Chapter 19 Sun, Moon, and Stars
Sun, Moon, and Stars
Zahra walked confidently around the library, distributing scrolls delivered from the records offices in Inebu-hedj.
The tables were filled with scholars and scribes, all of whom read and cross-referenced every record.
Nubia stood in the center of it all, managing the large group of workers and noting any persons of interest.
Nubia spoke with a scribe, studying two scrolls he had with him. She dismissed one and rolled up the other, looking around until she spotted Zahra. She smiled and waved. “Zahra, we have another one.”
“I am coming.”
Zahra finished dropping off the scrolls at tables and made her way to Nubia. She took the scroll from Nubia’s hand. “Thank you, Vizier.”
“I should thank you,” Nubia said. “You have been working hard all morning.”
Zahra bowed her head. “I am only doing my job, Vizier.” She had changed into the clothing of a library servant so she could help Nubia while keeping an eye on the process to update Namir.
Zahra walked over to a table covered in scrolls.
She had been tying them together with a cord, noting which people Namir had already investigated and which ones he had not.
They had been doing a city at a time to simplify the process, but there were many cities and villages in Aur, and there were many nobility that endorsed visits from foreign merchants and others in anticipation of the Feast and eclipse.
Zahra returned to her work, helping the scribes move things and delivering scrolls around the space.
It was repetitive, doing the same thing every day, but Zahra enjoyed the monotony of her new tasks.
It distracted her from what awaited her that night.
She was always dropped off where her father was staying around four Atum, but she did not linger there.
She knew that the medjay would turn on her and her father if she remained, so she wandered the streets, seeking shelter from those that the keres could influence. The protection was never enough.
Nubia called out for Zahra once more, and Zahra pulled herself from her thoughts, walking up to Nubia with a weary smile. “Yes, Vizier?”
Nubia held a scroll in her hand, but she did not hand it to Zahra. “I thought you might enjoy taking the rest of the day off. I will have another servant take over your position. You can take some time to eat and rest.”
Zahra furrowed her brow. Nubia had never offered her a break before. What had changed?
Zahra recognized the tiredness that lingered in her body.
Her legs were sore from practicing horse riding with Ramses that morning.
Namir had insisted she learn to protect herself in case they ever had another run-in with the assassins, and she had asked Ramses to teach her to ride a horse in between her other lessons.
The fatigue from her training must have shown on her face.
“That’s very kind of you, Vizier, but I don’t need—”
“Please,” Nubia insisted. “You deserve it.”
Zahra relented and bowed. “Thank you, Vizier.”
She walked away toward the kitchen, wringing her hands in front of her. She half expected Nubia to call her back or to laugh and say it was a joke, but when Zahra glanced back, Nubia had already returned to her work.
Zahra took a deep breath. Nubia was not Bahiti. She was kind, as Fukayna was. For a moment, Zahra fantasized about working in the pr-aa under Nubia’s care. Surely, Namir would put in a good word for her. Nubia would be a kind master, and Zahra could leave with the other servants in the pr-aa.
Zahra’s curse dashed her dreams to pieces, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth, even as she fetched food from the kitchen and ate alone at a table.
She had accepted the chance that her curse couldn’t be broken, but she couldn’t give up.
Asenath was the key. If she could understand more about how Asenath and she were cursed, she could determine if there was a way to break the curse altogether.
Zahra walked past the commotion downstairs to retrieve the records about Asenath that her father had shown her. She went to retrieve the key to the hidden library, but the scroll was not there. Fear bit into her heart. Who would have taken it?
Zahra made her way into the basement, hesitating at the hidden door before she knocked on it. A few moments of silence passed before the wall cracked and groaned.
Zahra breathed out a sigh of relief upon seeing Ramses’s face. She greeted him with a sign he had taught her before she spoke. “I was worried someone else had found this place.”
Ramses smiled, welcoming her into the room. “It is only us.”
Namir sat at the table with a few oil lamps to illuminate the space. He stood as Zahra entered the room, surprised. “Zahra. I thought it was Nubia at the door.”
Ramses closed the door behind Zahra and returned to his seat by one of the walls, where he promptly closed his eyes and draped his cloak over his face to return to sleep.
“She knows about this place?” Zahra asked Namir, setting her scrolls down on a bare spot on the table.
“Of course. She showed it to me when we were children.” He pulled out a chair for her to sit in.
“Thank you.” Zahra sat, pulling one of the scrolls to her. “What are you doing down here?”
“I had some time in between my investigations, so I came down here to read up on the queen you told me about.”
Zahra blinked in surprise. “Queen Asenath?”
Namir nodded, sitting across from her and pulling out a scroll.
“I was intrigued by her story. She was the daughter of the first Pharaohs, and it was they who started the tradition of the Pa-sekhemty Feast.” He pulled out other scrolls, all of which were frail.
“I also found records of a lunar eclipse that happened around that time, which verifies what you saw in your vision.”
The word vision sent shivers down Zahra’s spine.
Namir pushed his scrolls in Zahra’s direction. “I think she may be related to how the Thoth came to be given to us by Re, but I can’t find anything here on that.”
Zahra took the scrolls and looked over them.
The record described the events around Asenath’s death as her father had explained it, though with it was an older record in Badari.
The symbols for Re and Nebthet were there, though the account itself only described that it was the first Pa-sekhemty Feast.
Zahra’s eyes narrowed on a glyph that she recognized but did not know the meaning of. She had seen it before, but where she had seen it escaped her.
“I have tried to decipher what that character means, but I am not sure,” Namir said.
“It is the name of a netjer,” Zahra stated, picking up the piece of papyrus.
Namir’s eyebrows raised. “How do you know?”
Zahra opened her mouth, but she was not sure how to answer.
She stood, taking the papyrus with her as she traveled to one of the shelves.
In a few moments, she found the papyrus she was looking for and brought it back over to the table.
She opened it about the Thoth, moving her finger along the glyphs until she found the ones she was looking for.
“Sun, moon,” Zahra read, “and stars.”
Namir leaned forward, looking where Zahra was pointing. “I thought those were the glyphs for Re and Nebthet.”
“They are, but they also describe the sun and moon.”
“Then why is there a third glyph?” Namir asked. “At least in Aur, Nebthet is the netjer of the moon and stars.”
“She is for my people as well.” But perhaps she was not always.
Zahra took to the shelves, scanning over the papyrus that were there. Namir shifted in his chair, glancing at Ramses sleeping in the corner.
Zahra’s hand trailed across the edges of the scrolls until one caught her eye. She snatched it from its hiding place, opening it up. She realized Namir was watching her, and she looked over at him. “What is it?”
“I should get you a dress.” Namir leaned back. “You should dress as one of the scribes, not as a servant of the library.”
“But I am a servant,” Zahra countered. “I don’t mind the work of a library servant. It is different from what I do for my usual work.”
“But it does not suit you.” Namir closed his mouth upon seeing Zahra’s surprised expression, and he turned his attention to the scrolls on the table. “It is something for you to think about. If you are comfortable helping as a servant, then I won’t stop you.”
Zahra turned back to her task, her cheeks hot and her hands clammy. He thought she could be a scribe? She glanced back over at Namir. He was fiddling with the edge of a papyrus, his forehead creased and his leg bouncing.
Zahra bit her lip to hide her smile as she returned her gaze to the papyrus.
On it was displayed a painting with rich colors.
The art depicted Re’s journey through the night.
For twelve hours, Re traveled as Atum through the underworld.
Each section of the painting was marked by even lines, showing each part of his journey.
In the tenth hour, Apep—the great snake—attacked.
Atum was protected by other netjeru, who stayed with him until Apep was defeated.
Atum’s rebirth occurred at the end of the twelfth hour, where he returned to the mortal world as Khepri.
Apep’s form guided Zahra’s eye down to the end of the papyrus.
Its tail extended all the way to the first hour of Atum, where a hand held it.
Zahra looked closer. The hand was cut off by the edge of the papyrus, but it was clearly holding Apep’s tail, as if guiding it toward Re.
On the hand was the same glyph from the other papyri—stars.
A thought came to Zahra’s mind, one that made her breath hitch with realization. A sharp pain seared through her skull. Zahra cried out, dropping the scroll and bringing her hand to her head. The papyrus landed at her feet.
Namir jumped up from his chair, causing it to knock over with a thud. Ramses flinched, pulling the cloak off his head. He got to his feet, his hand on his blade.