Priestess of the Nile (5 page)

Merys blushed. “Is it so obvious?”

“If we had a mirror, you wouldn’t need to ask. You’re so beautiful, my love, but what we’ve shared this night changes a woman. I wouldn’t have you accused of being something you aren’t.” He frowned.

“A wanton? Someone’s lover?” She laughed happily. “But I am. I’m
your
lover.”

He stopped her with a kiss. “And you can’t tell anyone.”

“I could. I could tell them the Crocodile God appeared to me in a dream and took me for his pleasure.” Merys considered the idea, her brows drawing together. Slowly she straightened her dress. “Such things aren’t unknown between a Great One and his high priestess. I
am
a priestess, even if the temple is no longer official.”

He ducked his head to avoid her gaze. “I am sorry, my priestess, but please do not speak of our affair to anyone. Not lightly. Only tell others if you’re in dire need. Isis will have her ears pricked all along the Nile for any such rumors about me.” As he traced the planes of Merys’s beloved face, his heart stirred with some strong emotion, clenching and aching and sweet. He hissed a deep breath in and held it for a long moment.
I love her.

The realization warmed his cold blood to a low, comforting heat and a desire to tell Merys, to
show
his care for her, stirred strongly inside him.

“Merys, I’ve been with women in the past, mostly from the
ushabti
—the servants in my world—and occasionally with…with priestesses here in the human world, as you say, although never anyone from this temple. I swear to you, you are the only woman—human,
ushabti
, Great One—I’ve ever loved.” He realized how important it was to him that she accept his declaration. Giving his heart away for the first time left him feeling exposed, vulnerable.

Tilting her head, resting her hands on her hips, she challenged him playfully. “What of Renenutet, the Snake Goddess? The legends say she’s your wife.”

“Those damned legends again.” Affectionately he tapped her nose. “Yes, I’ve slept with Renenutet. Snakes and crocodiles, we’re among the oldest creatures. We took pleasure together from time to time. But there will never be any other lover for me, now I have you. No one else could fill your place in my heart. I won’t take the pleasures of the body with any other woman.” He would tell her as many times as she needed to hear it, with as many words as she required.
I will do anything to prove my love for her.

Lips parted, eyes wide, Merys seemed shocked. “But you’re immortal, and I have only a brief human lifespan.” She laid her hand on his cheek. “I wouldn’t sentence you so.”

Bek shook his head. “I won’t share you. Any man, Great One or human, who touches you is going to die at my hand. I can’t demand that you be mine alone if I’m not willing to offer the same loyalty.”

“I’ll accept your pledge for my lifetime only, then.” She smoothed his hair. “Sobek, I don’t want any other woman to give you pleasure, but I’ll only have so many years with you. I can’t love you as I do and wish for you to be sad and in mourning for me for all eternity. I’m not so cruel.” She gripped his shoulders and gave him a little shake, eyes narrowed and jaw set. “You must promise me. After I’m gone you will need someone else to love you and take care of you. My spirit couldn’t rest in the Afterlife if you were lonely.”

More to ease her mind than because he meant it, he nodded finally.
How could anyone else ever take your place in my heart, foolish beloved?
“We don’t need to talk of these matters tonight.” Holding out one hand in the moonlight, Bek called his magic into service. Emerald light rose in a wave from his palm and flickered. The next second a fine gold chain hung suspended from his fingers, an exquisitely carved jade crocodile with ruby eyes swinging at the end. “For you. To protect you from my creatures and serve as a symbol of my love.”

She touched it, then looked at him with wide eyes. “It’s too much for me, too priceless. Pharaoh’s queen would wear such a gem. My family may wonder where I got it.”

“It’s a trifle for my high priestess. You deserve more, much more. Tell them you found it in the ruins of my temple. That’s as likely a story as the truth.” Bek laughed

Lifting her heavy hair, she said, “Put it on for me?”

He did, and arranged the crocodile to hang suspended between her breasts. He fondled her breast with his hand, bent to kiss at the tender spot where neck and shoulders joined. “I love you. I’ll come as often as I can steal time between my duties.”

“And I’ll be here, to sing for you and make love to you.”

He kissed her, then she broke away, hoisting her basket and trudging across the dunes toward the village. Bek stood in the lonely moonlight for a long time, watching the river. Eventually he sighed, cleared away their love nest with a casual gesture and dematerialized, going on to his next assignment somewhere in the southern Nomes.

Merys lay drowsily in the shadow of the palms, fanning herself every once in a while. Occasionally a small breeze would lift tendrils of her hair to cool her heated skin. She felt ill again, for the fourth time in as many days. Moaning a little, she sought a more comfortable position. Bek never came to her before late afternoon, but she hoped today would be an exception. She had come to the beach just in case.

Things hadn’t been going well for her and she needed him, needed the comfort of his love. He hadn’t appeared for over a month and she missed him with an almost physical pain. Each separation was harder than the one before. She was ready now to accept his offer of assistance, of a home in Thebes or anywhere that they could be together more often.

As she was thinking about how to reopen that subject with Bek when he did arrive, she heard loud voices across the beach. Startled, Merys crept cautiously from her hiding place under the palms. Her pulse pounded and her legs trembled.

Soldiers were massing on the beach, landing in small boats. They were clearly not Egyptian. Most were heavily bearded, with long, greasy hair that escaped their strangely shaped black leather helmets. Their kilts were some coarse brown fringed fabric, jagged patterns in bold colors, topped with wide black leather belts. Each man wore a leather breastplate and carried a bow and arrow. A second wave of boats brought more soldiers, these armed with small round leather shields and wooden clubs studded with sharp metal fangs. Their officer, wearing a leopard skin over his colorful kilt, scanned the beach as he came ashore.

The man froze, his gaze fastened on Merys. Gesturing in her direction, he yelled orders in a guttural language.

Merys screamed and ran wildly toward the path to town.
I must warn my people!

Four or five of the enemy warriors moved to cut her off. Merys looked from one pitiless face to the next as they advanced to grab her and knew she was in terrible peril.

A major sandstorm had created a sandbar in the center of the river. Flotsam and jetsam drifted onto the sand, building an impromptu dam. Fully engaged in his task, Bek toiled to clear this portion of the Nile. Clogged with sand, Mother River spread out aimlessly across the nearby plains where her bounty did no good. The fields downstream would suffer if this wasn’t corrected, diminishing the annual harvest and resulting in famine.

Bek strove and worked with his powers but a nagging sense of unease plagued him.
Something is wrong
.

The feeling persisted until at last he had finished, and the Nile flowed serenely on its appointed course again. Bek shifted from his crocodile form and stood on the bank as a human, trying to understand where this foreboding came from, what it could possibly signify. He eyed the skies above, sent his thoughts questing along the channels linking the world of the Great Ones.

Nothing.

Only one thing in my life might affect me in this fashion—a threat to Merys.
Sudden, raw fear stabbed his heart.

As quickly as the thought arrived, he stood on the bluff overlooking their small beach. Although it was full daylight and Merys’s daily routine had her arriving at the shore near twilight, he was drawn to this spot. Marks scored the sand where small boats must have beached fairly recently. With growing apprehension, he assessed tracks covering the entire beach—a large party of men. The main column of footprints headed off toward the village over the dunes.

Readying himself to go check on the village, Bek caught a flash of blue from the corner of his eye. A torn scrap of fabric. Appearing on the beach in the blink of an eye he plucked the remnants of a dress from the damp sand. Merys had worn this dress often. He recognized the border print of shells and flowers.

His gut clenching, he scanned the area and at last found her, lying under the palm trees. She was naked, bruised and bleeding. Terror for her flooded his mind as he ran to her side.

Falling to his knees beside her, he held her in his arms, infuriated by the awful bruises all over her body, the blood, even bite marks. Her wrists were cruelly bound and he shifted one hand to claws in a blaze of green fire and slashed through the ropes. Hugging her close to his chest, rocking back and forth in the sand, he offered what comfort he could. She drew a shallow, rasping breath and opened one eye—the other was too swollen to lift the bruised lid. She tried to smile for him. “Bek.” Her voice wasn’t even a whisper, but he heard it and his heart ached as if it were cracking into pieces.

He summoned his powers, attempted to heal her, but her injuries were far more severe than the wound his crocodile had inflicted.
I’m no healer of humans like other Great Ones. I’m only a clumsy animal. Useless to her right now.
All he could do was hold her and gently smooth her hair.

“Enemy…enemy soldiers. Tried to run. Tried to warn the village,” she whispered.

“Shh, don’t talk. Save your strength.” He kissed her cracked and swollen lips.

“I wouldn’t tell them anything. Made them angry. Then they said they wanted some sport after—after long voyage. Said there would be other women to take as slaves.” Tears crept slowly down her bruised cheek. “I called for you. I screamed for you.” She raised a shaky hand to touch his face. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath properly. Bek sensed her heart was slowing, missing beats. Merys managed a half smile. “And you came.”

He bowed his head, closed his eyes for a heartbeat in pain, whispered, “Not soon enough. Not nearly soon enough, beloved. Can you forgive me?” He opened his eyes and met her broken gaze. “I love you.”

She died in his arms.

He threw back his head and screamed his rage and frustration with such force the ground trembled and the Nile ran in fierce waves.

“I’ll fix this. I’ll take care of you,” he pledged, broken. He placed a preservation spell over her poor, abused body and conjured a soft blanket to wrap her. Taking her in his arms, he stood and dematerialized.

Bek appeared in the throne room of the Great Ones, cradling Merys protectively. One glance told him the throne stood empty. He wouldn’t be pleading his case to Osiris, then, man to man.
An answer in and of itself. I’ll have to face the queen. She isn’t noted for mercy and she warned me once
. Dismay swept over him.

The entire room was vacant, no courtiers, musicians or servants. Only thin mist swirled above the mosaic floor and writhed between the columns ascending to the heavens.

After a moment, Isis strolled forward from the mists. She was dressed in a pleated black sheath dress, her jet-black crown atop an elaborate wig. Her pale face was solemn, her unblinking eyes rimmed in kohl and marcasite powder. Silent, she walked past him and ascended the steps. She didn’t sit on the throne but pivoted to stand next to it, resting one hand on the arm.

Bek knelt, placing Merys’s swathed body on the broad platform step with reverence.
This isn’t going to go well.

“You shouldn’t ask what is on the tip of your tongue.” Her voice was low, and she raised her hand to forestall his words.

As if expecting a physical blow, he squared his shoulders. “I must ask,” he said. “Merys deserves her life.”

Isis shook her head. “You have foolishly gone and fallen in love with a human, Sobek, thereby breaking a law for our kind and hers. This doesn’t mean other laws can be broken. It is forbidden to return a human to life. Her spirit is fled. It hovers in the
between
. Her death was hard, but it was caused by humans. There is no wrong to be redressed.”

He swallowed against the lump in his throat. He wouldn’t accept defeat so easily, not where Merys was concerned. “I know I don’t stand in the company of favorites, my Queen. I know I’m but a humble servant nowadays. I don’t ask this for myself.”

Isis descended the stairs to stand beside him, setting her hand on his shoulder, stroking his hair with her other. Sobek refused to look at her. “This has nothing to do with rank at the court of Osiris. You are a good and loyal warrior, you carry out whatever task you are given. What you ask is simply not allowed.”

He pushed himself to ask one more time, even though the wrath of Isis was a fearsome thing.
She has the power to freeze me, to crush me, to kill me. But if I truly love Merys, then I must have the courage to protest, to remind Isis of old debts between us. Nothing she can do to me will hurt as much as this agony—losing my soul mate. I would rather die of the bitter cold than go on without Merys in the world.
“With my help, you brought your husband back to life after Set had killed him—”

“And we are all Great Ones.” Her voice was stinging, harsh. “That example does
not
apply to you and this human woman.” Isis paced along the bottom of the stairs, toying with her golden necklaces. She glanced at him. “I sense your pain and genuine anguish, so I’ll forgive you for comparing a mortal to those above her.”

Bek rose. He bent to lift the body of his beloved and then turned to Isis, bowing his head to hide tears. “Then let me die as well. I don’t wish to live without Merys.”

“You explained to this woman how there was a structure even in our world,” Isis said, returning to his side. “There are rules we must follow. I can’t revive her, I can’t kill you. Yet I am not heartless.” She studied his face, raised a delicate hand to flick away the tears on his cheeks. “I’ll grant you one thing, in recognition of all you have given to my husband and me. If Merys is sent into the Afterlife properly by her people and if her heart is as true as you believe it to be, then at her turn in the Hall of Judging, she may have two choices.”

The queen raised two fingers. “One. She can choose the joy of the eternal Afterlife. Or two, she can choose to be reborn into a better life cycle with high rank, happy marriage, children. All the things she longed for in the life that just ended. But in neither case—” Isis set her hand on his shoulder and tightened her grip until Bek felt real pain, her fingernails digging into his bare flesh like knives. “In neither case will she remember you, Sobek. Nor will
you
attempt to see her.”

“I thank you for a concession on Merys’s behalf, Great One.” His throat was bone dry.
More than I hoped for, after the queen’s first refusal to help us.
His next words were croaked out in a choked voice. “I won’t seek her out.”

Isis walked away and vanished in the swirling mists. Bek blinked hard against the tears burning his eyes. He traveled to the little beach below his abandoned temple. Tenderly, he laid Merys on a bed of soft scented pillows and silk scarves in the shade of the palms.

He dematerialized and flashed to the village behind the dunes, which he had never actually visited in all his long life. He arrived in his human form, garbed as a warrior of the town. In a short kilt and leather breastplate, sword at his side, shield slung across his shoulders, he strode through the chaos, taking it all in. Many houses were burning, dead men and women lay in the streets. People ran here and there. Bek passed through the square, noting with bitter amusement that the Temple of Horus had apparently been looted. Three of its fat priests lay sprawled on the steps, dead.

Bek found the headman leaning against a pillar in the center of the square. He had been wounded—a slave bound a bad slash on his arm—but was taking command of what resources he had left. He talked with his captain of the guards. A few other more or less able-bodied men stood at parade rest nearby. Bek paused to listen.

The captain was arguing passionately to follow the Hykso raiders. “We must rescue our people before they are sold into slavery overseas.”

“You talk nonsense, man. How can we follow them? The enemy is many leagues away by now, sailing the Nile to pillage somewhere else.” Wearily, the headman shook his head. “We have to accept our losses and count ourselves lucky.”

Apparently trying to maintain his calm, the captain took a deep breath and let it out. “My wife is among those taken away.” He threw his arms wide. “Yet you expect me to stand idly by and do nothing? What kind of man are you?”

“A practical one.” The village leader rubbed his forehead and leaned against the pillar. “There’s nothing we can do.”

“What of the children they took? You know the Hykso sacrifice our children to their hideous god.”

The official made a dismissive hand gesture and walked away. The captain half drew his sword, then rammed the weapon back into its scabbard. “By the talons of Horus, I’d disobey your orders, you old coward, if I didn’t have to admit that we have no way to catch the enemy ships.”

Bek regarded the captain as he organized his depleted troops to begin clean up duties.
This is the man who scorned my Merys because she had no dowry
.
Much as I want to hate him, at least he wishes to rescue the woman he
did
choose, and the other innocents.

Bek strode away, seeking the home where Merys had labored unappreciated. With his keen senses, the place was easy for him to recognize. He followed the faint perfume of the scented floral oil she favored on her skin after a bath.

The house had been sacked but not set on fire. An elderly man with a head wound wept in the front courtyard, cradling an obviously dead woman in his arms. The woman was fatter than any human Bek had ever seen, more like the hippopotamus goddess Tawaret. Her face bore the remnants of elaborate makeup and a complicated wig lay on the ground beside her.

Delicate, my Merys said, with poor health.
Bek frowned.
She was being kind, as usual. This woman was spoiled and selfish. Her heart won’t win her entrance to the Afterlife.

“What losses have you suffered here?” Bek asked, hand on the hilt of his sword.

The man focused on him blearily, tears running down his wrinkled and dirty face. “My wife, my grown daughters carried away to be slaves, my youngest taken to be a sacrifice for their unspeakable god. All the valuables of the household taken as well. They ran out of time before they could set fire to my library of scrolls and tablets, thank the gods.”