by Nina Bruhns
The women’s gowns rustled with diaphanous silks and elegant satins, their every expanse of exposed skin sparkling with precious jewels. Most of the men wore traditional tunics and trousers, but layered them with exquisite robes of every color and pattern benefitting their positions as Keepers of the Ancient Ways.
The Khepesh temple courtyards were also resplendent, adorned by thousands of fragrant flower garlands and twinkling with the light of ten thousand scented candles. The high arched ceiling looked especially dazzling tonight. Or perhaps it was just the stars in his eyes. Seth had never been happier. Gone forever was the man who’d wondered over his existence and the reason for his being.
One woman had changed all that. And tonight she would become his forever.
Thank goodness he’d arrived early. Everyone was turning to greet him and give their blessings and well wishes. Seth wanted to take his time and speak with each one of his followers, to feel the pulse of energy swirling through the temple and absorb the awesome power that his people were gifting him with on this joyful and momentous occasion.
It wouldn’t do to be late to the ritual that would make his wife immortal.
Apparently, he wasn’t the only one to think so. A long while later, as he entered the temple’s Courtyard of the Sacred Pool, he saw that Rhys and Shahin were already waiting for him. It wasn’t quite as crowded in there, and his brothers-in-law were standing at the edge of the sacred basin of Set-Sutekh, gazing at the delicate magical bridge that had been conjured over the pool for the ceremony, and looking as nervous as two gazelles peering into a lion’s den.
Tonight, their wives would be granted eternal life, as well.
To Seth’s pleasant surprise, a third man paced back and forth between the pool and the portal to the inner sanctum. Trevor Haliday, their wives’ father. Seth greeted him first out of respect, though he was the lowest ranking of the three men. Indeed, he wasn’t even immortal any longer…though he would always be counted as one of the shemsu.
“Lord Trevor,” Seth said warmly, clasping his hand between his. “I’m so happy you made it in time for the ceremony. Your daughters will be thrilled you’re here.” He glanced around. “And where is your lovely wife?”
Haliday’s eyes softened. “With the girls, helping them get ready.”
Trevor and Isobelle Haliday had just today arrived back in Egypt from an extended stay in North Carolina, where Isobelle had slowly returned to herself and caught up with the world after living in a vacuum for twenty years. Haru-Re had been correct, being excluded from the renewal rituals had thankfully released the magical hold on her mind, but the shabti spell was a powerful one, and it had taken many months to complete the process.
Trevor Haliday hadn’t wanted to return to Egypt too soon, and even now Seth could feel the man’s almost palpable worry that simply being here at Khepesh would cause his wife to disappear again into oblivion. Praise the gods, that did not seem likely. Isobelle was as bright and charming as a woman could be and showed no signs of regression.
All three sisters had been moved to tears at the reunion with their mother, despite the fact that they’d all been in constant touch with both their parents via phone and email, thanks to the modern technology Rhys had installed at his desert estate aboveground.
“Are you sure you won’t change your mind?” Seth now asked his father-in-law. “There’s still time for you both to be added to the ceremony.” Being away from Khepesh had allowed Isobelle to recover, but as expected, the same absence had caused Trevor to lose his immortality.
Lord Trevor shook his head. “Very kind, but no. My wife and I have decided to remain mortal for now. I must say, it’s damned disconcerting being nearly the same age as one’s offspring.” He lifted a shoulder with a smile. “Perhaps one day in the future, when we achieve the proper parental age difference…”
Seth laughed, though with a note of sadness. He genuinely liked the man, and adored Isobelle. He was sorry his in-laws had chosen to live among the mortals, and Josslyn had been more than distraught at the news. “I hope you will very soon,” Seth said. “You’ve raised some amazing daughters who are destined to be exalted among the shemsu. It goes without saying that their parents will always be welcome and honored in Khepesh. No doubt Petru, as well.”
“Why, of course you are both welcome at Petru! Anytime at all.”
Haru-Re’s hearty voice drew Seth’s attention to a group of gold-clad shemsu that had just entered the courtyard. Ray joined Seth and Trevor.
Seth had to admit, the high priest of the Sun God had become almost cloyingly cheerful since taking Nephtys as his official consort. There’d been a special glow over the palace of Petru that could be seen nearly to Khepesh. However, Seth didn’t begrudge him. Not in the least. Over the past year, the two leaders had spoken often, and come to agreement on most things. He’d even go so far as to say they’d become tentative friends. It was good to have someone with whom to share the weighty responsibilities of ruling the immortals and maintaining the rituals of the old ways. Finally there was someone who truly understood the philosophical burden he’d thought he alone had felt all those years.
“My lord Haru-Re,” Seth greeted him formally with a bow. “It is good to see you.”
Ray returned the greeting, then smiled broadly. “So. The big day.”
“At long last,” Seth allowed with an equally sincere smile. “Nephtys is preparing the women now.”
“Who would have thought, after all the years as bitter enemies, it would end like this between us,” Ray said, his bright eyes crinkling. “Peace, prosperity and so in love it almost hurts.”
Seth chuckled. “Speak for yourself. I feel wonderful.”
Especially after the long hours of lovemaking he and Josslyn had shared together earlier. Afterward, they had lain in each other’s arms and talked about the future. His plans for the united shemsu, her plans for becoming a priestess like Nephtys.
They’d spoken of having children…something he had never dared wish for before. Gemma had discovered a papyrus in the library of Sekhmet containing a spell that could, for a short while, restore a vampire’s seed to potency. There was no guarantee it would work, but his heart was still singing over the possibility of one day soon holding his own child in his arms. Gillian and Gemma were also making similar plans, and of course Rhys and Shahin did not have the impediment of being dead. So, at the very least, Seth would be an uncle. He grinned at the thought of spoiling his nieces and nephews rotten.
To be surrounded by a large, extended family of his own, with joyous youthful voices and pattering feet, would make him the happiest man on earth.
Haru-Re slapped him on the back. “Ah, my friend, I sense the direction of your thoughts. I will have my librarian send over a spell I found among the scrolls of the temple of Min to increase a man’s virility.”
Seth gave an embarrassed laugh. “Am I so easy to read?” he asked wryly.
“When it comes to love,” Ray returned with a wink, “we men wear our hearts on our sleeves. It is a good thing, I think, when honestly felt.”
“Yes,” Seth agreed. “A very good thing.”
Just then the flames burning in the torch-sconces lowered, and the light in the courtyard dimmed. By now the chamber was filled to capacity, the shemsu surrounding the sacred pool and forming a semicircle around the portal to the inner sanctum, the holy of holies, where the ceremony was to take place. Slowly a reverent silence fell upon the crowd.
It was time.
Rhys and Shahin joined him, and the three men made their way through the hushed darkness to their assigned places at the center of the bridge above the sacred pool, where they would await their women.
The courtyard was now dark as the blackest night, pierced only by the sparkle of thousands of tiny candles lining the bridge that led over the sacred pool, and a million diamonds glittering from the ceiling overhead.
From all around, soft music started to play. It was the welcoming chant of the immorta
ls accompanied by the ethereal instruments of the spheres, the music of the ancient Universe greeting the new arrivals to the fold of the shemsu. Seth could feel the preternatural energy, the swell of magical power that filled the room. It swirled and grew, until it was almost a living, breathing thing, joining each person to the other in a cosmic union of immortal souls.
Then the stately temple portals swung slowly open, and the procession began.
Lit up from above by the glow of magical moonbeams, Nephtys walked slowly down the jasmine-strewn path that opened up through the center of the swaying throng of immortals. Behind her walked the three sisters, arm in arm.
In the center was Josslyn.
His wife.
Seth’s breath caught in his throat. Ray was right. Seth loved her so much it hurt. His heart ached with the pure joy of knowing she was his. And would be his for the rest of time.
She was so beautiful. Her blond hair was like the glitter of stars, her lithe body dressed in a gossamer gown of the most delicate silver color imaginable. Like her sisters, her eyes were made up in the manner of the ancients, rimmed with black liner and smuged with kohl, looking dark and sultry as Isis herself. She looked exotic and sensual and deliciously tempting.
He could feel her heart beating, fast and anxious.
Next to him, Shahin and Rhys stirred, equally struck by their own women’s beauty.
By the gods, Shahin’s awe-filled thoughts drifted into Seth’s head. Are we not the luckiest men in the world?
“By any measure,” Seth murmured. “We are truly blessed.”
Rhys nodded with a smile of agreement. “Indeed we are.”
Nephtys stepped onto the bridge and a swell of energy washed over the sacred pool, raising a pineapple-and-spice fragrance from the large pink water lilies that floated on the pond below. Seth held out his hands to her as she approached.
“My sister. I greet you, Priestess of Set-Sutekh, God of the Moon and Lord of the Night Sky, and now of Re-Horakhti, God of the Sun and Lord of all the Days. Nephtys, Guardian of the Sacred Ritual of Immortal Life, I ask you on this night to grant your favor upon our three supplicants, Josslyn, Gemma and Gillian Haliday.”
“My brother, Seth-Aziz, High Priest of Set-Sutekh and Lord of Khepesh, I answer your call and proceed to the sacred altar to perform the secret ritual to transform mortal to immortal and grant these women the powers of the shemsu.”
The three men stepped aside to let her pass. Then Seth turned to Josslyn. It was the most sacred, solemn ceremony in the world of the per netjer, but he couldn’t help the smile that leaped onto his face.
“Heret-ibi,” he whispered. “Josslyn, my only heart.”
“My lord,” she whispered, the joy on her face shining for all to see. She did a deep curtsey, as was expected for the ceremony. And then she took his arm, and he led her across the bridge and down to the threshold of the inner sanctum, the holy of holies. The cave-dark chamber was alive with the glitter of a forest of tiny candles. The sweet spice of incense and ambergris and a thousand flowers wafted from four of the six sacred side altars.
The central altar was his own obsidian sarcophagus, inside of which he slept each month for three nights surrounding the full moon. It was clear of any sacrifice or decoration, as were the two altars that flanked it. They were reserved for the ceremony.
He and Josslyn waited at the portal for her sisters to join her, led by Rhys and Shahin. When they did, each man kissed his woman and stepped back.
Seth’s heart thundered. The ritual was not dangerous, but it was momentous. And it would change his life forever.
A hush fell over the crowd as Josslyn, Gemma and Gillian moved into the inner sanctum, where Nephtys stood at the foot of his gleaming black sarcophagus. She, too, looked lovely, arrayed in her narrow, pleated priestess gown of shimmering silver, her youthful eyes shining with solemn excitement. She greeted each of the women. The tableau they presented was unique and beautiful, and eerily familiar to Seth. It could have been carved and painted on the walls of the most luxurious of the ancient pharaoh’s tombs.
“You are the chosen of the god,” Nephtys sang the sacred chant, her voice echoing through the courtyards of the temple like the sweet tones of a bell ringing. “Come and join the per netjer of the Ancients. Be with us, and help to keep our names alive forever in the mouth of the Universe!” The shemsu also began to chant, an eerie, dissonant harmony, that sent shivers of power spilling through the bodies of everyone there. Seth closed his eyes and drank in their power and their magical energy, filling himself with the love of his people for himself and his bride. They loved her nearly as much as he did.
He had made the right choice. She was everything that had been missing from his life.
She was his soul mate.
One by one, Nephtys bade the sisters lie down on the three central altars in preparation for the ritual. Josslyn’s gaze sought his. He could feel the tremulous fear and cautious jubilation running through his own body, as well as hers. Their connection was strong, and getting stronger every day.
As was their love.
Sweet Isis, how he loved her!
He nodded, and her shoulders notched down a fraction, trusting him. She climbed on top of his sarcophagus and lay back on its smooth, cool surface. Her sisters did the same on the two flanking altars.
Then Nephtys turned her back to the crowd and began the sacred ritual chant over them, the words of which she alone knew. It took forever it seemed. Or perhaps it was just Seth’s impatience that made it seem so. The priestess chanted, the shemsu sang and Seth’s heart raced.
And then, at last, it was over.
His wife and her sisters sat up, blinking. Again, Josslyn’s gaze sought his. She smiled, and he felt an overwhelming rush of love spill through him. Her love and his, mingled together as one, coursed through both their bodies. And their souls.
“I love you,” she mouthed.
His eyes swam with happiness. And he whispered back, “I love you, too.”
Epilogue
It was nearly sunrise.
Isobelle Haliday lifted her face to the warm glow emanating from the eastern horizon, and smiled. Contentment wrapped itself around her body like a beautiful hand-stitched quilt.
It was good to be alive. So very good.
She slid from her mount, a spirited palomino mare, her soft-booted feet touching the hard ground of the Egyptian gebel. She felt an instant connection with the earth below, as old as time and solid as the love she held for her three beloved daughters.
In the indigo sky above, an elegant black hawk soared in circles, and on her shoulder a dragonfly had alighted, cheerfully iridescent in the gathering dawn, the flutter of its wings as quick as the blink of an eye.
Isobelle laughed merrily when the dragonfly took off and buzzed around the mare’s nose, making it shake its head and sneeze. Some things would never change. Thank God! She still couldn’t believe she had missed twenty years of her precious daughters’ lives. She aimed to make up for every last minute.
“Now, now, you two,” she admonished, but the words were filled with affection and laughter. Laughter that burst out loud when the hawk dropped from the sky, did an awkward pirouette and transformed into her middle daughter, Gemma…who promptly landed on her butt on the ground.
“Ow!” Gemma cried with a chagrined frown.
“The landing could use some work,” her oldest, Josslyn, said drily from behind them, straightening her gown after her more dignified shift.
“Just you wait,” Gemma returned, climbing to her feet and brushing herself off. “It’s only the first day. Pretty soon I’ll be eating bugs like you for breakfast.”
Isobelle wrinkled her nose. “I most certainly hope not!” She, Josslyn and Gemma turned to the mare and waited expectantly.
It shook its head, its golden mane flying.
“Come on, Jelly Bean,” Joss said with a grin. “No chickening out. You gotta do it sometime. Better in front of those who love you
.”
After a moment, the horse reared up hesitantly, and with a shimmer of darkness, transformed into Gillian.
Who promptly also landed on the ground. “Crap,” she muttered.
But nothing could dampen their infectious grins and joyous group hug the four women shared as they came together on the top of the steep cliffs.
“Hurry, the sun is rising!” Isobelle exclaimed.
It was such a special day. The first day of her daughters’ immortal lives. And the first full day she had been reunited with her children since coming out of her long mental slumber. A good day, indeed.
It was time they gave thanks for the many blessings the Universe had granted them. Second chances were so rare.
“We’re doing this old school,” she announced, and pulled an icy bottle of champagne from the shoulder bag she’d carried from Khepesh. She opened it with a pop to a chorus of cheers and excited clapping from the girls.
The frothy liquid poured out onto the dry ground and disappeared into it as though the spirits of the earth were lapping it up. Which, she figured they were. How else could you explain the fantastical, wonderful things that had befallen her beloved family here in this mystical place?
Her girls—all amazing women now—laughed as they passed the bottle around between them, each taking a bubbly drink from it in turn. When it came to Isobelle, her eyes filled with tears.
She raised the bottle. “To my beautiful, beautiful daughters,” she said, her heart swelling with the immense love only a mother could feel. To think she had nearly lost the chance to know them! “May all your days be filled with untold happiness and an abundance of love. I love you so very much.”
She swallowed the effervescent champagne past the enormous lump in her throat.
“Oh, Mom,” Josslyn said, her voice choked with emotion. “It’s so good to have you back with us. You have no idea how much you were missed.”
