Alone

Disclaimer: - I don’t own any of the characters of The Mummy, I’m just borrowing them to play with.

Alone Chapter 13


Evy sat quietly by Jonathan’s bedside and watched her brother sleep the first peaceful, natural sleep he’d had in days. His face was still pale and drawn with dark circles under his eyes but the sweat and the flush of fever were gone at last and his features were slack with sleep, not fearful or upset as a fever fueled nightmare assaulted his subconscious. The only sound in the room was the ticking of the clock on the mantle and Jonathan’s gentle, steady breathing. The panted, strained breathing, confused and jumbled words filled with pain and terror were no longer present to make her want to put her hands over her ears and squeeze her eyes shut. Although the windows were open the sounds of Cairo seemed distant and all Evy concentrated on were those gentle inhalations and exhalations. Her eyes dropped from Jonathan’s still face to his chest and she watched him take each breath. Reaching up she absently brushed away one relieved tear from her cheek.

Jonathan had been so ill. The fever that had ravaged him had been burning him up from the inside out. Despite Doctor Dahl’s visits and the scrupulous way he kept Jonathan’s injuries clean infection had set in and the doctor had implied that recovery rested with Jonathan and his will to live. She’d had to watch as her brother who’d always been so full of life became more and more ill slipping away from them, and Doctor Dahl had shaken his head and whispered to Rick that they should prepare for the worst. Evy had despaired unable to contemplate a future without her exasperating, loveable brother.

Then Rick had brought Ardeth Bey out of the darkness and the Medjai leader had given Evy the heart to hope again. And she’d been right to renew her faith.

Ardeth had immediately taken over Jonathan’s care relieving Evy of some of the responsibility she felt for her brother’s well being. Apart from Rick, Ardeth was the only other person she would entrust her brother’s safety to.

When Ardeth had had his belongings brought to Fort Brydon it emerged he’d come prepared for the possibility of illness. His calmly enquired,

“May I?”

Had met with Evy’s immediate and unhesitating,

“Of course…please anything you can do to help him.”

So the white bandages had been replaced with poultices and tinctures that smelt of garlic, calendula, sage, honey and myrrh. When Doctor Dahl had called and seen what Ardeth was doing he’d been outraged calling it, “primitive, native voodoo.” Evy had very calmly asked him to leave and to not come back.

Ardeth had stayed with Jonathan soothing him in his delirium with words quietly whispered in Arabic which seemed to calm Jonathan like nothing else would. At first Evy had been a little surprised by the gentle care Ardeth showed towards her brother. He was a warrior and leader of his people after all.

But then several nights earlier she’d awoken from a restless sleep and had decided to go to Jonathan’s room and see if Ardeth wanted to get some rest. She’d doubted that she’d get back to sleep and so thought she might as well watch over her brother since it was only a few hours until dawn which was when she’d promised Ardeth she would come and relieve him so he could get some rest. She’d tiptoed down the corridor to Jonathan’s room not wanting to wake anyone else up and had carefully and quietly pushed open his door. She’d been so stealthy that Ardeth hadn’t heard her, caught up as he was with wiping a cloth from the bowl of cool water which stood beside him on the table over Jonathan’s face and bare torso to try and help lower his temperature. He was murmuring softly to Jonathan as he slowly swiped the cooling cloth over Jonathan’s fever flushed skin.

It wasn’t the first time Evy had heard the melodic, almost hypnotic, litany of whispered Arabic, but for the first time with the stillness of the room some of the words reached her with enough clarity that she heard them properly. At first she’d been shocked by the sweet words of love that Ardeth crooned so softly into Jonathan’s ear, and considering what Jonathan had suffered she felt a fierce flare of protective anger burst forth within her. However, that anger burned itself out in almost the same instant as it came into being.

She recognised love when she saw it. During her mother’s last illness she could remember watching her father sitting by her mother’s bed talking quietly to her in Arabic to sooth and comfort her. Suddenly Evy had been glad as she watched Ardeth with Jonathan. Glad that Jonathan had someone to love him just as she had Rick to love her. Glad that he had someone to watch over him and protect him. She wasn’t sure how her brother would react to Ardeth’s feelings, especially after what had happened to him. But she wasn’t as naïve as Rick and Jonathan thought she was, and she certainly knew enough about the harsh realities of the world to know that to have unconditional love given to one was something to be cherished. So she’d quietly slipped away again with her soul feeling lighter then it had in days.

Ardeth’s traditional remedies had preformed miracles where modern Western medicine had failed and earlier the previous evening Jonathan’s fever had finally broken much to everybody’s great relief. He’d not awoken but at least now the sleep he was experiencing was restful. Evy hadn’t left his side wanting to be there for him when he woke up.

Now that the danger to Jonathan’s life had past Evy had seen the warrior in Ardeth once more come to the fore, as he and Rick had left to see if they could uncover the identity of the person or persons who’d hurt Jonathan so badly. They’d returned just after dawn tired and disappointed, empty-handed, and Evy knew that their hopes for exacting justice now rested with Jonathan being able to tell them what had happened and who had attacked him so viciously.

Evy found that as much as she wanted to see Jonathan’s eyes open and to talk to him, to hear his voice, she also felt a huge amount of trepidation on his behalf. When he awoke he’d have to remember what happened to him and to come to terms with it. Evy sighed as she watched him sleep wondering sadly if this was the last peaceful respite Jonathan would have for a long time.