SEVENTH SCROLL
By: Wilber Smith
Synopsis:
A fading papyrus, nearly four thousand years old. Within it lie the
clues to a fabulous treasure from an almost forgotten time. ... a riddle
that becomes a savage battle across the unforgiving terain of North
Africa. When her husband is brutally murdered , Beautiful half-English,
half-Egyptian Royan Al Simmu is forced to seek refuge in England. With
eminent archaeologist Nicholas Quenton-Harper she can pick up the pieces
of her shattered life and find the courage to return to Ethiopia. For
Duraid. For the long dead slave Taita. And for the dreams of an ancient
Pharaoh ... Because others will stop at nothing to claim the prize as
their own.
This edition published 1996 by Pan Books
ISBN 0 330 34415 3
Copyright ( Wilbur Smith 1995
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Once more this book is for my wife Danielle.
Despite all the happy loving years we have spent together I feel that we
are only just beginning.
There is so much more to come.
The dusk crept in from the desert, and shaded the dunes with purple.
Like a thick velvet cloak it muted all sounds, so that the evening was
tranquil and hushed.
From where they stood on the crest of the dune they looked out over the
oasis and the complex of small villages that surrounded it. The
buildings were white with flat roofs and the date palms stood higher
than any of them except the Islamic mosque and the Coptic Christian
church.
These bastions of faith opposed each other across the lake.
The waters of the lake were sparkling. A flight of duck slanted down on
quick wings to land with a small splash of white close in against the
reed banks.
The man and the woman made a disparate couple. He was tall, though
slightly bowed, his silvering hair catching the last of the sunlight.
She was young, in her early thirties, slim, alert and vibrant. Her hair
was thick and curling, restrained now by a thong at the nape of her
neck.
'Time to go down now. Alia will be waiting.' He smiled down at her
fondly. She was his second wife. When his first wife died he thought
that she had taken the sunlight with her. He had not expected this last
period of happiness in his life. Now he had her and his work. He was a
man happy and contented.
Suddenly she broke away from him, and pulled the thong from her hair.
She shook it out, dense and dark, and she laughed. It was a pretty
sound. Then she plunged down the steep slip-face of the dune, her long
skirts billowing around her flying legs. They were shapely and brown.
She kept her balance until halfway down, when gravity overwhelmed her
and she tumbled.
