Chapter Eighty Six: A Father’s Curse
One day, when Kiya was lying half-asleep on the hammock, she saw a huge snake coiled around the trunk of one of the supporting palm trees. It oozed towards her. In her blissful state she felt no fear but admired the pattern of its scales and the way they rippled as it moved. When the serpent came near she smelt the aroma of frankincense and knew that it was her father.
She smiled as its flickering tongue approached her face. “Hello, Father,” she said. For a moment the snake held its shape then it changed into a man and jumped down to stand beside her hammock.
“I should have known I could not surprise you,” Seth said, glaring down at her. “You may live to regret your ability to smell the essence of immortals.”
“I am glad to see you, Father. I have such good news. You will soon be a grandfather.”
Seth surveyed her bulge without enthusiasm. “Who is the father?”
“I do not know,” she said and stroked her stomach dreamily. “I am still a virgin so the conception is a mystery.” The baby stirred and a glow of love suffused her. It was so powerful that even Seth must have become aware of it, for he looked startled and took a step back.
“You are using love as a weapon against me!” he snarled.
“A weapon?” She was confused.
“I am not talking to you. I am talking to the being inside you.”
“My baby?”
“You poor, deluded creature,” Seth snarled. “That is not my grandchild. It is not even your baby. You are merely the means by which it is being brought into the world.”
“I don’t understand.” Kiya lay on her hammock and smiled. Poor Seth. She felt pity for his anger and yet she loved him, for her whole being was filled with the love that came from the baby.
“Stop smiling at me, you pathetic girl! Don’t you understand that the child has been put inside you without your knowledge or agreement? You are being used as an incubator. You can no more possess that baby than you can possess sunshine.”
“Can any mother truly possess her child,” said Kiya.
His frown deepened. “Do you not understand what is happening? For what purpose is this child being sent into the World? Why should you be the chosen one?” He paused as if expecting answers, then he shrugged. “I am wasting my time asking such questions of an ignorant girl. I should kill you now and the creature growing within you.”
Kiya wrapped her arms across her belly, instinctively trying to protect her child. “Would you kill your own daughter?”
“You call yourself my daughter and yet you have thwarted my plans by restoring Osiris to life.”
“I am sorry to have upset you, Father, but Egypt needs the temples of its old gods. Now that Isis is happy things can continue as normal.”
“Do you think I hid my brother’s ka just to hurt his wife? I am insulted. I did it to stop him building a dam that will block the Nile. I killed him, I admit it, but it was a fair fight and in doing so I hoped to restore the valley to its natural state.”
“Block the river? Why would Osiris do that?” Kiya looked at her father aghast.
“He intends to regulate the flow of water and bring an end to the floods.”
“Why?”
Seth shrugged. “Controlling nature is his ambition. He is the god of order and the enemy of chaos.”
Kiya was horrified that in saving Osiris she had created such a crisis. “Without the inundation bringing mud to the fields the land will become infertile,” she cried. “The idea is madness.”
“And it is all your fault. I regret the impulse that made me impregnate your mother in the temple. I have paid for that moment of lust a thousand fold.”
“I am sorry,” said Kiya.
“Sorry? I think not. You have managed to gain my attention by upsetting my plans. That must make an inferior creature, such as yourself, very proud.” He grew taller as his rage increased and his hair became as red as flames. “You are a tedious mortal, who has inherited none of my godly gifts. I intended never to see you again, but here I am, facing an unworthy opponent.”
Despite her fear, Kiya had to admit her pleasure at their meeting. “I wish I could be a proper daughter to you, Father,” she said. “One you could love.”
“Love? What nonsense! That creature inside you is blinding you to reality. I came here to tell you that you have unleashed death and destruction upon Egypt. I will show Osiris what the effects of stopping the flood will be. Even he cannot argue for a dam when famine hits the land.”
Kiya looked at her father in alarm. He towered above her hammock and his eyes shone with a fanatical light. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I know a simpler way to stop the flooding. The rain that fills the Nile falls upon Nubia. All I need do is blow the storm clouds away to waste their water on the African desert.
“No, please have mercy.”
Her distress made him smile – a grim twisting of the mouth that was more of a grimace. “Much as you deserve to be killed for going against my wishes, Kiya, I will allow you to live to see the consequences of your actions. Egypt will starve. Thousands will die – men women and children - and it will be your fault.” The rage within him was so great that his body could no longer contain it. He flickered for a moment then exploded into dust and was borne away on the wind.
Kiya watched as his swirling dust cloud vanished into the haze. Would her father really do such a terrible thing? She remembered the power of his anger and his contempt for mortals and knew that Seth was capable of anything.
A griping pain in her abdomen distracted her. It faded and she tried to bring her mind back to the problem but another pain made her groan in agony and she knew that the birthing had started.
Kiya and the God of Chaos Page 86
