by Clay, Verna
Under cover of night, they continued their travels. Sandwiched between Tahnoon's and Zayed's camels, their own camel plodded with the others. Rainey trembled as much from terror as cold. She felt Roth's hands cover hers and she laid her cheek against his back.
Shifting clouds kept the white landscape dancing with eerie shadows. Eventually, the White Desert gave way to darker terrain and looming rocks. The wind picked up and sand swirled as the weather turned terrifying. Rainey watched visions of her life pass across her mind and wondered if she'd come to the end of it. The camel knelt and sand pelted her.
Roth quickly dismounted, pulled the blanket more securely around her, and lifted her to the ground. Holding her shoulders until she was steady, he bent his head to the burqa and shouted above the wind. "We've reached the Sacred Cave, thank God. The blowing sand will cover our tracks and we'll stay sheltered in the cave until it dies down."
The Sacred Cave? She was going into a cave?
Placing one arm around her shoulders, and grabbing the reins of the camel with his free hand, Roth guided them deeper into the tenuous shelter of a looming boulder. The dark shapes of Tahnoon, Zayed, and their camels awaited them. Tahnoon yelled at Roth and Roth yelled back. His lips touched her ear again. "Zayed is staying here with the camels while Tahnoon leads us to the cave."
When Roth grabbed her hand and started to pull her forward, she resisted. Her effort proved futile against his determination. The wind whipped her dress and she struggled to stay upright. She kept the burqa in place with her free hand.
Finally, Roth paused in the shelter of another boulder. A moonbeam broke through the clouds and she saw Tahnoon motion to Roth. He turned to her and said loudly against her ear, "Don't move from this spot. I have to help Tahnoon clear the stones from the entrance. Don't be afraid. I'm not far away."
Before Rainey could respond, he was gone. The moon disappeared again and the wind howled through the boulders. To keep from shrieking with fright, she thought of one thing—her eagle. She closed her eyes and envisioned him soaring above the shifting clouds in a calm night sky. In her minds eye, he saw her too and dove through the tumult to land beside her. He stretched a wing toward her.
Rainey felt a hand on her arm and jumped. Roth had returned. He clasped her hand and pulled her forward. She followed him to looming shapes and suddenly found herself enclosed within stone walls and out of the wind. He reached and removed the burqa from her head, and then placed something in her hand. Leaning toward her, he said, "I just gave you a flashlight. Don't turn it on until I tell you. I'll return your burqa when we leave. Now, I'm going to step in front of you and lead the way. Grab the back of my robe."
Rainey felt for the fabric of his robe. Slowly, he led her forward. The ground started a steep decline and she bumped into stone walls on either side of her. Roth paused and flipped his flashlight on. He turned and told her to do the same. They shuffled downward, their lights casting gigantic shadows on the walls of the narrow stone passage and the air grew stale. Eventually, the winding passage ended and they stepped into a room. Rainey heard Tahnoon speak, his voice echoing. Roth pointed his beam of light above Tahnoon's head to reveal a rough hewn ceiling. She shined her light around the base of the walls.
They stood just inside a small chamber. Tahnoon knelt in a posture of respect. He murmured what sounded like a prayer. Afterwards, he arose and walked to the center of the square room. Roth also knelt in respect and looked at Rainey. She read the message in his eyes and knelt beside him. When he stood again, she did to. He followed Tahnoon to the center of the chamber and shined his light on a bare side wall, and then on the opposite wall, also bare. Impatiently, Rainey raised her light beam and hastily flashed the back wall. We've traveled two days to an empty cave. She wanted to laugh aloud. With all the secrecy, she had expected to enter a tomb like Tutankhamen's. Roth said something to Tahnoon and he replied.
"Rainey, I was asking Tahnoon if this is the only chamber, and he said yes. It looks to be about 15 by 15 feet.
"Yeah, and it's empty. Can we return to the U.S. now?
"Rainey, shine your light on the back wall again."
"There's nothing there, Roth." Rainey raised her flashlight and Roth horizontally centered his own beam, moving it across the stone from one corner to the other. Rainey stepped closer and inspected the area.
The remnants of ancient hieroglyphs, etched about a foot in height, spanned the width of the back wall exactly across the center like a band. A closer inspection revealed barely visible colors of red, blue, and yellow.
"Well, I'll be a…"
"Rainey, take my flashlight in your free hand and shine both lights on the markings so I can snap some pictures. My camera has a flash, but the extra light will help."
"You brought a camera?"
"Sure did. It takes videos too." Roth handed his flashlight to her and retrieved a small camera from inside his robe.
She asked, "Does the Egyptian government know about this? It looks to be very old."
"This chamber is known only to Tahnoon and his tribe. They are the gatekeepers, and have been for centuries. It must remain a secret. "
"Then how did you know about it and convince Tahnoon to bring us here?"
"I can't reveal that. However, I can tell you these hieroglyphs have been hidden for a reason. Within their translation are revelations concerning the mysteries of sound."
"What! What does that mean?"
"It means we're going to take our photos and video to an expert for translation. Perhaps it will aid in your own work."
"Roth, that's crazy! How can hieroglyphs in a cave in the middle of the Sahara Desert shed light on frequencies that have the potential for restoring body organs?"
"Rainey, you may have a giant I.Q., but sometimes you're not smart. Point the flashlights at the hieroglyphs, please."
She pursed her lips but did as requested. Roth snapped several pictures from every angle and then videoed the hieroglyphs. Tahnoon stood in the entrance and watched. The air grew clammy from the release of their body heat.
"We're done." Roth turned to Tahnoon and said something in the Bedouin's language, to which the tribe leader responded and left the cave.
"Tahnoon's going to check on the weather condition. Why don't you sit down, I know you're exhausted."
"Shouldn't he take one of our flashlights?"
"He's a Bedouin, Rainey," Roth replied as if that explained everything.
Rainey shrugged and shined her light on the hewn floor. Not seeing anything objectionable, she sat with her knees drawn to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Roth sat beside her. He muted his flashlight beam and switched hers off. A soft glow illuminated the chamber, casting their shadows like ghostly figures from floor to ceiling. Rainey shivered, but not because it was cold."
"Are you cold?"
"No, of course not."
"Then why did you shiver?"
"It's just that…it's kind of creepy being in the belly of the earth in a room thousands of years old with giant shadows snaking around the walls. Get my drift?"
Roth laughed. "I hadn't thought about it like that, but yes, I get your drift. Why don't you lean your head on my shoulder and rest?"
"No, I'm okay."
"If you say so."
Rainey closed her eyes and envisioned her eagle.
"Wake up, Rainey." She felt a tender caress on her cheek and turned her head toward it. The caress repeated and she looked up into the blue heat of Roth's gaze in the soft light. She blinked once, twice, and then bolted upright, bumping into his chin.
"Whoa girl, it's okay. You fell asleep so I laid you down and put your head in my lap. You've been out for at least an hour. Roth stood and reached beneath her arms to help her up.
"I'm okay," she said, and shrugged away from his touch.
He hesitated and then dropped his hands to his sides. "Tahnoon said the wind has calmed enough to leave. We should go quickly."
"Okay."
Rainey
followed Roth to the entrance of the subterranean room. Before they left, however, she turned for a last glimpse of a chamber probably never seen by westerners—a sacred place claiming to hold the mysteries of sound in its faded hieroglyphs.
Holding the back of Roth's robe, she ascended the passage and reconsidered her adventure. An unexpected exhilaration bubbled. She'd wanted freedom, and here she was in the midst of the Western Desert, part of the vast Sahara Desert, about to mount a camel after leaving a cave supposedly containing ancient secrets. She pinched herself.
The air freshened and cooled. Shortly thereafter they were back in the open. Roth led her to the outcropping of rocks where Zayed waited with the camels. He returned to Tahnoon to help camouflage the cave's entrance once again.
Chapter 10: Revelation
After leaving the Sacred Cave and traveling toward Bahariya Oasis, Rainey had expected the sway of the camel to lull her to sleep. Instead, she found herself pondering the unexpected turn in her life while staring into the dark night. Only occasional glimpses of terrain appeared when winds pushed clouds aside for a moment or two. She envisioned her eagle. Why am I obsessed with this eagle?
The sun crested, causing the sand to sparkle. She spotted a desert reptile speeding over a sand ripple. Pulling her blanket tight, she edged closer to Roth's back. I'll just absorb some of his body heat until the sun warms the desert. She laid her head against him and finally dozed.
* * *
Roth felt Rainey shift position and snuggle. Desert nights were bitter cold, but soon blistering heat would replace the low temperature. He watched lizards scamper under rocks and an occasional insect buzz around him, sunlight glinting off its wings. He longed to pray the Prayer of Secrecy and join the desert life. Before he had honed the ability to meld both creature and shapeling, the instincts of that creature had followed. As a lion, he had hunted gazelles, as an eagle, he had snatched salmon from the river, as a polar bear, he had killed seals. However, with his shapeling instincts remaining intact, he now had no desire to kill, and would not do so unless forced to.
Rainey pulled herself tighter against him and distracted his thoughts. He pondered the co-Princes' claim that he had not obtained mastery of being human? Had they recognized a distain in him for the species? He often felt at a loss to overcome his ambiguous attitude towards humans. At times, they proved heroic beyond belief; other times, cowardly. More often than not, they sorely disappointed him, and he wondered at the shapeling imperative to protect them.
After becoming an orphan before puberty, sorrow had matured him beyond his years. The death of his parents while they protected a child lost in the wilderness, had ended his naïve belief in the goodness of all humans. He remembered the day Endesha had come to him with sad eyes, placing a hand on his shoulder and cautiously choosing the right words. He'd explained that Roth's parents, as wolves, had been killed by humans believing the wolves meant to harm their child. Endesha had tried to make him understand the humans had killed in ignorance, but the explanation had done little to comfort him. The feelings of mistrust and dislike he now harbored had taken root that day, which explained why he'd never wanted to shapeshift into a human; and the co-Princes had intuitively known that. Being a shapeling, he understood he had to overcome his ambivalence towards humans.
Casting old memories aside, he thought about their next destination. In the cave while Rainey slept, he had prayed the Prayer of Connection and received one word, Luxor.
The desert quickly warmed and he felt Rainey remove her blanket, fold it, and place it between them. Other than infrequent stops to take care of nature's call, Tahnoon intended to travel until early evening before making camp and then rising before daylight, arriving at Bahariya Oasis around noon. Their new route bypassed the Black Desert and angled across a corner of the White Desert. After they reached Bawiti, Tahnoon and Zayed would follow Roth and Rainey to their rental, where two of the tribe's young men would be waiting with the Toyota 4x4. The young Bedouins would return to camp on Roth's camel.
Roth hadn't told Rainey of their next destination. Dealing with her reaction wasn't something he looked forward to.
* * *
Their caravan had not stopped to rest since leaving the Sacred Cave. Rainey felt for the pouch of salve in her pocket. She'd definitely need to rub it on her legs again. Shifting her weight, she tried unsuccessfully to find a comfortable position. At least dozing all day had made her temporarily oblivious to her discomfort. How does Roth keep going with so little sleep?
Their camel stopped and Rainey glanced ahead at the kneeling beasts. It's about time! Her camel pitched and rocked and she braced herself by grabbing Roth's shoulders. A combination of desert heat, pain, and exhaustion had weakened her substantially. Dismounting was difficult. She looked into Roth's eyes, silently asking for help. He lifted her from the animal.
"We'll be home before noon tomorrow, Soiuer."
Rainey, too weak to speak, wondered at the strange name he'd called her. He carried her away from the camel and braced her against his body while he spread her blanket on the sand and then lowered her onto it. The sun had dipped to the horizon and Rainey watched the men prepare camp. Afterward, she hungrily accepted the nourishment offered. The cheese soup and dried fish tasted heavenly. She'd lost weight.
Darkness descended and she lay in her tent on the makeshift bed. Unable to open her eyes, even when she heard her name being called, she drifted into dreams of secret caves, slithering reptiles, and looming shapes. Overshadowing her dreams, a magnificent eagle soared and protected her. The eagle had arms and hands and removed her clothing, massaging and rubbing a soothing balm onto her legs.
* * *
Roth applied the last of the salve and covered Rainey with a blanket. He watched her sleep. A slow smiled curled her lips and he wondered what she dreamed of. Moving to his own pallet, he lay and stared at the top of the tent. His superb shapeling vision traced seams in the fabric with his eyes. The term Soiuer had unwittingly slipped from him earlier. He rubbed his temples. Why had he addressed Rainey by that term of endearment? It was a shapeling word reserved for shapeling lovers. He pressed his palms into his eyes. He needed to complete this mission and move on as a Shapeling Master.
He rose before sunlight and stepped from his tent. Rainey's deep breathing evidenced her exhaustion. Humans were a frail species, especially females. He gave her credit, however, for stoically enduring their return to Bawiti. After being such a hellion on the journey to the cave, she'd surprised him on this return trip.
He spotted Tahnoon standing near the camels and walked to greet him. The elderly man bowed his head respectfully and then smiled, before asking, "How is the woman?"
"Still sleeping. She certainly tested my patience on the journey to the cave, but she's surprised me during this return to Bawiti."
"Perhaps the Sacred Cave affected her spirit. My tribe would guard it to the death."
"You said before that you do not know the secret the cave protects. Have you ever wondered or tried to find out?"
"We know only that a great mystery is recorded there. If it is the will of Allah for us to understand, it will be revealed. For centuries, the cave has been under the protection of our tribe. Even though you shocked me with your ability to change shape, I would never have agreed to take you to the Sacred Cave had it not been for prophesy handed down from my ancestors. I would have died by your hand before revealing its location."
Roth chuckled, "I may have scared you to death by changing into a viper, but I would not have harmed you. Can you tell me about the prophesy?"
"Yes, my friend, it speaks thus: One day, a man of unusual ability will approach the keeper of the Sacred Cave and request access. The keeper will grant the father of a prince his request after witnessing the impossible. The man of unusual ability will be accompanied by a woman of great knowledge." Tahnoon paused.
"That's interesting, Tahnoon. Is there more?"
"Yes, but you may not want to hear it."
/> "Please, continue."
"The woman of great knowledge is the mother of the prince."
Roth sucked a breath. Impossible!
Chapter 11: Truce
Never had Rainey been happier to see a humble home than when their rental came into view. While still on their camels below the bluff, she glanced up at the home nestled on top. Their caravan reached the narrow dirt road and slowly plodded upward. Rainey wanted to scream with frustration. She could probably beat the camels in a foot race to the top. She sighed and resigned herself to moving in slow motion, thinking about Roth instead. He'd seemed different all day, aloof and non-communicative, as if he didn't want to acknowledge her presence.
After she'd risen and felt the salve on her legs, she'd been embarrassed by the fact he'd removed her clothing and touched her in such an intimate way, but she'd also been grateful that he'd cared enough about her discomfort to do so. She shook her head. The man was an enigma. The sooner she convinced him to return to the States, the better. Her father would hire the most prominent Egyptologist to decipher the hieroglyphs. She was curious about the translation, of course, but the notion that they contained secrets about sound was ridiculous.
The road leveled and they reached the front drive. Rainey wanted to cry. She could take a bath and wash her hair. She pulled the burqa over her head and pushed her filthy hair away from her face. Their Toyota had been returned and parked in front of the house. Two young men sat under the shade of an olive tree and stood to await their approach. Tahnoon called a greeting and the men responded with a respectful bow for their leader. The camels lowered their bodies and Roth dismounted. He turned to help her, but she shrugged away and found the strength to alight by herself. If he wanted to ignore her, she would play the same game.
Rainey kept her hand on the camel's back until she felt her land legs. Roth held the reins and waited. When she felt stable, she approached Tahnoon and Zayed to say goodbye. Although they couldn't understand her words, she said them anyway.
