"Oh my god," Roma repeated, nothing else seemed to come from her lips. She sat hypnotized by what lay before her. "Look Ardeth," she said, her beautiful face troubled, "Look at this, look, have you ever seen anything like it?"
Before her, scattered on the wads of linen and cotton, lay a myriad of jewels. Rings, bracelets, pectorals, earrings, scarabs, beaded collars, the gold they were made of catching the light of the desert sun as it rose. She picked up one piece, after another, examining each. She picked out two gold scarabs, handed them to Ardeth, saying, "Would you like these? They are so valuable they are priceless. If you sold them to the right buyer, you could supply your tribe for months, maybe even years."
He handed them back to her, "We have no use for them, there is blood on these jewels."
"Or maybe even a curse, if you believe in such things," she said absently. She picked up a bracelet finely detailed with inlays of semi-precious stones. Amethyst, carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and quartz. She turned it over, looking for a cartouche, hoping that the name of the original owner had been incorporated into its design, but there was none.
Each piece was of gold, or carved from semi-precious stone. There were scarabs carved from alabaster and turquoise, one even from amethyst. She looked on the underside of one or two, looking for the names of pharaohs and found them. Ramesses, Seti, Thutmoses, Merneptah, how many others would she find if she looked?
She picked up a scarab carved delicately of carnelian and turned it over. "Thutmoses," she read, "I think it's Thutmoses the third. Some of these jewels go back to the Eighteenth Dynasty, that's the New Kingdom. Some of the tombs may have lain untouched until the robbers entered them. These are valuable for more than their financial value, they're a part of the history of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom." She replaced the jewels into their packing and wrapped the canvas around them, binding it with the twine.
She looked at the other bundle, it was bigger and bulkier, but less heavy. "What is in that one?" Ardeth asked, his curiosity aroused.
She said nothing but untied the twine that bound the canvas wrapping. There were more layers of linen pads and cotton, extra care had been taken in packing. Her slender fingers pulled away at the last of the wrappings, then she sat back, unwilling to believe what sat before her eyes.
It was a diadem decorated by the cobra's head worn by the pharaohs; she had seen the pictures but she had never seen the actual article. It was made of the finest gold, inlaid with the same stones as the other artifacts, and surprisingly heavy.
"Look Ardeth," she breathed, "It's called a seched diadem, it's probably over three thousand years old and the only one of its kind in existence. All the others have been broken up, the jewels removed, and the gold melted. What you see here is so valuable that it's priceless, collectors would give anything they own to possess it. I know of several collectors I could call and they'd be more than willing to pay whatever price I named."
"Do you think your father planned to sell it?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I think and I intend to prevent it. Pierre Lacau is the Director of Antiquities at the Egyptian Museum and I'm going to turn these over to him. Father might be angry but I don't care." She set the diadem on the pile of cotton and linen it had been packed in. "I don't know what Father was thinking, he knows better. It makes me wonder if someone approached him and offered a sum of money so great that he threw aside common sense and morality and gave in."
"I thought your father would be above something like that."
"I thought so, too. The thing is, we don't need the money so I wonder what made him even consider it. If Lacau knew he would be furious and pull Father's concession for next year, he may even bar him from any further excavating in Egypt. Egypt is his life, why would he do something to risk it?"
"Perhaps the gold put a madness on him? Gold can make men do foolish things."
"Yes, I know, we don't need the money, we're already wealthy. I help to handle the financial matters of the estate, if something was wrong, I would know. Father handed over control of our financial affairs to me because he said I was much better at it than him."
She let out a noisy breath, "That's what makes this so strange. He'd be a fool to try to remove these jewels from Egypt, and he knows it's wrong to do it. Now I've got to get these to Lacau and see if my father is in some kind of trouble." Or if he's gone mad, she thought.
He helped her re-pack the diadem and placed it and the other bundle on the camel. "I wish I'm never seen this," she told him, "But I realize I needed to know. We need to get to Cairo as soon as we can, and I want to confront Father. I'm not going to settle for half an answer, he is going to have to tell me what is going on."
Ardeth had only planned to go as far as Minya with her and get her on the boat. Now she felt afraid, fearing that her troubles would not end with her arrival in Cairo. What she carried was too valuable, if anyone suspected what she carried she would find herself in jeopardy.
In the brief time, they had spent in the desert she had come to depend on him. With him, she felt protected and secure. She had never envisioned needing anyone, it had always been the other way around—people depended on her. Her father depended on her; she was the one who made sure that the digs ran smoothly. She hired the best diggers, made sure they were fed, saw to it that they were paid on time. Her father lived only to excavate; he was intelligent but his skills as an administrator were no match for hers.
Ardeth said looked at her closely, "Are you all right?"
"No, no I'm not. If I had any idea of what he was up to I would have turned him down. How dare he place me in danger like this?"
"He knows that I know the desert well, and the tribes that live here," Ardeth replied. "There are always bandits, but this stretch of desert is so barren that they do not frequent here—much," he corrected himself. "I sent out word that we would be traveling through here, I think if there is trouble, we will have help."
"What about the danger that isn't human? We weren't alone in that cave, what if whatever was in there knew about the jewels? What if it decided it wanted them, what if it attached itself to us?"
His hand reached out and touched her shoulder, "You must not think that. We will avoid sleeping in any more tombs. We only have a few more days and will reach Minya and you will be out of the desert and safely on your way to Cairo."
"Will you come with me, please? I know you want to return but I am afraid and I don't want to be alone. You know I would not ask you this, but I truly need you. Please stay with me until I can turn over my cache to Lacau. Ardeth, for the first time in my life I am afraid to be alone!"
"I will come with you," he answered, "I won't you leave you alone, I fear for your safety. I will stay at your house in Cairo with until your father returns, I think that your father may have put you both in danger."
That afternoon exhausted as she was, she could not sleep. When she tried to close her eyes, she would see images from the cave and remembered the hidden eyes that seemed to follow her every move. Even when she drifted off the sleep, she would wake, fearing what she might see in her dreams.
She fell asleep late in the afternoon but while she slumbered, she heard eerie voices wailing in the wind that had sprung up. Wails, cries, and whispers mingled with the voices, calling to her, trying to draw her to them and if she listened, she knew she might be lost forever.
She opened her eyes to see a tall black hooded figure standing at the foot of her cot. He held something in his hand that he aimed at her, and when she saw the white light emanating from it, she began to scream.
Ardeth seemed to jump out of his cot, "What is wrong, why are you screaming?"
"Can't you see it?" she asked, her voice quivering as she struggled not to yield to hysterics, "He was there, there, there at the foot of my cot."
Ardeth put his arms around her shoulders, "Look," he said, his voice gentle but firm, "There is nothing there, you were only having a bad dream. You have barely slept all afternoon and we have a long trek tonight; I want to get you to Minya as soon as I can." Even in the gloom of tent, violet shadows showed under her eyes. "You are exhausted from the heat; your father never should have sent you on this fool's errand. Try to rest, I will wake you in a few hours."
That night he insisted that she ride with him, he was too fearful that she would fall if she tried to ride alone. Rocked by the gentle rhythms of the camel's gate she soon fell asleep and did not wake until they halted for a brief meal.
The few hours of sleep she'd gotten refreshed her and she was able to mount her camel for the rest of their night's ride. That afternoon her sleep was still restless, but the nightmares seemed to abate the further they grew away from the cave and she tried her best not to think about the cargo they carried.
They finally arrived at the outskirts of Minya. Though it was nothing but a small town, the Nile ferries still docked there and took on passengers. She found a small inn where she could rest for the night while Ardeth booked passage for them to the port of Cairo.
Though it was forbidden for a white woman to sleep in the same room as a Bedouin, he spent the night with her, relieved that her sleep was restful at last. They transferred the jewels to her saddlebags, making sure that the door locked securely and that she would not have to carry them around with her.
"No one knows, anyway, I think. We leave tomorrow, yes? I'm going to buy fresh clothes in town, for you as well as me. You'll look just like another digger, except for your tattoos, only cleaner and better dressed. They'll think I'm just another mem-sahib and you work for me."
"I work for you, oh yes I do, mem-sahib." He put his arms around her and held her close, he was not looking forward to his return to the desert and it bothered him. They had grown close during this journey his feelings for her had taken an unexpected turn. This was a thing that could not be and he knew it, but what he felt for the archaeologist's daughter was turning to love and he did not know what to do about it.