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preserve the
message itself. Does that make sense?”
    She nodded
slowly. “It does,” she looked at the fading papyrus in the dim light of the
dark, shadowed library. “It must have been an important message for them to do
that, don’t you think?”
    He nodded.
“That’s just it,” he puffed his cheeks out and exhaled slowly. “Maybe I’m
punchy from having been up all night, but I think you were right.”
    “About what?”
    “Your
great-grandmother was on to something.”
    Morgan stared at
him a long moment. “And what was that?”
    He sighed again
and sat forward. The glasses went back on and he began to read. “ ’Isis, Lady
of Heaven, Favored of The Gods, may she be given eternal life by the Gods whom
love her. May she find peace within the bosom of the Most High, from the Claw
of the Apes, ten days as the sun sets to the Holy City of Ranthor which lies
deep to the east in the arms of the Syene, to the Fingers that Reach to the
Sky. May she know grace and divine protection, our Holy Mistress, foremost Lady
of the West, as she Rests in the Shelter of the Sun .’”
    Morgan digested
the words as he pulled off his glasses and looked at her.  She looked at him,
rather awe-struck. “That’s almost exactly what says in the journal.”
    “I know.”
    “Then the dealer
who translated it did it right.”
    “Yes, he did.”
    She blinked,
surprised, and sat back in her chair. “It definitely sounds like clues or a map
of some sort. Doesn’t it? It sounds like directions.”
    “It does.”
    “Do any of those
places sound familiar to you?”
    He wriggled his
eyebrow, gazing back at the papyrus. Then he held out his hand to her. She
looked at the outstretched hand, not knowing what else to do but take it.  He
gripped her hand warmly and shook it.
    “Congratulations,”
he said quietly. “You have officially made a contribution to the field of
Egyptology.”
    “I have?” she
said, still shaking his hand. “What for?”
    He smiled at
her, kissing her hand and still holding it. “Because Ranthor has only been
mentioned once in all known Egyptian writings, in a document known as the
Dendera Papyrus, alluding to the city where the Gods lived during pre-dynastic
times in a period called the Reign of the Gods. It’s literally the founding
city of ancient Egypt. I’ve never heard of it or seen it written of again until
now.  Your great-grandmother’s papyrus will go down in history as The Sherburn
Papyrus, a key in the further discovery of pre-dynastic studies.”
    A timid smile
spread across her face and her free hand covered her mouth, emotional.  Tears
glimmered in her eyes.
    “Really?” she
breathed.
    He nodded,
kissing the back of her hand again. “Really?”
    Her smiled
broadened as she looked to the papyrus, the odd ancient symbols that had meant
so much to her great-grandmother. “Well,” she sniffled. “If that’s really true,
then can you please call it The Frances Sherburn Papyrus? I think my great-grandmother
would like that.”
    He nodded.
“Absolutely,” he said softly. “She will get all the credit.”
    He let go of her
hand and began to rummage through his notes. She watched him, her gaze moving
between the journal, his notes and the papyrus.
    “So now what?”
she asked softly.
    He shrugged. “I
will return to the museum and talk to the Board of Directors to see what we can
do about purchasing the papyrus and that old sarcophagus from the Sherborn
family. Like I told you last night, your great-grandparents collected enough
artifacts that you can keep Heaven’s Gate solvent for many years to come.”
    Morgan looked at
him as if he had lost his mind. She pushed the coffee aside. “You can have the
papyrus when I’m done with it,” she said flatly. “I’m not finished with it.”
    He looked up at
her. “What more do you want to do with it? You said you wanted it translated
and I have done that. What more could you want?”
    She lifted a
well-shaped eyebrow. “You said my