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Everything seemed to be happening so slowly, as if everyone in the room was moving through thick, sticky honey. Evelyn mouthed the last words of the chant. Rick leaped forward, his arm outstretched as if to catch the dagger on its downward stroke. Jonathan and Ardeth, both closer to Osiris, reached for his arm as it swung. Alex shrank back, crying out. Osiris slashed with the dagger.

A flash of light came from the tomb as it opened, blinding them all for a moment, and when it was gone and only the lights of the candles remained in the small room, everything had changed.

Rick and Osiris were grappling for the dagger. Jonathan had been struck by Osiris's arm and swept toward the open mouth of the tomb. He stood on the edge of it now, looking down into its gleaming depths. Rana had come around the corner from the corridor and was looking toward the tomb with avid curiosity. Evelyn had finished the incantation and was hastening toward Jonathan to keep him from doing anything foolish.

And Alex lay on the ground, her head cradled on Ardeth's lap, a spreading stain of blood across the front of her shirt.

Rick was no stranger to hand-to-hand combat, but he had to admit Osiris was better at it than he had expected, wiry and strong and agile. He kept trying to get a firm hold on the man and finding that Osiris had twisted out of it before he could set his grasp. Rick wanted to know what was wrong with Alex, to help Evelyn pull Jonathan back from the edge of the tomb before he did something they would all regret, but he couldn't let Osiris go. He had to trust that Ardeth would take care of Alex and Evelyn would take care of the necklace and Jonathan. That kind of trust wasn't something Rick had ever developed before; he had never known anyone he could trust to have his back, not the way Ardeth and Evelyn did. But he had to now—all their lives depended on him winning this combat, or at the very least on him keeping Osiris occupied long enough for Evelyn to close the tomb again.

Evelyn reached Jonathan just as he was taking the first step down into the tomb. "No, Jonathan!" She grasped his arm and hauled him back from the entrance.

"But, Evie—" He resisted her grasp, his eyes fixed on the glow that came from inside the tomb. "Who knows what we might find down there. The treasures of Egypt!"

"Artifacts," Evelyn whispered. "Papyrus. Records." She looked over Jonathan's shoulder, caught in her own turn by the possibilities that lay there, just beneath her feet. What harm could there be, really? After all, no harm had ever come from just putting on a necklace, had there? Just taking a few steps down to see what was there? She was an adventurer now, an explorer like her mother and her father—surely she had an obligation just to look …

But Rana was there first, slipping by the two Carnahans as they wrangled to be the first to descend. Her eyes were fixed ahead of her, as if she was in a trance.

"Rana!" Evelyn reached for her, fingers closing on the delicate fabric of Rana's sleeve.

Her eyes clearing somewhat, Rana seemed to focus on Evelyn's face for a moment. "It calls me."

"What calls you?"

But Rana was no longer listening. Whatever voice she was hearing from the depths of the tomb was all she was aware of, her head turning away from Evelyn to gaze into the depths.

"Jonathan, help me," Evelyn pleaded even as Rana tugged her sleeve from Evelyn's grasp and continued her slow, deliberate movements down the stairs into the tomb.

But he was no help, caught himself by the dull shine from the bottom of the stairs, and some kind of—was that music? Evelyn turned her head to look, listening hard. She could almost make out words, if she … The necklace glowed in her hand. Slowly her foot reached out, finding the next step down, and she followed the music, Jonathan at her side and Rana just below her.

Rick evaded a blow from Osiris, landing a quick punch of his own. It had little effect, he noticed, and when he tried to push Osiris back, wanting to move him away from the tomb, it was harder than it had been before. Was it possible that Osiris was getting stronger? How—

Then he realized that Osiris was muttering something under his breath, a chant of some kind.

"Evelyn!" he called desperately over his shoulder. "Evelyn! The tomb! You have to close the tomb!"

Slowly it came to Evelyn that someone was calling her name. The music was louder now, getting louder with every step she took deeper into the tomb, but whoever was calling her was more urgent, and she turned her head to see who it was.

Then it all came flooding back. Rick, and the tomb, and Osiris. She had to get the tomb closed. Grasping Jonathan's sleeve, she tugged him back up the stairs after her.

He blinked, looking confused. "What the—Evie, what?"

"The tomb. Something in it was … enchanting us," she told him.

"But—" Jonathan looked down. "Rana!"

Evelyn followed his gaze. The other woman was nearly at the bottom of the steps. Jonathan started down after her. Catching his shoulder, Evelyn said, "There's no time!"

"I have to, Evie." He gripped her wrist for a moment. "It'll be all right. Start the incantation."

She looked in a panic between Rick, who was slowly being overpowered by Osiris, and Jonathan, darting down the steps toward Rana, and she held up the necklace, beginning the incantation that would seal the tomb again. It was hard to resist the temptation to read extra slowly, to be absolutely certain every syllable was correct, but Rick couldn't hold out that long. She would have to trust Jonathan to be fast.

Rick could hear Evelyn's clear voice reciting, and so could Osiris. He punched Rick in the jaw, blinding pain filling Rick's head, and leaped for Evelyn. She dodged, her voice faltering a little, giving Rick the chance to catch Osiris's robes and pull him back.

From the tomb, Jonathan appeared slowly, dragging Rana step by step back out.

Hurry, Jonathan. Hurry, Evelyn thought, trying to keep her voice steady and even while she was watching Jonathan and Rick in turn, afraid for both of them. She didn't dare look toward Ardeth's bent head or Alex in his arms. Not now. Not yet. Not until it was over.

With a last convulsive movement as she came to the end of the incantation, Osiris hurled himself out of Rick's grasp and down the steps. The flash of light came again, and the slab rose into the air, neatly replacing itself where it had been. Jonathan and Rana sprawled on the ground near the terrified digger, who hadn't moved a muscle this whole time, and appeared as though he never wished to move again.

Rick took a single long step and drew Evelyn into his arms, holding her tight. "Sweetheart, are you all right?"

"I'm fine." She laid her fingers gently on what would soon be a purple bruise along his jaw. "Are you all right?"

He nodded, keeping an arm around her while they both turned to look down at Ardeth. The medjai bent over Alex, whispering in his own tongue, words that Evelyn wondered if he had ever spoken to a woman before. It was too late to speak them now; they could all see the pool of blood beneath Alex's prone body. Her eyes were open, looking beseechingly up into Ardeth's face, but the light was fading from them.

They had stopped Osiris, sealed him up in the tomb until the next person was foolhardy enough to try to open it … but at what a terrible cost. Evelyn buried her face in Rick's shirt and wept.