There, perfectly carved into the rock, was a set-animal and a bird image that looked like their small visitor.
With a trembling hand, she stroked the carving, made so long ago, hidden out here and undiscovered for thousands of years.
“He’s on the move again,” Declan said.
They jogged through the sand, following the small bird. Every time they lost him, her heart turned heavy in her chest. Then the bird would pop up again. He seemed to like gliding through the air with his dark wings.
“Look, Rush.”
Another bird. She sucked in a breath. There were two of them now, both with dark plumage, gliding past each other. “There! Another marker.”
It was the same glyphs—Seth’s animal and the bird.
“Wait. I remembered something about Nephthys. She was also considered goddess of the air, and sometimes took the form of a bird.”
“So these markers represent Seth and his wife?”
She nodded. As they headed down a shallow dune, she realized the ground here was turning much rockier. The dark-brown rocks were like scars in the golden sand.
She found another marker partly buried in the sand at the base of some rocks. They kept following the birds as they dipped and glided gracefully through the air.
When she spotted them again, they’d landed on a larger outcropping of rocks.
As they hurried closer, she gasped. “Look at the rocks, Declan.”
“I’ll be damned.”
What looked like just a jumble of natural rocks from a distance, was actually the crumbling ruins of a carving.
It was twice as tall as Declan and badly weathered.
“Seth,” she murmured. “It’s Seth.”
The figure was seated and definitely had the distinctive head of a canine.
“Zerzura is getting close, Rush.” Declan scanned around them.
Layne ran her fingers over the hieroglyphs at the base of the statue. God, her hands were shaking. She concentrated on translating them.
Declan crouched beside her. “So, what’s next?”
She finished reading the text and blinked. She felt her heart sinking to her toes. “It can’t be.” She read them again, looking for any errors she’d made. “No.”
Declan’s hand settled on her shoulder. “Rush?”
“Nothing’s next.” She looked up, pulling air into her tight chest. “The text here says this is Zerzura.”
Chapter Twelve
Dec watched Layne as she sat in the shade of the rocks, staring off into the distance. Her knees were drawn up to her chest.
He took his time working back to her, checking around the rocks. Most were natural, a few were what he guessed might be the ruins of something.
If this had once been a great, treasure-filled oasis, he couldn’t see it.
He headed over to her. God, it killed him to see her so upset, so dejected. It wasn’t like the Layne he’d gotten to know.
She didn’t look up. “It’s stupid to follow maps. Even stupider to believe in fairytales. I know better.”
“Rush—”
She shook her head violently. “No, I know how life is. Loved ones die, people betray you, terrible things happen. Life is full of disappointments, that’s just the way it goes.”
He knelt behind her and wrapped his arms around her. She was stiff and tense. “Sweetheart, you know there’s good out there as well.”
“You don’t really believe that.”
Shit. Was she right? Had he been so twisted up in the darkness of his past that he’d stopped seeing, hell, stopped looking for the good? Did his friends look at him and see what he saw now in Layne?
It had taken one bright, smart woman to burst through the gloom and show him the light.
“Don’t give up.” He rubbed his chin on the top of her head. “It’s not you.” He spun her and forced her to meet his gaze. “These last few days, Layne, you’ve made me believe that there is more.”
Her face softened, even though her eyes were still drowning in disappointment.
“Oh, Declan, and being with you, it’s made me realize that I’ve been letting my headstrong drive to pursue my career stop me from really connecting with people.” She touched his face. “Maybe I’ve been scared to feel too deeply for anyone since I lost my parents.”
“Come on.” He tugged her up. “Let’s take a final look around. A stubborn archeologist I know has taught me to take a bit more time to look for the good in things.”
“Fine. But then we really need to make a plan on how to get out of here.”
They wandered through the rocks again and both ended up at the base of the god’s statue.
“He got a pretty raw deal,” Dec said.
“He did,” Layne agreed. “A protector who was then blamed for evil that wasn’t his doing.”