What the River Knows

As Whit guides Inez through the temple grounds, she wonders if he feels as confused and conflicted about their relationship as she does. Ricardo brings Inez her art supplies and asks her to draw the paintings in the temple. She is both surprised by the invitation to participate in the team’s efforts and angered that he went through her things. While Inez draws the temple’s beautiful columns, Whit shares that he has a brother named Porter and a sister, Arabella, who is also an artist. He implies that he is not engaged, and Inez tells him that her parents chose a respectable young man named Ernesto Rodriguez for her. Whit spots her sketch of the temple gate and asks where she saw the gate. She asks him if the gate has something to do with her parents’ disappearance, but he insists that her search for answers is futile because it can’t bring them back. She angers him by asking, “Are you always so good at following orders?” (216). He tells her that he was dishonorably discharged and then walks away.

The narrative shifts to Whit’s perspective. His feelings for Inez frustrate him, and he wishes he hadn’t stopped drinking. Whit remembers the horrors he saw in the military and how the days after his discharge were a haze of alcohol and bar fights. Ricardo found him, helped him in his recovery from addiction, and made him part of his team. Whit will have to leave Egypt in a matter of days unless he finds what he’s searching for, his fate depending on “a single sheet of paper” (218). He reports to Ricardo that Mr. Sterling is ill with consumption and is likely looking for Cleopatra so he can ingest her mummy, which is believed to have miraculous healing properties. Ricardo is determined to ensure that Mr. Sterling never finds the pharaoh.

The narrative returns to Inez. She paints into the evening and then starts back toward camp. She stops at Trajan’s Kiosk, where she has a vision of Cleopatra on her way to meet Marcus Antonius for the first time. Inez still isn’t sure how the pharaoh’s magic connects to her parents’ deaths, and she decides not to tell her uncle what she experienced at Trajan’s Kiosk. Inez feels like an outsider among the team, and she upbraids herself for thinking she could befriend Whit when his loyalty to Ricardo is “as immovable as one of the great pyramids” (223). That night, Inez returns to Trajan’s Kiosk, and Whit follows her. She apologizes for implying that he would follow orders without question. Whit informs her that the structure contains a secret tunnel, and Inez uses her ability to sense magic to find the mechanism that opens it.

As they explore the rooms adjoining the tunnel, Whit tells Inez that her father could also sense magic and infers that the ring granted him this ability. Inez decides to trust Whit and tells him that the magic is coming from a different side of the room than where Ricardo is excavating. Before dawn the next morning, Inez goes to Whit’s room and asks him to keep their findings a secret. He explains that he owes Ricardo because the man saved his life after he was discharged. Inez tells him, “You can’t just pretend that you don’t feel it. What exists between us” (237). She kisses him, and he kisses her back. However, he then tells her that they cannot be together because he is betrothed. He promises the mortified young woman that he will keep her secret for a day but insists that Ricardo be informed about the dig site after that.

When Inez returns to her own room, she is astonished to find her mother there. Her amazement and grief turn to fury as she realizes that her mother let her believe she was dead for nearly a year. Lourdes explains that she has been hiding from Ricardo and claims he is involved in “an illegal smuggling trade of Egyptian artifacts” known as Tradesman's Gate (242). When Inez mentions the magical ring, Lourdes is surprised that her husband sent the ring to Inez but tries to conceal the fact. Lourdes begs Inez to return to Argentina, but she insists on staying so she can help her mother stop her uncle. Inez suggests that Whit would help them if they explained the situation to him, but Lourdes swears her to secrecy. Lourdes makes her daughter promise not to look through Ricardo’s things or do anything else that may attract suspicion before her mother is ready to enact her plan.

The next morning, Ricardo asks Inez to paint the interior of the temple and tells Whit to accompany her. Isadora detects the awkwardness between the two young people and offers to stay with Inez instead. Inez realizes that she knows very little about Isadora.