❝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...
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO, A STRANGER TRAVELLING FROM THE WEST.
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"THE COMMANDER'S NAME IS EYAD AL-HASHEM," Ardeth said as they approached the building where the commander of the Saqqara tribe should be. Jamil looked over the building before them, three stories high and just like every other on the street they stood on. Mara's old flat was only a few blocks away. The Saqqara tribe certainly had more leeway, so to speak, with their living quarters than the Hamunaptra tribe did. The desert was a harsh place to live. "You met once, thirteen years ago."
"The battle against the Army of Anubis. I remember," Jamil recalled. He had only been briefly introduced to Eyad Al-Hashem and had never spoken with him directly, but he remembered him. He had seemed an honest man then, prepared to abandon his duties at Saqqara for the good of the world, and Jamil hoped that hadn't changed. An honest man would surely help to save a child's life. "Will he help us now?"
"I hope so."
Jamil kept a watchful eye on his surroundings as he followed Ardeth into the building. He could not see any Medjai near, not on the streets nor inside the building itself as they went up two flights of stairs to the top floor, but his tribe had been taught to blend in and go unnoticed. He didn't think it would be different for this one. In a city as large and populated as Cairo, the Medjai would want to keep a low profile.
There was a door at the end of the hall on the top floor of the building, a plain one compared to the others in the hall. The other doors had surnames on them; this one did not. Ardeth led him to this one and knocked thrice on the door. A minute passed. Then a voice asked in Arabic through the door, "Who is there?"
Ardeth said, "I am a stranger travelling from the east, seeking that which is lost."
A moment passed, in which Jamil wondered if Ardeth had knocked on the wrong door, but the voice on the other side said as the door opened, "I am a stranger travelling from the west. It is I whom you seek." Eyad Al-Hashem looked much older than Jamil recalled him being, more grey in his hair and the lines on his face more pronounced, but he could very well say the same for himself. The years showed on both of them. Eyad looked mildly surprised to see them standing at his door. "Ardeth Bay. The Army of Anubis has not risen again, has it?"
"No. This is about something else. I am sure you remember Jamil El-Masri."
Eyad looked to him next. Jamil nodded at him in greeting. The commander said, eyeing him curiously, "Yes, from the sands outside Ahm-Shere. And from reputation, of course. Not many men leave the Medjai for love, certainly not warriors. If ever they meet someone outside the society they wish to share their life with, they bring them into the society and raise their children as Medjai. You did not."
