“I cannot accept such a statement,” said Strat. “Her own father? Her own beloved? I expect they were so fearful of Pharaoh that they could not move to save their darling girl.”

“Since when have you thought highly of fathers?” Annie demanded. “Your own father did the same thing to you. Or have you already forgotten being thrown down the shaft, so to speak, into the asylum?”

Strat did not like to think that the world—now, then or ever—had fathers who behaved that way. He liked to think of his own father as an unpleasant exception. He liked to think that when he became a father, he would be an excellent one. Under the circumstances, both 1899 and now, however, he did not actually expect to reach adulthood and have the privilege of being a father.

“Tell me everything,” said Annie. “Tell me about your life, and Devonny, and Harriett and Katie and what happened and where everybody is and all that.”

“First let's get out of here,” said Strat. He got up off Queen Hetepheres' bed and paced the tiny room. He smiled at Renifer, who was backed against the wall, holding her hand up to keep him away. “Don't be afraid,” he said to her. “I came to save you both.”

Renifer just held both hands up like traffic signals.

“I don't know how much time we have, Annie,” said Strat, suddenly worried. “Dawn will come soon. We have to get up out of here, but once we are out on the sand, we'll be very visible. The soldiers won't take kindly to finding Pharaoh's sacrifices running around laughing.”

“How hard will it be to get out?” asked Annie, staring up at the hole.

“Easy. I had to remove some stones, which took me a while, but once the shaft was revealed, there's a ladder. We just go up and we're fifty feet or so from Hetepheres' chapel. I'll go first, and then reach down and help each of you up.”

Standing tiptoe on the bed frame, Strat was able to get his fingers around the stone rim of the ceiling hole. With the wonderful upper arm strength of boys, he hauled himself upward.

“I couldn't do that in a thousand years,” said Annie.

“You don't need to,” said Strat. “Hand Renifer up first.”

But Renifer would not go.

RENIFER

Renifer's heart was still beating, which she thought amazing, considering what she had been through. The thing was male, she could tell from the voice and shape of it.

It was foreign, she could tell from the smell and clothing of it.

It was not a ka, because a ghost could pass through stone but this creature had needed an opening, as humans did.