Isis

Chapter Four: The Way Back

Escaping Hamunaptra had been the easy part. The group had gotten to the surface to discover that the tour guide had either assumed them dead or left them for dead. The truck they'd taken there was gone. There was just Ardeth's horse.

"We can take a car from the camp," he reassured them.

"Since when do the Med-Jai drive cars?" Jonathan wanted to know, as he walked alongside the horse. Ardeth didn't even bother to look at him. Jonathan heaved a sigh.

It was hot, though that was an understatement. It was burning. Egypt in August wasn't the place to take an eight-mile hike, with only two canteens of water – Jonathan's, and the one Ardeth had been carrying that everyone else shared. Jonathan also had a little silver flask that he drank from now and then, between sips of water.

Paige got the seat on the horse in front of Ardeth, mostly out of chivalry and partly because she looked like she was going to pass out. She clung desperately to the saddle, swallowing again and again as she tried to focus more on the fact she'd just brought a dangerous mummy back to life and less on the fact that she was fairly high off the ground.

Alex walked beside Jonathan, hands deep in his pocket. "We're almost there, right?" he asked, his voice solemn. The walk had given him plenty of time to reflect on his memories of his own time with Imhotep. His own, less-than-pleasant time.

"It's just up here," said Ardeth, motioning up the hill they were steadily climbing. Paige decided not to look away from her hands to check how close to the top they were. It didn't matter, though. A moment later the others could see the tops of black tents rising over the ground. A couple minutes later they were in the middle of a large clearing filled with tents pitched in a spiral shape, with a giant fire pit in the very center of it.

Ardeth jumped off the horse, and then helped Paige down.

"Wait here," he ordered, then disappeared into the closest tent to the fire. A short while later he exited with a large bag and entered the tent beside the one he'd come out of.

Paige, Alex and Jonathan tried desperately to pretend that the other Med-Jai weren't staring at them with looks of surprise, curiosity or outright hostility. Paige smiled weakly at one that looked about her age and waved. He spat on the ground and walked away.

"A friendly bunch, aren't they?" she whispered to her companions. Alex nodded enthusiastically, glaring at the young Med-Jai as he entered a far-off tent.

They didn't have to stand around awkwardly for long, however. A short while later, Ardeth reappeared with another Med-Jai that looked quite a bit like him, except with shorter hair and no tattoos. The other man took Ardeth's horse away.

"I have the keys," said Ardeth, holding them up to see. "We will drive to the river, where Kyan will take the truck back. We will take the next boat back to Cairo, and take a taxi from there."

"Who is paying for the boat and taxi?" Jonathan, of course, was very concerned about this.

"The Med-Jai have funds for times like this."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "You mean when a couple of kids accidentally raise Imhotep from the grave and need a ride back to their hotel?"

A shadow of a smile from Ardeth. "Yes, something like that."

The truck had turned out to be an old, rusty red truck with only three seats in the front of the cab. Jonathan insisted on driving, which was fine with Ardeth since he apparently had little experience driving. Paige and Alex sat in the cab, while Ardeth and the other Med-Jai, Kyan, sat in the bed of the truck.