Victoria Nelson - Blood Lines Part 1

Blood Lines.

by Tanya Huff.

Chapter One.

He had been almost aware for some time. Nothingness had shattered when they removed him from the chamber long concealed behind the centuries empty tomb of a forgotten priest. The final layer of the binding spell had been written on the rock wall smashed to gain access and, with that gone, the spell itself had begun to fray.

Every movement frayed it further. The surrounding ka, more souls than had been near him in millennia, called him to feed. Slowly, he reached for memory.

Then, just as he brushed against self and had only to reach out and grasp it and draw home the key to his freedom, the movement stopped and the lives went away. But the nothingness didn't quite return.

And that was the worst of all.

Sixteenth Dynasty, thought Dr. Rax running his finger lightly along the upper surface of the plain, unadorned rectangle of black basalt. Strange, when the rest of the collection was Eighteenth. He could now, however, understand why the British were willing to let the artifact go; although it was a splendid example of its type, it was neither going to bring new visitors flocking to the galleries nor was it likely to shed much light on the past.

Besides, thanks to the acquisitiveness of aristocracy with more money than brains,Great Britain has all the Egyptian antiquities it can hope to use. Dr. Rax was careful not to let that thought show on his face, as a member of said aristocracy, albeit of a more recent vintage, fidgeted at his shoulder.

Too well bred to actually ask, the fourteenth Baron Montclair leaned forward, hands shoved into the pockets of his crested blazer.

Dr. Rax, unsure if the younger man was looking worried or merely vacant, attempted to ignore him.And I thought Monty Python created the concept of the upper-cla.s.s twit , he mused as he continued his inspection.How foolish of me .

Unlike most sarcophagi, the artifact Dr. Rax examined had no lid but rather a sliding stone panel in one narrow end. Briefly, he wondered why that feature alone hadn't been enough to interest the British museums. As far as he knew the design survived on only one other sarcophagus, an alabaster beauty found by Zakaria Goneim in the unfinished step pyramid of Sekhem-khet.

Behind him, the fourteenth baron cleared his throat.

Dr. Rax continued to ignore him.

Although one corner had been chipped, the sarcophagus was in very good condition. Tucked away inone of the lower cellars of the Monclairs' ancestral home for almost a hundred years, it seemed to have been ignored by everything including time.

And excluding spiders. He brushed aside a dusty curtain of webbing, frowned, and with fingers that wanted to tremble, pulled a penlight out of his suit pocket.

"I say, is something wrong?" The fourteenth baron had an excuse for sounding a little frantic. The very exclusive remodeling firm would be arriving in a little under a month to turn the ancestral pile into a very exclusive health club and that great b.l.o.o.d.y stone box was sitting right where he'd planned to put the women's sauna.

The thudding of Dr. Rax's heart almost drowned out the question. He managed to mutter, "Nothing."

Then he knelt and very carefully played the narrow beam of light over the lower edge of the sliding plate.

Centered on the mortared seam, six inches above the base of the sarcophagus, was an oval of clay-a nearly perfect intact clay seal stamped with, as far as Dr. Rax could tell through the dust and the spider webs, the cartouche of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian G.o.d of wisdom.

Just for a moment, he forgot to breathe. An intact seal could mean only one thing. The sarcophagus wasn't-as everyone had a.s.sumed-empty.

For a dozen heartbeats, he stared at the seal and struggled with his conscience. The Brits had already said they didn't want the artifact. He was under no obligation to let them know what they were giving away. On the other hand... He sighed, switched off the penlight, and stood. "I need to make a call," he told the anxious peer. "If you could show me to a phone."

"Dr. Rax, what a pleasant surprise. Still out at Haversted Hall are you? Get a look at his lords.h.i.+p's 'b.l.o.o.d.y-great-black-stone-box'?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. And that's why I've called." He took a deep breath; best to get it over with quickly, the loss might hurt less. "Dr. Davis, did you actually send one of your people out here to look at the sarcophagus."

"Why?" The British Egyptologist snorted. "Need some help identifying it?"

Abruptly, Dr. Rax remembered why, and how much, he disliked the other man. "I think I can manage to cla.s.sify it, thank you. I was just wondering if any of your people had seen the artifact."

"No need. We saw the rest of the junkMontclair dragged out of his nooks and crannies. You'd think that with all the precious bits and pieces leavingEgypt at the time, his Lords.h.i.+p's ancestor could have brought home something worthwhile, even by accident, wouldn't you?"

Professional ethics warred with desire. Ethics won. "About the sarcophagus..."

"Look, Dr. Rax..." On the other end of the line, Dr. Davis sighed explosively. "... this sarcophagus might be a big thing for you, but trust me, we've got all we need. We have storerooms of important, historically significant artifacts we may never have time to study."And you don't , was the not too subtly implied message. "I think we can allow one unadorned hunk of basalt to go to the colonies."

"So I can send for my preparators and start packing it up?" Dr. Rax asked quietly, his tone in severe contrast to the white-knuckled grip that twisted the phone cord. "If you're sure you don't want to use a couple of my people..."

Not if my only other option was to carry the sarcophagus on my lap all the way home. "No, thank you. I'm sure all your people have plenty of historically significant things to do."

"Well, if that's the way you want it, be my guest. I'll have the paperwork done up and sent down to you at the Hall. You'll be able to get your artifact out of the country as easily as if it were a plaster statue of Big Ben."Which, his tone said clearly, is about its equivalent value .

"Thank you, Dr. Davis."You pompous, egocentric a.s.shole . Dr. Rax added silently as he hung up.Oh, well , he soothed his lacerated conscience,no one can say I didn't try .

He straightened his jacket and turned to face the hovering baron, smiling rea.s.suringly. "I believe you said that 50,000 pounds was your asking price...?"

"Uh, Dr. Rax..." Karen Lahey stood and dusted off her knees. "Are you sure the Brits don't want this?"

"Positive." Dr. Rax touched his breast and listened for a second to the comforting rustle of papers in his suit pocket. Dr. Davis had been as good as his word. The sarcophagus could leaveEngland as soon as it was packed and insurance had been arranged.

Karen glanced down at the seal. That it held the cartouche of Thoth and not one of the necropolis symbols was rare enough. What the seal implied was rarer still. "They knew about..." She waved a hand at the clay disk.

"I called Dr. Davis right after I discovered it." Which was true, as far as it went.

She frowned and glanced over at the other preparator. His expression matched hers. Something was wrong. No one in his right mind would give up a sealed sarcophagus and the promise that represented.

"And Dr. Davis said...?" she prodded.

"Dr. Davis said, and I quote, 'This sarcophagus might be a big thing for you, but we've got all we need.

We have storerooms of important, historically significant artifacts we may never have time to study.' " Dr.

Rax hid a smile at the developing scowls. "And then he added, 'I think we can let one unadorned hunk of basalt go to the colonies.'"

"You didn't tell him about the seal, did you, Doctor?"

He shrugged. "After that, would you?"

Karen's scowl deepened. "I wouldn't tell that patronizing son of a b.i.t.c.h, excuse my French, the time of day. You leave this with us, Dr. Rax, and we'll pack it up so that even the spiderwebs arrive intact."

Her companion nodded. "Colonies," he snorted. "Just who the h.e.l.l does he think he is?"

Dr. Rax had to stop himself from skipping as he left the room. The Curator of Egyptology,RoyalOntarioMuseum , did not skip. It wasn't dignified. Butno one mortared, then sealed, an empty coffin.

"Yes!" He allowed himself one jubilant punch at the air in the privacy of the deserted upper cellar.

"We've got ourselves a mummy!" The movement had begun again and the memories strengthened. Sand and sun. Heat. Light. He had no need to remember darkness; darkness had been his companion for too long.

As the weight of the sarcophagus made flying out of the question, a leisurely trip back across theAtlantic on the grand old lady of luxury ocean liners, the QE II, would have been nice. Unfortunately, the acquisitions budget had been stretched almost to the breaking point with the purchase and the packing and the insurance and the best the museum could afford was a Danish freighter heading out of Liverpool forHalifax . The s.h.i.+p leftEngland on October 2nd. G.o.d and the North Atlantic willing, she'd reachCanada in ten days.

Dr. Rax sent the two preparators back by plane and he himself traveled with the artifact. It was foolish, he knew, but he didn't want to be parted from it. Although the s.h.i.+p occasionally carried pa.s.sengers, the accommodations were spartan and the meals, while nouris.h.i.+ng, were plain. Dr. Rax didn't notice.

Refused access to the cargo hold where he could be near the sarcophagus and the mummy he was sure it contained, he stayed as close as he could, caught up on paperwork, and at night lay in his narrow bunk and visualized the opening of the coffin.

Sometimes, he removed the seal and slid the end panel up in the full glare of the media; the find of the century, on every news program and front page in the world. There'd be book contracts, and speaking tours, and years of research as the contents were studied, then removed to be studied further.

Sometimes, it was just him and his staff, working slowly and meticulously. Pure science. Pure discovery.

And still the years of research.

He imagined the contents in every possible form or combination of forms. Some nights expanding on the descriptions, some nights simplifying. It wouldn't be a royal mummy-more likely a priest or an official of the court- and so hopefully would have missed the anointing with aromatic oils that had partially destroyed the mummy of Tutankhamen.

He grew so aware of it that he felt he could go into the hold and pick its container out of hundreds of identical containers. His thoughts became filled with it to the exclusion of all else; of the sea, of the s.h.i.+p, of the sailors. One of the Portuguese sailors began making the sign against the evil eye whenever he approached.

He started to speak to it each night before he slept.

"Soon," he told it. "Soon."

He remembered a face, thin and worried, bending over him and constantly muttering. He remembered a hand, the soft skin damp with sweat as it brushed his eyes closed. He remembered terror as he felt the fabric laid across his face. He remembered pain as the strip of linen that held the spell was wrapped around him and secured.

But he couldn't remember self.

He could sense only one ka, and that at such a distance he knew it must be reaching for him as he reached for it.

"Soon," it told him. "Soon." He could wait.

The air at the museum loading dock was so charged with suppressed excitement that even the driver of the van, a man laconic to the point of legend, became infected. He pulled the keys out of his pocket like he was pulling a rabbit out of a hat and opened the van doors with a flourish that added a silentTah dah to the proceedings.

The plywood packing crate, reinforced with two by twos and strapping, looked no different from any number of other crates that the Royal Ontario Museum had received over the years, but the entire Egyptology Department-none of whom had a reason to be down in Receiving-surged forward and Dr.

Rax beamed like the Madonna must have beamed into the manger.

Preparators did not usually unload trucks. They unloaded this one. And as much as he single-handedly wanted to carry the crate up to the workroom, Dr. Rax stood aside and let them get on with it. His mummy deserved the best.

"Hail the conquering hero comes." Dr. Rachel Shane, the a.s.sistant curator, walked over to stand beside him. "Welcome back, Elias. You look a little tired."

"I haven't been sleeping well," Dr. Rax admitted, rubbing eyes already rimmed with red. "Guilty conscience?"

He snorted, recognizing she was teasing. "Strange dreams about being tied down and slowly suffocating."

"Maybe you're being possessed." She nodded at the crate.

He snorted again. "Maybe the Board of Directors has been trying to contact me." Glancing around, he scowled at the rest of his staff. "Don't you lot have anything better to do than stand around watching a wooden box come off a truck?"

Only the newest grad student looked nervous, the others merely grinned and collectively shook their heads.

Dr. Rax grinned as well; he couldn't help himself. He was exhausted and badly in need of something more sustaining than the coffee and fast food they'd consumed at every stop between Halifax and Toronto, but he'd also never felt this elated. This artifact had the potential to put the Royal Ontario Museum, already an internationally respected inst.i.tution, on the scientific map and everyone in the room knew it. "As much as I'd like to believe that all this excitement is directed at my return, I know d.a.m.ned well it isn't." No one bothered to protest. "And as you can now see there's nothing to see, why don't the lot of you head back up to the workroom where we can all jump about and enthuse in the privacy of our own department?"

Behind him, Dr. Shane added her own silent but emphatic endors.e.m.e.nt to that suggestion.

It took more than a few last, lingering looks at the crate, but, finally, Receiving emptied.

"I suppose the whole building knows what we've got?" Dr. Rax asked as he and Dr. Shane followed the crate and the preparators onto the freight elevator.

Dr. Shane shook her head. "Surprisingly enough, considering the way gossip usually travels in this rabbitwarren, no. All of our people have been very closemouthed."Dark brows drew down. "Just in case."

Just in case it does turn out to be empty, the less people know, the less our professional reputations will suffer. There hasn't been a new mummy uncovered in decades .

Dr. Rax chose to ignore the subtext. "So Von Thorne doesn't know?" While the Department of Egyptology didn't really resent the Far East's beautiful new temple wing, they did resent its curator's more-antiquarian-than-thou att.i.tude concerning it.

"If he does," Dr. Shane said emphatically, "he hasn't heard about it from us."

As one, the two Egyptologists turned to the preparators who worked, not just for them, but for the museum at large.

One hand resting lightly on the top of the crate, Karen Lahey drew herself up to her full height. "Well he hasn't heard about it from us. Not after accusing us of creating a nonexistent crack in that porcelain Buddha."

Her companion grunted agreement.

The freight elevator stopped on five, the doors opened, and Dr. Van Thorne beamed genially in at them.

"So, you're back from your shopping trip, Elias. Pick up anything interesting?"

Dr. Rax managed a not very polite smile. "Just the usual sorts of things, Alex."

Stepping nimbly out of the way as the preparators rolled the crate from the elevator, Dr. Von Thorne patted the wood as it pa.s.sed; a kind of careless benediction. "Ah," he said. "More broken bits of pottery, eh?"

"Something like that." Dr. Rax's smile had begun to show more teeth. Dr. Shane grabbed his arm and propelled him down the hall.

"We've just received a new Buddha," the curator of the Far East Department called after them. "Second century BC. A beautiful little thing in alabaster and jade without a mark on it. You must come and see it soon."

"Soon," Dr. Shane agreed, her hand still firmly holding her superior's arm. Not until they were almost at the workroom did she let go.

"A new Buddha," he muttered, flexing his arm and watching the preparators maneuver the crate through the double doors of the workroom. "Of what historical significance is that? People are still wors.h.i.+ping Buddha. Just wait, just wait until we get this sarcophagus open and we'll wipe that smug temple-dog smile off his face."

As the doors of the workroom swung closed behind him, the weight of responsibility for the sarcophagus lifted off his shoulders. There was still a lot to do, and any number of things that could yet go wrong, but the journey at least had been safely completed. He felt like a modern day Anubis, escorting the dead to eternal life in the Underworld, and wondered how the ancient G.o.d had managed to bear such an exhausting burden. He rested both hands on the crate, aware through the wood and the packing and the stone and whatever interior coffin the stone concealed, of the body that lay at its heart. "We're here," he told it softly.

"Welcome home."

The ka that had been so constant was now joined by others. He could feel them outside the binding, calling, being, driving him into a frenzy with their nearness and their inaccessibility. If he could only remember...