What the… Ariennu craned her body forward. The bastard’s going to rape the leader? Liar, she snickered to herself. You ashamed, you rutting goat? Kicked me when you tied me on that thing a moon ago and I asked you. Now I know the truth!
“Red Sister,” Maatkare beckoned to her. “Your thoughts are loud this midday, but, no, I don’t do that. Because you insist on dreaming up such rancid juices for me to pick out, then you get out here and see if he is tied up too tight to escape. Maybe I will even have you strike him first.”
No. I won’t be part of this, Ariennu’s thoughts shot back.
“Eeeen nauuuu, sister, for you.” His hand rose with his compelling utterance.
Instant pain rushed through her Child Stone, branched to both ears and radiated through her skull. Even though she had guessed he would make her obey, she could do little about it but squall in misery.
“Damn. Hurts… please. Aahh. Stop it, curse every… oh goddess… stop…”
The new grooms from the Wawat quickly lashed the rattan outer wall onto an A-frame structure that had been anchored in the earth.
Ari’s body wrenched up from her place in the open tent flap and she stumbled forward magically, as if a specter dragged her out and over to the front part of the cage where the leader of the raid was fastened. When he had been secured by the guards, the prince released her from the spell so suddenly that she fell.
He applauded in delight at the sight of her sprawling in the dirt in front of the stand.
“Very good! Get up and see the face of this man who has killed one of my best men.”
Ariennu’s eyes fogged in a confusion of rage and shock.
Killed? She thought. Oh. The shorter one’s not here. The one who’s always getting his nasty partner to back away from us at night. Lie. More likely the big one wanted a piece of one of us and didn’t want to share. Probably killed him and blamed this poor wretch. Still, I have to see what kind of fool would come up on a full division, she scoffed inwardly.
The young man on the rattan grill was stripped almost naked and bleeding from half a dozen wounds. His arms were strapped over his head and his legs were braced wide. She let her eyes rise slowly, studying each place he had been tied and seeing how badly he had been hurt. A cut on the arm and a nasty bruise over his ribs. Way he’s panting it’s likely broken. Ooh… arrow wound in the edge of his thigh which he’s pushed through. Took courage… A swelling spear wound on the top of his foot… Ariennu’s eyes cleared and she struggled to mask her emotions because she knew at once who it was.
Goddess. Him? How? Can’t know this. Can’t. She felt every drop of blood in her veins turning to frost. Djee? Here? What’s he think he’s doing here trying to lead this mess? She buried her thoughts, knowing if she even gave a glimmer of recognition or shirked in delivering the opening blow, Maatkare would know about it. That would make it worse for both of them.
“Say something to him, Red, or join him there. You bragged to me long enough about how you used to work prisoners over for your thief friends when you were such a naughty young ka’t. Let’s see you do it now,” the prince ordered. “I’m waiting,” he pressed.
“You a killer?” Ariennu stammered, her voice went hoarse at the bottom of her throat. How can I let him know I don’t mean this? She grabbed the young man’s jaw firmly, drew her face close to his and barked. “Answer me or I will slap it out of you with every last tooth.” Then she sent a silent thought. If you could only hear my thoughts. Forgive me, Djee.
“Understand. Jus… Do… fast,” the young man’s broken whisper answered.
Oh Goddess, the poor thing hears my thoughts. He acts as if he wants to die, she fought her shock even harder.
“I didn’t ask you that. Are you a killer?” she repeated in Kina, hoping he would say something important enough for the prince to relieve her from that task.
He didn’t answer.
“You’d better say something, before I ram my fist down your throat.”
“What did he say?” Maatkare clapped his hands once, annoyed. “I saw his lips moving.”
She released his jaw then cracked him with her fist. Why? Her thoughts pleaded. Just lie. Say something, anything.
“Storm,” the young man sputtered as blood from his lip drooled onto his chin and into his unkempt beard.
Something small and white flew out of the man’s mouth, when she struck him. A tooth? Sorry! Ari’s thoughts cried out but she postured, frantic:
“Answer better than that or I’ll knock another one out.” She didn’t want to hit him, she wanted to free him but at that moment she couldn’t think of anything capable of distracting everyone long enough for her unfasten him.
“St…orm” he gasped “coming.” his head sagged between his upright arms.
“Well?” Maatkare asked, coming to his feet. “What did he say?”
Storm coming? Ariennu felt her heart seizing. That’s what Babe used to cry out when she woke up from her bad dreams. Marai used to tell her he would protect her from it, but it turns out he couldn’t even protect himself.
“He said Sutek is coming. He said a storm is coming,” she backed away a little, waiting for effect.
Naibe screamed the instant she heard that phrase but stifled her cry into a whimper.
“Did he now?” Maatkare trotted down from the dais. “He called that name?” then to Ari again: “Go on. You go and get the young honey quiet. Tell her I expect better behavior out of her.”
Ariennu turned, purposely expressionless, and fled to the tent. When she arrived, she let herself go a little more, but resisted the urge to hide behind Naibe.
“It’s him isn’t it?” Naibe trembled and sniveled.
“Shh… don’t let him see us talking.” Ariennu warned, wrapping her arms around the young woman to enable a hidden conversation to go on between them. If they spoke through thoughts, Deka and the prince would pick up on the energy exchange. She knew whispering would be better. “You know who that is, don’t you?”
“It’s the young man from the market… Djerah,” Naibe strained to see what the prince was doing but Ariennu turned her away. She had seen Deka’s eyes become the size of plates at first, then harden themselves.
“Oh it is, and Deka knows it too. If she tells him, I swear… and why in all thunder and blood did he come here?” Ari lamented, struggling to keep her speech hidden under the ruse that she was calming Naibe. “Maybe someone told him about us being taken away and the poor fool thought he should come try to save us because Marai was gone. Stupid boy. Getting himself killed for nothing,” Ariennu pressed her closely speaking louder for effect this time. “You sick? Don’t look at this if it makes you sick.” she tousled Naibe’s hair, then growled over the young woman’s shoulder at Maatkare. “What is he doing now? Can you see?”
“Trying to wake him up, I think,” Naibe answered.
Prince Maatkare brought a cup of stale beer and threw a little of it into Djerah’s face to revive him.
“Wake up, damn you. Call Sutek, will you? Why not? Talk about the storm, do you? I know that lion-tamer is behind this now. He sent you and your merry band of piss-trained scamps here. I’ll deal with that pale-skinned old freak later, but now I want you awake to see every bit of what you caused these boys and their families.” He turned and went back to his seat, lifted the glittering disc that bore the “eye” on it from his chair, then gently placed it around Deka’s neck.
“That slimy kuna…” Ari muttered under her breath. “I’d like to rip that thing off her throat.”
“It’s Wserkaf’s Eye of Truth. We knew she stole it from you.” Naibe whispered, then looked at her. “Maybe Wse told this poor man about us when he knew it was gone. We have to find a way to get their eyes off of him until we can get him loose and he can run for it.”
“Won’t be able. You didn’t see him up close like I did. He’s hurt worse than he looks and I still had to hit him,” Ariennu shuddered, checking over her shoulder to see if they were bei
ng watched. “Goddess I didn’t want to but I had to make it look real. He’s weak from bleeding in the sun all morning. If he ran, the first bow shot would take him out for sure.”
Deka tensed, glaring at the two of them. She lifted the Wdjat gently as if she was protecting herself against a curse.
Maatkare’s hand drifted to hers and brought it to his lips to kiss.
Ariennu had been keeping her thoughts away from scrutiny by whispering to Naibe, but when she saw Maatkare’s odd tenderness toward Deka, her guard dropped enough for her to feel a flash of jealousy. She had wanted to get some kind of devotion from the prince other than the love of enthusiastic sex, but Deka’s hold on him had always been secure. To her, that was incomprehensible. Ari felt his hushed thoughts moving through Deka’s stone and then through theirs.
You are perfect... his thoughts sighed through hers. You know this is what I am now and you have welcomed it. I need to see how much stronger you can be in the face of our enemies. He turned his glance to his guards and pointed out a man at the end of the line.
“They’re all so young,” Naibe clung to Ariennu, as she watched the beginning of the process over Ari’s shoulder. “Not a one much older than me. That one on the end can’t be much more than thirteen years. He still has a boy’s shoulders.”
“Stay like this Babe. I’ll be acting like I’m holding you. If you don’t want to see this, put your head down,” Ari whispered, wondering how much cruelty the girl could witness before she lost control. From time to time, she turned her head to look just so Maatkare wouldn’t think she was avoiding her own witness by protecting the girl.
One of the big new grooms grabbed the youth on the end and forced him to meet the prince’s eyes.
“Do you have anything to say to me?” Maatkare moved to the boy, whose brave silence answered.
“Hold him,” the prince sighed in exasperation, then motioned to the groom.
The second groom joined the first. Both seized the youth, lifted him and stretched him out over the nearby brick pad, already hot from the midday sun. One held his legs, while the other tore off his coat and stretched his arms above his head. Maatkare bid the guard whose partner had been killed to fetch a clawed flail from the group of torture devices. While the man brought it, the prince removed his own sheer coat, folded it neatly and handed it to a servant so it could be placed out of the way. Then he took the flail.
In a fluid and passionless movement, Maatkare brought the lash down hard on the youth’s exposed back. The sharp metal tips of the flail sliced his skin. He brought the flail down again. The young man cried out after each stroke, but each time his cries grew weaker. Maatkare paused, then bent and dipped his fingers in the blood bringing them to his mouth and licking them. “Anything?” he repeated, and dipped again. Going to Deka on the dais, he offered her the blood on his hands. She froze.
“Taste it, woman. Taste the blood of our enemies,” he breathed.
Taste, taste, taste,
Taste the sweet of sacrifice… ice… ice,
Nice
Deka took his wrist between her thumb and forefinger, lifted it, then touched his fingers to her tongue. When she had licked them, she stared hard into the distance.
“See, it is sweet,” Maatkare urged her.
Listen. The voices. Oh goddess in me she doesn’t know what he’s doing… Ari felt Naibe’s thoughts burst through an instant after the conjuration that sounded so real. He’s sending his thoughts through her stone as if he knows how… It’s a spell so she’ll think the Children of Stone want this. He’s turning her and she’s not even fighting him, the young woman gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, putting her fingertips up to massage her temples.
Ari let her partitioning of thought slip enough to sense Deka telling herself:
It’s a game; a sport. It isn’t real. Salty taste. Hmmm… The repressed emotion of her acts and the prince’s power of suggestion left her breathless.
You are one with me in this sacred communion. I taste, you taste. See how sweet it is? Maatkare whispered, wrapping an arm around her. She tasted a little more of the blood.
Yes, beloved, her thoughts became oddly radiant, we are one.
The young man who lay on the brick pad never spoke after the flogging ceased. He whimpered, but each sound that came from him enraged the prince into bringing down a harder and more rending stroke. Ari found herself counting, cursing, and whispering:
Stop. Kill him already.
“No! Stop… I…” Naibe started but Ari’s hands shot up and dropped the barrier of silence over her words before Maatkare could hear them.
You want to get us killed too?
The youth fainted from pain at the last stroke. His back, after sixteen more strokes, had turned into red exposed meat.
Maatkare stared down at his work, restive and somewhat impressed at the interesting pattern in the wounds. He walked around the unconscious prisoner slowly, then kicked his ribs furiously to see if he flinched. When he did not, he bent to see if the blood which splattered forth was fresh indicating life, or still and darkening. Satisfied with his observation, he moved to Djerah.
The stonecutter had closed his eyes and mouthed aloud. “Yah, do not forsake me.”
Filled with quiet rage that the first prisoner had gone down without a word and now lay silent on the bricks, the prince returned and squatted near him to announce:
“A shame.” his voice growled. His hand gesture to the throat was a sign for to the big dark Wawat groom to deftly snap the unconscious young man’s neck. “But I am merciful,” Maatkare sauntered back to Djerah again. “Your follower’s wounds would have caused him great fever and a miserable death. I saluted his foolish bravery and gave him the gift of sweet oblivion. Just tell me who it is that sent you and I will deal with all of you quickly and without further misery.” He paused, then added: “I’ll leave one man with wounds only… give him a chance to return to the one who gave this ridiculous order so he can tell him what he saw. That could be any of you if you say his name to me…”
Ariennu felt Naibe start to send a thought to Djerah to take that option.
Don’t. It’s a trick. Shhh, baby, Ari distracted the young woman. If Maatkare doesn’t like what he hears he’ll kill them all anyway. If Djee is silent, maybe he will live a little longer until I can… Damn him. Ari gasped when she saw the prince pause and look in her direction.
He knew they were plotting something.
Djerah said nothing. He refused to speak as the next three men were scourged and executed. The fifth prisoner screamed he was sick of the grip the Lords of the black land had on the red and was just waiting for a force to back him.
“He’s trying to be the one who lives,” Ari shook her head, even though she had gone numb. “Won’t work. He won’t let that one go. He’s enjoying this too much.”
“Good. You spoke. Thank you,” Maatkare commented, then moved to one side of the scourged and bleeding young man, but gave the signal. As the big groom wrenched the man’s neck, he added, “but you said you acted alone. It wasn’t what I needed to hear.” He turned back to the dais, stepped up then slumped into his camp chair, more frustrated from lack of information than winded from exertion. He extended his hands to Deka again, giving her some more of the blood to taste.
What’s the matter with me? Ariennu watched the beatings and the blood rite with a ghoulish fascination, but couldn’t bring herself to look at Djerah. Making certain her thoughts were private, she mused, none of this is new to me. I’ve done this work myself without turning a hair. It did matter once though. It still hurts me now, no matter how much brass I put up and down my spine. I see it in his face. His sharp nose and firm jaw… the deep set eyes are not that unlike Marai’s face. I can see those two Akkad peasants we took and their little boys, too. She closed her eyes for a moment, the image of a scared but feisty young woman flashing in her thoughts. She fought us like a warrior. Then, to save her man and her boys, even after they were broke
n by us, she let us all hump her. I was laughing at her, drinking, giving her drink, and still mocking her and calling her a stupid kuna that must have really wanted it all along to suddenly have so little pride in herself. Her blood chilled again in the distant memory.
“He wants me to take your place. He told me. Don’t you see? Kill us. Just kill us now.” The woman in Ariennu’s memory begged. The force of her words never reached Ari’s deaf ears but the thoughts behind them magically found her heart. It woke the elder woman from her stupor that day and she gave the peasant woman hearts seeds to keep her from getting a child from all that she put herself through. Then, that night, Ari helped them escape. Now, seeing Djerah tied up brought it all back. I didn’t do it because I was sorry for them. No. I just didn’t want to be replaced. Goddess was watching me that night, I guess. That was Marai’s sister. Here I am claiming no one I know missed me when I slept in the Children’s pod for fifty years. I’m watching her great-grandson get taken down. Spirit wants me to get him loose? How? I’m the reason he is even here. She understood that if the woman and her sons had died at the hands of her cohorts, there would have been no Djerah born to be tied on the ladder and suffering today.
Damn me. And if I hadn’t tried to crawl up Maatkare’s leg, we’d still be in Ineb Hedj. We could gotten rid of old Hordjedtef ourselves and given the Children of Stone to Wserkaf and the king as we had planned… Damn. She buried her face in her hands because at that moment she felt like screaming.
“MaMa?” Naibe sensed the turmoil and touched Ariennu’s shoulder. “You’re weeping? You?”
“Am I? Oh. I just thought of something.” the elder woman tried to hide her emotions. “I went to a bad place in my heart with that stupid fool coming here. It’ll pass. It has to,” Ari knew the only thing she could allow herself to think about was this moment and of the fading hope of freeing the young man. She wrestled with her memories and hid them, then fixed her attention on Deka. “You would think she’d fight it a little more… the blood rite.”
Opener of the Sky Page 26
