Journey to the Lost Tomb (Rowan and Ella Book 2) (6 page)

           
“Let’s
talk,” she said gently. “Tell me from the beginning.”

           
Maddie
looked up at her and her sadness filled up every inch of her gaze. Her left eye
was dark purple and she was bruised from her temple to her jawline. It looked
pretty clear to Ella that ol’ Gagan wasn’t just hitting with his open hand. As
if that mattered. When Maddie pulled up her sleeve to reach for the Coke, Ella
saw that both wrists were red and swollen. It looked as if she had been bound
and, for the first time, Ella felt a sliver of fear.

           
Would
he really let her go so easily?

           
“Everything
was fine until we got to Cairo,” Maddie said, pushing the pizza slice away. “He
was perfect. You only met him the one time, El, but he was.”

           
“I
know,” Ella said. “He sounded perfect.”

           
“He
was.”

           
Except he wasn’t,
Ella thought as she
waited patiently for Maddie to continue.

           
“He
brought me home and that was it.” Maddie shrugged and stared out the hotel
window, seeing nothing.

           
“
What
was it, sweetie? What happened?”

           
Maddie
refocused on Ella in the room as if surprised to see her.

           
“His
mother and sister just kind of took me,” she said quietly. “At first, because
they said they were training me to be a good wife to G-g-gagan, I thought it
was like how they say you get broken in at boot camp?” She looked at Ella and
Ella nodded warily. “How they break you, so they can build you back up their
way?”

           
Ella
let out a breath.
God, those two psychos
were even worse than Carol.
Probably.

           
“And
when I complained to…to…G-g-gagan…” She put her hands to her face to muffle the
sobs. Ella rushed to her friend and put her arms around her.

           
“It’s
over now, Maddie,” she said. “He can’t hurt you now.”

           
“I
know,” Maddie said through her tears. She looked up in agony at Ella and could
barely get the words out: “But I miss him so much.”

           
That
night, as Maddie slept in the other double bed in the room, Ella went online to
a passport expediting company and arranged for a replacement passport for Maddie.
Then she booked her friend a seat on her own return flight out the following
day. She was worried about actually getting Maddie
on
that flight since up to the point where she fell asleep
exhausted in the bed, Maddie was insisting that she couldn’t leave Egypt and
she couldn’t leave Gupta.

           
Ella
found herself frustrated with the fact that the person being rescued was
resisting the rescue. She figured she would just have to take it a day at a
time. She couldn’t force Maddie to come back with her.
Could she
? If Maddie needed another day or two to warm up to the
idea, they could manage that. Ella stood next to the window and stared out into
the dark Egyptian night. Something out there excited her. Something out there
called to her.

Unnerved by the
feeling, she stepped away from the window and decided a long hot bath wouldn’t
be a bad idea for her either. She glanced at the bedside clock which read five
a.m. Dothan time, and wondered if her cowboy marshal was up yet. As soon as the
thought came to her she stopped as if she’d been slapped. Rowan hadn’t worn his
cowboy hat in months. How could she not have noticed that? The realization was so
dramatic that she had to sit down on the edge of the bed to field it. Rowan,
whose identity and signature trademark had been his white, low-brimmed cowboy
hat, had stopped wearing it.

           
And
she had not even noticed.

 
          
The
next morning, she and Maddie had breakfast in their hotel room. Ella could see
that Maddie was a little better. She even laughed a few times and she hadn’t
mentioned Gupta’s name once. However, when Ella told Maddie that they were
booked on that afternoon’s flight back to the States, Maddie asked if they
could push it back a day.

           
“I
don’t think I could stand being cooped up on a nine-hour flight while in the
middle of still trying to process this,” she said.

           
While
Ella wasn’t exactly sure how a flight would impede her ability to “process”
anything, she agreed.

           
They
spent the day talking about trivial things. Ella was careful not to mention her
own wedding—which would have been taking place right about now, she
realized—since she didn’t want to remind Maddie of weddings that don’t
happen. They spent most of the day talking about their time together in college
and about life in Cairo. Maddie had seen very little of the city before being
whisked away to
bastille Gupta.
When
she suggested that the two of them go out that night, Ella wanted to believe
that her friend really was feeling better, but the way Maddie continued to look
at the telephone and the front door—as if expecting company—made
Ella suspect otherwise.

           
“You
know, Maddie, if you really want to go back to him and those lovely women who
tied you up and beat you with sticks, I won’t stand in your way.”

           
“Don’t
be silly, Ella.” But Maddie didn’t look at her.

           
“But
what I
will
do,” Ella said, “is call
your brothers, your mom and dad and I’ll put an update of it all on
Facebook—complete with InstaSnaps of your bruises—and then, when
your brothers and parents come roaring over here with smoke pumping out of
their ears to disembowel your intended, then and only then, will I agree to give
up and go home alone. And I
will
go
then because I will have handed the torch off to better people than me for
getting the job done. And by
done
, I
mean a supreme dose of
whup-ass
for your
ex
-fiancé. Just to be clear.”

           
Maddie
stared at Ella and said nothing.

           
“Room
service sound good?” Ella said brightly picking up the hotel phone.

           
Rowan
turned off the television set and picked up his cellphone. He was regretting
his hurt comments now at the airport where he told her not to bother texting
him. Every time he tried to call her he got a recording saying the line wasn’t
available. While he figured it was likely Ella had gone off without taking a
charger converter for her phone, it was also possible that he’d upset her to
the point that she didn’t want to talk to him.

           
He
went to her computer and touched the keyboard to wake it up. Two clicks into
her browsing history and he had the name of the hotel where she was staying.

           
Today
was their wedding day. It had pissed down rain all morning. It would’ve been a
crappy day for a wedding, all things considered. It was a Saturday so he didn’t
have work to occupy him. He knew he should’ve made plans for the day to prevent
him thinking too much. Trouble was, he thought he
had
plans.

           
He
entered the international number for the Cairo Hilton and asked for Ella’s
room. He glanced at the kitchen clock to note it was early there, right at
seven am. But his girl was an early riser. He didn’t expect he’d wake her.

           
“Hello?”
Her voice sounded tentative, as if she’d been fielding telemarketing calls all
night.

           
“Hey,
babe,” he said.

           
“Rowan!
I’m so glad to hear your voice.”

           
“How’s
it going? Did you get her?”

           
“I
did.” She lowered her voice. “She’s sleeping. We were supposed to go home today
so I’m glad you called.”

           
“You’re
not leaving today?”

           
“No,
Maddie’s really messed up. She still thinks she wants to be with that jerk.”

           
“Not
surprising.”

           
“I
know, but annoying when you’re trying to get a flight out.”

           
“How
much longer, do you think?”

           
“I
don’t know. I’m hoping for tomorrow.”

           
“I
miss you, Ella,” he said.

           
“I
miss you, too,” she said. “Rowan, why aren’t you wearing your cowboy hat any
more?”

           
“My
hat? I don’t know,” he said. “Just grew out of it, I guess.”

           
“Rowan,
I am determined that we are going to fix whatever’s wrong, okay?”

           
“Yeah,
me, too, darlin’.”

           
There
was a slight pause. “Today’s our wedding day.”

           
“I
know.”

           
“I’m
so sorry, Rowan.”

           
“Don’t
be. Just come home.”

           
“My
cellphone died. I don’t have a charger here.”

           
“I
figured.”

           
“But
I’ll call you when I know for sure when our flight is out.”

           
“And
I’ll be at the airport waiting for you.”

           
“I
love you, Rowan,”

           
“And
me you, Ella.”

Chapter Five

Cairo 2013

           
Two
days later Ella felt like tying Maddie up herself. She was going so stir-crazy
she was snapping at Maddie and rethinking the wisdom of the whole trip. It was
bad enough that she was in an exotic city—maybe the most exotic city in
the world—and she wasn’t able to see any of it, but all the television
channels except one were in Arabic. On the third day of their self-imposed
incarceration, Ella sat Maddie down and asked her flat out if Ella needed to
call Maddie’s parents or would she come home with her?

           
Maddie
had slowly begun regaining her sanity, it seemed to Ella.

           
But
that’s just what crazy people want you to think.

           
“I
talked to G-g-gagan,” Maddie said after the two had polished off another bout
of room service pizza with Coke and French fries.
           

           
“What?!”
Ella froze with the last pizza slice half way to her lips.

           
Maddie
nodded. “When you were downstairs last night.”

           
Ella
had run down to the lobby for less than five minutes, just for a change of
pace. Seeing all the people coming and going had felt like an infusion of life
and energy that she desperately needed. It had been agony to force herself back
upstairs, as if she were needed to attend some terminally ill person on her
death bed.

           
“He’s
found us?” Ella stood up although it occurred to her that if she talked to him
yesterday, he would have had plenty of time to come get them before now.

           
“I
told him we were here,” Maddie said. “He’s not a drug lord or Interpol
gangster, Ella. He’s not on the run from the law.”

           
Ella
said nothing.

           
“I
told him I needed to go home. I told him.”

           
“What
did he say?”

           
“He…he
said fine.” Maddie shrugged. “He was his old charming self. Said he was sorry
it didn’t work out and that he’ll always…he’ll always love me.” Maddie
swallowed hard and her eyes filled with tears.

           
Yeah, love banging on you,
Ella thought
narrowing her eyes. “Well, that’s good,” she said. “Sounds like he sees the
wisdom in it.”

           
“Yes.”

           
“So,
we’re good?” Ella reached over and touched Maddie on the knee. “We’re good to
go?”

           
Maddie
nodded. “I called my mom while I was at it.”
 
 

           
Praise
the Lord.

           
“Told
her I was coming home, that it didn’t work out. You know what she said?”

           
Ella
shook her head.

           
“She
said
Thank God
.”

           
Later
that afternoon, Ella left the hotel. Confidant that Maddie wouldn’t try to
leave to reunite with Gagan and, after four days stuck in a hotel room, not
sure if she even cared at this point, she left Maddie napping and had the
doorman hail another taxi for her. She had had plenty of time to map out where
she might go if she had a few hours reprieve from her task as loving jailer.
She told the taxi driver to take her to the
Khan
al-Khalili
bazaar. She would have loved to have seen the pyramids but it
just wasn’t going to be possible. It occurred to her that she and Rowan still
had their tickets for the September trip and he appeared to be a big
archaeology bug. (
Who knew
?) Maybe
she’d get her Facebook picture on a camel yet.

           
Because
there seemed to be so many taxis, indeed so many of every kind of vehicle, she
felt no concern in letting her taxi go. She assumed she could easily hail
another one. Located in the Islamic part of Cairo or Medieval Cairo, the bazaar
was a magic land of hodgepodge shops and boutiques, a combination of fresh fruit
juice stands and ancient storefronts with such amazing treasures inside as
chandeliers to faux antiquities. The noise, the smell, the swirling mass of
humanity, reminded Ella of the Heidelberg markets in the seventeenth century.
The only difference was the huge number of people Ella saw walking around the
bazaar with cellphones slapped to their heads. She was amazed at how many
people were so distracted by conversations that they weren’t really
there
.
Worse than in the States
, she decided.
   

She wandered into
several stores and through a maze of stalls, careful not to touch anything
because she didn’t know culturally how that would be seen. The smells from the
food stalls made her stomach growl but her experience with the unpeeled fruit
on her first day made her wary. She watched one man shaving meat off a large
shank that looked like the back end of a mule and she wasn’t at all sure how
clean his hands were. Or, unfortunately, she realized, she
was
sure.

           
She
watched the light begin to fail but stubbornly refused to think in terms of
returning to the hotel just yet.
This is
all I have! One short hour or two! I need to make the most of it.

           
As
she made her way into the heart of the bazaar, her heart feeling lighter and
more energized than it had in months, she saw a woman just a few years older
than herself standing on the corner and staring at Ella as if she’d been
waiting for her. In a strange way, Ella had the odd feeling that
she
had been waiting for her, too. She
walked toward her and as she approached, the woman smiled. She held out both
her hands to Ella and Ella took them in hers.

           
“
Es-Salamu-Aleku
,” the woman said.
Welcome
.

           
“Thanks,”
Ella said.

           
“You
will come in?” The woman gave Ella’s hands a squeeze and then let them go. She
was taller than Ella, with long hair caught up in a head scarf with pretty
stones twinkling from the band. She wore a multi-colored
hijab
and sandals with rhinestones across the buckles.

           
Ella
entered the woman’s shop and saw that it was a small tearoom or coffee shop. It
was empty.

           
“Since
the 2011 Revolution,” the woman said, gesturing to a chair, “the tourists have
stopped coming.”

           
“I’m
sure they’ll be back eventually,” Ella said, looking around the shop.
 
A beautifully ornate water pipe sat on
the table that the woman was indicating that Ella should sit at. The walls of
the shop were lined with small sculptures and glassware.

           
“Do
you take
sheesha
?” the woman said
over her shoulder to Ella, indicating the pipe. “I have double apple if you’d
prefer it to tobacco.”

           
“No,
thanks,” Ella said. She wondered why in the world she came into the shop just
because the woman greeted her as if they knew one another.

           
The
woman came back with two cups and saucers. She set them down on the table.

           
“I
took the liberty of sugaring yours,” she said, smiling.

           
Ella
smiled but a puzzled look came to her face. “I know it’s not possible that we
know each other,” she said.

           
The
woman laughed, her eyes bright at Ella’s words. “But you can’t help but think
we do.”

           
“Is
that weird?”

           
“Not
at all. In fact, I
have
recognized
you.”

           
“Well,
I’m not famous,” Ella laughed as she sipped her coffee. “So I can’t imagine how
you could have.”

           
“My
name is Yeena.”

           
“I’m
Ella.”

           
“Sometimes,
Ella, the knowing is a kind of unknowable knowing.”

           
“Wow.
Okay,” Ella said, shaking her head and grinning.

           
“May
I tell your fortune?”

           
“Oh!
Is that what this is? I’m sorry, I thought it was just a tea shop or
something.”

           
“For
certain kinds of travelers it is a teashop,” Yeena said, her smile softening.
“For others it is a way station. May I see your hand?”

           
Ella
put her cup down and held out her hand. She didn’t want to ask how much it
cost. She hoped it wasn’t too expensive. All in all it was a lovely story to
take back with her to Rowan. And her dad and Suzie would get a kick out of hearing
about it too.

           
Yeena’s
hands were cool and firm. She held Ella’s hand palm up and traced a finger down
the center of it. It tickled but felt nice, too, like a doctor being able to
read what ails you. Ella felt a rush of trust in this strange woman.

           
“Yes,
it is as I thought,” Yeena said. “You have a dragon to fight.”

           
Ella
thought of Carol and smiled grimly.

           
“Your
man waits for you.”

           
Ella
looked up mildly startled but then decided that was probably a pretty safe bet
for any female traveling alone.
Heck, for
all Yeena knew, her man could be waiting for her outside in a taxi or back at
the hotel.

           
“He
has risked much to be with you.” Yeena looked up at Ella. “And you him.”

           
“I
guess, like a lot of couples,” Ella said noncommittally.

           
“Not
like this,” Yeena said, shaking her head. “You are a time traveler.”

           
Ella
jerked her hand out of Yeena’s grasp and gaped at her. “What did you say?”

           
Yeena
seemed unperturbed at Ella’s reaction. “I knew you were coming today.”

           
“Who
are you?” Ella stood up and glanced at the door, but Yeena put her hands out to
calm her.

           
“I
am a seer,” she said. “Nothing more.”

           
“That’s
impossible,” Ella said, still standing. “People can’t see the future.”

           
“No?
Can they travel back in time?”

           
Whether
through a dull acquiescence or because her knees were giving out on her, Ella didn’t
know, but she sat back down hard in her chair.

           
“How…how
did you know?” she asked, not sure if she felt terrified or relieved that
someone knew her secret.

           
“I
don’t know
how
I know,” Yeena admitted,
wiping up some coffee that Ella had spilled. “I just know I do. I have
something to show you.”

           
“Show
me?” Ella looked around the shop. It had begun to feel a little warm to her.

           
“Not
here. You must go and get it.”

           
“I
don’t really have time for more shopping today. I’m sorry. And I’m leaving the
country tomorrow.”

           
Ella
could swear that Yeena smiled even broader at that.

           
“You
must take this with you on your travels,” she said. “It is for your husband.”

           
“I’m
not married.”

           
“We
both know that you are, Ella.” The woman smiled. “I have seen a wedding in a
very old chapel surrounded by many women. Nuns, I believe.”

           
Oh
my God. She was seeing Heidelberg. The seer was talking about Heidelberg.

           
Ella
sat stunned. “We
were
married,” she
said slowly. “In 1620. When we came back…” she looked at Yeena. “…we didn’t
think it still held, the marriage. We had no license.” She struggled to get the
words out. “It was almost four hundred years later.”

           
“I
know.”

           
“What
is this souvenir I need to bring to Rowan? I don’t have a lot of time. I really
have to go back to the hotel now. We leave
tomorrow
.”

           
“You
must retrieve it before you get on the airplane.”