by Holly Rayner
“‘Here is Teriteqas,’” Vanessa read. “‘Qore of Meroe and all of Nubia, husband of Kandake Amanirenas, who lies beside him. I have taken endless victories in his name and in the name of our son, Akinidad. But none could satisfy as well as his company. The wealth that I won from our enemies, the peace I have brought to our people, I bring all to him in the afterlife, where he may do with it as he likes. For love beyond life, for love that could conquer armies, for love and nothing more. I will be at his side again in the place eternal.’”
Vanessa was crying again, and suddenly she began to laugh, hysterical through her sobs. Ramin hurried around the sarcophagi to hold her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Are you all right?”
“I am,” she sobbed. “It’s just—God, you’re going to hate me for this. It’s just that, I can’t take anything now!”
“What?” Ramin asked, moving away from her a little.
“I know, I know, I’m terrible,” Vanessa admitted, rubbing at her face. “I’m just as bad as Peterson. I planned to steal something from the tomb from the beginning. Just something small. Enough to pay off my debts from school, that’s all. I’ve been feeling awful about it from the beginning. It’s half the reason I pushed you away so hard. There’s no way I can do it now, knowing she dedicated all of this to him.”
Ramin sighed, then pulled her close again. They walked out of the tomb and sat down in the hall where they would have less fear of the hematite dust.
Vanessa leaned against Ramin as she let all she was feeling at the moment overwhelm her.
“Do you hate me?” she asked when she could speak again.
“Of course not,” he answered at once, kissing her hand. “It was stupid. But I understand why you wanted to do it. And why you couldn’t go through with it. I’d like to believe that, even without the engraving, you would not have been able to go through with it.”
“I really hope you’re right,” Vanessa said with a small laugh. “I’m not sure I know myself well enough to say, anymore.”
“I know who you are,” Ramin said kindly. “You’re my idiot archeologist, remember?”
Vanessa giggled tiredly.
“And you’re my insatiable playboy,” she agreed.
He bent to kiss her, then, and even though she was dusty and sweaty and aching from all they’d been through, she felt a rush of excitement run through her, only matched by the moment she’d stepped into Amanirenas’s tomb.
“If we live through this,” she said as they parted, breathless. “This is going to be the best day of my life. Even if we don’t, it’s still pretty high up there!”
“Dying does kind of lose some ‘best day ever’ points,” Ramin said with a chuckle. He looked into her eyes, his expression soft with affection. “I’ve spent so long searching for anyone who would stay with me, just terrified of ending up old and alone in an empty palace. I’d almost forgotten what it felt like to be falling in love with someone.”
Vanessa flushed pink, looking away, but he caught her chin and tipped her face up to look at him again.
“Vanessa. You are, without a doubt, one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met,” he said. “You’re brilliant, endlessly curious, genuinely excited about life and everything you do. I want to find that kind of joy in life. I want to be like you. I want to be with you.”
“You could do so much better,” Vanessa said with a nervous laugh. “Honestly, I’m boring. Everyone says so. You and Professor Van Rees are the only ones who’ve ever listened to my stories without dozing off or trying to change the subject. You’re so intelligent, and considerate, and wonderful, and you deserve more.”
“You should value yourself more highly,” Ramin said earnestly. “Because in my opinion, you are worth more than a dozen princesses.”
Vanessa hid her face, flustered.
“We should focus on getting out,” she said, changing the subject.
“Yes,” Ramin agreed. “We’re going to get out. And when we do, after all this is done, you’re going to let me take you out to dinner.”
“Let’s just get out of here first,” Vanessa said, laughing, halfway between delight and embarrassment.
They got to their feet and headed for the part of the corridor that sloped upwards. They passed through a series of dark chambers, into a final large room. Vanessa stepped on something that crunched and moved back quickly, shining the lamp down on the floor.
“Pottery,” Ramin said, examining a piece of broken ceramic.
“This must have been the chapel,” Vanessa commented, looking at the engraved walls. “Where they held the burial ceremony before sealing the tomb.”
“So, this part of the graveyard was actively used,” Ramin gathered. “Which means it should still be open somewhere, right?”
“Probably!” Vanessa agreed, grinning. “And no traps.”
“Always a plus.”
They made their way through the chapel, stepping carefully to avoid the shattered pottery pieces, remnants of innumerable funerary rituals. Above them, the ceiling sloped up steeply to the point of a narrow pyramid, buried somewhere below the Saharan sands, its walls thickly inscribed with the stories and rituals of an ancient people nearly lost to time.
At the far end of the room, they found a doorway flooded with sand, beneath which they could see the ground sloping up.
“This must be the main entrance,” Vanessa observed.
“It looks like we’re going to have to do some digging,” Ramin said, frowning.
“Maybe,” Vanessa agreed, stepping back and raising her lamp to look up at the ceiling. “We’d have to do a lot less if we could get up there.”
“There’s fresh air coming from somewhere,” Ramin said thoughtfully, looking up with her. “Do you think one of the vents up there is still open?”
“I think it’s a better chance for us than trying to crawl through a mile of sand,” she replied. “The whole pyramid is submerged. The only question is, how do we get up there?”
Ramin squinted around them for something to use, tugging on Vanessa’s arm when the lamplight illuminated something in the corner. Vanessa directed the light towards the alcove and Ramin went to investigate.
“You’re not going to believe this,” he said with a laugh as he stepped out of the way to show her an ancient, weathered wooden ladder. “It must have been for cleaning inside the chapel.”
“Or maybe for working on the murals,” Vanessa agreed. “But it’s more than a thousand years old. There’s no way it’s safe.”
“It’s worth a try,” Ramin said with a shrug. “Besides, it’s anchored to the wall pretty well. The wood feels petrified.”
“I’m less worried about the wood than the rope,” Vanessa said, frowning at the frayed and ancient knots.
“I’m going to try it,” Ramin said. “Stay here.”
Vanessa watched, concerned, as the Sheikh began climbing, surprised when the first few rungs of the ladder held his weight. He was a few feet up before a step snapped, nearly pitching him back down to the stone floor. He caught himself, hanging for a moment as he recovered.
“Be careful!” Vanessa shouted below him, her heart in her throat at the thought of him falling.
“I’m all right!” he promised. “I’m gonna keep going.”
“You should just come down,” Vanessa yelled up at him. “We can find another way up that’s a little less suicidal.”
“This is working,” Ramin reassured her. “Just hang on a little longer.”
He climbed on, beyond the range of Vanessa’s lamp. Vanessa’s heart squeezed in an anxious fist as she listened for any sign that he was about to fall. There was a sudden snapping noise above her and she shrieked, heart in her throat.
“Ramin?” she shouted, terrified.
“I’m all right!” he called back down. “Another rung snapped, but it’s fine! There’s scaffolding up here. They must have still been working on the murals. I’m standing on it. It’s safe. You can
climb up.”
Vanessa was highly doubtful that any of this was safe, but she started climbing anyway, lamp tied to her hip, carefully testing every rung before she put her weight on it. She nearly had a heart attack when one split under her hand.
“You’re doing fine,” Ramin called down to her. “Just keep going! You’re almost there!”
After what seemed like an eternity, Ramin reached down and caught her arm, pulling her up onto the scaffolding platform. The whole structure shifted and groaned with every movement.
“We shouldn’t linger here,” Vanessa said anxiously. “Every time we move we’re weakening the ancient ropes and support more. It’s not going to hold for long.”
“Can you see the open vent?” Ramin asked, squinting upward. “What about that match trick?”
“I’d need a much bigger fire,” Vanessa said, shaking her head. “And there isn’t anything to burn around here except—”
They shared a look that plainly showed they were both having the same ridiculous idea.
The scaffolding came down easily, nearly landing on Vanessa. They chose the piece they destroyed carefully, wanting to avoid weakening the rest of the structure and also anything that they might need to climb up to the vent. They took out the ladder as well, Ramin using a rope from his bag to haul up the main platform, hanging the rest over the end for them to climb up and down. They tossed their firewood on a pile in the center of the grave chapel as far away from anything valuable as Vanessa could manage.
“Move that pottery out of the way as carefully as you can,” Vanessa instructed, fretting. “Oh, the smoke is going to ruin any murals or engravings near the peak. Not to mention how it’s going to dry things out. This is the worst thing I’ve ever done as an archeologist; I want you to know that.”
“I know how you feel,” Ramin said, carefully relocating pottery shards. “But I think our survival is a little more critical at the moment.”
“Speaking of which,” Vanessa said as she arranged the bonfire. “We’re going to need to move quickly once this is lit. Whatever gap is letting in the fresh air isn’t going to let the smoke out fast enough. We’ll smother in here if we take too long.”
“Well, that’s worrying,” Ramin said with a frown. “What if we can’t get through the vent?”
“Do you have any other ideas?” Vanessa asked.
He didn’t, and together they constructed the bonfire. Vanessa, holding her breath, put a match to it.
The dry, ancient wood went up fast, the blazing light illuminating the interior of the chapel completely for the first time. Vanessa was briefly distracted by the beautiful murals, the statues and carvings which illuminated the walls.
What incredible histories and mythologies these walls would tell when she could have a proper look at them. But the smoke was rising and Vanessa quickly focused on it again, watching with a laugh of relief as it was pulled towards a corner and vanished out of a thin crack. The fire was growing and the smoke was building up. They had no time to waste.
“There!” Vanessa pointed out to Ramin. “Let’s go!”
They climbed the rope back up to the scaffolding and hurried across it, feeling it shake and slump with every hurried step. Ramin climbed first onto a higher platform and reached back to pull Vanessa up, catching her hand just a second before the scaffold below her collapsed beneath her feet. She shouted in wordless fear, dangling in the air, as Ramin struggled to drag her up onto his platform, which was already weakening.
The closer they got to the peak of the pyramid, the denser the smoke became. Soon they were coughing, covering their faces with the rags they’d used against the hematite dust to try to buy themselves a little more time. Vanessa’s eyes streamed, and it became difficult to see. She focused on the vent above them, not wanting to lose it in the thickening haze.
“We’re almost there,” Ramin yelled back at her, climbing onto the next platform. “It’s right above me!”
Before Vanessa could answer, the platform shook beneath her and began to collapse. Ramin turned back to reach for her, but she was already scrambling away from the collapsing edge. She pressed herself to the pyramid wall as the scaffold crumbled, leaving a thin ledge on which she perched, shaking.
“Hold still!” Ramin called to her. “I’m coming back for you!”
“Keep going!” Vanessa shouted, waving him off. “You’ve got to open the vent!”
“I’m not leaving you behind!” Ramin cried.
“If you don’t get that vent open, we’re going to suffocate!” Vanessa insisted, then flattened herself against the wall again as the remaining scaffolding shuddered. “Get it open, then come back for me!”
Ramin’s jaw tensed in distress, but there was no way he could get to her without killing them both. Reluctantly, he turned back to the vent above him. He pushed at it with his hands, coughing through the smoke as he tried to shove it open. It didn’t budge and, frustrated, he pulled out the mallet, swinging it up at the vent seal. The awkward angle sapped much of his force. The stone didn’t move. He kept trying, pushing with his hands, his shoulders, striking with the mallet in desperation.
Below, Vanessa sat on her thin ledge, looking down at the growing fire below, which was spreading to the fallen pieces of scaffolding. She felt the heat rolling off of it, sweat beading on her skin and her heart thundering in her ears. It was getting hard to focus, her head swimming, and she knew it was because of the lack of air amid all the smoke. They wouldn’t last much longer. If Ramin couldn’t open the seal, they were going to die.
Ramin swung desperately at the stone one last time, then stumbled and fell to one knee. He looked back at Vanessa, his eyes full of fear and guilt.
Vanessa looked back at him, wishing she could change things, fix this somehow. Or at least tell him she didn’t blame him.
Suddenly, the stone above Ramin shifted. He looked up in shock as a crowbar worked its way under the ancient stone seal and lifted it away. Fresh air rushed into the tomb as smoke billowed out, feeding the fire below which roared to renewed life. Vanessa clung to the wall and held her breath as boiling heat rushed past her while the fire flared. It was climbing all the more voraciously now, and soon it would reach her ledge.
But the vent was open. A second later, an arm was reaching down to pull Ramin out. He looked back at Vanessa, pulling down the scarf over his face.
“I’m coming back for you!” he shouted and took the arm, letting it pull him up out of the burning tomb and into the sand.
Chapter Fourteen
Ramin knelt there coughing for a moment, gasping for clean air after all the smoke, then looked up at his savior, only to see a crowbar being swung down at his head.
He rolled out of the way with a shout, springing to his feet, mallet in hand.
Taggert stood in front of him, his blond hair a mess of blood and dirt. His lips glittered with hematite dust and a crossbow bolt still stuck out from his shoulder.
“What happened?” Ramin asked, wide-eyed.
“You did!” Taggert snarled. “You had us dig right into that death trap! Half of my men were shot full of goddamn arrows the second we cracked open the entrance. When I saw the smoke, I thought it was one of my men signaling me. I’m almost happier it’s you. Now I get to kill you myself!”
Vanessa, trapped in the tomb below, could hear none of this. Her attention was focused on the fire that climbed ever higher towards her, the platform she clung to growing weaker, sagging further, threatening to drop her into the inferno below. She couldn’t stay here. It was going to give out any second.
She scanned the remaining scaffolding for any piece that might hold her weight, spotting the nearest one too far away to reach. She’d have to jump for it. Her heart raced, reminding her how many ways this could go wrong. She could miss the jump and fall. The next platform could collapse as soon as she landed on it. The platform she was on could give out when she jumped. And she was dizzy and getting weaker every minute from smoke inhalation. If she
was going to move, she needed to do it now.
Gathering her courage and stepping back as far as she could on the narrow ledge, Vanessa ran towards the solid platform. She felt the ledge shaking under her steps, beginning to fall. She leaped a second before it crumbled, throwing herself forward over the flames. She hit the second platform at chest height, knocking the wind out of herself and almost falling before her fingers caught on the wooden planks.
She dragged herself up, shaking and afraid, and lay on the platform, wheezing in smoke and knowing she’d bought herself only a few more minutes. If Ramin didn’t return for her soon, it would be too late.
Above, Ramin dodged another swing from Taggert’s crowbar and lunged aside, aiming a blow at the other man which missed, throwing him off balance. Taggert was a large man and a practiced brawler, fueled by rage and revenge. But Ramin was leaner, faster, and well trained in using speed to his advantage. He knew if he could get past Taggert’s guard, he could win. But he knew he didn’t have time to wait for Taggert to wear out.
Vanessa was in danger just a few feet below him. It was time to fight dirty.
He ducked under Taggert’s next strike, feeling the rush as the crowbar swung an inch away from him, and slapped the crossbow bolt sticking out from Taggert’s shoulder. The man roared with pain and stumbled sideways. Ramin moved counter to him, slamming the mallet into the arm holding the crowbar. Taggert dropped it in surprise and turned into the next blow, which Ramin aimed directly at his head. Taggert toppled to the sand, hopefully unconscious, and Ramin rushed back to the vent, kneeling beside it. Sand showered down into the hall as he searched for Vanessa, seeing the collapsed platform where she’d been trapped.
“Vanessa!” he shouted, fear in his voice.
“Here!” Vanessa called back from her new position. “What’s going on?”
“I’m coming! Hang on!” he called back.
Vanessa’s eyes widened as she saw something rising behind Ramin’s back.
“Look out!” she shouted.
Ramin turned just as Taggert, bloody, dazed and enraged, threw himself at the Sheikh. Ramin caught him, holding the other man’s hands away from his throat, and they struggled in the sand, wrestling for control. Vanessa could just see them, grappling beside the vent. She stood, helpless and terrified, wanting to fight but trapped, only able to watch.