“You're welcome. We'll get through it together.”
***
The drive south to Aswan took forever. At least to Evelyn. The rain created hazardous conditions, sometimes making the road so slick she thought they were going to crash. Rhett, forced to increase the speed lest it take them a month to arrive, did his best to keep them safe. There was a narrow escape with hydroplaning, a near miss with another car, and times when the storm lashed the rain so hard they couldn't see at all.
Bugs that couldn't lift off and flee the onslaught, drowned. Millions of little black bodies floated in puddles or got pounded into the ground. The clouds that filled the sky obliterated the black sun to the point it still felt like midnight even when high noon rolled around.
Evelyn took a stab at driving so Rhett could rest, and Minna took over for her when she grew too tired to see. All three were aware of the flooding going on out in the desert and three times they had to divert around swamped sections of highway because it was under water.
At one abandoned gas station along the way, which thankfully had gas left in the pumps, a TV blared non stop with news from all over the world. They saw chaos and hysteria in every city, the newscasters shouting into their microphones, expressions stunned. One anchor broke down and cried. Half the time the feed got interrupted by a blitz of static from the weather, recovering slowly until the picture came back in. Everyone had an opinion about the phenomenon the world was experiencing, ranging from global warming to biblical Armageddon to aliens bent on disorder to make it easier to take over Earth.
Through one day and into another, with Rhett taking the wheel more than she or her sister, they finally reached the outskirts of Aswan. Cloaked in rain, the buildings scrubbed free of insects, the city looked almost normal. All except the water that buried whole streets, creeping toward intersections and municipal buildings that wouldn't withstand another day of storms without seeing significant damage.
People braved the weather now that the threat of the swarm was negated and Rhett maneuvered through cars trying to get in or out of the city. Every face that Evelyn saw wore the same terror, the same fear of the unknown. Many, she knew, cowered inside their homes, too afraid to come out.
South of Aswan, they found a parking lot attached to a boat rental business right on the Nile.
Evelyn climbed out of the car, achy and stiff from so many hours on the road. She didn't care about the pounding rain or thunder that sounded like repeat cannon shots. Tilting her face up, she let the deluge wash over her and ran her fingers through her hair. Tangled, messy, she'd had no comb or brush to work through the strands since...she couldn't remember when.
The water in the lot stood ankle deep, indicating they were on higher ground. Lower slopes in the city were all but buried.
“Where is it we have to go? I mean, what are we looking for here?” Rhett asked from the other side of the vehicle.
Minna was already scouting boat possibilities to cross the river in.
Evelyn read skepticism on Rhett's face and couldn't really blame him. Nothing about the surrounding terrain resembled what normal people's perception of Eden was.
“We have to go across to Agilka—rennamed Philae after they moved the Temple of Isis there,” she said, pointing across the Nile.
“Moved the temple?” he asked, following Minna toward the short docks stretching along the edge of the water.
“It used to be on another island—one that's buried underwater now after the dam was built.”
“They moved a temple? How do you do that?” He scanned the options and stalked toward one unimpressive little boat bobbing in a slip.
“Stone by stone. It was a painstaking process. Really amazing, if you ask me,” Evelyn said, shadowing him. She saw no one else either in the parking lot or on the docks. Boats looked like they had been tied off in a hurry, some about to come loose of their moorings.
Minna returned from examining two other, larger vessels with a box of cherry Hi-C and a bottle of peach tea. “Thirsty?”
“I'll share the tea with you?” Evelyn suggested to Minna, taking the bottle out of her hand.
Minna agreed and walked the box of Hi-C to Rhett.
The look on his face might have struck Evelyn as comedic any other time.
“Thanks.” He took it nevertheless and sucked down the contents in a few swallows.
Evelyn doused the dryness in her throat and handed off the tea to Minna. “Are we taking that boat over? Do we need to bail it out?”
Streamlined and sleek, the speed boat had four seats by the driver and several more up in the front where cushions lined the bow. It didn't look fancy or elaborate but it would get the job done.
“As long as the engine runs.” Rhett jumped in and slogged through water toward the driver's seat.
Evelyn followed, searching out the ignition to see if luck would finally be with them and a key would be hanging out. Except she saw no ignition and certainly no key. Just a small keypad with Start and Stop buttons.
“Can you start the motor manually?” Evelyn asked, utterly clueless about the intricate workings of boats. Any kind except canoes or rowboats.
“We don't need a key. See this keypad here?” he asked, pointing to it with a finger.
“Yes. Is that like the kind on cars where you press a number to get in?”
“Exactly like that.”
“We don't have the sequence.”
Rhett slung sopping strands of hair back out of his face. “See, when they come off the line, they're pre-set with a number the owner can use until he picks a new one for himself. A lot of times no one bothers to reset it. If we're lucky, the bilge pump will start working and drain the water out.”
Minna watched around Evelyn's shoulder, one hand braced against the seat.
“We could use a little luck right about now.” Evelyn held her breath when Rhett jabbed at the buttons.
1, 2, 3, 4. He pushed the Start button.
Nothing happened.
“Oh no--”
He pushed the Start button again and the motor cranked to life. “We'll give it a few minutes to get some of the water out.”
Evelyn released the pent up breath, nodded at Rhett, and followed Minna to the seats in the front. Her shoes were so wet and heavy they felt like slabs of concrete.
Rhett cast off the rope some minutes later while the bilge continued to pump. Back at the wheel, he swerved the boat out onto the Nile. The water looked black, like a rippling jewel, snaking its way through the gray landscape. Islands dotted the river, some quite large, some small. Evelyn pointed out Philae and Rhett put them on a direct course.
A man, his wife and two children scrambled into a smaller boat than their own just as they pulled up to the docks on the west side of the island. Scared, battling the weather like everyone else, they only gave the three of them startled, fearful looks before rowing toward the main shoreline. Evelyn watched them go with her hand shielding her eyes from the sideways rain, face turned away from the brunt of the wind.
After Rhett cut the engine and tied the boat, Evelyn climbed out, with his help, onto the dock. Minna set off across the sopping ground for the temple that rose like a monolith against the angry sky.
“I still don't get what we're doing here. We're on an island in the middle of the Nile. This is the fabled Eden?” Rhett asked near her ear.
Over a volley of thunder, she said, “No, this is just the gateway. Even though they moved the temple itself, it didn't disturb passage into the East Gate. Ashrael waited until the move was complete and reshaped the access so we could enter. It'll be safe here for centuries, protected by the Egyptian government, a perfect and secure gateway.”
“Unless the island sinks again.”
Evelyn craned a dry look over her shoulder.
He arched his brows as if to say, I'm just saying.
One would never guess the site had been rebuilt one stone at a time for how natural it looked against the landscape, as if it had been
built there so many thousands of years before instead of on an island all but underwater in the Nile.
Ahead, the east and west set of colonnades sat parallel to each other, a wide berth between them. At the end sat the majestic pylons, carved with intricate hieroglyphics. A doorway sat right in the middle. It looked miniscule compared to the giant pieces of stone surrounding it.
The west set of colonnades had many more columns than did the east, and it was where Minna headed. Evelyn followed with Rhett right at her back.
Rows and rows of columns, each as richly engraved as the next, sat equally spaced apart and supported a slab overhead that helped block out some of the rain. Minna came to a stop next to one in particular.
“This is where you need to follow exactly in our footsteps,” Evelyn told Rhett over her shoulder. “Don't go around the other way or bypass any of the columns.”
“All right.” He sounded perplexed.
Minna glanced back and after Evelyn nodded, she began. The winding, serpentine path she walked encompassed many of the columns. Weaving, they worked one end to the other, sometimes cutting up right through the middle in figure-eight patterns around the damp stone.
Evelyn glanced back to make sure Rhett was right behind her. She knew this routine by heart, could have completed this walk blindfold. Touching a few of the stones, she let her fingers trail over the carvings until one fell away for another.
At the end of the colonnades, Minna rounded a final one and made way for the cutout doorway in the center of the skyscraper pylons. Evelyn felt the strange shift in the air that always came in this part of the transition. Like a balloon pressed against the body, a tightness that didn't hurt or annoy, but that couldn't be ignored.
The storm raged overhead, releasing a fresh round of spiking, spearing rain. Like it wanted to nail its captives to the ground by their clothes and their skin. Thunder boomed, lightning lit up a gloomy sky.
Minna stepped up to and through the door, turning her head to look back.
Evelyn reached for Rhett's hand when it was their turn, leading him right to the edge. She heard his breath catch in his throat and tugged him through to the other side.
The violent whip of the wind, streaks of lightning and pounding rain faded. From the gloom, a new day dawned, spreading out before them as fresh as the beginning of spring. Several acres of sweet, green grass stood between the pylons behind them and a new gate before them. A gate so commanding and detailed it made the pylons look droll and unimpressive. Three stories high, it boasted swooping, baroque style arches of stone. Filigree veins of gold wove through carvings of vines, grapes, leaves, animals and other flora both known and unknown on Earth.
A vibrant sun shone down from a blue sky and wisps of clouds scudded along toward some distant destination. The temperature was neither too hot nor too cold. Flowers of white, yellow, pink, fushia, lavender and colors in between sprouted up from the base of the stone and beyond.
Thousands of acres of ethereal land stretched as far as the eye could see. Trees familiar and not swayed and rustled in a faint breeze. Some of the terrain was hilly, some spattered with large rocks, and a meandering stream burbled to the east. The colors were straight from a Monet painting; inviting, surreal, decadent. It seemed impossible that just behind them, through the pylon doorway, such fury battered the earth.
No wrought iron or wood gate stood in their way to cross through the arches to that wonderland of nature.
Evelyn saw the wonder and disbelief on Rhett's face, hair and clothes stuck to his body, skin as wet as if he'd just stepped out of the bath. That particular moment of Rhett's understanding and revelation would stay with her for all time.
“It's stunning,” he said, voice nothing more than a murmur.
“Yes, it is,” Evelyn agreed. She looked away when Minna touched her arm, finding her sister with a bemused, troubled frown on her brow.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Ashrael.”
Evelyn snapped a look around the land before the East Gate. She'd been so distracted she hadn't realized Ashrael wasn't standing right there like he always was, ready to greet them with some witty retort.
“Ashrael?” She called out. Maybe he didn't feel them coming.
Nothing.
“What's wrong? Maybe he's just inside there somewhere?” Rhett said with a gesture to the gate.
Evelyn shook her head. “No. Ash is always here. He knows when someone arrives. They would never leave the Gate untended.” She called out again. “Ash! Where are you?”
Still nothing.
Impossibly, the Guardian of the East Gate was gone.
Chapter Eighteen
“So what does it mean if the Guardian is gone?” Rhett asked. “Is there a specific significance if he's missing?”
Evelyn looked at her sister to find Minna with a bemused, slightly alarmed expression on her face. She knew what Minna was thinking because the same tickle of fear made her nerves stretch taut.
“Girls?” he prompted.
“The only reason he would be gone from here is if Armageddon has started,” Minna replied, glancing from Evelyn to Rhett.
“But you said you didn't break the Sixth seal itself--”
“That must mean that once one seal is broken, any seal, the process is irreversible. We'd hoped we could stop the progression—or that Ashrael could,” Evelyn said, picking up where Minna left off.
Rhett shook rainwater out of his hair and approached the broad gate. Ten cars could be lined up, side by side, underneath the arch. Hundreds of people could pass through at a time if need be.
“Wait, Rhett. I don't think it's a good idea for you to pass through yet.” Minna held out a cautionary palm to prevent him from crossing into Eden itself.
He stopped right at the edge, scanning the landscape with a razor sharp gaze that swung back to Evelyn. “My father and brothers are back there. If you really think there's no chance at all to reverse it, I should return. Dracht can get in here with Alex—Dragar and Christian don't even know where it is.”
Minna lowered her hand.
Evelyn stared at Rhett, more exhausted suddenly than she could remember feeling in a long time. Soaked to the bone, hungry, thirsty, needing sleep, the last thing she wanted to contemplate was the thought of losing Rhett for good. She'd already lost two sisters in a short amount of time and now the earth was under siege, possibly about to undergo the worst string of catastrophes it had ever seen. Alexandra was still out there somewhere, too, and Evelyn had no way of knowing whether her sister was safe or in peril.
She could die like Galiana or Genevieve.
All she and Minna had to do was step through the East Gate to be protected. None of the violence would touch them here, any of them, as long as they stayed within the expansive confines of Eden. Whether there would be any backlash taking Rhett in there with them she couldn't guess.
Nothing might happen. And something awful could. Ashrael would have been able to guide them, give them direction and advice. He wasn't here so the decisions had to be made between the three of them.
She felt Rhett and Minna watching her, waiting.
A temperate breeze toyed with the ends of her wet hair and the edges of her clothes, irresistibly peaceful and luring.
They could enter Eden and live out their lives in harmony, safe from mortal dangers and concerns. But at what emotional and psychological cost? Was it worth it if they had to live every day knowing they didn't at least try to help those they loved? What about the rest of humanity?
On the other hand, if Armageddon had really begun beyond the pylons, or was about to begin, their chances of finding anyone they knew were remote to impossible. If they went back, they were all but forfeiting their lives.
“What are you thinking, Evelyn?” Rhett asked.
“Our chances of surviving it are slim to none, Rhett. What we just went through?” She gestured with a hand toward the pylon doorway. “That will seem mild compared to what's coming. The od
ds of finding them when the power goes out, when we can't stand upright for the devastation of the earthquakes, when volcanoes erupt all over the world, will be astronomical. Phones won't work, roads will be devastated, mayhem on an unimaginable level will occur. We'll be relegated to walking, open and exposed to the elements. If we stay here, we'll survive it. All three of us. We'll survive and maybe Alex and Dracht if they make it in time. I just don't know if any of us can live like that knowing we didn't do everything we could to save the rest of them.”
“We don't even know if Rhett can enter Eden without Ashrael,” Minna added.
Rhett never wavered his attention from Evelyn while she talked. When she was done, he thrust both hands back through his hair and paced an agitated circle. Locking his fingers behind his head, he stared up at the placid sky, clothes drooping from the weight of the rain.
Evelyn fretted over what he was thinking, what conclusions he might come to. Nothing about what she wanted with him—or wanted to try with him—had changed. What changed was the circumstances of their world and the situation they found themselves in.
Distantly, birds trilled happy songs. Leaves whispered and rustled. The sun felt warm and healing.
Rhett dropped his arms and curved a path toward her. Bracing his hands on each of her shoulders, he met and held her eyes.
Evelyn knew what was coming even before he spoke.
“My job was to get you to safety. You and Minna once we joined up with her. If I can't get into Eden with you, it's pointless for me to stay here. I'm better served doing what I can out there,” he cocked his head toward the tall pylons.
She knew he was right. Despite the pang in her heart, she knew she couldn't expect Rhett to languish here in the space between the doorway to earth and the Gate to Eden. A handful of acres—beautiful, yes—with nothing but grass, a few colorful plants and several trees for company. Rhett was a man made for action, to accomplish things, to help people. Not pace a paradise cage.
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