The Memory Painter

Returning to his chair, he stared at the blank paper, not knowing where to start—he had never tried to paint a memory before he had remembered a life. Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine his Egyptian goddess. But ever since he had arrived in Cairo, she felt like a distant dream.

He was alone. And, somehow, he feared that, when it came, this memory would be the worst.



FORTY-THREE

EGYPT

10,000 BC

The plan was well under way when they heard the explosion. It made the earth shake with such magnitude that Thoth felt as if the ground would open up and swallow the city whole.