"Ah, yes." Valerie shrugged. "An important question for a Christian. Well, for everyone, actually."

The Ka frowned. "Djesesh? I do not know this name. Perhaps he is in the Duat of the Greeks or the Persians."

"You mean there's more than one hereafter?"

Valerie repeated the question in Egyptian.

The Ka nodded. "Yes, many."

Derek looked up at the stars. "All the religions are true? How can that be? That's impossible. Who's in charge? Which is the real God, the one that looks after us?"

Valerie transmitted the question.

The ancient priest puzzled for a moment, obviously trying to make sense of the question. Finally he spoke. "The gods do not look after us.

It is we who look after them."

Ahead of them a three-quarter moon was rising on the horizon, illuminating the travelers bluely. From somewhere overhead a falcon shrieked.

"Horus greets you," the Ka of Rekemheb said cheerfully.

* 94 *

CHAPTER XIV:.

BLESSED AMONG WOMEN.

There it is." Valerie pointed down a dirt road between broken mud-brick walls. "The stable where we met Ahmed two nights ago. Remember?"

The camels lumbered down the last stretch of dry road to the stable. At the side of the building, she dismounted and drew back the threadbare rug that covered the entrance. The odor of the stabled beasts was strong, yet as Derek came through the doorway, bowing low under the lintel, the half dozen other camels honked in protest at the smell of the mummy.

"What should we do with Rekemheb? We can't let the stable boys see him."

"There's an empty feeding trough over there. We can put him there." She reached up and carefully slid the mummy out of Derek's arms. With more rush than reverence, she laid it in the trough and covered it with a scattering of fresh straw.

"Ahlan wa sahlan, Doktor." A boy of about fteen came in.

The reeking stain on the bottom of his galabaya suggested he had just cleared the night's manure from the stalls.

"Rajab, hello. Look, we'd like to be left alone for a while-to talk business. Can you come back later for the saddles? When we're gone?"

"No broblem," he said cheerfully in Egyptian English, using the phrase every child in Egypt could say but not pronounce. Valerie pressed a few bills into his hand and urged him to the doorway.

Derek looked at his watch. "Eleven forty- ve. We're early. Damn."

He grimaced, breathing through his mouth. "I sure hope she arrives soon. This place is way more than my nose can handle."

* 95 *

Valerie leaned against the stable wall and fanned away ies with her fedora. "Is Auset usually late?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "I was always later."

Scarcely had he spoken when a car horn sounded, and they went together to the door of the stable. Ahead of her, Derek drew back the rug.

Over his shoulder, Valerie saw what had just pulled into the stable yard. "Ah, merde. What the hell are we going to do now?"

Dust still settled around a blue pickup truck, its rear section uncovered and empty. Al Fakhir, Inc. Exporters was painted on the side in Arabic and English. Auset, visibly pregnant in spite of the loose abaya that covered her, came around from the passenger side of the cab.

A moment later the door on the driver's side opened, and a bulky Arab in western clothing emerged.

"You didn't mention she had a friend," Valerie said through closed teeth.

Derek sighed. "I had no idea."

Auset surveyed the stable surroundings as she walked toward them. She brushed imaginary dirt from her hands, although she had not touched anything. "So, what's going on here?"

No one answered.

"Oh, sorry. Derek. This is Yussif, our company driver." She looked back at the man who stood just behind her. "Yussif, this is Derek, the father of my child."

The swarthy Arab scowled. He was taller and bee er than most Egyptians, and his ample girth would have been better served by a galabaya than by the trousers he wore. The three-day beard growth that Arab men favored emphasized the ferocity of his expression. Auset's two men nodded coolly at one another, declining to shake hands.

"And this is Valerie, Derek's archaeologist friend I told you about," she went on, ignoring the bristling males. Before Valerie could speak, Auset turned back to Derek and demanded, "Now where is this 'extraordinary artifact' of yours, and why did you drag us way out here to get it?"

Derek pressed his lips together for a moment, then nodded faintly, as if agreeing with himself. "Auset. You seem to be a very levelheaded person. I think you can recognize a morally complicated situation when you see one. Am I right?"

* 96 *

Auset narrowed her eyes. "What's going on, Derek? What have you done?"

He raised a hand. "No, no. It's nothing that we've done. Well, it is sort of something we've done. Or rather were compelled to do. It's very complicated. You must promise to reserve judgment until you know all the facts."

Auset's voice dropped in temperature. "Perhaps you could start by telling us what the hell you're talking about?"

Derek's eyes darted toward the brutal-looking truck driver, and he hesitated.

Auset saw the direction of his glance. "Look, whatever is going on here, if it involves me, it also involves Yussif. So talk." The driver did not comment, but crossed his arms over his large chest.

Derek exhaled, as if he had been holding his breath. "All right.

I guess it's truth time. Come in here, both of you. I want you to meet Rekemheb."

"Who?"

The two Egyptians followed him into the last stall of the stable, where the feeding trough hung. Derek lifted away handfuls of straw until a black painted mask smiled up at him. Then he brushed away debris from the rest of the upper body.

Auset put her sts where her waist would have been. "A mummy?

Is this a joke?"

"No. I mean, yes, it's a mummy, not a joke. It's my ancestor, I think."

She pressed two ngertips between her eyebrows. "You stole a mummy that you think you're related to?"

Valerie came to her friend's defense. "We didn't steal a mummy.

We rescued it. And it isn't it. It's him." She pointed over Auset's shoulder.

The two Egyptians turned around and inched simultaneously.

Auset took a step backward, and the burly Arab put his arm around her without touching her. Both stared awestruck. In the corner of the stall stood the radiant gure of the Ka.

"Auset, darling." Derek reached out one hand to the woman and the other toward the apparition. "I'd like you to meet my ancient ancestor, Rekemheb, Lector Priest of Hathor in the reign of Pharaoh Meremptah."

* 97 *

The two modern Egyptians said nothing.

"Yes, I know." Valerie's voice was sympathetic. "We reacted the same way. It takes a while to grasp that he's real. It sort of messes up everything else you believe."

His face still registering fear, the husky driver stepped forward and reached out a hand toward the enigma. When his ngers penetrated the surface of the glowing chest he inched again. "Is true, then. This man is not...like us. If this is one of the dead, God forbid, what does he seek among the living?"

"Well, that's the big question, isn't it? And we've been working on that ourselves. But I'll ask him again in your words," Valerie said, and spoke to the Ka.

"It was the living who came to me, as it was written," the apparition replied.

Valerie translated again and then she added, "He means me, of course. I took him from his tomb. But the bizarre thing is that he was waiting for us."

Auset's scowl increased. "Look, I don't know what's going on here, Derek. If you and your theater friends are pulling a prank, I'm the wrong person for it." She rested a hand on her swelling abdomen. "And this is certainly the wrong time."

Derek and Valerie looked at one another, perturbed. Plan A had failed and they had no Plan B. Derek raised both hands. "Auset, please.

Just listen for a minute."

"Auset." A soothing voice repeated the name with a strange accent. All eyes turned again to the apparition, who bowed slightly from the waist. "Great Lady, Justi ed by Ra, most beloved of the Goddess. Surely, my grandchild has chosen the noblest of women to be the temple of the future."

Valerie translated, carefully selecting superlatives.

Auset looked at the Ka and then at Valerie. "Is he saying that or are you making it up to placate me?"

"No, I swear it is him. Myself, I don't think you're all that noble."

The Ka took a step forward and knelt before Auset, his hand pressed upon his naked chest, his priestly side lock dangling handsomely.

"Auset, whose very name is that of the Great Mother, you have been chosen from among all women. All of heaven honors you with this child * 98 *

and asks only that you shelter the mortal substance of his ancestor."

Valerie repeated the speech, emphasizing the word "honor." Could attery succeed where reason failed?

Auset looked back and forth between Derek and Valerie. "This can't be real."

"Unfortunately, he seems to be," Valerie replied soothingly. "And we can explain him, but we need to take him someplace safe while we do. We cannot stay here."

Auset shook her head. "This is just too weird. Yussif, am I going crazy here?"

The Arab, who had not taken his eyes from the priest, expressed no opinion.

Finally Auset threw up her hands. "This place smells like the toilets of hell. If we're going to discuss that thing, you'll have to bring it out to the truck." She spun around toward the door. "I'm never going to get the smell of camel poop out of my clothes!"

"Wait," Valerie called, stretching out the one-syllable word.

"There's another...uh...thing you must see rst."

Auset stopped suddenly and closed her eyes. "There's more?"

Derek cleared his throat, clasped his hands, rubbed his palms nervously. "Yes. One more thing. But it's no big deal, really. It's just that feathered creature perched on the edge of the stall. Right over there."

Auset turned and glanced carelessly toward where he pointed. "Is that all? It's just a parr...Oh, my God! It's got a little human head!" She recoiled. "It's grotesque!"

"No, look! It's Rekemheb's face, don't you see?" Derek was talking faster now. "It's his Ba. His soul. It goes along with the Ka, sort of. You just have to get used to it."

Auset leaned forward again to inspect the creature, which half opened its wings and then shivered, rocking back and forth on wrinkled claws. "Ba?" she asked weakly.

Valerie took over the argument. "It's rather like a messenger and...well, it ies around. I always thought of it as a variation on the soul myth, but well, obviously, it's not. A myth, I mean."

Auset had lowered her eyes again. "Is there anything else?" she asked very quietly. "Any other demon, jinni, ghoul, or succubus I should know about?"

* 99 *

"No." Derek shrugged slightly. "That's it, basically."

"Well then..." Auset enunciated carefully, as if to a deranged child. "Ask all your new friends to come along to the truck," she said, and walked out of the stable.

Outside, the truck had baked to a dangerous heat in the noonday sun. Gingerly, Derek and Valerie laid the mummy in the center of the at bed of the truck and climbed up alongside of it. They crouched, clutching their knees, taking care not to let their skin touch the blistering hot metal. As the truck pulled away from the stable, sunlight struck some shiny object and re ected onto the side of Valerie's face. She covered it with her hand and found the old wound swollen and suppurating.

The Ka, which sat next to his mummy, looked at her. "The sun disk smites you. Have a care."

* 100 *