Lying flat at the top of the dune, beyond which lay
Anck-Su-Namun's
But it had to work. He had to get Meiri and Jonathan out of there before the combined might of the twelve tribes swept down over the temple and crushed Anck-Su-Namun and her evil once and for all. She would not rise again… that he made as his private vow.
"Just remember," he said quietly to the two men at his sides, Rashid, whom he had named as his second in command, and Azim, one of the reinforcements that had arrived in the early hours. "Engage as many as you can and lead them away from the site. It will have been a pointless exercise if I cannot get them out safely."
He would not allow himself to say their names, two people very important to him, he had to stay focussed – driven. He had to remain fully the warrior and not the man.
"Are you certain of your path, my chief?" Azim asked quietly. "There are many of them and if we fail… if they do not take the bait…"
"They will. They are summoned, they follow only the will of he that summoned them, so once they have their orders, they will pursue." Ardeth sounded calmer than he felt. "Anck-Su-Namun will not want the Medjai around to spoil her plans… though what she means to do in a temple as old as this one, Allah only knows."
"You sound as if you know the creature well."
"We have crossed blades before, my brother." Ardeth murmured, turning his attention back toward the ancient temple. Something about it struck him deeply. He felt a familiar sense of… something, he couldn't quite place what.
"Ardeth, promise that you will be careful." Rashid finally spoke. "There is risk enough involved in this and in all honesty as First Medjai you should be commanding your forces and letting another take your place in the rescue."
"You have my word, Rashid. I will take no unnecessary risks." Ardeth finally decided on a route into the camp. "And no other, my friend, you know as well as I, could do this. Jonathan saved my life at Ahm Shere, and I must get him out."
"And the girl?" Azim asked.
"She is my life." Ardeth breathed so quietly that neither of the other men could have heard.
**
It was cold inside the temple and Meirionnydd shivered. She looked down at herself, at the clothes she was "almost" wearing. The loose silky bottoms waved around her legs as she moved as though there were a draught blowing through the chamber, waves of white and gold that caressed her calves and thighs and fitted low enough on her hips that they revealed her navel. She folded her arms over her bare stomach, feeling very self conscious. The blouse she wore was little better – if it could be called a blouse. It was little more than a pleated rectangle of material, with shoulder straps, white and gold like the pants. It barely covered her breasts enough to be decent. From the lower fringe of it hung small gold discs, all around with jingled when she moved. She tried putting on one of the veils that went with the outfit, but it seemed just to accentuate how very undressed she was, and made her feel even worse.
"It suits you!" the voice made her jump as Anck-Su-Namun returned. She held a bowl in her hands with something steaming within.
"Why don't you go to hell!" she spat, her fear making her irritable.
"I've been, little girl," Anck-Su-Namun answered. "Very overrated. Sit."
She straightened herself defiant of Anck-Su-Namun's instructions for her to sit on top of a marble bier. She didn't like being spoken to like some kind of animal – a dog to obey the command of its master.
"What do you want from me?" she said.
"Right now, I'd like you to sit down." Anck-Su-Namun mocked. "Because then we can get started."
"I don't want anything to do with you." Meiri backed away when she advanced toward her.
"You don't have the choice." She shuddered as the other woman's fingers took hold of her arm and guided her toward the steaming bowl, "Well actually you do. Either you behave and let me do this – or I'll have to hurt you. And then you're going to see for me Meirionnydd…"
"When the sun stops shining!" Meiri hissed.
"That comes later," Anck-Su-Namun answered sweetly. "First we have to finish bringing you into Power of all you can be, then you see for me… find me the seventh bell… and then we'll see about that pesky sunshine."
She pushed Meiri down onto the bier and made a sudden grasp for her left hand. Meiri winced as her wrist complained at being turned the wrong way. When Anck-Su-Namun reached into the steaming bowl and took out and black paste, she tried to pull her hand away.
"No!" she said and squirmed, but the fingers locked around her wrist. "What are you doing?"
She screamed as Anck-Su-Namun spread the black paste over
her wrist. It was hot, and it burned,
but more than that, the heat seemed to penetrate as though it were eating into
her flesh. Through the colours that were
dancing in her head she vaguely felt Anck-Su-Namun ease her head down onto her
shoulder and encircle her with her arms, rocking her as though she were a
child.
"The pain won't last much longer," Anck-Su-Namun said softly. "I just didn't have the time to do this properly."
"Do what?" Meiri forced the words through her clenched teeth. "What is it doing to me?"
"Marking you as Hers."
"I'm not hers… not anybody's!" Meiri suddenly realised she shouldn't be there in the other woman's arms… shouldn't allow herself to be close to the creature that was a thousand times worse than Anton ever was. She pulled away, at least as far as the end of her arm, which Anck-Su-Namun still held.
"When will you stop fighting this and just accept it. You're destined for great things…"
"Stop it!" Meiri tried, but could not stop the frightened and angry tears from escaping from her eyes. She tugged her arm free of Anck-Su-Namun's grasp and moaning in pain she scraped away the now dried paste from her wrist. Staring back at her from her pale, slightly olive flesh was a tiny ankh shaped mark – just like a tattoo – with small almost delicate looking bells around the ring at the top of the ankh. "What have you done!"
"Usert has accepted you little girl, taken you under Her wings," Anck-Su-Namun said and caressed the side of her face and Meiri flinched away. "You'll wear it well… and then when you've found the seventh bell for me… I'll show you how to wield Her power."
"I'll see nothing for you…." Meiri started. A light touch on her wrist made her jump and cut off what she was saying.
"You will… or I'll be forced to make you," Anck-Su-Namun said threateningly, "And you really wouldn't want that."
She tried to move away when Anck-Su-Namun grabbed both her hands to bind them together behind her back with coarse rope. It chaffed against her already sore left wrist, sore both from the marking, and also still delicate from when she had been bound and almost abused by Rashid… also controlled by Anck-Su-Namun.
"I'll leave you a little while to think," Anck-Su-Namun purred. "I'm sure you'll come to the right decision."
But Meiri didn't need to come to a decision, nor did she need to see, to know where the seventh bell was. She already knew. She knew that Ardeth had it, and that he would keep it safe from Anck-Su-Namun. She also knew that there was no way she would tell her that… even if it meant her death.
**
Just as he got himself into position he saw them appearing over the dune like a dark avenging shadow sweeping down toward the camp. He suddenly thought he realised why, to some, the name Medjai conjured terror and was used as stories to keep the wayward children of Egyptologists in line.
Even so few, they were an impressive sight and it did his heart good to know that.
A shout went up from the camp below him, ordinary, human mercenaries crying out in warning, the single word that he didn't need to hear properly to know what it would be. He had heard it often enough in his life to know.
He waited, watching for the moment that would come… had to come if his plan were to succeed. He breathed deeply to control the rise of disquiet, even panic – an unwelcome feeling that he was not used to – inside him when the moment had not come by the time he had expected it. Damn it, his men were close… too close and he knew Rashid well enough to know that he would not turn the men aside until he too had heard the order given for the summoned creatures to drive off the Medjai and to keep them away. They were riding into a slaughter!
He moaned aloud when the first of the gunshots sounded and a horse and rider went down. They were too far away for him to see who it was, but he couldn't allow this. Honour was honour, but his first duty was to his Warrior Brothers. He would have to find another way to free Meiri and Jonathan when the rest of the Medjai arrived – during the main assault itself.
He rose to his knees, meaning to get up and give the order for the Medjai to retreat, when a ringing cry came out across the camp, amplified by unearthly power.
"No!" the female voice was low and sensual and wove dark tendrils of seduction around his mind that he fought to push away. "Drive them away! Drive them away and keep them away until my work is complete and they are His!"
"Now, Rashid, now!" He said urgently, and dropped to the ground again so as to remain unseen. Much to his relief, Rashid steered the Medjai around so that they were leaving the camp and the serpentine warriors followed. "Gently now… not too far."
As soon as he was secure that everything was going smoothly, he began his own part in the plan. He carefully dropped off the small ledge on which he had been lying, to the ledge below… heading for the top of the temple at the heart of the camp.
He was confident he could deal with any guards that might have been placed around the temple, and was as sure as he had ever been sure of anything that both Meirionnydd and Jonathan would be somewhere inside. Lowering himself down again he dropped flat to the top of the external part of the temple as some of the mercenaries turned his way. Scooting to the rearmost pillar holding up the roof he quickly checked the ground below, hung down as far as he could and then dropped to the ground.
The sudden jolt to his legs and ankles as he landed jarred him and numbed his lower body, but he had no time to consider it – he just melted back into the shadow of the temple, where it met the sandstone wall, pulling up the veil across his face. Breathing slowly he heard the footsteps getting louder and louder.
"Damn me, I was sure I saw something," said one voice.
"You're goin' off your head. 's that woman… got us all worked up," added a second.
"Freaking us all out," said a third. Was nothing ever easy?
One of the men stepped into his line of vision, slowly… he inched forward. It would have to be quick – he would need to choose his moment precisely. Turning his head, he saw the other two. All three were armed, with handguns and knives at their belt.
"Maybe we should check around the other side," the second man suggested, and he and the one beside him turned as though to walk away.
He moved. Dashed out a step and grabbed the third man, one hand over his mouth the other around his chest. Pulling the man back into the shadows with him, he pulled back sharply, snapping the man's neck. He sighed. It was regrettable to behave like a common assassin, but he couldn't risk that the men would alert others that would block his way out of the temple with Meiri and Jonathan.
He shook his head. Getting in was always easy… it was always getting out that was the problem.
He lowered the dead man silently to the ground, and set about finding his way through the pillars, out of sight, to the other men, who were destined to share a similar fate.
**
They rode a little way before stopping to make sure that the creatures were following, even to engage in battle for a little while, but not too long and they took no risks. Ardeth had been clear on that. They were to take no risks, just to lead the creatures away.
They stayed just a breath ahead of the foul creatures and, where they could, picked them off a few at a time. It would be all the better for the combined tribes warriors when they made their final assault that there were as few of these creatures as possible.
Rashid sighed. Who was he trying to convince? To whom was he justifying his actions? The real reason he allowed the men to pick off the creatures as and when they could was that he was frustrated. Frustrated at the need for caution; at the need for yet another battle against supernatural creatures such as these, but most of all for the worry he felt for his friend.
Something was wrong. He knew it because he had known Ardeth for almost the whole of his life and had never once seen him act this way. Of course he had never seen him in love before, but he had seen him when the Elders had all but insisted that he marry Ashna a couple of years previously.
Then he had been difficult, moody, had made mistakes that he
would never have expected of a man like Ardeth, but even so – it had been
nothing like this. This was something
more than the though of spending his life with a woman at his side. He started to wonder if he had pushed too
hard to being him to Meiri – to make him realise the way he felt and to accept
it, but then no. He gave a humourless
laugh, just as with Ashna, if Ardeth had not wanted to walk that path, then he
would not have done so.
This brought him back to the terrible thought that something was dreadfully and dangerously wrong.
**
The inside of the temple was perhaps the most impressive sight he had ever laid his eyes upon, with the possible exception of the treasure chamber at Hamunaptra. The walls were highly polished and encrusted with gems and gold and the steps that led, surprisingly, upward into the depths of the temple were obsidian black.
The air inside was cold and, in spite of his robes, gave him a sudden chill. Keeping close to the wall, he started up the short flight of steps – hoping he didn't come across too many guards too soon.
Reaching the top, he saw two guards, more of Anton's mercenaries now working for Anck-Su-Namun. Luck was with him. They were looking the other way and he silently thanked Allah as he ducked into a nearby alcove and flattened himself into the narrow gap between the wall and a towering statue of Osiris.
He took the time to take a closer look at the temple. It was maze like but very beautiful. From where he sheltered he could see at least three staircases leading up at to various levels, some in better states of repair than others and he would have expected from something of so obvious an age.. But the first obstacle would be getting past the two men.
An all out fight would get him noticed, and he couldn't afford for that to happen, at least not so soon and he would prefer not at all, but he'd already discovered he had a distaste for sneaking around, for compromising his honour and integrity and taking a life… any life, even ones already so obviously damned without first giving the man a chance to redeem himself.
In the end pragmatism won out over everything. He had no choice, so taking a deep breath he stepped out behind the two men with scimitars drawn and reversing the hilts, brought them down sharply on the backs of their skulls. Swiftly he dragged the unconscious men into the alcove and used their own belts to tie them up, and the sleeves of their shirts as gags.
Guarding the stairs but looking the opposite way. The thought struck him as odd. Very well, they would not be expecting an attack from the outside of the temple – so they were guarding something within. The thought drew his gaze to the centre staircase. It went up a little way to a kind of apex, beyond which he couldn't see. If the men were guarding any direction it was that way… but against something getting in, or getting out. That uneasy question had him wonder at the wisdom of taking that path.
Slowly, step by step and looking around him every step of the way he mounted the stairs. Nearing the Apex he saw that the stairs descended again into a chamber that was not quite as well preserved – in fact it looked as though it had been intentionally defaced. A broken staircase lay to the side of the chamber, and all around the walls were headless statues, and destroyed hieroglyphics. With another deep breath, he descended from stairs into the damaged room.
It was darker there… less torches were lit. Instinct told him that he had to go up, find a way to reach the opening at the head of the stairs where the last few were missing, but he didn't want to leave behind potential problems to encounter on the way out and there were three other openings leading off from the room. He chose one and quietly padded in that direction.
Many long minutes of exploring the chambers and passages that led away from the centre room revealed nothing that might be a threat. Nor did he come across Meirionnydd or even Jonathan, so he returned to his starting point and began to find his way up the stairs until they ran out, and then jumping slightly, hauled himself up into the next doorway.
"Is there no end to this?" he breathed. Standing up, he looked around another chamber, with four more exits. Again he checked them all, to clear the way behind him. Three of four led to dead ends, with gilded statues of long forgotten gods. The fourth to another set of stairs, this time going down. The light from the torches at the top disappeared after a while… the staircase went a long way down.
**
The pain in her wrist had receded to a dull throbbing ache, and was only exacerbated by the rope around her wrist. She was thankful for the bracer that protected her right wrist. The other end of the rope was attached to a stout stone pillar, and allowed her to move around a little… just enough to let her feel like a dog on a leash.
She found she had guards, two of them, one either side of the door. The leered at her when she came near and she pulled the veil more closely around her and return to her place on top if the bier. At least there they couldn't see her, not without leaving their posts.
She didn't want to think, but there was little else for her to do. The strange voice that had spoken with her had been right after all. This was her home and everything else she had known… all the things she had believed for the whole of her life were lies.
She couldn't stop the tears. Her mother – a lie… he real mother an unknown woman that had died trying to keep her secret safe, trying to keep the bells from coming into Anton's hands and now she was all that stood between Anck-Su-Namun and the last of those bells. She shuddered in fear.
But then no… not the only one. Ardeth had the bell… she'd seen that in her visions, a beautiful Egyptian woman that, dying, had come to him to give him the part of the ancient artefact that she carried, so no… she was not alone. She stood with the Medjai in the protection of the artefact that would grant access to Usert's power, for good or ill… she suspected ill if Anck-Su-Namun got her hands on it.
Silently she wished for Ardeth to come for her, to take her away from this temple and prove Anck-Su-Namun wrong about him not coming for her, not wanting her, not…
Her train of through halted with an abrupt heart wrenching lurch that set all her senses screaming danger. She turned slowly around full circle. The temple, she had been here before… at least in her mind… in her dream. Hieroglyphics leaped from the wall to mock her and make her desolation complete.
"Ardeth," she whispered him name. She had to do something… had to make it just a dream and not, she swallowed hard… anything more.
**
By his guess he was at least now twice as deep as he had been on the surface and still he could see nothing but the unrelieved blackness of the narrow stairwell all around him. He kept one hand on the wall. It was cold against his fingertips.
He almost tripped when the stairs came to an end and he tried to go down one more. The floor under his feet was smooth and close by the wall felt dusty underfoot… and up ahead he could see the faint glimmer of a torch. He shivered. He sensed he was getting closer.
It was nothing he could afterward put a name to, just a feeling of cold, hard dread that crept up inside him and made him reach for the hilt of his second scimitar, finally coming away from the wall.
He took a deep breath, and more to settle him than anything, turned both blades around his hands, feeling the weight of them a comfort as they settled back into his palms. Feeling that he settled into his warrior senses more fully, with everything on alert for possible danger.
It came in suddenly at him, from the left hand side, a serpentine creature that towered over him in the dark. Instinctively he raised his left hand, scimitar blade ready to catch a high strike while his right turned a circle in front of his body to catch and mid to low thrust.
Fighting blind… it was something all Medjai were taught do, as boys, blindfold while the teacher came at them with swords and knives, so that they would learn to hear the nuances – the way a man telegraphed his every move with the shuffle of feet, or the sighs that came from his breast. But this was no man, so all he could do was to listen for the rush of the air as the Khopesh moved toward him, and block as best he could whilst slowly edging toward the light.
Higher…
He started to realise the creature was forcing his blades
higher. He had a thought. It was risky, to allow the man-beast to think
he had fallen for the ruse, to let it take his blades high and then strike when
the creature came in low. In the light,
it would have been as easy as breathing… but in the pitch black of the unlit
corridor it could be the second between life and death.
But the creature was circling him toward the darkness, away from the light and he had little choice. He couldn't allow himself to become trapped here, become fatigued by the battle and unable to find Meiri or Jonathan in time to save them from whatever foul design Anck-Su-Namun had for them.
He felt the air around him shift, the sudden down draught against the front of his robes, and waiting as long as he dare, which was little longer than a heartbeat, then picturing the creature in his mind, swept both blades across the space where he prayed the neck would be and flung his arms apart. For a gut wrenching moment, nothing but the movement of air, pushed toward him as the unseen blade came in toward his middle, he took a deep breath, preparing for the explosion of pain that he could no longer avoid… the heavy blade of the khopesh fell against his booted foot as he was showered in sand.
He let out his breath in a rush and whispered a swift prayer of thanks to Allah.
Making a mental note to bring one of the torches on the way out, he turned and made his way, swiftly but still cautiously toward the precious light. As he got nearer he could hear the soft murmur of voices, men's voices.
"Yeah, but whose to know?" asked the first. Ardeth did not like his tone.
"Little minx'd probably scream the place down. You'd have Anck-Su-Namun and her devil freaks on your ass faster than you could say…"
"Leave now, or die. The choice is yours." Ardeth said and stepped forward into the light, scimitars crossed but ready before him. He knew there was little chance of either man leaving. Both back-pedalled in fright as he appeared to suddenly materialise from nowhere.
The quicker of the two men raised his gun Ardeth's way, but he swept it from the man's hand with a swift tap from his blade, gashing the man's knuckles. blood dripped to the dust on the floor.
"Bastard, you'll pay for that." The man hissed, and drew a long curving dagger. His companion did likewise.
"I think not," Ardeth said calmly, poised, waiting for the man or men to make their move. Move they did, both of them coming in at him at once, one high the other low. His scimitars swung in two arcs before him, travelling in opposite directions deflecting both knives with ease and returning to their original position crossed, right resting over left. He raised an eyebrow and turned his head slightly on one side.
Clearly angered by his indifference the men came on quicker and more fiercely. But their anger ruled them and they made mistakes, mistakes which, Ardeth conceded, would probably not have mattered against one of their own kind, but against a Medjai warrior trained and practised in the art of the blade, they would ultimately prove fatal.
But for Meiri…
She heard the fighting and stepped into the doorway, into Ardeth's line of sight and for a moment his resolve faltered. He had simply never seen anything so beautiful. The clothing hugged her body and accentuated the light olive tones of her exposed skin. Her long dark hair was like a cloak around her veiled shoulders, and her lips, where she had been biting them were red, inviting… He tried not to let his eyes linger on the naked skin of her smooth stomach, or the delicate swell of her breasts in their white and gold wrap, but after all, he was a man, standing before the woman of his heart. He breathed her name in wonder.
One of the men turned to follow the direction of his gaze, the other took the moment of distraction and turned it to his advantage, lunging forward with the knife.
"Ardeth!" she cried out a warning to him and he swung up his scimitar to parry the blow, but followed through, punching the man in the face and then with a downward sweep of the curving blade in his hand, sliced the man across the chest. He fell back, clutching the wound and looking in disbelief as Ardeth followed, to swiftly end his life with a well placed thrust of his weapon.
He turned quickly as the sound of a chuckle coming from the room in which Meiri still stood. The other man was advancing toward her as she backed around a bier in the centre of the room. Evidently he believed that his partner would keep the Medjai engaged for longer than he had, for his back was fully turned toward the warrior. Turning the scimitar in his hand he launched it end over end toward the doomed man who, as the deadly blade found its mark, turned a look of disbelief his way.
"Man, you're good," he gasped, as Ardeth followed the blade into the room.
"No," Ardeth corrected as he yanked it free and supported the dying man to the ground. "I am Medjai."
He put both blades onto the top of the bier and drew his knife to cut Meiri free. She threw her arms around his neck and held him tightly.
"Ardeth," she said, and trembling against him until he wrapped his arms around her barely clothed body and held her tightly.
"I am here, Meiri," he whispered into her hair. "I am going to get you out of here."
He felt her stiffen in his arms and then she pulled away. He frowned at her in confusion and reached for her hands.
She pulled away and moved around him. He turned to keep her in sight and reached for her again when her voice caught as she said, "No, you mustn't say that, you…"
"Why not?" he asked. "It's true. You will be safe now. We will find Jonathan and get out of here."
Gently he took her shoulders and eased her shaking form back into a light embrace. He held her softly against him. "Do not fear, Meiri."
"How touching," Anck-Su-Namun said coldly. She had hold of Meiri's arm and pulled her from his grasp. He moved toward his scimitars, but stopped as Anck-Su-Namun drew his attention to the knife she held at Meirionnydd's throat. "Ah ah..!"
"Let her go, Anck-Su-Namun," he said. He flashed a quick glance toward two of the serpent warriors in the doorway to the room.
"I choose not to," Anck-Su-Namun said calmly. "But by the decree of your own ancestor,
He shook his head. "I cannot," he said. "She is under my protection and she…"
"Look at her First Medjai!" Anck-Su-Namun ran a suggestive hand down Meiri's left arm toward her hand. "You see it, I know you do," she said.
Meiri shuddered and tried to move away. "No," she moaned. "Ardeth, please, don't listen to her, she…" she broke off in pain as Anck-Su-Namun dug the tip of the knife into her delicate throat just hard enough to break the skin.
"Let her go!" he almost raised his voice.
"To what end Ardeth?" Anck-Su-Namun asked as though speaking to a lover. It made him feel physically sick. "So that you and the little Usertim can ride off into the sunset? I don't…"
"She is not!" Ardeth felt as though he had been stabbed in the heart, even as he said the words of denial, he knew otherwise. The clothes… the bracer she wore… He swallowed hard as Anck-Su-Namun slowly raised Meiri's left wrist to show him the mark she bore. All his blood drained to his feet and he felt suddenly light headed. A physical pain burned at his insides and reflected in the tears that came to his eyes.
"Meirionnydd..." he gasped.
"Ardeth, please, I didn't…"
"Born of the line of Asru and taken from the desert when still a babe in arms." Anck-Su-Namun said. "Quite fitting that she should return to us now, First Medjai, now that the sistrum is almost intact and the prophesy can be fulfilled."
"I'm telling you nothing!" Meirionnydd spat.
"Please, Sayyadina, calm yourself," He said. His voice caught on the term of respect as it twisted the dagger that still lay in his heart.
"Don't call me that," Meirionnydd pleaded with him. Everything in her heart showed in her eyes. It ripped him in two, and indecision clouded his judgement as he fought between the heart of a man and the duty of a Medjai, but already he was damned, what difference would it make?
"She can tell you nothing, Anck-Su-Namun, because she knows nothing," he said.
"She will tell me. The Usertim see you know?"
"The last of the seven bells is safe where you and your kind will never reach it."
"Don't…!" Meiri repeated, evidently she thought he was to reveal the truth to Anck-Su-Namun.
He breathed in deeply against the hurt inside at what he knew he must do, as duty flooded his mind, breaking his heart still further. Meiri was Usertim, as unattainable to him as the stars themselves, but his sacred duty he could fulfil… and he must. He would ensure that she was safe, but further than that… there could be nothing – although he would never stop loving her.
"My kind, Ardeth?" Anck-Su-Namun asked. "You know nothing of my kind."
"Your every action defines you, creature," he said coldly. "You sought out Seti's love for the power it would bring you, but when that love confined you and the power was not enough, you trapped Imhotep. But even the power he gave you – the promise of immortality was not enough for you, you betrayed him and now you seek a god's power to satiate your unholy lust. That I cannot allow, and will kill anyone that tries to give it to you."
"Ardeth…" Meiri whispered. The note of shock and betrayal in her voice broke off yet another piece of his soul.
"Even the girl?" Anck-Su-Namun asked sarcastically.
He didn't answer, not verbally anyway, because he would not lie and he knew he could never deliberately harm Meiri. Instead he picked up his blades and, almost closing his eyes to make the strike, launched himself at Anck-Su-Namun.
He was more than a little relieved when she pushed Meiri aside and forced himself not to turn when she cried out as she fell to the ground by the wall of the room. Anck-Su-Namun drew twin, three pronged parrying daggers from her belt. She surprised him entirely when she caught his first three strikes.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" she taunted him. "To want something you cannot have. To be nothing but a slave to your duty and another's words."
"Is that what this is?" he said, launching another blurring attack which she met strike for strike. "Revenge?"
Locked together, his blades held in place by the subtle twist of her daggers, she looked deep into his eyes.
"This is the power of a woman in a world that man thinks he rules!" she said more chilling that the coldest of desert nights.
"So you think to summon the God of Evil and expect him to lie in your lap like a pup," he said, straining against her unnatural strength, "You are a fool Anck-Su-Namun. A selfish, ambitious fool!"
"Kekham ehrr!" she roared toward her two immobile warriors and in the same moment, pushed hard against his arms to drive him away from her.
Expecting the move, he maintained his balance and put himself between the Anck-Su-Namun, the two advancing warriors and Meirionnydd. He need not have worried about Anck-Su-Namun. She turned and left the room, disappearing into the darkened hallway and leaving him to face the two serpent headed warriors.
**
She roused herself from where she had fallen hard against the wall, stunning herself for a time, and touched her hand to her head. It ached, but her heart ached more.
Even the girl.
So that was it? Because of the clothes in which Anck-Su-Namun had dressed her… the mark she'd given her through a pain so bad she still felt sick with the thought of it… he would cast her side, and even take her life.
Even the girl.
She looked up in time to see the creature he was fighting explode in a shower of sand that coated the floor of the chamber.
"Meiri, we have to go," he turned and started walking toward her. Unsure, she skittered back until she was hard against the wall.
"Don't!" she felt the tears rising in her eyes at the fear and loss. "Don't touch me!"
"Meirionnydd," he looked confused as he crouched nearby, and then lowered himself carefully to his knees, to reach for her gauze covered shoulders. She tried to back away still further but couldn't move.
As his hands closed gently around her arms she sobbed, "Don't… touch me!"
"Meiri, listen to me," she hardly fought him, didn't really want to as he eased her forward to rest her head against his chest. His hand travelled along the length of her arm to find her wrist… her left wrist that still ached with the aftermath of the supernatural brand that Anck-Su-Namun had placed on her. "I do not understand how this has happened, but I believe we both know that she has told us the truth."
She looked up at him then, tears brimming in her eyes that almost begged him to comprehend that she did not see what difference it should make. That she didn't understand.
"Ardeth, why?" She forced the words from her. "I don't… I can't…"
"Hush, Meiri," he said gently, and almost lifted her to her feet.
"Tell me… I don't understand what it means," she pleaded.
She grasped his arms as she felt his breathing falter for a moment, as though he were trying to catch it, to keep it under control. It frightened her, she almost felt him falling away from her.
She freed her left hand from where he was caressing the source of her pain and confusion and reached up to press a caress lightly against his cheek. He leaned into the touch and closed his eyes.
"Meirionnydd, what can I tell you that will make this easier for you? That will keep the pain of it from you?" he asked.
"The truth," she said. "What does it mean for us?"
He shook his head and gasped, "I cannot!"
"What?"
"Usertim and Medjai… I…"
"So you're sending me away?" she hiccupped. "Even though this is my home… though I belong here?"
"You will be safer in
"But I love you," she sobbed and felt him draw her closer to fit her right against him, to wrap her completely in his warmth and life, but it felt so much like goodbye.
"If matters were otherwise…" he whispered into her hair.
"Ardeth…" she couldn't even find the words to tell him how much this hurt. How lost she was and how frightened at the though of being without him.
"For as long as we have, my sweet angel, I will be all that I can for you." He eased her away and she was shocked to see tears in his eyes, mirroring her own. "And you are my life, but we cannot…"
She stood for may long moments in his arms, looking up into his tortured expression of pain and loss – like grief, and felt him gathering himself for the moments ahead, before finally to took her hand from the side of his face.
"We need to leave. I need to take you to safety," he told her and moved away.
She felt cold, but took the torch from him when he handed it to her and gladly took his hand when he offered it. She swallowed hard, realising how foolish it had been to stand talking and crying when they were in such a dangerous place.
As they passed the body of the man outside the doorway she pressed her face against his arm. It was an all too present reminder of that peril as was the moment they entered the darkened corridor and he drew the scimitar with his free hand.
The torch barely seemed to light the darkness there. Meirionnydd almost laughed as the corridor became a metaphor for her heart. They reached to foot of the stairs and he drew her behind him, placed her hand in the sash at the side of his robe so that she could still keep hold of him, almost as though he didn't want to break all contact with her and they slowly the crept up the darkened stairs.
"It is lit from here," he said quietly as they reached the top, carefully took the burning torch from her hand and tossed it back into the stairwell.
"How will we get out?" she whispered, suddenly fearful.
"We will get out. Trust me," he said gently, and she closed her eyes as his fingertips brushed her cheek. "I will see you to safely, little one, I promise."
She bit the inside of her cheek. That moment he looked so gentle, so loving and so very beautiful that it was all she could do to stay on her feet. Even knowing what he had said, that now, where before there may have been hope for them, there was none; she couldn't help but feel for him as deeply as ever… perhaps more so as the longing became an almost physical ache.
She knew without a doubt that he would, as he had promised, protect her and ensure her safety, but the pain she saw in his eyes worried her… and who would keep him safe from that?
"Come," he said and drew her out of her mournful contemplation.
He led her toward a doorway that should have led to another staircase, but the top several steps were missing. He lowered himself to the broken top of the platform and turned around to reach up for her hand help her down.
Shivers of warning broke over her spine like deadly waves. And just as their fingers touched she snatched her hand away.
"What is it?" he asked.
He lifted her down from a high ledge. She virtually fell into his arms and for a moment he held her close, kissing her forehead.
"I… erm…" she stuttered and swallowed hard. "I think I can get down by myself."
"Meiri, there is not time for this," he said urgently and gave her a pained look. "I do not know how long Anck-Su-Namun will wait before she returns to learn of my fate and yours."
"I need to do this," she said, he voice barely above a whisper. She would not let him lift her down and then everything would be all right. He would be safe and her dream just a dream.
He sighed. "All right, but hurry."
She crept to the edge and looked down. It was not a long drop – only just above the top of Ardeth's head, but looking down, and with the stairs below as well the impression of height was much more. Trembling she sat down, dangling her legs over the side.
"No," he told her. "Turn around and hang by your arms and then drop. The fall is much less then."
"Um," she swallowed. "Oh, erm…"
"In Allah's name, Meirionnydd let me help you down!"
"No," she said firmly.
Moaning she put both hands on the ledge and turned, sliding off to hang by her arms. It jarred her shoulders. She felt him move closer, to lift her the rest of the way, but dropped before his hands could find her waist. She let out a little cry as her feet hit the uneven surface on the top of the broken stairs and he came to her and took her gently to turn her around and hold her close for a moment. He planted a tender kiss on her forehead.
"This is not the time to prove to me your independence," he
said gently and she smiled.
"I just had to," she said. "Please accept that."
Relief flooded through her as he nodded, took her hand and once again drew his scimitar. It was a profound relief… one born of knowing that in that simple act, of breaking the dream and changing the course of things, she had been able to save his life. She smiled.
**
He saw her smile and a sense of peace seemed to come over her in that moment. He returned the smile faintly and pushed back some few strands of her hair that had strayed across her face as she all but fell from the doorway above. He wanted to kiss her so much it turned him inside out, and dressed as she was, so painfully beautiful… He felt a flush of anger toward Anck-Su-Namun for all that she'd done.
She must have felt the tension that crept into his muscles because she began to pull away. He sighed. He was not being fair, to tell her again that there was never to be anything between them, and then to behave in such a way. He made a silent promise to himself that once he had her to safety, he would at least explain to her the reasons why.
"We should go on," he said.
"Yes," she agreed.
Moving cautiously as ever, he led her toward the stairs that would take them closer to their escape. They mounted the stairs together, and soon reached the apex. Quickly his eyes scanned left and right and he wondered about taking one or other of the staircases. He still had not found Jonathan. Perhaps he had been wrong. Perhaps Jonathan was being held in the camp itself, highly likely since it was Meirionnydd that Anck-Su-Namun had needed. Jonathan he suspected had merely been taken as a means to ensure that she was not followed from the shrine.
It might have worked too, but for the fact that the Medjai already knew of all of the digs currently undertaken in their territory, and that the traitorous curator had unwittingly led them to the site several weeks before any of the current events began.
"Just down those steps," he said. His voice was barely above a whisper. "Stay close to the wall and be ready to stop at once if I say."
"All right." He noticed the way her voice trembled and reached out to caress her shoulder briefly.
"It will be the hardest part, you are right to be nervous, but I have promised… I will see you to safety, not matter what. Just stay close by." He took a deep breath and then slowly began the decent to the first landing where he hand encountered the guards.
He sighed. He couldn't just walk down the stairs and expect there to be no-one outside. He would be remiss if he did not check, but he could not leave Meiri alone – not without knowing what was at the top of the other two staircases. He shook his head. He had no choice but to continue on… to hope that they would be able to leave as un-noticed as he was on the way in.
Moving swiftly across the small landing and past the alcove opposite to the one when he had hidden the unconscious bodies of the guards, he drew her with him swiftly down the staircase, thankfully in deeper shadow now that the sun had moved across the sky. Had it really taken him that long to find her?
"Ardeth?"
Tense as he was he almost tripped as the familiar voice sounded behind him. He pushed Meirionnydd against the wall.
"Stay here," he said.
Turning, he saw a familiar light brown head peering timidly from within the alcove.
"Jonathan," he greeted the man with some relief.
"Ardeth, old boy, am I glad to see you!" Jonathan came out of the alcove them, smiling widely, but still looking more than a little shaken. "There are these… things wandering around."
Ardeth smiled a Jonathan waved his arms vaguely, trying to let his hands describe the creatures where his words had failed to find a name for them.
"Hundreds of them," Jonathan finished as he came back up the starts toward him.
"I think you exaggerate, my friend," he said. "My people will have taken many of them out of the camp. We will be safe, you need not worry. Come."
"No, really," Jonathan told him. "You have no idea how long I've been trying to find the way out of here before I found that little hole, or how bloody glad I am to see you."
The smaller man threw a brotherly hug around him, surprising him. He chuckled slightly and said, "I do. You said alrea…"
At first he thought that Jonathan had punched him in the stomach, but the truth dawned quickly as the burning, searing pain began spreading upward from where the contact had been. He felt himself pulled closer by the strong arms around him, and the pain worsened as Jonathan turned his hand, and twisted the knife.
"Jonathan?" he gasped.
"Now all is as it should be, First Medjai." The voice that came from Jonathan's lips was not that of the gentle Englishman that had saved his life in Ahm Shere.
Ardeth shuddered as Ancient Egyptian poured from Jonathan's lips and bit back a cry of pain as the knife was pulled free. How? How could this be? His heart contracted in another pain, this time from panic and the certainty that Jonathan was not the only friend he had lost.
He had been a fool, arrogant and careless; heedless of all
the signs that must have been around him all the time. Evelyn…
he could barely even think her name, let alone force it from his lips. Now it was even more vital that he get
Meirionnydd to safety… for if Suti were already incarnate – which must mean
that Anck-Su-Namun had the seventh bell the whole of the time she was taunting
him… then Meirionnydd, as the only living Priestess of Usert would be the only
one to oppose Her eternal brother and enemy.
"Meiri, go!" he managed to call a warning to her, and somehow draw a blade at the same time, ignoring his pain. Jonathan finally let him go and he stumbled back slightly, then finding his balance and holding his blade outstretched between them started to back down the stairs.
"Ardeth?" she questioned as he reached her side.
"Just go," he said, trying to keep his voice as steady as possible. "We need to leave now."
"But your friend," she said.
"Is no longer my friend," he took a deep breath and held in the grimace of pain. "Please, Meiri."
Still the thing that was Jonathan made no move toward them and fearing that he might not get another chance to take her to safety, he turned and took Meiri's hand to lead her the rest of the way down the stairs.
"What is it… what's wrong?" she sounded terrified… how could he tell her?
"We must return to the Medjai and get back to O'Connell," he told her, pushing her into the shadow of the doorway. "For I fear we have failed."
**
The flight to where Ardeth had left the horses had been terrifying and tortuous. They dodged bullets and he had to cut down more people than Meiri had ever imagined would fall in a single battle, but somehow he had got them to the horses, and she was barely in the saddle before he slapped her horse's rump and the two of them were riding off at speed.
She had no idea how long they had been riding before he leaned over to take her reins and pull her horse up with his to a walking pace.
"Meiri, forgive me," he said, and there was a strange catch in his voice. "That was not the rescue I had foreseen."
"What happened back there?" she asked. Fear cramped her heart as she saw him lean forward on the saddle horn and take a deep breath, which he let out unevenly. "Ardeth? Are you hurt?"
"A little," he said.
"Let me see," she tried to guide the horse closer, so that she could lean over and see where he was hurt, but he shook his head.
"When we get to the camp," he told her. "We cannot risk staying here long. They may have pursued."
"But if you're hurt…"
"I told you," he snapped. "It is nothing. I have suffered worse injuries than this!"
She watched the stiff way he sat up from where he was leaning against his saddle and doubted that he was telling the truth, but still… it had nothing of the familiarity of her dream… so she took his word and repeated her former question.
"I can only make a guess," he said, handing her the water skin from which he had been drinking. "But I believe that the shrine has been attacked again and the seventh bell taken from Evelyn."
She did not miss the note of anguish in his voice at the thought that something bad had happened to another of his friends.
"And Anck-Su-Namun used it to do something to your other friend, to Jonathan?" she asked.
He nodded and said, "Are you able to ride again? I need to get to the meeting place send riders back to check on my friends."
"This is bad isn't it?" she found herself growing suddenly cold all over her body at both the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice. She tried hard not to imagine all the things that might happen in the face of Anck-Su-Namun's evil, but she had seen too much in her visions to be able to shut out the possibilities now.
"Worse than you could ever image, hayati," he said and
turned a tearful look her way. He took
her hand and briefly raised it to his lips before setting a brisk pace toward
where he had said they would meet the other Medjai.
**
The pain was overwhelming and he had no idea how he was still able to stay in the saddle. He could barely breathe and felt he was suffocating inside the covering on his face. He reached up a hand to pull it down, and moaned when he saw that his hand, which had been pressed against his side, was covered in his blood. He tugged at his robes and found they too were wet and sticky with it.
"Meiri, I am sorry," he breathed, never intending her to hear. "They were right… the Elders were right."
He stilled his mind and let the words of the Shahadah flow into it. He whispered them to himself as they approached the oasis where the Medjai were camped. At least he had been able to get her back this far.
Relief flooded him as the horses came to a stop… now she would be safe. He swung his leg over the neck of his horse and slid more than a little gracelessly to the ground. The jolt sent new waves of pain through him, and he felt nausea creeping up to bite at his ears and he was forced to grip tightly to the saddle and lean his head against his horse's neck to wait out the pain that stole every conscious thought he ever had.
"Ardeth, you're hurt." Meiri's voice roused him and he raised his head, willing his eyes to be clearer than he knew they would be. He might have laughed at the irony of it, but for the pain, for once something that was written had turned out to be the truth.
"It is nothing," he said faintly. "Just a scratch. Let me get you down from there."
He walked as best he could to the side of Meiri's horse leaning on Marhana to give him the extra strength he needed. His horse sidestepped – no doubt smelling the blood on him. He held up his hands to grasp her waist. He meant to lift her down, but he simply didn't have the strength, and she all but fell against him.
The world tilted… began to spin and he grasped onto her, trying to stop himself from falling… but everything was fading…
**
She expected the slide from the horse to be smooth as it always was, so when he all but let her fall, she knew at once that there was something terribly, dreadfully wrong. He grasped for her suddenly and stumbled. She caught him automatically, her arm sliding around his waist.
Wet.
There was something wet against her arm and hand. She pulled it away to look at it. Panic knotted in her heart and her stomach felt as though it was falling from her toward the sand. His blood was everywhere, soaking his robes. Urgently she called toward the camp for help and became vaguely aware of black robed figures running toward them.
"Meiri…" he whispered, and sounded so far away.
"Don't Ardeth, please," she fought with tears and failed to hold them back.
As they walked toward the running figures he stumbled again and she tried to help him. He fell against her, his strength finally failing. She tried to hold him up, but she was much smaller and slighter than he was and the two of them fell to the sand.
"Ardeth, look at me," she commanded, her voice shaking as she dragged herself to her knees at his side. "Don't close your eyes!"
Tears flowed freely from her eyes when his fluttered closed. She brushed her fingers over his face and he opened them again, looking up at her – regret and apology in his expression.
"Do not…" he whispered, raising a bloodstained hand to try and catch the tears rolling down her cheek.
"Ardeth, no," she moaned.
"I am… sorry," he sighed, and lost the fight for consciousness.
His hand never made it to catch her tears, but fell against the side of her face, where she cradled it to her cheek. The Medjai finally reached their fallen leader and she felt arms lift her away from beside Ardeth as they knelt beside him. One of the men looked back up at Rashid as he held her. Meirionnydd felt as though her heart had shattered into a million tiny pieces at the look that passed between them. She started to get back to his side. "Ardeth…? ARDETH!"