by Rai Aren
“Is that Kierani language?” Jack asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Mitch replied, furrowing his brow. “How in hell is this possible?”
“I have no idea,” Alex said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe this.” Her heart was pounding. “Who else could possibly know about it? That language is nowhere in the history books. It’d been lost for 12,000 years.”
“Or so you thought,” Jack said.
Alex looked at him, shock written all over her face.
“Well, what does it say?” he asked.
“Right, we’d better figure that out,” Mitch said. “Man, I don’t know if I remember how to read these symbols. I’m kind of wishing we hadn’t thrown our crib notes into the chest when we re-hid all the items we found, dangerous as it was to keep them.”
“Too dangerous,” Alex said, her eyes fixed on the paper. “It’s been a year and a half, but I think I remember some of it. This is going to require a lot of coffee.” She grabbed a couple of pens and pads of paper from the nearby phone stand, and set them on the kitchen table. She poured four steaming mugs of coffee, Mitch joined her at the table, and they set about deciphering it.
Bob came back a couple of minutes later, and sat down beside Jack on some stools next to the kitchen counter. Jack handed him a cup of coffee, whispered an update for him and then they sat quietly by, waiting in anticipation.
After over an hour and a half of much discussion and note-jotting, and a second pot of coffee, they thought they had it solved.
“No way...” Alex said, running her fingers through her hair.
“That’s what it says,” Mitch confirmed, tapping the paper with his pen.
“Don’t leave us hanging here, guys!” Jack piped in, his eyes rimmed red with fatigue.
Alex took a deep breath, “It says our specialized help is needed and that it is imperative that we return to Cairo at once. Someone will meet us when we land. All of our expenses have been taken care of. Plane tickets will be waiting for us under our names at the airport and...” she paused, looking over at Jack and Bob, “...our flight leaves in two days.”
“Two days?” Bob asked. “That’s ridiculous! You must have misread it.”
“No, Bob, that’s what it says,” she confirmed, her eyes scanning the paper.
“You’re just supposed to drop everything and…” Jack started to say.
“Not just us,” Mitch added with a sly smile, “you two as well.”
“What?” Jack exclaimed. “You’re joking!”
“Us, too?” Bob asked. His face paled with shock. “But why would they need me and Jack?”
“Hey, buddy,” Jack said, beaming and playfully punching his shoulder, “guess we’re indispensible, just like our fancy doctor friends!” He was surprised to find himself more than a little excited at the prospect, in spite of the dangers they had faced. His life had felt a bit dull since they had been back. He missed the camaraderie they had working together in Egypt. He liked being part of a team like that. The four of them against the world. It had been fun. An adventure.
Bob gave him a dirty look. He wasn’t on the same page as Jack at all.
“He’s right, Bob,” Mitch added. “You guys were very involved in what happened over there.”
“The last thing it says,” Alex continued, “is that all of our questions will be answered when we get there.” She shrugged her shoulders, “That’s it. No names, no signature, no explanation.”
“What exactly do you think they need our help with?” Bob asked nervously, fearing the answer.
“Do you think it’s related to the Sphinx or the Kierani people?” Jack added.
“It has to be,” she replied. “Otherwise why would we be needed specifically? It is our area of expertise, after all.”
“Uuuggghhh,” Bob groaned, clearly remembering how things went for him last time.
“I’m with Alex on that one, but this worries me,” Mitch said. “Someone broke into our places, looking for something on the exact same night that we receive a note written in a 12,000-year old language, that no one else should know about but us, calling us back to Egypt. Those two events have to be related.”
“Agreed,” Alex said, placing her hands on her hips. “So is the invitation from a friend or foe?”
“Good question,” Mitch said. “If it is related to the Sphinx or the Kierani, and it sure seems that it is, it could be the same person who gave us the permits to excavate in Egypt. It would make sense. Those permits were open-ended. Plus, I always expected we’d go back somehow.”
“But we never knew who it was that gave them to us,” she replied, “and thus, if we could truly trust them.”
“Right,” Mitch said. He thought for a moment. “Or…”
“Or what?” Bob asked, growing more worried by the minute.
“Or,” he continued, “someone else suspected we may go back to Egypt for some reason, and was doing a pre-emptive strike by breaking in here to find out what we know. Either way, it means something pretty interesting is going on over there.”
“Interesting is not how I would put this. Hello? Criminals broke into your homes tonight, remember?” Bob urged.
“There is that,” Alex nodded.
“Thank-you,” he huffed.
“Mitch, do you think Khamir or Dr. Khadesh could be involved?” Alex asked.
“Maybe,” Mitch said, considering the possibility. “But they had no contact with us after we left Egypt. They never said anything to us about coming back before we left either.”
“True,” she said, though disappointed. “Still, I hope they’re involved somehow. At the very least we could ask for their help once we get there.”
“Maybe…” Mitch said.
The foursome sat in silence for a few moments, each lost in their own thoughts.
“Well, no matter how we slice it,” Alex said, finally breaking the silence, “someone else knows about the Kierani, and knows we know. Our secret wasn’t as secret as we thought. That begs a world of questions.” She paused, thinking. “It looks like the only thing for us to do is to go to Egypt to find our answers.”
“We’ll have to be on our utmost guard, this could be a dangerous path we’re taking,” Mitch cautioned. “I hope it’s a friend on the other end of that invitation, but we can’t be sure at this point, especially after what happened here tonight. It could even be a trap.”
Bob’s shoulders sagged.
yyyyy
Hustling down a dark street, a lone man wearing a dark blue hoodie looked nervously over his shoulder. He had left only a couple of minutes before Mitch and Alex had returned. He made a call on his cell phone.
“Did you find anything?” a stern voice asked.
“I looked through everything in both of their places. I’m sorry, but I didn’t find anything related to the artifact they discovered in Egypt,” he replied, breathless. “No relics, no notes, nothing.” He hurried even faster to get away from the apartment building and back to his car, parked a few blocks away. His heart pounded in his chest.
“Then I suggest you keep looking. They must have kept something, some information somewhere.”
“B-but, I don’t know where else to look.”
“Then you’ll just have to follow them. See where else they go.”
“Ow!” he said, as he tripped on an uneven part of the sidewalk. He was shaking now. “I’m really not cut out for this kind of thing. I’ll get caught! Wouldn’t your men be more suitable for this?” he asked, as his voice cracked, betraying his fear. ‘Just another block,’ he thought, longing for the safety of his car.
“Mr. Blothers, if you cannot do this simple task, then you are useless to me, aren’t you?” The voice in the phone was cold, menacing.
He caught his breath, stopping
in his tracks. “I-I’ll watch them night and day,” he stammered. “I’ll find the information you’re looking for.”
“See to it that you do. Once you find the information, my men will take care of these four. Then you and the professor will have your revenge and I will give you your careers back. Starting with my excavation in Egypt.”
Chapter 2
Time Beckons Her Home, Circa 10,000 B.C.
THE exiled Princess awoke with a start before dawn one morning. She felt different. She knew something had shifted in her and for her. She recalled the frightening dream she had just had.
She had been walking alone near the still headless stone monument, Amsara. The sky was filled with a myriad of brilliant stars. The air was still. As she looked up at the monument, remembering how it once looked before the terrible day that blasted its head from its lion body, she was sad. A tear fell down her cheek. Then she heard weapons fire behind her. She spun around.
A large army overran the Royal Palace. But strangely, it was not the same Palace she had lived in as a child. The sight paralyzed her. Men with swords and guns were mercilessly slaying anyone in their path. They set fire to the Palace. She looked closer. The faces of the soldiers were maimed, burned. Their eyes were blinded, white sightless orbs, but somehow they found their marks. She heard her twin brother, from whom she had long been separated cry out for her in the night:
“Anjia, where are you? We need you. Please help us!”
“Tramen! I am here!”
Still he called and called. He could not hear her.
Suddenly the sky went completely black. Even the stars were gone. An ominous thunder was approaching from the distance, growing louder with each passing moment. A red glow emerged just over the horizon. It blasted across the sky, illuminating everything with a preternatural energy. She felt powerful vibrations shake the very ground. She felt hot. Her skin tingled. The sky began to rain down fire, covering vast distances. She whirled around to see the Amsara monument being hit with high velocity strikes of fire. Its body could not withstand the assault. Its form crumbled more and more with each hit. She looked up at the sky directly overhead as a massive fireball came hurtling towards her. She screamed and ran.
She spent the next hour just sitting in bed, looking out the window. She thought about the terrifying dream that had startled her awake. This was no ordinary dream. It had a preternatural clarity and power to it. It was a warning of things to come. She felt it deep down. She knew what she had to do.
She was deeply sad for what she was about to leave behind, but also filled with anticipation. Part of her had longed for the day when she would be reunited with her original family, the family that believed she had died long ago.
She waited in her room until she could hear her adoptive parents stir. She listened as they got up to go about their day. To them this was starting out as an ordinary day, to her it was much more. She had a painful secret to reveal to them. This would be a day they would never forget.
She heard them start the fire in the hearth, which they always did in the morning to heat the tea they would take with breakfast. She pulled her long black hair into a ponytail. She opened the door of her room, the familiar sights and smells of the small home comforting her. She watched her parents with great affection. She loved them very much. It had not been easy for her to adjust at first, but they had been unfailingly patient. They had provided a warm and loving home for her for nine years. Nine of her fourteen years, but in some ways it felt as though she had only been here days, her life here now seemed a dream. And yet she was wide awake.
“Panarra,” Uta greeted her, using her assumed name. “Good morning to you, my dear.”
“Are you hungry, my sweet?” Ehrim asked her.
“Not just yet,” she answered.
She stood there a moment longer just looking at them. She had not seen it before, but now she noticed how much they had aged. They had already been older when they took her in and now the years were starting to show on their faces, their hands, in the hunch of their backs. She wondered why she had not seen it before. Somehow a veil had been lifted. She too felt older, disconnected in some way. Nothing was the same, not even her.
Her mother looked at her curiously, sensing something. “What is it? Do you not feel well?” She walked to her daughter, placing her hand against her forehead.
“No,” the young girl answered, taking her mother’s hand from her forehead. She held it for a moment, looking at their hands, joined. “It is not that,” she said looking up, her wide-set emerald green eyes full of remorse for what she would have to do next.
Her mother looked at her, trying to read her expression.
“Come sit down, Panarra, talk to us,” her father said as he motioned her to the kitchen table. “Have some tea.”
“Thank-you,” she said, sitting down.
Her mother took a seat next to her, feeling uneasy, as her father poured her a mug. She took it, but did not drink. She stared into the steaming brown depths.
Her parents watched her worriedly.
She looked up at them, smiling softly. “Mother, Father, you know how much I love you, do you not?”
“Of course, my dear, and we love you too, with all our hearts,” Uta answered. She was growing nervous. Her daughter seemed different this morning.
“I had a vision last night, a terrible vision of death and destruction,” she began. Her smile faded.
“Here? What happened?” Ehrim asked her.
“Not here, in the city. The Royal Palace was being attacked, and then the sky began to rain down fire everywhere.”
“What an awful nightmare, it must have upset you,” Uta said as she placed her hand over her daughter’s. “But it was just a dream. Nothing bad has happened. It is just an ordinary day.”
“No, it is not,” she replied. She took a deep breath. “The dream was much more than that. I believe it was a premonition.”
Her mother and father looked at one another. They did not like what she was saying, but they sensed her conviction.
“How can you be certain, Panarra?” Ehrim asked, his voice growing hoarse.
“I know, Father. I just know.” She paused. She was hesitant to go on, but she knew she must. “Do you remember the day I came here?”
“How could we forget?” her father answered. “It was one of the most important days of our lives. It changed everything for us.” His face showed his affection for her, for their little family.
“You were so small, so vulnerable, but so polite,” Uta said. “We fell in love with you immediately.”
Anjia smiled, her parents had been so kind to her. They did not deserve what was to happen next. “Do you also remember what the priests, Odai and Senarra, told you about the circumstances of my being brought here?”
Uta was growing more concerned, but answered, “Yes, Panarra, we remember it well. You were orphaned. Your parents died in an accident. You had no family, no one to care for you. They brought you to our village, to Derepet, to live with us. They knew we had wanted another child after losing Esa, but we were unable to have any more children. You were the answer to our prayers.”
“Why are you asking these questions?” Ehrim asked, shifting uneasily in his chair.
