Reawakened (The Reawakened Series) (15 page)

Amon let the newly blond strand go and then backed away a step. “I am sorry,” he said.

“Don’t be. Like I said, I like the color.” He said nothing and just stared at me, so I asked, “Do you hate it? Is that the problem?”

“No. I find it…beautiful.”

“Then what is it? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Amon shook his head, turned, and said, “Dress in something comfortable. We will be journeying through what you call a sandstorm.”

“Will we be coming back to the hotel?”

“Yes. We can return.”

“Okay. I’ll pack light, then.”

Amon left, closing the door quietly behind him.

I couldn’t get a sense of what was going on with Amon, and that bothered me. He was upset about something, but I couldn’t tell what that something was.

Since I wasn’t sure exactly what we’d be doing, I dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, boots, and a black tee. Just in case we ended up going someplace nicer, I threw a flowing black skirt with a handkerchief hem into my bag, along with my notebook, a few water bottles, a pair of sandals, and my wallet. Amon would likely take care of any fees, but I wanted to keep my wallet on me just in case.

Emerging from the bedroom, I found Amon dressed in a similar fashion. He’d slicked back and finger-combed his brown hair, which made it look almost black, and he wore a pair of dark jeans with a thick black belt and a gray shirt, unbuttoned so the white tee beneath it peeped through. His muscular physique was visible despite the double layer of shirts.
My goodness,
I thought.
Not bad, Lily. Not bad.

Swallowing and clearing my throat noisily, I asked, “So, sandblast, huh?”

“Yes.”

Amon had a falcon-like stare that made me feel vulnerable and powerful at the same time. My heart began hammering as I neared him, his eyes seeming to take in my every move at once. I got the impression that he could sense not only the rate of my heartbeat but also the pulse of blood through my veins, my sharp intake of breath as he slid his hands up my arms, and the way my skin tingled where he touched me. “Are you ready?” he whispered against the delicate skin beneath my ear, and when I answered, “Yes,” my mind wasn’t even on the place where we were going. I took a step closer and wrapped my arms around his waist. As the sand began to fly, I closed my eyes and buried my face against his chest. I sensed his surprise at the gesture but couldn’t tell if it was a happy surprise or if he’d rather I kept my distance.

My ears filled with the buzz of the storm as sand licked my bare arms and wind lifted my hair. I experienced a moment of panic as the prickles of sensation numbed me, but Amon somehow spoke to me in my mind, soothing me with soft words in a language I couldn’t comprehend. His hand slid up my back and cupped my neck and I had all of a few seconds to enjoy it before I could feel nothing and we sank into darkness.

The sand coalesced and we appeared in an alley between two buildings.

“Where are we?” I asked as I turned in circles.

“Itjtawy,” he answered softly.

“Itjtawy as in…”

“My home.”

“Oh.” Amon’s “home” was apparently now an industrial district on the outskirts of the vast city of Cairo. He began walking and I followed, not entirely sure it was safe to be walking there at that time of night. Within a few moments, Amon was able to find the Nile, and we walked along its banks as he studied the area. He stopped once and played with the top of a reed growing near the water.

“Papyrus,” he explained, without me having asked.

I would never have guessed that the clump of tall green stems with dust-mop-style heads could have been used to make paper.

A bit farther down, Amon paused, backed up carefully, and counted off steps. “It should be right about here,” he finally announced.

“What? Your home? How do you know?”

“No. My home would have been up on that crest. Can you see it?”

“That hill there? Yes, I see it. So what was here?”

“The temple. The one we would have prayed to Anubis in. I know where we are because this was the site of my first death, an experience I shall never forget. Even if I had, the Eye of Horus would show me what I was seeking.”

“Oh, I see.” I was itching to ask more questions, but I could see he was focused on the task at hand. “So what do we do?”

“Be still for a moment so that I may concentrate.”

Amon sank to his knees, closed his eyes, and lifted his hands skyward, palms up. I wasn’t sure what to do, but getting on my knees felt like the right thing, so I did. He began chanting, and after a moment, I felt the ground rumble.

Turning to me, Amon reached out a hand. “Lily!”

He pulled me up, crushing me tightly to his chest. Amon kept us both upright as the ground rolled beneath us. The dirt directly in front of where we stood rose as if something or—and I sincerely hoped not—someone was emerging from it. A horn pierced the surface and I worried that it was attached to an underground monster, but then the rumbling stopped and whatever it was that was sticking out of the ground remained motionless.

Cautiously, Amon stepped forward and reached out, pulling the object from the earth. It looked like a large ice cream cone, the sugar kind, but it was made of clay. Its sides were smooth except for the dirt that covered it, and on the top were Egyptian glyphs.

“What is it?” I asked as I moved closer.

“A funerary cone.”

“What’s a funerary cone? Is it used to nail the sarcophagus closed? Seems like it would break.”

Amon shook his head. “No. They line the entrance of a tomb. These carvings here are a prayer meant for the deceased. And here, we find his name.”

“So who is the deceased?”

Reverently, Amon dusted the surface and ran his finger over a portion, reading it out loud in Egyptian. He paused and looked at me before translating. “Me. This cone comes from the tomb of my last resting place. It is a message that I will find what I am seeking there.”

“So your last resting place was—”

“Thebes. Not in Thebes exactly, but likely in the tombs near the Theban hills.”

“Wait a second. On the box with all the artifacts in the museum there was a marker that said the mummy”—I shifted uncomfortably— “I mean,
you,
were discovered in the Valley of the Kings.” I pulled out my smartphone and looked up the site.

“It’s near where Thebes once was,” I explained. “The city is now called Luxor. I hate to tell you this, Amon, but the Valley of the Kings is the archaeological capital of the world. Oh, uh, ‘archaeological’ means the digging up of buried relics.”

Amon frowned. “Like me.”

I winced, but said, “Yes. The point is that there are probably guards everywhere, and they haven’t even discovered all the tombs in there yet. They find new stuff all the time. It’s going to be like looking for a needle in a sand dune, not to mention you’re going to have to do mind control on a lot of people for us to even get in there.”

Amon was methodically dusting off the cone artifact as I spoke. When I finished, he lifted his eyes and said, “I have to try, Lily. If I cannot succeed, then all will be lost. Will you still accompany me on this journey?”

Stepping closer, I placed my hand on his arm and said, “Of course. Now hand me the ice cream cone thing and I’ll put it in my bag for safekeeping.”

Once the relic was stowed, I expected to leave immediately for the Valley of the Kings, but Amon wanted to wait until tomorrow so he could renew himself in the sun before attempting the journey. He wanted to walk around the area that used to be his home. He held out a hand to me, and together we explored the land that was once supposed to belong to him.

As he talked, explaining to me what his home had looked like, the drab gray buildings disappeared and were replaced with a golden palace, fields of grain, and herds of cattle. I could envision Amon walking proudly among his people, riding a boat down the Nile, or feasting in celebration.

Soon we came upon a building that had been made over into a club. Techno music blasted and beautiful young people lined up, waiting their turn to get in.

“What is this?” Amon asked.

“It looks like a club. A place where people dance and celebrate,” I added.

“My people dance?”

“Well, yes. People dance all over the world.”

“Then, come, Lily. We will celebrate with them.”

“I don’t think I’m really in the mood.”

“What do you mean? What is a mood?”

“Mood is a feeling…like when…Ugh, it’s too hard to explain.”

Amon peered at me in the darkness, his eyes flashing. He tilted his head, then said, “You do not enjoy dancing.”

“As a rule, no.”

He continued to focus on me, quickly discerning more than I was willing to show outwardly.

“You believe it is a poor use of your time and you are…embarrassed.”

He’d pretty much hit the nail on the head. It was strange to have someone pick up on every little thing I was thinking. “Quit analyzing me, Sigmund Freud. I have my reasons, and you don’t need to know every little thing.”

Ignoring my statement, Amon continued to address the issue. “Lily, first, there is no possibility that your lovely, soft limbs could move in any way that would cause you shame. Second, there is enough work in the world, Nehabet. What good does it do to excel if you don’t revel in your achievements? There must be a balance. Even a king celebrates. If he did not, how could he rule effectively?

“You must allow yourself to feel…joy, Young Lily. You must take pleasure”—Amon pressed his lips to one of my hands and then the other—“in just being alive.”

The irony was that I’d never in my entire life felt more alive than I did the moment Amon kissed my hands. He’d kissed my forehead before, but when he touched his lips to my hands, electricity shot through me. Even though I knew his passion was more about enjoying life than about me, it was still powerful, and there was a part of me that wanted to latch on to that. “All right,” I acquiesced softly. “We’ll dance.”

The inside of the club was dark and warm, but the music was fantastic—techno funk with a wicked beat and a slightly exotic sound. Immediately, I felt out of place since most of the women wore tight little dresses, high heels, and heavy makeup. Amon was leading us to the bar when I shouted above the din, “I’m going to the restroom! I’ll be right back!”

The atmosphere was pulse-poundingly hot, but when I finally found the bathroom, it was an almost frigid contrast. Air-conditioning blew onto the women standing in front of the mirror primping, and I wondered if the men’s room had the same feature or if it was specially arranged to keep the ladies happy.

After removing my clunky boots and swapping them out for sandals, I quickly changed into the skirt I’d brought and then plucked at my T-shirt, wondering what I could do to make it look more like I was going to a club than to a farmers’ market. I was standing in front of the mirror frowning, when a girl applying lipstick asked me a question in another language. I just shrugged, lifted the hem of the tee, and made a thumbs-down sign.

The girl pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows, gesturing at herself, and when I nodded hesitantly, she pulled a pair of tiny scissors from her purse. I was even more hesitant then, but she didn’t make a move until I nodded again.

With deft hands she cut the neck out of the T-shirt, making a wider neckline so the shirt slipped off one shoulder. She then took the bulk of the T-shirt hem and tied it in a knot at my back, revealing an inch or so of midriff. Finally, she turned me around to gather the hem of my skirt.

I was going to protest her cutting it, but she set down the scissors and wrapped the material around my body, tucking it in at the side so that I ended up with a sarong skirt that stopped just at the knee on one side and about halfway up my thigh on the other. I’d never in my life worn anything that left me feeling so exposed.

As a parting gift, the girl handed me her lipstick and rolled some of her perfume on my wrists and neck. The scent was exotic—a light floral and musk. I freshened my lipstick and fluffed my hair, said a quick thanks, then left the bathroom to seek out Amon.

After checking my bag and taking a claim ticket, I scanned the bar. Amon wasn’t there or seated in any of the sections around the dance floor. Deciding he must have gone outside for air, I headed in the direction of the door, then stopped when I heard a ruckus coming from the dance floor that was even louder than the music.