Sands of Time (Out of Time #6) (37 page)

Assuming they were right about everything they’d guessed about, which was nearly everything.

Elizabeth shook her head. “I can’t sleep.”

Simon checked his watch. He’d been doing that a lot lately and not just to see the time.

“We should arrive in Bedrashin in thirteen hours,” he said. “That would give us four hours to get to Saqqara before midnight.”

Midnight. Another of their guesstimates.

“Right,” she said and looked down at her cards. It was an ugly deal, but she decided to play it anyway. “After this hand.”

Simon humphed and rolled onto his side. Pushing himself up onto his elbow, he frowned at her and then at the cards. He gestured toward the play with his index finger. “Red seven on the black eight.”

Elizabeth smiled and moved the card. Solitaire was always more fun with someone.

~ ~ ~

The train bumped to another stop and roused Elizabeth from sleep. Learning the rhythm of the train, she’d grown accustomed to the frequent, short stops. This one, however felt more abrupt than the others. She lifted her head and blinked in the darkness of their compartment.

She could hear a few voices, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Careful not to wake Simon, she slipped out of bed and tiptoed over to the window. Pulling back the sash, she peered out into the darkness.

Nighttime, she thought. They couldn’t be far now.

But something was wrong. They’d stopped, but she couldn’t see very far in the dark. There were no lights or buildings. No town, no station.

She walked over to the door to their compartment and stuck her head out.

“What’s the matter?” Simon said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“We’re stopped,” she said.

Simon sat up. “Bedrashin?”

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t think we’re at a station.”

A porter came toward her down the aisle between compartments and she stepped out. “Is there something wrong?” she asked.

“A minor delay,” he assured her. “We will be underway soon.”

Elizabeth had that sinking feeling. “How soon?”

“An hour,” he said. “Two at the most.”

An hour or two they didn’t have to spare.

Simon appeared behind her. “Let’s talk to the others.”

They sent Ahmed off to find out what the delay was and gathered the rest in the dining car. Whiteside looked like a man who hadn’t slept in two days, and she was sure he hadn’t. His face was pale and dark circles hung under his eyes.

“If we get underway within the hour,” Simon said, “we should still be able to find transportation and get to Saqqara well before midnight.”

Arthur nodded, but she could see he was already beginning to grieve. She couldn’t imagine what he must be going through.

“We’ll make it,” Diana said to him.

The door to the dining car opened and Ahmed came striding in. “Something’s wrong with the tracks,” he said. “They think they’ll have it cleared up in an hour, but…”

“Where are we?” Jack asked.

“About ten miles south of Bedrashin,” Ahmed said.

Jack looked out of the train window. On this side of the train, there were a few lights; it looked to be a small village. “Can we get off here, find horses and ride the rest of the way?”

Ahmed shook his head. “Not for so many. There are probably not six horses in the entire village.”

“But one?” Simon said.

Ahmed looked at him curiously and then his eyes widened with understanding. “Yes. One.”

Their timeline has always been tight, but Ahmed’s was nearly impossible. He had to ride south to find the bandits, convince them to join him and then ride back north to Saqqara, all within hours. Maybe this delay was a blessing? They were closer now to where he hoped they were camped than they would be later.

He turned to Whiteside. “I will give my life to save your daughter.”

Whiteside’s eyes were red and glassy. He cleared his throat. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, my boy.”

Ahmed nodded and looked at the rest of them once more before hurrying away.

“Good,” Jack said. “Now, if we can just get this train moving.”

It did, but nearly two hours later. They arrived in Bedrashin at nearly ten o’clock and spent another precious hour finding horses.

They rode west toward Saqqara with no idea what they’d find or even if they’d find it. Thankfully, they managed to gather a few weapons. Diana had surprising friends. But even the guns were iffy—one WWI rifle, an old colt and an antique dragoon. It was all they could manage on such short notice, but it would have to do. Not that Elizabeth wanted to use any of them, although, she would if she had to. She still remembered what it felt like to shoot that man in Natchez and she’d only winged him. She had the feeling it would take more than that to save Christina.

They left the fertile lands that clung to the Nile and ventured out into the desert. The moon was nearly full and very bright in the clear night. They rode in silence. And, Elizabeth thought, silence in the desert at night was a whole new kind of silence. There were no sounds at all except for the soft tread of their horse’s hooves on the sand and their own hearts beating.

They slowed as they neared the ancient necropolis. The outline of a ragged step pyramid just ahead on the horizon.

“There should be a slight ravine and temple ruins on the far side,” Whiteside said, his voice dry and cracking. He was clearly terrified, both for himself and for his daughter. “That-that’s the most likely spot.”

Elizabeth and Simon shared a nervous look. Whiteside was a liability. He was far from being in good shape and his emotions were likely to make him do something rash. But they couldn’t ask him to stay behind while they went on. If their roles had been reversed, nothing could have kept them away. Whiteside would try to save his daughter or die trying.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

About a hundred yards away from the step pyramid now, Elizabeth could see a slight glow emanating from behind it. This was it, she thought with a mixture of relief that they’d guessed right and dread at facing it. The ritual must have started. Her throat felt dry. They dismounted there and continued on foot, running along the edge of what was left of a ruined wall, finding some shelter in its shadow.

She looked up again at the moon. A full moon, she realized. But there was something odd about it.

“Is it just me,” she whispered to Simon. “Or is the moon getting darker?”

Simon glanced up and frowned. He nodded and she knew they were both thinking the same thing. Without the benefit of Teddy’s key, Vale had to travel with an eclipse. Unless she planned on staying in Egypt for a few more months, and that seemed unlikely, she would be traveling tonight.

And soon.

Elizabeth’s heart raced just a little faster.

They reached the edge of the step pyramid and slowly started to edge around the lower level. Elizabeth wished she had a weapon. Not that she wanted to use one, but she just would have felt better having something to hold onto. Anything to hold onto.

She caught Diana’s eye, and vaguely wondered if Diana felt the same way. She didn’t look worried. But then, Diana never did.

Their three guns were carried by the three men. It wasn’t sexist; just practical. Of the five, they had the most shooting experience. Although, they all knew if it did come down to a gunfight, they were all as good as dead.

Elizabeth shivered at the thought and tried to focus on not tripping instead. The ground was littered with fallen rocks, small and large. They moved slower now as they came to the corner of the pyramid.

The light from torches cast a glowing dome over the large temple and the ruins beyond. The temple was two stories, or had been at one time. The second story was little more than a colonnade now, some columns half shorn, others lying on the sand below. One of the cult members appeared from the shadows, obviously on patrol.

Jack held up his hand to stop the group’s progress and edged back. Elizabeth had the sudden and absurd thought that she felt like a Navy seal on maneuvers, just without all the training, weapons and expertise. Basically, just a seal. Or maybe a duck, in a shooting gallery.

Between them and the temple were about twenty yards of open sand. There were no shadows, no shelter, no sneaky way from here to there. They would have to run across the open expanse of desert, completely unprotected.

They watched the man patrol the backside of the temple for a minute, pacing back and forth, before he moved on to something else. They didn’t have time to wait, to see if there was a predictable pattern. They had to move. Now.

Jack knelt down in the sand and trained his rifle on the last spot they’d seen him. “Run,” he whispered.

Elizabeth’s heart pounded in her chest, as the four of them ran across the sand. She tried not to breathe, not to make a sound. Sixty feet felt like a mile. Simon lingered at her side, scrubbing his speed to stay close. The dark recesses of the temple grew closer and closer. Finally, she and Simon ducked into the shadows and behind the relative safety of the walls of the temple. Diana and Whiteside weren’t far behind them.

Bringing up the rear was Jack. He’d probably waited until they were all safely across before starting across himself. He was about halfway there when Elizabeth heard something. It wasn’t until Simon lunged out of the doorway that she realized she’d heard footsteps—the guard’s.

Elizabeth followed Simon just in time to see the guard, his rifle trained on Jack, get clocked on the side of the head with the heavy handle of Simon’s dragoon. The man stumbled to the side, dazed. Simon dropped his colt into the sand and ripped the rifle from the man’s weakened grip. In almost one fluid movement, he swung again. This blow connected more fiercely than even the first. The man fell to the ground with a thump.

Jack skidded to a stop next to them. “Thanks for that.”

Simon nodded and shouldered the rifle. The two of them dragged the guard inside the temple. Elizabeth picked up Simon’s discarded gun and followed. They bound and gagged him, although, judging from the blood she could see beneath his keffiyeh, he might not be waking up any time soon.

Although it was dark in the temple, there were still openings to the outside and bits of moonlight filtered in. Jack made some more hand-signals and Whiteside nodded toward a corner.

Walking as softly as they could, they hurried over the stone floor to the area Whiteside had indicated. Stairs.

As quietly as they could, they climbed the steps to the upper level, Jack in the lead again. Light from the torches was brighter now and Elizabeth could hear voices, indistinct, but there.

Jack poked his head out of the doorway. After a moment, he signaled that it was clear. He went out first, but stayed crouched down. When it was Elizabeth’s turn, she realized why. The upper level of the temple was very open here. They were exposed, except for a few fat columns and a very low wall that ringed the perimeter.

The remnants of the temple were a U-shape. The courtyard below was about forty feet across and thirty feet deep. At the end of the stone quad where the back side of the temple would have been, it was open. The only signs of the temple wall that had been there were a few broken columns and small piles of stone. Braziers and a half dozen cult members stood in the courtyard. All but one, a guard judging from the rifle in his hands, stood facing out toward another set of ruins that looked like what was left of a small pyramid.

It all looked like something out of a black and white movie serial. There were three main tiers that served as platforms. The lowest tier had five torches and between each, another cult member, dressed all in black. Above them, on the middle level, a bed of stone had been built. Two cult members, in black and red robes stood on either end of the platform next to large granite statues of a woman with the head of a lion. Sekhmet.

Above them, near the top of the pyramid and on the uppermost level, stood another henchman and Katherine Vale with her arms outstretched. Her blood-red robes made her skin look almost white. A brazier burned at her feet and behind her two torch flames reflected off an enormous copper disk that stood in front of the cap of the pyramid.

Elizabeth scanned the area for the one thing she wanted to see, but Christina was nowhere in sight. For the first time in her life, Elizabeth wished she had a plan. She’d always been one to rush in and think about it all later, but this time it left her feeling exposed and vulnerable. Of course, the painful truth was there was no plan to make. There just wasn’t time. They had to find Christina and do whatever they could to save her. Whatever that might be. Whatever that might mean in the end.

Jack touched Elizabeth’s arm and she started, barely containing her scream. His eyes went round with a silent warning and then he pointed in one direction and then another. Simon nodded and took Elizabeth’s arm. She and Simon went to the right, and Jack, Diana and Whiteside to the left. She didn’t like the idea of splitting up, but she and Simon inched their way to one end of the U and the others to the opposite side.

Simon stretched out and gently placed his rifle on the rock ledge like a sniper. Elizabeth looked down at the heavy dragoon in her hand and did the same although she wouldn’t be able to hit the broadside of a pyramid from here with it.

They settled in and waited. Elizabeth scanned the scene again. Where was Christina?

Elizabeth took stock of the scene below, calculating the number of men and distances, as she knew Simon was. There were twelve men that she could see. Twelve against four—not good odds, but not bad from a gambler’s perspective. And tonight, they were definitely gamblers.

Vale, her voice rising into the night, spoke the words of some ancient invocation. “Sekhmet, greater than Isis. Sekhmet, greater than Hathor. Sekhmet, greater than Bast, greater than Maat. Light beyond the darkness, ever burning one. Hear my plea. I come to you for guidance, for justice, for vengeance.”

The man behind her stepped forward and handed her a small figurine. Vale lifted it to the sky before dropping it into the brazier. “Beloved of Ra, Ruler of the Desert, Mother of the Dead, You who shook and shake the World, You who have swallowed the Ever-living Serpent and daily raise the Disk of the Sun and of the Moon, hear me.”