❝death is only the beginning.❞
Mara El-Masri's fascination with the long-ago world of ancient Egypt started with the stories her stepfather would tell her when she was a child. Her brother Talib El-Masri is missing, left after their mother's funera...
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☾ ☽
THE CALM WAS UNNERVING. The nearest town was far behind them and the only thing the eye could see the entire day was desert and nothing but, an endless sea of sand until late in the day, when they followed the river stream through to a narrow gorge. There were rocky cliffs all around them and the skies were clear. There was less than an hour until sunset. It was quiet on the dirigible. The only sound was the wind.
Her father's words about Hamunaptra hadn't been so clear to Mara in years. He had meant them only about Hamunaptra, a warning about the things that hid underneath the sand, within the labyrinth, but Ahm-Shere was near and she felt that his words could just as easily be applied to the oasis as they were to the City of the Dead. The breezes whisper as if you were not alone.
"That's the Blue Nile down there," Rick said, breaking the eerie silence that had fallen among them as he looked at the river below. They'd broken off the regular Nile early that morning to follow the Blue Nile southeast instead as Alex had instructed them to. If they'd gotten his clue right, there was a chance he was here somewhere. And a chance that in minutes they could be seeing Ahm-Shere. "We must be out of Egypt by now."
"In ancient times, all this still belonged to the Upper Kingdom," Evy said. Her words seemed to echo off the walls of the gorge. "The oasis must be around here somewhere."
"Don't worry, Evy, we'll find him. He's a smart kid. He'll leave us a sign."
Mara drew her attention away from the cliffs as her father sat across from her at the small table and noticed that he was eyeing the world around them warily. She had only seen him so anxious a handful of times, but somehow this seemed like the worst of them all. Hesitantly she asked him, "How long until the seven days are up?"
Jamil was reluctant to answer, his reticence written on his face, but he still said, "Only a few hours. But Evelyn is right. The oasis is near. That means Imhotep is near."
"It means Alex is near, too," Mara reminded him, trying to give him a little optimism. If they were going to think about the negatives, Imhotep and the Scorpion King and the Army of Anubis, then they had to think about the positives. In just hours Evy and Rick were going to be reunited with their son, maybe even sooner than that. "It's like Rick said. He's probably made up another arrow somewhere on the river shore, telling us which way the oasis is. We may be close to Imhotep and the Scorpion King, but we're also close to Alex."
"Indeed. Then they will be together again," Jamil said, glancing at Evy and Rick. Both were looking over the side of the ship, likely looking for any sign that Alex and the cultists had made it here before them. Their anxiety seemed to outweigh her father's. He lowered his voice a little. "I know the pain of losing a child. But I also know the joy when you're reunited."
