Chapter 1- 12

Ali watched as his work crew finished laying out the grid. Satisfied with the work, he nodded his approval and signaled for them to begin digging.

So far, there had been little excitement on this job, but sometimes there was nothing to find...  nothing exciting, anyway. Besides, he mused, he wasn’t in this for the excitement but for the money. The Robbins and their employers, the Kirk Foundation,  were good people, if somewhat strange at times—and they paid well. The relative affluence of his family and many of the amenities that the money had bought for his village were strong testimony to that and so Ali was willing to put up with more than a little bit of eccentricity.

Ali watched for several minutes to make sure that the men knew what they were doing. They were all experienced and trustworthy, so his observation was more of a formality and a means to remind them of who was in charge than a strict oversight. Since things seemed to be going well, Ali called his brother Khalid over.

“I am going to go check on the Doctor and his girl. They should be okay, but she is a child and he might need more assistance than she can really give him.”

“Okay, I will keep an eye on things here, but this is pretty standard work. Should be no problems.”

Ali started wending his way through the mounds and broken ground between the worksite and the old temple. About halfway through the ruins, a flash of white caught his eye.

“Nobody is supposed to be working in this area,” Ali muttered to himself. He turned and headed towards where he had seen the flash, curious as to what was going on and a bit angry that one of his men might be hiding out here, either slacking off or looking for things to take.

As he clambered over the mound where he had seen the flash, he saw another flash of movement ahead to his left, leading past some rocks into a small wadi. He had a brief impression of some kind of dress or robe and long black hair… and he could swear that he heard a girl laugh.

“What is going on here?” It couldn’t be the Robbins girl, she was over in the temple with her father. Mrs. Robbins was in town… and there were no other women around and no villages ANYWHERE near here. More puzzled now than angry, Ali picked up his pace and trotted over to the entrance of the wadi. Ahead, at the next turn in the terrain, he caught another glimpse of movement and… yes, he was sure of it, the clear sound of girlish laughter.

Ali was almost running now and a strange sense of excitement and curiosity filled him. Stumbling occasionally as he moved along the dry watercourse, he quickly made his way to the bend. Before him, the wadi turned into a canyon that cut deeply through a hillside and ahead, at another turn, was another flash of movement… but instead of laughter now, he heard someone call his name in a high, melodious voice… “Aliiii…”

Ali sped around the bend and came to a stumbling halt. Before him, cut into the side of the hill, was an opening half-choked with debris that had fallen from the hill above. Strange symbols, unlike the hieroglyphs that Ali was familiar with, were deeply graven on the smoothly chiseled posts and lintel of the opening.

Excited for the first time in days, Ali stepped towards the opening, the object of his chase almost forgotten. Visions of gold and lost ancient treasure danced through his head. As he stood in the opening, he could see that the way was blocked by a large stone. As he was examining the stone, he heard a light footfall behind him.

Ali turned and beheld a vision… a huriyyah dressed in translucent lambent white stepped towards him, appearing out of nowhere. Long black hair framed a face that looked almost exactly like that of the Robbins girl, but the eyes, the eyes were dark and deep. Ali looked into them and was lost.

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