Quiet tears rolled down Naibe’s cheeks. She sobbed as Ariennu held her tighter, sharing everything she had seen.
Oh poor man. Poor sad, sad man… Was it his breaking heart that ended him? Was it truly that? She begged. Tell me it was not because I had been taken from him.
Ariennu had bowed her head. The moment she heard Wserkaf’s words in the young woman’s thoughts, she realized: Maatkare doesn’t know. Or does he? Is this why he had the tantrum? Did this sepat he visited sense something and tell him? Old man Hordjedtef must have been in the room when Majesty’s death came. How could he resist sending the young general a dream?
“I bet we’ll have to keep another secret.” Ariennu opened her eyes a little and saw Naibe’s half open eyes flashing golden. Her stone was in the emerged position.
Mama, Naibe’s thought drifted up. Ask the Children of Stone why he doesn’t know. Ask it through me. Naibe wriggled up a little, then gently kissed the stone in her elder sister’s brow.
Little ones, the russet-haired woman began reluctantly because she wanted to kiss and caress Naibe instead of reading secrets through her. Whenever the young woman’s spirit energy rose, she was irresistible. Almost instantly a whispered answer returned to both women.
The elder king is free of the
Darkness that covered him
He walks the stars in joy
The new must take his first steps
To vanquish the wrongs
To ascend in safety and full wisdom.
“I guess Shepseskaf has to do something as king before Maatkare knows Menkaure is gone, but how in this red and black earth I can overpower that old bastard Hordjedtef’s thoughts, if he decides to send them, is new to me.” Ari breathed.
The voices of the Children of Stone gently answered through the thoughts of both women.
A darkness will be brought to light
Yet not accepted by most
There will be hardship
The wolf must be kept at bay
“Wolf. Even they called him that,” Ari snickered, but realized Naibe was still linked to Wserkaf’s thoughts.
“Poor Wse…” the younger woman sniveled, then turned her thoughts to the image of the man brooding at the pool. “Are you…?”
“She’s gone, sweet one, yes. I’m alone in my house but it’s as it should be. She is wife of her brother and king to assist him and rule at his right hand with Queen Bunefer at his left as wife of the body.”
So that’s why it’s so quiet? Ari quietly suggested.
“Lady ArreNu? You are with Naibe? Caring for her?” the priest asked, suddenly sensing the elder woman’s presence.
I am, Ari answered still thinking about the kind of upheaval the sudden death of the king must have caused and how she could keep all of this from the prince.
“I found out my senior told Prince Maatkare to take you. He isn’t hurting either of you is he? I know of his penchant for being rough with his lovers. Everyone knows about it,” a pained and mildly disgusted expression drifted over the image of his face.
Naibe whimpered a little, understanding his question, but knew it would be cruel to add to his misery since there was very little he could do. She allowed Ariennu to wrap secrecy around both of their thoughts.
Prince Wserkaf, Ari sent her own thought to the inspector. We’re not suffering too badly, but he does try to break our wills; to make us his. Best to let him think it for now, but I want to kill him half the time for all that he’s taken part in! She grumbled silently, sensing Wserkaf nodding in silent response.
Does Ka-Khet’s spirit know how hard I tried, Wseriri? Do you think it? Does he know how much I wanted to help him feel love again? Bless goddess; he did not think I abandoned him the next morning, did he? She nearly sobbed aloud in Ariennu’s consoling arms.
“Naibe, hush. You know I told you when we were at Sokor what I saw.”
“Saw?” Wserkaf’s eyes widened.
I’ve learned how to go places in a dream, lately. I suppose my Child Stone must have helped me. I saw Majesty was furious with old Hordjedtef that next morning, but Great One gave him a pain and told him right away it was from my tea. I’ll bet the old man poisoned the king, didn’t he? He knew we wouldn’t be there to see it or to save him. She paused, then continued with a new thought. Did that old bastard speak ill of us to anyone else… Blame us for it? Ariennu whispered.
Naibe shook her head and buried it in her elder sister’s breasts. She already knew the answer.
“Yes...” Wserkaf returned the answer into the air in front of him. “You’ve both been set for the blame, I’m afraid. That’s why Maatkare can’t know or he may just decide to mete out justice if he feels there’s an advantage to it. My mentor Hordjedtef must be working something I don’t understand it either, because we all knew he desired Maatkare Raemkai to be king, and not Shepseskaf. He’s already told all who will hear him that you were both enchanters, especially you, sweet one, because of the way your dance had seduced him. My senior tried to convince Our Father that he had sent you away because of the threat and the sorcery. I think he will try to exert influence over Shepseskaf until the burial, then decide on who ought to be king. He wants Maatkare in power too, but not until he is more predictable.”
“Damn him into Ammit’s bowels, then!” Ariennu hissed under her breath.
“Shhh. Don’t curse in anger. Just understand, Ka-Khet did go into the stars knowing you both meant well and he took so much happiness from you both. He wanted to remember your sacred magic, my Naibe. I saw he had even built a little shrine to you in his room.” Wserkaf was silent, pausing to weep, grieving too greatly to send thoughts for a moment. His image faded.
“No. Wse. Come back. It’s alright...” Naibe’s thoughts whispered. Slowly, the inspector priest’s image reformed as he gained control of his thoughts.
“You told him nothing ever ends, didn’t you, beloved one?” His whisper to the young woman and her elder sister reached through space and time. “…Especially the part about love never ending when it is given in honesty and truth… that he could walk among the stars to be with all of his departed ones. You even whispered to him that you understood how his daughter died and how it had been Maatkare’s ill temper and drunkenness, and not her own despair, didn’t you? Did you tell him that because you knew he was going to die so soon?”
Ari held Naibe tight and felt her nod quietly, but hesitate.
Tell him, Babe. She breathed.
“I saw them, Wse. It made my night with him divine, in a sense. It was as if I had opened a faraway door for him because in that one glorious and beautiful night we both saw the souls of the dead gathering far, then near, like they were waiting and watching us. I took his soul into my heart and we became the fire of all the candles in the room going up into the stars,” the young woman paused, reflecting. “Ari, Wse... Is it even possible?” her voice trembled.
“What, dear one?” the inspector’s image drifted as if something distracted him.
“Could I have been a prophet, because I knew and saw?” she asked.
“You know you are. I think Our Father knew it. Khentie told me it too. You’re that powerful. All of you women are as powerful as…” the image of Wserkaf tensed, as if he’d heard a sound somewhere in his house.
I have to go. I have something to tend to. He began to take a deep breath to rouse himself. Please don’t let Maatkare hurt her… or you, Lady ArreNu.
I wouldn’t, Ari bowed her head for a moment, hiding the idea of the misery the prince had already unleashed. The sight of Wserkaf by his pool faded into obscurity.
Ariennu whispered gently. “He’s gone now, but you can give that memory to me, since I’m already hiding so much of it in here”. She tapped the dark and sparkling stone in her brow, then kissed the blue lapis Child Stone in Naibe’s. That allowed her thoughts to combine with Naibe’s and remember it as if she herself had lived it. The king lay in her arms, stunned by the purity of the sweet love they had shared.
>
Be happier, my king, she felt herself whisper with Naibe’s voice. Naibe, in the present time, whispered with her. Know and believe you are a god and such a good father to all of us.
I’ve tried, my sweetest child. I’ve tried, but been so thwarted.
You will see her again, your pretty Mery, Naibe smiled and stroked his brow. She is here with us.
Ari frowned, wondering what Naibe had meant by that.
I know. Soon, I think, though she would bless my time with you this night.
The King had enveloped her in his arms and caressed her breasts, showering her with increasingly passionate kisses that followed his hands until she begged for him to love her again.
Ari sensed and shared other thoughts, understanding that the idea of his death had been in both of their hearts that night.
You will live forever, my king, she felt the young woman breathe into his open mouth. I know this.
Ari heard her tell him she wanted him to never be afraid of the dark or of his shortening years again. She whispered together with the girl that she wanted him to face it bravely, and she knew he had never betrayed the oracle’s dictates and that there had never even been any sort of curse placed on his heart.
She told you that you would not complete the hundred fifty years of fierce rule Great Khufu began and told you of a man wounded and often betrayed but still possessing a kind heart. There was no curse.
Ariennu had visited, shrouded in secrecy. She had stumbled drunkenly away to meet with her destiny at the foot of the stairs in the hands of the high priest. Ari shook her head in renewed dismay then caught the image of young Naibe showing the king the souls of all of his beloved ones reflected in her golden eyes.
He had kissed the stone in her brow, feeling its power move through him. When they shared their love again it was even more unearthly, as if the king already knew he had one foot in his own horizon. He wept when they had finished. She kissed away his tears, as if he was a lover and she was sending him off to battle. Naibe saw the hollow death in his eyes, but this time she understood and she had not been afraid of that darkness. That was how she had been taken. She had risen from the bed, tucked him in and kissed him once again. As she stood up, she was struck solidly from behind.
Deka was right. She knew it wasn’t safe. She put the thought in the old man’s soul that she would get the Children of Stone from us. That we could be her handmaids if Maatkare was given the control utterance, even if she got the same pain we suffer when it’s spoken. That Witch! So, a choice between this demon we’re with and the lair from which he crawled. We’ll keep Prince Maatkare here as long as we can. Keep the truth away. When he becomes wise to it, we’ll make certain he doesn’t know how we hid it from him.
Naibe had drifted to sleep, exhausted by her efforts. Ariennu felt bone-weary too, and knew she would have to sleep.
Be nice if I could sleep a week and get some better strength, she thought. Cover it up; Prisms of light around all of the secrets: Naibe being with child and the death of poor King Menkaure. At least I kept that from Wserkaf about the child. He might even be the father of that child.
As she relaxed, she heard the beautiful voice of a child drifting through time and its own ages. The child-voice became deep and beautiful as a man, but also haunted and low in a serene contralto.
The thoughts of a new one stay hidden
Until a belly swells
Then she cannot hide her truth.
What Maatkare Raemkai has sensed,
He will know, but
May consider
I came of his seed.
Someone was in the room. Ariennu wrapped another layer of silence around what she has just sensed, thinking it might be Hordjedtef coming in spirit form to see why his favorite grandchild had not received the message of the king’s death.
You. Stay away from us, you heartless devil. She started, but saw the form of Marai materializing in the room where she and Naibe lay. Her heart sank. After everything they had learned tonight, this vision was too much.
You again. Ay... if you hadn’t died. Ari’s shoulder’s slumped, then froze again because she thought she felt his touch. A spirit hand caressed her gently, lulling her, so real it was unbearable. Goddess. Oh Marai, I can’t, she almost sobbed.
Ari. My bright and kind one. The image of Marai spoke and almost pushed through space into voiced reality. I am alive. I did not die.
“Wh… Stop, you.” She tensed, trembling. There, in the corner of the room, he lay with his body curled as if he slept somewhere and was dreaming. Then, there was nothing.
Poor bastard doesn’t even know he’s dead… Second time he’s said that like someone who’s lost, she thought, frustrated even more over the idea that her beloved might be hanging between the land of the dead and the land of the living. Slowly, the reality of the room re-formed. Damn, another vision. Wish it hadn’t been... she turned over and tried to sleep, but tonight sleep didn’t come easily.
PART TWO: DJERAH
CHAPTER 6: BLACK WATER IN THE WELL
Marai sat at the well in the center of the marketplace. His hooded, silvery head rested in the crook of his elbow. With the last of his failing strength, he looked up at the stars long enough to raise his fingertips and whisper:
“Comes dawn. A new day. Time is released to go on her way.” For the briefest moments, as his illusion of slowed time unraveled, he observed the stars and approaching sunrise speed up in their courses.
Reduced to gasping, but relieved, he let his head sink back into his arm then took a deep, panting breath. He thought of Ariennu, his elder wife once more. The brick walls of the small room where she and young Naibe relaxed formed in his thoughts. He knew she had sensed him.
Ay... if you hadn’t died.
He sensed Ari’s words. He reached forward through space and time to touch and caress her shoulder, but heard her next thought before his fingertips reached her.
Goddess. Oh Marai, I can’t…
Ari... My bright and kind one… Marai’s thoughts spoke with such force they almost leapt into voiced reality. I am alive. I did not die.
Marai knew he was too weak to stay in her world. She didn’t hear me. Maybe when I’m stronger, he suffered and drifted. When he looked up again, he knew he had dozed for a moment. Wserkaf was gone. Still grievously tired, he tried to picture the image of the one man from the noble priesthood who had helped him.
Wse… he thought.
At that moment, he couldn’t picture the wiry-built prince who rescued him and had spent the last day working healings on him.
A dream… It must have been a dream. I’ll wake up and I’ll be on the roof. My beloveds will be up and getting ready for a good work day in the market.
It wasn’t true. He knew everything that had happened to him: the schooling by Great Hordjedtef, the false Sed ritual, his near death and entombment for nearly three months, the resurrection assisted by Wserkaf, his learning of the women’s abduction, and the death of the great King Menkaure were not illusions.
Marai knew he needed to go to Ta-Seti and get his wives.
What the Children of Stone wanted of me should have been simple, he thought. Just carry them here, learn of my new strengths and how to best use them, then await the next thing I might do for the betterment of men. But now… my ladies. The Children know how important they are to me.
He remembered that long ago on the beautiful night his journey with the Children of Stone began. He stood outside his cave home and sang to his beloved goddess Ashera.
Come bless me this starry night
Tonight was different and so far away from that place and time. The spirit of the dead king was moving through his beloved land. Marai felt the king’s regret at his own passing, the leaving of unfinished business as it combined with his own feelings. The enormity of all that had befallen him in fifty-six years since that night of song filtered through his own psyche. He groaned, resting his head on the edge of the well.
“Oh I
really am so tired,” Marai whispered aloud and shut his eyes, hoping to clear his thoughts a little more. “Help me my goddess, help me.” He felt her warmth in the form of his Naibe from so far away, but it felt faint and oddly weak. Hoping he could give himself strength along with some he sent to her, he sent the refrain of his song to her one more time:
Shine for one who begs to serve you
Return to the night…
Marai started to feel ill. Something crept toward him like a thief in the dark. The big sojourner didn’t care at that moment if he was alive or dead or if men on nearly silent feet had come to kill him. Setting his head in the crook of his arm again, but protecting the sack of Child Stones at his belt, he waited. The shadowy figure hesitated, then advanced.
“So,” a terse voice came from the shadow as it drew closer. “You again,” it spoke a rough form of the language of the wilderness. The sound of it cut through the humid pre-dawn darkness that marked the seasons after the flood. “Now you find your way back,” a young man with shaggy head of ear length black twists and a neat, square-cut chin beard approached him from behind. “And for no good reason. No one you left behind is still here, so move along.”
Without fully looking up or focusing on the person behind his left shoulder, Marai knew it was Djerah, the great grandson of his half-sister Houra. He turned his head to one side, just to check and caught a glimpse of the man’s beaked nose jutting into the light. Djerah’s shadowy face, in just that fragment of setting moonlight, brought back too many memories of the sojourner’s long dead cousin Sheb. The young stonecutter’s nose grew to even more of a point when he stared down at him.
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