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And this is how I die. Not from the horrors I've beheld. But from this, this which is beyond my strength yet irresistible. He kissed her almost cruelly, his sex pumping between her damp thighs. The sweet evil laughter was bubbling out of her.

He shut his eyes as he thrust against the tight little fount.

*

"You cannot stay here, sire," Samir said. "The risk is too great. They're watching the entrance. Surely we are being followed wherever we go. And sire, they searched your room, they found the ancient coins. They may have found ... more than that."

"No. There was nothing else for them to find. But I must speak with you, both of you."

"Some sort of hiding place," Julie said. "Where we can meet."

"I can arrange this," Samir said. "But I need a couple of hours. Can you come to me outside the Great Mosque at three o'clock? I shall dress as you are dressed."

"I'm coming with you!" Julie insisted. "Nothing is going to keep me away."

"Julie, you don't know what I've done," Ramses whispered.

"Ah, then you must tell me," she said. "These robes, Samir can get them for me as well as for himself."

"Oh, how I love you," Ramses whispered very low under his breath. "And I need you. But for your own sake, Julie, do not--"

"Whatever it is, I stand with you."

"Sire, leave now. There are policemen everywhere in this hotel. They will come back to question us. At the mosque. Three o'clock."

The pain in his chest was bad, but he wasn't dying. He sat slumped in a small wooden chair near the bed. He needed a drink from the bottle in the other room, but he had no stamina to get it. It was all he could manage to slowly button his shirt.

He turned to look at her again, her smooth waxen face in sleep. But now her eyes were open. She sat up and held out the glass vial to him.

"Medicine," she said.

"Yes, I shall get it. But you must stay here. You understand?" In Latin first he explained it. "You are safe here. You must remain in this house."

It seemed she did not want to do this.

"Where will you go?" she asked. She looked around her; she looked at the window beside the bed, open onto the slanting afternoon sun and a barren whitewashed wall. "Egypt. I do not believe this is Egypt."

"Yes, yes, my dear. And I must try to find Ramses."

That spark again, and then the confusion, and suddenly the panic.

But he rose; he could delay this no longer. He could only hope and pray that Ramses had somehow gotten free of his captors. Surely Julie and Alex had marshalled the appropriate lawyers. Whatever the case, he must try to reach the hotel.

"Not very long, Your Majesty," he said to her. "I shall return with the medicine as soon as I can."

She did not appear to trust him. She watched suspiciously as he went out of the room.

Malenka sat crouched still in the corner of the sitting room. She was shivering and she stared at him with empty, stupid eyes.

"My dear, listen to me," he said. He found his cane by the drinks cupboard and took it in hand. "I want you to go out with me, lock the door and stand guard."

Did the girl understand? She was staring past him; he turned around and saw Cleopatra in the door--barefoot, her hair streaming, so that again she looked utterly savage in the proper pink silk English dress. She stared at Malenka.

The girl recoiled, whimpering. Her loathing and fear were plain.

"No, no, dearest. Come with me," Elliott said. "Don't be afraid, she won't hurt you."

Malenka was too te