Time had changed little, it seemed, since she had first walked among these things. The silver had yet to tarnish and the grubby hands of robbers and raiders had yet to mar the pristine alabaster lamps and jeweled statues as if the gods themselves refused to abandon the memories of the beloved princess she had once been. The room remained much as she had left it several thousand years ago and filled her with a sort of melancholy as she passed silently through it. Times had been difficult then but their celebrations and daily rituals had lacked the self-conscious restraint that pervaded those held now.
Women, with the exception of the pharaoh's concubines, had once walked more or less freely through the streets in nearly translucent linens, adorned with jewels and make-up. The female body had been a thing of beauty then, something to be appreciated, despite the dangers that were inherent to any woman of any country with enemies. Now they wore garments of wool, unable to show even the shapes of their bodies or their hair. In this part of the world, at least. Clothing was made to hide or manipulate, not compliment, the curves of the fairer sex as if natural shape were something to be ashamed of.
She was now the honored lady of a different cast of people and that had its own set of difficulties. Especially with a mind and memories as old as the pyramids, if not older. Had Ardeth's people not been more lenient with their customs, she would not have been able to endure living with them. She did not cover her face nor her hair and cleaved to her linens and ancient jewels as part of her lineage and status. She might have married a Med-Jai chieftain but she was still very much a priestess of Isis and was powerful in her own right.
Her power lay in her knowledge, in the energy that pulsed through every fiber of her being, and, most importantly, in her ability to hide both in a society ill at ease with strong women. Thankfully, her husband was one of the exceptions. A slight smile curved her lips as she thought of the warrior who, out of respect for her, remained outside and let her wander through her memories alone.
She could no more imagine Ardeth marrying a simpering weak-willed woman than she could Rick O'Connell taking up needlework and for good reason. A Med-Jai chieftain needed someone sharp-minded and strong enough to keep his people together in his absence, something she had managed quite well thus far. O'Connell, similarly, had married the force of nature called Evelyn and though he had often lamented the dangers that his spirited wife had put him in over the years, Farsiris suspected that he would have been very bored without her. Or dead.
Grinning at the thought of her cousin, who was due to arrive in a short while for a visit, she quickly located what she had returned to the palace for in the first place and left the room, carefully closing the door behind her and listening to make sure the latch clicked. She then slipped back into the hidden entrance, closed that door and navigated the treacherous passage of tiles with an ease that belied her ancient origins.
The Egyptians had been very proficient at building traps only because they had been smart enough to remember where they had placed them afterward and she was no exception. Her former self had supervised the building of this passageway herself and those who had built it had disappeared shortly after its completion. Therefore, only she now knew that there was, in fact, a way out of it. Pressing an near invisible tile at shoulder height, she watched as three of the blocks slid back, revealing three evenly spaced footholds that would disappear once she slid the altar back into place above the entrance.
She stuffed her prize into the front of her dress and climbed out then slid the altar back, stopping only when she heard the barely audible click of the mechanisms locking it into place. Brushing her dress off, she took a moment to straighten her appearance before heading to the main altar chamber to say her prayer and make an offering to the goddess with her sisters. Once she rejoined her husband, they would be on their way to retrieve Evelyn and Rick at the docks.
Back on the barge, said couple was sequestered in their cabin and armed to the teeth. They had been stuck there for three hours and, as of yet, there had been no indication of why the boat had stopped. No screaming or even shouting above deck, no intruders bursting in with torches and brandishing weapons at innocent passengers, and neither smoke nor water. The latter eliminated any possibility that they were sinking or on fire and the absence of noise should have been comforting were it not unnatural.
"Maybe we should open the door and see if anyone else is awake" Evie whispered because she knew they were not the only visitors on the barge. Two other small groups of people were also aboard and on their way down the Nile, one from England and the other from The Netherlands. The English, like she and Rick, were headed to Thebes while the Dutch were headed to the islands near the first cataract of the Nile. Both groups had seemed friendly enough during the previous couple of days, conversing with her and Rick at length over meals and she now wondered if they could possibly know what was going on. If anyone did.
Her husband seemed to be of the same mind and nodded his agreement, not wanting to speak aloud in case someone outside was listening. He had far too much first-hand experience with sneaky criminals to make any foolish moves now. With a white knuckled grip on one pistol, he slowly turned the doorknob and eased the door ajar just enough to gain a quick view of the hallway, which was completely empty.
After making to the stairs without being accosted by any hidden assailants, it did not take them long to find out exactly where everyone else had gone and what the problem was. The latter of which turned out to be unusually mundane for Egypt. The boat's engine had broken down, leaving them to float downstream without any means of navigation.
The solution, on the other hand, was unfortunately familiar and Evie made a face. The prospect of taking yet another swim in the Nile was about as appealing as it had been the first time. Only on this particular occasion, the Med-Jai were not there shooting at them and there was no filthy little warden there to leer at her when she was standing on the shore of the river in a dripping wet transparent nightgown. Thank the gods for small mercies.
However, they knew they could not risk staying on the boat and floating past their destination. Farsiris and Ardeth would be expecting them within a few hours and neither the priestess nor the Med-Jai were known for patience or optimism. They would be assumed harmed or, worse, dead when the sun set that day.
"Well, no sense in delaying any longer" Rick said curtly, and hoisted himself over the railing with his gun sack "makes no difference whether we get eaten by crocodiles now or by scarabs later". She shook her head in mild amusement at her husband before hoisting her own suitcase over – thank the gods she had learned to travel light – and jumping in after it, pinching her nose with two fingers to keep the water out.
There were two lessons to be learned from that day, both of which Evelyn noted rather quickly. One being that any bag, no matter how light it was initially, was heavier when soaked and two: that flopping and sputtering like a beached fish was bound to attract attention. With that in mind, it was not surprising in the least that everyone was offering to help when she finally dragged herself and her soaking wet luggage onshore. Rick and the two other visiting parties appeared none the worse for wear, save when one of the Dutchmen muttered something that sounded suspiciously obscene as he wrung out his sopping wet shirt, and the crew of the boat had decided to abandon ship as well.
"This is getting rather old" she remarked, with a baleful glance at the river as if it were at fault for their predicament, "I feel like a drowned rat". Those women who shared her sentiment nodded their agreement and some even laughed at their own sorry states.
"For the record, honey, you don't look like one" Rick replied with a lop-sided grin and planted a sound kiss on one damp cheek before he reached down and relieved her of her suitcase, which now felt like it was full of bricks and not clothing. How he still managed to make her blush after the years they had been married was incredible but, nevertheless, she felt her cheeks beginning to burn.
"Why thank you, my love, I do try my best" she retorted with a laugh "appearances need to be maintained, you know".
She punctuated her last statement by wringing a good amount of water out of the skirt of her nightgown and he chuckled warmly before surveying their non-distinct surroundings "we had better get going before Ardeth sends his men out looking for us".
"Does anyone know exactly where we are?"
One of the men, a tall blond with green eyes, approached them with his wife close behind "we are a little more than three or four hours from Thebes" he said in heavily accented English then smiled sheepishly when Evelyn raised an eyebrow in question "this has happened to us before".
"Yeah" Rick said and hefted his wife's bag then returned the smile before beginning to walk "us too".