Roma was dreaming.
It had been a long day and it had been hard to see Rick McConnell leave. "Don't worry," he told her, "I'll be back with enough dynamite to blow that tomb to kingdom come."
"Good," she said and started wandering towards the tomb when she thought she heard screams coming from the pavilion. Inside it should have been quiet but she thought she heard the words "help me help me help me" distinctly coming from the mummy's coffin. She came closer, put her ear next to it, but heard nothing.
Evie was still trapped.
"Come out, Evie, come out," she said, "We're waiting for you." And then came a rustling noise from the bandages inside the coffin. A gentle wind began to blow through the pavilion, dust, and bits of decayed linen flying through the air. And then the coffin seemed to move.
Roma woke up and ran, barefoot, through the burning sand to the pavilion. Nothing, nothing was happening, no rustling, no breeze blowing dust through the air. She stood over the coffin, crying, "Evie, tell me, how can I free you?" Then, with a heavy heart, she headed back to her tent.
Evie felt the pain as the blade, pierced a heart that was not her heart. As she felt the blade, she felt herself sucked down into a vortex. A thick black silence enveloped her, and she could feel something pulling at her, ripping her from the remains of the husk of the body that had held her captive.
A brilliant light illuminated the darkness and she felt herself being propelled towards it. A beautiful female appeared, resplendent in a white pleated linen robe and an ostrich feather headdress stood before her. "It's not your time," a voice said in a language she should not be able to understand but did, "You don't belong here, it's time you returned to the land of the living where you belong."
A great blast of air propelled her into the light, and she found herself struggling to escape a space far too small for her. Dry linen, centuries-old enveloped her and she fought it, ripping it away, tearing ancient bandages that had wrapped a body long ago that was not hers.
"Help," she cried out, "Someone help me," but no one answered—could anyone hear her? Did anyone know or care she was suffocating? After an interminably long time, she thought she could hear footsteps running toward her though she had no idea where she was.
"Evie!" she heard a female voice scream, "Evie, oh Ardeth help me, help me free her."
Her unseeing eyes could perceive nothing, and she realized her head was wrapped in bandages that someone was pulling from her head.
Someone was cutting the bandages from first her head, then ripping them away from her body. The space that had confined her had been small, inhibiting her ability to breathe air into lungs that had been deprived of oxygen. The light that was hitting her eyes was unbearably bright after the long darkness and she tried to cover them with hands that were almost unable to fulfill the function.
Roma saw Evie's struggle and took a scarf from around her neck and gently bound it over Evie's eyes. "Your eyes will adjust, they have just been deprived too long of light. You're frightened now, but it will pass. Rick will return in a few days and all will be well, you will see."
"Who are you?" Evie's mouth and tongue were having trouble forming words. She wondered desperately if anyone could hear or understand her. "Where am I? I was in the palace of Ramesses and…" her voice trailed off, she was no longer certain of who she was or where she was. Something told her these people, these voices should be familiar, but her memory was failing her although in her mind there was a tiny kernel that said, "Yes, you are where you belong."
'We've got to get her to a hospital, Ardeth, although I do not know how I could explain this. They might think her mad, though she's no less mad than I am after all of this. I just wish I could know that she's all right."
"Rick will be back soon, maybe seeing him will stir her memory. Be patient, her memory may return. How could she explain to a doctor that she was held captive in another's body against her will, and a member of Ramesses III court no less? Give her a few days and if she does not improve then we take her to the hospital."
"You may be right," she answered him, "Help me get her to her tent so I can put her to bed. I'll have Omar make some chicken broth for her and a strong cup of tea. I don't know if she has had any nourishment during her ordeal, she looks like she has lost weight. Her cheekbones were never this prominent, and her eyes never looked sunken or hollow like this."
Ardeth lifted her, dismayed at how Evie seemed to weigh almost nothing. He carried her, an anxious Roma at her side, to the tent she shared with Rick and laid her on the bed. Roma had one of the boys that helped them bring a bowl of water and a cloth and began to bathe her, wiping away the traces of the dust and decayed linen. She dressed her in a linen nightgown and poured a cup of water and lifted it to Evie's lips.
"Drink," she told her, "You are dehydrated and must replenish the fluids in your body. The water is a little stale, but it is all we have."
Evie did as she was told and, obedient as a child drank from the glass that Roma held to her lips. She looked at her, as if studying her, "I think I should know who you are but I cannot remember your name."
Thank god, Roma thought, then told her, "Yes, we know each other well. My name is Roma, we have been excavating a tomb together. Your husband has gone to get us some supplies and will return soon." I won't fill you in on all the details, that will have to do for now.
"My husband," Evie said thoughtfully, "Yes, I have a husband but he…no, that was not me, that was her."
"Don't think about that, Evie," Roma told her, "That was a dream time, your husband's name is Rick and he loves you very much. You have a son named Alex, he's in boarding school in England."
"Do you have a husband, Roma?" Evie asked.
Oh no, Roma thought, please tell me she has not lost so much of her memory, what if she is not all right after all?
"No husband, but there is someone-Ardeth-Bey, he has been helping us with the dig."
"Ardeth, Ardeth, the Bedouin, yes, he is your lover," Evie said triumphantly.
"Yes, he is," Roma smiled, "I hope this means your memory is coming back, just, please be patient. If you need me for anything, just call me, someone will hear you and tell me." She kissed her cheek and left the tent as slowly as she could before she began to run.
The rumble of the engine of the Land Rover greeted her ears. Rick was back, had he been able to obtain the dynamite? She saw Ardeth talking to him and together they lifted wooden boxes out of the Land Rover's back.
She was out of breath, panting heavily. "The dynamite, did you get the dynamite, Rick?" He smiled grimly as he hefted a box.
"Yes," replied Rick, "Dynamite, and fuses, and timers, everything we could need and more. There will be nothing left of this damned tomb once I am through with it."
"Well, let me give you some good news. We have Evie back! Her memory is a little shaky but improves by the minute. Go see her, I am sure she will be glad to see you."
Rick set down the box and ran to the tent.
"Are you sure she will recognize him?" Ardeth asked her, "Her memory is not back, you said, what if she doesn't recognize him?"
"She loves him," Roma answered, "She may not recognize him at first, but I am sure, well, almost sure, that seeing him may trigger her memory. She was starting to recognize me and remembered that you and I are together. If she doesn't recognize Rick at first, if he is patient enough to talk to her, and remind her of who they are together, it may shake her out of whatever has taken her over. What she went through must have been traumatic."
"Do you still intend to burn the coffin?" Ardeth asked her.
"Yes, I do, and I want Evie to be there when I do it. If it upsets her, I'll have Rick take her away, but I want her to know that it can't hold her prisoner again. I don't know how strongly being taken by the mummy affected her, how strong the link was—we may never know."
What she didn't tell Ardeth was she did not know if Evie would try to fight what they planned to do.
The workmen carried the boxes to the entrance of the tomb, then everyone sat and waited. And waited.
After what seemed an interminable time, Rick finally appeared. "Roma," he asked, "What is wrong with Evie? She seemed to recognize me after a while, but it was like I was talking to a stranger. It looks like her, it speaks with her voice, but I know my wife and that is not her."
"I noticed that too. I think it's because of what happened. She was taken over, mentally and bodily, maybe she's physically free but mentally? I don't know about these things, but I think once the mummy that entrapped her and the tomb are destroyed she will go back to her old self." At least I hope, she thought, if not, I will blame myself for this for the rest of my life for destroying hers.
Rick O'Connell was accustomed to using dynamite as a weapon, but the task that lay before him was something he had never done before. He would have to create a network along the walls, not unlike a spider's web, that would cause the tomb to implode, collapsing upon itself. If it worked, all that would be left was a pile of rubble and a space in the cliffs. If it worked.
Ardeth and Roma supervised the workmen as they placed everything had found while excavating into the tomb. The coffins, the skeletons, the ushabtis, and bits of jewelry were placed in the coffin in the tomb's center.
"All this work," said Roma, "And I had such high hopes. This is a tomb like no other. And these skeletons deserve better but I don't want to take any chances. I've got to destroy any link to whatever dwells in this tomb. I hope that destroying his tomb will mean I've destroyed his house of eternity and his spirit will have to leave.
"Where do you think he will go?" Ardeth rubbed her back with his brown hand, not liking the tautness of her muscles.
"Maybe his spirit will disintegrate, that's what I'd like. Maybe she's out there waiting for him and he'll find her. I don't care what happens to him, I resent him, Ardeth. Do you think I want to destroy this tomb? I don't, but I have to. If he'd left Evie alone it would be all right, but he didn't. I'm doing this to save her, it's got to work, if it doesn't, I don't know what I'll do.