Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris by Anne Rice & Christopher Rice

Author:Anne Rice & Christopher Rice [Rice, Anne & Rice, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2022-02-01T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

He said little as she washed him. As inappropriate as it seemed, a daughter bathing her own father, who else could she entrust the task to? He still regarded the others with silent suspicion.

And besides, would there not have been moments just like this had he aged and become infirm under her care? Was his infantile dependency on her now not in and of itself a kind of restoration of the mortal life he’d lost?

“I have many of your journals,” she said. “We shall have you read them.”

Better to do it this way, she thought. Better to let him connect with the enormity of it gradually, by way of his own words. She was hopeful just the sight of his own penmanship would further awaken his mind. Bring back the memories more vividly. Elevate him above this monosyllabic numbness that gave no real indication of whether or not he was capable of complex thought. Perhaps his thoughts were ragingly complex, and it was just his speech that was stunted and simple.

She brought him undergarments and one of his old paisley robes she’d not been able to throw away. She turned her back as he stepped from the tub. The time it was taking him to dry himself caused her to look back over one shoulder, and she saw he was doing so with a dazed fascination over his own body. As if each pat of the towel against his damp skin was another reminder that he was once more a solid thing.

He didn’t protest as she curved an arm around his waist and guided him down the stairs. His newly restored hair glistened and shined in the electric lights she’d turned on in the library, and she sat with him at the oval table as he read his writings on the miraculous discovery that had changed all of their lives. The writings she’d deemed too personal and too revelatory to donate to the museum. Something about the way in which he read, the way the robe slid loosely off his form, reminded her of the time he’d had a terrible bout of influenza when she was a girl.

But he read intently, his eyes moving smoothly across the page.

And from the front parlor, Elliott, Ramses, and Osuron watched, as if each was ready to be called into action at any moment. As if each man hoped for this and thought it preferable to this terrible waiting. For if Lawrence recalled none of what his writings described, what chance was there he’d recall anything of what might connect him to the Eye of Osiris?

He appeared quietly stunned now, his mad confusion gone.

It was Ramses he’d centered in his gaze. Lawrence raised his hands to his chest, pointed to his own ring finger, then pointed to Ramses. In response, Ramses stepped forward, raising his hand and studying the scarab ring he now wore. And that’s when Julie realized her father recognized the ring from inside the tomb. Now it was worn

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.