BUSINESS

Summary: The wife of the curator of the British Museum meets Med-Jai warrior Ardeth Bay. Ardeth, OC.

Category: Angst, drama, romance.

Rating: M

Author's note: Any feedback will be treasured for the rest of my life, and keep me going. Let me also reiterate that none of the "facts" in the following chapter is real, and that I'm just making random stuff up for the sake of plot.

Chapter Thirteen

"Ardeth, do you believe in God?" she asked him as he raised himself from the bathtub.

The suds and water sloughed off of the planes of his chest, the broad pectorals emblazoned with blue-black tattoos of triangular claws. Thin lines of scars, some pale and some red, thatched his sun-darkened skin. The bullet wound rose from the hollow of his collarbone, and the water tumbled in rivulets around it as though it were an island.

"Where do you think you're going, Med-Jai?" She pushed at his chest with her foot; he splashed back to his place opposite her, and the water brimmed over the edges of the tub. "You can stay for at least an hour longer."

Under the surface, his hand traced circles over her knee.

She said: "You haven't answered my question."

"Why do you ask, my inquisitive friend?"

"Because at this moment my husband and my son are three miles away, praying to God and singing his praises from a hymn book. So do you believe in God? The one inside that church?"

"Yes. I also believe that Allah has many names, and resides in many places. The pyramids were not built for man's glory alone."

"Then you must believe in the ancient Egyptian myths too."

"Only they are not so ancient," he replied, and smiled. "What about you?"

"No." She studied him, studied his brown eyes that were flecked with green in the sunlight soaking through the window. "Will you preach to me now?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Mere preaching will not turn unbelievers into believers, or believers into unbelievers."

"You won't talk to me about Allah? You won't tell me how you've seen him in the desert? Or how he rescued you from that bullet that could have gone into your heart and killed you?"

The smile lingered upon his lips. "No."

"I'm damned, aren't I?" she said. "Either way I'm damned. If there is a god, I'll be burning in hell for this, and if there isn't, then all of this won't matter, and I'll be rotting in the ground with the worms, and so will you."

His face was now somber; he held her gaze until she couldn't bear it any longer, and she turned to stare at a lone soap bubble that was floating in the water between them, and when she spoke, her throat was sore with the thorn that had snagged inside of it. "I've been thinking lately. Am I a bad woman, Ardeth Bay?"

"Marjorie," he said, and nothing more. He sat up and glided to her, and gathered her to his chest, and enclosed his arms around her. She noticed how his palm was smoothing over the flaring red bruise on the base of her neck that fifteen minutes ago he had caused by scraping his teeth against her in his climax. She let her gaze travel to his eyes, and saw that they were bright, and rimmed with red.

And this frightened her, somehow, more than anything.

"Ardeth, really. It's not so bad."

He touched his mouth to the wound.

"It'll go away in a few hours. I'll wear a scarf. Nobody will notice."

"Forgive me."

"You're forgiven."

"Marjorie," he murmured into her hair, "I've seen… things… that have made me believe. Many years ago in the desert."

"Were you lost and alone and dying? Did you pray, and did Allah send you an oasis?"

"I was never lost. I was among friends. I saw the devil."

At this, she grinned up at him, brushed a blossom of soap suds away from his cheek. "Did he come in the form of an evil mummy? Did he have a curse? Did he rise from the dead and chase after you?"

He matched her grin. "Yes."

"Let me guess. Was there a mummy army as well?"

"Of course. It was the army of Anubis. Thousands upon thousands of undead canine soldiers rose from the sand and attacked our small band of Med-Jai warriors. We were dying, but they could not be defeated. But then we prayed, and fate finally smiled upon us, and we drove them back to the underworld, where they remain to this day."

"Oh, that's positively rich. You should tell this story to the Med-Jai children one day. I know that my Charlie loves these stories."

"Then I shall consider it."

"But you never said why the mummy had a curse placed upon him in the first place. No, that's a stupid question. He must have always been evil and cursed. He was the devil, after all."

"No, he was not – he was not always evil."

"Then what happened to him?"

"He fell in love with the wrong woman," he said.

She swallowed. "And then?"

"And the pharaoh, to whom the woman was married, discovered them. And she killed herself, and the pharaoh cursed both their souls with the wrath of the gods for all eternity."

"Silly me," she said, rising. "The water's getting cold. We should probably—"

He continued holding her to him; she felt the thin ridges of his scars against her skin. "I have also experienced things, Marjorie, that have made me doubt."

She realized that her heart was pounding too heavily inside of her. "Like what?"

"When I pledged myself to be of the order of the Med-Jai, I knew – I knew from the depths of my soul – that following the code of the Med-Jai was my destiny. It was a calling from Allah. I was chosen by Allah for the purity of my soul, for the way I resisted the carnal temptations of the earth. I knew this. I knew this, here." He placed her hand upon his chest.

She felt tears stinging the corners of her eyes. "Please. Stop."

"But now I see you," he said, and let out a small and breathless and trembling whisper of a laugh. "And this – and this is inexplicable to me – but it does not feel like I am committing what the Med-Jai order calls the sin of the damned."

Marjorie let the tears fall, and buried herself into his embrace.

"So now I doubt," Ardeth said.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Note: I will be updating this eventually, but as of now, circumstances in real life (ah, college… the crusher of my dreams) are forcing me to put this story on hold for a few months. Thank you very much for reading and for reviewing! See you sometime in May!