❝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 COMMANDER OF THE SAQQARA TRIBE OF THE MEDJAI would be found in southern Cairo, not very far from the limits of the necropolis itself. Ardeth brought them to an unassuming, plain building and led them inside, all the way up to the highest floor. There was nothing about their surroundings that implied anything unusual about the tenants; in fact, this was exactly what Mara would have expected from the home of Medjai commander.
Ardeth brought them to a door at the end of the hall and knocked thrice on the wood. A few moments wait passed, and then the door was opened. Before them stood an older man, perhaps ten or so years older than her father, and he wore a tired look when he saw Ardeth for the second time that day. Then his gaze turned to her, and the commander said, "Mara El-Masri, I presume."
"Mara Carnahan," she corrected. It had been years since anyone called her El-Masri. "But yes, I am Jamil El-Masri's daughter. I'm also Sarah's mother."
"So I hear. Her situation is indeed unfortunate," Eyad said, with no indication in his voice that he felt strongly about it.
Rick raised a brow from behind Mara and Ardeth. "That's one way of putting it."
Eyad didn't seem to have noticed him until then. "I'm sorry, who are you?"
"This is Rick O'Connell," Ardeth introduced. "He is the man who killed the Scorpion King."
Eyad eyed him for a moment. "You are...not what I expected," he settled on saying, and then he opened the door wider to let them into his flat. As they stepped through the threshold, Eyad continued to Mara, "I don't know what you think I can tell you that I haven't already told your father."
"Perhaps you start with telling us why Khafre is in Nefertiri's tomb," Mara said. Jamil and Ardeth had not gotten a true answer about that from him earlier, at least not that they'd mentioned, but it was better she ask him directly and hear for herself. The end of her sentence was punctuated by the door closing. "They're hundreds of years apart, two very different dynasties. There was no connection between them before this."
"Nefertiri was the protector, was she not? That is what our stories tell us." Eyad came to stand in front of them. "That in life she was the protector of something that could destroy this world. What that something was, I do not know. I do know her duties didn't stop in death. Ramesses II chose her to protect Khafre's tomb in the afterlife. No one was supposed to find either tomb. Then again, you, Mrs. Carnahan, seem to have a talent for stumbling across these things," he said glibly. Mara didn't react. Eyad's gaze trailed again to Rick. "As well as the rest of your family."
