by A. L. Knorr
"I have so many questions." I said between gulps. My mouth was sore but already starting to feel better thanks to the water. "Thank you for rescuing me."
"I couldn’t just leave you there.” She shot me a look of sympathy.
“Well, thank you just the same.”
She grunted. "We had some boys come in from your security detail. I wouldn't have known who they were if I hadn’t joined your dune-skiing party that day." She frowned and shook her head again. "They were all freaked out and talking fast. I couldn’t understand a thing they were saying. Next thing I know, you’re being carried through camp with a gag on. Just when you think you know them,” she tsked. She grasped the wheel tightly as we rolled over some short, steep dunes. “I’ll take you back to Ethan, but my suggestion is that you get back to civilization as quickly as possible."
My stomach dropped at her words. She sounded like she knew something. "What were they going to do with me?"
She blew out a long breath. "I can't say for sure, but it wasn't good. There was an argument. Some of them think you're an incarnation," she waved her fingers, "the desert wind personified, or some such nonsense. My Tamahaq isn't very good. It's a tough language. There was a name for this wind."
"The Ghibli?"
"That's the one. They call you Euroklydon.” She scanned my face before looking at the horizon again. The tires hit the bottom of a dune and we began to climb. “Half of them say you should be destroyed. Others are terrified and want to let you go before you destroy the whole camp. They didn’t want to anger you." She barked the same incredulous laugh she had given off earlier. “They think you’re some kind of vindictive goddess!”
"And the rest?"
"The rest keep quiet. Either they don't believe it or they don't know what to think." She made a sour face. "I won't be invited to finish my research after this stunt, but I’m so glad I was there to put a stop to this craziness.”
“Me too. You never ran across this myth before?”
“I think I have, it was just outside the scope of my research so I didn’t pay due attention. Sure, I wish I had in retrospect. What I can tell you is that the sub-groups that make up the Tuaregs don't always see eye to eye. It's a volatile relationship at times, but one thing they mostly agree on is that this Euroklydon deity exists and it’s a thing to be feared." She reached back and grabbed a bottle of water, untwisted the cap and took a long drink. She set it in the cupholder by her knee. "If I were studying the mythology of the region I could tell you more. But you're the archaeologist, right?" She shot me a discerning glance. "Albeit a baby one. You know anything about this," she waved her fingers as though doing a magic spell, "Euroklydon?"
I shook my head. "No, not really. We found a cave drawing of a figure that could be it maybe, but even Ethan says Euroklydon occurs only a few times in ancient texts. It refers to a tempest." I shrugged and watched the sand dunes roll under our tires. We crested the long dune and began to descend the other side.
I wasn't about to confirm that I had any abilities at all to Molly. Until last week, Euroklydon was a myth I would have enjoyed reading about in my pajamas with a cup of tea, just one more local legend to enrich my understanding of the history and culture of the area. Now? I passed a hand over my face and closed my eyes. My mind was whirling so fast it was giving me vertigo. Could I actually be Euroklydon?
"Tired?"
I nodded.
"Have a sleep." Molly patted my knee. "Your seat goes back. I'll wake you when we reach your camp.”
I lay my seat back and did just that.
"Wake up, Petra." The soft words were accompanied by a light jiggle of my shoulder. My necked creaked painfully as I opened my eyes and lifted my head to look out the windshield. The headlights of the Jeep illuminated the tracks in the sand before us. Darkness swallowed the world around us save for a sprinkling of stars overhead. I was about to ask where we were when a familiar finger of stone loomed in the beam of the headlights. We were nearly back to camp.
"Your team is probably beside themselves with worry. If Ethan hasn’t already mobilized a search party, I'm sure he’s on it," Molly said. She picked up my water bottle and held it out in front of me. "Drink. You're still dehydrated."
I took the bottle and swigged the rest of it back. I looked over at Molly in the dim blue glow of the Jeep's electronics. She had already said she wouldn't be able to finish her research.
"What are you going to do?" I asked. "Where are you going to go?"
She shrugged. "I'll go to Ghat and call Boston. We'll sort something out. Don't you worry about me. I’ll find some way of finishing my research, even if it’s not where I started it."
"I'm sorry your project has been derailed." I could imagine just how gutted I would be if I had to abandon an excavation. Then I realized that was precisely what I might have to do.
"It's not your fault," she said, slowing the Jeep to a crawl as we passed through a narrow section of the canyon. "I'm glad I was there to help. I have all my notes with me," she jerked a thumb toward the back seat, "so there's that at least." Her eyes widened as she saw the long stone monolith lying across an excavation trench in the headlights. “That stone was upright the last time I was here!”
“It fell.”
Molly gave me a surprised look. “No one was hurt, I hope?”
I shook my head, but I was distracted by my own thoughts. "No. Do you think they were planning to kill me?" I blurted, twisting the cap on and off my water bottle.
She slowed the Jeep further and glanced at me. "I don't know," she answered softly, "but from what they were saying, it didn't sound good. One of them suggested that killing you might put a stop to the seasonal winds that have taken so much from them year after year."
I frowned. "If they hate it so much, they should consider moving out of the Ghibli's path."
"It's not that simple."
I looked out the window into blackness, seeing more of my own warped reflection than the world on the other side of the glass. "I know," I murmured. It was difficult to feel empathy for the people who could so cold-bloodedly execute a teenage girl using such an archaic and superstitious rationalization. Then an ironic smile tugged at the corners of my mouth.
Molly spied my expression from my reflection in the window. "What's funny?"
I faced her. "I want to study archaeology because I'm fascinated by ancient cultures and ways of life. They were our ancestors and progenitors. Their societies laid the groundwork for ours. I have always had respect for the ways that spiritual beliefs and divinity impacted how they lived and behaved."
Molly returned my smile, already making the connection before I pointed it out. "But now that it's personal, it's suddenly more difficult to esteem."
"Yeah."
"I know what you mean. I wrote my thesis on the Aztecs. It was easy enough to read about the blood sacrifices with clemency. But if I suddenly found myself at the top of a pyramid with a knife over my heart?" She shuddered and didn’t finish.
The headlights fell on the tents of the camp and two shapes standing in front of the fire pit turned to face us. Ethan and Jesse. A third shape emerged from the shadows of a tent and Ibby crossed the sand toward them, watching us approach with a hand lifted to shield her eyes from the headlights.
Molly pulled the Jeep to a stop and turned the vehicle off. When we got out and the muted glow of firelight hit our faces, a cry went up. The look on Jesse's and Ethan's face was of pure relief and I was thrust through with a powerful feeling of gratitude for the obvious care they had for my well-being.
I had grown up with a sort of suspicion around people's affections. Was my therapist just concerned about my well-being because he wanted to give an improved report to the government about how I was doing, or did he really care? These were the concerns of a young child and pre-teen, paranoid musings that came about as a result of unusual circumstances and caregivers who were not family. It was very clear from their expressions that my dig-team genuinely cared about
me, and the feeling both startled and warmed me all over.
"Petra! Molly!”
"Oh, thank God!"
Chris and Sarah joined us around the fire and I was surrounded by my dig-mates and swallowed up with hugs and firm pats, as though they wanted to verify that I was in fact real.
Ethan wrapped Molly up in a bear hug. “We owe you so much. We didn’t even know where to start.” He gazed at Molly and I realized he was actually misty-eyed. “Thank you for what you did.”
“Anyone would have done it.” Molly’s cheeks were visibly pink even in the firelight.
Ibby handed Molly a bowl of soup and held a second one out to me. “Eat, both of you. Then talk.”
I hadn't even realized how hungry I was, but the moment the minestrone touched my tongue I was unstoppable and consumed my soup in moments. I didn’t even normally like minestrone.
"Slow down, Petra," said Jesse from where he sat near my knee. "No one is going to take it away from you."
I gave him a chipmunk-cheeked smile.
"What happened?" demanded Ethan. "We've been going out of our minds."
Molly explained that members of a nearby camp, the camp she’d been conducting her research from for the past several months, had taken it upon themselves to nab me in the night and tie me up in a tent until they could decide what to do with me. Some men had appeared in camp the day before talking about Euroklydon. “I recognized Mifta and Hassan, but I didn’t know what they were so upset about.”
"Our security team." Ethan shook his head at the irony of the situation. "I didn't realize superstition still had such a stronghold here.”
Molly's brows shot up and she let out a belly laugh. "I can assure you, superstition is as hale and hearty as it has ever been. You study the leavings of the dead, but I study the living. In many ways, nothing has changed for thousands of years. Just because we have satellite phones and quantum computers doesn't mean antiquated beliefs are a thing of the past."
"Fair enough. But what were they planning to do with her? Kill her?" Jesse scoffed.
Molly and I looked at one another, and Jesse saw the understanding that passed between us.
His face widened with horror. "No," he said, looking from me to Molly and back again. "No way. They wouldn’t!"
"This is the part where I tell you to get her out of here," said Molly, her face serious. "They will know how she escaped in the morning, if they haven't discovered it already. They will not be happy about it. I can't speak for what they might do."
"Where will you go?"
"I have friends in Ghat. Besides, it's not me they're after."
"They wouldn't attack us," said Ethan, alarmed. "We have permission to be here. We've been sanctioned."
"Do you think they care about that?" Molly stood and put her hands on her hips. "What they believe is that the seasonal winds that have been responsible for destroying their properties year in and year out"—she held her palm out toward me as though presenting me on a stage to a crowd—"has finally taken her fleshly form. You will not be able to reason them out of believing this. Most of them have been convinced that an end to her is an end to their enemy. Send her home. Immediately."
I swallowed. "I can't go home until we're done. I need credit for this excavation." I looked up at Ethan. "Can we bring in more security?" I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth. It sounded like I was willing to risk the safety of everyone on my dig-team just for a line on my resume that would look good. "I'm sorry," I added. "I take it back."
"I can ensure that you get full credit," said Ethan quickly.
I shook my head, pushing my hair back from my forehead with frustration. "That's as good as lying," I said. "I won't take credit for something I didn't see through to its conclusion. If what Molly says is true, then you should send me home."
Jesse put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. He knew what this dig meant to me, he would have been in this position not so many years before, trying to earn a spot at the University of Australia.
I stared miserably into the fire. Questions burned inside me. Why did this have to happen? Was I this Euroklydon the people feared?
"That settles it, then," said Ethan. "I'll arrange for a flight out of here for Petra."
"I would recommend you all go," said Molly. "Come back in the fall when all this has blown over, sorry, no pun intended. It'll just be safer that way."
"What about our sponsor?" Jesse moved to stand behind me, hands on my shoulders. The heat of his palms was comforting. "Will we be able to get the funding next year?"
Ethan shrugged. "I would have to discuss that with Jody. They might take these extenuating circumstances into account. The most important thing is that we don't take any unnecessary risks." He nodded to Molly. "Thanks for your recommendation. We'll take your advice."
"Good." Molly nodded. "Then I'll be on my way."
"You must be exhausted. You're welcome to stay here for the night," Ethan offered. “We’ll erect a tent for you. We have enough bedding for thirty people here.”
But Molly shook her head. "I'm wide awake. I'll be fine." She looked down at me. "I wish you good luck. I don't know why the Tuaregs are so impressed by you, but," she shrugged, "there is plenty I have yet to understand here."
I got up and gave her a hug. "I owe you." I walked her to her vehicle. “Do you happen to have a card or something? I’d like to touch base with you once I get home.”
Molly opened the Jeep door and retrieved a pen and a small notepad from the glove compartment. She wrote down her information, tore off the page and handed it to me. Then she got in, closed the door, and rolled the window down.
"Don't linger." Molly looked up at me with a pleading look. “I have been here for nearly a year and I have never seen them fear anything they way they fear you. These people are proud, but something about you is making them do things I would never have thought they'd do. Take it seriously." She put a hand out of the open window and squeezed my arm. "Be safe."
I put my hand over hers. "You too. Ethan gave you his sat phone number?"
She nodded. "I'll let him know when I've arrived in Ghat."
"Okay." I watched her back the Jeep and turn it around, the headlights making strange shadows dance across the stones. The taillights dimmed as the vehicle drove away and the Jeep finally disappeared behind the rocks.
Chapter 16
I came awake like a cat in the dark, thinking for certain I had heard something unnatural.
Clawing my way out of my sleeping bag, I scrambled from the canvas womb and emerged outside, blinking in the light of early dawn. The dream had returned. The visual of the silver-eyed man I couldn’t help but think of as my father seemed burned into my memory. It was as though I could still see his face overlaid against the morning sky, and I could still read the urgent warning on his lips.
Run.
The horizon was painted in pretty tones of peach and pink, and the sand appeared red. The air was fresh and already hazy with the promise of heat to come. The sun was low on the horizon and partially shrouded, but it was already fat and hot and would soon burn the clouds away.
Movement in my periphery drew my attention to Ibby’s tent. I watched as she emerged, her dark hair a tangled mess, her face splitting with a yawn.
"What's happening?" She pushed her hair back from her face and wandered over to me. "Are you all right? I heard you yell."
I had yelled?
"I thought I heard–" I paused, listening.
Ibby tilted her head. Our gazes locked as we both listened. Her beautiful bronze eyes widened. She’d heard it too: the sound of engines, vehicles coming across the desert, drawing nearer by the moment. Fear wrapped its cloak around me and the instinctive urge to run and hide was nearly overwhelming.
"Trucks!" Ibby’s bark made me jump. "Everybody up! Get up now!" She moved faster than I would have thought possible for a woman who'd been dead asleep only moments before. She bolted to the dining tent, ripping back the canvas door.
I heard the sounds of rifling through cupboards, of plates and silverware being violently disturbed.
Moving on instinct and curiosity, I followed her. She seemed to have had an idea, which was more than I could say for myself. I watched her overturn a basket and yank another from its home on the shelf. She was making a mess of Chris’s previously tidy kitchen.
"What are you doing?"
"What do you think?" She threw me a wild look. She yanked on another bin and picked a large knife out of it, holding it up somewhat dubiously.
“Ibby.” My eyes widened. "We don't even know who it is or what they want yet. But whoever they are, they'll be more likely to be friendly if you're not waving a ten-inch butcher knife at them."
"Don't be naïve." But she dropped the knife.
Ethan, Chris, Jesse, and Sarah had all been roused from sleep and had gathered near the firepit. Ibby and I joined them, watching the headlights of two trucks approach.
"Why do I feel like I want to grab a weapon?" I heard Jesse mutter to Chris under his breath. "We don't even have any weapons anymore, now that our security team abandoned us."
Ibby and I shared a look. Tension crackled through the air like lightning.
"It would only inflame the situation. I'm sure whatever it is they want, they can be rationalized with," replied Chris, quietly, eyes on the trucks.
Jesse shot Chris an incredulous look. "They kidnapped her!"
Jesse moved to stand in front of me but I put a hand on his arm and stepped around him. I wasn't going to hide behind anyone.
"Petra," he whispered and I felt his fingers brush my shoulder. He stepped up behind me, so close I could feel his heat.
The trucks slowed as they approached and I counted the heads I could see. Five men and … and a woman. I gasped as the vehicles came to a stop, their wheels sliding on the sand, ploughing up little dunes.
Doors opened and men got out. Molly was dragged roughly out of a vehicle. With a gag between her teeth and her hands tied behind her back, she was a sorry sight. A red mark had blossomed on her cheekbone and one eye was puffy.