For The Love Of The Med-jai

                                                                                   Chapter 23

It didn’t take us long to reach the Med-Jai village the next day. I studied everything closely as we entered the village and stopped by a large hut, which I assumed was Ardeth’s. I was right, and he dismounted, reaching up to aid me.
“I must go speak to the elders. Please wait here. I am afraid that women aren’t allowed.”
“That’s all right,” I said. I leaned up close to his ear and whispered, “This place looks wonderful.”
He smiled down at me and kissed me briefly. “I will be back shortly, little one. Wait here.”
I waited as he left to see the elders, and I must admit that I was not short of company. Everyone wanted to see the woman that their chieftain had chosen to be his bride. I strained to understand what they were saying, but was unable to. I didn’t know how to speak Arabic.
When Ardeth returned, he shooed all of them away and took me into his arms. “I don’t suppose that I could convince you to wait for me here,” he said skeptically, although good-naturedly.
“Not a chance. That’s my nephew out there, and besides, I don’t ever want to leave your side again.”
“Very well, Sarah,” he said. “Then we ride once again to meet your family.”
He yelled out something to the entire village, and a united cry answered him. As he pulled me up onto the horse, I turned to whisper to him.
“Will you teach me how to speak your language?” I asked.
He laughed. “When we return, little one.”
I nodded and leaned back against him as we rode off into the desert.

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                                                                                    Chapter 24

We arrived in Cairo on that same day and arrived at the Magic Carpet, a rinky-dink flying business run by an old friend of O’Connell’s (always a good sign).
He wasn’t very happy to see my brother-in-law, because when Ardeth and I arrived with the Med-Jai tribe leaders in tow, he mentioned something about being shot in the ass.
Remember how I said that Ardeth and I don’t like flying? Well, we were anticipating another long plane ride. What we got was much worse.
We were going to be flying in something that Izzy (O’Connell’s old friend) called a dirigible.
It just looked like a big balloon to me.
I shot a glance at Ardeth and he grimaced, but he shrugged his shoulders. We didn’t have much choice.
I turned as one of the Med-Jai approached him, a majestic falcon sitting on one arm. Ardeth nodded and pointed to the bird. “This is Horus. He will be our messenger during this journey.”
I reached out to gently stroke the underside of the bird’s chin. It shied away for a moment, and then accepted my touch.
“He likes you,” Ardeth said, smiling. He took the glove from the warrior and placed it on his arm before letting Horus climb on.
“He has good taste,” I teased, smiling at my lover broadly. He smirked at me as we climbed off of the horse and entered the balloon. Ardeth waved to the Med-Jai warriors below him in a gesture of thanks and goodwill as we took off for the skies.

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                                                                                      Chapter 25

The night was peaceful. Evelyn and Rick stayed close to each other, worried about their son. Jonathan kept trying to steal anything of value that he laid his eyes upon. And Ardeth and I were content to sit as close to the floor as possible, cuddled up together as we looked up at the vast expanse of starry sky.
There is another aspect to this story that is of mild importance. That’s my sister’s past. We discovered during our journey that my sister is the reincarnation of Nefertiri, daughter of Seti I, the very pharaoh that Imhotep had killed. She and Anck-Su-Namun still had some scores to settle with each other.
And Rick? He’s a Med-Jai warrior destined to protect my sister from all harm. I’m still getting used to the fact that I’m the sister of a reincarnated princess.
Through all of this, Ardeth was trying to get Rick to embrace his Med-Jai past, but my brother-in-law didn’t want to do it. It was almost too late once he decided to accept it, but that was just a story I heard, I wasn’t around for that part of it.
I was content to lay in Ardeth’s arms and listen to what was going on around me. Horus stood, a silent sentinel keeping watch, on the bow of the dirigible. Eventually, I fell asleep in his arms, my mind swimming with blissful memories of our liaison the night before.

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                                                                                     Chapter 26

We traveled from place to place, following Alex’s markers and coming closer and closer to Ahm-Shere. The day that we found the oasis would be one of the worst of my life.
It started with a wall of water reminiscent of the wall of sand that had accosted us in the desert 10 years ago. It rose up from the river in the canyon we were flying through, and my first thought was that it was impossible that there had been so much water in the river below. Of course, what did that matter? It was there, and it was coming towards us, the face of Imhotep looming out its recesses.
All of a sudden, the balloon was moving at top speed. I fell to the floor, along with Ardeth, who reached out an arm to grab hold of me.
“I told you she was fast!” Izzy yelled. I smiled ruefully as the craft sputtered and slowed down. “Uh oh. Hang on!” We were enveloped in a wall of water, Ardeth and I holding onto each other for dear life.
I felt the balloon hit the ground, and when the torrent of water had subsided, we all stood, soaking wet, and looked out upon the oasis of Ahm-Shere.
“Wow,” I whispered, squeezing water out of my tunic, which now clung to every curve I had, leaving nothing to the imagination. Despite the seriousness of the situation, I saw Ardeth’s eyes darken a shade or two as he stared at me.
Horus flew down from the sky and Ardeth held out his hand for the falcon to land on. He proceeded to write one last message for the Med-Jai tribe leaders before letting the bird go.
We had just begun our trek through the jungle when I heard a loud gunshot and jumped. It was only when my husband spoke that I understood what had happened.
“Horus!” he screamed, looking up at the sky. The bird gave no answer. He clenched his fists in rage, and I quickly moved over to him and placed my hands on his shoulders and my forehead on his back. In a few moments, he had calmed down and we had begun moving again.
I held his hand as we walked, not saying anything because I didn’t know what to say. He was very upset, and it didn’t take long for me to learn that it’s best to leave my husband alone when he’s very upset.
Well, it didn’t take long before we were distracted again. We had taken to tracking Imhotep’s party, and we could see the end of their line. That was when the pygmies attacked.
We had left Evelyn and Jonathan on the hill as cover. Luckily, they took care of most of the pygmy mummies for us. The Arabs had scattered, leaving us in the middle of them. I was frantically looking for Alex along with Rick and Ardeth when I felt someone grab me from behind.
I screamed before I felt the scimitar blade against my neck. I began shaking against my will. I heard the deep voice of the Arab leader, Lock-Nah, whisper in my ear.
“So you are the pretty one that Ardeth Bay has chosen to be his wife. I see why he would prefer such a tender English morsel over a hardened Med-Jai woman.”
“Lock-Nah, let her go!” I heard Ardeth yell. Unbeknownst to us, Alex had been rescued by his father by this time and they were racing towards the pyramid in order to get the bracelet off of him. There were just the three of us.
Then Imhotep showed up.
I watched as he walked around me and looked me up and down. I glanced at Ardeth again and again. He had his scimitars drawn and was waiting to make a move.
“Put them away, Ardeth,” Lock-Nah growled. “Or I’ll kill her.”
They were trying to keep us at bay. As long as we didn’t get out of the jungle to warn the Med-Jai, they would never know where we were.
Imhotep reached out and caressed my cloth-covered belly. “Lock-Nah, please. I think that there is something much more precious here that Ardeth would be interested in.”
I looked at Ardeth fearfully. What the hell was he talking about?
All of a sudden, I felt a twisting, wrenching pain within me. I fell to my knees, and Ardeth darted forward, but Lock-Nah stopped him by putting the scimitar to his neck.
Looking back on it, I don’t know why they tried so hard to delay us. Perhaps they knew that my husband had the strength and resolve to lead the army of Med-Jai against the Anubis warriors, and without him they were lost. Maybe Lock-Nah and Imhotep were just bitter because of how much they had suffered because of my husband, no matter how indirectly.
Lock-Nah and my husband used to be friends. That wife Ardeth told me about… She was in love with Lock-Nah. Their friendship was never the same after he married her. And when she died… Lock-Nah vowed his revenge.
I guess this was partly his way of getting it. I think Imhotep helped because of what I’d done to him. I had uttered the incantation that made the soldier mummies kill his girlfriend.
Ardeth’s eyes were full of pain as he watched me writhe on the ground. He kept trying to move, but Lock-Nah held the scimitar fast to his neck. Imhotep finally looked at my husband.
“You are hurting, seeing your wife in pain, yes?” He called me Ardeth’s wife. I think he knew well enough that we weren’t married yet, but it seemed to have more of an affect on Ardeth than any other word would have. He was silent, but his eyes were dancing, offering me the comfort I needed to make it through this.
Imhotep smiled and I thrashed more. “Yes, child, feel the pain,” he said. “You caused me enough of it.”
Trust a mummy to hold a 3010-year-old grudge.
“Please…” I heard my lover’s voice, dry and low. “Please stop this.”
Imhotep laughed. “Can’t stand to see her in pain? Say anything more and you will regret it. The life within her cannot take much more.”
I shook my head violently and looked up at him through a painful haze. What did he mean the “life within me?”
“Of course you can’t know, my dear,” he said, slowly bringing his fingers together as I cried out. “But you have a child within you, oh yes you do, and I’m killing it slowly.”
Ardeth’s eyes widened. A child? It had only been four nights ago… Or had it been longer? I couldn’t think, it hurt so badly!
I heard a shot ring out in the jungle, and the pain abruptly stopped. I heard another, and Lock-Nah cried out in pain as his scimitar fell to the ground. Ardeth moved faster than lightning, slashing Lock-Nah across the chest. Imhotep fled, and Ardeth ignored him as he sheathed his scimitars and picked me up in his arms.
“Sarah!” His voice was frantic. “Sarah, please answer me. Are you all right?”
I opened my eyes and looked at him. I nodded weakly and heard footsteps as my sister rushed up to me. “Is she okay?” she asked.
Ardeth nodded. “I think so. Thank you.”
“That’s what we were there for. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I want to go find my son.”
Ardeth bowed slightly, me still in his arms. “And I must go assemble the Med-Jai.”
He carried me through the jungle, and once we were at the outskirts, he stopped, his eyes scanning the desert. I reached up and touched his cheek.
“Ardeth?” I’d whispered.
He looked down at me, and gently set me down on the ground, where I stood firmly on my own two feet. Thank god for that. I was going to need all the strength I had for what was coming.
“Yes, Sarah?”
“Do you think that Imhotep was telling the truth?” I asked.
Ardeth put a hand on my stomach and let the silence penetrate for a moment. Then he looked at me. “Perhaps I should stop calling you little one,” he said, “and reserve the name for someone else that is on the way.”
I threw my arms around him and kissed him wildly. I said that this was the worst day of my life. Well, that was sort of a lie. It was just a day with a lot of best and worst parts.

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                                                                                  Chapter 27

We made it out to the desert just in time. Ardeth mounted a horse, and then he looked down on me and reached down to pull me up behind him. I tucked my legs on either side of the horse and laid my cheek against my husband’s strong back. I still felt comfortable even with thousands of Med-Jai warriors watching us.
“I wish that I had somewhere safer for you,” he whispered. I knew that he was worried about me, especially now.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I can fight with the best of them.”
He turned on the steed to look at me. “I will protect you at all costs.”
I kissed his lips soundly. “And I will protect you, no matter what it takes.”
He smiled and handed me a scimitar from his belt. “The only way to kill an Anubis warrior is to cut off his head.”
I took the weapon from him. “I’ll remember that.”
When the first wave of Anubis warriors charged over the crest of the dune, Ardeth reared the horse up and into action. We were quite a lethal pair, him and I, slashing at the Anubis warriors and taking down many of them.
Then we fell off of the horse. And managed to get separated in the fray.
Which is how I ended up caught in a circle of Anubis warriors with nowhere to turn. If I attacked one of them, the rest would attack me.
Ardeth came valiantly to my rescue (of course) and destroyed the last of the warriors. Or at least, that’s what we thought…
And then an army about 12 times bigger than the last one came over a dune to the north.
Do you know what kinds of things run through your mind when you’re facing something like that? I mean, sure, it sounds like something out of a movie, but this was for real and right in front of us. I remember turning to him and looking into his eyes, and finally I spoke.
“I will love until the end of time, and even beyond that. Don’t ever forget that, Ardeth.”
He kissed me hard then, the scimitar he held dangling loosely in his palm. “And I will always be with you, no matter where we end up or what we are doing. I love you, Sarah Carnahan.”
We turned to face the army of warriors, raising our weapons high and crying out in the tongue of the Med-Jai. That was one thing that was easy to pick up, their battle cry.
I almost had a heart attack at what happened next. Which would have been rather ironic, since it was our saving grace.
As the first Anubis warrior crested our dune and Ardeth raised his weapon to strike, the entire army of dog-headed monsters exploded in a cloud of black sand, leaving us standing on a sunlit dune in the middle of the desert, an entire army of Med-Jai warriors behind us.
As the Med-Jai warriors celebrated behind us, Ardeth and I dropped our scimitars and fell into each other’s arms. The disappearance of the army could only mean that the horror was over once again. As I was crushed gently against Ardeth’s chest and his lips met mine, I hoped to Allah that it would never rise again.

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                                                                                 Chapter 28

Evelyn did tell me the rest of the story later, about how she had died and Alex had brought her back to life and how she had saved Rick, but after what Ardeth and I had gone through, it seemed anticlimactic. I told her about the baby and she was very excited, promising to come visit once it was born, which she did. I never lost contact with my family, despite my location in the desert.
I remember watching them fly away in that damned balloon, cocooned in Ardeth’s arms on his horse. His hand lay protectively on my belly now, and as we watched them fly off into the perfect golden sunset, it was almost like none of this had ever happened and we were just two normal people.
Of course, that illusion didn’t last for long, but that’s okay.
I guess that kind of brings us to the present. Almost, anyway. You’ll need a little more information before I tell you about our current predicament.
Ardeth and I were married in a very extravagant ceremony a week after the Med-Jai armies returned home. The truth is that I don’t really remember much of the ceremony; it was just a ritual that we had to go through for other people. We were already married to each other in our minds, our hearts, and our souls.
I spent the next nine months learning to live the life of a Med-Jai woman. Not to brag or anything, but I adapted very well. I was determined to learn how to live like they did; I didn’t want any special treatment because of where I was from or who I was. Although, I already got special treatment because I was the wife of the chieftain. The children especially were intrigued by my long brown hair and light hazel eyes.
I was well-adapted and living comfortably with the Med-Jai when it was time for our first child to be born. Remember how I said that I had never felt pain quite like the pain I felt when Ardeth and I first made love before, but I’d felt it since? This is since.
Having a child is not an easy thing to do, and thankfully the Med-Jai have great respect for that. Although Ardeth was not allowed to be with me during the birth, I knew that he sat outside that tent the whole time that I was in labor. I could feel him.
There had been great hope that our first child would be a boy, but the tribe was slightly disappointed when we announced the birth of our daughter Janeira. Her skin, although lighter than her father’s was still several shades darker than mine and…
I don’t think I can talk about this right now. Janeira is missing and I don’t think I could stand to talk about how happy we were when she was born. What if she’s dying right now and I can’t do anything about it?
I think Ardeth just heard me crying. I’ve never seen him look this way, and yet he moves to comfort me. His eyes are telling me to be strong, and that we’ll find our children. I nod and tell him that everything will be all right. But what if it’s not? What if I’m wrong and I just promised him that everything would be okay and it’s not?
The child within me now is stirring. Shh, baby, it’s all right. Mommy is here. We’re going to find your brothers and sisters and then we’re all going to leave.
That’s right, I’m pregnant and fighting mummies. I’m not that pregnant, thank heavens. Only about five months. Still safe enough to come on this adventure.
In the six years to follow, Ardeth and I had three more children. The second was a set of twins, a boy and a girl. Akmet and Ankhara. There was great celebration in the Med-Jai camps on the day that they were born. That was the day that they christened Akmet. He is to be the leader of the Med-Jai.
That is, if he’s still alive.
Eleth also arrived soon after his brother and sister. It may sound like a lot of children in a short time, but when you think about it, it’s not. Some women don’t even let their bodies recover after they have a child. Ardeth was very adamant that I be in perfect health before we had more children each time. And I normally am, but I can feel my health deteriorating now. And now this story is drawing to a close, and I have nothing left to distract me from my fears.
They were kidnapped, my children. Kidnapped by a cult that insists on still worshipping Imhotep. The creature is dead once again, and they cannot rest. They came for my children because of what their father and mother did to Imhotep, because their father and mother put him in his grave once long ago at Hamunaptra.
I can remember every detail vividly, and even though the kidnapping happened a mere week ago, the reality of it is fading in and out in my mind. When I sleep, I have fitful dreams of them and I come to believe that they’re with me. Allah preserve them. I don’t think that we’ll make it without them.
I fought to protect them. Ardeth was out on his daily patrol with his best warriors. Akmet had begged to be able to go, but he has not come of age yet and could not accompany his father.
When those men rode into the camp, I put myself in mortal jeopardy to protect my children. And still they triumphed. They carried my babies away, and I heard their screams as they were raced across the desert.
When Ardeth returned, the women brought him to me. I had never stopped screaming since the moment that they had carried my children away into the desert. He cushioned me against him, feeling the slight rise of my belly against his as he knew that he was about to risk everything to save his family.
Jonathan, Rick, Evy and Alex all decided to join us. We had helped them in Ahm-Shere long ago, and they were here to repay a debt of sorts.
And now here I am, imagining that I can hear their screams again. And then Evy puts her hand on my shoulder and tells me that those screams aren’t in my head, those screams are real.

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                                                                                   Chapter 29

The mummies have finally backed off. Alex still has the book of Amun-Ra. And we can hear them. We can hear our children screaming for us. Their cries echo throughout the temple, and although it is painful to hear them screaming, it is leading us to them.
Have you ever felt as if you were watching yourself from above your body? It’s not like dying; it’s just a separate awareness. It happens when your body is tired but you can’t stop moving, you can’t working, you can’t stop for anything.
It happened to me when I was giving birth to Eleth. It had been 30 hours and he still hadn’t been born. I was in no mortal danger, just exhausted. And Ardeth had broken the rules. He had come into the tent with me to help through the last 6 hours of the labor.
He had been there when Eleth was born, actually been there. But I remember watching myself straining in his arms, watching myself push that child out of my body and into his father’s waiting hands.
That’s how I feel now. Like the part of me that’s talking to you is watching every event that happens here.
We move through the temple swiftly, not speaking and not touching each other. Ardeth leads the way, and I’m close behind. The O’Connell’s and Jonathan trail behind us, on the lookout for more undead foes. None appear, and we make our way into a brilliant antechamber, where a man stands looking at the pages of the Book of the Dead.
As he begins to speak, I suddenly realize what he is going to do. Instead of merely calling the creature and his lover back this time, they are going to house them in the bodies of children, letting them grow in real bodies so that they can truly live.
They’re going to put those monsters into my children.
Everything happens in slow motion. Ardeth marches right up to the man and grabs him by the throat, snapping his neck with the strength of his rage. He throws the book deep into the pool of corrosive water surrounding the platform that my children stand on. And then he reaches out his arms across the gap and feeds them over to the other side, one by one.
It was that easy, you see. Once their leader was gone, the rest of them fled. It would be like killing the great Med-Jai chieftain in battle. All order would be lost. Some would continue fighting to the end because of nobility, but these men have no nobility. They are simply cowards looking for a leader. But they always look in the wrong place.
The haze fades, and I can feel my children in my arms. Ardeth reaches out for me, and I fall into his embrace as he strokes my belly gently. All four of our children cling to us, and Ardeth looks at me with tired eyes and says, “Let’s go home.”

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                                                                                     Chapter 30

So I guess that’s the end, isn’t it? I’ll be having another child soon, and I’m sure I’ll be having more after that. Ardeth and I are like rabbits.
Not that I’m complaining.
It all seems anticlimactic, being over this way. Like it should have taken more work the third time. Perhaps Imhotep was just never meant to be.
This story has to have an end. Maybe when I am an old woman I will fill in the gaps for you, and let you know how Ardeth and I ended our lives. Will we have any more adventures? I don’t know if we could handle it. We are still young, but not that young. And we have an ever-growing family to take care of.

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                                                                                        Epilogue

I said that when I was an old woman, I would fill in the gaps and let you know how the story ends. Well, the story ends like this: happily ever after.
There were no more adventures for Ardeth and I, although there were plenty more children. We ended up with 10, 5 boys and 5 girls. Janeira, Ankhara, Jasmine, Iraman and Rukuman are all married now and have children of their own. Akmet has taken over his father’s position as Med-Jai chieftain and is producing powerful heirs of his own. And our other four sons, Eleth, Watanu, Raijin and Eldeth, are the most powerful warriors in the village and always ride next to their brother.
There was an eleventh, you know. We were supposed to have 11 children. But I was simply too old when the last one was conceived. My body could no longer house children, and so I miscarried in my sixth month.
Ardeth and I have aged beautifully. If there was ever a vision of timeless, it would be us. Our faces our still youthful, like the desert sun has helped to lessen wrinkles. Ardeth’s hair is still it’s mighty black, with only slight touches of silver.
My hair has turned completely silver, but most tell me that it only serves to make me more beautiful. And we are still active in the Med-Jai community. I don’t think we’ll ever stop until Allah beats us down with a stick and forbids us to get up again.
I’m sitting on a sand dune, watching the sun set. Ardeth will join me in a moment as he always does. We always treat every night as if it’s our last. When you’re as old as we are, you have to.
I think about death quite a bit. Imhotep makes me wonder. If he could not have Anck-Su-Namun in death, then will Ardeth and I be with each other after we die? Why would Imhotep come back from the dead and try so hard to win her back if he had her in the afterlife? It frightens me sometimes, being alone. But I don’t truly believe that that is the way it will be.
Rick, Jonathan, and Evy are long gone. Ardeth and I have managed to outlive them, probably because of the way we lived. Alex is the curator of the British Museum, and I don’t think I’ll be seeing him again. His visits are rare and treasured, but I’m old and I fear that I don’t have much time left.
Do you think that they’ll all be there waiting for us when we die? Evelyn, Rick, Jonathan, the first curator of the museum whose library we destroyed, Winston, Izzy, all the warriors who were sacrificed in the many years that I’ve lived here? Will Imhotep, Anck-Su-Namun, Meela, and the Scorpion King be there, waiting for us in the afterlife?
Will it be peaceful, or will it be bloody all over again? Will we have to fight against souls that can never die, or can souls die as well? It’s a lot for an old woman to think about.
I can hear Ardeth come up behind me before he wraps his arms around me, kisses my cheek tenderly, and says hello. I nestle back in his arms, feeling as young as I was on the day that we met. I’ve come a long way since then, from the scared child that I used to be. And I wait for his question.
He always asks the same question every day. “What have you learned in your lifetime here?”
And I always turn to him and give the same reply. “I began my life wanting to find the greatest treasures that man has ever dreamed of. But in looking for those golden things which I could sell to the vendors in the streets and to the museums for more money than I could ever need, I discovered something more important than gold. The greatest treasures that we find in our lives lay not underneath the sand, but above it.”
And he smiles, and he kisses me, and we sit in each other’s arms, watching the sunset as if it will be our last, because someday it will be, and then we will be young and free once again.

The End