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Michael woke with a groan and sat up quickly. His head protested. Gingerly touching his temple, Michael found a large lump and newly dried blood. He must have been out for a while. His hand went to his secret pocket. Empty. They must have gotten the crystal. Then the memory returned, handing Tahir his crystal while they waited for Anne. Something had nagged him. He was relieved he’d acted on his intuition.
He looked around and found he was in a narrow alley probably a few blocks from the bazaar. It was silent and the sky through the buildings was dark. A lone star shone weakly down on him.
Anne, what had happened to Anne? He’d heard her screaming and seen two men wrap her in some heavy material. He’d run after her and grabbed one of the men, whirling him around and landing a satisfying crack on his jaw. The man had fallen, but just as Michael had turned to run after the other, someone had hit him on the side of the head and he’d blacked out.
He had to get back to the hotel. He had to notify her people, perhaps the police. Tahir would know what to do. He stood, took a few wavering steps, then steadied himself against a wall. He made it out to the street, but it was deserted.
You’re only alone in Egypt when you’re in trouble, he mused.
He made his way up a couple of blocks, stopping occasionally when he got dizzy, and finally found a main street. It too was deserted. It must be very late. Michael looked up at the sky, but saw no signs of dawn. He waited a few minutes and finally a taxi appeared a block up. He threw his hand up, but the driver took one look at him and turned the other way.
Michael looked down at his torn, bloody shirt. The lights of a hotel a block down caught his eye and he walked to it. The man at the front desk frowned at his appearance, but Michael ignored him and found the washroom. He examined the cut on his temple. A small scratch ran up into his hair, but scalp wounds bleed heavily, which explained all the blood. He washed his face, then took off his shirt and washed it. Better wet than bloody. He shivered when he buttoned the cold, wet shirt over his chest.
At the front desk, he asked the man to call him a cab. His request elicited a raised eyebrow, but no comment. “Sukran,” he said, reaching into his pocket for a tip. His wallet was missing. “Damn it,” he muttered. “Never mind,” he said to the man. He’d never convince a taxi to take him to the hotel with no money at this time of night. He started to walk. He reached the river in about half an hour. The water was dark, the air heavy with the smoke of so many boats. His head throbbed and his ribs had begun to ache.
Michael walked down the sidewalk next to the river, passing the Internet café and various stalls and restaurants. He reached the New Cataract just as the rosy fingers of dawn stretched into the eastern sky. A bus full of tourists was loading. He walked into the lobby and immediately spotted Tahir talking to a policeman.
Michael called to him.
A look of relief lit Tahir’s face. “I was just giving your description to the police. Are you hurt?”
“I’ll be okay. Where’s Anne?”
“In her room. She’s fine.”
Arnold walked across the lobby and joined them. “Where can we talk?”
Tahir’s room was closest, so they followed him there. Michael gingerly sat down in one of the armchairs by the window and Tahir perched on the edge of the bed.
Arnold stood with his hands on his hips. “Tell me what happened.”
Michael relayed the events. “I tried to follow, but there must have been a third man. He hit me with something and I blacked out.”
Arnold looked closely at Michael’s temple, then grunted. “You’ll have a headache for a few days. Nothing serious.” There was a look of deep suspicion in his eyes.
“I had nothing to do with this.”
Arnold just stared at him.
“For God’s sake—” Michael sat back heavily against the chair. He turned to Tahir. “You’re sure Anne didn’t get hurt?”
“Yes,” Tahir said.
“She knows how to fight. I guess your men didn’t count on that,” Arnold said.
“Goddamn it, they weren’t my men. When are you going to get it through your thick head that I’m one of the good guys?”
Arnold surveyed him calmly. “When I have proof. Meanwhile, we’re going to have extra security for the rest of the trip. And a private boat. Don’t get any ideas, because you’re going to have to find your own transportation. You won’t be alone with Anne under any circumstances. And no more shopping trips.”
Michael nodded. “Well, no more shopping trips, at least, sounds like a good idea.”
The bodyguard turned to Tahir. “Is this trip vital to the mission? It’s an enormous security risk.”
“The crystal bearers must make the trip down the Nile,” Tahir explained. “The keys must be activated for the final alignment.”
Arnold shook his head. “Activated? I don’t see how lollygagging around a bunch of old temples is accomplishing anything. And it certainly won’t do you any good if you’ve got a dead crystal bearer.”
“They will not kill her. By now, I’m sure our opponents realize the people are a vital link in this technology.”
Arnold frowned.
Michael prudently kept his mouth shut.
“Talk to Anne,” Tahir suggested. “Perhaps she can explain things to your satisfaction.”
“I don’t take my orders from Anne,” Arnold said. “I’ll discuss this with Dr. Abernathy. For now, I must have exact information about where we’ll be going. Try to hit the temples when they are the least crowded.”
Tahir agreed.
Arnold took a step closer and stuck his face into Michael’s. “I’ll be watching you.”
☥☥☥
“It’s only about forty miles from here, and the museum will pay,” he’d reassured her. “But I do need some pocket money, so I’ll have to go to the bank before I can check out. They got my credit cards as well.”
She hadn’t wanted to leave him standing in the New Cataract lobby with a bandaged forehead, and yet, after the attack last night, something had changed. Thinking back, she remembered the morning they’d gone to the Isis temple, how her shirts had been crumpled up in her drawer. She was always neat with her clothes. Maybe someone had broken into her room looking for the crystal. And before that, when she’d gone to hear him speak in New York, then out to dinner, her apartment had been ransacked. Could it all be just a coincidence?
She had to consider the possibility that Michael might be working with the Illuminati. After all, he knew a great deal about Western metaphysical orders and their secrets. Perhaps his job at the museum had been arranged to give him a plausible cover for his work with the group. Even with this, those brown eyes still lit a fire in her. And the way he always pushed his hair off his face, the spring in his step. Why did she keep falling for the wrong men? She sat back and took a deep breath, trying to put these thoughts out of her mind. The family was investigating Michael and if he had any connection to the shadow forces, they’d find it.
Time to focus on the mission. What were they doing today? Tahir had told them this was a fear initiation, but sitting in the warm sun, looking out at the peaceful waters of the Nile and the orderly village garden, a verdant strip next to the river, she found that hard to imagine. She could imagine building a villa here and basking in the sun all through the winter months, raising a couple of children with—Damn it, she had to stop thinking about him.
Anne went down to her room and rubbed ointment into her bruised shoulder. She’d come out of the attack relatively unscathed. As far as she was concerned, that had been her fear initiation. She sat on the bed and took out her sewing kit and an old T-shirt. She cut a few pieces of fabric from the shirt, took out her bras, and began sewing a pocket inside each one. If she tucked the crystal inside, any one frisking her might miss it. At least it would slow them down. Just as she was finishing, someone knocked on her door.
“Tahir is asking for you,” Arnold said.
“Be right there.” Anne tucked the crystal in its new pocket and got dressed.
When she arrived on the upper deck, Michael and Tahir were sitting on deck chairs, talking together as usual. She felt a stab of jealousy. Michael knew so much more than she did. He was an Egyptologist and had studied the occult sciences all his life. She was definitely playing catch-up. She sat down in the chair next to Tahir.
He addressed them both. “We’ll have an opportunity to do our ritual soon. This last tourist boat is just leaving.” His statement was confirmed by a series of loud horn blasts as the large white boat began to back out from the dock. Tahir waited for quiet. “Another boat may show up soon.”
“Let’s go then.” Anne grabbed her pack with her water bottle and headed toward the gangplank.
They walked up a small hill, past the gardens, toward the temple, beautiful golden stones and columns at the top of the hill. A group of booths lined the road on the right, displaying the usual colorful gallabiya and silk scarves, the shelves full of statues and jewelry.
“This is a temple dedicated to two Neters,” Tahir said. “Sobek and Horus. Sobek has the crocodile head and is probably the origin of the images of the dragon. Horus, of course, is the enlightened male, the resurrected Osiris.”
“What does Sobek represent?” Anne asked.
“This you will feel for yourself.”
Tahir bought tickets at the booth, and they walked into the temple in silence, down the hypostyle hall, past columns with beautiful reliefs of the Neters. This was becoming familiar to Anne, the silent procession to what Tahir called the Holy of Holies, the power spot always toward the back of the temple. Once they were there, rather than forming a circle, Tahir gestured for Anne to stand inside a nook. He positioned her precisely facing east, then chanted a short phrase. At the end of this, he drew a symbol over her third eye and said rather severely, “Do not be afraid.”
Anne detected a hint of laughter in the green eyes above his poker face. He led her to an opening in the ground and gestured for her to enter.
“I’m supposed to crawl down there?” Anne asked.
He shushed her and pointed again.
Well, what could happen? She had already been attacked and almost abducted by two men, her room had been searched, and she was in love with the wrong man.
She crawled down through the opening and found herself in a tight tunnel. On her hands and knees, she crawled forward, trying not to stir up too much dust. As she moved, she became intensely aware of her spine, the movement of her arms and legs, the rhythm of her crawling. She imagined she had a tail, small crooked legs, and an enormous mouth. Just as she was beginning to enjoy herself, a huge fist of energy smashed into her back, almost flattening her, lighting her solar plexus on fire. The energy ran up her vertebrae with a rush of exhilaration. Anne yelled as the energy crashed out the top of her head. Then she began to crawl rapidly, exulting in the movement, in the energy braiding itself into her own. Ahead, a light indicated a hole in the tunnel. Anne crawled out and found herself only ten feet away from the original opening. She lay down in the dust and laughed.
Soon Arnold crawled out, then Michael who sat beside her with a bemused look on his face. Anne couldn’t stop laughing.
“So much for fear,” commented Michael, looking wryly up at Tahir.
Michael stood and offered Anne a hand up. Arnold stepped forward, but she took Michael’s hand. She pulled herself to her feet, aware of the strength of his grasp. She looked into Michael’s brown eyes, lit with amusement. She felt a rush of pure lust. Yielding to her impulse, before Arnold had time to react, she pulled Michael to her and kissed him hard on the mouth. Then she pulled away and said fiercely, “If you betray me, I’ll kill you.”
☥☥☥
Michael walked beside Anne toward the temple of Edfu in the light of a full moon, the perfect romantic situation under ordinary circumstances. But these were far from ordinary circumstances. Arnold strode right behind them, watching Michael’s every move. Michael studiously ignored him. He watched Anne, trying to understand her shifting moods.
She had told Tahir the temples were certainly beautiful, but she wondered what any of this had to do with the crystals and opening the Hall of Records. He had repeated that the sites formed an energetic combination lock, opening layers of consciousness as they moved down the Nile toward Giza. Anne had nodded, trying to be patient.
Michael knew the process they were involved in was much more than a vacation. They were undergoing a series of powerful initiations with a man trained in the oldest spiritual system in the world. Michael was certain that in the past students had prepared for months, perhaps years, before going through this work. And they’d had much more intellectual training, the benefit of a functioning metaphysical system. He and Anne, on the other hand, were hitting these temples one per day.
The pressure of this kind of spiritual work sometimes created irritation, prying out deeply buried emotions and exposing them to the light. Plus the planets were moving into the star alignment. He could feel it beginning. They were being purified at a rate neither of them had ever experienced. She’d told him she had meditated all her life, but that was different from the concentrated work he’d done. She must be feeling the strain even more than he, and he was definitely off his game. To top it off, someone had tried to abduct her. Still, he couldn’t help feeling sad at the doubt he now saw in her eyes. He thought they’d connected in New York when they’d both had that flash of the life in Egypt.
Tahir had gotten permission to visit the temple late at night so they could be alone. It seemed some of the guardians at the sites were members of his order and held him in high esteem. Michael wished he knew the subtleties of this mystery school, but being initiated by Tahir was a high enough honor. The vendors’ booths near the temple were all closed and, instead of the mad dash from the docks by too many carriages drawn by variously treated horses, they’d had Michael’s driver take them.
The moonlight drenched the columned walkway surrounding the courtyard. Michael could almost see through the veil of time to the past when priests had walked over these limestone floors in flowing robes, faithfully observing the ceremonies of the yearly cycle. Tahir walked past the stone statue of Horus as the falcon, down the middle of the temple, then turned to the right. They followed in the silent darkness, flashlights guiding them. Tahir went through a small hallway, then up a few stairs into a side room. He stopped and pointed to the ceiling. Michael turned his flashlight up and a spectacular painting of Nut shone down at them, her hands and feet on the Earth, her back forming the sky.
“This is a temple dedicated to Horus. Kom Ombo is dedicated to both Sobek and Horus. It harmonizes the animal and spiritual man. The temple we are in now is a calendar,” Tahir explained. “Look at Nut, the sky mother, you remember?”
Anne stared up, her mouth slightly open, awed by the painting.
“You see around her head the paint is light blue, representing daylight. On the other side, the paint is dark blue and dotted by gold stars. Night. Now look at the barges beneath her. How many?”
Anne and Michael squinted up at the ceiling, counting. “Twelve,” they said together.
“Yes, the Egyptian calendar had twelve months of thirty days. Then there was a five-day festival, days out of time, so to speak. There are thirteen major chambers in this temple, twelve for the months and another for the festival days.” He turned and walked down the stairs, back into the temple. They passed empty rooms.
Tahir stopped near the back. “There is also a room for the Neter on his wooden barge. During the festival, the high priest of Edfu traveled downriver to the high priestess of Hathor in Dendara. Their sexual alchemy brought the rains and the flooding of the Nile on which all life depended. During the dynastic times, she came to him. Everything was reversed.”
Something stirred in Michael’s memory, Anne with dark hair stretched out on an altar, but Tahir was still talking.
“This ritual started in early dynastic times. In the old days, every man and woman when they came together embodied these Neters.”
He turned. “In the front of the temple is another chamber for the healers. There you will find ancient remedies inscribed on the wall.”
“Do people still make them?” Michael asked.
“Some do,” Tahir answered.
They walked in silence back to the Holy of Holies and Tahir gestured for them to sit against the tall altar stone. Michael closed his eyes and was immediately light-headed. Tahir began to chant, and Michael felt his astral body stir. As the chant continued, he lifted out of his physical body and flew above the temple. Below him lay the town, a tapestry of tiny stars against the dark. In this dimension, the temple was lit with a brilliant white light. He looked to the south and saw through the distance more points of light. Behind him he sensed still more, a string of chakras on the flowing spine of light that was the Nile.
Tahir’s voice was suddenly back in his ear and Michael opened his physical eyes to see Anne’s slender form sitting cross-legged, her palms turned upward on her knees, her eyes closed earnestly, a slight wrinkle of concentration between her brows. Michael felt a rush of tenderness for her. He’d have to remind her not to try so hard, to just allow things to unfurl naturally. He could sense the strength of her psychic talent, the lifetimes of spiritual work she’d done. She was an adept, even though she was worried about how slowly her talents were unfolding now. From his perspective, she was developing at lightning speed. He thought back to what he’d just seen, the series of lights glowing next to the flowing luminosity of the Nile. He would share this vision with Anne. Perhaps it would reassure her.
She opened her eyes and saw him looking at her. She frowned.
Michael sighed. When would these Le Clairs realize he was not the enemy?
“This temple is usually seen as the cyclical calendar of the year, but there is another calendar that is connected to our mission.”
Anne nodded eagerly.
Michael watched her out of the corner of his eye.
“Let’s go back to Nut.”
They scrambled to their feet and walked back to the small room that held the magnificent mural. Michael switched on his flashlight again and the gold gleamed rich in the beam of light.
“Every day Nut gives birth to the sun in the morning. This is why her head is always in the west, her feet in the east. In this phase, the sun is called Kheper, the scarab beetle that pushes its ball of dung. We are born with all that we need to survive. The sun travels through the sky on the body of the Great Mother . . .” He reached for Michael’s flashlight and shone it on the navel. “. . . here. This is the adolescent stage of the sun called Ra, represented by the ram.” He pointed his index fingers from his forehead to imitate horns. “Ra is called the stubborn, because he thinks he knows something, like my teenage sons.” Tahir rolled his eyes. “Then the sun travels to her heart. Here he is called Oon, the Wise. He is starting to know something now.” Tahir chuckled.
“In the last stage of the day, the sun travels to her throat. Here he is called Aten, the Wiser. In Aten, the sun is in its full flowering. The day is complete, all is accomplished. But . . .” He raised his eyebrow dramatically. “. . . then Nut swallows the sun.” He shone the beam of light on her mouth and, indeed, there was the sun in the process of being eaten. “This is called Amen. The sun travels through the body of Nut to be reborn in the morning, but outside all is dark.
“This process not only describes the cycle of the day, it also describes the cycle of a man’s life—or a woman’s,” he said, glancing at Anne. “We are born, we think we know something, then we learn. We go into the west and travel in a place hidden from this world. Perhaps we are reborn.”
“So the Khemitians believed in reincarnation,” Anne said.
“There is no death.” Tahir handed the flashlight back to Michael and raised his index finger. “This cycle also applies to a much larger circle the Earth travels through. Human civilization goes through phases of greater and lesser knowledge. In the Awakening, the light dawns and human consciousness begins to grow from Kheper into Ra and then Oon. It flowers in full enlightenment during the time of Aten. Aten is always followed by a time of darkness, a night of human ignorance in which everything is reversed. Violence and greed rule.”
“Ah,” Michael said.
Tahir nodded. “We are living in the time of Amen, the time of darkness. But it is time for the dawn.”
“My grandmother said something like this,” Anne said. “She said it was the end of a twenty-six-thousand-year cycle, only the Vedas say it’s much longer. How long does Amen last?”
“However long it is, it is long enough.” Tahir waved his hands as if he would have nothing to do with counting days or years. “All the wise ones know the sun is being reborn.” He reached out and grasped both their hands. “This, my friends, is our task. It is time for the Awakening. It is time to revive the great temples of Khemit. When the six come together in Giza in the old land of Osiris, the Earth will be opened to the light. It will be the dawn.”
The three gripped hands, the warmth of a united purpose filling their hearts. Michael’s eyes were moist. Surely, they would succeed. It was as inevitable as the sunrise.
At that moment, Arnold’s phone rang. Michael had forgotten him completely. Arnold flipped the top up and answered. His voice faded as he walked toward the front of the temple.
The three followed him slowly, savoring the harmony that had been restored among them. When they went outside, they found Arnold sitting in front of the granite statue of Horus, the Falcon. “Michael,” he called.
Michael stiffened. “What is it now?”
“That was Abernathy. You’ve been cleared. You can move your things onto the boat.”
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