“Nate? Rachel?” she called out.

  She closed her eyes and walked forward with her hands outstretched. The jumping dots disappeared to be replaced by a gentle glow against her lids. She sighed and opened her eyes, only for a rush of disorientation to make her sway on her feet.

  Something solid steadied her buttocks. She was sitting and wouldn’t fall over. She must have bumped into a fallen piece of masonry.

  How far had she walked from the campfire while unable to see?

  Slowly the scene came into focus, washed in a pale golden light.

  The glow came from hundreds of torches that lined the walls.

  Sitting in golden sconces, they cast a quivering wave over the paintings and brought the figures to life. The murmur of voices washed over her ears; the words almost recognisable. Where was she?

  A human ocean took form before her. Hundreds of people knelt with their heads bowed, filling the temple all the way back to the entrance.

  No, not where was she, but when . Cara was in the same temple, but at the height of its glory. Palms in vivid blue pots lined the edge of the space. A breeze rustled through their fronds.

  Something cool pressed to her skin and she looked down. In her lap, she clasped a golden crook and flail in her crossed hands.

  She sat on a throne, raised up on a dais. White linen covered her knees, and her toes peeking out from under the bottom were laced into golden sandals.

  What do you want to show me, Nefertiti? A weight on her head made any movements slow and ponderous lest the double crown of Upper

  and Lower Egypt fall. The movement triggered a gentle clack from the beads dangling at the end of her numerous tiny plaits.

  A sniffle from beside her caught her attention. Cara glanced sideways at the man occupying the other throne.

  A golden cobra reared up from his crown and seemed poised to strike at the worshippers. A long, flat nose dominated his profile and pointed to full, lush lips. A protruding jaw was accentuated by the false pharaonic beard that dipped down to his chest. A soft belly overhung the waist of his linen kilt.

  Akhenaten. The man whom Nefertiti loved with the same fierce intensity that Cara felt for Nate. Yet when she studied his profile, her heart remained unmoved. Perhaps I cannot feel what Nefertiti experienced? Cara wondered as the ceremony unfolded before her.

  A priest walked before them and intoned in a sing-song voice as he flicked scented water from a bowl he carried. Droplets rained on the bent heads of the worshippers. The assembled people sang their replies. Cara had no idea what was going on, but an instinctual memory told her not to squirm or use the flail to scratch her nose.

  Instead, she turned her focus inward. When she dug deep inside Nefertiti to reveal her feelings for her husband, she found duty and compliance but a strange absence of passion. Cara’s soul settled into Nefertiti’s body and, one by one, other impressions bubbled up under her shared skin.

  The queen worried for her daughters and what the future held for them. Concern grew for their people as they began to sicken and the priests spoke of plague being visited upon them. Weariness ate at her limbs; at the role she must play and the lies fed to her with every meal.

  The last one made Cara’s curiosity sit up and take notice.

  Although she imagined the Egyptian court no different to any other, and lies and intrigue would swirl around every corner.

  Opening her eyes again, she studied the people standing against the walls. A woman stood to one side of the room, her skin painted a dusty gold. A black wig on her head had a plain golden diadem holding it in place. She surveyed the room with a haughty gaze.

  A young boy stood before her. Her hands rested on the lad’s shoulders. His head was shaved except for the black top knot, and he wore a linen kilt that left his skinny torso exposed. The boy shared the same profile as Akhenaten.

  Tutankhamen. Pharaoh’s son and heir. Child of the secondary wife, Kiya.

  Lies. He is not hers, the soul sharing its body whispered.

  Cara played an odd game of hide and seek the truth, as she sought to establish a dialogue with Nefertiti. If Kiya wasn’t the boy’s mother, then who? On the opposite side of the room stood a group of women. By their dress and the gold dripping from their arms and brows, Cara identified them as young royals. One kept her eyes downcast, yet she threw glances to the boy.

  You need to help me out, Cara projected to her host. This is your world and I do not understand what I see.

  Nebetah. Pharaoh’s youngest sister. Mother of Tutankamen.

  Nefertiti spat out the words in Cara’s mind.

  A stab of revulsion twisted through her gut with each word. Bile rose up her throat and Cara coughed. The priest turned and narrowed his gaze at her. She plastered a serene look on her face and pretended nothing had happened and it most certainly wasn’t her coughing interrupting him.

  She drew a deep breath through her nose and sorted through the turmoil that erupted within her. The people believed Kiya gave pharaoh the longed-for heir. Nefertiti’s womb bore only daughters. But few knew the truth. Akhenaten begat his heir upon his own sister. The newborn babe had then been given to Kiya and she, not Nebetah, was raised up at court as mother of the future pharaoh.

  That must make for interesting family dinners , Cara mused.

  Kiya preened, while Nebetah cast poisonous glances. Did the younger woman resent the loss of her child, Kiya’s elevation at court, or something else? Cara’s mind skirted around the issue of a brother pressing his advances onto a much younger sister.

  Incest was a truth of life at the Egyptian court she wasn’t ready to confront.

  Instead, she continued her search of the room, pinning memories and snippets of information to faces. There. Warmth flowed over her limbs as someone looked upon her. On instinct, her lips parted as though the watcher stroked her neck. The love radiated from someone before her, not the man at her side.

  I don’t understand , Cara whispered.

  Malachi had learned that Akhenaten had Rahotep executed for the passion he bore for Nefertiti. She grasped at the only possible explanation for the familiar stirring. Nefertiti must return his affection and the warmth flowing over her limbs came from Rahotep. Cara examined each male face, but none matched the image of the man in her mind.

  Pharaoh rose to his feet. Servants rushed to take the crook and flail from his hands. Then he held one hand out to his queen.

  Nefertiti stood as commanded and a handmaiden took the symbols of royalty from her grasp. She laid her hand on top of Akhenaten’s and a chill washed over her skin.

  Not him . She didn’t love him, and he hadn’t sought her bed for some years. Would pharaoh discover Nefertiti with Rahotep and have him dragged away and killed? That fitted with what Malachi told her years ago. She turned the question inward, seeking Nefertiti’s answer, but Cara found the queen’s mind closed to her.

  As they stepped off the dais, the prickling awareness came from her left side. As Cara turned to face her phantom lover, sand blew in her face. She closed her eyes to stop grit getting into them. When she opened them, Nate knelt before her.

  “Dammit. I know I love you , I needed to see him !” She blew out her exasperation. She had been so close.

  “I love you, too, but what happened? You collapsed as though you fainted. We couldn’t wake you, although you still breathed.”

  Worry pulled at the corner of his eyes and his hand cupped her face.

  Cara leaned into his touch. “What do you mean I fainted?”

  “You walked to the temple and then crumpled to the ground. I carried you here, but you were unconscious. I could still feel you, but the connection was faint as though you were miles away.”

  His dark brows knitted together as he scanned her face.

  “Part of me did go somewhere else. My body was here, but my mind went back over three thousand years.” She rubbed a hand over her temple as a headache pressed behind her eyes.

  Nate handed her a water bottle and she drank while she tried to decipher what she learned. “Nefertiti was here. I was her, seated beside Akhenaten. Everything we thought we knew is all a lie.”

  He arched one eyebrow. “Care to be more specific?”

  Cara glanced sideways to Wafa and wondered what the crone knew.

  “She didn’t love Akhenaten. Nefertiti felt a sense of duty and responsibility, but there was no love inside her for him.”

  Nate blew out a long breath. “Are you sure? Ancient texts said they had a love that transcended time.”

  Why did history record the wrong version of their story? Or perhaps the interpretation taken of events depended on who penned it. History, as they say, is written by the victor. “What if someone wanted the world to believe they loved each other with an intensity that was unrivalled for millennia? Legend said her love

  for Akhenaten was so strong and pure that her heart turned to a diamond. But we know that’s not true, as a mortal hand created the Heart.”

  Miguel threw more wood on the fire and Rachel edged closer to him in the growing dusk. Pavlin had descended from her perch and stretched out behind them, one wary eye open for intruders. Cara grabbed hold of her love for her daughter. There was something she shared with Nefertiti—both mothers worried for their children.

  “Nefertiti did harbour a deep and fierce love. But it wasn’t for her husband.” Cara closed her eyes and hunted down the fading tendrils inside her. She grasped an end and ran it through her celestial hands. This love acted and behaved the same as what she felt for Nate.

  “Don’t go getting ideas.” Nate wrapped a blanket around Cara’s shoulders and pulled her close to his side. “I assume the queen’s grand passion was the one we seek?”

  Cara nestled closer to his warmth and let his love flow along their bond and through her. Who did Nefertiti share this with and why didn’t he show his face? “That is the only logical answer.

  Malachi said he died for the love he felt for her. I suspect Akhenaten discovered them together and enacted a terrible revenge upon him.”

  Wafa cackled. “Majesty didn’t deserve Nameless One’s love.

  Pharaoh killed him out of jealousy.”

  Nate rested his head on top of Cara’s. “You can’t blame a husband for devising a hideous, painful, and prolonged death for the man caught dallying with his wife.”

  “Did you know he fathered his son and heir on his sister? Incest was common in the royal family. They believed themselves anointed by the gods and had to keep their blood lines pure.” A surge of anger flashed red in her mind. It might have been considered normal, but something about it triggered Nefertiti’s maternal instincts.

  “Eww. Doesn’t stop it from being disgusting. Not to mention that it would have weakened their bloodlines and increased their likelihood of disease and deformity,” Rachel said from across the fire.

  “Their people believed a woman called Kiya was Tutankhamen’s mother, but it wasn’t true. For some reason, Akhenaten gave in to Nefertiti’s demands that his sister be allowed to retreat from royal life and not be publicly raised up as a secondary wife.”

  She took Nate’s hand and pulled it to her chest. “And you thought our family was complicated.”

  “What do we do now?” Miguel asked.

  Whispers flicked off the sand and wrapped around Cara. A thousand voices uttered snippets that if she could only piece them all together, would reveal the full story. “We keep looking. The answers are here, along with the one we hunt. If we find his mummy, we find our answers.”

  Nate stood and pulled Cara to her feet. “Let’s head back to the steamer before it gets any darker. We can discuss our next move in more detail there. It’s time we figured out a way to open the box.”

  Why did Nate have to remind her of that? There was so much Cara didn’t understand. If Nefertiti and Rahotep shared a passionate affair, why did his gift to her fill Cara with such dread? She was missing an important part of the puzzle and they had to keep moving onward to find it.

  12

  Night had settled over the land by the time they returned to the village and walked back to the steamer. Back on board, they assembled in the cosy lounge, everyone far too awake to seek their beds yet. In the morning they would continue upriver to their destination—Amarna. The city founded by the heretic pharaoh, who set aside the worship of many gods in favour of one, the Aten.

  The crew laid out platters for an easy dinner. The plates held mouth-watering items that could be plucked with one hand like figs stuffed with cheese, and slices of grilled bread to dip into spreads. After they had eaten their fill, Nate decided it was time to tackle Cara’s fears head on and summoned two crewmen to fetch the container. The men carried in the lead box and sat it on the low table between two overstuffed sofas.

  Cara’s fingers curled into the patterned brocade covering the arm of the sofa. “Do we have to do this?” Her throat went dry at the sight of the container and a ghostly tingle brushed over her arms.

  “You’ve hidden from it for long enough, Cara. We came here for answers.” Nate unlocked the outer lead container and reached inside for the obsidian box.

  The tingle over Cara’s skin turned into the sharp sting of nettles slapping against her flesh. “Surely this is pointless? We still haven’t found anything to tell us how to open the damned thing.” She leaned deeper into the back of the sofa and further away from the dark shape.

  The polished and engraved stone absorbed light and hunkered on the table like a small black hole. Nate ran his hands over the

  sides, searching for a seam or hidden latch. When that didn’t work, he picked it up and shook it.

  “Perhaps there is a spell to open it? The runes on the sides may be the clue,” Miguel suggested.

  “Malachi studied them for years but never succeeded in interpreting them. The closest he came was recognising protection symbols.” Cara glared at the object and wondered if she could toss it over the side and into the jaws of a hippopotamus.

  Rachel fidgeted on her chair and twisted a finger in the linen of her shirt as the two men tried, unsuccessfully, to find an opening. At length she whispered, “I know how to open it.”

  “What?” Cara stared at her daughter, but Rachel’s attention stayed on the piece of fabric she tortured. Cara glanced to Nate, wondering if he and Rachel were playing one of their jokes on her.

  “How do you know, Rachel?” Nate asked. He placed the box back on the table and returned to the sofa next to Cara.

  Rachel fisted both hands in her lap, then her spine straightened as she met Nate’s gaze. “Because I’ve opened it and I’ve seen what’s inside.”

  Cara jumped to her feet, her eyes wide while a thousand questions crashed through her mind. Foremost, when did Rachel open the box and why didn’t Nate tell her? Nate tugged her back down to the sofa and kept hold of her hand when all she wanted to do was pace the small cabin and bombard her daughter with questions. Even with answers within grasp, her mind still skittered around the main one. She stared at Nate. “Did you know? Was opening it something the two of you did?”

  “No. You should know I would never do that without your involvement, Cara. The box has been kept locked in the caverns, buried under layers of protection to keep everyone away from it.”

  Nate held Cara’s hand and Rachel’s gaze.

  A smile tugged at one corner of Rachel’s lips. “You didn’t account for a fourteen-year-old who wanted the voice to leave her alone.”

  “Oh, Rachel! Not you, too.” Despair dropped over Cara. She thought Rahotep only interrupted her dreams because of her bond with Nefertiti’s Heart. Why would the mage invade the dreams of a child, or did he think her more easily manipulated to do his bidding? “Why didn’t you ever say something?”

  Rachel loosened her fingers and tucked her mechanical hand under her left thigh. “At first, I thought I imagined it. He used to call to me in the middle of the night and wake me up. Then after

  Helene’s funeral I had an opportunity. Everyone went off to bed early, the house was so quiet, and I was so very tired. I took a chance. I crept down to the caverns to tell the voice to hush up.”

  Nate stared from the black object to his daughter. “And being family, you made it through the wards and locks.”

  “You taught me well.” Rachel tilted her chin in a familiar look of defiance.

  Too late, Cara considered the advisability of the skills Nate taught Rachel and the boys.

  “Perhaps we taught you a little too well.” Nate huffed a laugh and then sat forward, letting go of Cara’s hand to lean his forearms on his thighs. “How did you open it?”

  “By accident.” At last she met her mother’s gaze and an apology burned bright within her eyes. “I know you hate it, Cara, but it never felt like that to me. When I traced a finger along the runes, I heard a voice singing. It was beautiful and sad and made me cry. As I listened, a tear fell onto the box. There was a click and then a panel pulled away in the top, to reveal hinges and a latch.”

  Cara moved to sit next to her daughter and took Rachel’s hands.

  Sadness weighed down her heart that Rachel suffered the same broken nights, but had held her silence. “I am so sorry that you didn’t think you could tell me. He calls to me, too. I thought I could hear it because of Nefertiti’s Heart. I don’t like him invading your mind when none of us know his motives.”

  “He stopped for years after I stole down to the crypt. It only started again a few months ago.” Rachel squeezed Cara’s fingers and the ghost of a smile hovered on her lips.

  “When?” Nate’s full attention focused on his daughter.

  Rachel shrugged. “I can’t remember exactly, three or four months?

  Maybe around April.”

  “Easter,” Nate said the word on an exhale. “We shifted everything as we checked the catalogue before the big move. One of the men dropped the box. I thought nothing of it at the time as it wasn’t damaged, but the jolt must have woken or disturbed whatever is inside.”

  “I told him we would find him and silence him forever.” Rachel glanced between her parents.

  Cara managed a smile she didn’t feel on the inside. “And we shall.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22