I'm going to buy sticky-notes, write the dates of my next updates, and then stick them to my bedroom door – maybe that way, I'd update on time!

Disclaimer: I own everything you don't recognise.

Princess of the Nile

Chapter 8: The Mystery

Emira twitched back the flap of the tent and peered out through the small gap. Light was just beginning to creep away from the tented area, many of the others who currently occupied the village were beginning to set up fires or gather children to eat and retire to their beds. A small smile crept over the young woman's face as she slunk out of the tent and walked quietly around the backs of the other around it, finally coming to a stop outside one, she was just pulling back the tent flap when a voice halted her

"I thought Haji said you weren't to leave your tent?"

"Has he being telling you everything?" she asked in reply, letting the tent flap fall from her hand and turning to face Ardeth

"Possibly." he crossed over the short distance between them and took one of her hands, looking at the bandaged fingers "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Did I have to?" Emira replied harshly, pulling her hand from his grasp

"Emira." Ardeth said slowly "Don't be difficult. We're not children any more."

"We haven't been children in a long time, Ardeth." Emira pointed out sadly "You became Med-jai leader at the age of twenty, I was dragged away from my home at fourteen. We have to grow up fast if we want to survive."

"What are you doing up?" Ardeth asked, ignoring Emira's statement "Haji said you've got a fever, you should be moving around to much."

"I'm fine." Emira replied, a small smile came to her face "Besides, I haven't washed in over a month. I must stink up a storm!" Ardeth laughed and pulled her close for a second before pushing her gently into the tent they were in front of

"You're right, you do." He laughed from outside "I want you back in your tent straight afterwards, Haji will murder you if he finds you out."

"Git" Emira whispered softly before laughing, she heard Ardeth's deep laugh from the other side and knew he had heard her.

X

Ardeth walked away from Emira and his mood dropped again, a frown going to his face as he trudged further across the village to his own tent. The meeting with the Elder's had gone well – perhaps a little too much – as they were doubling security on Hamunaptra, constant watches all the time, and putting those in the main cities on guard, so that they would know as soon as if anyone so much as breathed the word Hamunaptra or Chione.

There was something else that bugged Ardeth. Emira had, without doubt, been in Egypt for a week at the least, probably two. Yet no-one had noticed the young Med-jai woman. None of the people he had up in the cities had breathed one word about the well known spirited woman who had – up until nine years before – been the most talked about girl in the village. She was labelled a trouble maker by parents and strange by the other girls, and she had made sure to live up to those words. Ardeth doubted that she would not have been forgotten in the time she'd been away from them. The chance that none of the Med-jai in the cities, especially Cairo, had not seen her whilst she'd been there was almost non-existent. At least Fareed should have seen her.

Something just didn't add up.

Ardeth shook his head, letting the thoughts from his mind, and nodded to two of his men as they walked past him to go to their posts for the nights watch. Even in the desert you had to be ready for an attack at any time. He smiled to himself, realising that as soon as Emira was well enough, she would start training again, she wouldn't like the fact that the men were so much better than her at what they all did best just because she'd been away for nine years. And it would give him the perfect opportunity to talk to her, find out what had been going on in the past nine years.

He also needed as much information from her as possible about Chione. Perhaps it would help if they went out there, so she could show him and the others the exact place that Chione was buried, so they could be sure that no-one would get to her.

After all, the Imhotep incidents were still fresh on everyone's minds.

"Ardeth?" the voice broke Ardeth from his thoughts and he turned to see Haji standing nearby "Have you seen Emira? She's not in her tent."

Ardeth smiled at the worry on Haji's face for their wild friend

"She's cleaning up. Can't stand being dirty for another minute." He laughed. Haji broke into a grin and nodded

"I want to check on her hands." He said "And her arm, if what she's said is correct, she's had that wound there for several weeks, it needs looking at properly."

Ardeth nodded, distracted, realising something else. Emira had been locked up in the pyramid, fairly far back, and tied to a post to ensure she couldn't escape. Her captures knew of her claustrophobia. It wasn't information she gave lightly. In fact, the only people who knew of her fear were her brothers, her father, Haji and Ardeth. Yet she had been locked in the pyramid in such a way that it almost proved perfectly that her captures had know of her fear.

Something wasn't right.

"Ardeth?" the voice came again, and Ardeth snapped from his daze to see Haji looking at him worriedly

"I was thinking." Ardeth said by way of apology. Haji nodded

"You keep getting distracted, and you have that look about you. Like you're going to do something incredibly brave and smart, but very stupid as well." They both shared a grin "I'll leave you to your thoughts." Haji added "I'm going to check on Emira and make her eat something before sending her back to her tent." he nodded to Ardeth and walked off, leaving the Med-jai leader to get wrapped in his thoughts once again.

X

Emira stepped back into the cool night air three-quarters of an hour later, much of the dirt gone from her body, her face red from scrubbing and her hair damp. She'd barely gone a few yards before a hand lay softly on her shoulder and, unconsciously, Emira spun around and punched the person behind her

"Haji!" she yelped as her friend let out a small moan "I'm so sorry! I just forget where I was! You startled me! I'm so-"

"Calm down Emira." Haji replied with a small smile, wiping the sliver of blood from his nose "I'm sorry I startled you."

"Should have been prepared for that, Haji." Emira said with a mocking grin, obviously over her initial shock "Med-jai. Should have been ready to block."

"I didn't expect my friend to punch me in the face." Haji reminded her "But I'll keep it in mind for next time. Maybe you should remember that you should also have been prepared for someone coming up behind you. After all… you are Med-jai." He smirked and Emira laughed in reply

"Good come-back my friend." She said, shaking her head and letting her golden blonde hair whip around her head like rats tails "I hate my hair when it's wet." She grumbled, pulling a face and she picked up a few strands and pulled them across her face, inspecting them with disgust written in her features.

"Come Emira." Haji said after watching her for a couple of seconds "I need to re-bandage your hands and your arm, and you need to eat."

"Alright." She mumbled, distracted. Haji shook his head, Emira and Ardeth were alike when they got lost in thought. Not bothering to call her from her thoughts, Haji gently took Emira's arm and dragged her after him. That seemed to do the trick, for she gasped and started to let loose a string of mild curses in English

"Calm down Emira.," he said after a few moments "What would your father say if he heard you springing that lot?"

"If you'd been rudely dragged from your thoughts by someone you'd be yelling to!" Emira said hotly, though she smiled and winked at her friend. He merely shook his head and released her arm, they had come up before a fairly large fire, where a pretty young woman sat with two young children in her lap, a third at her feet and a cooking pot on the flames.

"Damathat." Emira said with a smile, nodding to the woman. Damathat looked up and nodded her reply, her eyes searching Emira's face.

"Emira?" she questioned eventually. Emira nodded and Damathat laughed "I barely recognised you then! Please, sit down." Emira took up the offer and sat opposite the other woman, inwardly grinning as the children took secretive and curious looks at her

"It's been a while Dama." She said "I can forgive you." Damathat laughed and brushed her long black hair back, pushing her children from her lap and leaning forwards to the fire

"You'll stay and eat with us, yes?" she asked, Emira glanced at Haji and nodded

"Seems your husband is ordering me to." She told Damathat. The woman whipped her heads to the side and glared at her husband as he stepped from a tent, a bowl and some cloths held in his hand

"Don't give me that look." He said quickly "She needs to eat, and I want to sort out her wounds. Why not kill two birds with one stone?"

"Because," Emira stated simply "That's plain lazy." Damathat giggled as Haji rolled his eyes and threw the cloths at Emira.

"Don't be difficult." He said, sitting down close to her and placing the bowl at his feet

"You ruin all my fun" Emira replied quickly. Passing him the bandages that he'd thrown at her. He caught hold of her hand before she could pull them back. Rolling his eyes at her glare he started to clean off one hand. Damathat leaned over his shoulder and studied what her husband was doing for a moment before getting a close look at Emira's face and hissing in sympathy

"Somehow," she stated, moving back and pulling one of her children into a protective embrace "I believe that the people who did that to you got something a lot worse."

"You're right there then." Haji replied to his wife "Those who got away from us ended up in the desert." Damathat shook her head and busied herself with what was in the pot as Haji cleaned Emira's other hand.

"So…" Emira said in the silence, looking towards the three children "Haji. You didn't tell me you had children as well." Haji gave her a swift grin

"Annipe, my eldest, is seven." He told her "Manu is five and Mesi is two."

"They're lovely" Emira said, gazing towards them

"Do you have anyone in England for you Emira?" Damathat asked, picking up a bowl and spooning the some of the contents of the pot into it. Emira blushed and shook her head

"Oh no." she said "I haven't had much luck with men. They just don't like me." She stuck her tongue out at Haji and rolled her eyes "I'm okay with it. I don't need them." Haji's laugh rang across the camp and Emira hit him on the arm. He caught hold of the offending arm and put his hand to the neat, but slightly damp, bandage that were there.

"I need to check your wound." He said "I'm not happy with it."

"Not happy?" Emira frowned as she watched him unwrap the bandage "What do you mean – not happy?" Haji didn't reply straight away, but nodded when he exposed the wound, showing that it was still bleeding slightly

"How old is this?" he asked gently, running a finger along the red skin that surrounded it. Emira hissed and winced as his finger came into contact with the skin and then shrugged

"Four days, give or take." She said "I'm not really sure, stuck in a room, couldn't really tell."

"How did you get it?" Haji questioned. Emira chewed her lip in thought

"I think, one of the men stuck me with a knife, trying to getting information out of me. I don't know." Haji gave her a stunned glance but then turned back to her arm

"It needs stitches Emira." He said "And I think it's infected as well, Annipe." He called to his eldest daughter "Go and get my bag from the tent, please?" the seven year old nodded and ran into the tent, appearing seconds later with a large leather bag in her hands. She passed it to her father silently, he eyes fixed on Emira

"Hey there." The woman said gently, "I'm Emira, I'm a friend of your mum and dad's." The young girl nodded, putting a finger to her mouth, she swayed gently, eyes locked onto Emira's and then grinned

"You're pretty." She said suddenly, before running off behind her families tent. Emira smiled after her and then turned her head towards Haji, who was watching her with amusement

"She's right." He said, busying himself with a needle and thread "Even with all the bruises anyone can see you're beautiful."

"Haji!" Damathat spoke sharply, though a smile played at her lips "Stop flirting with Emira! You've got a wife and children."

"Sorry Dama." He husband replied, ducking his head to hide his smile

"Here Emira." Damathat crouched beside the woman and held out a bowl for her "I'm betting this is something you haven't had in a while."

Emira accepted the bowl happily and quickly dug in, finishing the spicy food within minutes she grinned

"Can't say I've had a meal like that in nine years." She said "Thank you Damathat. Haji. I hope we can do this again sometime." She stood, waved to the quiet children, and walked through the dark back to her tent.

"You're a tricky person to find, Emira." A low voice said as she tugged the tent flap open. With a startled yell, she let go of the material as though she'd been stung and span on her heel

"Fareed!" she yelped "Mind not scaring me half to death?" A white toothed smile was given to her in reply and her younger brother stepped forwards, catching her arm and studying her face carefully

"You need to calm down sister." He said "There was a time when you would have continued on and then thrown sand in my eyes."

"There was a time when you were going to become a warrior." Emira replied coolly "Now, excuse me, I'm going to bed. She wrenched her arm from his grasp and turned into her tent. Fareed strode off into the dark, smirking.

Next update: And I'm sticky-noting it to my bedroom door. Chapter 9 will be up on Sturday 6th May, I hope!