by Diana Kirk
Her eyes darkened and she lifted her head. "My Lord you cannot."
"Why is that?" A familiar sense of betrayal filled him. This was the Tem he knew. He had not been wrong to suspect her.
"You have so many duties to the people of your kingdom. I could not dare to hope you would join me."
"You would hope for that?"
The corners of her mouth lifted slightly and she gazed at him, reclining her head back on the pillows. "I await departure."
There, he'd done it. If she were truly ill, he would attend to her and comfort her in her pain. It was his duty. If she deceived his good will, she would pay with her life.
It might take longer to prepare his entourage, but so much the better. She might be wasting away, but she was not near death. Her cheeks, although pale from the month's confinement, bore the blush of health. And her eyes burned with the intensity of life. If this indeed was a trick, he would be near to foil her plans.
Whatever they might be.
Chapter Eleven
"ALEX. ALEX." Soft as the breeze that flowed through the garden, Tarik's voice caressed her ears with warm, deep, tones.
She lifted her head and glanced around the garden. Was he hiding from her? A game in the night, in the garden, their garden? How things had changed since first they'd shared the darkness. In the short time they'd been together, he'd lost his fear of Egyptian souls walking the earth at night and relished in the quiet cool of the desert.
"Tarik?" She parted the fronds blocking her view and moved deeper into the foliage near the glistening pool. "Where are you?"
"Near the statue of Isis," the desultory voice answered behind her, close enough to whisper in her ear. "See how the moon illuminates her countenance."
Tarik's arms, strong and warm, surrounded Alex and she leaned back against him as naturally as if they'd been together for years, a loving couple, sharing the rest of their lives together.
But they didn't have the rest of anything. A chill passed through her. At any time she could be yanked back to the future and their souls would be torn apart forever. She couldn't bear to leave, yet she couldn't bear to stay.
"You are cold?" He tightened his grip around her shoulders and rubbed his palm up and down her arm, generating warmth beneath his touch. Still, she shivered. The cold pain in her heart was too deep. When time finally did correct its mistake, how could she bear the anguish of separation?
"It's nothing." She shrugged away and turned to gaze up at him. "I'm fine. It's been a long day."
He set his jaw firmly, and a shadow wandered across her heart. "Ah, that it has. I have been out here thinking of the many marvels of your mysterious satchel. You must tell me more about your world."
Alex leaned against the bier. The place where they'd made love. She moved abruptly, as if singed by the memories, and roamed the perimeter of the garden. So much had happened here. She'd first given him her heart in this place. Now, nestled among the plants and statues, she was safe and at ease. "There's so much to tell. I don't know where to start. How do I condense four thousand years of progress into a few sentences?"
Tarik leaned back along the bier. Obviously, he had no deep memories of what had happened there, nor did he seem to care. "Tell me how do you live?"
"How I live...hmm..." Visions of nerve shattering, gut wrenching hospital pandemonium assaulted her. How did she explain screaming cab drivers who dodged traffic in the busy city streets and the fun of shopping along the renowned, marvelous mile of Chicago Avenue?
In the city, there was a constant hum of electricity everywhere. She'd thrived on the rush of intense activity that had always conflicted with the quiet serenity of Egypt. This had been the main reason she'd left Egypt and her father who'd seemed boring and dull, searching for something great and undiscovered hidden beneath a vast ocean of sand.
"It's loud."
His head jerked and he leaned forward. "What?"
"I have an apartment." She smiled back at his bewildered gaze.
"Apartment?"
"It's a series of living quarters that rise into the sky like the pyramids."
"And you live in this great palace?"
"Along with many others." She gestured wide. "But it's hardly a palace."
"And we travel great distances in metal chariots called cars." How did she explain technology to someone who'd never seen any of it, and who certainly didn't need it to make his life better?
She walked over to where he rested and trailed her hand down his arm. He startled at her touch and his heated skin burned beneath her finger-tips.
"There is electricity everywhere."
"Electricity?" His eyes sparked with a current of desire and she gazed at the mystery and wonder that was her husband.
"It hasn't been invented, yet. But in my time, we're all so attached to it, we can't live without it. Bright lights illuminate rooms at night and air conditioners cool inside dwellings. Large boxes with small likenesses inside that talk and move and sing. Machines that dry our clothes and hair...everything."
"You would die without these things?" Tarik leaned forward, so close his breath tingled against her skin. He smelled of heated nights and sunlit valleys, and the memory of the sweet taste of him assaulted her senses.
"Well, here's living proof I don't need it." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm doing quite well, don't you think?"
"B--but tell me of the great medicine."
"We have medicines and pills that heal everything from syphilis to snake bites. Although, from what I saw today, I think you do quite fine."
"You do?"
She turned and smiled down at him. "You are a great simw. And the way you diagnose and treat is still being done in my time."
"It is?"
She ached to rush into his arms and forget what she had to do. She wanted to forget her past, her future and live only in the now.
"Yes, Tarik. I wish..."
"You only have to say it to my goddess, Isis, and she will bring it to you, for to do so will bring me great pleasure."
He grabbed her arm and pulled her down next to him. She sighed and nestled her head against his chest. His arm wrapped around her and neither moved, yet there was a tension in his body next to hers.
"I wish I could show the wonders of my time to you so you could see for yourself." The truth slipped out with her breath, this need for him, this desire to keep him with her.
There, she'd said it. Her anger had faded long ago and now only an all too familiar sense of loss filled her with sadness.
Her heated nearness drove him headlong toward madness. He wanted to drive himself into her body and claim her as his own forever and make her truly his. And yet, she seemed so fragile, so vulnerable, he feared to spoil the moment lest he lose her forever. This woman was no idle liaison, no fleeting pleasure. This woman had taken his ka and he would spend the rest of his eternal life wanting her to complete the journey their crossing paths had started.
Yet, still, she longed to return to her lands. That was clear to him when she talked about her great cities and the marvels to be experienced. How would it be for him to partake of her world as she had his? Would he be as gracious or fearless as she? Would he not cower as a broken mongrel at the slightest unfamiliar sight?
This was of no consequence for such things did not happen. Yet, it had happened once and by his deception he would prevent it from happening again. "These things you speak of, I would wish to see," he whispered to her still form. "But only with you. I do not long for anything but that which I can share with you. Whether in this time of mine or of yours, I cannot bear it alone."
He leaned down and gazed upon her moonlit face. Her long eyelashes dusted her cheeks and wetness on her cheek glistened in the moonlight. How brave she was; she had taught him he had naught to fear from the night spirits who only wanted to find their pathway to the netherworld. How could he keep his knowledge of the scroll from her? Yet how could he not?
He stood and lifted her into his arms.
She moaned slightly and snuggled against his bare skin. Oh sweet torture.
Slowly, deliberately, he placed his lips on hers and tasted the sweetness of her he'd hungered for, so long. She tasted of midnight heat and promises to be, and the miracle of creation itself. He could not slake the thirst of his need for her and the fires she stoked deep within his inner core.
Her lips parted and he tasted her sweetness. Their shuddering breaths rent the quiet.
"Alex--I--"
She gasped and he trailed his lips, his tongue along her neck, slowly, slowly toward the rapid beating of her heart. He breathed in her scent and drew her closer, pushing the scroll far from conscious thought. It was time to relish in her touch with the knowledge that their physical joining was soon to be. By the goddess Isis, he could wait no longer, for they had already been joined by the heavens.
She tightened her arms around his neck and he carried her toward their sleeping quarters in a house, a room, a bed they shared as man and wife, but not lovers.
"Lord Tarik!"
Akiki's form standing in the pathway to his quarters stopped him.
Anger shook Tarik's aroused body. "You dare to interrupt me? What is it?"
Akiki bowed and stood aside. Tarik's heart turned to stone and weighed heavily in his chest. Was their moment lost forever? Yet, the matter must be important for his servant to dare this interruption.
Tarik gently eased Alex down, but kept his arm around her. Did he sense her stiffen at his touch?
"I said, what is it?"
"Lord Pharaoh's courier bids me to wake you. He waits for you in the main room."
Still clutching Alex's hand, Tarik followed Akiki toward the main receiving room of his home.
The courier bowed low. "Lord Tarik, I hail you and your lady wife."
"What is the meaning of this visit? Has ill befallen Mentuhotep?"
"No, it is the Queen. She falls ill and Mentuhotep sent me to tell you to prepare for his coming."
Tarik sighed heavily. "When is this to happen?"
"When Ra is reborn, the Royal entourage will arrive. He asks you to prepare your potions and elixirs of life for the Queen."
What crisis brought his pharaoh's court to Abydos? The courier said the Queen needed potions. Had misfortune befallen her? It would take most of the night to do as Pharaoh commanded. Regret replaced the passion that had controlled him only moments before. There would be no lovemaking this night.
He turned to Alex. A yawn escaped her lips.
"You are tired, wife. I will prepare the potions and join you later."
She shook her head and smiled. "I'd like to help. Your pharmacopoeia is fascinating and I want to learn as much as I can before--"
Her meaning was all to clear to him and his passion was stilled completely. "Before you leave?"
She gazed into his eyes and he read the sadness in them. "No...I didn't mean--"
"Do not worry, I will show you everything." A hint of sarcasm colored his voice and he led her toward the pharmacopoeia where he would prepare the elixir of Life.
"This has been taught to me by my father, as his father taught him, and so on until the beginning of all creation." He pulled two lapis jars from the shelf, and extracted several lotuses, and put them into a mortar. With his pestle, he ground the leaves until they formed a fine powder.
"Place this into the jar," he said, pulling a larger alabaster container from the shelf.
"And fill with water, right?"
He smiled. "Only after we have pulled all the jars from the shelf and ground out each herb in succession. All the while, I must chant the prayers of life over this mixture."
Alex gazed up at him in surprise. "This'll take all night."
"Exactly. You may wish to sleep."
She shrugged. "No. I'm fine. I'd like to watch, really."
RA'S REBIRTH had come much too soon, and his first rays of light filtered in through the windows. Tarik turned and stared at Alex, curled up in a chair asleep. He mixed the last of the herbs, then studied her form, soft and desirable. She was perfection, yet something more. She was a woman who had learned all the ways of men, yet was as seductive and as persuasive as any harem girl he'd ever known.
Her delicate features softened as she slept and it would do her good to rest. He needed sleep also, but it was not to be this day. He would renew his strength by acknowledging the gnawing hunger that nagged at his middle, and dine.
Tarik entered the dining room and slumped into a chair. "Good morning, Nafari. How does your foot feel?"
Nafari filled the table with all sorts of fruits and breads and great goblets of beer. "Ah, son of my heart, my foot ails me not at all. Your comely wife has brought happiness and luck to this household."
"I am glad." Tarik smiled, pulled off a piece of brown bread, and dipped it in honey.
Kasim entered and bowed his head. "My Lord, Tarik, I would presume upon your kind permission."
"Leave the master." Nafari shushed him away. "He has not slept nor eaten since last day."
"It is all right, Nafari. I welcome Kasim to my table. Come and dine with me. For what do you wish my permission?"
Kasim wrung his hands. "To lay with the servant, Seta."
"And she would wish it?"
"Aye, Lord." He nodded his head. "She has told me."
"She is maidservant to my wife. You should ask Alex."
Kasim glanced up at him quizzically. "I do not understand."
"It is no matter, Kasim, for I do not understand, myself. Only that it must be this way. The land my wife is from commands it." Kasim's eyes widened.
"If Seta agrees to lay with you as husband, you must treat her with respect and ask her counsel in all you do."
Kasim nodded.
"Can you promise this?" Tarik placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Lord, you have my honor and my loyalty. You do not need my promise, for I always do as you wish. Even though I do not understand what it is you ask, it is already yours."
Tarik smiled and slapped the man on the back. "As you live with Seta, you will soon learn the modern ways Alex has taught her and you will accept as I have."
"What's he going to accept?" Alex entered the room. Kasim bowed and exited backwards.
"The ways of married life."
"And just what were you planning to say about that?" Alex sat next to him and plucked a fig from the bowl of fruit on the breakfast table.
"He asked to join with Seta and I told him he must speak with you."
"Why me?"
"You are her friend and she is yours." He reached into the bowl and pulled out a cluster of grapes.
Alex's gaze widened and she smiled. "My goodness, you've learned a lot these past few weeks."
She leaned back in her chair and ate slowly as if savoring each morsel of the fig. The heat of her lips against his lingered in his memory. For all the days since their first joining, the sensation of her sleeping next to him had been unbearable and each morning he awakened hard and unfulfilled from the night's sweet torture.
He straightened his shoulders. "What you have shown me bears importance. In your world you are respected as an equal and you have been taught the same skills as a man. It is my wish to treat you the same while you are here."
Alex slanted him a glance from beneath her lashes and sipped from the goblet in front of her. "Is that all?"
Tarik took a deep breath. "No. I have come to know that what you say about your world must be true."
She set down the cup and leaned forward. "What're you saying?"
Tarik cleared his throat. "When first you spoke of the tomb, about traveling here from another world, I thought you mad. But as your time with me has transpired, I bear witness to your knowledge and great feats of magic." He nodded. "I have come to believe everything you say is true."
Alex stared into his endless eyes. Was Tarik apologizing? Not now. Please, not now. How did she dare respond? He was baring his soul to her, and she was planning to leave at the first o
pportunity.
It had been much easier to plan her escape when she thought she hated him. But this revelation of his newfound belief in her was harder to dismiss. How could she simply walk away after all this?
"You believe me?"
"I have thought upon this much. If I were to--to travel to your time, even though there would be many marvels to learn and understand, I would still wish to be here among my people and my gods." His gaze darkened. "I do understand your bewilderment and pain at being here. I--I am ready to take you to the tomb."
"The tomb?" Her head swam. It was all she'd wanted. All she'd hoped for. But she wasn't ready, yet!
"If you should find the way to your world, I am ready to help you."
"Are you sick of me already?" She wanted him to beg, plead, keep her captive like before. How easy it all had been when she had no choice.
"Sick? I do not understand your meaning."
"Get me out of the way, clear the path, free up your space?" Why was he so willing, so helpful, so wonderful?
He frowned and rubbed his eyes. "I thought it was your wish to travel back to your time."
"I don't know what I want, anymore. But I know I can't do anything until I find the scroll."
"The scroll?" His eyes widened.
She nodded. "Yes. I've been looking for the scroll. I read the words. No...I sang those words and there was thunder or an earthquake--something--and I woke up to find you. I think that's what caused the phenomenon."
"A song? You read the song of Isis." He said matter-of-factly without emotion.
Her heart beat wildly. She stood and paced the room. "A song? Yes, it was a song--I think--you know it?"
He smiled. "It is nothing more than a simple temple song praising her." He took her hand in his. "It is written everywhere, on many scrolls. Is this the thing you seek?"
"I'm not sure. But if that song was written on the scroll, I think I need it to get back to my time. And it's at the tomb."
"You do not need the tomb. I have such a scroll here."
Alex shook her head. "No. I think I need the tomb--"
Tarik frowned. "Why do you insist on this?"