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Authors: Valerie Douglas
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The air blew hot, lined with a fine coating of sand, and the sun beat down on her shoulders but Raissa was long used to it. She looked across the great square hollow of what had once been the fort with its carefully mapped borders of twine wrapped around sticks. If she hadn’t known what it was, she wouldn’t have recognized it, although clearly those who worked here did, each section had been labeled with what they thought the area had once been. There was so little left. Only the outlines of the towering walls remained, the remnants of mud bricks showing where the thick inner and outer walls would have been, the rooms for the officers, the common rooms and barracks for the soldiers, the areas where they would have drilled.
In her mind’s eyes she could see it as it had been, the great walls surrounding them on all sides.
Once it would have towered far above the desert…
Above her a falcon cried out as it circled, looking for prey. For a moment she watched it, its wings flared as it floated high above.
She could see Professor Farrar working off to one side, his dark hair lifting in the breeze, just curling over his collar a little.
With a sigh, she mentally shook her head.
She hadn’t expected to like them. She didn’t want to like them, it complicated things. They were so foreign and this was something she had to do.
But she did like them, she liked all of them.
For all his joking around, Ryan was no fool, when he spoke it was to the point, anything else he kept to himself. She respected that.
John was harder to know and like, he was a man of strong opinions but his competence with equipment was undeniable.
Quiet Komi, with his halting manner and his gentle wit had won her over swiftly.
And then there was Ky. Professor Farrar. She had to remember to think of him that way.
She looked across the dig site, watched him at work, his dark head bent, intent, focused.
She refused to consider his resemblance to the Khai of old as a sign of any kind.
Both had been/were handsome men, that was undeniable, with strong features that reflected a strength of personality, in the firm jaw, the intelligent dark eyes, that firm, full mouth.
The attraction was there, though, she couldn’t deny it.
A burst of warmth went through her to watch him. No matter how many times she looked at him he made her heart jump. She wished she could see his eyes, though, hidden behind the sunglasses. Sweat had dampened his t-shirt so that it clung to his firmly muscled chest. An academic should not be so finely muscled.
Her breath hitched a little as he glanced up to catch her looking at him.
Smiling, she turned away, amused and embarrassed he’d caught her.
It was so hard not to look, even harder not to want to touch. She knew it was far better if she didn’t. He wasn’t for her. That wasn’t something she could even consider.
There was his policy against fraternization, she would respect that, and it was for the best. Or so she tried to tell herself.
They’d left both Komi and John back at the hotel. Neither was an archaeologist. John was the fix-it/muscle and driver and Komi’s translation skills weren’t necessary out here, where Raissa’s translation skills were or might be, depending on what Professor Farrar or Ryan found, if anything.
Professor Farrar had also made it very clear he wasn’t sharing her skills with anyone, here or elsewhere.
That was fine with her as that had been her intention anyway.
She turned her face up to the sky to feel the sun on it for a moment. It felt wonderful after so long cooped up inside.
Some of the other groups were packing up against the heat of midday, retiring to their air conditioned tents and vehicles to let the worst of the heat pass. They were in no hurry, after all. This place had waited for millennia, its secrets would wait a day or two more.
In the distance Ky heard the sound of a generator being fired up―not surprisingly, it was the other group of
The air blew hot, lined with a fine coating of sand, and the sun beat down on her shoulders but Raissa was long used to it. She looked across the great square hollow of what had once been the fort with its carefully mapped borders of twine wrapped around sticks. If she hadn’t known what it was, she wouldn’t have recognized it, although clearly those who worked here did, each section had been labeled with what they thought the area had once been. There was so little left. Only the outlines of the towering walls remained, the remnants of mud bricks showing where the thick inner and outer walls would have been, the rooms for the officers, the common rooms and barracks for the soldiers, the areas where they would have drilled.
In her mind’s eyes she could see it as it had been, the great walls surrounding them on all sides.
Once it would have towered far above the desert…
Above her a falcon cried out as it circled, looking for prey. For a moment she watched it, its wings flared as it floated high above.
She could see Professor Farrar working off to one side, his dark hair lifting in the breeze, just curling over his collar a little.
With a sigh, she mentally shook her head.
She hadn’t expected to like them. She didn’t want to like them, it complicated things. They were so foreign and this was something she had to do.
But she did like them, she liked all of them.
For all his joking around, Ryan was no fool, when he spoke it was to the point, anything else he kept to himself. She respected that.
John was harder to know and like, he was a man of strong opinions but his competence with equipment was undeniable.
Quiet Komi, with his halting manner and his gentle wit had won her over swiftly.
And then there was Ky. Professor Farrar. She had to remember to think of him that way.
She looked across the dig site, watched him at work, his dark head bent, intent, focused.
She refused to consider his resemblance to the Khai of old as a sign of any kind.
Both had been/were handsome men, that was undeniable, with strong features that reflected a strength of personality, in the firm jaw, the intelligent dark eyes, that firm, full mouth.
The attraction was there, though, she couldn’t deny it.
A burst of warmth went through her to watch him. No matter how many times she looked at him he made her heart jump. She wished she could see his eyes, though, hidden behind the sunglasses. Sweat had dampened his t-shirt so that it clung to his firmly muscled chest. An academic should not be so finely muscled.
Her breath hitched a little as he glanced up to catch her looking at him.
Smiling, she turned away, amused and embarrassed he’d caught her.
It was so hard not to look, even harder not to want to touch. She knew it was far better if she didn’t. He wasn’t for her. That wasn’t something she could even consider.
There was his policy against fraternization, she would respect that, and it was for the best. Or so she tried to tell herself.
They’d left both Komi and John back at the hotel. Neither was an archaeologist. John was the fix-it/muscle and driver and Komi’s translation skills weren’t necessary out here, where Raissa’s translation skills were or might be, depending on what Professor Farrar or Ryan found, if anything.
Professor Farrar had also made it very clear he wasn’t sharing her skills with anyone, here or elsewhere.
That was fine with her as that had been her intention anyway.
She turned her face up to the sky to feel the sun on it for a moment. It felt wonderful after so long cooped up inside.
Some of the other groups were packing up against the heat of midday, retiring to their air conditioned tents and vehicles to let the worst of the heat pass. They were in no hurry, after all. This place had waited for millennia, its secrets would wait a day or two more.
In the distance Ky heard the sound of a generator being fired up―not surprisingly, it was the other group of
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