Spell Bound (A Fairy Retelling #3) (16 page)

Aniya is pulled up to the surface. She wants to sing with joy when her eyes see the light of the sun. Instead, she coughs and sputters out the water burning in her lungs. She takes a ragged breath and it feels like fire in her chest.
How many times can one person almost drown in a day
?

“I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find you or if you’d end up as a crocodile snack,” a voice says, and Aniya realizes she’s still holding onto the thing that kept hitting her head. An oar. She looks up to see Nehi holding the other end.

He reaches a hand out to her and Aniya tries to grab it. Instead of meeting flesh, her hand passes right through his as if she is immaterial as a wisp of fog. She grabs back onto the oar. It feels solid enough. Nehi pulls her over the side of a boat, and Aniya lands in a heap on the bottom, grateful to be alive. The wooden statue of Osiris that she had been reaching for sits on the bottom of the boat, and she grabs ahold of it.

“I saw you reaching for that just as you fell in. I figured whatever is in there that’s so important you’d risk your life for, must be pretty important.”

“Thank you,” she says, holding it tight against her chest. “It is.”

She pushes her body as far from from him as she can. This man who was her friend is also the one that gave her the apple, the last thing she remembered before waking up in her tomb. He’s also the man that said he’d deliver her son to Rahotep. For all she knows, he’s part of the plan to sacrifice her son.
But, Rahotep threatened to kill him
, she reminds herself. Doubt and mistrust fight with her desire to believe in the man that saved her life.

“Let’s get out of here,” Nehi says, pushing the oar through the water. “Even though your little helpers were able to seal the crocodiles’ mouths, they still seem pretty deadly to me.”

Aniya couldn’t agree more. She looks over the side of the boat and sees the four crocodile gods thrashing in the water. All four have shabti soldiers wrapped around their snouts, while the captain jumps from one to the other, striking with his clay sword. He sees her and shrugs before striking the crocodile again. Aniya takes that for “get out of here.”

Nehi rows toward the shore, not speaking.

“You saw me come here?” Aniya asks.

“Yes. I saw you in Nefertiti’s garden. I thought I must be imagining you because I knew you were...you were…”

“Dead?”

“Yes.”

“No one else can see me. Why can you?”

Nehi shrugs and pulls at the oars. “I assume it’s because I’m still holding some magic in me. Rahotep filled me not long ago. Maybe the magic gives me sight into the land beyond the living.”

“Perhaps,” Aniya agrees. But what made you decide I wasn’t just part of your imagination?”

“I don’t think I have completely decided that yet. But I saw you again when you left the palace. That’s when I thought you must be a spirit. I thought perhaps you had come back to take your revenge on me.”

“Revenge?”

“Yes. For giving you the apple.”

“Why should I take revenge for that?” Aniya says, a cold tingle running up her spine. She knows the words he’s going to say. Knows them before his lips even form them.

“Because it’s the poisoned apple that killed you, Aniya.”

It feels like she’s underwater again; it’s so hard to breathe. Nehi is still talking, but Aniya can’t hear his words. She’s still trying to process what she knows and what she remembers. Nehi brought her the apple. It was poisoned. It killed her.

“I really am dead then,” she says, looking at her hands, her palms that seem so real, so solid.

“Yes,” Nehi whispers.

Aniya looks up at him. Anguish is etched across his face. She wants to hate him, to lash out at him in anger, but all she feels is the burning ache in her heart and an emptiness of the life that was taken from her.

“Why?”

“Why did you die?”

“Why did you do it? Why did you give me the apple?”

Nehi’s sigh is long as he gathers his thoughts. “I couldn’t
not
give you the apple, Aniya. I didn’t have a choice.”

“What do you mean? Of course you had a choice. Everyone has a choice.”

“Not everyone. Not me.”

“I don’t understand.” Hatred bubbles up and the words spit out of her mouth.

“Rahotep has my secret name - my true name that is connected to my Ka. He uses it to force me to do things that I don’t want to do. When he invokes my secret name, I have no choice but to do what he says. Even though my mind is screaming at me to stop, my body betrays me, and does whatever Rahotep orders me to do. I am less than a slave. I have absolutely no free will when he orders me by my name.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before? Why now?”

Nehi smiles, but she looks closer and sees the smile is more of a wry smirk. “Rahotep forbade me to tell a single living person about this.”

“Then why can you tell me now?”

“Because you’re not a living person, Aniya.”

The realization of his words wash over her and she understand the wryness behind his smile. He must obey Rahotep’s orders literally. She’s just a spirit, so he can reveal his secret to her.

Aniya nods her head. “I understand. But Nehi, how did this happen to you? How could Rahotep get your secret name? Aren’t the gods the only ones who know our secret names?”

Nehi nods. “You’re right. Aten, the One God, gave it to Rahotep. In a strange way, I’m a little grateful.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If Rahotep didn’t know my secret name, then he wouldn’t have the ability to control me. He would have filled me to the bursting point with magic long ago. Him having my secret name has saved my life, in an odd sort of way.”

“It can’t feel like much of a life, being compelled to whatever your master orders you to do,” Aniya says gently.

“No, it’s not.”

“Are there others like you?” Aniya asks. “Has Rahotep stolen the secret names of other people, too?”

“I don’t think so. I watched him try once. It was the only time I heard the One God speak. My flesh grows cold just thinking about it. His voice felt like needles. He chided Rahotep for calling on him for another secret name before he had accomplished the mission that Aten had set for him.”

Nehi’s words swim in her head and it all comes together. “What else can you tell me?” she asks.

“I hid your son. I tried, anyway. I told the midwife to take the boy, but then Rahotep...well, you were there.”

Aniya remembers Rahotep ordering Nehi to bring him the baby. With Nehi’s secret name in Rahotep’s possession, there is nothing he couldn’t order Nehi to do. Nehi would be compelled to obey no matter what.

“Nefertiti and Rahotep are planning to insert the god Aten into the body of your son,” he continues. “All of the world will see a true, living god and bow down before him.”

As they row down the Nile, Aniya quickly tells Nehi about her travel through the Duat and what will happen to the old gods of Egypt if no one prays to them anymore.

“Who will keep Ma’at? There will be no order if all the gods disappear,” he says.

“Maybe that’s what Aten wants,” Aniya surmises. “Maybe he wants to throw the whole world into chaos.” Aniya’s mind races back to the throne room of the gods. There was mention of chaos. What was it?

“Did the gods tell you how to stop Aten?” he asks.

“I have this,” she says, holding up the wooden statue containing the Book of the Dead. “The goddess Isis told me to find it. She said it can help.”

“We have to hurry.”

Aniya agrees. The sun is sinking low over the horizon, painting the desert in shades of red.

“Nehi, there’s something more. If the sun sets while my Ka is away from my body, I’ll be separated from it forever.”

Nehi inhales sharply. “A lost soul of the Duat. You’ll never be able to cross over into the next life. Aniya, you must return to the pyramid. Your body is there in a chamber close to Akhenaten’s.”

“No. I can’t. I have to stop Nefertiti and Rahotep. I have to save my son.”

A look of sheer determination crosses Nehi’s face as he rows down the Nile toward the Red Desert where the ceremony will be held. The pyramids where Aniya’s husband and her own body are buried shines in the fading sunlight. As they get closer, she feels the pull of her Ka’s desire to reunite with her flesh but ignores it.

Aniya clutches the book of spells close as she and Nehi depart the boat and make their way through the desert. The sun is hanging low in the sky.

Together, they push their way through the throng of people. Although they ignore her altogether, the people give Nehi a wide berth when they see his priestly garb. Many of them reach out their hands for a blessing, but Nehi ignores them as they make their way to the dais of the Red Desert.

A wooden altar sits on the top of a great hill directly under the rising full moon. Rahotep stands there surrounded by guards and lesser priests. Nefertiti stands next to him while a midwife holds the child.

“Nehi, faster! They’re about to begin!”

Nehi runs and Aniya chases after him as they make their way up the hill. Rahotep holds up his hands to silence the crowd as Nehi slips into line with the other priests. Rahotep turns an icy gaze to Nehi. “It’s about time, boy,” he hisses. “Stand closer. I’ll be needing you in just a moment.”

Nehi’s teeth clench and his face gives away how hard he is trying to fight against Rahotep’s command, but his legs move until he is standing within arm’s reach of the high priest.

Aniya feels a tingling sensation all over her skin. It isn’t unpleasant, like a cool breeze hit the back of her neck and caused pinpricks all over her body. She closes her eyes and the feeling intensifies. Gentle wisps flow through her fingers, over her neck, caressing her skin. It takes only a moment before she understands. Magic. The place is full of it. She’s never felt the magic flowing outside of her, but here it is pulsing all around her. She opens her eyes and sees faint blue wisps of it undulating through the crowd of people. So many of them are here, ready to worship, ready to celebrate the crowning of their next Pharaoh.

Rahotep begins speaking to the crowd. She steps forward, but only Nehi can see her. She walks towards the child, her child, and tries to take him from the arms of the midwife, but her hands pass right through, just as they did when she tried to take Nehi’s hand in the water. Aniya tries again, but she can not take him. Instead, he sleeps soundly in the woman’s arms unaware of what is about to happen to him.

Rahotep motions to the midwife and she steps forward, walking directly through Aniya. A shiver runs through her and Nehi’s eyes widen as he sees this happen. Aniya spins around desperate for her child. Rahotep’s words fly over the crowd as he begins the ritual of the naming ceremony.

Fill me.
Magic pours into Aniya from every corner of the earth, flowing into her like an invisible river of power.

See me
, she whispers. A hot wind blows by kicking dust up into the air. Rahotep’s words stop mid-sentence. He is looking at her. He sees her. But not only him; every eye is on her. Aniya turns and sees the people of Egypt. A hush of disbelief has fallen over the crowd.

“How can this be?” a voice says. Nefertiti. Her eyes shine with fear and hate.

“Give me the child,” Aniya says, gathering her courage.

Nefertiti takes the babe from the arms of the midwife. “No.” She holds her head high, and though she is visibly shaking, she clutches the child in her arms.

Aniya moves towards her and grabs for him. It doesn’t matter that Nefertiti tries to shield him away, her hands pass right through them both. She can not take him. Not even the magic within her is able to give her the ability to touch the flesh of the living.

“A spirit,” Rahotep says, understanding what she is. “You are nothing but a lost spirit. You can not stop us.”

A corner of Nefertiti’s mouth rises. She looks directly into Aniya’s eyes and says, “Continue with the ceremony.”

Rahotep nods and opens his mouth to begin again.

“Wait!” Aniya shouts. “A trade.”

“What could you possibly have to trade?” Rahotep asks.

“This,” she says, and holds out the statue of Osiris. “The Book of the Dead. All of the magic and the spells of the underworld can be yours. Just give me…”