“What is it?” Osiris’ voice drifted into the vision. I shushed him, for I wanted to hear what the woman was saying. But her words were muffled and I could not make them out. Tears were soaking through the cloth about the boy’s head and a sweet woody scent was making him dizzy.
“I don’t know,” he sobbed. I wanted so much to hold him and make it stop. The woman’s voice hardened as she spat her reply at him,
“When will it be, boy?” she screeched. The child was crying so hard he could say nothing. The woman got to her feet and stormed away. Behind him, something scraped over the stone floor. A heavy bolt grated into its place, sealing him into the darkness all alone. I tried hard to find something in the boy’s mind that would give me an idea as to where he might be, but he had been blindfolded from the moment he had been taken.
“What about sounds or smells?” I whispered in the hope that the child might hear me.
I was in his mind, reaching through the void of his dark world to find something, anything at all, but all I could make out was the lapping of water over a riverbank.
“Well, that tells us nothing,” Osiris grumbled, “Every town from the Ocean to the Kush is settled along the Nile.”
“I know, I am sorry” I sighed.
“Anything else?”
“Only the smell of frankincense,” I replied, thinking this had little relevance.
“Frankincense!”
I gasped at the sudden sharpness of Osiris’ tone.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, why?”
“The temple of Amun at Waset. They are the only priests to burn such an expensive oil these days.”
I opened my eyes,
“How can you be certain?”
“I was there only days ago. I had not smelled frankincense for many years in this land and then there it was, burning in the columned hall.”
“But you did not find your son.” I was unconvinced; something did not feel quite right.
“A priest showed me around the complex. He told me that no boy had been there. He lied! They had him all that time.” His green eyes looked dark and muddy and his forehead crinkled in a way that showed his former humanity. He ran his hands over his face. “I must go back, at once.”
I reached out and touched his arm,
“I will come with you.”
He looked down at my hand.
“No, there is no need to trouble yourself further.” He patted the back of my fingers and rose to leave.
“I am coming with you,” I repeated, getting up after him. He was slightly shorter than me so that I had to look down just a very little. He closed his eyes gratefully and nodded.
“Thank you.”
I did not tell him that I knew he would need me again.
*
“Quite the spectacle is it not?”
Osiris and I were standing on the deck of a small transport vessel. The canopy flapped in the breeze over our heads and the crew was rushing about noisily as we drew close to the jetty.
I had never been to Waset before. The city loomed up on the east bank of the Nile and sprawled on far beyond my imaginings. Imposing temples towered over the streets. Great columns and brightly painted statues littered their facades. I stared open-mouthed. Torches shone on every street corner as though the city were as wealthy as it ever had been, and people were bustling about in all directions. It was bigger even than Pi-Ramesses had been. The central district spilt out into a web of winding streets, and the large villas on the outskirts were grand and elegant. Waset was old and majestic, the likes of which I had never seen before. Not even Troy could compare.
“Magnificent,” I breathed.
On the dockside a woman stood, waving frantically. Her belly full of child, and a little boy was bouncing about at her side like there were flies in his smock. She grabbed his hand tightly just as he tried to rush towards us.
“Papa,” he yelled, spotting our captain as he threw the rope over the side of the boat.
I felt Osiris grow tense at my side. I looked at his sad eyes as he watched the little boy. I opened my mouth to comfort him but knew not what to say. Osiris sniffed and rolled his shoulders. I looked at the way his muscles moved over his bones and thought of Paris. How the scar had cut through his smooth skin. There was emptiness so deep inside me that I knew not if it would ever be filled again. My biggest regret was that I had never confessed my feelings.
With a creak, the rope tightened and the boat jerked, bobbing wildly for a moment. Osiris did not wait for it to settle, he was leaping on to the jetty and holding a hand out for me to follow. I ignored the assistance. I did not need it. But as I landed onto the wooden boardwalk I felt a sharp stab in my side. I gasped.
“What is it?” Osiris offered his hand to me again. This time I took it as the pain stabbed deep into my ribs and sizzled with a sickly stench of burning flesh. The pain was not mine, yet it felt so real I could have screamed in agony.
“Jonah, they … they have branded him, like a cow.”
Slavery was by that time in Egypt common practice, though perhaps not in the way a modern person might think of it. Those who were forced to work for merely board and lodgings were only those captured from conquered lands in times of war. Most slaves were more like indentured labour. Though they could be bought and sold, people may even sell themselves if times were hard, as they were then, or buy themselves out, should they find the means. Branding, however, was not common in Egypt until many centuries later.
“He is sold to a foreigner.” Osiris closed his eyes in despair. If Jonah had indeed been sold to a foreign merchant or traveller, then he may leave our land, and we may never find him.
*
The precinct of Amun dominated the Ipet Isut complex. We made our way up the avenue of Sphinxes. Torches shone eerie shadows over their human faces. We passed through the vast pylon gates into the Great Forecourt where the day's last worshipers lingered. A priest bustled past us. His arm caught against mine. The touch sent a vision into my head and for a moment I saw the most beautiful woman standing before him. Osiris glanced over his shoulder at me, for I had paused.
“Coming,” I said, shaking off the vision.
The second pylon was even higher and grander than the first. Flanking the gate were two large statues of my Ramses. I looked up at his face and smiled as we passed him by, but there was something in the way the moonlight fell upon him that made me uneasy.
We entered the Columned Hall. Immediately I could smell frankincense. A shudder ran up my spine and I felt Osiris prickle with discomfort at my side. The towering papyrus shaped columns were so wide and high I could not imagine the effort of their construction. The brightly painted carvings that wrapped around them seemed to stare at us, and the shadows they cast made the columns appear like giants taunting us. I wanted to turn and run.
“Who was Amun?” I breathed, as Osiris hammered hard on the heavy wooden door of the third pylon gate. This is as far as the public could go, and at this late hour there seemed to be no one else around. But somewhere from the other side of the gate, we could hear indistinct whispering.
“Like you,” Osiris hissed back with a quick glance my way, “Amun came to flee your broken world in search of a better life.”
“Is he still here?” I asked though I sensed the answer. Osiris shook his head.
“Many centuries ago there was a battle for the crown. Amun chose the wrong side. His head was taken by the Pharaoh.”
I shivered as a sick knot twisted in my gut and I tried to shut out the image of my father as he fell on the battlefield.
“And Ra?” I asked. Many Egyptian gods had two or three names, depending on the town of worship. I had never been sure if Amun and Ra were one and the same, though they were often portrayed so.
“His twin brother. They died side-by-side, one fighting for Pharaoh and the other against. In the last moments, it was near impossible to tell them apart.”
I stared at Osiris.
“You were there?”
My companion nodded.
“Indeed. Though there is little else to say on the matter, and we have more important things at hand.”
“Yes, forgive me.” I lowered my eyes.
As the voices grew closer I could hear them better.
“She said not to permit anyone to enter after dark,” one was arguing.
“What does it matter what she says, she won’t know. Let’s just see who it is, maybe they can help.”
I raised an eyebrow. Osiris looked at me with equal curiosity. There was certainly something amiss here, whether it involved Jonah or not. There was a scuffle behind the door, and then several bolts were drawn. As the door finally creaked back it revealed two men. The first was tall and wiry, the other short and stout.
“May we assist?” The wiry one appeared to be the bravest of the pair, for they were both taken aback by our appearances. He failed to prevent his gaze from wondering over my figure, resting for more than a moment upon my breasts. The other was paying equal attention to my companion. Mildly amused at this I clasped my hands together and forced a smile.
“We are in search of a small boy.” The men glanced at each other with unease. I continued, “He went missing from his home a full turn of the moon ago, and has not been seen since. We have received word that he is here.” My confidence surprised me, and Osiris, for he looked at me quite astonished.
“No small boys have been here Your Grace,” The wiry one replied flatly. I had not expected to be addressed so. I found it unnerving that they should acknowledge us as gods.
“No, not here. Your informant is mistaken.” The short one was practically drooling at my companion’s naked chest. Osiris folded his arms to cover himself and drew a slow breath. The wiry man was already heaving the door closed again.
Osiris grabbed the door and halted him. The man staggered backwards against the force.
“They know what we are, so why hide it?” He said to me when I glared at him. I shrugged and conceded. “We will search the complex, ourselves,” he added to the two men. They exchanged a look of panic, well aware of what we could do to them should we wish. The short one was visibly shaking.
Osiris pushed past them and grabbed my hand. In a heartbeat, we had cleared the ceremonial path, passed through the forth pylon and the outer temple, and were searching through the middle chambers. I had never seen, not before or since, a place of worship so vast as that one, and we had not seen half of it.
“You know we could have just waited in the Columned Hall until everyone was asleep and then broken in,” I said when we paused to assess our progress.
“What would there be the fun in that, besides, we cannot be certain there are no other Vampyr already here.”
“Of course,” I answered, feeling slightly foolish for not thinking of it.
I looked around the small antechamber in which we were standing. In one corner stood a life-size statue of Amun. I stared at it in disbelief.
“Are you alright?” Osiris moved in close behind me. I reached out and traced a finger over the chin of the statue.
“You knew him.” This was not a question but an observation. I nodded.
“He was a friend of my father. They both were. I do not think I ever knew their names, but I remember they came to our home once, just before the war. They asked my father to leave with them.”
“But he did not?”
Fighting back tears I turned away so he could not see my face.
“No, I was very young, and he did not think I was old enough to travel,” I whispered.
“And he was killed in the war.” Another observation. “It was not your fault, Cassandra. You mustn’t blame yourself.”
I looked at him through the darkness.
“There!” The two priests were rushing towards us, followed by a pair of large guards and a woman in a long white flowing gown. The short one was huffing and puffing as he tried to keep up with his companion’s long strides.
“What do you want?” The woman barked. Her voice was low and husky.
“A boy is missing…” I began.
“You again!” she snapped when she saw Osiris’s face. “There is no boy here, the assistant high priest already told you!” She was light-skinned but bore Kushite features. Her pale eyes were icy and cold.
“We wanted to see for ourselves. If you have nothing to hide, then why protest?” Osiris was staring at her so hard she must have felt his mesmeric pull. Yet she held his gaze like a god might do. Her nerve reminded me of Ramses the first time I had met him. I reached out and touched her arm.
I had not meant to do it, but the compulsion to check she was human was too great. She flinched and snatched her arm away. I had touched her only for an instant but it was enough to feel the warmth of her skin. I knew she could not hold us back. Osiris sensed it too. With a glance at me, he was through the chamber and into the festival hall.
“Seize them,” she ordered. But the guards were as human as she, and no match for our speed.
Perhaps she did not understand or believe what we were. I ran past her in the opposite direction, splitting the attention of our pursuers. I ran back through the forth pylon and rounded a corner into a wide courtyard. I glanced over my shoulder to see the woman and one of the guards running after me.
Despite her youth, she was still out of breath, and the bulky guard could not close in on me either. I reached yet another pylon. As I passed through I noticed a small door in the side of the wall. To my amazement, it was not locked. Inside, the narrow room was pitch black and the scent of frankincense lingered over the taste of stale air. A wave of fear rushed through me. I stumbled over something and bashed against the wall. Looking down I saw a length of a rope strewn across the floor. I reached for it. I knew before I touched it that it had restrained Jonah, and the moment my fingers met with the thick reed twine his image crashed through my mind.
Terrified and alone for days. The rope biting into his skin. Frankincense burning to keep the air clean. His head ached from the hunger, his heart and body weak.
“What do you see?” it was that woman’s voice again, low and desperate. Hands upon his shoulders shaking him until his head rolled back and his teeth chattered. He could not have answered if he wanted by then, so starved was he. I felt as though my body was falling, sinking back, then the stone floor was hard against my back.
“There, the door is open, grab her!”
My mind snapped back to the present. Stumbling I looked for another way out but there was none.
Drawing a deep breath I ran back into the courtyard, hurtling past them as fast as I could manage. My body rushed against the wind, my hair billowing behind me. Even a god could not manage to make the top of those pylons. Instead, I tried to clear the great door. I leapt up. My feet crashed against the wood. I scrambled over the top and tumbled to the ground. Catching my breath I glanced around frantically. I was still inside the complex. In the distance, behind a smaller temple, was a gate. I ran as fast as I could manage, through the gate and into the city beyond. I wanted to wait for Osiris, but it was safer to go. I expected he would follow my scent to find me. I carried on, not stopping or looking back until I was far into the depths of the inner city. Finally, I fell against a mud-brick wall and staggered into an alley behind some baker’s ovens. The smell of warm bread was pleasant and inviting.
I sank down, resting against the hot bricks and cold floor, and waited. I cannot tell you how long I was there, but the moon was still on her ascent when I arrived, and the sky growing pale with dawn light by the time I gave up and went in search of shelter.
*
Light streamed in through the narrow window. The sun was licking at my feet like an irritating puppy. I shifted and twitched in my slumber, drawing my knees up to my stomach. Something cold touched my leg.
“Cassandra…Cassandra wakeup.” I unfurled so fast I hit my elbow on the rough wall behind the bed.
“What?” I sat up and rubbed at my
arm. Osiris was perched on edge of the bed as far away from the sun's rays as he could get. “Oh thank Zeus you are safe.” I threw myself into his arms and hugged him so hard he gasped.
“Enough of that,” he laughed, setting me back.
“How did you get out?” I asked, wondering how to tell him of my vision. Outside people were making their way home from their daily grind. The summer heat made the room stuffy and unpleasant.
“Same as you I imagine, I ran. I followed your scent through the city.”
I looked around the cramped bedchamber; the soiled bedding stank of sweat and sex, and a heavy woollen cloth hung over the door. It felt familiar and somehow comforting.
“I might have known you would be in a place like this.”
I thumped his arm,
“Hey!”
“This is the second time I have found you in a brothel, I think you might be just a little bit at home here.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, for it was stiff from the position I had slept in, and tried to think of an excuse, but failed. Deciding to return to the main subject I said,
“He was there, I saw it…felt it.”
“Is he still alive?” he asked so carefully that I almost hugged him again.
“I believe so. But they took him away. I cannot see where yet.” I closed my eyes in the hope something would come into my mind but the only thing I could see was the inside of a ship. “He left on the Nile. I am sorry, that is all I can tell.”
“That woman knows something, we have to go back to the temple,” he said.
“It may be too dangerous. I do not think they understand exactly what we are, but I think we need to find her outside those walls.”
“She may never leave the temple,” Osiris pointed out. “We can scale the walls and watch from above. Observe her movements. If she leaves, we are lucky.”
“And if not, what can we do? Go back inside where we can be caught.”
Osiris shrugged,
“We must speak with her.”
The Dark Evolution Chronicles Page 7
