❝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 PARTY OF FIVE walked for some time before coming across a trading post where they could recoup and prepare for the next leg of their journey, which had changed from the original plan. Some of the women there almost immediately swept Evelyn and Mara away to a tent to change from their still-damp nightgowns into something drier, more suitable for their desert travels. The warden Hassan was God knows where. That left O'Connell and Jonathan trying to negotiate with one of the traders for camels (trying being the operative word here).
"I only want five! Five!" Jonathan insisted to the trader, who responded promptly in Arabic. O'Connell stood behind him watching the haggling happen; as far as he could tell, the trader was trying to sell them more than just the five they needed. It was getting more annoying by the second. "I only want five, not a whole bloody herd! O'Connell! Can you believe the cheek?"
"Will you just pay the man?" O'Connell retorted.
"Oh, for heaven's sake," said Jonathan as he took his wallet from the pocket of his pants. O'Connell had noticed him pick it from the pocket of his jacket, which remained with Mara in the tent, before they had disappeared. "Can't believe the price of these fleabags." The trader took the money and left them with five camels. "Yes, happy. Very good."
"You probably could've got 'em for free," O'Connell said as he took two pairs of reins. There was an odd amount of camels; he had control of three of them while Jonathan took the other two. "All we had to do was give him your sister."
"Yes, awfully tempting, wasn't it?"
Only a second later did Rick O'Connell catch sight of Evelyn Carnahan coming toward them. He slowed to a stop without knowing he had, fixated on the alluring sight before him. She was a beautiful woman before, there was no debate about that, but now, seeing her in the black Bedouin dress the women had dressed her in, a sheer embellished covering over the bottom half of her face...
"Awfully," he found himself responding.
Through the sheerness of the face covering, Evelyn shyly smiled and lowered her gaze. A second later she went to one of the camels O'Connell had the reins of, petting its snout. O'Connell suddenly remembered that Evelyn wasn't the only person there when he heard Jonathan question, "Where's Mara?"
"Some of the supplies in her first aid kit were lost in the river," Evelyn explained the woman's absence. So that's what that leather bag she hadn't let go of since they all jumped overboard was. "She's going around the post looking for replacements."
Jonathan nodded, glancing around. "Perhaps—perhaps I should help her."
"Perhaps," Evelyn agreed, something knowing twinkling in her eyes that O'Connell noticed. Jonathan straightened his posture and started to head the direction his sister had just come from. Evelyn rolled her eyes and called, "It's the other direction!"
