Chapter 27 A Mother’s Song #2
Katerina returned, carrying something in her foot. Zahra grunted as she sat up and Katerina dropped the object above Zahra’s head. It landed softly in Zahra’s lap, and Katerina rested on another part of the tree.
Zahra picked up her mother’s scarf. How did Katerina get this? If she had brought it here, then that meant…
“Poulaki mou!”
Zahra looked up to see her father running toward her. She cried out in surprise. “Patér!”
Omar came to Zahra’s side, his gaze immediately landing on her foot. “What has happened?”
Zahra choked down a sob. “You can’t be here. The medjay are after me.”
“Then we are lucky,” Omar said, tearing part of his clothes. “They’re after me as well. What snake bit you?”
“A viper.” Zahra inhaled sharply as he pushed the fabric against her wound.
Omar tied the piece of fabric around her ankle above the bite. “We must get you to a physician’s office.”
“But the medjay—” Zahra started.
“We don’t have time to worry about that.”
Zahra grunted as Omar lifted her to her feet, putting her arm around his shoulder and helping her walk. By the time they reached the physician’s office, blood was dripping down her foot, and Zahra was lightheaded.
The building was empty, and Omar lifted Zahra onto a bed and got to work. Zahra tried to rest, but the pain was too great, especially as Omar attended her. She rested her head back against the wall, her gaze drifting to the window. Katerina sat there, humming a song that only Zahra could hear.
Katerina’s song was soothing, and Zahra held her mother’s scarf close to her chest, breathing heavily as drowsiness tugged at her eyelids.
She thought of her mother and how they would walk the shoreline and look for shells.
It was difficult to visualize her mother’s face, but she remembered the softness of her voice and the gentleness of her hands.
How she smelled of sea salt and reminded Zahra of the Sea.
Tears sprang to Zahra’s eyes as her last memory with her mother played in her head. If her mother could see what was to come, why did she save her? Did she know that Zahra would help Namir? Was it worth it, even though her only daughter would suffer and die?
Zahra’s eyes slipped closed. Her mother’s scarf was warm against her chest, and the sound of the Sea whistled in her ears. How she wished she could see her mother again.
When Zahra opened her eyes, she was sailing on the Sea. There were no angry medjay or dangerous rapids. The Sea was calm and shimmered a beautiful blue. A soft hum floated around her.
Her father crouched at the back of the boat, pulling a net full of fish aboard. Zahra was helping, and she reveled in the fact that her small hands could do so much. The fish flopped and twitched, and Zahra let out a shriek as one jumped on her foot in an attempt to escape.
The sweet sound of a laugh long lost to Zahra’s memories filled the air. “Poulaki mou, come here. Come and see, little one.”
The sound of her mother’s voice was sweet to Zahra’s ears, and she looked up to see familiar sea-blue eyes. Her mother wore her blue-and-gold scarf on her shoulders. She smiled, scooping little Zahra up in her arms. “Look, Rhodopis. What do you see all the way up there?”
Zahra looked up at the sky, squinting to see past the sun’s glare. Against the cloudless sky soared two eagles. She gasped, pointing. “Eagles!”
“Yes.” Her mother smiled softly. “One of them is your grandmother, Doris. If you listen closely, you can hear her singing the lullaby she sang to you as a babe.”
Zahra leaned closer and listened. When she heard nothing, she frowned. “I couldn’t hear her.”
“Don’t fret, little one. You will learn to hear her soon enough.” She pulled Zahra closer, planting kisses all over her head.
Zahra giggled. “Mamá!”
Her mother smiled, tapping Zahra’s nose. “Very well, little one.”
Zahra looked up at the eagles once more. “Will I become an eagle when I die, Mamá?”
“You may,” her mother said. “Our people go to Elysium when they die. It is in the sky, and the stars remind us of the heroes the theos have chosen to honor.”
“And what about Mamme? Will she go to Elysium?”
“She has already gone there, but sometimes our ancestors come back as eagles to serve Selene or to comfort or guide their descendants.”
Zahra looked excitedly at her mother. “Like me?”
Her mother smiled and rubbed her nose against Zahra’s. “Especially you.”
The ocean rocked the boat, and Zahra’s mother stroked her hair, humming a soft melody. Zahra grabbed the edge of her mother’s scarf, looking up at her. “Will you be an eagle one day, Mamá?”
Zahra’s mother smiled and opened her mouth, but Omar’s voice interrupted her. “Katerina, will you help me with these?”
Zahra gasped and held tighter to her mother’s scarf.
Katerina smiled softly. “I’m coming, agapi mou.”
“Wait.” Zahra pulled the scarf from her mother’s shoulders as Katerina lowered her to the boat and walked over to Omar. The memory continued to play, and Zahra saw them laughing as they wrestled the fish net further onto the boat. “Mamá!”
The boat turned to golden sand beneath Zahra’s knees, and Zahra sobbed as the memory faded before her eyes and turned into the Duat. She fell over, hugging her mother’s scarf close to her chest.
“I’m sorry!” she cried.
How had she not realized? How had she not remembered?
“I’m so sorry.”
A gentle hand brushed the curls from her wet cheeks. “Don’t fret, poulaki mou. I am here.”
Zahra lifted her head. Katerina looked down at her with a soft smile, no longer a bird, and with a cape littered with tawny feathers. “Mamá!”
Katerina pulled Zahra into her arms, hugging her tightly. “I am sorry I couldn’t come to you like this sooner. There were things you needed to learn first, and you couldn’t learn those things if you knew who I was.”
“Have you come to take me to Elysium?” Zahra asked. “Have you come to take me home?”
Katerina smiled softly and stroked Zahra’s hair. “The time for that has not yet come, Rhodopis.”
“But I am ready,” Zahra cried. “Please. There’s nothing more for me here! Namir will not let me protect him anymore!”
“In time,” Katerina promised, “but not now. There are still many things for you to do.”
Zahra shook her head against Katerina’s chest. “But I can’t break my curse! How am I to do these many things if I am dead?”
“Because you will live.” Katerina stroked Zahra’s curls. “O chara, this was never meant to be a fight you would face alone.”
Zahra choked down a sob. “Then I have already missed my chance. He has given up on me.”
“The only one who has given up is you.” Katerina held her close, kissing her curls as she cried. “Don’t fret, Rhodopis. Your King is on his way, and I will stay with you until he arrives.”
Zahra hugged her mother. “I have missed you, Mamá.”
Katerina smiled against Zahra’s curls. “I have always been here.”
Loud voices startled Zahra out of her sleep. “Where is she? Zahra? Zahra!”
Zahra opened her eyes. Namir was running toward her. He cupped her cheek, his other hand holding her arm. His worried eyes trailed the wounds on her neck and head. “What has she done to you?”
Zahra blinked slowly. Was it really him?
A sob worked its way into her throat. “I almost killed her.”
“No. She hurt you. She…” His fingers hovered over the bruises on her neck, rage in his eyes. “I should never have left. I’m so sorry. I thought you were in the pr-aa all this time. I didn’t realize…”
Tears welled in her eyes. “I drove you away.”
Namir’s forehead creased, and he knelt beside the bed, tucking one of her curls behind her ear. “You could never drive me away. I needed some time with my thoughts. That is all.”
Zahra’s lip trembled. “I thought you wouldn’t come. I am doomed, and I…I have given up.”
Namir wiped the tears from her face, smiling softly. “But I have not. I will not rest until I find a way. The netjeru brought us together, and I will not let us part.”
A sob escaped her chest, and she lifted her trembling hands to her face.
Namir sat on the bed beside her, pulling her into his lap. “I am here, Zahra. I will not leave you. Rest, please. All will be well in the morning.”
Zahra leaned into his chest, looking around at the others in the room. Her father, the medjay, and Ramses were all quiet. Those that spoke did so in a whisper. The sky was dark, and Omar looked at Zahra somberly.
Zahra relaxed in Namir’s arms and closed her eyes, thinking of the Sea’s comforting rocking as she drifted off to sleep.