Ariennu dismissed Akaru with a wave of her hand. “They know me, alright. No secret. You’re good though,” she found Marai’s other arm in time to hear the elder finish.
“It was wrong for the other one to stay. She should be here. She has something important to do in this place. I feel that very much in every bone. This is her place. She was even here recently. She should remember that night.”
“You would think…” Ari added, refilling her cup with a frown at the way Marai’s hand stayed her efforts to pour more drinks. “Ever since we started this journey she has talked about coming to Ta-Seti and that her place was here. Well, here we are and now she has stuck herself with him.”
Marai shook his head again. The old man felt the rage in his guest coming to the surface again.
“So, am I some kind of coward to allow her to stay? Should I have killed him and made her come, even with his child in her?” he began. “I had the chance,” he looked down at Ariennu, then at Akaru, “but Ari here knew there should be no more killing.” He rubbed the stiffness out of his eyelids. The old man knew Marai wanted untroubled sleep more than anything.
“I was keeping you from getting your arm chewed off,” Ari protested. “He was wolfing, or didn’t you notice that through the blood in your own eyes? It wouldn’t have ended well before he died.”
“I saw him. I’m sure he saw the bull Bakha of my wrath while I stopped his breath, hoof to throat,” Marai grumbled, finishing his drink. “I was looking for his heart so I could freeze it, but couldn’t find if he had one.” Sullen silence followed, punctuated by quickly tossed sips of beer from everyone assembled at the dining couches.
For several moments, Akaru thought about the exchanges between Marai, himself, and the two women. The women let Marai brood quietly. Each attempted to sooth him in her own way. After a while, the elder felt a slight ray of poetic inspiration begin to creep through the dark mood that had seized him when he discovered the Ta Seti woman had stayed behind.
Maybe this will help them; and me, he thought.
“And in the end, what true man takes away a woman as if she has no will of her own. If you had made her come with you, you would have been no better a man than this prince of ours when he seduced her, because you would have been deciding what was right for her,” Akaru Sef suggested as he straightened up.
“True,” Marai nodded. “I was just surprised his hold on her was so strong.”
At this point, Akaru and the guest sighed in some relief as the first course of the evening meal; a soup and a bread, were brought out.
“Oh, now…” his slim fingers wagged with a sudden new thought. “Some women like a cruel man because it’s a challenge to keep him even, to tame that wild heart of his. They think it is the fighting strength of the lion they are looking at; that he will protect them. They find out too late that such men care only for their own welfare and when a woman opposes him he will abandon her for another. I know this prince has wicked ways, but I have understood his needs. It is not born cruel as much as seasoned so. They may indeed have a journey together,” Akaru let his words settle a little while he sopped his soup and sweetly fed his wife.
Marai fed Naibe and the young woman teased and fed Ariennu by poking the soup soggy bread at her mouth until Marai dipped and lifted her bread to her. They laughed, but Akaru added another thought.
“Your wives understand men like this… why not you?”
“He’s right, Marai,” Naibe remembered much of the pain of the past few months. “You know how I went to you long ago and got you to unburden your sad heart about your wife who had died? When you were gone from me I did so with other men. When I was on His Highness’ boat the first day we met, I tried to reach out to heal him, but he craved every last bit of my energy and did not care if I became empty. Something dark in his soul drinks too deeply and too quickly like one near death of hunger. You can’t stop letting it happen… I tried. It was killing my own heart to be with him,” her sigh prompted Marai to press her tightly to his side.
Ariennu remembered and grabbed at another cup of beer. She covered a burp and snickered… Yeah here I go. Drink to forget, but I could lay at the bottom of a brew vat and drink the froth until my guts ripped but it wouldn’t take the thought away that it was me that got us into this mess with him. I’m the tough one. I can take this. Tough nothing. I showed myself that. I’m a good drinker and a decent squeeze, but there’s nothing.
Ari, stop. That’s all finished now.
She felt Marai enter her reverie.
“Yeah? What about Deka,” she looked to see the elder and his wife chattering about something else, then added in a whisper. “I never thought I’d care about that old Bone Woman, but it still hurts me about her. The old man’s right. She should be here and she is in danger, but she has to come here on her own. It’s not right for us to go and get her. I just hope she gets her fill of him soon… really soon.”
CHAPTER 30: THE DARK BALANCE
Ariennu took off Marai’s sandals, washed his feet, and rubbed them with a sweet nut oil. Even though it was deep night when everyone finished their meal, she still wanted to pamper him. It had been too long. Much of her need was to get the feeling of Maatkare’s hard sleekness, haughtiness, and petulant stare out of her thoughts.
Later, she thought. Maybe I’ll have time for a nice, long bath myself. If he wasn’t so tired. If I wasn’t so tired, I’d drag him in with me for some sweet playtime. She hadn’t bathed in deep warm water since that evening over a month earlier, when Maatkare allowed them to come here. I like this place! she thought. Peaceful. Not noisy like little Kina Ahna. Not worrisome like the palaces with their rotten, spying little maids. It’s just sweet and peaceful. Djerah will get well quickly here. Maybe the old man is right. Maybe Deka will come to her senses before too much longer. Meantime, it’ll be good to watch Djee’s strengths grow. Be like watching a child learning to walk.
She saw Akaru, now quite animated from everyone’s return and good conversation, press his wife close, then get up to take a lamp out to the observatory.
“I have to see if there is something I missed as to why she would wish to stay away. The gods of the wind will answer tonight.”
Priests, holy men, scholars… all the same! she thought. Maybe he’ll make his way back after everyone’s asleep.
It puzzled Ari that the little crescent shaped Yah stone had sought young Djerah as a host. Naibe and Marai didn’t seem to understand the reason either. It could have cured his wounds, but remained outside his body like the other child stones, but for some reason it didn’t want to.
He had the child stone in his mouth and he was willing to die before he gave it up, she thought. Maybe it was his loyalty. Maybe that’s the connection. Maybe it was because he’s Marai’s nearest living kin, like a son. Why does he need a son, though, if Little One’s going to have his baby? She shrugged then looked at Naibe, who was curled near Marai, totally exhausted and asleep.
Wonder how that’s going to be? One born to two hosts. And now Deka. Will those children be born with a stone or will they be given one at birth or when they grow up? She gestured to Marai, trying to distract herself with other thoughts.
“Come here, big man, let me soothe you,” she whispered seductively, the way she often did when they were in Ineb Hedj, living the life of working peasants.
His silver-cast eyes twinkled.
“Sure,” he flopped down on his face like a new youth anticipating something sweet. “I might go to sleep, though. It’s been a rough few days.”
“I’m tired too, Marai,” she admitted. “Just so glad to be with you again.”
He turned for a moment and sat to embrace and kiss her.
All of her lonely and desperate moments melted as his warm scent surrounded her. She had craved that closeness, and understood now, more than ever, the beauty of his love. It respected, but didn’t need. It craved, but never sought to control or own. She wanted so much more in that moment; to disappear in
to his arms and become part of him.
“Missed you, woman,” he whispered, then gently released her and lay flat on his belly so she could rub him with the oil.
“Treat you like a king, always, because you are my king.” She thought of her brief moments with King Menkaure months ago and the way he would send for her to rub the tension from him. It didn’t take long for her to ease the weight of the day from Marai’s shoulders and back. After a few moans of joy, his reaction slowed, then stopped. She knew he had dozed.
Look at him, curled up next to her. Swear to goddess I wish we’d been alone. I suppose I’ll check on Djee a moment. Then I think I can find a spot by that beautiful big back of his. Room for one more!
Wonder if Marai looked anything like Djerah before the changes, she mused, then reluctantly visualized a taller man; a big, ugly, old mountain of a man. There I go, she laughed inwardly at the thought as she smoothed his perfect back. They are kinsmen after all. You stay right there. I’ll be back.
Ari eased up, then quietly took the lamp from the window sill. When she tiptoed to the slightly raised bed and pulled back the shroud-like sheeting, she noticed the swelling in the young man’s face had gone down and the oozing had nearly stopped. Once again he looked like the brash and temperamental young man she remembered from the market who seemed as if nothing good had ever happened in his life. Djee was slowly returning to them, even though his former life, like theirs, would never be the same.
What are you going to be to us? she contemplated. Now what will be left for any of us? The stones, once they’re all together again, need to go into some “chamber of secrets,” wherever that is. That much she understood. There, they would become a treasure of learning for men of Kemet, and indeed, for men of the entire world. Then what happens to us? she asked herself. Will we live out our long lives interpreting these secrets and teaching the brightest minds in the world? Boring. Grindingly boring! Marai and Naibe will have a child; maybe more after that. They’ll bring up a bright and gifted family, so at home moving around these priests and kings.
Ariennu knew a child would never come out of her own belly unless she reinvented herself again via the Child Stones, but what use would it be at this point?
Will it be something to ease my loneliness? Akaru Sef said that. I’m going to be the mother of the rest of the children who were chosen. I’ll tag along like some wise but ageless crone and grandmother. Baby One and I will attach to one of the temples. Maybe I’ll go with them, being a healer and friend to the men they encounter and gather up. She felt suddenly that she would never be completely accepted by anyone. I’m not from Kemet. I’m not their race and I’m not royal or magical. I’ll be Marai’s co-wife, but soon he’ll be looking only at Naibe-Ellit and her baby. He’s that kind of man.
She thought of Maatkare by comparison.
Cruel man in need of love? Ha! What does Deka know about that kind of thing? Ariennu found herself daydreaming about the prince. Didn’t stop him from using me plenty of times, the disrespectful bastard! Still, that luscious body of his when it needed soothing and oiling… that line he could draw between torment and ecstasy. He could work all sides of it, depending on how he felt any given day. Made me want him to do things to me I never even knew about or thought I could allow, when I’ve already had a life full of the best and worst any man has to offer. He made me crave it, then sucked out the energy of my passion and wore it like a prize. I’m just a trophy he’s hunted and conquered. I almost forgot how that should offend me. Men like that don’t love, they take. Be nice to have another go at it… get him to be sweet and beg, for once… take joy in teasing and mocking him… Could make an old woman like me all twitchy inside.
Ariennu felt a drop in the sensation of the air, as if an icy draft had blown its breath into the open room.
“Oooh. That was bad…”
She looked up to find Akaru had crept quietly back from his nighttime observation. He smiled tentatively up into a moonbeam that had filtered through the shady boughs that hung over his open courtyard. He spoke to someone or something. “Yes. I hear your cry. Let me open the sky for you so you can come to us…” he warbled. Ari saw him shape a little ball of light between the palms of his hands, then harden his peaceful face into a scold. “My wayward one, you have been naughty.”
“Something’s wrong,” Marai flipped, suddenly awake. He sat bolt upright and almost disturbed Naibe’s sleep.
“You? The orbs come from you? I thought they came out of the stars. How can you make them?” Ari’s jaw dropped.
“Sometimes I make them. Did you see the one I sent today before you arrived?” Akaru asked. “I was just sending our missing woman one with a little message inside,” the elder swirled his hands and another little sun-like object formed.
“No. Just this one,” Ari answered, sensing the way the light warmed her face just before it took flight like a ball of fireflies.
“I always could do that, even as a child,” the elder’s face crinkled in mirth.
Ari chortled, mystified. She remembered Marai talking about the little balls of light that led him to the vessel in the wilderness that first night. Connected? Of course he is. But what connects us?
Marai hushed Naibe-Ellit, who had roused and tensed, suddenly aware of the curious sensation in the air. He hoped it had been a dream that was strong enough to wake him and that they both could return to sleep. He would have preferred to snuggle the women on either side of him, to think of Naibe’s sweet love and to feel the joy of the child in her belly. That this time it would work and he would have a living, breathing son was almost too much joy.
A tortured cry, like the yowl of a forlorn animal or the scream of a strange bird, cut into their restful bliss.
“It’s Deka, isn’t it?” Naibe-Ellit asked. “Do you think she’s calling out to us now?”
“Oh, I’m certain of it,” the Akaru chimed in as he moved toward their sleeping area. A servant sleepily trailed the elder but stayed out of earshot.
“I wish she would…” Marai rubbed the back of his neck soberly then gathered Naibe gently into his arms and stared quietly, but somberly into her gold-lit eyes. He had been dreaming of his life and of his journey with the women thus far. At first the hours between the times when they held each other and loved each other seemed to have so little meaning. Now these in-between times were themselves the sources of limitless bliss. Everything was memorable, etched with Naibe’s smiles and the way she shimmered like spangles when she walked; the way her voice lulled, like sweet golden bells.
And Ariennu? Though he felt no sense of goddess-worship in her presence, she had become a cherished friend in the way a man takes another man as a friend. She was a man in the flesh of a woman: cursing, hard loving, drinking, laughing too loud, playing dirty tricks, and not flinching a bit in the sight of danger. Prince Maatkare never broke her, but he took her far too close to that brink. Marai knew he had arrived just in time to stop the wounds they received that threatened to overtake their power. The prince would have to answer for all he had done.
When Akaru sat on the woven rush mat beside Marai’s guest mat where he and Naibe lay quietly, his shoulders drooped wearily.
“I had a vision, while you rested, which has puzzled me… that’s why you saw me speak,” Akaru began. “I sent this woman another message and opened the sky for her answer.”
“We’ve all been having those visions,” Marai grumbled.
“At first it wasn’t exactly about the woman,” Akaru answered. “I meditated on why it should bother me so much that one of your women stayed with her captor. Then, my thoughts fell right onto why anything ever befalls us in our lives. Is it the gods? Is it some random energy we bring to ourselves? If it’s that and nothing more, then why do we not have the power to change all things? One’s looks, for instance…” his face grew dark and haunted.
Marai recognized a fine sharpness to the elder’s features he hadn’t previously noticed. A regal haughtiness drifted over th
e man’s image as if the spirit of Deka had walked out of the ethers and had fluttered too near him.
“I haven’t thought about it as a grown man for years,” Akaru continued, but then restated. “No. I did discuss this with young Aped, my grandson, when he came home from Khmenu and first told me of you. It makes me wonder if I really do have the power to change hearts as old Djedi told me I would one day have.”
“Djedi,” Marai shivered in more than a middle of the night chill. “I hadn’t heard that name in a while. He was the one who was supposed to take the Children of Stone from me when I started, but then they cast us into a sleep of fifty years so there would be no way for that to happen.”
“Yes, Aped told me this. He had seen you in the marketplace when the Ta-Seti woman danced for him… that you had asked about it and became ill to find time as the flesh knows it had not stayed put.”
“I see the pieces are still falling into place, even now.” Marai was about to say that had been hard for him to realize fifty years had passed overnight and that Ariennu had convinced him it didn’t matter that very afternoon with her own love… that they would just look for his heir. This old magical man? After all this time and Deka was, in her own way, right to yearn for Ta-Seti, he asked himself. Why make me so gullible then? I thought it was Hordjedtef, then Wserkaf, but now here I am with this elder as if the third try is the best answer.
Naibe maneuvered out of Marai’s arm to the Akaru and took his hand in hers as if she had sensed his trouble and was drawn to soothe it.
“When I was little they would point out my pale color, my spot freckles, and how my eyes were different: Sorcerer’s eyes, they said, because they reflected the green and the black water in the two seasons in them. When I was tiny, other children here were afraid to play with me. There were always whispers about me. I also saw you, just then, looking at my face to think where you have seen its shape and features,” he quipped.
“My father was a warrior, but also of an old and noble house that traces back before the darkness. His second wife was a minor daughter of a minor wife of Great Khufu himself. She told me it was the look of my lion-mother I took, not her own family,” he smirked.
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