“Why didn’t you come to me?” Daniel asked, now finding himself on the defensive.
For once in her life, Annabeth didn’t back down. “Because they would have denied it, that’s why! Would you have believed me? Of course not! Your father never believes me, why should you? Nobody ever takes my side.” Annabeth gave a petulant sigh. “I knew there was only one sure way to silence them. And now I’ve succeeded.” She patted her swollen abdomen with an air of satisfaction. “Even you can’t take their side now. I know the laws of the brotherhood. The principal wife must receive her due from her sister-wives.”
“Respect is one thing,” Daniel shot back, somewhat flustered by her unexpected defiance. “You’re taking advantage of the situation.”
At those words of disapproval, her expression changed. The glint of spite in her eyes melted into a puddle of tears. “Daniel, don’t be angry with me,” she pleaded. She raised her apron to her face and dabbed pathetically at the rivulets trickling down her cheeks.
Daniel felt guilty and completely out of his depth as to how to deal with her. “There, there, Annabeth.” He patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. “Don’t cry. I didn’t mean to sound so severe.”
“You must speak to them, Daniel. You have to explain to them that I will have my due. I’m not only your principal wife but the principal wife of the scion. I carry the offspring of the future diviner. Just as you have been elevated in the hierarchy, so have I. I must have my due.”
The scion didn’t answer her. He was mentally weighing which confrontation would be worse. The one he was having now or the one yet to come with his other two wives. He found himself inwardly cursing the fool who first invented polygamy. He deserved to be burning in hell at this very moment. To a man of Daniel’s temperament, one wife was bad enough. Three was a number which no husband should be forced to endure.
He transferred his attention back to his weeping wife. “There’s no need for you to carry on so,” he wheedled.
She looked at him and sniffed pitiably. “You shouldn’t make me so upset, Daniel. It’s not good for the baby if I get upset—especially if it’s a boy. Your father wouldn’t like it.”
He winced at her transparent manipulation but felt compelled to humor it. “I’ll speak to your sister-wives. I’ll tell them they must be more patient while you’re in this condition.”
She gave a fleeting smile. Daniel imagined he saw a flash of triumphant malice in it.
He helped her to her feet and assisted her to the door. After she was gone, he sat back down, sank his head into his hands and groaned. He prayed Chris would help him solve the next riddle soon because Annabeth had just given him one more reason to wish himself gone from this place.
Chapter 28—Dunes Day
The sun was just beginning to glimmer over the horizon. Cassie stood in the hotel courtyard and breathed the cool morning air. She thought regretfully that this might be the last cool air she would feel for many hours to come. They were heading into the desert today to find the calendar circle known as Nabta Playa.
It had taken days to get this far even though Egypt wasn’t a huge country—only a little bigger than Texas back home. The flight from Rabat to Cairo had been a breeze. However, getting from Cairo to southern Egypt was another matter entirely because commercial airports were scarce in this part of the world. After a long layover in Cairo, they’d caught a flight to Aswan. Then they’d had an even longer layover in Aswan to get to their final destination of Abu Simbel. It was only a forty-five-minute flight, but an eight-hour wait between planes. The alternative would have been even worse. A pre-dawn bus ride in a police-escorted convoy through the desert. Not surprisingly, the Arkana team opted to go airborne instead.
The small town of Abu Simbel existed primarily as a destination for tourists who wanted to visit the temples of Pharaoh Ramses the Second and his principal wife, Nefertari. Cassie wanted to see the ruins, but Griffin sniffed that they were on a tight schedule which didn’t allow time to view a narcissistic dead overlord’s monuments to himself.
Cassie comforted herself with the notion that they were going to see something far rarer than the ruins at Abu Simbel. Most tourists had never heard of the place they were going—a calendar circle sixty miles west of the temples in the heart of the desert.
“You ready, toots?” Erik came up beside her.
“As I’ll ever be.”
The couple walked to the Land Rover that had been provided for the expedition. Getting to Nabta Playa was such a big deal that it required a government permit. Thankfully, Michel Khatabi had called in some favors and gotten them the paperwork they needed in record time. They had also been provided with a government-issued vehicle and driver since tourists weren’t allowed to wander the desert unaccompanied. This wasn’t the sort of trip they wanted to tackle under the radar. None of them had any experience navigating through sand.
Their driver was a young Arab in his early twenties named Bakri. Even though he wore jeans and a cotton shirt, his head was wrapped in a white turban. It made his thick horn-rimmed glasses seem anachronistic.
As Cassie and Erik walked up to the vehicle, Bakri greeted them and climbed into the driver’s seat. Griffin claimed the passenger side leaving the back seat for the other two.
The Brit turned to explain, “I’ll need to act as co-pilot.”
“Fine by me,” Erik agreed.
Cassie secretly suspected the paladin wanted to sit with her for a change. In fact, his whole attitude had changed since the night they’d spent together in Rabat. He’d stopped treating her like a bratty kid sister. For her part,
