Whispers in the Sand (60 page)

Serena, who had landed first, stood apart from the others and waited for Anna. To her annoyance, she could see Andy had done the same.

“We’ve got to get rid of him, otherwise we haven’t a chance of slipping away.” She was glancing around her into the shadows. There was some scrub, some small trees, but the area was well lit, and the way to the range of seats where the audience would sit was clearly marked.

“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.

“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 sat 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 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.

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 candle flame 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 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 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?”

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.