Free Heart of the Gods by Valerie Douglas

hints, random references, myths and stories. We have very little from that time, if we could find just one of them it would be a major discovery.”
    That was the least of it, of course.
    Very carefully, he teased a fragment of pottery from the sand and dirt with satisfaction. There was still writing etched into the clay that hadn’t been sanded away by time.
    He’d had a sense that something was there when he’d been here last but then some of the others had begun to return and he’d had to abandon it for fear they would discover his secret.
    No one knew he was actually looking for the tombs and for one tomb in particular. Many didn’t believe it or they existed.
    The Tomb of the Djinn.
    In an area as big as the Gilf Kebbir, a region the size of Switzerland and made primarily of a plateau split with chasms and caves, secrets could still be hidden.
    He was gambling that they had.
    Watching him, Raissa asked, “If you don’t mind my asking, why do you do this?”
    He looked at her. “What this?”
    “Search for old forts, graves…archaeology…”
    “Why did you learn ancient languages?”
    Laughing, she shook her head and said, “It’s not the same. I’m not so sure it was so much of a choice, it was more survival but I believe I asked you first.”
    “Perhaps because I grew up in this world, going back and forth between the Middle East and the U.S.,” he said. “There is a fascination with being so close to history here, especially such ancient history. This region was the birthplace of so much. Ancient Egypt has fascinated me since I was a boy and my first visit to the Egyptian Museum. I used to imagine what it had been like to live in those times. Times change and yet so much here is unchanged.”
    Stopping for a moment, he paused to look around him and waved.
    “What do you see?” he asked.
    Tilting her head a little, smiling softly, Raissa said, “Sun, sand, sky.”
    “And what do you hear?”
    Her mouth twitched, a small smile curved her lips.
    It was peaceful, serene, silent save for the brush of the sand blowing in the breeze.
    “Only the wind…” she said, with a sigh.
    She understood what he was saying. It was much quieter out here, without the constant cacophony that assaulted her ears in town, the cars, people and animals. Music blared from a window, voices called or shouted.
    “It was a purer time back then,” he said, “with fewer things and gadgets, fewer distractions, people actually knew each other, depended on each other in ways we don’t anymore. It was life or death for them and both life and death were closer to them than they are for us, I think. They talked to each other, spent time with each other, it was their only form of entertainment. They interacted in ways we no longer do.”
    Raissa watched his face, the high cheekbones, that full mouth, his dark eyes distant but not unreadable. Some part of him yearned, wanted something he couldn’t quite define… For him it wasn’t merely facts and figures. It was all of it. And that mattered.
    “Do you think this time is so very different?” she asked. “Don’t people know how to live, laugh and love now?”
    There was an interesting note to her voice, a curious look in her eyes.
    Something went through him at the sound and he looked up at her, to see her lovely blue eyes watching him intently, a small frown marring her brow.
    “They do but now there are other things to get in the way. Television, radio, the computer…”
    Ky looked out over the desert and smiled, remembering how he’d started out on this path, the voice booming in the darkness…
    “Then there are the stories. Isis searching for Osiris after Set trapped him, seeking him so desperately she went into the underworld after him. When Set cut Osiris up and scattered him along the Nile, she searched for him and picked up all the pieces she could find, using magic to return him to her. It’s one of the greatest love stories of all time. And there are the real