Doc had almost forgotten his looped, braided hair. He tried to glare at her, then gave it up and laughed, too. “How goes your career as a royal scullery maid?”
“I’ve had worse jobs,” she told him with a smile. “When I was attending university I worked in a fast-food restaurant. That was more like slavery than this place.”
She looked around furtively, then took him by the elbow and guided him over to a corner where they were screened from casual view by steam and smoke. She slid her fingers into her cleavage. “I want to show you something.”
Doc quickly looked away. “Please, Dr. Wyeth. I am fully aware of the old adage ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do,’ but I’m afraid—”
“Oh, muzzle it, Doc,” Mildred broke in exasperatedly. She held out her hand. “Look.”
Squinting through the vapors, he saw a small metal object, nearly the size of her palm, nestled in her open hand. “An ankh amulet, like the one Danielson wore.”
“I filched it from Mimses.”
“Who?”
“He used to be called Stockbridge. He’s Pharaoh’s chief counselor.”
“Ah. And you decided to lift his jewelry as a prank?”
Mildred grimaced. “Don’t be deliberately obtuse, Doc. You’re hard enough to stomach when you’re unintentionally obtuse. It’s more than jewelry. It’s a talisman.”
Doc’s eyebrows crawled toward his hairline. “We have fallen on sorry times indeed when our resident adherent to hard science resorts to the bead-and-rattle explanation.”
Mildred glared at him angrily. “Remember what Danielson said about Akhnaton stumbling on ancient principles of energy transference and manipulation? He traced a relationship between the body’s electromagnetic field and certain Egyptian glyphs. The ankh he wore protected him from the Incarnates’ weapons, and he indicated it was also a psychic shield.”
Doc took the metal object from her hand and eyed it skeptically. “Yes, I recall him saying something along those lines. I do not recall that it correlated with the science I was taught…or practiced.”
“Your science is out-of-date,” Mildred retorted. “Every substance, organic and inorganic, is surrounded by an energy field, an aura. Each field’s intensity and quality is determined by the structure of its component molecules.”
“And?”
“And the human nervous system, which is itself a conductor of electrical energy, can be influenced by the proximity of other substances that have strong fields. The amount of influence depends upon the frequency of the nerve and the pulsating frequency of the object. If the frequencies are a match, the strength of the nerve impulses can be increased, through the principle known as electronic cadence. If the fields are out of sync, the effect can be deleterious.”
Doc no longer looked so doubtful.
“We’ve already seen that the amulet worked to protect Danielson,” Mildred continued. “This is basic biochemistry, actually. Silver, copper and gold resonate with the body’s energy field. Remember those crystal-and-gold gadgets in Ti-Ra’-Wa?”
Doc nodded. The Amerindian inhabitants of that hidden Wyoming settlement had employed an ancient understanding of the relationship between piezoelectric quartz crystals, metals and the energy generated by the mind to communicate telepathically with each other and higher animal forms.
“Well, obviously, if the ankhs are made of certain metals and of certain designs, they can be used as a means of containing the life-force, what Danielson called the sekhem. He also said the ankh blocked Akhnaton’s power so he couldn’t be read.”
Doc smiled. “I see. If we wear the same amulets, then we would not only be immune to the metauh rods, but shield our minds from Akhnaton.”
“And possibly Nefron, his daughter. She’s behind the so-called escape plan. She told me she sent a girl named Kela to talk to you.”
“Yes, this morning. You suspect this—Nefron, is it?—possesses a marked degree of psychic ability?”
Mildred shrugged. “Stands to reason, doesn’t it? She is her father’s daughter, even if he doesn’t want to recognize her as blood of his blood. Anyhow, she’s made a lot of promises without mentioning any specifics. She keeps asking me to trust her. I don’t.”
“A wise precaution, under the circumstances,” Doc replied. “Oddly, my hairstylist was an elderly slyboots named Nasaris. He claimed he fell out of Pharaoh’s favor because he made something he shouldn’t have for Nefron. I received the distinct impression she had used him in some fashion. Perhaps he was the craftsman Danielson mentioned who made his ankh.”