Guardian of the Horizon - Elizabeth Peters [57]
From Letter Collection C
(These letters and the ones that follow, from Nefret Forth, were not found among the papers of the persons addressed, but in a separate bundle once in the possession of Mrs. Emerson.)
My dear Evelyn,
In my opinion it is highly unlikely that you will ever receive this letter. When we return from our projected expedition, you will hear of our adventures from our own lips. However, a sensible individual takes even remote possibilities into account.
We are returning to the Lost Oasis. An unexpected visitor brought us a plea for help from our friend Tarek, of whom you have heard me speak. I need not explain to you why we felt obliged to respond.
I will leave this sealed packet with my excellent solicitor, Mr. Fletcher, with instructions to deliver it when and if he deems it appropriate. (Gargery would most likely steam it open.) It contains this brief account and a copy of the map of which you have heard so much. Emerson strictly forbade me to enclose the map, remarking in his bluff fashion that Walter might be fool enough to dash off to the Sudan looking for us, and die of thirst in the desert. I have more confidence in Walter. Should he decide to act, it will be with all due deliberation and caution—and the choice, in my opinion, should be his.
You will, I expect, take David into your confidence. Persuade him if you can that our failure to include him was due to our great affection for him. Do not assume if we fail to return within a reasonable time that we are no more. It sometimes takes us a little longer than we expect to carry out our plans.
From Letter Collection C
Dearest Lia,
I don’t know whether you will ever receive this letter. It seems unlikely, but I felt the need to write it. There is a chance we may not return, and I would hate to vanish without a word of love to someone who means so much to me.
Aunt Amelia has written your parents. If you don’t already know about my life before I came to England, and the epic journey that brought the Professor and Aunt Amelia—and Ramses—I mustn’t forget Ramses—to the Holy Mountain, your parents will tell you when they deem it advisable to do so.
We have always been confidantes, Lia dear, but on this one subject I have been mute. I had promised I would not speak of it, but that wasn’t the only reason for my silence. As the months and years went on, the memories faded until they seemed as unreal as a strange dream. Aunt Amelia would probably claim I didn’t want to remember. It may be so.
We are about to set out on the same journey. There are still great gaps in my memory, Lia, I don’t know why. But I remember Tarek, who was my foster brother, kind and gentle and brave. I loved him very much. Yet I had forgotten what he looked like until his young brother, Merasen, arrived at Amarna House with an appeal for help from Tarek. Tarek and his son, his only heir, are suffering from a strange illness which none of his people can cure—not too surprising, when one considers that their notions of medicine are derived from the mixture of magic and unscientific theory that characterized ancient Egyptian medicine. I’ve read everything I could find on tropical diseases and I hope and pray I can be of assistance. In any case, we had to make the attempt. I owe Tarek my very life, for I doubt I would have survived long in the City of the Holy Mountain.
I had wondered, now and then, what happened after we fled, leaving Tarek still fighting for his throne. What was the fate of my despicable cousin Reggie Forthright, who had done his best to prevent me from returning to England to claim the inheritance he hoped to get? Was Tarek able to alleviate the suffering of the common people, the enslaved and downtrodden rekkit? Did he marry and have children? For all I knew, the City of the Holy Mountain itself might have fallen into ruin, overrun by enemy tribesmen or destroyed by some unforeseen natural catastrophe.
I know the answers to some of those questions, and soon (inshallah) I will find out the other