An Accident
Three years later…
How had Raelle Collar found herself sitting in chains, in Cairo’s overcrowded prison?
Well, it all started three years ago, when her platoon deserted the U.S. military…
But, the immediate events leading to her current predicament had only just happened within the last few days. She remembered being at the bar, though that night was a little hazy. She may have had one or two too many to drink.
What she remembered with perfect clarity was someone – a woman – picking her pocket of one of the few things she’d managed to drag out of the desert after the disaster at Hamunaptra. It was some sort of puzzle box she had found, half-buried in the sand on her way out of the dead city. The other two things were her life, and a scar left behind by some marauder’s blade.
After her pocket had been picked, she may have instigated a massive bar brawl in her efforts to retrieve said puzzle box. The only thing that brawl got her was arrested, and being arrested revealed that she was a deserter from the U.S.
All those events brought her to where she was currently: sitting in chains and waiting for the gallows. The prison was more than happy to execute any deserters that wound up in their custody, for a small fee paid by the military from which the prisoner deserted. The prison officials were certainly generous in that regard.
She never should have followed her platoon away from their post.
It hadn't been a bad run, these last couple years floating around Cairo. She got into a little bit of trouble here and there, of course. It was just her nature. This wasn't how she imagined spending the last years of her life, though. And she never imagined her end coming in the form of a noose.
Lost in thought, Raelle didn’t see a pair of guards coming toward her cell until the door clanged open. She jolted upright, eyes wide. “Come on, fellas, can't we talk about this?” she asked them, assuming her number was up.
They were speaking quickly in Arabic, and Raelle could only pick out a few words. Maybe she should have tried a little harder to learn the language.
Still, something stuck out among the rest.
“Visitors? I don’t get visitors,” she pointed out. The guards didn’t seem to care, or maybe they didn't understand her, as they dragged her out of the barred cell. Still expecting to be taken straight to the gallows – because surely, she had misunderstood – Raelle struggled against their hold. It didn’t work, and suddenly she was blinded by the bright light of the sun as they shoved her out a door. Her eyes didn’t even have time to adjust before she was shoved up against more bars, and her knees were kicked out from behind her, forcing her into a kneeling position.
When her vision finally began to clear, she saw three women standing on the other side of the bars, at a safe distance. Raelle felt all the air rush out of her lungs, as her gaze settled on the woman in the middle. She was… the most beautiful woman that Raelle had ever seen. Dark hair, pale skin, and eyes that the ocean would be jealous of. Forget the treasures of Hamunaptra, the real treasure was standing just feet from her, looking at her with a mix of concern and interest.
Raelle knew that she had to look an absolute mess. She hadn’t seen her own reflection since being imprisoned, but she knew that she was filthy, hair a tangled mop, and her clothes were in tatters. Too bad she couldn’t make a better first impression on the brunette.
Not that it really mattered in the long run.
“This is her,” the warden announced, and Raelle finally noticed his presence.
“What’s she in prison for?” the redhead of the group asked him, despite the fact that Raelle could answer for herself.
“Who are you?” Raelle spoke up, not liking that she was being talked about as though she wasn’t there. She let her attention turn to the redhead that had spoken, then to the last woman of the group. Now that lady… oh, she was familiar. Raelle knew exactly who she was.
“Um, my name is Tally Craven,” the redhead introduced herself jovially. “And this is Scylla Ramshorn, and Abigail Bellweather.”
Raelle’s eyes remained on Abigail, squinting a bit. “Don’t I know you?” she baited. That was the woman who had started all the trouble in the bar that night.
Yelling from across the square interrupted any answer she could have received. The warden yelled back in Arabic, then wandered away to deal with whatever problem had just popped up.
Now alone with the prisoner, save for the guards standing watch behind Raelle, the three women exchanged a look.
What the hell was going on?
After a moment, they moved closer as a group. “We work at the Cairo Museum of Antiquity,” Scylla spoke this time. Her voice sounded as enticing as she looked, and Raelle couldn’t help but be enchanted by her. Maybe it was the knowledge that her short life was going to come to an end any day now.
“You two work there,” Abigail corrected. “I just make sure nothing gets stolen.”
That was rich, considering Abigail had stolen from Raelle.
Scylla rolled her eyes, easing a cautious step closer to the bars separating them. “My friend here found your puzzle box… I was hoping you could tell me about it?” she requested.
Raelle studied Scylla for a long moment, then looked over the other two before her gaze settled back on the brunette. She knew what this was really about, if they were asking about the box. “No,” she shook her head. Scylla was clearly taken aback. “You want to know about Hamunaptra.”
Scylla’s brows rose sharply in surprise at being called out so plainly. “You know about the city?”
“Sure do,” Raelle offered a nod.
“How… how do you know?” Scylla asked.
“I was there.”
Scylla was clearly interested, but unsure. Plenty of people probably claimed to have been to the lost city. “You were there? You’re not lying to me?”
Raelle lifted a hand, tapping the scar on her face. “Got this while I was there,” she replied. “My platoon believed in that city so much, we marched out of Libya and into Egypt to find it.”
Scylla turned and looked over at Abigail and Tally. “What do you think?” she asked.
“It’s the best lead we’ve ever gotten,” Tally shrugged. “Why would she lie?”
“To get out of prison?” Abigail suggested, crossing her arms over her chest.
Scylla’s attention swung back around to Raelle. “Could you tell me how to get there?”
“It ain’t a place you can take directions to,” Raelle shook her head.
Scylla looked at Abigail. “Do you think you could work something out with Swythe? Her dad is the warden.”
Abigail looked less than pleased with the suggestion. “I guess I could try.”
The prospect of getting out of prison wasn’t something Raelle had expected, but she wouldn’t get her hopes up.
After a moment’s hesitation, Scylla stepped closer to the bars. “Could you take me there?” she asked Raelle, her voice lower than it had been before.
“You really want to go to that cursed place?” Raelle waited, getting a nod in response. She lifted a hand and waved Scylla closer. “You’re really sure you want to go out there?”
“More than anything,” Scylla nodded.
Goddess, was Scylla gorgeous. She was close enough that Raelle could smell the rose and jasmine of her perfume. It put an impulsive notion in Raelle's head. Because honestly, what were the chances she would actually get out of this prison alive? Truly, it was naïve to even hope to leave the prison on her own two feet.
So, what was the harm in making all this mess worth it?
“Alright,” Raelle drawled, waving the woman closer yet again “Come here.” When Scylla had moved in close enough, Raelle’s hand shot out and grabbed the woman's chin, pulling her close enough to kiss her through the bars. When they parted, Scylla’s eyes were blazing with indignation while Raelle’s danced with mischief. “Get me out of here.”
Raelle’s hand fell and she grunted as she felt the guards’ billy clubs crack across her back. After a few strikes, she was yanked to her feet and dragged back toward the door.
“Get me out of here and I’ll take you!” Raelle called before the door was slammed shut.
The guards took Raelle back to her cell and dumped her unceremoniously back inside, all while berating her. Raelle lunged for the barred door, but it was shut and locked before she got there. She gave the bars a yank, but of course, they didn’t give way.
Perhaps she was lucky that they hadn’t taken her straight to the noose after that little stunt. But was it really luck if she was going to rot in this cell for however much longer?
Raelle turned away from the bars, shambling over to the stone bench that jutted out from the wall. She let herself drop onto it, making the chains around her wrists and ankles clank together. Lifting both hands, she rubbed her face and heaved out a sigh.
Well, at least she got to kiss the most beautiful woman in the world before she died.
Letting her hands drop again, she swung her legs up onto the bench and turned her body so she could lay back. There wasn’t much else to do in this place except wait for her inevitable demise. It did provide her time to rest, which it had always felt like she’d never gotten enough of.
Raelle didn’t even know she’d fallen asleep until the jangling of keys and clatter of her cell door opening startled her awake. She sat up, trying to quickly blink the sleep out of her eyes. There was a young woman at the cell door, swinging it open. She had the same dark, curly hair as the warden, but a fiercer gaze. Raelle certainly wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.
“Get up, hurry up,” the woman demanded.
Raelle didn’t exactly hurry, but she did get to her feet. “What’s going on?”
“Your buddies cut a deal for your worthless life,” the woman answered. She motioned Raelle forward, unlocking the shackles around her ankles and wrists. “You meet them at Giza Port at ten in the morning. If you don’t, well… one way or another, your name is going in the execution ledger. Either by way of clerical error or you actually get hanged. Makes no difference to me.”
Raelle rubbed her wrists, once the metal shackles had fallen away. “Why are you helping me?”
“Not you,” she corrected. “I’d be just as happy to watch you hang, but Bellweather called in a favor to save your sorry ass. They left this for you, too.” She handed over twenty pounds. “I suggest you take a bath, you look and smell awful. And if you don’t meet them in the morning, you get to come back and meet the hangman.”
Raelle took the money with a perked brow. “Yeah… thanks.”
“Come on, I’ll show you the way out of here. After that, you’re on your own.”
Raelle followed the young woman through the prison, past droves of men packed into cramped cells. She felt bad for them, but couldn’t be happier that she was getting a pass out of this place. Even if that pass was going to come at a steep cost.
The courtyard where she had met the three women earlier in the day was now abandoned, and it struck her as odd that there wasn’t a guard in sight. Not even up on the wall.
They went to the main gate, and the young woman pushed it open. “Go, before the guards come back from their break.”
“I know you didn’t do this for my benefit, but thanks,” Raelle told her, stepping out into the street. She didn’t get a response as the gate swung shut behind her.
Raelle looked around, the streets of Cairo empty and lit by a nearly full moon. She glanced down at the money in her hand and for the briefest of seconds, she considered going to the closest bar. But, she’d made a promise and if she didn’t keep it, there was clearly going to be a spot ready and waiting for her in the gallows.
At least going to Hamunaptra had a chance of survival, no matter how slim.
Resolving herself, Raelle started off down the street. Hopefully the twenty pounds would be enough to get her back into her rented room so she could clean up, and in the morning, she would meet her saviors at the port.