by Diana Kirk
He smiled that slow lazy way she'd come to love. "You are more beautiful than the goddess Isis."
She rubbed her neck. "Not unless she's as dirty and bruised as I am. And look." She grabbed a handful of hair. "It's all matted. I--" No, she looked more like a witch than a goddess. Alex reached up and caressed his cheek. "And you've been rowing all this time. Alone." She laughed. "You still look great. How do men do it?"
"Do not worry. I will wash the soil from you and you will sleep." Tarik dipped his hand into the river and sprinkled cool water across her heated forehead and into her hair. He kissed her brow and trailed his fingers over her cheeks and down her neck.
"Ooh, th--that feels wonderful."
Once again he trickled water over her. First spreading coolness along her spine, then across her shoulders, and lower across her heated core, then swiftly down her cramped legs. Heat suffused beneath his touch and her aching muscles slowly uncramped. She must've been dreaming all this, for nothing she'd ever experienced had prepared her for the depth of emotion coursing through her at this moment. Tarik was so much more than any man she'd ever met, or ever imagined in her dreams. He was powerful yet gentle, sensual and sensitive. Nowhere on earth did such a man exist in the twentieth century or any other. Very simply, Alexandria Stone, physician and woman and wife, was in Heaven.
TARIK GAZED down upon the beautiful creature languishing like a lithe sensual cat beneath his fingers. The muscles in her knotted legs slowly responded to his kneading and her eyelids fell heavily atop her cheeks.
"Don't stop. Tarik...I...don't stop."
Droplets of water caressed her and he bent low, kissing their hot, wet trail, lapping the moisture from her skin in warm sensual strokes. She arched her back against his hand and he drew her closer, growing hard at the thought of coupling. It had been an eternity since last he'd made her his wife and he longed to do so again. "It gives me such pleasure to gaze upon you."
She nuzzled him. "Even when I sleep?"
He nodded.
She yawned and stretched her arms over her head, her nipples budding as he washed them. "Ohhh." Her breath rushed out. "I probably snore."
"Snore?"
"Like this." She opened one eye, wrinkled up her nose, and demonstrated. He started to laugh but she placed her hand over his mouth. "Shhh."
"You must not say such things for there might be guards about to hear my laughter and we must not be discovered." He ran his hand along her arm and down her side and whispered into her ear. "You do not make this snoring sound, although I have heard it many times from the soldiers."
Her breath rushed out in a gush of air. "Soldiers? What? Where are we? Oh my God!"
She sat up and parted the reeds.
There, towering over the rushes, the great Sphinx rose out of the sand. Tarik gazed into her widened eyes. "Alex, do you know what stands beyond?"
"Of course I do. You brought me here? To Giza?"
He shrugged. "You said you wished to see it."
"But you said it was in enemy territory. That we couldn't--"
He nodded. "It seemed a most likely place to hide until Kensu and Mentuhotep break the forces of Merikare and unite the two lands."
"They will."
"I know." He smiled and gently brushed his lips across hers. "For you have said so, many times. I believe that you are not from this land. Perhaps not even of this world." He sighed. "I do not understand how this is so, yet I understand you have great knowledge and power."
Alex rested her chin on her hand. "I don't have any power, really. Everything I know is from history books. And I certainly didn't think I'd be a witness to history in the making."
"Witness? Woman, you are the reason for all that transpires. Merikare stole what was mine and I would not stand by and see you lost."
Not quite sure of what she'd heard, Alex stiffened and tilted her head as if his words would mean something else from a different angle. "What are you saying?"
Tarik squared his jaw. "The raids, the fighting, the war have all transpired since your taking. You, my love, are the only reason Mentuhotep's armies move north to conquer the lower region once and for all."
"But I studied this in history, this was always meant to happen. They don't say anything about a woman."
"I don't care what your books say, this would not have happened if I had not had to come after you. Alex, my wife, there would have been no war."
"But, that's ridiculous. I couldn't be the reason. It was Tem who--"
He silenced her with his hand against her lips. "Shhh, do not despair. It is known of Tem's involvement. She will be sorely punished."
What he said went against everything Alex had been taught or heard or ever imagined. She'd always thought her coming here had been an accident, a paradox in time, a mistake to be corrected by returning home. Not something that had always been a part of history. What did all this mean? Had she always been meant to come here in the first place? Not to change the course of history, but to fulfill her destiny?
She covered her ears and shook her head. "No. No. It can't be true."
He gathered her up into his arms and kissed her deeply. "You must rest now and gain strength for the trials that await us. I will awaken you when the time comes for us to leave the safety of the reeds."
She struggled to sit up. "Do you think I can sleep, now, after everything you've told me? After everything I've caused?"
Tarik tightened his grip on her. "The war between our two regions was inevitable."
"Don't you see, I'm against war. I never even thought of a connection to these happenings. Especially not from me," she sobbed into the warmth of his embrace.
"You must try to sleep, for as soon as darkness falls, we will go to the tomb."
"I can't. This whole thing was my fault."
"ALEX," TARIK said softly into her ear. "Come. It is time. We must go now to the safety the great pyramid affords us."
Alex sat up, momentarily disoriented. She'd been dreaming that she was on-call and someone was shouting, "Code Blue!" and beneath her gloved fingers were the bloody remains of a man...who looked a lot like the man whose eyes now studied her intently.
Slowly her surroundings took shape. Tall reeds glowed in the light of the setting sun. Their small boat rocked against the bank. And the tall, broad shouldered man whom she'd grown to love stepped from the boat and reached out his hand to her.
She grasped it tightly and pulled herself up to the landing. The long plank led directly beneath the limestone paws. But the rest of the Sphinx's body, except the massive head, was buried beneath tons of shifting sand.
Her mouth dropped open. The moon's brightness lit the area and the monument was overshadowed by an even greater wonder, the resting place of Cheops, the great pyramid, the largest of the three.
She stood very still and silent. The sensations washing over her were too overwhelming, too unbelievable, and the hopelessness of her return to the future lodged coldly in her heart.
And then it was gone. The sense of despair. The panic to find her way home. She had a new life, now. If she had to remain here for the rest of her days with a man she loved, what was so bad about that?
Things could've been worse. She could have ended up executed at the hand of Tem, or writhing beneath Merikare's drunken body.
No. She had to stop worrying over what might have been and live for what she had today. Right now. In her present. In what might have been the time she was always destined for.
"Tarik, it's beautiful."
"I am glad it pleases you." He smiled and the moonlight caressing the angular planes of his face made him look like a god, himself. "I have only seen this once before when my father tended a great pharaoh of the red lands. Today, it is an ancient ruin. Yet, I have always wondered what kind of people built such a majestic place. Or if, perhaps, a god or goddess laid the stones one upon each other."
"I don't think the people in Cheops's time were any different from today. Look at the monuments and tomb
s Mentuhotep has built."
"It is true. But they pale in comparison to this wonder." His gaze traveled across the horizon.
"In my time the great pyramids are called one of the seven wonders of the ancient world."
"And what are the others?"
Alex rubbed her temples. "Just a bunch of dusty old places rumored to have existed in ancient times."
"Dusty?"
"Let's see. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Statue of Zeus is another, but I'm not sure about the rest."
"Zeus?"
"A great god of Greece."
He kissed her forehead and pulled her next to him. "Ah, there are so many things I have yet to learn from you."
Her heart swelled. How could she ever think of leaving Tarik? He filled her every waking moment with desire and love.
"Come." He grabbed her hand and led her up the hill, across the sand toward the pyramid. "There is an entrance my father told of. The tomb was defiled by grave robbers many centuries before my birth. Now there remains a place as safe as any to hide."
Her eyes widened. "We're going into the tomb? To hide?"
"Yes." He pulled her forward and, with his hand firmly at the base of her spine, kept pushing her across the sifting sand.
"Wait," she stopped beneath the paw of the sphinx. "I want to see this. As a child, I...I played here." Her voice caught and tears burned at the back of her throat.
"Alex, what's wrong? I thought you said you wanted to see this. That you had not been here before."
She swallowed hard and smiled. "Not since I grew up and became a doctor. I'm just overwhelmed by everything, I guess. I don't know. It brings back memories of my father." The father I'll never see.
"Your father?"
"Yes, he's a wonderful man."
"He is a physician, a great healer, like you?"
"No. He spends his days digging in the sand to find all your king's burial places. Right here in Egypt."
Tarik's gaze darkened and he stiffened. "He is a grave robber?"
Alex gazed deeply into his eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry. No, my love. He's--he's a scientist." She rubbed her forehead. "I don't know the word in Egyptian. He studies the past and digs into tombs to learn about your culture."
Slowly, a smile softened his lips, his eyes. "And now you know everything."
"No. There are many things still undiscovered. But, I know one thing." She trapped his gaze with hers, letting the truth of all she felt for him shine in her eyes. "I'm happy here with you."
Tarik put his arms around her and drew her close. "But what about your father? What if you never see him again?"
Alex pulled out of his embrace and stepped away. She picked up a handful of sand and sifted it slowly through her fingers. "I wish there was a way to reach him. To tell him all the secrets I've discovered. To show him everything I've learned. To give him some remnant of what he's been searching for so long. But I know--"
Tarik's voice hardened as if he was angry. "What about the scroll you seek?"
"If I find it, then I'll deal with what I have to do. But for now, I'm happy." She turned and wound her arms around his waist, leaning against his warm chest. "Here with you, Tarik."
He shuddered slightly as if there was a struggle going on inside him. "I need your happiness as much as the land needs the Nile to give it life."
She smiled and released her hold on him, climbing up into a paw. Beckoning toward Tarik she called out. "Come on up."
He stared for a long moment then leapt up beside her. Alex reached out and he nestled in her arms. "Now, isn't this better than a damp old tomb?"
He gazed up toward the stars. "That damp old tomb will keep us from the wrath of Merikare, my love. We must not fall asleep here."
"Who said anything about sleeping," she said with a sly smile across her lips. Alex scrambled to her feet and gazed out over the glistening dunes of sand. "See there's no one around for miles."
Tarik pulled her back down beside him. "For now, wife. But, I do not want to chance discovery when daylight comes. Just over that rise is Giza."
"So we'll be here all night?" She grinned and fluttered her eyelashes in an exaggerated come hither. She laid back against the stone. "Whatever will we do?
He raised the canvas bag slung over his shoulder. "I have brought fruit and bread to eat. Water from the Nile will sustain us."
She sat up, disgusted by her husband's lack of enthusiasm. "However did this race survive?"
"We will not if we do not eat."
"I don't think so. Remember the guinea worms? We've got to boil the water."
"I have one more bladder filled with the boiled water from my house stores. I was saving it for the journey back."
Alex pushed at him with resignation. "Go get it. We'll ration the water until we have a way to make fire."
He leaned forward, cupped her chin, and kissed her deeply. "I have a way."
Alex pulled back. "Did you finally get my drift? I already had that idea a few seconds ago."
"No, wife. Your medical bag. It is hidden safe beneath the bow of the boat--"
"I give up." She muttered, throwing up her hands in surrender. "You've got it here?"
"I thought you might need it, so I brought it along."
"Tarik, I do love you so."
"And I you."
TARIK WATCHED her rummage through the bag as if looking for precious treasure and pull out the strange instrument she called a lighter. Indeed, it would start the fire to boil water for their return to Abydos. His heart rested heavily in his chest. He had lied to her. As surely and as deeply as the love that consumed his every thought, he could not tell her of the scroll. But he must. He could not hide the magic that enabled her to return to her world any more than he could stop his love. Her heart was his, but she belonged to another world, far distant in time. He would be as cruel as Merikare to keep her here for his own pleasures. If only he had distanced himself from the very beginning, it would not hurt so now. But like air to breathe and water to drink, he needed her beside him for all his life. How could he aid her in leaving him? Yet, how could he not?
Alex strode toward the boat and glanced back over her shoulder. "Let's make camp. I'm getting chilly."
He shrugged his thoughts away and followed her. "Come. We must enter the tomb. It will not be safe outside."
She turned to face him. "There's not a soul around. Can't we camp out here? The idea of spending the night in someone's grave...."
She shuddered.
"This will be yours if we do not take care to stay hidden. Come. The entrance is on the dark side of the pyramid."
She tilted her head. "Dark side?"
Tarik pointed toward the moon. "See how Atum bathes the pyramid in soft light? And see the long black shadow it casts?"
"Yes, but what's that got to do--?"
"The doorway is on the shadowed side." He grabbed her hand. "We must hurry."
Tarik led her to the other side and, block by block, climbed the steep slope. With his hand firmly grasping Alex, he pulled her up next to him. "See. There it is. The same as when I was here long ago."
He pushed on a small stone and it turned slightly and grated on a larger block. Slowly, slowly the larger square slid aside and an opening appeared.
"If I hadn't seen this, I wouldn't believe it. I think this is one of those things that hasn't been discovered yet." She took a deep breath and her eyes turned sad and wistful. "It's wonderful. If only I could show Dad."
"Your heart aches for him?" Tarik said softly.
"Sometimes, I get this panicky feeling deep inside, like I'm never going back. Then I look at you and it doesn't hurt so much. But I know how much he loves Egypt. And how much he would love to see this." She brushed her hand along Tarik's jaw. "To meet you. He'd always told me I'd probably end up with an older man." She laughed but it ended in a sob. "He'd be shocked at the age difference between us."
"We do not seem so--"
"No, Tarik. I was kidding."
"Kidding?"
"Never mind. It was one of those time travel jokes. You'd have to be there."
Tarik took her hand and kissed her fingers. "There are times when I do not understand you, yet you fill my heart with wonder. Come beloved, we must go."
He crawled through the opening and stuck out his hand for her to follow. Her small hand in his large one was trusting and his heart ached for all she would lose because of him.
Perhaps there was a way they could be together. Maybe he could return with her to her time? A sudden chill snaked across his shoulders and he straightened sharply inside the tunnel smacking his head on the stone. "Ouch!"
"Tarik are you all right?"
He straightened to his full height and rubbed his head. "It is nothing. Come. We must climb up the steep walkway to the central chamber. It is there we will rest."
"Wait." She tugged on his kilt. "I can't see a thing. Don't go so fast."
He tucked her arm under his. "There will be light in the main chamber. There are openings toward the stars. They will let the moonlight in. You are safe with me."
"With you? Always."
"Always," he whispered and once again his heart ached at the lie.
SLOWLY, TAKING careful steps, they climbed a steep causeway corridor that opened into a large room. A small aperture near the top allowed moonlight to illuminate their surroundings. But even though her eyes were accustomed to the darkness, she could barely make out Tarik's silhouette.
"Alex, give me your fire starter."
She rummaged through her bag and found her lighter, more by touch than by sight, and handed it to him. "The fluid won't last long if you plan to use that to see with."
"I have an oil lamp in my bag. You will light it by touching your flame to the wick."
Alex smiled. "Ever the Boy Scout, aren't you. It didn't take long for you to become accustomed to modern conveniences."
The wick sputtered a few times but held the flame, casting eerie shadows across the hard planes of his face. He smiled.
"Your lighter truly is a wondrous convenience. Are there many more like this in your world?"
