Whispers in the Sand (56 page)

Louisa smiled. “He is going back to scrabble in the sands at Abu Simbel, to look for the scent bottle which I left there.”

Augusta raised an eyebrow. “Ridiculous man! He really believes in all this magic, doesn’t he!”

“Oh yes.” Louisa nodded sadly. “He really believes in it.”

She turned away and walked slowly back towards her cabin. Picking up her hairbrush, she was brushing out her long tangled hair when her eye fell on the woven bag lying on the floor under the table where Sir John had left it. She paused, and frowning, she put down her brush. Stooping, she picked up the bag and tipped it up over the bed, taking the corners and shaking it so that a cascade of pencils and sketchpads fell onto the bedcovers. There was her small paintbox, the water pot and water bottle, though why she had taken them with her to a spot where the paints dried on the tip of her brush before she could bring it to the paper, she wasn’t sure. There was a packet of charcoal strips for sketching, wrapped in tissue, an indiarubber, a small knife for sharpening her pencils, and, under it all, the silk-wrapped bundle tied with ribbon which was the scent bottle of the priests. She picked it up and held it in her hands for a few long moments, then quietly she began to cry.

“So, that’s how it came back.” Serena shook her head. “And Carstairs had already sailed. He was reviled, of course. His name is still known for his carryings on. I don’t think he ever went back to England.”

“And he never got the sacred bottle.” Anna was staring at it. “I think I should throw it into the Nile.”

Serena grimaced. “No! No, don’t do that. I want to do another ritual. To talk to the priests.” She stood up and went to stand at the window, staring out across the river. “The bottle belonged to them, Anna. Or at least to one of them. Until this is all resolved, they can’t rest. We have to find out what they want us to do. Please, let me have one more go.”

“And the snake?”

“The snake will not harm us.”

“How do you know? How do we know Carstairs wasn’t so furious he gave it orders to kill anyone who went near it?”

“We don’t. But on the evidence we’ve got, it looks as though he didn’t. After all, no one else has died. Can we do it, Anna? After lunch, while people are having a siesta. Can we call up the priests again? I want to talk to Anhotep.”

Anna’s mouth fell open. “I thought we were going to wait until tonight, on Philae.” She shivered.

Serena nodded. “I was, but there is no reason to wait. Please, Anna. It almost worked last time. And I have a feeling it will now.” She nodded excitedly. “But first we must find out about Charley. Can we ask Omar to see what’s happened to her?”

Omar called the hotel on his mobile phone. He listened and nodded, spoke rapidly, and at last cut the connection. “She is coming back to the boat. They say she is rested and fine and they are putting her in a taxi.” He glanced at them. “They said the bill has been paid by Toby Hayward, and he was there this afternoon.”

“He was there?” Anna looked at him, stunned. “He was at the Old Cataract Hotel?”

Omar nodded.

“And he saw Charley?”

“He spoke to her and settled all her expenses.”

“Then where is he?”

Omar shrugged.

Two minutes later, Anna and Serena were outside Toby’s cabin. Anna knocked. There was no answer, so she reached for the handle. The door swung open and they peered in. The cabin looked totally normal, if tidier than when Anna had last seen it. The pictures, the paints were neatly organised, the luggage still there.

Serena stepped into the cabin behind her. “He hasn’t moved out, then.”

“Why should he have? Where would he have gone? We were planning to come back together.” Anna bit her lip miserably. “If he was at the hotel, then he can’t have been under arrest.” She stared round her at the dressing table, the neatly made bed, the rails in the bathroom with their fresh, white towels. “Omar said his passport was still here,” she said wistfully, sitting down on the bed.

“Perhaps Charley will know where he is,” Serena suggested.

There was a sound outside in the corridor, and they both looked up as Andy appeared at the open door. He stared round. “Lunchtime, ladies.”

“I don’t suppose you’ve heard where Toby is, have you?” Anna tried to restrain the hostility she could feel welling up inside her.

He shook his head. “Presumably the police still have him.”

“He’s not under arrest, Andy, he is in Aswan. Or at least he was a little while ago.”

Andy looked taken aback for a moment, then he rapidly recovered. He shifted from one foot to another. “It’s all beyond me. Why don’t we have lunch and stop fussing about Toby Hayward?” He walked off briskly towards the dining room.

The meal was subdued, and Ibrahim and Ali, as though sensing everyone’s exhaustion after their long drive through the desert, served it with the minimum of delay. Only some forty minutes later, Anna and Serena, after surreptitiously making sure that Andy had retired with much yawning and stretching to his own cabin, made their way to Anna’s on the deck above.

The preparations were much quicker this time. Anna pinned the shawl over the window shutters whilst Serena laid out her altar. The candles, incense, statuette were all put in place, then Anna reached for the scent bottle, unwrapped it, and laid it reverently next to Serena’s sistrum.

“Ready?” she breathed. Her hands were shaking. Serena nodded. She reached into her bag for a box of matches and lit first the small incense cone and then the candles.

Behind her Anna retreated once more to the bed and, drawing her legs up under her, sat as far away from Serena as she could in the cramped space of the small cabin, watching breathlessly as Serena glanced at her. “Whatever happens, don’t try to interfere. Don’t try to stop it, and don’t wake me if I go into a trance. It could be dangerous for me. Just keep yourself safe and watch.”

As the first low chanting began to fill the room, rising and falling to the accompaniment of the rattle of the sistrum, Anna felt the atmosphere tighten perceptibly. Her eyes were fixed on the bottle. A pale, wavering light was falling on it from the candles, interlaced in flickering, intersecting arcs. From the incense, a spiral of smoke rose towards the ceiling, curling lazily upwards and dispersing in the gloom. The bottle sat before the statue of Isis, its bright colours muted and iridescent in the candlelight. As the reflection of the flame played on the glass, it looked as though whatever was inside the bottle moved.

Anna clenched her fists. She could feel perspiration running down her temples and between her breasts. Serena’s voice was growing stronger, either she was less self-conscious now or she had forgotten Anna completely and had lost herself in the phrases of her invocation. When she stopped, the cabin seemed to echo for a moment with the words of power, then the candle flames began to stream sideways as though in a strong draught. Anna swallowed. She brought her hand to her breast and, fumbling for the amulet, clutched it tightly between her fingers.

She could see him—the tall figure—so transparent he was barely more than a shimmer in the air near the window.

Serena flung back her head and rattled the sistrum in front of her. “Come! Oh Anhotep, servant of Isis, come! Show yourself before me and before this vial of sacred tears!”

He was easier to see now, his features more distinct, the outline of his shape clear in the shadows of the candlelight.

Serena, her hands on the altar, dropped to her knees. Her head back, her eyes closed, she gave the sistrum a final rattle and laid it down. Anhotep was suddenly closer to her. He was towering over her. His body, a transparent shadow, was so close he was touching her, and slowly, as she stood up, their two outlined shapes seemed to coalesce and become one.

She convulsed forward, shaking, then slowly she straightened again and opened her eyes. “Greetings.” Her voice was completely unlike anything Anna had heard before. Deep and bell-like, it contained the echoes of three thousand desert suns. “I am Anhotep, servant of the servants of the gods. I come to take possession of that which is mine.”

Anna’s mouth had gone dry. Terrified, she stared at the figure before her as, slowly, she realised that she was alone in the room with him. The body that was Serena’s was somehow inert, vacant. It was as though Serena herself had stood aside and lent him the flesh, the muscles, the organs he needed to function once more on the earth.

She cleared her throat nervously and was alarmed to see that the figure standing before the altar had clearly heard her. The face turned towards hers.

“Who approaches the altar of the goddess?” The words seemed to fill the air around her.

“I am Anna.” She forced herself to speak out loud. “It is I who brought the sacred vial back to Egypt. I…we need to know what you want done with it?”

She could see a hand stretching out in the candlelight. It hovered over the little bottle, and Anna noticed with a shudder that as it passed between the bottle and the candle flame it cast no shadow, though it was Serena’s hand.

When the cabin door flew open, for a moment nothing changed. The light flooding in from the corridor missed the altar and the figure standing before it, and the shadows for a moment grew darker.

“Help me!” Charley’s voice was unmistakable. “Help me! It’s happening again. I don’t know what to do—” She staggered slightly, then slowly she fell forwards into the cabin.

With a hiss of rage, the figure at the altar turned. “Hatsek!”

Charley scrambled unsteadily to her feet and stood where she was, shaking violently. Anna looked from one to the other, paralysed with fear.

Whatever happens, don’t try and interfere!

Serena’s words seemed to hang in the air for a moment.

“Hatsek! I curse thee for thy vile betrayal!” As the words filled the cabin, Anna became aware of a second figure in the doorway.

She dragged her eyes away from Charley, and Serena and saw that it was Toby.

“Curse thee for the mothers thou hast caused to weep for their sons! Curse thee for the deceit and slaughter, curse thee for the evil words thou hast uttered!”

Charley took a step back, then she seemed to rally. She drew herself to her full height. “Thou wert ever a fool, Anhotep!” She moved forward and reached out towards the altar, where the candles streamed sideways, dripping coloured wax. As her hand moved through the smoke of the incense towards the little bottle, Anhotep let out a great cry of rage and lunged at her.

As the two women collided, Charley let out a scream and flung herself back towards the door. Behind her, Serena slumped to the floor.

The two priests were gone.

“Turn on the lights, Anna, for God’s sake!” Toby had caught Charley by the wrists. She was struggling frantically as he pushed her back into the room and down onto the bed beside Anna.

Anna leapt to her feet and, reaching for the shawl, pulled it away from the windows, then she dragged open the shutters. “Serena!” She dropped to her knees beside the lifeless form lying huddled on the floor. “Serena, are you all right?”

On the bed behind her, Charley was sobbing hysterically. She grabbed at the bedcover and pulled it up over her head, rocking back and forth.

“Is Serena OK?” Toby snuffed the candles, then he sat down on the bed beside Charley and put his arm round her.

“She’s breathing. She’s unconscious. Oh God!”

“She’ll be all right. Put a pillow under her head. Here.” He pulled one off the bed. “Fetch some water for her to sip.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Don’t you know? You heard her. She’s what they call a trance medium. A channeller. She allowed the priest to talk through her, but without allowing him to possess her. She was just a vehicle, and she obviously knows how to protect herself. She must, if she’s done rescue work. You’ve got to wait for her to come back. She’ll be all right.”

“And Charley? What is she?” Anna looked up.

“The same, perhaps. No, it didn’t happen voluntarily. Perhaps she is possessed. Hatsek used her energy, and now he’s used her body as well. I shouldn’t have brought her back to the boat.”

“No, you shouldn’t!” Suddenly she was shaking with fright and anger. “Where have you been? What happened to you? Why did you disappear like that? We needed you!”

He was gathering Charley into his arms, rocking her like a baby. “Later, Anna. I’m sorry I had to leave you. I couldn’t help it. I’ll explain it all later. Let’s get this mess sorted out first.”

There was a groan from Serena, and Anna turned back to her. She caught her hand and stroked it gently. “Serena? Can you speak to me? Are you all right?” She climbed to her feet and, as Toby had suggested, fetched a glass of water. With an effort, she helped the other woman sit up, and, with her arm round her shoulders, she held the glass to her lips.

“What happened?” Serena’s voice was hoarse. She frowned and rubbed her eyes, moving her head from side to side.

At the sound of her voice, Charley moaned and clung to Toby more tightly still.

“Did Anhotep come?” Serena grabbed the glass from Anna and began to gulp down the water.

“Yes. He came.”

“Did he say what he wanted done?”