I didn't sleep very well last night and I expect you know what it's like to ride with the Medjai." She was fishing outrageously, trying to work out just what the other woman's relationship was with Ardeth and the other Medjai.
"If you need to rest I'm sure I could find you somewhere to…"
"Oh no," she interrupted, "No I'm fine. Actually I rather think I need to take a walk to stretch out some of the kinks in my back and legs from riding for so long."
"Perhaps I should call someone to go with you. Just in case." The woman looked at her with wide concerned eyes and Meirionnydd couldn't help liking her. As soon as Evelyn had seen her in fact she had taken her under her wing… whisked her off to her own tent and found her something closer to her size to wear. Closer to her size turned out to be a Bedouin dress that accentuated all of her feminine curves and even with the veils did little to hide her beauty. Evie had even brushed her hair for her, and after days without, it was a luxury, not to mention relaxing.
"Evie really, it's all right. I'll be fine," she stood up and started looking around. Since going with Evie, she'd not seen Ardeth at all, but since Evelyn's husband – Rick, she thought she'd been told he was called – was also missing, she assumed they were together somewhere.
As she walked out along the top of one of the rolling dunes nearby the camp, having promised not to go too far, she started thinking. She smiled – she'd been granted a reprieve… a least for a little while. Evie's brother had been taken captive by Anton and his now not-so-tame creature, and while she was sorry for the man, and for the pain it caused to Evie, at least in meant that she would have a little longer to be near to Ardeth.
Was that selfish? She
sighed, if it were selfish then there was nothing she could do. She could not more help the way she'd come to
feel about that man than she could stop the sun shining down on the
**
"Meirionnydd is resting?" Ardeth saw Evelyn jump as he walked up to her from behind.
"What? On no, she's gone for a walk." She turned around to face him, but he frowned. "She needed to stretch her legs."
"Which way did she go?" he asked urgently.
"Ardeth, she'll be all right. She promised not to go far." He saw her frown in confusion but could do little about that now. With her mind, by the time he got back she would have jumped to all the wrong conclusions… or the right ones.
"Which way did she go?" he repeated, more calmly but his heart was churning inside. "How long has she been gone?"
"Out along to top of the dunes there," she pointed him in the right direction. "And not long… perhaps fifteen minutes."
He nodded and set off quickly in the direction she had pointed out, taking the most direct, though not the easiest route and walking as quickly as he could. Meiri should not be out there alone. Before too long he spotted her, standing looking out into the open desert. He followed her gaze for a moment looking at miles and miles of empty sand.
Something winked off to his left, a flash of light that
caught his attention. He narrowed his
eyes and peered in that direction. For a
time he saw nothing, until the flash came again, and this time watching he was
able to identify just what it was… sunlight glinting off the barrel of a gun.
"Meiri, NO!" he cried out and she turned toward the sound of his urgent voice. He forced his legs to take him in a sprint along the top of the dune toward her. He reached her just as the shot sounded, wrapped his arms around her and used the momentum of his sudden charge to take her from her feet. Cradling her close to his body, covering her head with his veil to keep the sand from her eyes, he let gravity take them and they began to roll to the bottom of the dune, safely out of harms way and beyond the sight of the sniper.
Breathing hard they came to a halt. She was pinned beneath him against the sand, and she was trembling. Slowly he lifted his head from beside hers and pulled the veil away from her eyes. He shook it to dislodge the sand and then carefully wiped what sand there was on her face away from her eyes.
"Ardeth, I'm sorry," she whispered. She sounded terrified and it twisted him all up inside to hear it.
"It's all right." He said his voice barely above a murmur.
"I should have listened to Evie. I shouldn't have come out here alone." The tremor in her voice, as though she was on the edge of tears was his undoing. He moved his hand once more over her cheek, his fingertips this time with no sand to dislodge… just the softness of her skin under his fingers. She looked up at him, right into his eyes, pinning him with the awareness of her… under him… pressed against him… Days of repressed emotions came crowding in on him and slowly he lowered his lips to cover hers.
**
Sensation exploded through the whole of her being at the first warm, soft brush of his lips. The light press of his beard enlivened the skin around her lips, making her more and more aware of the insistent but sweet press of his kiss. She gasped and the press became a caress as he captured her mouth with his, and brushed against her lower lip, tracing its shape with his tongue.
His arm slipped back under her head, pushing his fingers into her hair as she granted his seeking tongue entry into the warm haven of her mouth. She grasped the front of his robes as he mapped the hills and vales of her teeth and toyed with her tongue, enlivening her with the taste of him… spicy and warm as she shared his breath.
She moaned softly as a million feelings gathered within her, drawing her deeper into the need she felt to be one with him… sharing everything.
Suddenly he pulled back, breaking the kiss. For a second he was still… his body tense, and then he turned his head to the side and breathed out a long slow sigh.
"Meiri, forgive me," he breathed on the end of the sigh, and shaking his head, slid his body from hers, moving carefully to his knees, his back to her.
"Ardeth…" she sat up and put her hand on his shoulder. Still feeling the tingling on her lips where his kiss had been, the ache deep inside he had kindled.
His hand covered hers for a moment, but he voiced his denial of her unspoken request. "No," he said. "I am sorry, I…"
He stood and turned to help her to her feet, but would not meet her eyes.
"It was…"
"It was wrong of me." He looked at her then, and his expression was one of almost self loathing, coupled with a deep regret. "I am sorry. I must return you to the others."
By the time they got back to the camp, walking side by side and with the space of an unseen person between them, she couldn't see for the tears in her eyes.
**
There were no excused for that he had done. He burned inside with the shame he felt at the loss of his control… and yet, he had acted only out of a pure feeling. A feeling that had been growing and growing inside in until it consumed almost everything that he was. He could continue to pretend it wasn't true – to save her the heartache of the endless wait for news after a battle – but he could no longer deny it to himself.
He wanted her by his side. He needed her to be with him to make him whole in a way he had never felt before. He felt it when he had kissed her – that his whole world had come together and made sense at last. He knew who he was, and what it meant – he understood all that he had seen thought his thirty three years of life. Nothing mattered except the moment and that he finally accepted that he was in love with her.
But that was the problem. Nothing mattered… not the danger he faced – not the threat to the twelve tribes, and that was why he had to pull away now… why it could not be… but if by some miracle the Elders were wrong and they all survived the coming apocalypse, what then? Could he dare to allow himself the hope that one day he might know that completion and never have it taken from him?
No.
He sighed. It was a beautiful dream… a security against the growing unease and stirrings of fear inside his heart, but it would never be.
He could feel her pain as they walked back together and knew that if he turned to her there would be tears in her eyes. He couldn't stand to see that so he kept his eyes firmly fixed toward the centre of the camp.
Up ahead he could see a man struggling, held between two Medjai. The O'Connells and Rashid close by. So this was the sniper… Anger rushed in to push aside his melancholy. Whatever could or could not be between he and Meiri he had still sworn to protect her and this man had tried to take her life. It would be the last mistake he would ever make.
"Who is he?" he demanded harshly in Arabic as soon as he reached Rashid's side. He noticed that Meiri moved closer to his oldest friend as they came near. She whispered something almost in fear, but he did not hear. He was about to turn and ask her what she had said when the struggling man stopped and said with a tremor in the badly accented Arabic he spoke.
"My name is Ferrier. Anton Ferrier. The girl…" Ardeth cut him off with a huge backhand slap that knocked his head back against the shoulder of one of the Medjai holding him.
"You will not speak of a Lady under the protection of the Medjai," he warned.
"Hey, guys?" O'Connell piped up. "In English would be good!"
Ardeth ignored him. In spite of the mark he wore, in spite of their friendship this was none of O'Connell's concern. "In fact you will not speak at all unless to answer my questions."
"Oh you have it bad!" the man did not heed the warning, but switched to English and at his words anger flashed in Ardeth's eyes, a white hot stream that flowed up from the very depth of his being. "Did you savour her then? Or perhaps he got there first!" He nodded his head toward Rashid.
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Rashid start forward and raised his hand to halt his friend. He saw Meiri also raise her hand to place it gently onto Rashid's arm. She shook her head.
"On your knees, infidel!" Ardeth snarled, and his scimitar turned full circle out of its sheath in his hand. To try and kill her was bad enough but to insult her virtue also… thousands of years of tradition rose in him and he responded like the true unyielding Medjai warrior that he was. When the man did not obey he nodded to the two men holding him who began to force him to the sand.
"Whoa, now hang on a second there…" O'Connell started.
"O'Connell, do not interfere."
"Ardeth, please…" Meirionnydd's soft plea almost stopped him, but honour demanded recompense.
"Turn away, Meirionnydd." He had to force the words past the constriction in his throat.
"No," she moaned and laid a soft touch against his forearm, "Ardeth…"
"Rashid!" He waited while Rashid drew Meiri away and held her against the folds of his robe to hide her eyes from something he did not wish for her to see. Approaching the kneeling man he murmured, "May Allah have mercy on your miserable soul."
"The hell with All…!" Anton's head came off his shoulders with a sickening dull thud.
As O'Connell looked on in shock, holding his wife's head against his shoulder, mirroring the way Rashid held Meiri, and his warriors set about cleaning up the mess, he turned to Rashid. As soon as his friend released Meiri she flew at him, tears streaming from her eyes. Her hand connected with his cheek, an unexpected and stinging slap.
"You bastard!" she wailed. He caught her wrists and tried to pull her in closer so that she could not harm anyone. "Doesn't mercy mean anything to you?"
"My apologies, Meiri – you do not understand…"
"Oh I understand perfectly, First Medjai!" she might as well have slapped him again. He let go of her wrists as though her flesh had scalded him. To hear her call him by the title that he so hated, and in such an ugly tone tore out his heart and cast it to the sand at his feet. When she turned and fled, sobbing in the next moment, his soul followed. He took a step forward to go after her, but felt Rashid's hand in the centre of his chest. Rashid fixed him with a meaningful and warning stare for a moment before he turned and walked after Meirionnydd.
"Ardeth?" He felt a large but gentle hand come down onto his shoulder and turned to see O'Connell looking at him in concern. "Are you all right? What was all that about?"
He sighed heavily. "Conflict, O'Connell," he said, "of honour and understanding. I need this to be over, my friend."
"We all do," O'Connell agreed. "We'll rest up – go get Jonathan and get the hell out of here."
"I wish it were that simple," he said. "We will bring Jonathan back, but it will not end there, at least not for the Medjai. It cannot end until the threat is ended and that will not happen until Anck-Su-Namun is defeated. For that… I will need your help, Evelyn's help… in translating the words written on the inside of the shrine."
**
"That was quite a display," Meiri sniffed and tried to wipe away the angry tears still stinging her eyes as Rashid took her gently by the shoulders to turn her round. He sighed and moved her hands from her face to finish doing so himself. His tenderness touched her and she almost started crying again.
"Rashid, don't," she said.
"Meiri, you have become as a sister to me." He fixed her with a patient and gentle expression. "And what I have to say to you now is guided by a brother's concern. Do you understand?"
"What did I do wrong now?" she asked petulantly, trying to push his hands from her shoulders, but he held her firmly.
"Was that not you that struck the First Medjai? That openly questioned his judgement and disobeyed his command?" he asked incredulously.
"I asked him not to kill that man!" she said, tears filling her eyes again.
"And he heard your request and decided – in my opinion rightly – that death was the least the man deserved."
His words stung still further and she pushed at him hard enough to free herself. "You are as bad as he is!" She moved to turn and walk away but he caught her arm and pulled her back to face him, shaking her slightly into the bargain.
"What you did back there in other circumstances would have earned you a beating, or worse. If you were in the Medjai settlement…"
"Yes well that's the point isn't it?" She snatched her arm out of his hand. "I'm not in the Medjai settlement and never likely to be. And you both seem to be forgetting that – conveniently – when it matters to you."
"Is that truly what you believe?" She saw him frown.
"Well I mean, what right or even reason does he have to take another man's life… to kill a man like that in cold blood?" She pointed angrily back in the direction of the centre of the camp.
Rashid folded his arms across his chest and regarded her seriously for more time than she could stand. She threw up her arms and started to turn away again with a growl of frustration. He caught her, once again preventing her from turning her back on him.
"The man systematically hunted down and murdered seven women in the desert – where the Medjai are the embodiment of the law. In spite of many warnings he has desecrated many tombs and shrines under our protection. He kept you against your will and forced you to take substances that could have killed you. He sent men after you to drag you back to him who, but for your intervention, would have taken the life of the most important man among all the twelve tribes." Meirionnydd shuddered to hear the catalogue of his crimes listed so coldly. Her face became somewhat more contrite, but Rashid showed as much mercy to her as had Ardeth to the man himself. "When he could not drag you back to him he made a serious and almost successful attempt to take your life – a life under the direct protection of the First Medjai himself, not to mention the life of the woman he loves – and to further compound his crimes he then insulted your virtue and Ardeth's honour. There was absolutely nothing cold blooded about the execution, Meirionnydd. In spite of rumour to the contrary that is not the way of the Medjai."
"Rashid…ow!" Emotion burst from her, and the press of his fingers against her arm was starting to hurt. "He confuses me so much. All but telling me we can't be more than we are… then he kissed me and now he's acting as if…"
"He what!" Rashid's face turned blacker than the sky over
She prized at his fingers where they still gripped her arm. "At the bottom of the dune… just after he saved me…" Suddenly he let her go, turned and in three steps had gone far enough back to Ardeth that she had to run to catch up to him. She grabbed the sleeve of his robe to pull him to a halt. "Rashid, don't! What is the matter with you?"
"He should not have…"
"I know!" Meiri almost yelled at him in frustration, upset, hurt and anger all rolled into one. "Dear God you are as bad as he is."
Rashid turned and taking her by the shoulders shook her slightly. "No, Meiri… I am the same as he is… both of us are Medjai and we have standards of behaviour. He should not…!"
"He KNOWS!" she raised her voice and implored him to listen to her. "Believe me Rashid, he knows and his suddenly backing off and hiding behind Medjai mores and duty has hurt me more than anything he could have done… I understand that you have rules… ways you should behave, but…" her voice dropped to a whisper. "But I love him and I just don't know what to do. Please don't make it worse."
She gripped his arms, her fingers over the bracers on his wrists as he still held her by the shoulders, and felt everything in her shaking and waiting for his answer. Eventually she saw him sigh, and a softer expression came over his face.
"For your sake, I will say nothing this time," he said. "But I will not stand by and watch him hurt you, Meiri. If he does not resolve this soon – then I will!"
**
"And then I think it goes over here to talk about the setting of the sun." Evie turned her head to glance at Ardeth and Rick behind her. "And the night that follows being cold…"
"The exact words, please." She turned at the tired note in Ardeth's voice in time to see him running his fingers over his forehead as though his head ached.
"Ardeth, are you all right?" she asked, coming away from the walls in concern.
"The translation, please, Evelyn. It is important." Ardeth answered, shaking his head at her concern and holding up a hand. Evelyn's blood chilled when she saw the almost imperceptible tremor in the usually steady hand.
"Erm… yes, right." She turned back to the wall, pretending that she had not seen. She somehow felt that he would be embarrassed if Ardeth knew she had seen his – what…? Worry? Or worse, fear? She swallowed hard. "Power shall rise and he will become and bring his power. The risen sun shall fall into night. Without the first bright sun, cold night will be all, the weak shall perish and the strong become as his right hand."
She turned back to Ardeth and saw him studying the wall beside her hand. She tried to read his expression. Difficult with him anyway, but over the years of their friendship she had come to know some of his faces. This was one she had never seen before. She thought she saw sadness, resignation and disbelief all mixed…
"What is it?" she asked him.
"This symbol here," he pointed to the hieroglyph for 'man' oddly out of place in her mind because she had never been able to find to which part of the text it pertained. "Does it not mean that all of this refers to a man? And why the cartouche around 'first bright sun'?" This time the tone his voice left her in no doubt as to his fear.
"Ardeth I don't know why? To me, it seems out of place – that's the trouble with this damned thing, it doesn't make sense and it's so religious that even my knowledge isn't enough sometimes. What's going on?" She held up her hand to stop him from interrupting. "Rick and I have known you for almost ten years now and I've never once seen you like this."
"Because I have never once faced anything like this," he answered quietly, looking at the ground. "What you have told me here today echoes exactly the words spoken to me by the Elders of the Medjai…"
"And what is that?" she asked, almost afraid to hear the answer, but Ardeth just shook his head, his face fixed firmly on the wall before him.
"Do what you can to make sense of the writings, please. It may be the key to stopping the evil that is rising now… And promise me, Evelyn… just two things…"
"If I can," she answered, and met his gaze when he turned his eyes to her.
"If anything happens to me… promise me that you will ensure
Meirionnydd's safety and that you will take your family and leave the
**
A man cut the ropes holding his hands to the saddle horn and Jonathan all but fell down from the horse. As he found his legs Anck-Su-Namun returned to his side. He could feel the satisfaction and power oozing off her like some malodorous scent.
"You should let me go you know?" he said as firmly as he could. She laughed in his face.
"Oh Jonathan, you just don't get it do you?" She took him by the shoulders and turned him around to face the huge edifice he had not seen before, slumped over the saddle as he had been. It simply took his breath away.
In the sands around them, pillars, not unlike those that had been standing in Hamunaptra when he had first set eyes on that, lay strewn and broken, but closer to a huge rock structure the pillars were standing, skyward reaching sentinels, a reminder of the enduring nature of time next to the partly rusted digging equipment that had been used to uncover them. Behind those pillars, the sandstone rock had been cut away to reveal the gilded doorway to what was clearly a temple of some kind… teams of archaeologists, suspended by ropes from above, worked to scrape away more of the front of the statues of some of the oldest Gods known.
"Oh… my… God!" he breathed.
"Now you understand," Anck-Su-Namun took his arm, his awe of
the temple made him forget that he was supposed to be resisting her. "Welcome to the Gods own
The sudden reminder of the threat to his person had Jonathan pull his arm from her grasp. He stopped walking and started looking around him for somewhere to run. Her two bodyguards stepped forward with their guns pointing at his chest. "They'll follow you know… they'll come for me."
"Oh yes, I know," Anck-Su-Namun smiled a viper smile. "I'm counting on it." She came behind him and in one sudden move grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled it back sharply. Buttons popped and he struggled as she all but tore his shirt off his back. "And you, dear Jonathan, are going to help me to make it a certainty."
She pulled a small knife from her belt and approached him with the blade and started to run the tip of it across his chest, teasing, not pressing hard enough to cut.
"Madam!" Jonathan squeaked as the newcomer arrived and Anck-Su-Namun turned so quickly that she almost nicked his flesh with the knife. "Anton…"
"Is missing," she finished as if unconcerned. "I know, but no matter. If he is in the way then he too will fall."
"In the way?" Jonathan couldn't help asking. "What do you mean, in the way?"
She returned to his side then and quite deliberately nicked his skin deeply enough to draw blood, which she took up on the blade and smeared onto the necklace he wore.
"You see," she purred, coming to stand behind him. "I need the girl… and I need rid of those pesky Medjai warriors and you, dear Jonathan, are going to help me with that."
He suddenly felt sick, fear and worry for himself and for his friends. He tried to cover his new felt fears as strongly as he could. Trying to laugh he said, "You have got to be joking you…"
"Har-ya Suti… Har-ya Suti… Har-ya Suti!" Anck-Su-Namun's resonant voice and the suddenly discordant jangle of the sistrum that she shook in a circle around him interrupted his defiance. For a moment nothing appeared to happen, but then the pain blossomed in from the top of his head, as though he had been struck by a blot of lightning. It rushed through him from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet and stole the strength from his legs. He fell to his hands and knees on the sand, retching with the sudden ache he felt through his entire body.
"Bring me three of the finest men here!" The voice, deep and cruel – and speaking, he noted, fluently in Ancient Egyptian – burst from his lips as though it had crawled from the depths of time itself.
Jonathan fought for control of his own body… his own mind. "Rick… hurry!" he whined. "Ardeth!" Muscles cramped and strained as he tried to stay on the ground, but rose to his feet to take the small knife from Anck-Su-Namun's hand. At the same time he grasped her around the waist. She gasped and he felt the smile force its way onto his face.
"Welcome, my Lord Su…" Everything inside Jonathan shuddered in revulsion as his mouth came down hard on hers cutting off what she had been trying to say. His tongue plundered her mouth, drinking from her as though he were parched, until sounds behind him alerted him that his commands had been obeyed.
Jonathan had never been so relieved in his life when the kiss ended suddenly. He felt violated, helpless in the face of the thing that was crawling inside him… I'm Jonathan Carnahan… he fought to find a way back. Jonathan Carnahan… my sister is Evie… my brother-in-law is Rick. Jonathan Carnahan
His hand holding the knife came back… No! Plunged forward again into the throat of the first of the men… spilling blood to the sand. Jonathan… Carnahan… Again and again the creature within him acted… No! I'm Jonathan…
"Carnahan!" His screams broke the eerie silence that had
fallen over the dig site. "Jonathan
Carnahan!" He fell… returning to his
hands and knees on the blood soaked ground, that started bubbling and boiling
around him, forming man-like shapes in the sand.