Sands of Time (Out of Time #6) (38 page)

She dropped three more figures into the fire as she spoke. Each gave off a spray of colored sparks as they were engulfed in the flames. And the men began to chant. Elizabeth couldn’t tell what they were saying, but it took creepy to a whole new level.

Vale’s voice built in intensity and fervor as she was handed a final figure. This one larger than the others. “This is the one I seek,” she said, holding it up to the night. “Charles, son of Anna, and betrayer.”

The chanting grew louder now as she held the final figure above the flames. She dropped it in and large billowing clouds of smoke rose up from the fire. Behind her the copper disk started to glow.

Elizabeth looked nervously to Simon, but his expression was unchanged. His jaw remained set firmly in a show of disgust and disbelief.

Vale said something in a language Elizabeth didn’t understand and turned toward the copper disk—Hathor’s mirror, she realized. Slowly, a figure began to take form in the burnished surface. It was wavy and insubstantial, but it was there.

Elizabeth looked for some projection device, but couldn’t see anything. She looked back at Vale, to the mirror. Had she really summoned a god?

Vale, arms outstretched, bowed before the shadow. “Terrible One. I have brought you a gift. A gift of blood.”

She waved her hand and from a hidden part of the temple two more cult members appeared, Christina held between them. Elizabeth’s heart leapt. The girl was alive. Bound and gagged, she struggled against them, trying to twist out of their grip, but it was no use. Her hands were bound and the men far too powerful.

Elizabeth’s stomach flipped with fear and anticipation. She saw something move across the roof on the far side of the temple and saw Whiteside start to stand, only to be pulled back down by Jack.

Simon saw it too. He and Jack looked at each other for a moment and then back to Christina as her guards brought her up to the middle level and forced her to lie down on the stone bed.

“Simon,” Elizabeth whispered.

He ignored her and focused on Christina, or more aptly, on her guards. His right eye squinted as he lined one up in the site of his rifle.

He could have shot Vale any time, Elizabeth realized. Probably. It was far enough away to be anything but a sure shot. Regardless, it would have meant a sure death for Christina as their captive. But now, Elizabeth wondered if waiting had brought them anything but closer to dying. They could shoot the guards, but then what? There were too many of them.

Vale continued her litany of prayers to Sekhmet. Her helper held out something and Elizabeth knew what it was before the shining blade caught the light. Dagger in hand she descended the steps to the sacrificial altar.

Two men held Christina down as she struggled. Vale stood above and raised the dagger high into the air.

Elizabeth looked back at Jack and then at Simon. What were they waiting for? This was the window of opportunity. They had to do something. Now.

Vale’s voice cut through the night as she gave a final invocation. She started to lower the dagger. Simon’s finger moved to the trigger. Christina sobbed.

“Wait!” Whiteside stood up and held out his hands. “Please!”

Elizabeth started and nearly lost the hold on her gun.

“Hell,” Simon said under his breath.

Vale stopped and turned toward the intrusion. Even from this far away, Elizabeth could see the fury in her eyes. The guard in the courtyard raised his rifle and pointed it at Whiteside.

The moment hung in the air as if someone had pushed a giant pause button.

“Kill him!” Vale said.

Elizabeth saw the guard’s finger move. She couldn’t just sit there and let him be shot. Without a thought beyond that, she jumped to her feet and waved her arms.

“Over here!”

The guard’s head jerked around to find her and the hesitation cost him his life. Two shots rang out in unison and he crumpled to the ground.

“Bloody hell,” Simon said as he pulled back the bolt on his rifle to ready another round.

Vale barked out another order, this time in Arabic and the five cult members that stood between the torches on the lower level moved up the rough steps to the altar.

“Christina!” Whiteside called out. The men in the courtyard had scattered.

Jack had already fired off another shot. One of the men fell forward onto the steps, but the others didn’t pause.

Elizabeth heard two more shots fired and then heard Simon swear as he slammed his palm against the bolt. It was stuck. He couldn’t chamber another round. He tossed the rifle aside and picked up the dragoon.

Elizabeth bent to pick the rifle up, to see if she could loosen it against the stone when she felt an arm wrap around her waist and a knife against her neck.

“Simon!”

CHAPTER FORTY

Simon turned over, gun ready, but it was no good.

The man who held Elizabeth grunted and pushed the knife point into her skin. She gasped as it broke the skin. A trickle of blood welled under the sharp tip of the blade and then trailed down her neck.

He had no choice. Simon let the gun fall from his hand. Elizabeth’s eyes were wide with panic for a moment, but she seemed to realize the same thing he did at the same time. They were alive. The men hadn’t killed them. That meant they still had a chance.

Another man came and picked up both the dragoon and the rifle. Now, at gunpoint, Simon and Elizabeth were forced to walk toward the stairs. Simon’s mind raced. They couldn’t have come so far, endured so much, to die now. He refused to accept it.

Elizabeth looked over at him, as one of the guards shoved her forward. There was blood on her neck and fear in her eyes, but he could see her faith in him. He would not let her down. Whatever it took.

At the stairs, they saw Whiteside, Diana and Jack, and two more armed men. Jack must have put up a fight. A large cut had opened up over one eye and he blinked through the blood that ran down his face. He caught Simon’s eye and shook his head in apology.

They’d lost the battle, but the war wasn’t over yet. As long as they breathed, it wasn’t over.

The group was escorted down into the courtyard and slowly up the steps toward Vale.

Christina struggled and turned her head toward them. Through her gag she cried out a muffled, “Daddy?”

“I’m here, my girl.”

Christina looked at him through tears before turning to Vale.

“Please?” Whiteside said. “Let her go.”

Vale ignored him and focused on Simon and Elizabeth as her guards forced them all to kneel on the top step at the foot of the altar. The hard stone split open one of the cuts on Simon’s knee, but he welcomed the sting of it.

“Oh, Mighty One,” she said, almost breathless with delight. “I am here to make offerings to you and you give me these gifts.”

The dagger lay in the flat open palms of her hands as she held it out. “I give you their blood in tribute. I will cut out their hearts so you can taste their betrayal.”

She looked down at Christina. “But first, as promised, the blood of a virgin.”

Vale lifted the knife. Simon tensed, ready to lunge, to do something. He was not going to sit by and watch her gut that poor girl.

Next to him, he felt Elizabeth tense, but he didn’t dare look away.

“Sekhmet,” Elizabeth said suddenly and Simon jerked in surprise. “Oh, Mighty Goddess, Sekhmet.”

Simon whipped his head around to her. The guard’s hands clamped more tightly onto his shoulders. What was she doing? And then, when he heard the apprehension in her voice as she struggled with what to say, he knew. She was stalling.

Vale had stopped and glared at the brazen interruption.

“You…you have been tricked,” Elizabeth said to the guards. “By this one. The one in red! Lies. She’s lying to you.”

Vale’s rage grew with every word. And while it was sure to be a short-lived distraction, it was the only hope of buying time and hoping to find a way to save Christina. Simon joined her.

“She is the betrayer,” he said. “A tool of…” Damn it; he couldn’t remember the name.

“Apophis,” Whiteside said quickly. “Enemy of Ra. Bringer of Darkness.”

Vale shook her head, her eyes wide and wild. “Do not listen to them.”

“See her shadow cover the moon,” Simon said.

A few of the men actually looked up then and saw the umbral shadow of the earth as it moved across the face of the moon—the eclipse.

“Sekhmet,” Whiteside said. “Child of Ra, the Beautiful Light, do not be deceived by this—”

“No!” Vale screeched, pulling her guards’ attention back to her. “They are the deceivers. Who has brought the Goddess to you?” she said, gesturing to the copper disk and its shadowy reflection. “I am the hand of the holy one.”

Her closest henchman, whom Simon now recognized as the man from jail, stepped forward in solidarity and then another, and the doubters cowered back. Vale had control again and their time, Simon realized with a dull ache in his chest, had run out.

Vale poised the dagger ready to plunge it into Christina’s heart. Christina screamed and Whiteside tried to lunge forward as he called out her name.

Simon reached out to hold Elizabeth’s hand. Vale, her face, a picture of hatred, began her downstroke.

Simon heard the shot almost at the same moment he saw the knife wrench from Vale’s hands. She cried out in pain and rage. Everyone turned toward the source of the gunshot and saw a man poised on a hill and then two dozen riders appeared behind him. Ahmed!

Simon felt the man holding his shoulders shift his grip and Simon took advantage of his lapse. He pushed himself up as quickly as he could, knocking the man off balance. Turning, he hit him square on the jaw, sending him tumbling down the steps.

Next to him, Elizabeth tried to do the same, but her guard was too quick, too big and he gripped her tightly. He let go of one arm, balled his big, meaty hand into a fist, ready to strike her. Enraged and finally free to do something about it, Simon hit him harder than he’d ever hit anyone in his life. The force of the blow stunned the man to near insensibility and he let Elizabeth go.

Simon ignored the pain that shot through his hand and readied for a parrying shot when Elizabeth’s tiny fist rocketed out and punched the tall man right in the neck. The guard’s eyes went wide with surprise. She looked at Simon almost as stunned as the guard.

Not wasting a second more, Simon grabbed him by the shoulders and brought the man’s head down to his knee. He felt and heard the cartilage in the man’s nose break. Off-balance now, the guard swayed and Elizabeth pushed him from behind, and he rolled down the steps to the lower level.

The rest was chaos. Jack and Diana fought off men of their own. Freed from the men who restraining her, Christina hurried down to her father, who’d somehow been knocked down the steps as well. Ahmed’s bandits flew off their horses and spilled into the temple.

In the maelstrom, Elizabeth called out to Simon. He turned to her and she pointed to the top of the pyramid. “There!”

He turned just in time to see Vale at the top of the steps. She grabbed a torch and ran toward the copper disk. And right through it.

Simon stood stunned for a moment until he realized Elizabeth was running after her.

“Elizabeth!” he called out, but she didn’t stop. Simon started to look for a weapon, but realized there wasn’t time and followed close behind. “Wait for me!”

Elizabeth stopped and grabbed the second torch. “She’s getting away.”

When Simon reached the top of the pyramid, he could see that the copper disk stood in front of an opening to the apex of the pyramid. Vale hadn’t gone into the disk; she’d gone behind it.

Simon took the torch from Elizabeth’s hand and poked it behind the disk. All he could see was a long tunnel, leading down. He was half-tempted to let Vale go, to simply be glad they’d survived, when Elizabeth looked at him.

“We have to stop her,” she said.

It was simple, and yet, so very not. But she was right. They had to stop her.

Carefully, Simon led the way into the tunnel. The rough stairwell led down into the darkness. Holding Elizabeth’s hand in one hand and the torch in the other, he led them down the steps as quickly as he dared.

The long tunnel finally ended in a small room and another tunnel, this one flat, probably running under the pyramid. He could hear Elizabeth’s breathing start to race and he turned back in concern. Her eyes scanned the walls nervously. Of course, he thought, she’d nearly been buried alive.

“You can wait for—” he started.

“Don’t even say it,” she said between short breaths. “I’m okay. Let’s go.”

She clearly wasn’t, but they didn’t have time to argue. They continued down the narrow tunnel. There were small alcoves along the way and in the dim light, he could just make out small bundles piled on top of each other. Mummies.

“Are those babies?” Elizabeth said, her voice trembling.

“Animals,” he said, hoping he was right. He’d read about catacombs filled with animal mummies. The long labyrinthian passageways were found all over Egypt.

Elizabeth eyed the mummies warily and they continued on until Simon thought he could hear someone else’s footsteps and ragged breathing. He slowed their progress and stopped to listen. Nothing.

They walked on ahead until the tunnel hit a crossroads. Vale could have gone either way. Simon looked in one direction and then the next, only just catching a glimpse of torchlight down the one to the right. She wasn’t far ahead of them now and they quickened their steps. He swore silently to himself as they followed the light. He should have taken the time to find a weapon. If Vale was armed, they’d have no defense.

Simon forced that thought away and saw that the glow from Vale’s torchlight was brighter now and slowed as they came to a corner. Simon held Elizabeth back as he peered carefully around it.

Vale was busy fussing with something in her hands, her torch discarded at her feet. He could see the flames reflecting against the wall behind her. A dead end. She was trapped.

Slowly, he and Elizabeth eased around the corner, and stood face to face with Katherine Vale.