Prologue
3100 BC
The King will kill me!
Tears ran down his hollow cheeks. His robe clung to his body as he hurried from the royal treasury. His throat tightened when he thought what would be worse than death.
The King, in his insurmountable fury, would have him cut into a thousand pieces and devoured by flesh-eating beetles, then he would feed the beetles to a buzzard. The buzzard would be fed to the great crocodile in the Nile, and then he would slaughter the crocodile. As if that wasn’t enough, the King would use the hide of the crocodile to smother the last breath from those of his blood. The name of his family would be erased for all eternity. His loved ones would be pulverized into dust and mixed into mortar that would be used to build the next temple to the demon Apep.
The Grand Vizier was not a thief by nature. He was treated very well by the King of Lower Egypt, as his father’s father had been before him. He had grown up playing in the royal gardens, as had his children; his sweet wife idled away peaceful hours in the fragrant gardens laughing with the King’s many wives. But that was before the King started worshipping Apep, god of chaos and darkness, the Eater-up of Souls. That was before the plagues of thunderstorms and earthquakes, before Apep started swallowing Ra during the day, causing their world to fall into darkness. The only way to stop the corruption of his King was to discover, in advance, what he plotted. What new horrors would his King bring upon his subjects? The defenders of Ra must be alerted; they would stop the madness and drive Apep back into the Underworld.
Hidden within the folds of his robe was an object of solid gold that fit into the palm of his hand. What made the object so valuable was not the two large flawless rubies embedded within, but the magic it possessed and the ability to betray his King was the greatest power of all.
Chapter 1
2001
“Samir, I’ll miss you!” Lesley cried. “Promise you’ll write to me. Please, I’ll be lost without you. You’ve been my best friend forever.” She threw her arms around Samir, then kissed him on the cheek.
“Geesh, Lesley, everyone is watching!” He blushed, then gently pushed her away. Best friends don’t kiss.
His father said they were going home – to Egypt. It had hit him hard at first. Home was here in Indiana. Here was the only house he had ever lived in. Here were all his friends and his parents’ friends. Egypt was in books, not home. But his grandmother said she was dying and wanted to see the sands of her country again.
They still had relatives over . . . there. Most were successful businessmen and women. They weren’t going to be goat herders or anything. He wouldn’t be giving up much, just his home – his life. And, of course, Lesley. Boy, he’d miss her.
Lesley teased that he came from a line of kings, but he assured her that his family tree grew from more humble roots. His grandmother said they came from a line of Grand Viziers, whatever that meant. He didn’t feel like an Egyptian. He’d been born and raised in Wabash, Indiana, and he felt like an American.
Lesley said they were going to get married after college, but he had just rolled his eyes. He glanced over at his friend and saw that she had Mike, one of their schoolmates, in a head lock. Through the years, school bullies had made comments about his skin color. Lesley’s freckles would disappear under a shade of crimson and she would be on them like a rabid badger.
The moving van had gone and all that was left to do was pack up Grandma and head for the airport. Friends had gathered on Samir’s manicured yard to say their last goodbyes. A grunt broke Samir’s nostalgic thoughts; now Lesley had Mike in a scissors hold and was squeezing the air out of his lungs.
“Lesley, I have something I want to give to you – a going-away gift. Lesley! Do you mind giving your best friend a few minutes? The best friend who you’re not going to see you for e-v-e-r.” He added above the moans and grunts, He nudged her with the toe of his tennis shoe. She jumped to her feet, her braids whipping like Medusa’s snakes, and gave Mike a hand up. His face was returning to its normal color. Samir was used to seeing a lot of red faces at school; someone was always taking Lesley on.
Mike gasped for air. “All I asked was if I could be her best friend now.”
Samir shook his head; he had quit trying to figure out what made her tick. He nodded toward the treehouse and she followed him. They had long ago reached a plane of communication that needed few words. Lesley said they were close to total telepathy and if they were ever kidnapped by a UFO, they’d be able to talk to the aliens since they had been honing their skills for so long. She thought if she concentrated really hard during a test, he would send the answer back to her. He actually believed it was the grueling hours he spent tutoring her that helped her during a test. He was destined for academic scholarships while she was destined for athletic.
Once in the treehouse, he produced a package that was wrapped in a newspaper comic page, tied with twine. At times like this, he was glad Lesley didn’t like frills. He hadn’t given her many gifts except for her birthday and Christmas, and then it was his mother who had called Lesley’s mom to find out what she wanted. He had given her flimsy things he had made in art class, which - much to his embarrassment - she proudly displayed in her bedroom. But he had never given her a real gift.
She looked up at him with misty eyes and tore into the newspaper like a human shredding machine. She was speechless for a moment when a hint of gold peeked through the wrappings, “Wow! It’s a golden insect. A fly – I think. Thank you! I love it.” She threw her arms around Samir.
He waited until he was able to catch a breath of air and until the white dots floating in his vision disappeared. “I wanted to give you something that was part of who I am, and maybe, who I’ll become one day. My grandmother gave it to me and told me never to sell it. It’s been in our family as long as she can remember.”
She thrust the fly at him. “Then, you can’t give it to me. It has to stay in your family.”
He took her hand and placed it over his heart. “You are my family. When we are reunited, you can give it back to me – it’s a loaner.” He rarely saw her cry, but when she did, he knew what was coming. He took in a big breath to enlarge his ribcage.
She pounced on him and squeezed, and he really, really knew why it was called a bear hug. She released him with air in his lungs to spare and no broken ribs. He definitely had to keep gifts from the heart to a minimum when it came to Lesley.
She turned the object around in her hands, taking time to look at it from different angles. “Do you think it’s real gold?” She breathed on it, then rubbed it briskly with the bottom of her T-shirt.
He had wondered the same thing when his grandmother gave it to him several years ago. “Nah, my grandmother wouldn’t give me something that valuable. It’s just a cute knick-knack.” She was clutching it as if it were valuable. “But it really did come from Egypt.”
Lesley looked up at him when he said Egypt. “Wow.”
He turned the fly over. “Look, there are Egyptian hieroglyphs on its belly. Grandma doesn’t know what it says, but it definitely doesn’t say ‘Made in China’.”
She squinted at the writing and said, “Wow” again.
As she was turning it over, he pointed at where the eyes should have been. “Grandma said the eyes were made from the rarest of rubies.”
“Really?” Her own eyes widened.
“Well, ah, she’s pretty old. She probably really doesn’t know for sure.” Lesley’s enthusiasm over the gift was starting to embarrass him. It really wasn’t that big of a deal. She could still tell it was a fly by the shape, but it was worn pretty much of detail. At least it hadn’t tarnished over the years; someone must have taken good care of it. He just kept it in his underwear drawer.
“I bet it came from the Royal Treasury in a king’s palace. It was to be the dowry for the princess.”
Samir rolled his eyes. He wanted to say his great-great-great grandmother to the fifth power probably got it from a goat herder at a flea market, but he didn’t want to wreck her imagination.
“Did your grandmother say what she thought happened to the rubies?”
He hated to say it. “She said the Grand Vizier and his family had to flee Egypt and sold the rubies to pay for their passage.”
“Really? The princess had to escape from her evil father and she eloped with the son of the Vizier!”
Samir muffled a groan. What the heck – let her dream. He smiled at his friend. She had gone back to examining his gift. He couldn’t wait for the day she would return it to him. Then they could be together forever.