Heart of the Gods by Valerie Douglas

Author:Valerie Douglas [Douglas, Valerie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Fiction
Published: 2011-03-09T04:30:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty Two

Arriving at the dig site felt almost like coming home to all of them, even John and Komi, who hadn’t spent that much time there. It was definitely less foreign than the village and the hotel there. Nor was it surprising to find none of their tents or equipment had been set up. That wasn’t what the guards had been hired for. They’d been hired to protect it not assemble it.

It only took a little time to set up camp. That was something with which John had a great deal of experience. Wisely, Ky left him to it, either giving him a hand or getting out of his way as the situation required.

“I’m going to go check out the jeeps,” John said, once everything was in place. “I want to be sure they’re ready to go when we need them, and that no one has tampered with them as they tampered with the plane.”

Ky nodded. “Good idea, thanks, John. Tareq, would you like a tour of the dig site?”

The sun hadn’t quite set, there was a little light left in the sky.

“I would indeed,” Tareq said. “It’s been some time since I have been to a new dig.”

“Why was the fort abandoned?” Ky asked with a glance at Raissa as they walked toward it, Ryan and Komi following. “Do you know? And why didn’t they take their dead?”

“I wondered that myself,” Tareq said. “They didn’t give those who died here proper burial, but left them where they lay. That was very unusual.”

Remembering, Raissa nodded, took in a long breath and then let it out.

“Khai struggled with it. It was one of the hardest decisions he ever made, abandoning the fort and the people here,” she said, softly.

“All Djinn but the ghul can possess the living, especially the sila, although those with a strong enough will can resist them. The ghul have only to deliver a fatal bite and their victim will die to rise again as ghul. The second time the fort fell to the Djinn, it fell as much from the inside as it did the outside.”

Raissa paused, took a breath. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like inside the fort during those terrible few hours as friend turned on friend, as a curl of smoke become a thing of teeth and claws to tear and rend. To see the marid in their unnatural beauty appear from nowhere to rip their quarry to pieces.”

She remembered Ky’s find, the lone skeleton in the commander’s office.

It was likely the man had opened the door to a friend, someone he trusted, only to find himself attacked.

He’d fought there, alone, for Egypt and for his life.

For him, help had never come.

Her breath shuddered with old sorrow.

“The Djinn had become cannier with Kamenwati, the Grand Vizier, guiding them. Knowing that, we also knew we couldn’t tell friend from foe. There was no choice, or find ourselves in the same straights, attacked from within by those we trusted.”

Standing on a slight rise they looked over the site.

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