'Come on, you two. We want to be near the front!' Andy called.
Anna glanced at Serena. 'You go on, Andy.' She folded her arms 'I'm going to sit with Toby.'
She saw the anger on his face. 'You are joking?'
'No. No, I'm not joking.' She returned his look coldly.
'You don't believe his story?'
'I don't know what to believe, Andy. And it's none of your business anyway. Please, go on. You follow the others.'
For a moment she thought he was going to refuse, but suddenly Toby was there, waiting at the side of the path. Andy glanced at him in obvious disgust and turned away. Within seconds he had disappeared into the slowly moving queue of people. Toby joined them. 'Do I gather I scared him off?'
'You did.' Anna smiled. 'And that was important because we're going to slip away. We want to get into the sanctuary while everyone is distracted and have another go at calling up the priests.'
Toby glanced over his shoulder. 'You haven't a hope. Look at the lights. And there are men there, ushering people to their seats.' He watched as men and women and children streamed past them.
'Surely it doesn't have to be in the sanctuary? Near the temple will do. What about down there somewhere?' He pointed away to their right below the Kiosk. 350 'Are you going to come with us?' Serena was clearly becoming agitated.
Toby shook his head. 'Not unless you want me to. This is a women's thing, isn't it? But I'll help you find somewhere and stand guard if you like.'
'We've got to move quickly. Once everyone is seated we won't be able to slip away at all.' Serena was staring round frantically. 'The whole place is floodlit. I hadn't realised the island would be so small. It's going to be too difficult to find somewhere private!'
'It'll be all right.' Toby smiled at her reassuringly. 'Look, follow me down here.' He ducked suddenly off the path between some low bushes. 'See?' he called quietly. 'The shadows are incredibly black where the lights don't reach. It's the contrast. No one will ever spot you down here at the water's edge. It's the perfect place.' Their feet slipping on the sandy track they followed the narrow path he had found round the side of the island away from the lighted ranges of seats. Clinging to the stony edge of the land below the Kiosk of Trajan they found a strip of bushes and a line of beach. Toby crouched down in the darkness.
'Unless you're unlucky and a stray spotlight comes this way, no one will see you here. They'll be blinded by all the floodlights and once the light show starts everyone will concentrate on that. OK? You've got about an hour, I gather. I'll make my way to the back of the audience and keep my eyes open and I'll come and meet you here, at the end.' He looked round. 'Good luck. Be careful.' He kissed Anna quickly on the lips and turned away. There was a rustle of dried fronds and he had gone.
Serena had already down on the sand, and was fumbling in her bag. 'I don't think anyone would see a candle with all the bright lights around. I'll light it later with the incense. I need that to summon the goddess.' She was talking to herself. She took a deep breath and bit her lip. 'I've brought a scarf to lay out the things on.' Her hands were shaking as she spread out her statuette, her ankh, the incense, the candlestick. Anna reached into her own bag and brought out the scent bottle. Unwrapping it she laid it at the feet of Isis. Then she froze. Somewhere above them they could hear voices suddenly. A shout of laughter rang out across the water.
'They can't see us,' Serena murmured. 'We'll wait until the show starts.' She glanced at her watch in the darkness and shrugged. She could see nothing. 'It can't be long now.' She was fumbling with 351.
the matches and swore as the box opened upside down in her hands and the matches cascaded into her lap.
'Take it slowly.' Anna reached over and touched her arm. 'There's no hurry. And we're safe here. Toby's right. No one could see us even if they were looking straight at us.' She paused, looking up. 'Listen, it's starting!'
The lights suddenly went off all over the island. Serena caught her breath. The darkness around them was tangible. The show had begun.
It was hard to ignore the noise behind them. The disembodied voices, the music echoing across the water, the play of lights, weaving history out of the darkness, but the two women kneeling close together on the sand were concentrating on the tiny square of pale silk before them. Serena struck a match and the flame flared, shaking slightly as she held it over the cone of incense. It took three matches to light it, then at last the thin wisp of smoke began to rise. She turned to the candle. Its flame blazed up for a moment, trembled and skittered sideways and threatened to go out. Then at last it steadied and burnt clear.
'Isis, great goddess, I invoke thee!' Serena was speaking in a whisper. 'Hear me great goddess, here in thy island, near thy great temple, hear me and come to our aid. Summon thy servants Anhotep and Hatsek; let them come before us to settle their disagreements and decide on the future of this sacred ampulla with its contents of thy tears.
She reached forward and picking up the bottle held it up towards the indigo velvet of the sky. Behind them the sounds of music and strange unearthly voices swelled and echoed across the water to the black volcanic cliffs in the distance. Anna shivered violently.
'Isis, send thy servants here! Protect us, guard us with thy magic and send them to speak here, tonight on thy sacred ground!' Serena's voice had risen dramatically. Behind them there was a pause in the sound and the lights dimmed. The island held its breath. A faint flurry of wind touched Anna's face and she saw the candle flicker. Her hand went to the amulet at her throat.
Serena's eyes had closed. She laid the bottle down on the ground and then raised her arms again towards the sky.
Somewhere out across the water a bird gave a sharp cry. They could smell the cold clean air of the desert, threaded with myrrh and juniper and honey from the lighted cone.
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A faint light had appeared on the shore a few yards from them. Anna caught her breath. She glanced at Serena and then, quietly, over her shoulder at the temple. She could see the spotlights, tracking arcs against the sky. None was pointing in their direction. The light near them grew larger. It elongated into the shape of a figure and gradually it appeared to grow more solid. She held her breath. Serena had lowered her arms and crossed them over her breast. She was kneeling, head bowed, waiting.
She's waiting for me to speak. Anna's mouth was dry with fear. She had to speak, to demand of the priest what he wanted. She looked up towards the figure on the shore. It had moved closer. It was standing over Serena. She saw the shadow pass over Serena's face.
Serena's eyes opened suddenly with an expression of acute anguish. 'Traitor!' she screamed. 'You foul traitor!' Behind them the music crescendoed. Her voice was lost in a cacophony of sound.
'The tears of Isis belong to the boy king. They will save his life!'
Anna gasped. An intense pain gripped her head. She couldn't breathe. She could feel her body growing hot and suddenly she was standing up. She could feel herself towering over Serena.
'They belong to the gods! The tears belong to the gods and I shall see they serve no other!' The words were being wrenched from her own mouth.
She saw Serena look up. The shadow figure was wispy and ragged. Another blast of wind from the desert and as the candleflame shrank and trailed black smoke Serena scrambled to her feet.
'Anna!' Her voice was coming from a great distance. 'Anna, be strong! Think of the light! Oh great Isis, protect Anna. Make her strong! Anna! Anna, can you hear me?'
But Anna was far away. Looking up towards the sun she could see it rising high in the sky, a glorious ball of flame in a blue ocean of eternity. She could see the high golden cliffs, the temple entrance, hidden and secret, where the goddess had her home on earth.
Slowly she moved closer to it, drifting on the hot desert wind, listening to the sands whispering across immense distances. In that hidden temple lay all the secrets of eternity, guarded by just two high priests sworn to the service of the gods through life after life for all eternity. She moved closer, sensing the prowling jackal, the 353.
sacred desert lion, sworn to serve as she was. And at her feet the serpents of the desert, cobra and viper and asp. In her hand she held a knife, its blade pure gold brought from the deepest heart of Africa to reflect the flame of the sun god and turn it into fire.
'Anna!'
A voice from thousands of years away echoed in the silence. The river in all its beauty licked the shores of the desert, rose in flood and brought green bounty, subsided and rose again.
'Anna! For God's sake!' For God's sake. The one God, all the gods. Such a simple thing. A few drops of sacred liquid, sealed in a tiny glass container, and washed with the blood of a friend.
'Anna! For pity's sake, can you hear me? Anna!'
She smiled and shook her head. She could see the river now, down there at her feet. The waters are cool, life-giving; they feed the sacred lotus and lap the sands so that the lioness can drink...
'Anna!' Suddenly it was as though Anna's head snapped back on her shoulders. A shower of ice-cold water caught her In the face.
Serena was shaking her violently. She let her go to scoop up another handful of water and lobbed it at her, then she caught her and shook her again. 'You didn't protect yourself, you fool! He had you. Hatsek was inside you! I could see his face in yours. I could see his features. I could see his hatred. You would have killed me, Anna!' Serena pushed her away so hard that Anna staggered and fell. 'Have you any idea how dangerous that was?' She was standing over Anna at the edge of the river, her hair awry. Behind them the makeshift altar was scattered, candle and incense overturned, the statue lying on its side.
Anna rubbed her face. It was wet with Nile water. She Shivered. 'What did I do?' She stared round, confused. Behind them a light fell suddenly on Trajan's Kiosk illuminating the tall ornate Columns. Serena grabbed her and pulled her down into the shadows. 'You were Hatsek, don't you understand! He possessed you, Anna. He took you over!'
'He used my voice? Like Anhotep used yours?'
The sand. The desert wind. The blazing sun. They still filled her head, though the sky above her now was black and sewn with a myriad stars. 'He used my eyes. But he wasn't seeing this. She gestured around her, confused. 'I saw the temple. The temple where 354.
Anhotep tricked him. It was hidden in the cliffs somewhere in the western desert on the edge of the mountains. Anhotep wanted the sacred water of life for the pharaoh, to use it as a medicine. But that was sacrilege. Nothing could have saved him anyway. It was not to be. The history was already written.' She shook her head slowly from side to side. 'The servant of the goddess was a servant of the one God. Of the Aten. It was Anhotep who was the traitor.' She stared up at Serena confused. She didn't know what the words pouring from her own mouth meant any more.
'No.' Serena shook her head. 'No, Anna. That's not true. They fell out. There was treachery and deceit. There was murder which had to be hidden.' She stared down at the ground and then with an exclamation of dismay she dropped to her knees. 'The bottle! Where is it? It's gone!'
Anna shrugged. 'Let it go. The priests have taken it. It doesn't matter. It's better lost. So many people have died -'
Serena stopped scrabbling in the sand and looked up at her. 'What do you mean so many people? How many people?'
'Many. It wasn't just Hassan. There have been generations of people through thousands of years. Whatever was in that bottle, whether they were priests of Isis and Sekhmet or of Amun or of the Aten, the liquid was not something we were supposed to have. Let it go back to the gods.'
She turned and looked at the temple. The sound had stopped. The floodlights had come back on. A ripple of applause ran through the night air. 'It is finished. We have to go. Leave it. Leave it all, here on the island of the goddess.' She bent and picked up the scarf. 'The statue, the ankh, the bottle. Let them sink into the sand and disappear.' She turned towards the palms as a figure appeared out of the darkness. It was Toby.
'How did it go? Did it work?' He looked from one to the other and raised an eyebrow. 'Well? What happened?'
Serena shrugged. 'We've lost the bottle. It's gone.' She stooped and began to gather the other things into her bag. She dusted sand off the little statue of Isis seated on her throne and tucked it away. She wasn't going to leave them behind, she might need them again. Her own offering to Isis, a small gold brooch, had been slipped quietly into the water whilst Anna and Toby were talking. These were the tools of her trade.
'Anna?' Toby touched her shoulder. 'Are you all right?'
355.
Anna nodded silently. She was gazing out into the dark and she didn't look at him. He frowned, then he turned back to Serena. 'We have to go. Have you got everything?' He glanced around. Then he stopped and pointed. 'There's your bottle. See? It's rolled down there into that dip in the shingle.' He stooped and picked it up. 'Anna?'
She didn't appear to have heard him. In her mind's eye she was still scanning the vast echoing spaces of the desert. He shrugged and looked at Serena.
She took the bottle from him. 'I'll take care of it,' She tucked it into the bag on her shoulder then she touched Anna's arm. 'Ready.?'
Slowly Anna nodded. She turned away from the river and when Toby held out his hand she took it.
Behind them the silence at the water's edge was intense. the sounds of the night had ceased. For a while that small part of the island held its breath, then slowly the sounds returned and the water lapped again upon the beach.
Andy was waiting for them near the landing stage. 'Well, what did you think of it?' He smiled at Anna. 'Fabulous, wasn't it?'
Anna nodded. 'Fabulous indeed.' She put her hands to her face for a moment and rubbed it wearily, trying to wake herself up. She was still feeling strangely distant; disconnected.
'Except you didn't see it, of course.' Andy leant close to her. 'Do you really imagine I didn't notice you slip away?
' She stepped back with a frown. She could smell alcohol on his breath.
'Andy!' 'You had to hide in the bushes with lover boy, I suppose! You don't believe me, do you? You don't believe he's a crook.'
'Andy!' Toby dropped Anna's arm and stepped towards him. 'I've had enough of this! Just what exactly are you trying to say?'
'That you are a murdering, lying bastard and you should keep away from decent women. Andy produced a bottle from the rucksack on his shoulder and took a swig from it.
'Toby, no!' Anna came back to reality with a jolt. She caught at Toby's sleeve. 'Leave it. Don't hit him. That's what he wants -'
She stopped mid-sentence and shook her head. Raising her hands to her temples she stared at him blankly. Something was happening to her again. There were people all round them now. She could see them staring, and whispering to each other as they saw Andy 356.
waving the bottle in the air. She could see Ben putting his hand out to Andy and quietly taking it away from him, she could see Omar speaking to them, standing between him and Toby, gesticulating, but at the same time she could see the great white sun, the dazzling red-gold desert, the scene viewed through a man's eyes, superimposed over everything else. Their voices receded. They were muffled.
Her feet were moving slowly towards the boats. Out in the river she could see other boats arriving, bringing visitors for the second viewing of the light show, due to start very soon. She had lost sight of Serena now. And Toby. She stared round wildly. Her eyes wouldn't focus. She could see dunes; wind was blowing the sand across her vision, stinging her face; the sky was a brilliant blue above it, far away. Then Andy was there, beside her again. He was smiling, holding out his hand towards her.
'Please, people. We have to go back to the boat. Cook will have a wonderful supper ready for us.' Omar shepherded his flock closer together. 'Please to hurry up, people. Ibrahim will kill me if you are late for supper!' He grinned and moved away shooing his own bunch of tourists closer together, anxious not to lose them in the dark.
Anna hung back. She shook her head again, trying to concentrate. 'Where's Toby?'
Andy laughed. 'He's probably been whisked away by Interpol. Him and the loopy Serena, both.' He reached across and caught her hand.
'Charley's gone home. Did you know? Invalided out. It was all too much for her. So I can give you my undivided attention, sweetheart. You and that lovely diary of yours.' He eyed her bag. 'Please don't tell me you've brought it with you.'
She tried to pull her hand away. 'Andy, will you leave me alone! I really don't need you pawing at me.' She was finding it difficult to focus again. Harder still to concentrate on what was happening around her.
They were all standing still now, a crowd of people milling round the edge of the temple forecourt, slowly filtering down the steps onto the landing stage where the first motor boat had come alongside. Opposite them, on the far side of the channel, the huge boulders on the island of Biga were black caverns in the shadows of the night, where the lights from Aglika didn't reach.
357.
'Anna!' Suddenly Serena was beside her again. 'Are you all right?' They were nearly at the front of the queue now.
'Of course she's all right.' Andy was still there beside her. 'I'm looking after her.' Serena pursed her lips. 'What possessed you to bring a bottle of vodka with you?' He shrugged. 'Cold night. It seemed like a good idea. I gave it to Ben. If you want some you'd better ask him.'
'Ask him!' Serena stared at him, scandalised. 'Have you any idea how much you offend the Egyptians, being drunk like that? You idiot!'
The man supervising the loading of the boat held up his hand. The boat was full. It backed away from the landing stage and turned out into the river as a second boat nosed in towards them.
Anna was suddenly aware that Toby was beside her. She glanced at him and smiled. 'I'm afraid Andy seems intent on disgracing us all.'
'You surprise me!' Toby's voice was grim. 'Well, if he wants to make a fool of himself I suggest he does it elsewhere and somewhere he is less likely to fall in the river!' He took hold of Andy's arm and propelled him away from the edge of the landing stage to where Ben was standing. 'Can you keep an eye on him, Ben? He's not exactly sober and he's being a damn nuisance.' He left him and turned back to Anna. 'And you, Anna, are not looking exactly right, yourself. What happened back there on the beach?' He was speaking quietly in her ear.
She stared at him, frowning.
'It was strange.'
The boat nudged against the platform and one of the crew unhooked the chain across the gap in the rail so that they could climb on board. They made their way between the rows of seats, past the engine and into the broad stern area. Anna sat down in the corner with Serena on one side of her and Toby on the other. She shook her head. 'I think I must be tired, that's all. I feel very weird.' She glanced up. Andy was making his way towards them, grinning. He sat down on a centre seat opposite her.
Ben had followed and sat down beside him with a shrug. 'I think this fellow needs some food inside him,' he commented cheerfully. 'He'll be fine once he's had some supper. Well, what did you think of the show, ladies? Did you enjoy it?' He moved up closer to Andy as more and more people packed in round them.
'It was good.' Anna nodded and smiled.
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'Not good.' Andy leant forward and touched her knees. 'She didn't see it, naughty girl. She was canoodling with our rakish ex-con here.'
Toby's face tensed and Anna clutched at his arm. 'Don't rise to it. Please, ignore him,' she pleaded.
Andy was unstoppable. Turning back to Anna he raised his voice to make himself heard over the laughter and chatter and the sound of the engine idling behind them in the central well of the boat. 'So, did you bring that lovely little scent bottle with you to see the show? You seem to be inseparable from it.'
'Yes, I brought it.' She smiled. The engine note changed. The man on the landing stage stood back and raised his hand and the boat began to cling away from the island. Behind them the floodlit temple came fully into view, seemingly floating on the water as they drew away into the broad channel and turned to head back towards the shore.
'And did it perform magic for you? Did your priestly attendants manifest on the island of Isis?' He was grinning broadly.
'They did. Yes.' Anna was tight-lipped.
'So, your magic worked. You rubbed it once twice thrice and the genie of the bottle appeared.' He threw his head back and laughed, enjoying himself hugely. 'It did indeed.' Anna turned away, trying to discourage him.
'So, what happens next?' He sat forward and tapped her knee. 'Are they going to show themselves on the boat? Can you get them to appear at the pasha's party and do a turn for us when we get back to Luxor? Did you hear that, people?' He stood up and raised his voice. 'Anna's Ancient Egyptian ghosts are going to do a turn for us.' He raised his arms above his head and wiggled his hips suggestively. 'Sit down, Andy. You are being a prat!' Ben pulled at his arm.