Perhaps somewhere that heaven did exist, but now Nayari despaired of ever reaching it.
Little held meaning in their isolated netherworld until the light came to them. Nayari could not have said if a year or a thousand had passed while she waited, longing for nothing but the occasional brush of Khanu’s mind against hers and his gentle reassurances that one day they would be free.
She’d felt nothing for so long that the sensation of being torn away from the darkness frightened her. She cried out to Khanu, and his voice reached her through a swirling mist that replaced the endless blackness.
“Stay with me, my love.”
“What’s happening? Are we finally free?”
There was no answer at first, and then the world began to form around her. For the first time in longer than she could dare remember, Nayari saw. She saw the rough walls of the temple room and smelled the heady aroma of incense and the dry, stale scent of old stone.
In a frenzy, she whirled around, searching for her warrior, calling to him. When she turned, what she saw made her long for the safety of her dark prison. Ammonptah stood behind a narrow altar, his dark-skinned hands wrapped around an alabaster jar.
Free of her confines, unchained and unencumbered by the strong arms of the ruthless guards, she had one chance to seek her revenge against her former master. Nayari flew at him and reached out her hand to touch the fine linen that lay above his black heart.
Terror blanched Ammonptah’s skin. His eyes bulged, and his breath rattled in his lungs. Behind him hovered the faint outline of a broad-shouldered warrior-Khanu! He placed his hands on Ammonptah’s throat as if to squeeze the life from him, but almost instantly, the magistrate slumped forward. His hands fell limp, and the alabaster jar rolled away from him, nearly to the edge of the altar.
“The spell has failed.” Khanu’s voice rang in Nayari’s ears, and her heart soared. “We’re free.”
“But what have they done with us?” Nayari felt the warmth of the flickering torches on the wall and tasted the incense smoke on her tongue…yet she couldn’t see her own hands or her body. She remembered lying on the floor of the temple, too weak to move, wishing only that the end of her suffering would be swift.
“There.” Khanu’s vaporous hand gestured to a dark-haired body reclining on the floor. A woman. Above her stood a man, tall and slim, with hair the color of spun gold. Both were dressed strangely and speaking words in a language Nayari had never heard before.
The man reached down and pulled the woman up from the floor. Their hands were clasped tightly together, and that gesture arrowed to Nayari’s core. These were lovers, seeking escape from Ammonptah just as she and Khanu had.
Without exchanging another word, she and her warrior moved toward the couple. It seemed natural somehow, to settle within these foreign bodies and take temporary residence there.
Nayari felt Khanu’s hand in hers, and she nearly wept at the sensation. When she looked up into the eyes of the golden-haired man, they were no longer foreign. The eyes of her husband stared back at her, and Khanu’s lips curved in a smile.
He pulled her to him and kissed her until the chill of their long incarceration faded to nothing. She sank into the strong arms of her warrior, reveling in the touch that had been denied them for so long.
Suspended time came rushing back at them all too soon, though, and Nayari was the first to see the brilliant light of the nether world beckoning them. She dragged her needy lips away from Khanu’s and pointed over his shoulder.
“We need to go now. We’ve been trapped here long enough,” she said.
He squeezed her hand once, then together they stepped away from the borrowed bodies and moved into the light where the gods waited to welcome them into life everlasting.
Cait wiped at the corners of her eyes when Grant finished his story. Part of her wanted desperately to believe that the ancient lovers had finally found peace, but part of her remained skeptical.
“How does this woman know this? None of this was part of the narrative on the scroll.”
Grant’s eyes sparkled, and Cait wondered if he were playing her. This couldn’t be true, no matter how satisfying it was to know that Nayari and Khanu found peace together at the end of their long imprisonment.
“She was the woman in the temple.”
Cait took a deep sip of wine. “Seriously?”
“She claims she found the Soul Jar, though she wouldn’t tell me where. When it was opened, the souls of the lovers escaped, and finally, after three thousand years, they passed into the afterlife.”
“Do you believe that’s what happened?” Cait asked. Even though the events he’d described seemed too fantastic to be real, they felt right somehow.
“Yes, I do.” Grant set his wine glass down. He collected the papers and slid them back into the file folder. “I offered her double what she paid for the scroll, but she turned me down. At least she promised it would be put on public display along with the Soul Jar, which has been given back to the Egyptian government. The bad news is, we’ll have to go to Cairo to see it.”
Cait managed a chuckle at the hopeful expression in Grant’s dark eyes. “It’ll be a while before I can afford a trip to Cairo. Maybe one day…”
“How about next month?” From the back of the file folder, beneath the sheaf of papers and handwritten notes, Grant produced two white envelopes and handed them to Cait. “I managed to get myself an invitation to help oversee the opening of the exhibit. I’d like you to come with me.”
Speechless, Cait opened one of the envelopes and stared at the airline tickets inside. Her jaw dropped, and she managed a nervous laugh. “I’d love to go, but-”
“Mr. Greer might fire you. I know. You don’t have to decide right away, but don’t worry about a job for now.”
Cait hesitated only a second before throwing her arms around Grant’s neck. “I’ve decided. Let’s go. I want to say a proper goodbye to Khanu and Nayari.”
Grant smiled and planted a kiss on her nose. “I figured we should thank them for bringing us together. Maybe that’s their legacy. Anyone who hears their story falls in love.”
“Are you falling in love, Mr. Pierson?” Cait’s heart nearly stopped at the thought. If a concubine and a warrior could fall in love over the space of a few days, why couldn’t she and Grant?
Grant rose and scooped her up in his arms. “I think I am, Ms. Lang. I think I am.”
To learn more about Jennifer Colgan, please visit www.jennifercolgan.com. Send an email to Jennifer at jcolgan@newoa.com, join her Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electricromance/, or stop by her Two Voices blog at http://bernadettegardner2.blogspot.com/
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