“Here we go again,” Kimberley said in English. “I am not Cleopatra,” she told Amenhotep in his language.
“Then, who are you?” Nanu asked her.
“I am…her sister?” Kimberley replied, wondering why she just got that information from wherever it came from several minutes into being someone else.
The Egyptians surrounding her appeared confused.
“Our queen has no living sister,” Amenhotep reasoned. “You must be mistaken, my queen.”
“Yes, your queen had a sister,” Kimberley replied. “We were separated at birth and I was taken to Mount Olympus by the gods?” She marveled at her answer.
“It is possible,” the boy with the brothers of Osiris said. “Our queen had so many secrets.” Those around him nodded in agreement.
“You look so much like her,” Nanu observed. “No one can tell the difference, my queen.”
“Actually, I am her twin sister, sent down by the gods of Greece,” Kimberley revealed, frowning.
“You are still my queen,” Nanu said.
“As you wish,” Kimberley muttered in English and turned to Rachel. “Where’s Aiden?” she asked the little girl in the same language.
“Welcome, sister,” Aiden, or Prince Ramses, said behind her as he came over to hug her. His facial expression changed when he did this. “What’s going on?” he asked in English, and Kimberley turned to Rachel, a questioning look on her face. Apparently, Aiden couldn’t maintain a dual identity like his fellow time-travelers.
“He’s not himself anymore,” Rachel supplied in English, nodding towards Aiden. “I was waiting for you to show up before changing him back when we want to leave with the book.” She held up the revered codex for the sergeant.
“So, what are we waiting for?” Kimberley wanted to know.
“We need to leave without alerting these people,” Rachel said. “And we must help them if we can.”
“And how do you think we can do that?” Kimberley asked.
“You want to leave us?” Nanu began and Kimberley turned to her.
She’d forgotten the mind reader could also understand English.
“No, we…” Rachel began.
“We will save Egypt before we leave,” Kimberley said.
Nanu nodded.
“The Temple of Isis burns!” an Egyptian watching the temple from the circular windows shouted. “The Christians are coming!”
The library’s main doors flew open and a throng of irate men and women rushed into the building, chanting Christian songs of war and wielding weapons they modified from home implements.
“Quick, protect Queen Cleopatra’s twin sister and her relations with your lives!” Amenhotep urged his brothers. “Use your swords and clubs if you must!”
Weapons drawn, the brothers of Osiris and remaining daughters of Isis surrounded Kimberley and her ‘relations.’ Amenhotep stood before Rachel who held the white codex. “What must we do now that we have the white codex?” he asked her.
“I need a reed pen,” Princess Anippe replied.
The Egyptian boy with Amenhotep reached out into a set of papyrus scrolls separated from the rack beside them by a wooden partition. He brought out a reed pen and gave it to Rachel.
The Christian crowd clashed with the brothers of Osiris who pushed them back with deadly force. Many lay dead, and those before the pagans hesitated, but kept up their angry chants.
“Kill the pagans!” someone in the crowd raised.
“Kill them all!” another added.
“Tie your ankhs to your hands if you have one!” Kimberley ordered everyone. “Something tells me this is just beginning.” She obeyed her order before drawing her short swords. Thankfully, she saw Nanu face the library’s door with the remaining sisters of Isis and turned to the little girl beside her. “Don’t know what you’re thinking right now, Rachel,” she said in English, “but we need to leave now?”
“I know,” Rachel said.
“Find a place and time with someone who can help us,” Aiden advised her. “One of your father’s friends like we agreed.”
“I know,” Rachel repeated, her right hand poised to write with the reed pen on the cold open codex.
“How do I help, my princess?” Amenhotep asked her and she turned to the Egyptian.
“I need the names of those you have seen in the crowd before us.”
“What are you doing?” Kimberley demanded, staring at Rachel.
“We need to act like we’re helping these people,” Rachel explained. “Until we can leave.”
“And who will help us?” Kimberley asked, frowning.
“They’re already doing that.”
“Guess you’re right,” the sergeant said. “But these things have happened, you know, there’s no need to help them, since they will all still perish?”
“Just give me a few minutes, Kim,” Rachel begged.
“There won’t be anyone left to help if you waste more time,” Kimberley said, wondering why the little girl had become philanthropic all of a sudden. How she wished the library had ankhs drawn all over its walls.
The Egyptians had left Aiden alone ever since he hugged Kimberley, but now he risked another memory-changing touch as he drew nearer to his traveling companions in order to know what had gone wrong. “Can we leave now, please?” he begged.
“What is going on, my queen?” Nanu demanded as she turned back to the woman she’d come to respect after the fight in the burial chamber.
Kimberley hoped the Egyptian woman did not capture the content of their last conversation. “Okay, Rachel,” she told her fellow time-traveler. “Let us help them.”
Nanu frowned. “You speak in the tongue of kings and queens, my mistress.”
“Yes,” Kimberley told her. “I do that when I’m under pressure.”
The Christian crowd had picked up courage once again. They moved closer to the armed pagans before them. Those holding weapons among them stepped forward and maneuvered the scroll shelves to surround the smaller group. Princess Anippe looked at Amenhotep.
“There stands Jasiah, the Jew,” the Egyptian pointed out in the irate crowd before them. The princess quickly wrote on the codex and Jasiah disappeared from the crowd. Amenhotep was as surprised as his brothers and sisters as well as those on the opposite side of the divide, who drew back in fear, murmuring amongst themselves. “My gods!” he blurted out. “This is power from the gods!”
“Power from the gods!” someone picked up in the crowd surrounding the pagans, and this message was dissipated until palpable fear descended on these angry Christian men and women.
“And there is Aristides, the Greek,” Amenhotep resumed with glee. “He used to be my neighbor until he became a Christian.”
The Greek guy disappeared and a second fellow followed him. Chaos ensued around where both men once stood.
“Flee for your lives!” a panic-stricken man shouted as he headed for the library’s wooden doors. Many fell and were trampled upon as the large crowd surged towards the door. In their confusion, some even ran towards the pagans in the middle of the large hall and were struck down.
“Don’t kill them!” Princess Anippe cried, but the brothers of Osiris and daughters of Isis ignored her.
“There goes the people you thought were good people,” Kimberley muttered after making sure that no daughter of Isis stood near her. “See them killing without mercy.”
“Please, stop killing them!” Rachel shouted again. “Have mercy!”
“We’ve done enough already, Rachel,” Kimberley warned. “Now, let’s leave before it’s too late!”
Rachel stared at the white scroll as she tried to write on it again.
“What’s the matter?” Kimberley demanded.
“I-I cannot write on the book any longer!” the little girl stammered.
“Then get us out of here, first,” Aiden aired in fear, looking around him at the unsmiling faces surrounding them. “This people don’t like us.”
&n
bsp; Rachel touched a previous destination on the white codex, and looked around her in fright. She repeated this action with other fingers, braving the biting, icy cold surface of the ancient artifact. Finally, she looked up in alarm. “It’s not working,” she cried.
“The ice must be preventing you from writing or touching the book’s surface,” Kimberley pointed out. “Now, we’re toast.”
Hesitantly, Rachel turned to write again on the white codex, and dropped it in pain.
“What’s the matter?” a bewildered Kimberley asked.
“What is wrong, Anippe?” Aiden demanded as he supported his little sister. “Why do you drop the codex of the gods, which is about to give us victory?”
“It’s…It’s too cold,” Rachel cried, holding her hands. She noticed Aiden’s change in language. He must have become Prince Ramses after skin contact with the many Egyptians around. “It has never been this cold before.”
Kimberley knew why. “Told you we could have left earlier,” she said.
Princess Anippe tried to touch Prince Ramses, or Aiden, as he turned away from her.
Too late.
A brother of Osiris slumped before Kimberley and she saw them on the circular openings. “Down!” she shouted, crouching low herself as the arrows flew past. Nanu fell before her clutching a bloody leg with a protruding shaft.
“Nanu!” Amenhotep cried, crawling towards the fallen woman. He supported her head and she looked at him.
“It is…poisoned!” she stammered. “I will die.”
“Have faith,” Amenhotep said. “You will be with the gods when you do.”
He teared up.
The emperor’s soldiers jumped into the pagan building through the circular openings on its walls. Some had bows and arrows while others drew their swords, cutting down everyone in their way.
“They will kill us all if we do not fight,” Prince Ramses, or Aiden, declared and stooped to pick up a dead sister’s sword.
“Fight we must,” Amenhotep urged his people, leaving the dying Nanu to stand up and ready his sword.
“Our victory is assured for the gods are with us,” Ramses cried, raising his sword amidst the deadly arrows flying past him. He stepped forward.
“Aiden, no!” Rachel grabbed his left leg, holding him back, and he turned around angrily.
“Let me fulfill my destiny by freeing my people, sister,” he snapped before going blank and falling backward on Rachel’s outstretched arms.
“You’ll kill yourself first,” Kimberley chided him, and noticed the change coming over him with satisfaction.
The remaining brothers of Osiris and sisters of Isis stood up with Amenhotep and charged the incoming attackers. The crowd making for the great doors swayed back towards the pagans once they realized what had happened. The power of the gods had been broken by the emperor’s elite soldiers.
Both parties clashed viciously with deadly results.
“Where’s the reed pen?” Rachel demanded beside the reoriented Aiden.
“English, please?” Aiden urged her.
“The Serapeum is on fire!” one of Amenhotep’s brothers shouted near Rachel. “They will destroy the temple with the library!”
Kimberley frowned when she heard this. Was the library part of a temple? Two Roman soldiers ran at her and she struck them down with ease. Something caught her attention as a Roman archer attacked an Egyptian pagan some feet away. “The soldiers are pulling off the ankhs from the wrists of our dead and wounded and breaking them!” she realized, turning to Rachel.
“That could mean only one thing,” Rachel said. “They’re working with the Gray Ones!”
Using one of her swords, Kimberley dragged the cold codex back to Rachel. “Get us out of here,” she told the little girl and grabbed Aiden by his right arm. “Hold me,” she told the Jewess, reaching out a free hand.
“I don’t have the reed pen,” Rachel revealed.
Still holding Aiden, Kimberley engaged a Christian rioter and wounded him before kicking him away. “We must find that pen, and quickly, too,” she said, letting go of Aiden to crouch low and join the search. “Should be lying around here somewhere.”
“I–I dropped it when I dropped the codex,” Rachel said, turning to the cold ancient book lying on the floor. Someone had set a rack of distant scrolls on fire and this brought a new urgency to their search.
“Found it,” Aiden announced, holding up the reed tool.
“Exactly when we thought you were dead,” Kimberley joked, smiling.
Rachel saw with trepidation that a thin film of ice had covered the white book’s fragile surface despite the searing heat from the burning shelves of dry scrolls in the library. “And how do we use it now?” she asked, trying to write on the frozen codex lying on the floor. “The ink will never write on ice.”
“Just keep trying,” Kimberley said, standing up to guard both kids. She faced another soldier, slashing away before stabbing him in the forehead. Another fighter ran up to her and she dodged his swing before slashing his leg open. “Aiden, hold my leg and Rachel’s arm. We must always be linked from now on,” she breathed as the kneeling man whimpered before her. She kicked him on the head and into oblivion.
The battle pettered out. The Christians and their military allies had the upper hand.
“It’s all over!” Aiden cried, staring at the discouraging scenario all around him. “Our side is losing badly!”
A crowd gathered around the three time-travelers, but kept their distance.
“Yeah, just keep off if you don’t want to die, you hear?” Kimberley warned them, menacingly brandishing her two swords as she surveyed the violent scenario around her. Flames leaped high into the air from many burning shelves of priceless scrolls, forming a glowing background to the mayhem unleashed in the Library of Scrolls by the two clashing religions. Many brothers of Osiris and daughters of Isis lay dead, the soldiers and angry mob having pulled these dead pagans’ ankhs from their arms and wrists and, either broken or thrown said amulets into the fire now ravaging many scroll shelves. The few remaining traditionalists were surrounded on all sides by the emperor’s men and the Christian crowd, and they still chose to fight to the death.
A man stepped out of the crowd and quickly drew back when Kimberley turned to him. She knew they feared her. All through the skirmish, very few civilians had attacked her owing to the ferocious manner she downed her foes. Now, all that was about to change. “Anytime now, Rachel,” she called out.
“I still can’t write on the codex,” Rachel stammered.
A group of soldiers surrounded and killed Amenhotep. An officer pulled off the wooden ankh the Egyptian tied to his right arm and broke this symbol into two. The man turned to Kimberley with his colleagues and an archer, who had just finished another assignment. “Anytime now, Rachel,” Kimberley repeated, taking up a fighting stance. “I will die fighting if I must.”
She flung one of her short swords at the archer through a gap the surrounding crowd had created for the Roman soldiers, and watched the weapon sink into the man’s forehead with satisfaction. Picking up a dead man’s sword at her feet, searing pain pushed her back before she realized an arrow had buried itself in her right shoulder. “This is futile,” she muttered and crashed to the ground.
The crowd surged forward as if her fall was a signal. Some grabbed Rachel and some held Aiden.
“Kim!” Aiden cried in alarm before reverting back to his Egyptian identity. Someone knocked him out cold.
“No!” Rachel screamed, kicking away as two angry folks held her up.
The soldiers forced their way to Kimberley’s body and threatened those holding her to leave her alone. Slapping a man who had brought out a dagger, their officer turned to the dying woman in royal Egyptian attire and pulled off the golden necklace around her neck as she lay on the floor.
He broke the brittle ornament and slumped with all his men in the library as the Gray Ones appeared in their gory glory. Everyone fell dead except
the Bookbearer and her fellow time-travelers.
Carl Bain, or Khabawsokar, walked over to where Rachel lay near the white codex and stooped to pick it up.
“Give that back!” the brave girl cried and grabbed the slippery codex from one end. The priest of death and mummification simply pushed her hand away and stood up with the revered prize.
“You had this all this time and you never knew what to do with it, little one,” he said, grinning. “Now, it is too late. The Breath of Lucifer has failed you.”
Prince Ramses came around and crawled up to his dying relation. He pulled off the arrow embedded in her shoulder. “Oh, Kim,” Aiden cried, looking around him once he’d changed back to himself. “We have failed.”
“No–No we haven’t,” Kimberley whispered, breathing hard.
“Yes, you have, my dear,” Carl Bain said, and handed the white codex to the entities hovering above him. The artifact froze up again, but the scroll spirits took it without incident and started floating up into the library’s higher structures.
“How is that possible?” Rachel cried. “You can’t take it against my will!”
“Maybe you’re too tired to allow the powers your father bestowed on you to fight back, my dear,” Carl Bain suggested. “Now, where is my package?” The American tormentor walked up to where Kimberley lay and looked down on her pitiable figure.
The Portwood officer laughed despite her pain. “You came all this way just for coke?” she joked.
Khabawsokar became livid. “You know what I’m talking about,” he snapped, stooping and reaching out beside the female cop to grab the Prince Ramses by the neck.
“Uuugh!” Aiden let out, struggling to breathe.
“Leave us alone!” a helpless Rachel screamed, remaining where she lay.
For good measure, the American thug placed a foot on Kimberley’s injured shoulder and pressed down hard. “Now, where is it?”
“Don’t…Don’t have it with me anymore,” Kimberley confessed, grimacing in pain as she tried to lift the foot on her shoulder, to no avail. “Let–Let him go!”
The White Book Page 15