Flight of Souls
Chapter 14 – Homecoming
Ardeth slowed his mount to a walk as they entered the Bey encampment. Behind him, Rick and Evie did the same. Evie looked apprehensively at the people staring at them. The impassive tattooed faces of the men, the veiled faces of the women. "So, Ardeth," Rick said, nudging his horse up next to Ardeth's. "Do you get a lot of strangers here?"
Ardeth smiled slightly. "No, almost never."
Rick dropped back again. "Figured that."
Ardeth stopped in front of his grandfather's tent and dismounted, Rick and Evie following suit. A veiled woman stepped out of the tent and spoke to Ardeth in Arabic. Evie knew enough Arabic to know that she was scolding him.
"Peace, Mother," Ardeth replied. "I will explain. First, where is Tia?"
A'isha glared at him. "She is with the horses."
Ardeth leaned over and kissed his mother on the cheek through her veil. "Bring my friends in to see my grandfather. I will join you in a moment." He took the reins of his friends' horses. "This is my mother, Lady A'isha. A'isha, this is Rick and Evelyn O'Connell. My friends, please go with my mother. I will fetch Tia." Leading the three horses, he walked away.
A'isha glared after him, and then turned to Rick and Evie. "Please come with me, Mr. and Mrs. O'Connell," she said in accented English.
When Ardeth approached the horse enclosures he saw Tia in a pen with a mare and foal. She was crouched next to the small bay foal and was running her hands up and down the baby's legs. The foal was looking at her intently. "There now, sweetheart," Tia crooned. "That doesn't hurt, does it? Now let me have your foot." She put her hand on the foal's right front hoof and tried to lift it. He yanked it away and danced a few steps sideways. "Come now, love, that's silly." She moved over a few feet and stroked the foal's neck, scratching the root of his mane. "Don't be silly, little boy." Her hand stroked down the baby's shoulder and down his front leg. "I'm not going to hurt you." This time she succeeded in lifting the foot a few inches. "There we go, sweetheart!" Tia set the foot down carefully and petted the baby warmly on the neck and shoulder. "Good boy!" The foal reached out and nipped playfully at the Tia's veil, then he danced off again, this time dragging the veil with him. "What are you doing, you silly boy!" Tia laughed and tried to grab for the veil, but the foal scampered around the pen, shaking his head to make the veil flap around. The bay mare looked up briefly from the fodder she was eating to see if her intervention was required. Deciding it was not, the mare resumed her meal. The foal dropped the veil and danced away, bucking and kicking.
"High spirited, that one."
Tia spun around at the sound of the voice. "Ardeth!" She nervously pushed her dark blond hair behind her ears.
He led the three horses into an empty pen and started stripping their tack. Tia picked up her veil and tried to shake the dust from it. Giving up, she draped it over her arm and exited the foal's pen, fastening the gate behind her. Ardeth handed her one of the saddles, and she placed it on the ground outside the pen. "You had a good journey, I trust," Tia said uncertainly.
"It was eventful," Ardeth admitted, checking the gray gelding's feet before leaving the pen. He reached out and cupped Tia's face with his hand. "Will you not greet me?" Leaning down, he kissed her gently on the lips.
Tia leaned toward him and kissed him back, a little hesitantly. When he raised his head, she smiled nervously. "Welcome home, my lord."
He raised his eyebrows. "Progress, I think?" Tia just blushed and turned away. Ardeth shook his head and chuckled slightly. Taking the veil from her, he shook it out again and handed it back. "Best put this on. We are awaited in my grandfather's tent."
When they entered Lord Asim's tent a few minutes later, Tia once again properly veiled, they were greeted by Lord Asim's deep voice raised in annoyance. "Why do you bring strangers here again, Ardeth?"
Ardeth bowed respectfully. "Not entirely strangers, my lord," he replied, like Asim speaking in Arabic. He gestured to Rick, who was sitting tensely on a cushion before Lord Asim. He switched to English. "Show him your tattoo."
Rick unfastened the leather band around his wrist and displayed the tattoo on his forearm. Lord Asim's eyes widened. "The Avet tribe tattoo?" His eyes narrowed again as he turned toward Ardeth. "Why does this American man wear the tattoo of a Medjai?"
"It is a very long story, my lord," Ardeth said. "Will you listen?"
"It's longer than you think Ardeth," said Evie, rising from her seat next to Rick. She walked toward Tia, who hadn't taken her eyes from Evie since she'd entered the tent. Evie reached out and pulled Tia's veil free. "Tiye?" Evie said. "Tiye, is it really you?"
Tia felt dizzy. She reached out and grasped Evie's shoulders. The face before her seemed to change slightly – the hair becoming black rather than brown, the eyes lined with kohl, a gold filet about her brow. "I know you," she said haltingly.
"Indeed you do, sister," Evie said. She turned to see everyone in the tent gaping at them.
"Sister?" Rick said with disbelief.
"Evie, you don't mean..." Ardeth's voice trailed off.
"This woman was Princess Tiye," Evie said confidently, "a daughter of Pharaoh Seti I, and my half sister."
It was long past nightfall. The candles flickering in Lord Asim's tent cast odd shadows on the face of the old man. "So," he said in English. "You tell me that this man," he indicated Rick," is the man who killed the Scorpion King two years ago."
"Yes, grandfather," Ardeth confirmed. "He, like us all, is a descendant of the Medjai. The Avet tribe in particular."
"The man you met in Cairo, who forced Dr. Tierney to send out those archeologists, claimed to be Ramses II?"
"He did," confirmed Ardeth.
"And this woman," he indicated Evie, "is the reincarnation of Queen Nefertari?"
Evie nodded.
"And this woman," he gestured toward Tia, "is the reincarnation of another of Seti I's daughters?"
Evie answered, "Yes, sir, I believe she is." Turning to Tia she asked, "What do you remember?"
Tia shrugged. "Very little really. I have dreams sometimes of myself living in ancient Egypt. I remember people. An older man - the King, I think. You say he was my father? I remember two other men, both of whom I feared. I remember you," she said to Evie. "You were always kind to me. There was another woman, very beautiful, but not always kind. Then there was a child, a small boy."
Evie exchanged glances with Rick. "I think I can explain some of that." She began her story. As she spoke, the listeners glanced around at each other. The story was fantastic. Tia spoke up from time to time, to clarify a point, almost as if she'd only just remembered. "When Ramses returned to Thebes, I was furious with him," Evie said. "I couldn't believe he'd had you executed." She bit her lips. "I don't know if I could have convinced him otherwise," she confessed, "but I never had the opportunity to try. You were dead by the time I'd heard of it. I was able to convince him to bury you properly." Evie glanced uncertainly at Ardeth and Lord Asim. "The tomb at Tirza, that's your tomb, Tia. Yours and Horemheb's."
There was silence in the tent for several minutes. Tia sat quietly, tears streaming down her cheeks. Then she spoke, "So he had me killed in ancient times, and he tried to have me killed in this time. Why?"
Evie looked at Rick. "I think we're going to have to find out."