Read Online Anubis Nights by Gary Jonas - Free Book Online Page B

up at the ceiling, which was constructed from some kind of wood with smaller slats running the opposite direction on top.
    Another room adjoined the bedroom, and when I looked into it, I saw it was a bathroom. Basically it was a latrine enclosed on three sides for privacy. A channel cut into the floor led to the outside of the building. A screened area beside that held a wooden stool with a hole in the center that stood above a bowl. I knew I was going to miss indoor plumbing.
    “Would you like a servant to bring you some more appropriate clothing?” Aye asked.
    “I think we’re good for now. Thanks.”
    “One of your servants will bring you to the hall for dinner. Do you have any other requirements at the moment?”
    “Again, I think we’re good for now,” I said.
    Aye nodded. “I will assign servants to you.” He gave me one last hard look before leaving us alone in the bedroom.
    I walked to the doorway to watch him leave, and once he was out of the residence, I turned to Kelly. “Thoughts?”
    “They aren’t going to believe we’re gods for very long.” She shrugged out of her pack and tossed it on the floor next to the wall.
    “Oh, come on, they believe in tons of gods. Why not two more?” I set my pack beside hers. “Besides, I said we were visitors, not gods.”
    “The implication was still there. I’m just saying we should get out of here as soon as possible. We need to get to the pyramids, find Winslow, and kill him.”
    “It isn’t every day you get to meet a famous pharaoh.”
    “Don’t call him a pharaoh. We don’t know how well the translation spell will work on unfamiliar words.”
    “He’s the pharaoh. Why would the translation struggle with that?”
    “Because they didn’t call themselves pharaohs. The word pharaoh comes from the Bible. Just call him King Tutankhamun to be safe.”
    “I shall bow to your greater knowledge.”
    “Yes, well, I’m not an Egyptologist, and even the Egyptologists don’t know a lot of what happened in this age.”
    “Any clue what time of year it might be?” I asked.
    “Well, it’s not Inundation, so it’s not September. Does that really matter?”
    “To some degree it does. Since we’re going to make the journey to the pyramids, we’ll need to know what kind of weather to expect. I know it’s hot right now, but how will it be at night? Do we need some warm clothing? Temperature variations in the desert can be crazy.”
    “So we should play the god card to see if we can outfit ourselves for the journey?”
    “Works for me. Besides, we’ll be the only people in the twenty-first century who can legitimately say they got to have dinner with King Tut.”
    Kelly frowned and stretched out on the bed. “All right. I think it’s nap time.”
    “You’re tired?” I asked. I didn’t mean to sound quite so concerned, but based on her dirty look, I failed. I held up my hands. “Sorry. It’s cool. I’m going to check out the palace.”
    “Don’t get into any trouble.”
    “Like I ever get into trouble,” I said and left the room before she could throw something at me.
     
    RAYNA NOBLE
     
    Rayna spent the afternoon lining up a hotel room, settling on the Aberdeen because they allowed unaccompanied women. That would never have been an issue in the twenty-first century, but in the Roaring Twenties, it was unusual, and she’d been turned away at two hotels before one of the clerks told her to go to the Aberdeen. She bought some necessities and dropped them off in her room. She wasn’t sure how to go about finding Henry Winslow. She didn’t even know for sure he’d be in the city. For all she knew, he was in San Francisco or Paris, France. It wasn’t as if he’d take out an ad in the paper to give out his address. The guy had just died, so would he really advertise the fact that he was alive again? What if he decided to lay low? How did Jonathan find missing people? They’d never really discussed how he did his job.
    That made her think