“Astiza!” It echoed as if mocking me.
Damnation. Had I misread the woman again? Had Silano tumbled to our plan and held her captive? Or was she simply late or lost?
I ran back outside. The sky was brightening from gray to blue, and the tops of the cliffs were beginning to glow. We had to leave before the count realized I’d directed him to an empty hole! But I wasn’t going to trade the woman I loved for a scroll I couldn’t read. If we left without her, I’d be tortured with regret again. If we stayed too long, my friends might be killed.
“She’s not here,” I reported worriedly.
“Then we must go,” Mohammad said. “Every mile we put between ourselves and those Frankish infidels doubles our chance of escape.”
“I feel she’s coming.”
“We can’t wait, guv’nor.”
Ned was right. I could hear faint calls echoing down the canyon from Silano’s group, though whether of excitement or outrage yet I couldn’t tell. “A few minutes more,” I insisted.
“Has she bewitched you? She’s going to get us all caught, and your book!”
“We can trade away the book if we have to.”
“Then what in Lucifer’s privy did we come here for?” Suddenly she appeared from around the bend, hugging the rock to minimize her chance of being seen, face pale, ringlets of dark hair in her eyes, breathless from having run. I rushed back to her.
“What took you so long?”
“They were so excited they couldn’t sleep. I was the first to go to bed, and it was agony, waiting all night for them to quiet. Then I had to crawl in the canyon wadi past a sleepy guard, for a hundred yards or more.” Her dress was filthy. “I think they’ve already noticed me gone.”
“Can you run?”
“If you don’t have it, I don’t want to.” Her eyes were bright, asking.
“I found it.”
She gripped my arms, her grin like a child’s waiting for a present.
2 3 2
w i l l i a m d i e t r i c h
She’d dreamed of the book far longer than I had. I pulled the cylinder out. She sucked in her breath.
“Feel its weight.”
Her fingers explored it like a blind man’s. “Is it really in here?”
“Yes. But I can’t read it.”
“For Allah’s sake, effendi, we must
I ignored him, twisted the cylinder open, and unrolled part of the scroll. Once again I was struck by how alien the characters appeared.
She held the book with both hands, bewildered, but reluctant to give it back. “Where was it?”
“Deep in a Templar tomb. I gambled there was a twist to their clues, and they required seekers to use pyramid mathematics to prove their knowledge.”
“This will change the world, Ethan.”
“For good, I hope. Things can’t get much worse, from my perspective.”
“Guv’nor!” Ned’s shout broke us from our mutual trance. He had his hand to his ear, pointing. It was the echo of a gunshot.
I grabbed the book from her, twisted the cylinder shut, thrust it back in my shirt, and ran to where the sailor was looking. Sunlight was beginning to flood down the face of the temple, turning the cliff and carvings a brilliant rose. But Ned was pointing back the way we had come, toward Silano’s camp. A mirror was winking as it tilted.
“They’re signaling somebody.” He pointed to the sandstone plateau the entry canyon cut in two. “Some devil on top there, ready to roll a rock.”
“Silano’s men are coming, effendi!”
“So we have to get those tethered horses away from the Arabs at the entrance. Are you up to it, hearties?” It seemed the sort of rallying cry Nelson or Smith might use.
“Home to England!” Ned shouted.
So we ran, swallowed in an instant by the tight entry canyon and absolutely blinded by its many curves. Our footsteps echoed as we charged uphill. Ned’s arms pumped with his club. Astiza’s hair flew out behind her.
t h e
r o s e t t a k e y
2 3 3
There were shouts far above, and then bangs. We glanced up. A rock the size of a powder keg was ricocheting between the narrow walls as it came down, pieces flying off like grapeshot.
“Faster!” We sprinted, getting beyond the missile before it hit the canyon floor with a crash. Arabic was being
