Page 4 of Ra
“We’ve only been given small opportunities to explore when others were present, up until now. Now, they feel thereis nothing more to find so they’ve turned their attention elsewhere.”
Azi shrugged. “At least they allow us to maintain access as long as we allow them to roll us out and parade us before the media from time to time.”
“It’s a small price to pay.”
“It’s soul-sucking,” Azi said quietly, though her eyes were glued to Abasi’s progress as he tapped his way along the wall and floor.
“Only if you let it become so. It insures you still have access if nothing else. It’s worth it.”
Azi sighed. “They want me to go on a tour on behalf of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, and deliver lectures to anyone in academia — or anyone who pays enough to attend — on their behalf.”
“What do you get in exchange?”
“I get continued access to digs in Egypt.”
“What do I get?” he asked, only half-joking.
“Well, as you are my non-negotiable, you’d also get continued access to digs in Egypt.”
“I could keep watch over Ra’s tomb and you could go teach and present, and when you are done we could continue on wondrous adventures into history!” Abasi said dramatically, his voice building to a crescendo.
Azi raised her gaze to the ceiling and looked around its edges as his voice echoed perfectly and melodically. “This would truly be a wonderful location to sing for the gods.”
“It would, at that.”
Azi walked over to the golden throne and ran her fingertips over its arm as in her mind’s eye she imagined a male of impressive stature and beauty reclining there as he looked out over his kingdom.
Abasi’s voice brought her back to reality, when she realized that she’d missed what he’d said.
She turned and looked at Abasi. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.”
“I noticed,” Abasi said, with a warm smile. “Don’t forget, Dr. Clement, you once loved teaching. Your father spoke of it often.”
“I did, that’s true. But I let it go when he wasn’t able to oversee his digs anymore. I found a deeper passion here, following the path he began.”
“Perhaps if you take a bit of a holiday from the digs themselves to present all you’ve discovered here, woo the people, and teach those who will take over when we are far too old, we’ll be given the opportunity to find another hidden piece of history when you come back,” Abasi said.
“Woo the people,” Azi said with a soft smile. “I can woo.”
“I know. I’ve seen you woo the Ministers of the Antiquity Department. It is why we still have access to this site.”
“It’s a simple thing really, to do what they ask. Instead of fighting it, I should just go with it. Follow the opportunities until I find myself back here.”
“Yes! Always take the positivity from anything you’re given. Even the most detrimental of situations has positivity buried deep beneath its surface.”
“Abasi!” a man’s voice called from the top of the staircase.
“Do not leave without saying goodbye to me. I’ll watch over things in your absence,” Abasi said, waggling his finger in her direction as though she was an errant child.
“I won’t. It will be at least a week or two before I can prepare to leave. And thank you, Abasi,” Azi said.
She watched him go up the steps, then waited another five minutes to be sure that no one else was coming down. Once she was sure no one else would be coming to tour the tomb today, she went over to the last place Abasi was tapping while checkingfor the different sound of a hollow space behind the gorgeous reliefs and wall paintings in the ‘Tomb of Ra’.
Forty-five minutes later she was still tapping when she realized she’d reached the throne. She raised her head and looked in the direction she’d come from. It was a lot of ground to cover, a lot of wall to search, and she’d not done as thorough a job as she could have if she’d already reached the throne. She turned and looked out over the decorative floor of the tomb, then made a cursory glance of the walls and ceiling again. Focusing on the entrance that led to and from the stairway, she shook her head. “At least I know the places I tapped and the places my feet stood are solid. I’ll have to double check from the calves up, and from the head up, but at least some of it has been examined.” She turned to the throne at her left and sighed as she realized she was talking to herself. “Gotta get some friends, Azenath! You’re talking to yourself — and out loud at that.”
Shrugging as she considered continuing her path of tapping up to the throne, behind it, then down the other side to finish out the entire room at foot and shoulder height, she got to it. Her ear pressed to the wall, she listened as she tapped. The toes of her boots tapping a repeated rhythm on the floor and the seam and edges of the lower wall. She’d actually begun to make good progress when she stopped suddenly and focused on a place in the relief that she’d not noticed before. What she’d thought was a black scarab beetle lying in Ra’s outstretched hand, was actually a hole in the shape of a scarab beetle — carved into the wall. Leaning closer to the wall, she put her fingertip into the hole. “How did I not know this was a hole?” she murmured, pushing her finger into it to see just how deep it was. “Doesn’t go all the way through,” she said thoughtfully. She stood back and examined the relief and the colors painted on it. There were green vines of some kind weaving themselves through the hands of all the gods, who were interconnected by the vines and thescarabs placed here and there. All of the scarabs were black with green features on their wings. The vines around the missing scarab looked to her like they’d just start on one wing, and exit out the other. She stepped back even further, her eyes rounding as she stared at the black hole on the wall missing its scarab. “It’s not a black scarab that’s missing,” she whispered. She stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out the scarab ring her father had given her. She stared at the ring for an entire minute before slowly raising her eyes to the wall. “Holy shit,” she breathed out as she popped the scarab off the band and stepped closer to the wall. She slipped the band onto the thumb on her opposite hand, and held the scarab in her closed fist as she used her index finger to examine the hole again. “Daddy, what did you do?” she whispered as she opened her fist and placed the scarab in the hole. It not only fit, it clicked into place. The moment it did a loud clap, like a bolt of lightning hitting a tree sounded up above her. She jumped, and ducked for cover, then hurriedly tried to retrieve the scarab, but it was now part of the wall and wasn’t coming out again. “Damn it!” she exclaimed, as she dropped to her knees and tried to pry it out of the wall.
“What are you doing?” a very deep booming voice demanded from behind her.
