Gene of Isis

‘You do not belong here,’ the imposing foreigner, all dressed in black, stated calmly, then pulled a large curved sword from beneath his robes.

‘Do you mean I do not belong in this sanctuary?’ I attempted to reason with him while I inched around to put the remains of the altar between myself and he who was threatening to cause me bodily harm.

‘I mean…on this mountain.’

Akbar came running at the altar and somersaulted over it, whereupon I made for the cave entrance, only to be confronted by another pair of locals who grabbed hold of one of my arms each and dragged me back into the cave- shrine.

‘Let go of me!’ I protested, and struggled to no avail. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ I didn’t even have my stone on me, so I couldn’t call Albray for help. Yet in my mind I screamed for his aid, as he was my only hope of getting out of this, short of a busload of tourists suddenly arriving in the teeth of the gale outside. ‘Surely you can’t expect to get away with killing me?’

‘Have you seen the cliffs on the far side of this mountain? There is no recovering a body that has fallen down there.’ Now that I had no chance of going anywhere, Akbar took his time to stroll over and taunt me with my impending death. ‘You shall not defile this sacred place with your foul presence any longer, American.’

‘I’m an Australian,’ I stressed, hoping the fact might lessen his wrath.

‘Is there a difference?’ he replied, nodding to his associates to force me to my knees so that he might remove my head.

Praise be to Hathor, Albray joined me at that moment. The sweet relief I felt at his presence enfolding me cannot be put into words. It felt like a tremendous gift of love, but whether this sentiment stemmed from myself or my protector, I could not tell.

My feet now firmly planted to the ground, I resisted my captor’s intent by stepping back and swinging the men into each other with such force they staggered backward in a daze.

As Akbar lashed out with his sword, I dived into a tuck roll, and then, turning about on my haunches, I swung a leg wide into the back of Akbar’s legs and he went crashing to the ground. I jumped up, used his face as a football, and stomped on his sword arm to retrieve his razor-sharp weapon. I held it beneath his chin. ‘I’ll cut his throat as quickly as he would have cut mine,’ I threatened, and his accomplices backed up. I turned my attention back to Akbar, as he was obviously the man in charge. ‘What if I can prove to you that I have a perfect right to be here?’ I found myself saying it, yet Albray had control of my body at present and I wondered what he planned.

‘This cannot be settled by a work visa,’ Akbar snarled, humiliated by his defeat at the hands of a foreign woman. ‘It is about—’

‘Being of the blood.’ I finished his sentence, and managed to gain his ear with my words.

I stood and tossed the sword straight up, where it lodged in the roof. Pardon me…I heard Albray’s voice in my mind, as he raised my hands and ripped open my shirt to expose the mark between my breasts. I was horrified to have done so in front of the local men, until they all got to their knees and bowed down before me in apology. Albray closed my shirt and held it together with one hand.

‘Daughter of Isis, forgive us.’ Akbar did not look up as he spoke. ‘We live only to serve you.’

‘What!’ My voice responded at last to my command, as I felt Albray withdraw. I was left dazed and staggering with the impact that the extreme effort had had on my body.

‘I told you that men worship you, Mia.’ Andre happened upon the scene, and was amused until he noticed I was holding my shirt together. ‘Are you all right, Mia?’ He looked from the cowering men to me. ‘What happened to your shirt?’

‘I, ah…tripped and ripped it.’ It sounded weak but it would do. I looked back to the men paying me homage. ‘Thank you for showing me that prayer ritual, Akbar. It was very informative, but you can get up now.’ I hurried him along with my hand and he obliged me, motioning his men to follow him. ‘I’m done here, for the moment.’ I fetched my notes and left the cave, leaving Andre to bring up the rear.

The storm had worn itself out and blue skies prevailed, along with the searing heat of the sun. There was clear fresh air to breathe and I filled my lungs with it, having felt like I’d not drawn breath during that entire incident.

When Andre joined me at his jeep, he knew something was not quite right. He climbed into the car and started it up, and as he turned to look behind and reverse, he commented, ‘I could have sworn I saw a sword hanging from the roof in the cave just now.’ He looked at me for a comment, after he’d backed up the car.

‘Don’t ask.’ I ended the conversation by pointing him toward camp.

I used work-related research as an excuse to part with Andre and take dinner in my tent. I really was dying to look into Lord Hamilton’s account of opening the mysterious entrance in the mountain that was currently puzzling us.

I entered my tent to find a forlorn Albray. ‘I am so sorry I wasn’t there sooner…are you all right?’

‘Don’t apologise,’ I insisted, suppressing a grin. The thought of him ripping my shirt open infused me with such desire that my cheeks burned—thank god I was not wearing the stone! ‘It felt incredible to be so powerful and able to control the situation.’ I badly mimicked how I rescued myself. ‘You must have been a very great knight, Albray.’ I came to a standstill.

He shied from the suggestion. ‘If I had been a very great knight then Molier would be dead.’

He wasn’t good at taking a compliment; this score Albray had to settle with Molier was undermining his self- esteem badly. ‘I don’t suppose you want to talk about Molier?’

Albray shook his head. ‘I’d really rather that you read the details. The tale is very long and complicated, and Mrs Devere is a much better storyteller than I.’

‘As you wish.’ I let the issue go, as it obviously disturbed him. I didn’t mention that I was going to take a look at Lord Hamilton’s journal first, because Albray was opposed to opening the mysterious entrance. Whether we opened the door or not, I still had to discover the key.

‘I shall leave you to read.’ My knight disappeared through the wall of the tent.