Chapter 34 – Closing of the Mouth
Robert Varne wandered away from the circle of tents that made up the headquarters of the O'Connell dig. Everyone else was preparing for Deir el-Bahri. Evie was consulting a thick book on Egyptian ceremonies and the other men were gathering up the things she said she needed.
"Rob?"
At the quiet voice, Robert turned to see Tia walking toward him. He looked at her warily. "Does Bey know you're over here? If I so much as glance in your direction he looks as though he'd like to cut me to shreds."
Tia smiled slightly. "I doubt he'd do that. I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry about your father. No one else is likely to say it."
Robert nodded. "I appreciate that, Tia."
"And I'm very, very sorry it happened as it did. It wasn't your fault, Rob. You mustn't feel guilty."
"It's nice of you to say so," Robert answered, "but it doesn't change the fact that I shot him. My own father."
Tia shook her head and placed a comforting hand on his arm. "He'd ceased to be your father, Rob. The part of him that was Ramses was taking over. There was nothing you could have done to change that. If you hadn't shot him, he might have killed all of us."
Robert smiled down at her and placed his own hand over hers. "You're a wonderful girl, Tia. Come back to Cairo with me. You deserve better than to be at the beck and call of some ignorant Arab tribesman."
"I trust I'm not interrupting."
At the cold, flat statement, both Robert and Tia whirled around to see Ardeth standing there, his hand on the hilt of his sword. Tia flinched as the icy black gaze turned to her. "Tia, go assist Evie." She glanced uncertainly at Robert and left. Ardeth then turned to Robert, speaking slowly and clearly. "If you ever touch my woman again, Varne, this ignorant Arab tribesman will kill you."
Robert said nothing, merely swallowed hard as Ardeth spun on his heel and stalked away.
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It was close to midnight. The car formerly belonging to Sir Randolph Varne sat silently on a side street near the facility where the mummies were housed. Even though the car probably legally belonged to Robert now, the rest of the group had ignored that. Rick sat in the driver's seat with Ardeth beside him. The two women and Robert were in the back seat, Evie in the middle. Robert was careful not even to look in Tia's direction.
"Now, you've been in there, right Evie?" Rick asked.
"Yes," she replied. "They gave me a tour when we came down here a few years ago. Unless things have changed, the mummies are in the storeroom, which is to the rear of the building."
"How do they study them?" Tia asked.
"The storeroom opens up to a laboratory of sorts," Evie explained. "That's where they work on them. "They were working on Merneptah last I knew. I think they'd planned to do Ramses II close to last."
Rick looked carefully up and down the street, and then got out of the car. Casually he strolled to the door and bent over the lock. Two minutes later, he had the door open. Quickly they all exited the car and filed into the building.
"Amateurish," Rick sniffed.
"Don't be smug, darling," Evie said severely. "There's nothing here but the actual mummies – no gold, jewelry, treasure or anything. It's not precisely a large target for thieves."
"That was easy," Ardeth commented as he went past.
"Checkered past." Rick shrugged and followed.
Evie led the way to the storeroom in the back. The room was large and plain. The walls were painted stark white, and the floor was bare concrete. A series of large shelves took up half the space. Evie walked among the shelves, checking the tags. "Here we go," she said. "Put him on the table."
Rick and Ardeth lifted the stiff, linen wrapped bundle and carefully set it on the table on the other side of the room. "That's it?" Rick inquired.
Evie pulled out a number of items from the knapsack she'll slung over her shoulder. "That's it." She pulled out a small sharp knife and started to work at the wrappings around the mummy's face. Everyone else watched in fascination as she carefully worked the wrappings free to expose the mouth. It was, as they had expected, wide open.
"How are you going to close it?" Rick asked. "The guy is as stiff as a board."
"If necessary, I'm going to have you break his jaw." Evie replied, checking the jaws for any hint of movement.
"Let me," Ardeth volunteered. He went over to stand next to Evie.
Tia turned away and moved to the other side of the room. She didn't particularly want to watch this. Rick followed her. Tia glanced at him as he came up to stand near her. "Aren't you afraid that Ardeth is going to be angry with you for speaking to me?" she asked sarcastically.
Rick shrugged. "He trusts me."
She glared at him. "Why doesn't he trust me? I tell Rob I'm sorry about his father, and Ardeth threatens to kill him."
Rick grinned. "He's jealous as hell of him, that's why."
Tia turned to look fully at Rick. "Jealous? What on earth for?"
"Wasn't he your boyfriend?"
"Yes, but it was never all that serious." She looked at Rick curiously. She opened her mouth to say something else, but was interrupted.
"Rick, come here!"
With one last smile at Tia, Rick returned to the table where his wife was working. They'd gotten the mouth closed, and Ardeth was holding it in that position.
"Would you warm up the sap?" Evie asked. Rick lit a candle, and then held a small glass jar over it.
"What is that?" Robert asked.
"Tree sap," Evie said absently, snipping off a short piece of linen from elsewhere on the mummy.
"What are you gong to do with tree sap?" Robert asked.
"I'm going to glue his mouth shut with it. The ancient Egyptians used a kind of sap or resin during mummification." she explained. "Is it warm yet?"
"Just about," Rick answered. He handed the jar to Evie, who dipped in a flat wooden stick. Ardeth opened the mouth slightly, and Evie spread the sap with the stick, chanting in ancient Egyptian as she did so. When she finished, Ardeth eased the mouth closed again, and held it that way. Evie spread a quantity of the sap onto the small piece of linen she'd cut, and then she pasted the piece across the mummy's mouth.
"There," she said. "Now we'll just wrap him back up again."
"Did it work?" Robert asked.
Evie glanced at Tia. "I think so," she answered. "Yes, I think so."
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Author's Notes:
Again, this facility and anything about it is made up.
LatinSpaceAngel – I think Nefertari, Nefertiri, Neferteri's name is spelled several different ways. The website I got a lot of my information from spelled it Nefertari, so that's what stuck in my head. Since the movie spelled it Nefertiri, that's probably what I should have used, seeing as this is a fanfic from a movie. It was originally written in hieroglyphics anyway, so spelling it out in letters is guesswork to start with. At this point there's no way to guess what the real Egyptian queen would have preferred. :)
Shahrezad1 – You're getting ahead of me! Hang on. :)
lilylynn – Thank you for the comments, I very much appreciate them.