Heart of the Gods

by Valerie Douglas

  “TMI, boss, TMI,” Ryan said, but they could both hear the grin in his voice.

  Too much information.

  Perhaps it was but Ky wanted more.

  Her hair streaming in the wind, her blue eyes twinkling, Raissa’s lips twitched in amusement as she looked back at him.

  With a gesture she’d conjured up another pretty linen dress, pleated and white, very ancient Egyptian in look, style and feel, the collar studded lightly with rough lapis lazuli of nearly the same color as her eyes.

  Ky suspected he knew where the dress had come from…the Tomb.

  Magic. He just shook his head at the thought.

  They’d been riding without headlights, to keep any followers from spotting them too easily. Anything to buy them time and distance. In the brilliant moonlight it hadn’t been too difficult but they had had to pay attention as the pale light of early dawn shifted or erased the shadows, risking a crash. The same would also be true for anyone following.

  Now that the sun was rising, though?

  As they topped a rise they could see in the distance a darker blotch against the sand, stone rising out of the desert, the bones of desert piercing the skin of it. They were rare in the deep desert those outcroppings of stone but they were growing closer to the Gilf Kebbir.

  The stone was roughly triangular in shape, not unlike the shape of a sail on a boat―during their research several mentions had been made that noted a formation like it as a landmark.

  It was their first confirmation that their frantic flight hadn’t thrown them off, and that their calculations might be right.

  Ky looked at Tareq, who grinned.

  Driving side by side now, they exchanged looks and by unspoken but mutual consent marked its location and turned toward it.

  The closer they drove to it, the more familiar it seemed to Raissa, even though it had been millennia since she’d seen it last.

  The stone seemed smaller than she remembered, more rounded from the ceaseless scouring of the sand.

  Her memories were happy ones, despite the reason for the journey―Banafrit’s interment in her tomb. Knowing she would rejoin them soon in spirit, it wasn’t a difficult trip. She smiled at the thought.

  As early as it was it was a good time and place to stop after the events of the night, especially at that time of day, the heat beating down as the rock cast a short shadow over the desert.

  Even Ky and Raissa were relieved to get out and stretch their legs.

  Running her fingers lightly over the face of the stone, Raissa smiled as she traced the faint impression of a scarab etched into the face of it.

  “Look,” she said, pouring a little water from her canteen over the sand-scoured surface to reveal the traces of the ancient carving so the others could see it. “The head of the beetle shows which way we should travel next.”

  It was so strange to see it this way, so very faint, little more than an impression, when she could remember it so strongly and deeply carved into the surface. It was a reminder of how much time had passed. Everything else she’d experienced had seemed so alien, so different…even the fort, with so little of it left, had seemed…strange. This though, here in the midst of the desert, was so much like what she’d known…and yet not.

  She shook her head in amazement.

  They spread one of the travel blankets over the eroded stone and sand to eat on while Ky, Tareq and Raissa looked over the maps.

  After the events of the night, after the all the fear and tension, it seemed everyone was starved. Almost all of them had a can of something or a package of dried jerky in their hands from the supplies that had been packed in the trucks, eaten cold straight out of the can or package. No one cared or minded.

  Ryan looked at Raissa with one eyebrow lifted curiously.

  “You don’t look sick,” he commented, eyeing her suspiciously.

  Puzzled, she looked at him. “Hmm?”

  “It’s the first time I’ve ever known you that you weren’t chowing down.”

  Ky, however, was ravenous. He gave her a look.

  A little startled, Raissa smothered a grin and kept her eyes on the desert as she said, “Well, we did stop for a, what did you call it, Ky? A pit stop?”

  She gave him a look back all innocence.

  For a moment their eyes met, both glinting.

  Lifting an eyebrow, Tareq looked from one to the other.

  Ky grinned, and said, “Something like that…”

  “On the other hand,” Ryan said, “Boss man, here…”

  Not surprisingly, Ky was starving, for reasons not so obvious to the others.

  Except for Tareq, who looked from one to the other speculatively.

  Blithely, Ky said, his eyes carefully fixed on what he was eating, “I’m about a quart low...”

  Raissa nearly choked trying not to laugh.

  Tareq looked from Ky to Raissa with far interest but he said nothing, merely allowing a slight smile.

  Eyeing them Ryan shook his head and dropped his hat over his eyes. “I don’t want to know.”

  Komi was already asleep, the rough night having taken it out of all of them.

  “We can’t rest for long,” Ky said, settling with his head in Raissa’s lap, “an hour or so, at best.”

  She sat with her back against the rock, sifted her fingers through his hair and nodded.

  With a smile she said, “Sleep. I’ll wake you.”

  He looked up at her, her long wavy hair falling in a shimmering, sunny curtain around his face and lightly touched her cheek. Bending over, she brushed a kiss over his mouth, nibbling just a little at his bottom lip as he curled his hand up into her hair.

  Tareq eyed them both with a certain amount of satisfaction, but lifted an eyebrow at Ky.

  “It seems you’ve reconciled your…differences,” he said evenly, amused.

  Ky opened one eye, smiled, “You might say that.”

  Sleep wasn’t something Raissa needed much, certainly not once she’d fed.

  “I’ll keep watch, Tareq,” she said, “if you want to sleep.”

  Lifting her hand, he kissed the back of it. “I think I might. Who knows when we might get another chance.”

  Settling into what little shade there was, he made himself as comfortable as he could.

  With a hand on Ky’s hair and the other tucked inside the collar of his shirt to feel his warm skin and his heart beating beneath it, Raissa leaned her head back against the rock and looked out over the desert.

  Ky laid a hand over the one of hers on his chest and closed his eyes again.

  It was quiet as only the desert could be, with only the soft sound of the sand whispering as the wind blew it against the stone. Not even a falcon floated in the cloudless sky, there was nothing but the scorching sun in the faded blue that vaulted high above them.

  Raissa let herself go still and just be, conscious only of the feel of Ky’s heartbeat beneath her hand. She watched the sand ebb and flow in endless, hypnotic patterns.

  There was little visible life this deep in the desert at this time of day.

  A different and odd low throbbing sound caught her attention and drew her out of her light reverie.

  It was unusual enough that Raissa frowned. The sound seemed to fill the air, to blanket everything.

  “Ky,” she said, quietly.

  He came awake in an instant, the faint alarm in her voice bringing him completely alert.

  Warrior instinct, she thought and smiled a little.

  Still, there was the sound.

  “What is that noise?” she asked.

  Ky listened then swore softly. It had his attention, instantly and he quickly leaned over her to shake Tareq’s shoulder.

  He knew that sound, very well. Too well.

  Friend or foe? It was far too likely to be foe. They couldn’t take the chance.

  “Ryan, Komi,” he said, urgently. “Up and at ‘em. Wake up, we have company. Helicopters.”

  “What are helicopters?”
Raissa asked.

  All of them were now standing or kneeling, scanning the horizon.

  “Those are helicopters,” Komi said, softly, pointing. “There.”

  She looked.

  At that distance they looked something like oversized dragonflies. Three very large black dragonflies.

  “Get packed up, people,” Ky said. “Hurry, let’s go.”

  Everyone was already moving, bundling up the travel blankets and scrambling into the trucks.

  Raissa was still buckling her seatbelt when Ky put the thing in gear and they shot off along their next coordinate.

  “Do you think they’ve seen us yet?” Tareq called.

  “I’m less concerned with whether they’ve seen us than with whether they’re going to start shooting at us. But with the equipment that’s available now?” Ky said, “It’s likely.”

  No sooner had he finished speaking than the formation turned in their direction and visibly picked up speed.

  “That,” Ryan shouted, “would be a definite yes.”

  Ky steered them below and behind a dune, knowing that it was impossible for them to lose the helicopters but wanting to stay out of the line of fire long enough to be certain whether they were friend or foe.

  The sound of the blades intensified and then sand was blowing everywhere as the helicopters came in over the sand, drifting sideways to show the armed men in the bellies of the craft. A burst of gunfire sent a spray of sand across in front of them, the chatter of the automatic weapon distinctive.

  Still, they would have to land to take them. Ky turned the jeep into a zigzag pattern.

  Looking at Raissa, Ky said, “Hand me one of those guns.”

  Raissa though, was chanting slowly, her voice rising she swept her arms forward.

  A great rushing sound filled the air, gathered, grew. From out of a clear sky came a great burst of wind. It swept past them, gathering sand as it raced across the desert, growing darker as it went. Ky saw one of the helicopters back swiftly. He could only imagine the panic going on inside them.

  The helicopters disappeared behind the wall of wind blown sand.

  Ky looked at her.

  She gave a little shrug. “Isis is the goddess of the Wind. It’s only a little magic…”

  Ryan grinned.

  “Helicopters,” he said, quietly but with a grin, “don’t like sand.”

  “Ah,” she said. “I didn’t know that. I’ll keep it in mind.”

  “We have to keep moving,” Ky said. “There’s still liable to be ground pursuit.”

  And that would be more adapted to the desert environment, less vulnerable to wind and sand than the choppers.

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  The great escarpment that was the edge of the Gilf Kebir stretched across their horizon, still some distance away.

  A plateau hundreds of miles across, the Gilf Kebir was a maze of cliffs, narrow defiles and caves at the very edge of the Sahara Desert that bordered Egypt, Libya and the Sudan. Much of it was bleak and barren. Once, millennia before even Raissa’s time, there had been a great sea here and the edge of the Gilf Kebir was studded with the caves scoured by that ancient evaporated sea, or by water that had filtered down through the stone, carving or washing it away.

  This section, as close to the deep desert as it was and possessing no strategic value to anyone at all was also virtually unexplored and untouched. As far as anyone had discovered there wasn’t even any unique flora and fauna to be found. The Cave of the Swimmers was distant miles away.

  It was astonishingly hot, the sun beating down mercilessly, the air as dry as the dust and sand with which it was laden.

  All of them sipped from their canteens now and then as they approached the cliff face. Dehydration was a real problem here, the hot air blew away every scrap of moisture.

  They’d spent the night in the desert, unmolested. Pursuit had arrived by late morning after they’d found yet another landmark and was now behind them but closing, as they’d seen the darker shadows of vehicles behind them through the binoculars. It was likely their pursuers had driven through the night in order to gain on them, considering it worth the risk of driving through the deep desert at night.

  At best Ky knew they now had only a couple of hours of lead time. Their pursuers had much newer equipment than he’d been able to afford, and that gave them an edge.

  They were state of the art desert buggies from what he could see through the binoculars, with blowers to keep the engines clear, thwarting even Raissa’s wind-blown sandstorms.

  “There,” Tareq said, pointing.

  A great oval rock, slightly tilted, rested against the rock face very much like a random rock fall. It was the only one like it for as far as they could see.

  Raissa matched it against her memories and nodded. “Banafrit’s tomb.”

  A completely undiscovered tomb, until now.

  Ky fought the urge to stop, if only for a few moments, just to see it in a pristine state. He had to remind himself they had a greater objective. A glance at Tareq confirmed his old friend faced the same struggle.

  “The question is,” Tareq asked, holding his own curiosity at bay, “will they know that it isn’t the Tomb of the Djinn?”

  Nodding, Ky took a breath and considered it.

  Ky said, “They’ll have to check it out, they won’t have a choice, especially if we leave one of the jeeps here as a diversion. With luck they’ll think some of us are inside exploring, while the rest go for help.”

  It was a logical move.

  “The chance of gold will almost certainly tempt some of them,” Raissa said. “Although, if thieves managed to find my tomb they will almost certainly have found Banafrit’s...”

  “In any case, it’s a risk we’ll have to take,” Ky said. “If the few minutes it takes for them to check it out buys us a little more time, at least until nightfall, we’ll have a chance to prepare.”

  He had no idea what they were up against, except for Zimmer and his remaining mercenaries.

  For all he knew, Zimmer had an unlimited supply of them.

  In a matter of moments, everything had been moved to one Jeep.

  Tareq looked longingly at the entrance to the Tomb, clearly torn.

  Understanding, Ky said, “There’s no time, Tareq. We’ll come back once this is over. We know where it is.”

  He wanted it nearly as badly, but there was still the Tomb of the Djinn. Irisi’s tomb.

  Tareq looked at him. “It won’t be the same. They’ll loot it. It won’t be in the same pristine condition it is now. Now we’ll have at least some idea where some items were. The things that thieves wouldn’t value.”

  “I know,” Ky acknowledge. “There’s nothing we can do.”

  Slowly, Tareq took a breath, then resolutely turned and swung up into the passenger seat of the truck.

  It was a little crowded with Tareq in the passenger seat, Raissa crouched between them and Ryan and Komi wedged in among their gear and supplies, keeping low for the benefit of watchers.

  Raissa whispered a short chant and gestured at the rock face. She would leave their pursuers a small surprise. If nothing else, it might make them more cautious. Banafrit, she knew, would have approved.

  The abandoned jeep looked forlorn as it fell behind them.

  Ky skirted the base of the Gilf Kebir, trying to keep them out of sight of those that pursued as much as possible while they followed the curve of the base of the great plateau.

  With a chant and a gesture, Raissa called up the wind to stir up the sand to conceal their progress.

  Another sandstorm barely slowed their pursuers, the great blowers over the engines keeping them clear of the sand, but every minute gained was useful.

  The setting sun didn’t help them, coming from the wrong direction, nearly blinding them when they looked backward, concealing their hunters in the brightness. The flatness of the light wasn’t much assistance either.

  It was Raissa who called out. She’d ve
ry nearly missed it herself.

  “There,” she called, softly.

  ‘There’ looked like nothing so much as a great jagged crack angled slightly across the cliff face from top to bottom, nothing more.

  Ky glanced at her. “How sure are you?

  It didn’t look like much.

  She took a breath and nodded. “Sure enough.”

  He turned then toward the crack in the face of the plateau.

  The closer they got, the more it seemed the cliff face loomed above them and the less it looked like anything, until he saw the talus of sand and crumbled stone pouring out of the mouth of the split. There was an opening behind it.

  Unfortunately, the crack was wide but it wasn’t wide enough to accommodate their jeep. That meant they would have to abandon it. He had no choice. All he could do was tuck it behind a tumble of rocks that had split and fallen from the cliff face above and hope they might not see it until they were past it.

  He turned to look at Raissa.

  Faced into the wind, with it streaming through her golden hair and the skirt of her white linen dress fluttering around her, against the desert and the rough stone of the escarpment she looked like some ancient goddess of old, perhaps a face of Isis herself.

  She was beautiful. Ethereal and lovely.

  Her face was still, except for a slight frown creasing between her eyebrows and an oddly wistful expression in her lovely blue eyes.

  She sighed.

  Those lovely eyes turned to him.

  Ky went to her, slid an arm around her waist, brushed her hair back.

  “Home,” she said, with a small wry smile, “such as it is.”

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  “It’s… complicated,” she said, softly.

  Her blue eyes lifted to his.

  “You said Khai is here,” she said, quietly, a pang of old grief moving through her as she remembered him, looking up into Ky’s dark eyes, seeing the echo of one in the other.

  Sometime in the last few days Ky found he’d made his peace with his predecessor.

  Certainly he had no doubt now that Raissa cared for him as himself but they would be passing Khai’s tomb. Proof of how much she cared for them both was in her face―although the grave of the man she’d once loved lay within and she’d never been able to truly mourn for him, she was concerned about Ky, too.