Voices in Crystal
Page 53
Don’t tire yourself, friend. I’ ll send you as much light and strength as I can... the Inspector’s thoughts whispered back. There was a sound. For a moment he thought Hordjedtef had come out to check on him. They had argued that day. Wserkaf had even used the word “murder” before he stopped himself from screaming disrespect.
A woman’s voice called:
“Wse... Are you ill, my king?”
Marai smiled, inwardly. He had always liked the way women here called their husbands or favorites “my king” which meant “king of my heart”. He sensed the same slightly younger woman he had envisioned as Wserkaf’s wife before. This time, he saw her more clearly. She was sweet faced, meticulously kept and sturdy. Her short-cropped, curly black hair looked like a tousled Akkhad boys cap. It was looser by nature than many of the frothy-haired women of Kemet. Her medium brown skin and wide Kemet features made her look sleek despite her years. Golden jewelry on her arms and around her throat indicated great wealth…a princess, by her marriage to Wserkaf no doubt, he guessed.
“Khentie...I was just out here thinking. Come to me. So much has slipped out of order...out of balance and truth today, beloved.”
The woman approached and Wserkaf gathered her tenderly, just to hold her. She noticed how he trembled.
“Oh, beloved one...” she cooed in more than a little sympathy “What is it that rocks you?” She held him “Is there no joy in you that we have protected our own from a sojourning demon?”
“I keep thinking we just did a terrible thing, my sweet princess. This man we vanquished was no demon. I know that! I know what I witnessed in the last days. He is the Sun who knows. He was the one I had in the vision in my illumination...Re as Asar, trapped in a tomb! Can you know how it grieves me. That I took part in his demise?”
“Shh...” the princess offered. “You, of all men, should know what women know... Know our secrets Do you think I suddenly have fallen asleep too? So much over the past weeks has been sitting in my heart. Your late nights in secret...the voices you hear at night. I too have visions of the god.”
He petted her head, touseled her short curly hair, glad she had chosen not to wear her formal wig to the party, but had only placed her coronet and braided in some gold beads that tinkled when he touched them.
“I have come to know my High Teacher may have poisoned the Ben. He put the man down, himself, like one kills a mad dog,…and he ordered that I not save him…” He sighed.
“I think he brings a curse on our houses, mightier than the one learned by our sweet father-god at Buto.” The priest rubbed his eyes.
The woman frowned, touching his temples gently with her wrists to calm him.
Marai realized by her gesture, that she was a royal prophetess.
“I made a mistake to ever align myself with him. He has mocked god, today!” Wserkaf sighed. “And ordered that I sully my own heart on his behalf, as his successor. I will have to return to Ra at Per-A-At one day soon! I have to make amends with my father, but if I speak a word against my master until then...” He whispered into her hair. “Are you up to it, beloved? Would you go with me…search for what is the real Maat and seek it where it truly is, or do I stand alone?” he asked.
“We do what the gods ask of us…We know what is right and why we were born into holy houses,” She smoothed his brow “It is our burden...” Then she led him back to the party quietly. “To honor the legacy the gods have given us to let them walk within us…But should it profane them…”
Marai wanted to know the rest of her words but felt their voices begin to crackle and fade.
Wse...protect...honor...Oh goddess, it hurts...I’m done... Marai sighed, his thoughts becoming more and more scattered. He was lying down again. His wives faces were drifting through him, but they had become flat, like paintings on the wall with etched grinning smiles. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t speak to them, or why their eyes now seemed like black glass. They were no longer human, but stone. It seemed as if the children had taken their form but hadn’t gotten the eyes right. Why would he have that vision? Why would the Children of Stone take their forms, Marai wondered? Their mating games were superb. Together the four of them fertilized the earth a thousand fold, bringing life to its winter, but when they were done the women kissed him tenderly and ate his heart. He had been the seed and now his lifeless husk lay useless on the ground. What he had presumed were Djedi’s last words, the ones he had heard as the old man had died, pounded him like sharp pointed missles launched from another world. He knew now it had been a curse laid on him by a disgruntled prince or...perhaps an abandoned god.
You will not escape them.
They will use you until you are gone
and nothing remains of your simple shepherd man but an empty shell.
Pray you die tonight.
Pray to the gods,
if you have any left who will listen to you,
to take you from this,
lest what they create goes on to animate your dead flesh forever.
Marai screamed again and again, but his dry, cracked throat made no sound.