The heat was becoming unbearable. Even the thick walls of the villa could not keep the heat of the Egyptian sun from penetrating to the inside. The servants would set out bowls of water to increase the humidity to cool the room but with little effect. The Egyptian summer would have to be endured.
Even Carter could not continue his work in the summer heat, it was too hot for the workers, too hot for the photographers and archaeologists who were working with him. He was forced to install an iron gate and employed guards day and night to make sure no one had access to Tutankhamen's tomb.
Any thought of exploration had been abandoned. Evelyn grudgingly agreed that perhaps it would be best to postpone any digging in the Valley until the weather cooled. Roma felt a sense of relief knowing that she had won a reprieve from making any decisions about re-visiting the tomb.
Because of the heat and close quarters, she and Ardeth could find themselves at odds with each other, arguing over nothing then apologizing as quickly as the argument began. When the hot weather ended, life would return to normal and tempers would cool.
But Ardeth kept one thing from her, he did not tell her that she had developed a pale look he did not like. Her skin was usually tanned from the effects of the Egyptian sun, but now she seemed wan and sickly.
There was one thing she took comfort in, the apparition from the tomb which followed her to Cairo seemed to have disappeared. Perhaps relinquishing the jewels to the museum caused it to vanish. If any curse had been attached to them, she was sure it was gone, but the horror of what she had experienced preyed on her mind. Let it forget about me, she thought, let it forget that I exist, let it go back to the desert from whence it came. And for a while, it seemed her prayers had been answered...until.
Every night felt hot, but this night seemed hotter than the others, and Roma was finding sleep impossible. She looked resentfully at Ardeth who had grown up sleeping in tents in the desert and could sleep anytime, anywhere. She turned over, kicking at the sheets they had discarded, then finally, exhaustion sent her into a restless sleep filled with uneasy dreams.
She found herself back in the desert, wandering barefoot in sand no longer hot but comfortably warm under her feet. The night was a canopy of stars but something felt wrong, Constellations seemed inverted and corrupted, their stars jumbled and out of place. This was not right, the Egyptians believed in order and consistency, not chaos.
An animal ran in front of her, something she had never seen before and hoped she would never see again. It possessed the long ears of a fennec fox, only the snout was long and curved, unlike anything that dwelt in the desert. Then the sand began to ripple, the tell-tale sign of a sandstorm; a wind she could not feel began churning up the sand and it swirled around, obliterating the night sky.
Through the clouds and the dust devils she could see something approaching, something that looked vaguely familiar, like a nightmare she had before but forgotten. It came closer and closer, a tall, thin, figure robed all in black, only this time she could see the face that had been hidden before. The curved snout, the tall rectangular ears, the was sceptre that he held in one hand, the ankh in the other told her who stood in front of her.
It was Set himself, prideful and bragging, "I am lord of the Red Lands, the storms, strife, and the protector of warriors. You trespassed in my servant's tomb and now I will make you pay." He raised his sceptre, a ray of light, burning bright shot out and struck her and she felt like she was burning up.
In the morning, Ardeth could not rouse her. She was hot to the touch and helpless as a baby, unable to move or speak. Soon she was in the grip of a raging fever and became delirious, speaking to her absent father, often speaking in French to her long-dead mother.
Roma's illness brought an end to any ideas Evelyn had of making a trek to the tomb, but she showed her mettle as she summoned the doctor, describing Roma's symptoms to him and sent a servant to the apothecary to fetch her medicines.
"What did he say?" Ardeth inquired when the doctor left, he would have nothing to do with the Anglo doctor and would have preferred an Arab physician, or, even better, a healer from his tribe.
"A delayed reaction to the sun, or the heat, possibly combined with dealing with the shock of her father's death. He's prescribed something to lower her fever and laudanum to help her relax. Don't worry, Ardeth," she put a reassuring hand on his arm, "Go sit with her, it will make her feel better even though she's not aware you're there. The doctor said that she has passed the critical stage, she will wake soon and it will comfort her to be able to see you."
Ardeth sat by her bed, bathing her forehead with cool water. "Wake up, Roma," he told her, "Please open your eyes so I know that you are all right."
Roma lay in her bed, the room seeming to swirl about, making her dizzy when she tried to focus. Her mother sat next to her bedside, "Don't worry my little Minou," she said in her beautiful French, "You will be all right." She wrung out a cloth and placed it on her forehead, "Go to sleep," she whispered and began to hum a lullaby.
"Roma, stop this nonsense, you know your mother is dead," her father, clad in his best linen suit sat in a chair next to her, "You're just using this to avoid making a decision—will you go to the desert or not? You need to make up your mind. And you won't find anything in that tomb except darkness."
The room grew darker and her father's image faded with it. She was alone, surrounded by blackness now and her head ached unbearably. She tried to open her mouth to speak but no words would come out.
"Can't anyone hear me?" She lay helpless, trying to see in the darkness for she was afraid now of being alone. "Am I dying, am I dead? Is this the end of my life-I haven't even begun to live it."
A humming noise, like the buzz of bees, coming out of the darkness, then she recognized the rattle of sistrums. Softly spoken words broke the stillness, not spoken but chanted, and as her vision returned, she thought she could see a procession forming, like in her dream in the desert.
A woman with the head of a lioness led white-clad priestesses who sang in rhythm and shook their instruments with every step. The lioness' head slowly transformed to that of a beautiful cold-faced woman who held in her hands a bowl made of blue glass.
Sekhmet, the goddess of healing, stood before her. The goddess looked at her as if making up her mind, then handed her the bowl. "Drink," she said in a gruff voice that sounded only vaguely human.
Roma drank the bitter contents of the bowl and when she had drained it, the apparitions disappeared and she opened her eyes to see Ardeth holding her hand.
"Are you real?" she asked and he kissed her hand.
"Yes, I am," he told her and left the room, calling, "Evelyn, she's awake, she's awake."
Evelyn rushed into the room and put a hand on her forehead, "Your fever's broken, how do you feel?"
"Like I've been burned alive from the inside out. What happened to me? How long have I been like this?" She tried to sit up but Evelyn pushed her gently down onto the pillows.
"Two, almost three days," Ardeth answered, he carried a tray with a glass of water and a cup of tea. "We had almost given up hope, your fever was dangerously high but the doctor said you'd passed the crisis stage and you would be all right."
"I'll leave you two," said Evelyn and smiled at Ardeth, "Let me know when you feel like eating, I'll have the cook fix something."
"Drink," commanded Ardeth and held the glass of water to her lips, she tried to push it away, but he insisted and she drank half the glass of water, thinking that nothing had ever tasted so refreshing. She finished the other half and picked up the cup of tea.
"Ardeth, bring that map we found of the valley, and the one of Upper and Lower Egypt—it should be in my father's study."
"You can look at them later..." he started to say, then saw the look on her face. "I'll go get them." He disappeared, then returned, the maps in his hand.
She took them, spreading them out on the bed. "Look," she commanded, "Every cash my father marked is on the way to Deir El Medina." She traced the patterns of the tiny "x's". The thieves must have come from the workers' village. Those caches must be close to three thousand years old! How did the Father know where to dig? I'm sure many of them were emptied long ago, people have been digging in the valley forever. Rick will have his work cut out for him if he's serious about treasure hunting."
She set the map aside and looked at the route they had taken to Minya. "There's something about this tomb that is bothering me. Why so much attention to carving the walls but leave the ceiling unfinished? I heard from a worker that the only painted wall in Tutankhamen's tomb is in the room containing his sarcophagus. There should have been a map of the night sky and excerpts from the Book of the Dead to guide him on his journey."
Ardeth shrugged. "I don't know."
"Why didn't he want anyone to know who he was? It's not like the cult of Set died off, he still had temples in Upper Egypt, I know of one for sure in Kom Ombo. It's just that he was rather out of fashion, and had been replaced by the god Horus—gods in Egypt sometimes tended to come and go."
She pointed to a place on the map, "Here's where I think we found the tomb. Why would he have chosen an out of the way place, unless he didn't want to be found? "I think whoever this was died prematurely and his tomb was not completed. He also was a father; the two young boys must be his sons, that's the only clue to his identity. I think I remember a carving of his consort Nephthys on the wall, maybe she represented his wife.
Remember how the sun shone directly on the carving of Set like he was given life from its rays. The tomb would have been sealed but that's where the sun would have hit every afternoon. She sat back and rubbed her forehead; she was developing a tremendous headache.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"Just a headache, but I can't stop until I reach the end of my train of thought! This person must have been important, but he didn't want to be found after his death, that's why they buried him in the middle of the night. Maybe he had enemies because he had the Pharaoh's favor? This tomb is important, Ardeth, I can feel it. It needs to be recorded and then gated to keep vandals out."
She sat up, took his hand, "I need to go back to Cairo, and search the papyruses in the museum. If I can guess who his Pharaoh was, I can maybe discover his identity." She started to say more but slumped down in her bed, grasping at her pillow. "Oh, my head," she said softly.
Ardeth removed the maps, "When are you going to learn you are not invincible, Roma? You have been this way since you were a little girl."
"And you're just as stuffy and self-righteous as you always were. My head hurts, I need something for it. And send in Evelyn, I'm going to let her know that when the cold weather returns, we need to take a trip up the Nile to try to find that tomb."