Luck was on my side today, though. Not a single person crossed my path as I covertly made my way back toward the entrance. The slight tinge of sunshine and clean air touched my nose and I quickened my pace. I rounded one last corner and the massive stone staircase came into view. I began the climb toward the sliver of an opening where natural light sliced through the dimness and I stopped at the top to catch my breath.
The dry heat of the desert sun touched the skin of my cheek and I stepped toward the crack in the stone. Thirsting for that bit of fresh air. The entrance was different than I remembered when I came through with Danes and his team. Rather than a gaping hole in the side of a rock face, covered by a wooden slab, it was now two flat stones overlapping to create a narrow tunnel to the outside. Clever. The outer stone must have eroded over time, leaving the hole I entered a few days ago.
I emerged and found my footing on the cliffside as loose rock debris crumbled beneath my feet, tumbling to the chasm below where I could see the hints of vegetation along the bottom of a ravine. I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath, filling my lungs and letting them expand as far as I could. When they burned for release, I did it again. And again. Until I could feel the fresh oxygen pumping through my warm, dry veins. I opened my eyes, expecting to see a vast expanse of nothingness. Desert as far as the eye could see.
But that’s not what I saw at all…
A shriek escaped my throat and I jumped backed, pressing up against the side of the mountain. Large bodies of water, almost like oceans, hugged the jagged terrain for miles. In the far distance, I could see the pointed shapes of titanic triangles, reaching for the sky. Pyramids. Khufu and her two sisters cut across the horizon as their tips glowed with an unnatural white light.
A generous collection of rooftops littered the ground around them, like a village. Smokestacks sent clouds billowing to the sky. But that wasn’t what had my heart beating wildly in my chest. Even from this distance, I could spot the glow of modern light in the windows like a luminous checkerboard scattered haphazardly. Strange, tiny objects paraded through the winding space between the homes like hovering…vehicles?
My chest heaved with breaths that wouldn’t calm as my back stiffened and held tight against the stone behind me. My hands trembled. This was a dream. Or I was experiencing some off-put stage of death before moving on to the underworld.
No, as quickly as the words echoed in my ears, my rational brain thwarted them. This was something else altogether.
“Shit,” I whispered, my widened eyes glued to the scene before me. “What is this place?”
I had no idea where I was, but it definitely wasn’t ancient Egypt.
Chapter Twelve
I struggled to regain control over my rapid breathing as it burned with strain in my chest. The hot desert sun scorched the air, turning my lungs to jerky with every breath and I shaded my stunned eyes with my hand as I scanned the horizon around me. A never-ending landscape of lush forests bordered by pools of desolate sand dunes surrounded the mountain I stood upon. A strange, glowing city in the distance. Taunting me with its existence.
Everything I knew was a lie.
A painful screech pierced the air and my face shot up, searching for the source. A falcon soared overhead, coming from behind the peak. Its wingspan one of the widest I’d ever seen in my life.
Suddenly, a firm hand grabbed hold of my arm and yanked me back inside the narrow slit in the rock. I stumbled with my footing until they released me, and I stood in the shadow of the entrance.
“What are you doing?” Anubis bellowed with his canine mouth. His voice sank to a tone that vibrated through my anxious chest. “You were forbidden to leave!”
“You said I wasn’t a prisoner!” I snapped. My nerves running on pure adrenaline.
Anubis’ black beady eyes bored into me with hatred. “You’re not. No one here is a prisoner, but everyone else understands the seriousness of an ordered holding! We’ve survived down here because of that respect for others.” He took a step closer to me. “Must I make you a prisoner for you to listen?”
I shook my head. “No, I swear. I can listen,” I promised. “I just don’t think you understand–”
“No, you don’t understand!” he spat through his teeth.
Anger and spite balled in my throat. “Well, why don’t you make me, then?” Anubis seemed taken aback by my response. “I suffered serious injuries and woke up with no idea of where the hell I am, or who you all are.” I crossed my arms with a guffaw. “Christ, can you blame me for wanting to get some air to clear my head?”
He stood stiffly. “You’re in Egypt.”
I shook my head. “No.”
“No?” Anubis quirked a curious brow.
“I was…” How could I explain? “I’ve been told stories of this place my entire life. What I saw out there,” I jabbed a thumb over my shoulder, “Is not the Egypt I know.”
He had no response, only gawked at me with a curious examination.
The glowing tips of pyramids. The village windows alight with more than just fire from a hearth. The clear evidence of some sort of energy source powering the little city like something I would have seen in modern day. It was all wrong, yet…familiar. Then I realized where I heard tales of this before.
Dad and Silas.
They’d told me tons of stories and theories based on Tesla’s science. Natural energy drawn from the earth and how ancient civilizations figured out how to tap into it. It would explain how great structures such as the pyramids and other massive temples were built in a time where the people had limited knowledge and tools. To this day, the wonder of how the Great Pyramids were built was still a mystery. Tons of solid theories, but not one of them with actual proof.
The recollection of my last moment with my father came to mind. When I went to his study and he showed me drawings of one of the pyramids and the carefully planned system of chambers and tunnels inside it. The cavities deep in the ground beneath it. He’d said it was a battery of some kind. But the memory only made me even more sure that I was dead. In some weird in-between place in the purgatory.
I stared at the Gatekeeper to the Underworld and cringed. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. I’ll just go back to my room until it’s safe to go outside.”
I moved to sidestep around the darkened God, but he hauled me back by my wrist. A gasp stifled in my throat and I peered up at him.
Anubis let out a deep sigh. “He told me to wait, but I think it’s time to take you to the Wise Man.”
“The Wise Man?” I repeated with a hint of confusion. I recognized the name from that woman who came flying into the Great Hall, screaming it in a panic.
He turned to my side and gave a gentle shove at my back. “Just walk. I’ll take us there.”
I obeyed for a few minutes as we descended the massive staircase back down into the colony and stepped aside to let him lead the way. The silence was killing me, though.
“So, who is this Wise Man?” I asked after a while. Anubis didn’t answer.
After another couple of minutes, I tried again. “What will he do with me? Is this punishment for not listening?”
I heard the deep exhale of another grumbled sigh. “No. But I’ve seen enough to know that the Wise Man is the only one who can answer all your questions. He didn’t think you were ready yet, but I see no other way.”
My brain hurt just trying to understand what he was saying. “I’m going to need more to go on than that. Is he some magical being? Is he a being,” I swallowed nervously as we continued to walk, “like you? And why wouldn’t I be ready? Ready for what–”
“Do you always behave like a petulant child!” Anubis bellowed as he swung around to a halt. His fists clenched at his sides.
I stood and crossed my arms over my wildly beating heart. Terror ran through my veins, but I narrowed my gaze at him. Finally, after a moment too long, Anubis’ shoulders slumped, and he pinched the bridge between his eyes.
“I don�
�t know the answers to those questions,” he said calmly. “But he did tell us Amun and his men would soon be lurking above.” His teeth clenched.
I chewed at my lip. What they say about Amun didn’t add up to what history depicted. Amun was beloved. He was adored by the people he ruled over in Egypt. And he never acted as second-hand muscle to his brother Horus. But I guess…history could be wrong.
“What else did this guy say?” I asked.
His arms flapped helplessly at his sides. “That you required a watchful eye and to bring you to see him when you were ready.”
I let my clenched stance relax. “Why?”
“I’m not sure,” he replied. “But the Wise Man is hardly ever wrong.”
When I had nothing left to say, Anubis turned to face down the hall again.
“Come on,” he called over his shoulder.
I raced after the Gate Keeper of the Underworld as I pondered about my mortality. Everything weighed to the side of me being dead. The simple explanation it offered. I mean, I was stabbed in the stomach. I fell two stories and landed on solid rock. Broke nearly every bone in my body before I bled out.
And now, I stood in a corridor of stone, completely healed, as I followed a God to see some old man. I could accept all of that, knowing that this was some weird void in the afterlife. But, somewhere deep in my gut, I knew that it wasn’t true.
Death would never hurt so much.
The tank top under my leather coat was damp with sweat and the long trek only made it worse. Anubis took me down passageways I’d yet to see. Off to the side of the central colony. The narrow corridors were dimmer than the others.
“Where does this guy live, anyway?” I asked.
“Not far now,” he assured me as we rounded another corner. “The Wise Man came to us a few years ago with knowledge unlike any human being has ever had.”
We came to a halt outside a thick wooden door firmly planted in the stone.
“Knowledge only a few Star People know,” he added with almost a warning. “He was wounded and claimed to have escaped from Horus. I took him in, obviously. I have no idea how he found the colony, but he’s helped me protect the people who live here ever since.”
“Well then.” I swallowed against the sudden dryness in my throat. “Let’s get to it.”
I stood by as Anubis gave one deep knock on the door and waited a beat before hauling it open. Retching it from its tight opening. The metal hinges groaned in protest.
We stepped inside as the smells of tobacco smoke and perfume soaked my nostrils. The space was roomy, like a large single room cabin, and a small fire crackled in a tiny hole in the wall. A black pot hung over it as steam bubbled up from inside. I stood nervously as I gawked around, noting the walls covered in drawings and notes scribbled on yellowed parchment.
Anubis disappeared behind a woven room divider, giving me a chance to examine everything more closely. I approached curiously toward a little tabletop garden where a strange form of light filtered down from a tunnel in the ceiling. I remembered then, the channels with periscopes in the ceiling of the Great Hall. This was a smaller version of it and fed the single row of white petaled flowers and other herbs that grew there.
I bent down and gently rubbed a petal between my fingertips before bringing them to my nose. Egyptian lilies. Just like the ones I found next to my bed a few times, and clearly the source of the perfume smell that laced the air in the room.
Suddenly, my skin tightened, and my heart clenched as a rogue thought occurred to me. One that had no right finding its way into my damaged mind at a time like this. But, still, my calculating brain sifted through the idea as my eyes scanned the objects in the room in a new light. The walls covered in research, the stench of pipe smoke and lilies blanketing over things made of wicker and leather. The person who lived here…
“Andie?” Anubis spoke as he emerged from behind the room divider. My wide eyes shot to him and I began to back away toward the door. “I’d like you to meet–” His shoulders tensed. “What’s wrong?”
A second figure slowly moved out from behind the wall and stood next to the God. A long brown cloak hung to the floor from a floppy hood that partially covered the man’s face. But I caught a glimpse of his white stubbled chin. A…familiar jawline that sent a cold shiver down my spine. I continued to back away, my limbs stiff with disbelief.
“No…” The word crawled off my dry lips.
The man’s hands reached up to lower his hood and my eyes stung with tears that rimmed the edges as I shook my head. My breathing quickened and I fought to keep down the meager contents in my stomach. The man clasped his hands together at his waist as if waiting for some kind of reaction from me.
“D-Dad?” I forced the sound from my throat.
He smiled endearingly but gave a saddened sigh. “Hello, Peach.”
Chapter Thirteen
Blades of dry grass stuck to my clammy skin as I pried my eyes open, immediately blinded by the blaring sun above. With a moan, I rolled over onto my stomach and pushed myself off the ground. I could feel the sickening tendril of a dream tugging at my mind and swishing in my stomach. But I’ll admit…it was getting hard to tell the difference between reality and what was all in my head. Everything seemed to be melding together in a staticky cloud of dreams and hallucinations.
I put all my weight on my shaky legs as I stood up and glanced around at the little oasis of warm grass and swaying trees. Miles of never-ending sand dunes surrounded the tiny spec of land. The breeze picked up and the hint of spice and sunshine caressed my nose. I spun around in search of the familiar scent with my heart pounding in my chest and found him sitting by a rushing creek. His feet dangling in the water as his back faced me.
My legs moved before I told them to, heading toward Silas. Although he wasn’t facing me, I knew it was him. The way his breath filled his lungs and moved the muscles of his back under the thin white t-shirt he wore. The way his long neck held his head as he stared down at his feet in the water. I knew how his body behaved; mine recognized it. Always would. As if we were assembled from the same bits of the universe and were designed to come together.
I bent my knees and sat next to him as a sense of calm swirled in my gut, turning with the heavy pit of dread that took residence there years ago. Silas was quiet and thoughtfully fixed his gaze on the water as I sidled up by his side.
“Bad day?” he asked, still not looking at me.
I raspy sigh pushed from my lungs. “You could say that.” I threw a pebble into the gently rushing creek. “I feel like I’m losing my God damn mind. I can’t make sense of…anything.”
He turned and faced me; one leg still draped over the edge of the bank. “Yes, you can. Andie, you know what’s true and right, you just have to stand back and let yourself believe it.”
My skin was sticky with sweat and my stomach churned. I needed a drink. “Believe what, Silas? That I died and I’m somehow here in this weird Afterworld with Dad and all the things I’ve spent my life studying?”
The corner of his lips curled up. “Is that so hard to accept?”
My eyes stung with hot wetness that rimmed the parched edges. I didn’t know what to say.
Silas slipped a finger under my chin and coaxed my gaze upward to meet his. The sun reflected in facets of gold and green, reminding me of one of my favorite things about him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “I mean, besides the obvious.”
My shoulders slumped helplessly. “I saw Dad.” I swallowed past the hard lump in my throat. “But I’m not sure it was real.” A guffaw bubbled across my lips and I flexed my fingers in front of me. “I’m not sure if I’m even real at this point.”
Silas’ hand caressed my cheek, his thumb brushing the tight skin under my eyes. He leaned in and pressed his forehead to mine, closing his eyes with me as he breathed with a sense of control I envied.
“You’re real, Andie,” he finally replied. “You’re the most real thing I’ve ever known.�
�
I pushed away and a broken laugh rumbled in my chest. “How can you say that? You’re just a figment of my imagination.” I tapped the side of my head. “You’re in my mind.”
He shifted closer and slipped both hands around my waist, hauling me toward him. I had no choice but to turn and face him, let my body melt into the comfort that exuded from his body. Silas’ wide lips came down on mine and, for a moment, I let myself forget that this was a dream.
“I’ve been with you this whole time,” he whispered against my mouth. His hand shifted and placed a palm over the bump in my shirt where his necklace sat hidden underneath. Over my heart. “Right here.”
The white stone began to warm, increasing in temperature with every passing second. It burned my skin and I pulled away from Silas’ embrace as it began to melt through the fabric of my shirt.
“What’s happening?” I asked in a panic. But Silas was already gone.
The burning didn’t let up and a blinding light filled the space around me. A painful cry forced from my throat as the walls of the dreamscape began to crumble and cave in around me. I closed my eyes and let it all fall apart and I slowly drifted away into nothingness.
I awoke with a start and shot up straight, gasping for air and clawing at my chest. But the necklace was cold against my sticky skin and I was still in the colony. In the room that Anubis led me to before I passed out. Frantic, my eyes scanned around and found my father sitting in a chair next to the bed.
He took a sip from a steaming mug and then smiled at me. “Hey, Peach. I was wondering when you’d wake up.”
I failed to hide the grimace smeared across my tired face. “Don’t call me that. Who are you?”
The man’s face pinched in confusion and he set his mug down on a little table by his side. “I understand you must be facing a great deal of uncertainty right now.”
Ancient Hearts: A Time Travel Fantasy Romance (Kingdom of Sand & Stars Book 1) Page 11
