Aset met my smile with a kind one of her own. “If you were hurting my progress in this search for a stable portion of At, I would be conducting it on my own,” she said matter-of-factly. “And more importantly, you proved your devotion to Lex when you sacrificed the chance to ever reach full maturity in order to rescue her. Because of that, I know I can trust you, and I would not enter the At with one I could not trust.”
“Yeah, but everyone here is devoted to Lex,” I said, glancing behind me at the camp of almost a hundred Nejerets; it grew every day as more of Marcus’s people trickled in.
“Everyone but one,” Aset countered. “There is a traitor here, this I know.”
I opened my mouth to assure her that it most definitely, absolutely, in no possible way was me. At all.
She silenced my unvoiced words with another smile. “Not you, this I also know.”
I frowned. “How do you know? Or is this another one of those things you can’t tell anyone?” Along with getting to know how dang nice Aset was, I’d also learned that she carried more secrets than anyone I’d ever met—ever.
She nodded.
“Does Marcus know there’s a traitor?”
Again, she nodded. “But there is little he can do about it. What will happen will happen.” She held out her hand to me. “Come, now, let us link and make one final attempt to find stability.” Her eyes sparkled with some of those secrets. “I’ve got a good feeling about this one.”
Brow furrowed, I placed my palm against hers and curled my fingers around the back of her hand. “Here goes nothing . . .”
We lurched into a tidal wave of At, rolling around and around as the psychedelic colors stuttered, flashing in and out like they were being broadcast with a crappy signal. Honestly, not the most comforting situation to be in . . .
“It is better, yes?” Aset practically shouted.
I nodded as my stomach lurched. How I seemed to have developed motion sickness when I didn’t technically have either a stomach or an inner ear—I mean, I was a disembodied ba at the moment—was beyond me.
“Concentrate on finding stability, Katarina.” Aset’s voice was smooth and calm, and her incorporeal hand was firm in mine. “Think only about finding the nearest pocket of stability.” She’d repeated the same words, over and over again, throughout the lesson.
I squeezed my fake eyelids shut, blocking out the here-one-moment, gone-the-next swirling colors, and concentrated. Stability. Stability. Let’s go, stability . . . show me the stability . . . give me stability or give me—
“Open your eyes, Katarina,” Aset said, giving my hand a squeeze.
I did, only to find myself exactly where I’d started: sitting on the top of a sand dune beside the enormous jumble of wind- and sand-eroded, crumbling limestone that was all that remained of the Netjer-At Oasis. Except I was still in the At.
“We’ve done it.” She grinned. “We’ve finally found a bubble of stability.”
I stared around at the pristine, unwavering scene for all of two seconds, then released Aset’s hand, jumped up to my feet, and started dancing around with hops and kicks and flailing arms and possibly a few stumbles. “We did it . . . we did it . . . we did it,” I sang, over and over again. Not even Marcus had been able to enter a stable portion of the At since we’d arrived at the Oasis. It was like this place in particular was even more affected by the unpredictable Nothingness in the At than everywhere else, like it was the Bermuda Triangle of the At . . .
“Yes, we were lucky,” Aset said as she stood and brushed off her pants. She started down the dune. “Come along, Katarina. We don’t know how long this pocket will last, and who knows when we’ll get another shot.”
I jogged down the slope to catch up with her, having a much easier time moving across the sand now that it was locked in place in an echo, making it more like concrete. “Omigod, can you imagine Marcus’s face when we tell him we found a stable spot? Can you?” I clapped, giggling and cackling, then linked my arm with Aset’s and picked up the pace, pulling her at a part-walk, part-jog to the edge of the rocky rubble that had once been the Netjer-At Oasis.
Aset slipped her arm free from mine and, once again, clasped my hand. “Whatever you do, Katarina, do not let go.” There was a distinct thread of warning in her voice, making me uneasy. “Linked as we are, it should be much easier to maintain this pocket of stability—now that we’ve actually found one—until we can find what we’re looking for.”
“We’re looking for something?” This was news to me. I’d thought it was just another lesson in how to use my new powers. “What are we looking for?”
Aset closed her eyes, and her grip on my hand tightened. “We’re going back to the moment immediately after Lex leaves the past, shortly after Nuin’s death and the collapse of the Oasis, and finding the place where the survivors emerged from the rubble, as it is the only way back in.”
I continued to stare at her. “People were in there when it happened? And they survived?”
“They did. Now, hush, dear . . . I must concentrate.”
As she spoke, the golden sand and clear blue sky and jagged rocks dissolved into a rainbow mist that glided past in vertical lines. With a flash, the colors were gone, and we were once again standing in the desert, except now the stars glittered overhead like an ocean of diamonds. Before us, the eroded rocky rubble had been replaced by a mound of craggy, crunching stone.
A short ways away on the right, there was an arched opening in the mass of limestone, like the mouth of a tunnel. And covering the opening completely was an opaque, almost shimmering slab of . . . well, I didn’t actually know what it was, but it was definitely acting as a door, blocking the tunnel.
“And there, Katarina, is our way into the Oasis,” Aset said.
Once again, the colors of the At surrounded us, and when they flickered away, we were back to standing before the eroded, sand-covered rocks in the present time. Aset moved closer to the general location of the opalescent door, but all that was there now was a patch of sand in front of a tall-ish boulder.
The echo started to flicker, and both Aset and I stared around as it faded away into Nothingness.
“We lost it . . .”
Aset turned bright eyes on me, and her lips spread into a victorious grin. “It doesn’t matter; I found what I was looking for.”
29
Over & Under
Marcus was sitting behind the folding desk in the “office” in the front half of his two-room, canvas tent, Aset and me standing side by side opposite him. We were all using the equipment left over from the excavation a few weeks ago, and though the location had changed, the layout was more or less the same . . . except for the bathroom and shower trailer. That hadn’t made it across the miles of desert. Which sucked. In my opinion, a five-gallon jug of water per person per day was not enough water to stay both hydrated and clean . . .
“You’re certain?” Marcus studied Aset and me, his eyes seeming to pick apart and weigh each tiny little nuance of our expressions and stances. “And you really think there’s some part of the Oasis under there?”
Aset maintained her smile, though it was starting to wilt, and nodded for the thousandth time. “Yes, I’m certain. Why don’t you believe me when I say that I remember all?”
“Because I don’t,” Heru said, not taking his eyes off her.
“And we’ve discussed this, dear brother. It is what had to be . . .”
I sighed. My feet were getting tired from standing—we’d been there for nearly an hour—and I was starting to feel a little light-headed. “Look, Marcus. I saw it, too. Not inside or anything, but the huge slab of whatever it was—”
“At,” Aset clarified.
“—was definitely blocking the mouth of some kind of tunnel.”
Marcus stared at me for a moment, then shifted his focus back to Aset and squinted the barest amount. “Alright.” He nodded. “We’ll start digging tonight, while it’s cooler. Hopefully we’ll be done by morning.”
He paused, hesitated. “And you’re sure that whatever’s left under there is safe? That it’s not going to collapse on our people?”
Aset’s smile regained its brilliance. “Few places have ever been safer.”
Yeah, she was super nice and sweet and stuff, but holy hell, could Aset be mysterious when she wanted to be . . .
***
Marcus pointed to the arched, opaque slab that had been uncovered by the seventh rotation of Nejerets just as the sun peeked over the dunes to the east. “So you’re telling me that that is made of ‘At,’ like this”—he touched the small lump under his shirt, which I assumed to be the bottle Aset had delivered to him when she’d first shown up nearly two weeks ago—“and that Lex made it?”
Aset nodded.
Carson and I stood behind them a few feet, sneaking glimpses between shoulders when we could. His fingers brushed against the back of my hand, and my eyes snapped to his face. He was watching me, not the “door,” a shy smile curving his lips. My heart melted into a puddle of heart-shaped goo. His smiled widened, his blue eyes sparkling, and he took hold of my hand, slipping his fingers between mine. Yeah . . . complete and utter heart goo.
“ . . . the rest of the city was made of,” Marcus said. “I lived here for over a thousand years before the collapse. How did I not know the Great Father built the whole place out of At?”
“He did not want you to know. It was a dangerous thing, knowing what he was capable of.”
Marcus was quiet for a long time, standing beside his sister and staring at the tall door of quartz-like At. “Do you think Apep will return?” he asked her quietly.
She shrugged. “Eventually.”
“Then perhaps I shouldn’t enter . . . shouldn’t learn Lex’s secrets. If he returns, and—”
Aset touched his arm. “He will return, and there is only one place where you will be safe from possession . . . for now.” She nodded toward the door. “He cannot possess you when you are surrounded by so much At. Besides, just because he’s possessing you, that doesn’t mean he has access to your thoughts. He’ll only know what you choose to share with him.”
Marcus shook his head. “How could you possibly know—”
Aset laughed, a cheerful, chiming sound, and linked her arm with his. “In time, all will make sense, dear brother—for you sooner than for most, I think. You shall see.” She guided him forward, ignoring his obvious hesitance. “Come on.”
I exchanged a look with Carson. “So we found the door to get inside . . .” My brow furrowed. “How do you think we get through it?”
Carson shrugged and returned his gaze to the slab of At, and his eyes bulged at the same time as murmurs and whispers broke out among the dozens of Nejerets standing around the sloping hole, watching the siblings approach the door. He tugged on my hand. “Look, Kat . . . look!”
I did, and my mouth fell open.
The door was glowing, just like the At-chest had done when Lex had approached it back in Senenmut’s underground temple. Marcus and Aset were dark silhouettes against the bright, iridescent glow of the door. I could just make out her profile as she looked up at her brother. She started nodding, and Marcus extended his hand toward the glowing slab of At.
With a sizzling sound, it dissolved into a myriad of colorful, misty tendrils. They slowly expanded upward, outward, fading until they evaporated completely and the slab of At was gone. Through the opening it left behind, there was nothing but absolute darkness.
Marcus looked over his shoulder, snapping orders to whichever Nejeret or Nejerette was closest. “Bring the LED rope . . . flashlights . . . headlamps . . . anything that’ll provide light.” He glanced around. “Carlisle!”
“Yes, Sir,” said Marcus’s “man” who handled pretty much everything as he brushed past my right shoulder and made his way down the ramp of sand toward Marcus and the doorway. Whenever I heard Carlisle speak, his words very proper and British, I dubbed him “Jeeves” in my mind.
“Call Dom or Neffe,” Marcus told him. “They should be leaving Cairo with Lex’s family in a few hours.”
“I’m aware, Sir.”
Marcus raised one eyebrow. “Tell them to procure generators, LED ropes, and whatever else you think we’ll need to light up whatever’s left in there.” He pointed toward the mouth of the tunnel with his chin.
“Very well.” With a slight bow of his head, Carlisle turned and started walking away from Marcus. He pulled one of the über-high-tech satellite cell phones all of Marcus’s top people seemed to have out of his back pocket as he walked.
A skinny, blonde Nejerette I’d mentally labeled as one of Marcus’s minions—one of the many of his people who weren’t old enough, powerful enough, or useful enough to warrant a seat at the grown-ups’ table, where all of Marcus’s plans were discussed and put into action—ran past Carlisle at a jog, her arms filled with flashlights and headlamps. She skidded to a halt beside Marcus. “Here you go, Heru.” She lowered her eyes in deference, but I just thought it made her look weak. With a wet-mop attitude like hers, she’d never climb high in the Nejeret ranks.
“Thank you, Amelia,” Marcus said, fishing a headlamp out from the tangle and handing it to Aset before taking one for himself.
After he had his headlamp situated on his buzzed head, looking pretty silly, in my opinion, he selected a flashlight—one of the enormous ones that shone as brightly as a spotlight. Without another word, without even a glance around to see if anyone else was ready to follow, Marcus plunged into the darkness, quickly becoming little more than two retreating beams of light.
Aset selected a flashlight of her own and started looking around, scanning the faces like she was searching for someone. When her eyes landed on me, she grinned and waved me over. “Come on, Katarina. You’re just as responsible for finding this as I am, so you must explore with me.” Her smile was so genuine, her eyes so warm, that I thought, had she been human, she would’ve made an excellent mother. She wouldn’t have betrayed us all and abandoned her own daughter, I thought bitterly.
I took a step toward her, but hesitated, glancing back at Carson. I bit my lip.
“Go,” he said, smiling and shaking his head in a way that made me weak in the knees. He laughed, making his bright blue eyes sparkle in the morning light. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Kat. You cannot miss it. Go.”
I grinned, feeling silly. “Okay,” I said, and before I could lose my nerve, I stepped back to him and lifted my face to his, pressing my lips against his cheek. “I’ll tell you all about it,” I called over my shoulder as I jogged toward Aset.
“You’d better!”
“Ah . . . Ma’am,” Carlisle called just as I reached Aset.
“Pick out a headlamp and flashlight, dear,” Aset said to me, then looked up at Carlisle, who’d hustled over to stop at the lip of the ramp. “Yes?”
He is such a Jeeves, I thought, smiling to myself as I pulled a headlamp with a lime-green band onto my head. I was pretty sure it was the same one I’d used before.
“Would you please let Heru know that Alexander is on his way and should arrive within the hour, but that Dominic will make the arrangements requested before picking up the Larsons and Susan Ivanov from the airport, then bringing them here along with Neffe and Jennifer Larson?”
Smiling, Aset nodded. “Yes, of course. And I’m sure my brother would appreciate it if you had Alexander join us in here as soon as he arrives . . . and no others until then.”
“As you wish, Ma’am.” He bowed his head to her.
“Thank you, Carlisle.” She wrapped her tiny hand around my arm just above the elbow and started leading me into the opening. I couldn’t see the light from Marcus’s headlamp or flashlight at all anymore.
“And, Ma’am . . .”
Aset paused and glanced back at Carlisle.
“Alexander informed me that he’s picked up another Nejeret . . . a man who goes by the name of Nik and claims to be one of your people. He knew enough about you and
our plans that Alexander decided to grant his request to join him on his journey out here.” Carlisle attempted a smile, and a muscle in his cheek twitched. “Though Alexander should have informed Heru before deciding to bring him, I thought it prudent to verify his identity with you before they drew much closer.”
“Ah, yes . . .” Aset offered Carlisle a smile much more genuine than his own. “Nik is mine, and I apologize for any confusion. He was supposed to meet us in Cairo, but he was held up and must’ve decided hitching a ride would be the easiest way to catch up to me.” For once, she was the one to bow her head to him. “I should have informed you, and I apologize for that oversight. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
“Of course, Ma’am.” Carlisle turned away.
Before he could take a step, Aset said, “And Carlisle . . . if you hear word of anyone else claiming to be one of ‘my people,’ I assure you they are lying and should be handled accordingly.”
“I understand.” Carlisle nodded before continuing on his way.
“Shall we?” Aset pulled me toward the opening again, releasing my arm as I matched her slow steps into the darkness.
It didn’t remain dark for long. Under the assault of both of our headlamps and flashlights, the darkness gave way to curved, silvery walls. A closer look showed me it was less silvery and more like seamless, barely opaque stone. I followed the wall on the right upward, until my headlamp showed it arching overhead before cascading down the other side. I peered closer at the floor, but as far as I could tell, it was made of the same stone, though it was flat. My skin tingled, the hairs standing on end, as I realized something I should have from the moment we entered the tunnel—it wasn’t made of stone; it was made of At.
“Honestly, if I wasn’t seeing this with my own two eyes, there’s no way I’d believe there was an entire tunnel built of effing At,” I said as I continued to focus on the tunnel floor a few feet ahead of us. “I mean, really? Really? It’s crazy, right?”
Grabbing my wrist, Aset tugged on my arm, and I ceased my meandering pace onward. “Look,” she said, slowly scanning her flashlight beam across the way ahead.
Time Anomaly: A Time Travel Romance (Echo Trilogy, #2) Page 23
