“Mamá, how could we stop him? What could we possibly do?” I let the question permeate the cold night before continuing. “We ought to leave for Cairo, tonight. We can book passage back to Argentina, and leave all of this behind us.”
“How would we do that? Two people can’t man the Elephantine, and we certainly can’t swim back to Cairo. We’re on an island, surrounded by a river filled with crocodiles.”
“But you made it here on your own,” I pointed out.
“Hardly,” she said at the tail end of a scoff. “I joined a party of tourists. We could do the same, but it’ll be weeks until my friend arrives. And I’m here for a reason, Inez. My brother has done me wrong, has done us wrong.”
“Then we ought to write to the authorities,” I pressed. “It’s the right thing to do.”
She shook her head. “We have to act now, Inez. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to stay dead. This is the time to move against Ricardo; he’ll never suspect it.”
“But he does, otherwise he wouldn’t have hired Mr. Fincastle.”
She waved a breezy hand. “He did that to ensure his protection against his competitors.”
Miércoles. There were more people to fear?
Suddenly, I wanted to leave the damned island behind. To put this whole miserable business behind us. “Why can’t you leave this all behind? You gave Egypt seventeen years of your life.” I thought about the six lonely months every year without my parents, back in Argentina, hurt that they never took me with them. Missed birthdays and holidays, countless hours I’d never get back. Now my father was gone, and all I wanted was to hold on to Mamá. Terror gripped me. I didn’t want to lose her to Egypt. “Hasn’t it taken enough?”
Mamá let out a shuddering breath. A quiet sob that fractured my heart. “I can’t. I thought you understood.”
“What? What don’t I understand?”
“Ricardo murdered your father.” She gasped in between each word. “He died in my arms.”
A loud ringing roared in my ears. My breath was trapped in my lungs, a tight pressure that made my head spin. Despair carved itself on my skin, and I rubbed my arms, feeling suddenly cold. “What?”
“Your uncle got rid of him.”
I flinched, and covered my face with both hands. Mamá moved closer and hugged me, holding on tight.
Her voice became fierce against my ear. “I won’t let him get away with it. I want him to know it was me that ruined him. The person he underestimated, the sister he believed insignificant and not smart enough to understand his work.”
A prickle of unease settled onto my skin. In my life, I’d never seen her give so much of herself away, even to me. She was always so poised, so contained. I wiped at my eyes with my sleeve, overwhelmed with grief and heartache. I hated seeing my mother this way, but I understood her anger, her rage.
She pulled far enough away to stare into my face. “Will you help me, Inez?”
There was no question. She was alive, and I would do anything to keep it that way. Whatever happened next, we’d do it together. I prayed it would be enough to keep us both alive. My uncle was a cannon that could obliterate us, Abdullah, the entire digging crew. He stood much to gain from this monumental discovery. I nodded and she smoothed down my curly hair, so like my father’s. He didn’t deserve what had happened to him.
“Yes,” I said. “But I think we should warn Abdullah. He needs to know the truth about the man he’s in business with.”
All the blood leeched from her face. “Didn’t you hear me?” She reached for my arm and held on tight, her nails digging into my skin. Panic laced her words. “Your uncle is a killer. What will happen to Abdullah if he gets in my brother’s way?”
“I don’t—”
“He’ll kill him,” Mamá whispered. “Inez, I can’t—I can’t—”
“What, Mamita?”
“I can’t lose anyone else. Abdullah is my friend, and I won’t let you put him at risk. Inez, you must swear to me that you will keep him safe and say nothing.”
“I swear it,” I breathed.
She held on to me for several more beats, as if to assure herself that I truly wouldn’t put Abdullah in harm’s way, that I would keep my word and not turn my uncle’s murderous eye toward him. I held her stare unflinchingly, and she slowly nodded.
Mamá released my arm and I exhaled, fighting the urge to rub the tender skin. “How can I help?”
“I have an idea that might work.” She bit her lip. “It will take courage, Inez.”
I made a face at her. “Have I not told you the story of how I got to Egypt?”
She smiled, the first real one I’d seen since the moment I learned that she was alive. Mamá pulled out a long silk kerchief from her pocket and handed it to me. It was soft to the touch, embroidered in a delicate floral pattern.
“You and your flowers,” I mused. “Do you ever miss your garden?”
“I’ve spent the last decade living half my life in Egypt,” she said. “After so much desert, of course I miss the green. I miss a lot of things whenever I leave Argentina. Té de mate, empanadas. The way I could smell the ocean from the balcony of my bedroom.” She lifted her eyes, identical to my own. Eyes that changed color, eyes that wouldn’t settle. “You.”
My body flooded with warmth. I hadn’t known how much I’d wanted to hear her words. How they would feed me.
“What do you need me to do?” I asked.
“The magic is old; whoever cast the original spell must have been very powerful. This will shrink anything it can fully cover—”
“Like your brother’s spectacles.”
She shrugged, the hint of a mischievous smirk curling her mouth. “It’s possible. I’ve only tried to use it on very special occasions.”
“I bet,” I said. “While teasing your brother?”
“He makes it so easy,” she said, smiling. Slowly, the warmth bled from her face, and I knew she was remembering what he’d done to us. The life he stole from our family.
I cleared my throat, wanting to distract her from her thoughts. “So you would like for me to . . .”
“Shrink as many artifacts as you can while you’re working,” she said, her voice serious and grim, “without anyone knowing.”
My mouth went dry.
“At night, you’ll give them to me for safekeeping.”
“Tío Ricardo will notice if anything goes missing,” I protested.
“Keep your voice down,” she said, with a nervous look up the bank. “Be strategic with what you take. Look for redundancies, every tomb has them. Repeats of jewelry, statues, trinket boxes. I sincerely doubt my brother will have memorized every item. We won’t be able to keep everything safe, but if you work fast, I think we can keep plenty from his greedy hands.”
Mamá leaned forward and placed her hands on my shoulder. “Now listen to me, Inez, this is very important.” She waited for me to nod. “You must shrink any papyrus you find, any scrolls, rolls of parchment, first.”
I frowned. “Why? Surely my uncle would go after the jewelry first? They’d fetch a higher price?”
My mother shook her head. “Not this particular sheet.”
“What sheet?” I asked. “If you tell me what it looks like, perhaps I can search for it specifically.”