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Ardeth does not spend the time following the defeat of Imhotep becoming as domesticated as Rick O’Connell and Evelyn Carnahan.
He knows that they have married, because it is part of his duties now to watch over O’Connell. There is still so much the man does not know about himself and his destiny – things that Ardeth himself only learned when took on the mantle of leader and elder of the Medjai.
He has also set a trusted warrior to watch Jonathan Carnahan. The man is too unpredictable to allow him to be an unknown.
The first months after escaping the death and sand of Hamunaptra were not easy. Ardeth can admit that now, looking back. There were many holes in their tribe, and much knowledge lost with the passing of those souls. Their sacred duty forms a strong tie between them all, but it was sorely tested in those days of gathering up and moving forward.
~~
Almost a year in, he faces his hardest test. They are few, but he had not anticipated the seeds of displeasure in his leadership burrowing deep and growing into such strong opposition.
The actual clash is one-on-one. The blade of their self-appointed voice – Abasi, a boy barely a man, who Ardeth has known since he was a babe on his mother’s back, and who now questioned the focus on an American as the one named – against Ardeth’s blade. At stake: a tribe united, and a purpose set before their grandparents’ grandparents’ were born.
Ardeth takes no pleasure in beating Abasi, nor in banishing him and his followers. Their number is just large enough to sting his pride and to put a new hole in the mended fabric of the Medjai. It is the correct act; that did not make it easy.
~~
It’s been five years when Ardeth almost approaches O’Connell again. He does not often go to England, for there are others in place who report everything to him. There have been glimpses of signs, though, half-seen portents. So he is here.
When he looks on what they built, a surge of pride goes through him. The reports left out no detail, but the house – the home – Rick and Evelyn created out of what they brought out of Hamunaptra is something that has to be felt. He watches the bright-haired boy run through the great hall to meet his parents, sees O’Connell swing the child high and the laughter on all of their faces, and he aches.
This is not a life on his own path. And until the signs show their full face, he cannot bring himself to disrupt the life they rightfully have.
~~
Ardeth does not take a wife. He could, for he has the opportunities. The older members of the tribe would like him to have the stability a family provides, and the happiness they radiate the one time he visits the same woman for a fortnight makes him far more careful in the future.
He doesn’t dare do more. Not when warriors are as important to the future of the Medjai as children. Not when there is still a prophesied threat looming. The stories on the walls, he says over and over. His life is theirs now, not his own.
~~
When the signs finally become visible, they are screaming. Along with O’Connell, who is twisted and torn with anger and worry. Ardeth has lost members of his tribe more than once over the years. He has never lost a child. So he can only stand and offer support, knowing that understanding is just out of reach.
O’Connell is not in any frame of mind to hear what he must now be told, but Ardeth must speak of it, nonetheless.
He hopes his choices – the choices he made for everyone – have not made him too late.
~~
The grand air ship is a sight to see as it swings overhead. Ardeth catches a glimpse of O’Connell leaning out, and he waves. The air ship is moving fast, the figures growing indistinct, but Ardeth thinks he sees a wave in return.
He watches until it is out of sight, then turns back to the desert. The cleanup in the forest had already started when the shaking started, and Ardeth had quickly pulled his people back. Now he sees there is little need for any work on their part. The sand has taken all that once stood here. Perhaps it is better that way, to have nothing left as temptation.
Ishaq rides up and Ardeth watches him closely. His second caught a blade on his upper arm during the fight. The blood on the cloth binding the wound does not seem to have advanced any farther than before, so Ardeth switches his gaze to Ishaq’s own.
“We are done,” he says, and Ishaq looks surprised.
“But…our purpose will never be completely fulfilled.”
Ardeth nods. “Never,” he agrees. “But we are done. I can feel it.”
Awareness of the emphasis hits, and brings a mix of sadness and relief into Ishaq’s eyes.
“It is time to move forward, once more, my friend,” Ardeth says. “Our lives are beginning again.”
~~
Ardeth spends the time following the defeat of Imhotep and the Scorpion King leading his people into the future. A future that is now wide open for so many possibilities.