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“An official permit granting the right to excavate at a particular site here in Egypt,” she replied automatically. “They’re acquired by applying to the Antiquities Service.”
“Unless one is an Egyptian,” Sayyid added with a tired smile.
Ellie stilled as the import of Sayyid’s words sunk into her brain.
She had been reading about Ancient Egypt for ages. She had soaked up piles of excavation reports written by the likes of Flinders Petrie and Mariette… and she had neveroncestopped to wonder why none of the names on those reports had been Egyptian.
Her donkey stopped beneath her as her cheeks flushed with humiliation. Hadn’t she dreamed of acquiring just such a concession for herself? Had it never occurred to her that if by some miracle she had received one, it might have been granted to her at the expense of an equally qualified Egyptian?
Dismay washed over her. “I feel like such a wretched fool!”
“It is not as though you would have found it printed in a book,” Sayyid offered with a note of sympathy. “It is not an official policy.”
“I still ought to have noticed before now,” Ellie returned forcefully. “As someone who is routinely excluded from opportunities for professional and academic advancement myself, I might have paid better attention to who else was being left out! There is no excuse for it, and I can only offer a most sincere apology.”
“You needn’t apologize to me,” Sayyid returned quickly, his cheeks flushing.
“To Egypt, then,” Ellie determined firmly. “I will not allow myself to be so self-absorbed in the future. One cannot claim to be committed to righting injustice and then abandon that principle when it is not a matter that impacts one personally.”
“You can hardly expect yourself to know of every injustice in the world.” Sayyid looked a little alarmed at the notion.
“Perhaps not,” Ellie agreed a little reluctantly. “But I must certainly do a better job than I have been. Tell me, then—is it simple prejudice that lies behind the denial of excavation rights to Egyptians, or are the gentlemen at the Antiquities Service perhaps afraid that if you begin digging up your own history, you might question why you need the rest of us outsiders at all? You might even start to wonder whether it is right that half your heritage is routinely carted off to foreign museums and collectors!”
She added that last point with an extra note of fervor. Ellie’s opinions about the distribution of archaeological finds to Europe and America had changed the moment she stepped into a cave in British Honduras and saw the devastation wreaked by looters searching for artifacts they could sell on the black market. She could still vividly recall the resigned, hollow look in Adam’s eyes as he had taken in the scene.
I’m lying about what’s out there. And the worst part is, I’m not even sure it matters.
“I am not entirely certain,” Sayyid replied awkwardly. “I have never applied.”
“But if you were to even try, they would look at you as though you were mad,” Ellie filled in with feeling. “And your request would be turned down for some reason or another, if they even bothered to respond at all!”
Sayyid’s eyes flashed with an unnameable emotion—and Ellie knew that she had found the nub of it. And why wouldn’t she? She knew precisely how these things went.
Adam threw another worried look back at her. The rest of the party had ridden even further ahead. Ellie forced her donkey to trot along after them before she and Sayyid fell too conspicuously behind.
“Where did your father go to school?” she asked, searching for a less infuriating and painful topic of conversation.
“The English name for it would be ‘The School of the Ancient Egyptian Tongue.’”
There was something a little careful in how Sayyid said it.
Ellie’s interest perked at the intriguing name. “Is it here in Egypt?”
“Was,” Sayyid replied shortly.
“What happened?” Ellie felt another quick flash of anger, already anticipating Sayyid’s answer.
“The British Consul General closed it down. It was not just my father’s school,” Sayyid continued hurriedly. “Lord Cromer is suspicious of all higher education for Egyptians.” He held back for a moment, but then burst out with the rest of his thought, which came in a distinctly wry tone. “He thinks it turns us into revolutionaries.”
Ellie decided to keep her resulting thoughts about Lord Cromer to herself, lest the sound of her ranting reach the others and send Adam back to check on her.
“That must have been terribly hard for your father,” she said instead. “To know that he was just as well educated as the men he worked for but could only ever play a supporting role.”
“He had a reputation for being an extremely knowledgeable and capable foreman—the best, really,” Sayyid replied carefully. “And the foreign archaeologists all wanted the best. There was never any shortage of work.”
“But it was not the work he deserved,” Ellie declared firmly.
“No.” Sayyid met her eyes. “It was not.”
