Heart of the Gods

Heart of the Gods Read Online Free PDF

Book: Heart of the Gods Read Online Free PDF
Author: Valerie Douglas
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal
benefited them much. His sons inherited.”
    She looked at him evenly and then looked away. Color tinted her cheeks.
    Judging by her expression, the death had been messy.
    She took a breath.
    “The old thief was one thing, his sons quite another.”
    Ky could easily imagine, judging by her face. If the rest of her was as attractive she would have been in a difficult position. If she had no family to protect her she would have been considered almost a possession.
    “So I’m a bit at loose ends,” she finished, softly.
    “Do you have any documentation at all?” he asked.
    A lack of documentation might cause some problems but if she truly could read ancient languages as she said… It would have been a valuable skill for antiquities thief, the age of the script determining how much higher in value some items might be over others.
    Her look was speculative. “I’m sure I can get some if you’d like but you probably don’t need to know about that either. Or where I got them from.” She shook her head. “I’m not looking for charity, I can do what you need but I do need the money, if only for the documentation so I can leave here.”
    If she had no papers then she was desperate.
    “What can you read?”
    With a small shrug and a grin, she said, “Everything, pretty much. Hieroglyphics, of course, hieratic and demotic, the cursive and other forms, Coptic, Greek, Babylonian…all of it…even some of the older European languages.”
    Ky looked at her in frank surprise. She looked barely old enough to be a grad student, slightly older than Ryan but younger than John…and himself. It seemed a little…surprising.
    Of course, if she worked for an illegal antiquities dealer she had to be good. The people who bought illegal antiquities were often rich, powerful and didn’t tolerate mistakes well. One bad sale was all it took to ruin a tomb raider’s reputation, one mistake on the part of the translator and she’d have been dead.
    If she was telling the truth.
    “You said you have references?” he asked.
    She nodded, reached into the voluminous folds of the abaya, produced a sheaf of papers and handed them to him.
    Ky glanced through them, at least one―from the last Egyptologist to come even reasonably close to what he sought―raised his eyebrows.
    If it was true, she had to have been little more than a child at the time.
    “Where did you learn all this?” he asked.
    There was no sign of a formal education in those papers but she was clearly well spoken and well educated.
    She looked at him for a moment, clearly debating what she would say.
    “From those I was sold to,” she said, evenly, steadily.
    The truth of it was in her eyes.
    He went still, not shocked, sadly, but surprised.
    White slavery was still quite common throughout the world and children were sold for a variety of reasons. Sex among them. A bright child, though, one with wit and reason, clever and resourceful?
    He looked into those calm blue eyes. Unafraid, she looked back.
    “Prove it,” he said, gesturing to the papyrus on the desk. “Ryan?”
    “Got it, boss,” Ryan said, knowing what Ky wanted as always.
    He turned to his computer to call up another document.
    A little startled, the girl – young woman – paused to look at him again and saw the challenge in his eyes.
    She smiled, then nodded. “A test? Do you mind if I take the rest of this off, first, as it’s a little warm and cumbersome?”
    The smile was very pretty, brightening her eyes.
    It was more than a little warm in the room, despite the open window, and there was no air conditioning to be had. It was actually quite hot in the room but he’d become accustomed to it, he thought, until she’d entered the room.
    Beneath the abaya it had to be stifling.
    “Go right ahead,” he said.
    Stripping the rest of the abaya over her head, she tossed it carelessly over a nearby chair, revealing a short, simple, pale blue linen dress beneath it. The dress clung nicely to all the right
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