Chapter 36 The Sibyl of the Blood Moon
The Sibyl of the Blood Moon
Zahra and Namir followed Ramses downstairs. Medjay were joining their sides as they walked, talking to each other and obeying Ramses’s orders.
“I thought he was dead,” Zahra said to Namir. “You arrested him this morning.”
“My mother said the matter would be taken care of tonight. I thought it would have been done by now.” Namir moved up by Ramses, signing to him, “How has this happened?”
Ramses gritted his teeth as he replied. “I don’t know. The medjay that warned us quickly perished from his injuries. All he said was that there was an attack on the prison from the Hem-netjer.”
Zahra’s face paled as Namir rejoined her side. “How many medjay would have been guarding him?”
“I assigned fifty medjay to him until he could be executed,” Namir said. “I don’t know what happened once my mother took over.”
Zahra clenched her jaw as they ran throughout the halls. Was she wrong? Was the Pharaoh Queen part of this after all? But the Thoth had shown only one person who remembered. Her eyes narrowed as she remembered her vision at the old pr-aa. Unless….
“Menes!” The Pharaoh Queen marched toward him with several medjay surrounding her. Waaiz was behind her, and Nubia was behind him. “Zosar has escaped. We must get you somewhere safe.”
Waaiz stepped up beside her. “Pharaoh Queen, the armory is the most secure place near here. He will be safe there.”
“I agree. Menes—” Her gaze focused on Zahra. “Who is this?”
Namir’s grip tightened on Zahra’s hand. “My Queen.”
Shock filled her face. “You have chosen an Ionian for your bride?”
“Yes.”
The Pharaoh Queen pushed past Ramses, stepping up to Namir and Zahra. Her eyes seemed to glow as she studied Zahra. She turned to Namir. “I forbid it. Let the medjay take her.”
Namir gritted his teeth, moving Zahra away from the medjay that moved to grab her. “I do not follow your orders anymore, Mwt.”
The Pharaoh Queen gestured to Zahra. “She is dangerous! She has the mark of a foreign netjer within her. She could be behind this all!”
“How dare you!” Namir roared. “She is a sibyl, and all she has done is protect me.”
The Pharaoh Queen’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know that word?”
“I have spent longer than you think in the Thoth’s spell. You have no idea what we have gone through to get here. You do not know me. You do not know her. She will be Pharaoh Queen, and you will treat her as such.”
“The sibyls are priestesses of a corrupt netjer who will bear false futures to control Re’s chosen,” the Pharaoh Queen spat.
Zahra stepped out from behind Namir. “The sibyls warned Re’s chosen of a future that will come to pass if we don’t get Namir to safety!”
Namir smiled proudly at Zahra before turning to his mother. “She is right. We must keep moving. He could be here any—”
A strong gust of wind blew down the hall. Zahra and Namir were knocked off their feet, falling back into Ramses. The medjay in the hall behind them shouted.
Zahra looked back with wide eyes as Namir pulled her to her feet. “Run,” he said. “Run!”
The Pharaoh Queen gritted her teeth as she motioned at the medjay around her. “Follow us. Protect the King!”
Namir and Zahra set off toward the military side of the pr-aa. Ramses remained in front of them, with the Pharaoh Queen, Waaiz, and Nubia bringing up the rear. Screams echoed behind them.
Namir’s hand trembled within Zahra’s, and he looked back toward the chaos behind them in horror. Fear built in her chest. What army had Zosar brought with him?
“Through there,” Waaiz yelled, pointing ahead to a door.
A ball of fire shot over their heads, striking one of the pillars holding up the ceiling.
Ramses slid to a stop as the ceiling collapsed in front of them.
Namir covered Zahra with his arms as a wave of dust and smoke blew back toward them.
Waaiz stepped in front of Namir with his khopesh drawn, his stoic face focusing on what was in front of them.
Zahra pulled in a fast breath as she looked up. Zosar approached them. His eyes were like deep pits of tar, and shadows fell from his mouth. His skin was gray, cracked, and dripping with black smoke. He smiled and spoke, Iset and him speaking as one. “Going somewhere, Menes?”
Namir gritted his teeth, pushing Zahra behind him. “Stay behind me.”
Zahra clenched her jaw. Her hand gripped her necklace. “I’m fighting with you, Namir.”
“Do not come any closer, sorcerer,” the Pharaoh Queen warned, raising her hand toward him. “I do not wish to burn you with Re’s light, but I will if I must!”
Zosar laughed. “You are only half of one, Nefertari. Thutmose’s death has weakened you.”
She gritted her teeth. “Re is still with me. You will not win!”
“I have Iset on my side, and I have offered my soul and body to her. I have her power now.”
A thought came to Zahra’s mind, and she took off her necklace, wrapping it around Namir’s wrist and placing the token in his palm. He glanced back at her in confusion, but kept his torso faced forward.
“Re has forbidden Iset from harming his heirs. You can do nothing to my son!”
“You are right,” Zosar said, “but I do not need to.” He threw another ball of fire at them.
The Pharaoh Queen’s hand shot up, and a thick, glass-like dome that glowed with the sun’s light appeared in front of them.
The fire fizzled against it, and the Pharaoh Queen grunted as she was forced back a few feet.
Zosar fell to the floor, gasping in pain.
At the same time, moonlight flashed in Zahra’s eyes, and she pushed Namir and herself forward as a dagger reflected the light of the lamps.
Nubia struck the area where Namir and Zahra had been, her teeth gritted as she swung her arm to swipe Zahra’s back. Waaiz stepped in the way, catching Nubia’s arm. Ramses grabbed her wrists and Waaiz knocked the dagger from her hand.
Waaiz and Ramses secured her as she let out a cry.
Waaiz gasped. “She is possessed!”
Nubia whimpered, her lip trembling. “Menes, help me!”
Namir’s moved toward her. “Nubia!”
Zahra put her hand against his chest to stop him. “She is not possessed.”
Namir looked at her with a combination of horror and confusion.
The Pharaoh Queen glanced back at Zahra as she kept the shield between them and Zosar intact. “You know not what you say, sibyl.”
“Nebthet has shown it to me,” Zahra said, turning to Nubia.
Anger flashed in Nubia’s eyes. She looked at Namir. “Menes, I did not mean to. It was an accident.”
Conflict sat in his face, but still he remained by Zahra’s side. He glanced at Nubia’s dagger on the floor. “That first night, I saw you in the hallway. When the dagger fell, I assumed it was one of the assassins’, but it wasn’t. It was yours.”
Nubia pushed against Waaiz and Ramses’s hold, smiling softly. “Come, brother. I am not capable of murder.”
Zahra shook her head. “You were the one who warned the assassins every morning. You interfered with our search, and you remembered because you bore the mark of the Thoth.” The vision in the old pr-aa had shown it to them, and they had not realized.
If Nubia had not remembered, she, too, would have been bound by a string in the vision of Aur, just as Zahra was.
Nubia growled. “Your bride lies, Menes. I am your ally. I am your family.”
Zosar laughed from his spot on the floor. He leaned back, guffawing as shadows leaked from the cracks in his body. His skin looked sandy, as if he might fall apart at any second. He held his side, grinning wildly at them. “It is no use, Vizier. He knows.”
The Pharaoh Queen looked back in horror at Nubia.
Namir scrunched his forehead, angered and pained. “I don’t understand. Why would you do this? Was it your plan to die so that you would get the mark?”
Nubia’s innocent facade faded into rage.
“Of course not. The plan was to kill you during the blood moon. With the Thoth’s power in motion, we would have had many opportunities for the assassins to lie in wait.
But we did not expect you to choose your bride the very first night, or for the assassins to fail.
” She gritted her teeth. “Every day, I had to face you with the hope that the assassins would succeed, but every night they would fail. I could not risk triggering your memory or revealing myself. So I waited, encouraging you to look for your bride, and framing your real bride’s father in hopes you two would never meet again. But, somehow, she remembered.”
Zahra narrowed her eyes. “Zosar told you to touch Namir the second day so you would remember what had happened.”
Namir shook his head. “But the Thoth should have made you forget today, and Zosar was detained all day. How did you remember if—”
“You think that these many days could be erased because you took the mark from me?” Nubia scoffed. “No, I knew what I experienced was more than a nightmare.”
The Pharaoh Queen lowered her hands a little, though the shield still held. “Nubia, why? Why would you do this?”
Nubia’s head snapped toward the Pharaoh Queen. “You promised me that I would be Queen, but the moment Jt died and said he chose Menes instead, you forsook me! You cast me aside to play the role of the Vizier! The people blame me for their problems, and he takes all of the credit for my work!”
“We did not know Menes’s fate when we named you heir,” the Pharaoh Queen insisted. “The path of the Pharaoh is a difficult one. I thought you were happy to be free of the burden.”
“Burden? Is that what you think?” Nubia tugged against Ramses and Waaiz’s hold.
“I worked tirelessly for years to fill your shoes. All I wanted was to be the ruler you desired me to be. But as soon as Menes started recovering, you abandoned me to be by his side. He was the child you cried about at night. I was the one you did not want. All I wanted was the love and praise you promised me!”
The Pharaoh Queen opened her mouth to speak, but Zosar stood, pulling their attention back to him. The cracks in his skin deepened as he threw another ball of fire at them.