by Holly Rayner
“I’d rather be back in the burning tomb,” he replied under his breath, and she laughed quietly. But she knew the feeling. It was time for a break.
She scanned the room for a way out and smiled as she saw the doors at the other end of the room opening.
“Look!” she said loudly. “They’re bringing out the cake!”
Everyone turned and, taking Ramin’s hand, Vanessa pulled him away down one of the museum corridors, away from the crush of people. He followed eagerly, his hand warm in hers. They hurried through the dimly lit halls, lined with the glittering treasures of a lost world, until the ambient chatter of the crowd dimmed to silence behind them.
They didn’t stop until they’d reached the red velvet rope isolating the part of the exhibit where Amanirenas and Teriteqas’s sarcophagi were displayed. The two massive coffins lay in the center of a large room, lights shining down on their newly cleaned and restored surfaces, which gleamed with gold and turquoise and inlaid gems.
The treasure Amanirenas had been laid to rest with was spread out around them, safely preserved for her journey to the afterlife with her husband.
This part of the exhibit wasn’t open yet, so they could linger here safely, unafraid of being bothered.
Vanessa paused, staring up at Amanirenas with a warm contentment in her heart. She’d been working towards this for so long that she almost felt a little lost now that it was found.
The baroness’s question lingered on her mind. Yes, there was still plenty to do. Decades’ worth of work, in fact. But none of it was quite the same as the hunt for Amanirenas, now over. She’d need to find something new to devote her life to. Ramin put his arms around her from behind.
“You know they’ll want us to be there to cut that cake,” he murmured.
“They can wait a little while,” she replied, still looking at the sarcophagus. “I just needed a minute to breathe.”
“I’m not complaining,” Ramin said with a small laugh.
Vanessa took a deep breath, closing her eyes, enjoying the peace and being close to him for a moment.
“You might have to get used to things like this,” Ramin told her. “They tend to be a rather regular thing for me.”
“I’ll survive,” Vanessa said with a smile. “Or I’ll learn to schedule lots of well-timed trips out of the country.”
“I might have to accompany you on those.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Above the two sarcophagi hung a plaque, a reproduction of the stele in the tomb, complete with Vanessa’s translation.
“For love beyond life,” Ramin read, holding her close, his breath warm against her ear. “For love that could conquer armies.”
“For love,” Vanessa finished, “and nothing more.”
He kissed the back of her neck and Vanessa felt a thrill run through her.
“I have something I need to tell you,” she said, and turned to face him as he looked up. “I’ve accepted the offer from the University of Ksatta-Galan. I’m starting in the fall.”
“That’s amazing!” Ramin said, his eyes lighting up.
“I’m not done,” Vanessa said before he could say any more. “I also intend to keep working on the tomb. So, it only made sense, I figured, to just bring everything when I came here.”
She held her breath as he looked at her, at first confused, and then in understanding.
“I don’t have to move in with you…” she said immediately. “I’m not trying to rush you or move too fast. I was thinking about taking Professor Van Rees’s apartment actually, now that he’s moved back to the States. I want to be here regardless, not just because of you, so—”
He put a hand against her lips to stop her, then replaced it with a soft kiss.
“I want you to move in with me,” he said. “If you want to. Honestly, I don’t want to spend another morning without you. I love you, Vanessa Hawkins.”
Vanessa felt her heart soaring, threatening to fly right out of her chest with delight. She kissed him again, passionate and excited.
“I love you, too,” she said as they separated. “I really do.”
He pulled her close and, laughing, they danced through the exhibit, temporarily forgetting the crowd that waited for them a room away, the work that needed to be done, even the riches of the ancient world that surrounded them, glittering in the low museum lights.
All that mattered was there in their arms, their hearts in sync, ready to do anything. For love, and nothing more.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
Vanessa leaned over a backlit table in the university lab, carefully cleaning a piece of broken clay pottery. The shards of the original vase lay on her table in various states of restoration as she slowly cleaned and sorted them. Once all the pieces were restored, she intended to reassemble them.
Generally, she left the vases shattered out of respect for Kush burial practices, but this particular vase was one that had been used during the entombment of Teriteqas or Amanirenas. It bore paintings and hieroglyphs relating to them, and Vanessa could never pass up a chance to learn more about their lives together.
The piece she was working on now was the largest, and bore an image of the Kandake and Qore together, looking out over their kingdom. She smiled as she looked at it, thinking about the ancient queen whose love had conquered Rome, and also of her own little romance.
“How’s it coming, professor?”
Vanessa still wasn’t over the thrill of being called professor. She looked up at the undergraduate assistant who was helping her with various restoration projects and smiled. He was a native of Ksatta-Galan and one of her most promising students.
“I’m just about done cleaning these pieces,” she said. “How are yours looking?”
“Just finished!”
Vanessa looked over his work with a nod of approval.
“Very good!” she said. “We’ll get through the backlog in no time. Once we’ve cleaned and cataloged all of the pottery from the burial chapel, we can move on to the stuff in the actual tombs! Exciting, right?”
The young man nodded and smiled, but looked a little unsure.
“Professor?” he asked, a little wary. “Forgive me but…why are you doing this?”
“I’m sorry?” Vanessa blinked, not understanding the question.
“Cleaning pottery like this,” the young man elaborated. “It’s grunt work. You’re the famous Professor Hawkins, who solved the Maze of the Dead and found the Tomb of Amanirenas. Isn’t there something more exciting you could be doing?”
Vanessa considered the question for a moment and looked away. Certainly, there was plenty for her to do. Most of it involved writing papers and giving lectures and rehashing what she’d already learned a thousand different ways because no one was ever satisfied until she’d picked it apart from every available angle.
“Sometimes, I just miss getting my hands dirty,” she said, and figured that was explanation enough.
Work on the tomb had come to a slow stop. Exploring the maze was too dangerous until they could come up with a plan to safely disarm all the traps. The parts that had already been cleared during the rescue efforts had been roped off, and now tourists could walk through them, escorted by overpriced guides.
Much of the tomb itself was now open to tourism as well, though Vanessa had protested that it wasn’t yet well preserved enough to tolerate being open to the air and the constant disturbance of irreverent tourists.
They’d run into legal issues as well with a vocal anti-preservationist group claiming the university shouldn’t be allowed to open any more of the sealed burial chambers out of respect for the dead. Which, Vanessa understood, and actually agreed with to an extent. But there had to be a way to balance respecting these ancient cultures while also learning about and preserving their history and culture. And while they searched for that balance, work had ground to a halt. Vanessa was stuck working only on what they had already excavated from the main
burial chamber.
Vanessa left work thinking about it and feeling the frustration settle in the pit of her stomach. The truth was, even before work had been stopped, she’d been running out of things to hold her interest. They’d already gone over the main chamber—Amanirenas’s chamber—with a fine-tooth comb, translating all the script, cataloging all the treasures, even examining the mummies themselves. All of which had served to paint a much clearer picture of Amanirenas’s life and rule.
But then they’d been done, and moved on to the lesser kings and minor nobles whose tombs also filled the massive ancient graveyard. And certainly, their lives were interesting and, of course, vitally important to the study of the region. But Vanessa kept finding herself going back to Amanirenas, searching for a hint of that spark she’d felt before, the drive and excitement she was used to feeling when she was searching for answers.
At this point, however, all the answers had been found. Now it was just a lot of academics rearranging those answers and reinterpreting the evidence until they could come to a consensus on what it all meant. Vanessa wanted to be out there discovering again.
Vanessa smiled to herself as she hurried home to the beautiful penthouse she now shared with Ramin Al-Zand, crown prince of Ksatta-Galan; her best friend and her lover.
“I’m home!” she called as she opened the door, not sure if he would be there to answer. He had told her that he would be busy with matters of state today.
But he appeared in the front hall before she’d even closed the door, sweeping her into his arms to kiss her so suddenly and thoroughly that she was left breathless and dizzy.
“Welcome home, my love,” he said as he released her, his voice a low, affectionate purr.
“That’s a good welcome,” she said with a giggle. “Almost makes me want to see how you say goodbye.”
She slipped a hand under his clothes teasingly, thinking his passionate greeting had been an invitation for more. To her surprise, he caught her hand, stopping her.
“Not just yet,” he said with a wink.
Before she could ask why, she heard a movement in the doorway, and turned to see an older couple hurrying towards them from the living room.
“Mom! Dad!” she said with a surprised laugh, stepping away from Ramin to hug them.
“How’s it going, Professor Hawkins?” Her father nudged her in the ribs playfully.
“Oh, you look so good!” her mother gushed. “The sun has been great for your skin. You were always such a pale child.”
“What are you doing here?” Vanessa asked, pleasantly confused.
“It’s been a while since you made it over to the States to visit them,” Ramin explained, putting his arm around her shoulders. “So, I flew them out here to come see you.”
She kissed his cheek in delight. She didn’t have the closest relationship with her parents, but she still loved and missed them. Getting to see them like this was a wonderful gift.
For a while they just talked, catching up. Vanessa told them about her work at the museum and the university. They talked about her mother’s private practice and the painting course her father was taking at the community center.
Talk eventually turned to Vanessa’s job, albeit not in the way it usually did where her parents were concerned.
“We’re just so glad that you’ve finally settled down into a real job,” her mother said at last.
“Just so proud of you,” her father added.
“We were worried you were going to be running around, digging in the dirt, pretending to be Indiana Jones forever.” Her mother laughed. “But a professor, now that’s a real career!”
“I’m not pretending to be Indiana Jones, Mom—” Vanessa started to argue, but her father held up a hand to stop her.
“What your mother is trying to say, is that we’re so proud of you for getting your life together,” he said fondly.
“We were really worried about you!” her mother said. “Getting yourself into debt with a degree in ancient history—what kind of job do you get with a degree in ancient history? But working in a classroom, writing papers, settling down with a nice young man, now that’s what we wanted for you. A nice, stable life.”
She patted Ramin’s hand as she said this, obviously thrilled with him. Vanessa squashed down her annoyance with some difficulty. Ramin was smiling, but it was the smile Vanessa had come to recognize as his ‘diplomatic’ smile, worn when he couldn’t afford to show how he was actually feeling.
“We should get going,” he said warmly. “We have reservations for dinner.”
Vanessa smiled at him gratefully and steered the conversation away from her work as they took Ramin’s town car to the restaurant. Vanessa recognized it as soon as they pulled up.
“Oh!” she said. “This is the place we ate at after we found Amanirenas!”
“Yes, right after we were released from the hospital,” Ramin said fondly, looking up at the tall building. “I made her promise to have dinner with me while we were still trapped down there in the tomb. I half expected her to refuse once we were free.”
Vanessa’s parents looked slightly uncomfortable at this reminder of how he and Vanessa had met.
“I don’t think I could ever refuse you anything,” Vanessa said with a smile.
They took the glass elevator up to the rooftop. As they ascended, watching the city skyline through the elevator walls, Ramin squeezed her hand.
“I have another surprise for you tonight,” he told her.
“What’s that?” she asked.
He winked.
“Wait and see.”
The elevator opened, and Vanessa saw a much larger table than the one she’d sat at with Ramin during that first dinner. Her eyes widened as she realized who was sitting around it.
Ramin’s father, resplendent with his long beard and bright white thawb, stood as they entered. Ramin’s mother stood beside him in a beautifully patterned abaya. On the other side of the table were Ramin’s uncle, Sheikh Ansar, and a woman Vanessa didn’t recognize.
“Your Majesty,” Vanessa said, inclining her head to the ruling Sheikh and Sheihka. “Your Highness.”
Her parents drew up short, at a loss.
“Mom, Dad,” Vanessa said, pulling them forward. “May I introduce Ramin’s parents, his majesty the Sheikh Al-Zand and his wife, the Sheikha Fatima. And this is his uncle, Sheikh Ansar.”
Her parents, a bit shell-shocked, murmured polite greetings.
“I’m sorry for not warning you they would be here,” Ramin said with a smile. “I wanted to surprise you. Tonight, our families will eat together.”
They settled down around the table, and Sheikh Ansar introduced his companion.
“This is Fareeha,” he said, holding her hand affectionately. He leaned closer to Vanessa to wink. “She’s a widow.”
Vanessa laughed, but she was glad he was finally finding some happiness in spite of his responsibility to his family. Though, she wondered what had changed his mind.
“I guess I hadn’t really thought about it,” her mom was saying to Ramin’s mother. “I mean, we’d seen on the news that he was a prince, but there are so many of those in this part of the world, you know? I didn’t think about the fact that he was actual royalty.”
“As long as he makes my girl happy, I don’t care if he’s the King of Sheba or a bus driver,” her father said.
“I mean, not an actual bus driver,” her mother corrected.
“I know what I said, Helen.”
“She shouldn’t be dating anyone who doesn’t have a steady job, Michael,” her mother protested. Vanessa rolled her eyes as her parents devolved into bickering about Vanessa’s hypothetical bus driver boyfriend.
“I’m just grateful she’s willing to share even a little of her life with me,” Ramin said, kissing Vanessa’s hand and making her forget, at least for a minute, her frustration with her parents. “I’m incredibly proud to be with such a brilliant, accomplished woman. She’s already changed
the world, and I know she’s only going to do more with time.”
“And I am proud my son has found such a worthy woman,” Sheikh Al-Zand said solemnly. “A woman not just equal to his title, but of surpassing wit and grace.”
That silenced her parents for the moment, and Vanessa smiled gratefully, her face flushed with delighted embarrassment.
“I suppose that whole thing with the tomb was pretty impressive,” her mother admitted.
Vanessa accepted that this was probably the best she would get and tried to change the subject.
“So, we’re working a new exhibit right now on Kushite burial pottery…”
A little while later, after the conversation had turned to a playful argument between Ramin and Ansar about the pronunciation of Amanirenas’s name, Vanessa’s mother leaned over to her to speak to her confidentially.
“You know your father and I are really proud of you,” she said. “Right?”
“Sometimes it’s hard to tell,” Vanessa admitted. “Sometimes, I don’t think there’s anything I could do to make you approve of me. Nothing I did was ever enough.”
“We just wanted to push you,” her mother explained. “We could tell even when you were little that you were smarter than either of us. So, we just wanted to make sure you were, you know, always trying for something better! We didn’t want you to get conceited or complacent.”
Vanessa looked away, not wanting to comment and risk starting a fuss during dinner.
“I guess we should have been more careful,” her mother said, “about making it clear how happy we were with what you’d accomplished. No one could ask for a better daughter. We love you, honey.”
She took Vanessa’s hand, squeezing it encouragingly, and Vanessa smiled back at her. Her relationship with her parents might not be perfect, but she was glad there was a chance things might get better.
The dinner proceeded well. The food was, of course, beyond reproach. The chef would never serve less than his best to the Sheikh himself. Though Sheikh Al-Zand didn’t speak or smile much, he seemed to be having a good time. And her parents were getting along pretty well with Ansar and his new love interest.