“Truly you two should give thanks to God,” she said, “Who has brought
you together again in so wondrous a fashion, as I do on your behalf from
the bottom of my heart. Yet you are still hemmed round by dangers many
and great. What now, Olaf? Will you become a ghost also and dwell here
in the tomb with Heliodore; and if so, what tale shall I tell to Palka
and the rest?”
“Not so,” I answered. “I think it will be best that we should return to
Kurna. Heliodore must play her part as the spirit of a queen till we can
hire some boat and escape with her down the Nile.”
“Never,” she cried, “I cannot, I cannot. Having come together we must
separate no more. Oh! Olaf, you do not know what a life has been mine
during all these dreadful months. When I escaped from Musa by stabbing
the eunuch who was in charge of me, for which hideous deed may I be
forgiven,” and I felt her shudder at my side, “I fled I knew not whither
till I found myself in this valley, where I hid till the night was gone.
Then at daybreak I peeped out from the mouth of the valley and saw the
Moslems searching for me, but as yet a long way off. Also now I knew
this valley. It was that to which my father had brought me as a child
when he came to search for the burying-place of his ancestor, the
Pharaoh, which records he had read told him was here. I remembered
everything: where the tomb should be, how we had entered it through a
hole, how we had found the mummy of a royal lady, whose face was covered
with a gilded mask, and on her breast the necklace which I wear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account