Journey to the Lost Tomb (Rowan and Ella Book 2) (31 page)

           
“It’s
not the
item
, Rowan. It’s the
experience. I’ve been needing to get out of that hotel for days now. Oh! Let’s
go down that street. Aren’t these shops just so quaint and interesting?” She
picked up the pace and marched ahead of him, forcing him to catch up. He took
her elbow and smoothly pulled her next to him down the center of the narrow
street but she wasn’t going to make it that easy on him.

At the first
booth she came to, she made a performance of leaning over the bin of rusty
metal pins and dusty brooches. She knew the proprietor, a middle-aged man with
sharp weasel eyes, was licking his lips at the prominent display of her bosom
but she didn’t care. She could feel Rowan’s arm slip around her waist as he
gently pulled her back.

           
“Come
on, Marvel,” he growled. “This is just junk and you know it.”

           
“I
wanted to see it,” she said, affecting a pout but allowing him to steer her
back down the street.

           
“Maybe
if you wore a shirt next time, instead of coming out virtually topless, we
could visit the shops without your causing a riot.”

           
“I
don’t know what you’re talking about.”

           
“Every
man on this street is knocking over his own booth to get a gander at the white
woman with her boobs hanging out. That’s what I’m talking about.”

           
“Rowan,
I don’t pay you to tell me how to dress. I pay you to protect me, whether I’m
dressed in a nun’s habit or stark naked. Am I clear?”

           
“Crystal,”
he said, but his eyes narrowed and Marvel knew he was one minute from taking
her by the arm and dragging her back to the car.

           
She
couldn’t let that happen.

           
She
turned and looked behind them. “What is that ridiculous boy of yours up to
now?” she said. As soon as Rowan turned to look, she bolted down the street and
around the corner. She could hear Rowan cursing and that was just fine. It was
the first time she’d gotten any kind of real reaction out of him that involved
her
.

           
“Catch
me if you can!” she called to him over her shoulder as she ran.

           
“Dammit,
Marvel. Knock it off,” he yelled. She could tell he had picked up his pace.
With those long legs, it would just be a few
strides before he caught her
. She tingled at the thought of his scolding.
If she wasn’t directly the focus of his attention before today, she definitely
was now.

           
She
paused just around the corner at a produce stand. Her breasts were heaving from
the exertion of her run. She knew people were staring at her. It occurred to
her that it was one thing to flaunt yourself as a half-dressed white woman. It
was quite another to do it alone and unescorted. The thought made her uneasy. Just
when she was about to step into the street to intercept Rowan, a strong hand
snaked out from behind her and clapped over her mouth. Startled, she dropped
her purse and brought both her hands up to pry the fingers from her face. But
another pair of hands grabbed her waist and yanked her off her feet and into
the open shop door.

Chapter
Twenty-One

           
Marvel
was half carried and half dragged into the store. The door closed behind her. She
tried to scream but the hand over her mouth permitted no sound to escape. Her
eyes looked wildly around. She could see she was in a darkened store, clearly
abandoned. Debris and broken furniture littered the floor. Two Egyptian men stepped
out of the gloom at the back of the store. They openly eyed her breasts. She
had never felt so terrified or helpless in her life.

           
Would
Rowan find her? Would he know where she had gone?

           
 
The man who held her from behind
tightened his grip on her and the others spoke in soft tones to one another.
They made no move toward her. Suddenly, the two men not touching her both pulled
out pistols from their robes. One waved his gun at her and seemed to be asking
a question. He had a jagged scar that began at his hairline and zig-zagged all
the way down his jaw. He had a cruel mouth and watery blue eyes—unusual
for an Egyptian. He grunted out an answer and all of them turned to look out
the storefront window, so filthy it was nearly opaque.

           
Without
warning, she saw Rowan stride by the window. His arms were swinging and his
mouth was set in an angry line. As she watched him pass, she realized she had finally
done it.
She had gotten him good and mad.
He certainly was in the frame of mind to give her a good talking to. Maybe even
turn her across his knee. Trouble was, she wasn’t going to live to enjoy it.

 
As Rowan vanished from view, the two men dragged
Marvel to the opposite wall where there was another door. Outside, Marvel could
see the street. Thinking they were going to kidnap her and escape though this
door, Marvel was startled when the man holding her turned her so that she was
facing the street through the open door while the two men with guns stood
nearby out of sight.

For a moment,
Marvel was confused. And then she realized,
if
Rowan kept walking, he would naturally turn the corner. And when he did, he
would see the open door and Marvel
.

They weren’t here to kidnap her. They were here to kill
Rowan.

She bit the hand
that covered her mouth and tried to scream but it only came out as a squeak.
The man holding her swore but held his hand more tightly over her mouth. The
seconds dragged by but Rowan did not appear.

Marvel began to
tremble. Scarface and his confederates conferred in tense whispers.
Rowan should have come by now.
What had happened? Did he turn back?
 
The armed men turned to look at Marvel
and she realized in one dreadful moment that they were thinking of another way
to use her to ensnare Rowan.
Where is he?
He should have been here by now.
 

Suddenly, the
front door behind Marvel burst open. The accompanying sound of gunshot erupted
in the vacant storefront and Marvel watched the man next to Scarface grab his
throat and collapse to the floor. She twisted in her captor’s hands to see
Rowan holding his Colt-45 in one hand. Ra appeared and barked something in
Arabic to Scarface, who slowly lowered his gun to the ground.

Rowan took two
steps toward Marvel. But before he could reach her, she felt the cold deadly
steel of a thin blade at her throat. Scarface laughed and spoke to Ra. “He
says, your weapon, please,
effendi
.
Or the woman dies,” Ra said. Marvel watched Rowan
 
lean over to toss down his gun. Out of
the corner of her eye, she could see Scarface raising his gun at the same time.
Before she knew what was happening, Rowan lunged at the man holding her and
swung him around at the very moment that Scarface fired his gun. Marvel could
feel her assailant tense and then he dropped his hands from her and collapsed
to the floor. In the time it took for him to hit the ground, Rowan snatched up
his gun and shot the stunned Egyptian who had just killed his own man. Marvel’s
knees finally gave way and she sank to the filthy floor next to the dead man.
Rowan holstered his weapon and ordered Ra to go fetch the car and then he
squatted down next to Marvel.

           
“Next
time, you want to go shopping,” he said, his eyes glowing with deep emotion.
“I’ll damn well dress you myself.” She looked up at him with her bottom lip
quivering and burst into tears. He scooped her up into his arms and walked out
through the broken and splintered front door.

*
                                 
*
                                 
*
                                 
*

           
At
first, when it became clear to Ella that the doctor had been drugging her, she
feared that Halima would betray her. That first morning after Ella had refused
her breakfast, Halima had sat in Ella’s bedroom until late in the night and
told her everything: how the river villagers had found Ella and her camel and
how the doctor had intervened to claim her. They had sailed a week down the
Nile until they reached the road to
Goldener
Palast
, the doctor’s Egyptian palace, ten miles inland from the river.
 

           
Ella
had been placed in Halima’s care until the child was born. Halima had been told
that Ella had no people and had attempted to kill herself. She was told to feed
her the calming drug at breakfast in order to keep her pacified and malleable.

           
“If
I promise not to escape or hurt myself,” Ella had said to her that first night,
“will you keep my secret about not taking the drugs?”

           
Halima
had agreed. In the days that followed, she let Ella know when she would need to
feign sleepiness or vapidity, and Ella told her the whole improbable story of
how she came to be in Egypt.

           
“Can
you believe something so crazy?” Ella said.

           
“It
does not sound mad to me,” Halima said. “There is much about the world that is
magical.”

           
“Well,
I could really go for a flying carpet about now.”
 

           
“And
you believe your husband has followed you to this time?”

           
“I
do. I see him in my dreams. I know he’s here.” She placed a hand on her swollen
abdomen. “Although I have to admit, the bigger I get the less enthused I am
about the idea of scaling castle walls and escaping on galloping camels. I’m
getting to the point where it’s hard enough just to turn over in the middle of
the night. I’m afraid I’m past the time I could handle an escape.”

           
The
next morning, Horus again showed up while Ella was bathing and again she forced
herself to ignore him as he stood alternately glowering and slathering as he
watched her. He barked out an incomprehensible phrase that made her look up in
spite of herself to see him grabbing his testicles and grinning at her. She
returned to soaping between her toes until he left.

           
“What
the hell is his deal?” she asked Halima when they were alone. “Why does he hate
me?”

           
Halima
shook her head. “He was a powerful, virile man once, known throughout the
region as a renown cocksman. When he was accused, rightly or not, of raping a
wealthy merchant’s daughter, he was castrated without trial. His past of
bragging meant he had few friends to speak on his behalf. The loss of his
manhood has affected his mind.”

           
“He’s
threatening to rape me, right?”

           
Halima
nodded.

           
“And
there’s no way he can?”

           
“I
am told he is incapable,” Halima said.

           
“Do
you believe it?”

           
Her
friend shrugged helplessly. “I do not know.”

           
“Why
is he allowed in here while I
bathe
?”

           
“Because
he is guarding you,
effendim
. That is
his job. And because he is believed to be harmless, he is allowed everywhere.”

           
“Halima?”

           
“Yes,
effendim
?”

           
“Please
call me
Ella
.”

           
In
the weeks that followed, a deepening friendship grew between the two women. It
was a friendship forged and enriched by shared secrets and of a bond of
sisterhood. Ella calculated she had a month before giving birth, after which
she would be forced into the doctor’s harem. If she couldn’t manage to escape
before childbirth, she would have to be ready to run with the baby immediately
afterward. She had no doubt that Halima would do anything and everything to
help her—even at risk of her life.

           
One
day, when they had come in from the garden and Halima had poured tea for them,
she surprised Ella by depositing next to her teacup the little bracelet that
Ella had found on the mummified hand.

           
“Oh!
I forgot about this,” Ella said, picking up the bracelet. She handed it to Halima.
“You’re welcome to have it, Halima.”

           
“No,
Ella. I fear I must give it to Dr. Zimmerman. He will wonder why I did not give
it to him when you were first put in my custody.”

           
Ella
frowned. “Why
didn’t
you give it to
him when you found it on me?”

           
Halima
reached into the folds of her tunic and drew out a tiny scroll of paper and
handed it to Ella. “Because I found this papyrus hidden inside it,” she said.

           
Ella
picked up the tiny curl of paper and could see that it was covered with
hieroglyphics.

           
“Is
it important?” she asked, handing it back to Halima.

           
“For
the person for which it was created, it is the most important thing in the
world. It is from the Book of the Dead.”

           
“Wow.
Very cool,” Ella said. She reached out for the tiny scrap of papyrus again. She
could see just one or two lines visible. “I was told about a Book of the Dead
in 2013. The woman told me I needed to give it to Rowan.”

           
“I’m
sorry, Ella. In the morning I must give this papyrus to the doctor.”

           
Ella’s
fingers closed around the paper. “Why must you do that?”

           
“Because
lately I see that he looks at me with doubt in his eyes. The papyrus will remove
his concern. But do not worry, my friend. This papyrus is fragile and easily
lost or taken from you.” She reached over and touched Ella’s forearm. “We will
transfer its magic to your body so that, like you protect the child who lies
safe within you, your body may guard its power.”

           
That
night, they waited until the palace was deep in slumber before Halima rose and
set out her instruments near the bed. There were three long needles and four
small pots of dye: rose, ochre, brown and green. Ella sat in front of Halima with
her friend’s legs wrapped protectively around her. Halima took Ella’s inside
left arm and stroked the soft, vulnerable skin. She dipped the first needle
into the pot of rose dye and began to speak as she touched the needle’s tip to
Ella’s skin.

           
“Try
not to pull away from me,” Halima said. “And do not scream.”

           
Ella
nodded. She felt Halima clench her legs around Ella’s hips to steady them both.

           
“You
will be presented with three tasks,” Halima said as the needle burned its way
under Ella’s skin. Ella bit her lip, startled at the intensity of the pain. It
felt like an adder’s bite. An adder that struck and wouldn’t let go. Ella
closed her eyes and focused on the sound of
 
Halima’s voice.

           
“When
you read the first incantation aloud it will prompt you to do the
opposite
of what your instincts instruct
you to do. Ignore all that you believe and follow the prompt without
hesitation.”

           
Ella
grimaced and forced herself not to move her arm which was humming with pain.
A hell of lot to go through for a good luck
charm,
she thought.

           
“The
second incantation will prompt you to
give
life to replace life
. Again, you will be tempted to resist but you must
have faith and do as you are told to do.
No
matter what
.”

           
Ella
listened to the velvet in Halima’s voice and the images that her words created
in her minds’ eye. As much as her arm hurt, Ella was aware of a strong feeling
of Rowan’s presence. It was so strong that she felt if she opened her eyes at
any moment she would find him in the room. Somehow she knew, as she felt the
needle draw down her arm, that she was doing this for him.