Derek suppressed a smile. "Used to be in Memphis."

"Egyptian, then," the Ka concluded, nodding.

"Enough about us, Rekemheb." Valerie leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. "You have told us nothing about yourself."

The Ka returned to pure Egyptian, and Valerie was just as glad.

It pleased her to hear the ancient language come alive and reveal its staccato music. Rekemheb laid his open hand over his heart. "Me?

There is not much to tell. I was a simple priest, the son of captive Nubians who grew up serving Egyptian gods. When I became a man, I was appointed to the temple of Hathor. This was in the time of Ramses."

"Ramses the Great." She rested her chin on one hand. "A name that rings through history. Did you ever see him? Speak to him?"

"I saw the Great King only at the solemn festivals...and of course at his funeral." The Ka paused for a moment. "That day, lled with solemn grief and fear, is bright in my memory, for I accompanied His Majesty down the Nile to his tomb at Thebes." Rekemheb looked toward the somber west.

"It seemed, but for the beating of the drums, all Egypt had grown silent. On that day the king joined with the sun and became the new Horus. His thirteenth son, Meremptah, became Lord of the Two Lands."

Derek studied the priest while Valerie translated into English. He nodded. "I can just picture it, Rekemheb, and I love the drama, but what has that to do with Valerie and me, and with Auset being pregnant?

* 141 *

What are we all supposed to be doing now?"

Rekemheb opened his hands. "I do not know. The gods will reveal themselves when it suits them. I know only what the scribe spoke. The Balance, the Book, and the Child. These were the gods' hope against the Aton rising in the west."

Valerie shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. Aton is the sun disk."

Derek looked up through his eyebrows. "And the sun rises in the east, right?'

"No, I mean the reference to Aton itself. It shouldn't occur in Meremptah's time. The One God was an innovation of Akhnaton, a century earlier. When he died, the idea died with him." She turned to the priest. "Didn't it?"

"It did not die. The cult of Aton was forbidden at the court, but it continued among the people." His wax-like face darkened slightly as he looked directly at her. "It was their priest who murdered me."

The truck careened around a sudden curve, swinging them to the side, and Valerie exclaimed, "Look up ahead! A military checkpoint. I think we're in trouble."

The truck pulled up to a dilapidated guard station, the paint peeling away from its outside wall. Three soldiers in white uniforms far too large for them came forward with battered automatic ri es.

Yussif leaned out the truck window and chatted cheerfully with two of them, about the condition of the road, about the crazy foreigners who would pay a king's ransom to be taken to Luxor. But, Alhamdulillah, it was a way to make a living.

He held out a crumpled pack of French cigarettes, shaking out one for each. Through the window at the back of the cab, Valerie could see that Auset had put on a silk veil that covered all but her eyes. The Muslim wife, silent, pregnant, all but invisible.

A third soldier came around to the back of the truck. "Sabah al kheer. " Valerie wished him good morning. The soldier mumbled a reply, glanced brie y at the wooden crate at her feet, and then seemed to take great interest in Derek. "Gawaaz safar!" he ordered.

Derek looked at him blankly. "Besport, " the soldier repeated, trying an alternative.

* 142 *

"He wants to see your passport," Valerie explained.

"Why only mine?" He jerked the document from his pack and handed it over, obviously piqued.

The soldier opened it slowly. "American?" He turned the pages, scrutinizing every stamp and port of entry.

Derek nodded. "Uh-huh."

Another of cer came around to the rear of the truck and took the passport, perusing it with the same thoroughness. "Amereekan, heh?"

"Yes. Still." Derek held an unconvincing smile.

The second of cer closed the booklet and tapped it several times on his open palm. Then, as if deciding the whole matter had ceased to be interesting, he handed it back and both soldiers walked away.

The truck jerked slightly as Yussif put it into gear, and it pulled slowly away from the guard station.

Derek blew air out slowly in relief. "Wow. That was scary. I wonder how many more times we're going to have to do that." He slid his pass back into his knapsack.

Out of sight of the road station, the truck pulled to the side of the road and stopped. Yussif came around to the rear with a map in his hand.

"What were those soldiers looking for?" Valerie asked. "Why the pass check with Derek?"

"Assassin. They look for him all over, and Derek looks like from Sudan."

"Oh, great. I come all the way to Africa, where I'm a suspect because I'm black."

"Yes. And is worse in south part of Egypt." Yussif looked down the road they were traveling. "This highway has more checkpoints, many more."

"What is the alternative?"

"That is what I come to show." He opened up the ragged map and spread it out on the truck bed. Valerie came over on her knees and looked down on it, trying to read the Arabic place names as Yussif traced the route with his nger.

"We are here. Main road on west side of Nile has military every twenty kilometer. Down here is El Dakhla. I think is much better to * 143 *

drive on other side."

Valerie turned the map around and traced her nger along the proposed route. "You mean here, past El Amarna. Yes, that's a good idea.

It'll also give us an opportunity to stop and look at one of Akhnaton's stelae."

Derek looked up. "Do you really think we should stop for sightseeing?"

"It's not sightseeing. Rekemheb's prophecy speaks of Aton, who was important only during the reign of Akhnaton, over a hundred years before Rekemheb's lifetime. Our route runs past several of Akhnaton's stelae, and they might tell us something."

Derek shrugged. "It's going to be hot walking around at midday."

Yussif scratched the side of his beard. "El Amarna is also Islamist.

People do not like foreigners in Middle Egypt. Is maybe not so good for you to walk around."

Valerie tapped a tiny spot on the map. "You can drop us off near the stela right here and then make a rest stop in this village nearby. We won't stay more than an hour."

"As you wish, Dr. Foret." Yussif folded up the road map.

"Don't worry about us," she said to the driver's back as he climbed into the truck cab. "I'm not a dumb tourist. I speak Arabic. I can take care of myself."

Derek pressed his ngertips together. "Please, God. Don't let those become famous last words."

v Valerie and Derek dropped from the truck bed with a soft crunch onto the pebbly sand below the cliff.

Valerie walked around to the cab window. "Go on to the village, Yussif. Derek and I have got plenty of water, and we'll be ne. We'll come along in about an hour. You should wait near the village well, wherever that is. In a place that small, there can be only one."

"Less than an hour, I hope." Derek wiped his sleeve across his face as the truck rumbled away. They began the climb up to the stela complex. "So. What's this?"

"We're looking at one of the fteen stelae that Akhnaton ordered carved on the rocks around this plain. All of them say roughly the same * 144 *

thing, that Pharaoh dedicates this new capital Akhetaton to the One God, the Sun Disk."

Derek stopped at the foot of the inscribed cliff and leaned over, panting and gripping his knees. He caught his breath nally and stood up. "Wow. I...had...no idea...it would be so big. It's a whole huge wall. So, what do you hope to nd on it?"

"Any reference to the Balance, the Book, or the Child. Or to Aton in the west. I don't know. It could be anything."

"It's not going to be easy. Look how the writing has worn away.

You'd think they would protect it. With glass or something."

"They do protect it with glass. At least in the tombs. And sometimes in the temples. But not way out here."

He shaded his eyes and looked up at the stela. "Look, there's an illustration at the top. This is the sun disk, obviously, with all its rays ending in little cartoony hands. But whoa! Look at these people here.

Long heads, skinny arms, and waay too fat asses."

"Show some respect. That's Akhnaton and Queen Nefertiti, worshipping the Aton." Tilting her fedora forward to shade her eyes, she read the inscription. "'On this day...His Majesty ascended, great in sovereignty...like Aton when he rises...every heart in gladness'...

blank blank blank. There's a lot missing, but it still appears to be the usual lauding and praising. Let me skip down a little."

She knelt before the lower register of the inscription and blew sand from the incised gures. "'His captains fell down before him on their faces before his majesty, tasting the ground before his will.'"

Derek laughed softly. "This king had a power thing, didn't he?"

She went on. "Here it says, 'Through me liveth the Good God, Unique Bringer of the Light, Destroyer of Apophis'...blank blank.

'The Aton desires me to make unto him His city, presenting the earth to Him that put him on the throne. I uphold Him, magnifying His name.

I smite His enemies. I cause the earth to fall down before the One, in whom liveth all things.'"

Derek wiped his handkerchief across a dry forehead. "Sounds to me pretty much like the same-old same-old. There is no god but Aton, and Akhnaton is his prophet!"

She got to her feet again. "Yes, you're right. Basic militant monotheism. But otherwise there's nothing here to suggest Rekemheb's prophecy. Or us."

* 145 *

"Except for the fact that Mr. Big Tush Akhnaton looks just like your friend Vanderschmitt." He fanned himself with the folded cloth.

Valerie took a step back. "Hey, you're right . Long face, skinny chest, plump hips. Bizarre. It's got to be a coincidence, though."

"After Rekemheb, do you think anything that happens to us now is a coincidence?" His speech blurred on the word "coincidence," and he rubbed the side of his face. "Can we leave now? I'm not feeling very good. Got to lie down someplace. What about that little white house over there by the village? The one with the dome."

"In the koubba? That's a shrine, Derek. If there are any local people there, they won't like it."

"I'll chance it. Just get me out of this sun before I stroke."

Half supporting him, she led him stumbling back down the slope to the white brick cube that sat squat and simple on rocky ground. On the north side she found a doorway open to an interior no larger than a tool shed. At its front, a step up from the oor, was a long granite box.

Objects were arranged along the step as if left in offering: prayer beads, palm leaves, shards of pottery with words scratched on them.

While he leaned against the outer wall, his face pressed against his forearm, she went in to look for scorpions lurking in the shade. He staggered in afterward, collapsing to his knees.

She sat down on the ground next to him. "Here, lay your head on my lap. It's better than the stone."

Groaning softly, he curled up into the fetal position with the side of his head on her thigh.

"Give me your water bottle," she said. She poured the lukewarm liquid onto his folded handkerchief and smoothed the dripping cloth over his forehead.

"I'm sorry. I should have made you wear a hat. We'll stop at the next village and nd a turban for you, like Yussif has. Even better, a khaf a. You'll look fabulous."

He laid his long, smooth hand over hers. "Fashion, style, and a good-looking corpse. Oh, you know me so well. Valerie, if I die, promise to make me look digni ed."

"Die? Don't be such a drama queen. You've just got heat exhaustion. You'll be ne in a few minutes." She trickled more water over his forehead.

* 146 *

"I've got a killer headache." He winced. "What is this place, anyhow?"

"A mausoleum to some saint. That stone box with the calligraphy will be a sarcophagus."

"A saint, huh? Do you think he can cure my headache? I'll even pray to him if you tell me what to say."

"Why would you pray to a Muslim saint? You don't believe in Islam."

"I believe in everything. Don't you remember? Rekemheb said there was more than one hereafter. If there are Kas, there can be saints."

"Yes, and fairies and werewolves and elves." She trickled more water on the rag.

"Don't be such a cynic, Valerie. You know 'more things in heaven and earth, Horatio...'"

"'...than are dreamt of in my philosophy.' Well, I can't argue with Shakespeare." She lifted his head and shoulders from her thigh. "So, go on. Pray. You can start by praising his god. They like that."

Holding the wet rag over his forehead and eyes, Derek rolled over onto his knees and pressed his face into his hands. "Allahuakbar.

Allahuakbar. Whoever you are, take pity on me who means no harm to anyone."