Chapter 8 The Many #2
His short curls were accented by the headband he wore with bright blue lotus flowers and matching blue ribbons that dangled from it.
He was dressed in his complimenting dancer blue as well, the vibrant but sheer fabric leaving little to the imagination with the visible lines of his body beneath it.
His sleeves, the one difference from my own ensemble besides our colors and what the gods had added, made him lovelier still.
Dusk to my dawn…
Next to him was Osiris. The wrappings covering the entirety of his green-tinted body were enough to confirm that.
Like all the gods, he was handsome, just more ethereal than some of the others, shimmering as if he were a phantom, having known death and resurrection and then choosing to serve all others who had died to better their transition and help them move on.
But I did not want Meryt to move on from me.
Not now. Not ever.
Meryt’s face had never looked more entrancing to me, staring at me with the same wonder and longing that I knew must be in my expression too. Yet we both stood frozen, terrified that if we dared touch we might be torn apart again.
“M-my lord…” I asked Osiris, though I kept my eyes on Meryt for fear of him vanishing, “…are we able to… may I please…?”
“You may go to each other,” Osiris answered, and it was like a footrace being signaled to start. I couldn’t have said which one of us sprang forward first or who moved faster. All that mattered was our collision, and how desperately we clung when our arms wrapped around each other.
I dug my hands up into the coils of Meryt’s hair and felt the strength of him as he held my waist. As eagerly as we embraced, our mouths moved even more feverishly when they met. I wanted to devour every part of him, tongue first, to consume him, all of him, so we could never be parted again.
I didn’t realize I was crying until I tasted the salt of my tears. Although perhaps they were also Meryt’s, for his face was just as damp when we let our lips and tongues rest and merely gazed upon each other while tightly entangled.
“It’s you,” I said, silly and obvious though the statement was. “It’s really you. You’re here.”
“As are you.” Meryt tilted his head to press our foreheads together. “And you have given me quite the performances to enjoy throughout this journey. I guess it isn’t always me who has the better stamina between us.”
I laughed at the teasing reminder of our final night together. “Well, I wouldn’t have wanted to disappoint.”
Meryt laughed too, and I hugged him closer, pressing our cheeks together now and relishing in his warmth, more so since I knew his body in the mortal realm must be cold and still.
“I won’t lie and act as though what they offered me was never tempting, but none of it could ever compare to this. To you.”
What had been amusement and joy between us quickly returned to sobbing. I didn’t want to let him go, but I knew that, eventually, I had to, although I still kept a hold of his hands when I coaxed him out in front of me.
Looking at him was just as healing as any gifts bestowed on me by the gods, and the tears in his eyes only made their black pools more lovely.
“The gods tempted you, did they?” Meryt asked. “With what?”
“You didn’t see that part?”
Meryt’s nose scrunched in the most adorable expression of thought. “If I did, it didn’t stay with me.”
“I'll tell you if you truly want to know, but it doesn’t matter. I refused it all and kept my sights on you.” I lifted Meryt’s hands and kissed the backs of each of them, pausing on the second, his left, which bore the twin of my own braided leather ring.
“I was the one who stole your figs when we were boys,” I blurted.
Meryt laughed. “And then stole Ramose’s later to give me his, pretending they were yours. I know that. Did you really think I didn’t?”
Oh, I loved him, so much so that I could hardly contain myself. “But wait.” My mirth was short-lived. “Thoth said I had one trial left.”
“Yes, Osiris said the same.” Meryt turned to the patiently waiting god. “Another challenge?”
“Yes,” Osiris confirmed, his expression neutral but not unkind. “But as I had a reunion with my beloved, so too do you deserve yours.”
Osiris moved to a long table against the wall that was currently empty and slowly began to rid himself of his adornments, starting with his customary conical-shaped crown with red and teal ostrich feathers on either side of it.
His head was shaved beneath, and while he was green-skinned, similar to Ptah, rather than accented with lines like the movement of landscapes and seas, Osiris’s green had undertones of black and gold, like polished metal.
He removed the bangles from his wrists, as well as his false beard, which came free the same as Ptah’s too, leaving a small bronze stripe.
His body was loosely covered in mummification wrappings, like what I remembered fearing of the walking dead should one rise from the crypts, yet the linen looked fresh and clean, pure white like the sheets on the bed, as if only just applied to him.
Over the wrappings across his chest was a gold, red, and teal collar, which he also removed, leaving only his white loincloth with its beaded belt. The front piece fell to knee-length with cords of red knotted among the folds of fabric, like a mimic of spilled blood.
When he faced us again, I finally noticed the whites of his eyes, for the entirety of them were white, irises and all, so bright that they almost glowed, as if he might be blind, yet there was no mistaking how piercingly he looked at us.
“Are we… to perform for you, my lord?” Meryt asked.
I had been wondering the same for why else would we be allowed to be together? “You, Osiris,” I said, “who has perhaps the greatest love story ever told, succeeded, or rather, your wife did, where I hope to.”
“Yes, and to put back together what is dead and broken is no simple task.” Osiris moved toward us as fluidly as he spoke. “But to answer your question, it is I who must ask: how would you proceed with the god of the underworld as your audience?”
Was this my trial? Was how we chose to interact with Osiris how he judged me?
“Nakht?” Meryt prompted, and I returned my attention to the wondrous sight of him.
I had yet to release his hands and brought the left, his ring specifically, back to my lips to kiss it again. “One of my secrets laid bare while I was with Thoth is that I sometimes hate seeing you with others. Only sometimes.”
Meryt chuckled. “That isn’t much of a secret.”
“Other times, I love it.”
“That isn’t a secret either. But I think you love it most when you are part of the performance, and when you can be certain our third is there for pleasure alone, at no risk of tempting either of us from the other.”
“Yes. You know me so well.”
Osiris spoke with the same calming patience. “Pleasure from the shared enjoyment of others is also appreciated by my wife, for she knows my heart is always hers, as you are… each other’s?”
“Of course,” I nearly snapped, for there should never be any doubt, not from Meryt or the gods.
“Always,” Meryt agreed.
“Then as I said…” Osiris nodded from us to the bed. “What we do from here is up to you.”
My first thought was that it seemed wrong to exclude Osiris when the other gods had all known me, but it also seemed wrong for me to decide when Meryt was finally here with me.
“You choose,” I told him. “I would not deny you the chance to join me in the godly ecstasies I have known, and whatever your desires, I will follow where you lead me.”
I could tell in the mischievous glance Meryt offered the wrapped god that he too did not want to exclude Osiris, whose love story he adored.
“In that case, my love,” he said, pulling his right hand from my grasp to cup my cheek, “as we move forward, tell me, as you never could when we danced or gave ourselves to Pharaoh and his men, whenever a moment passes that you hate rather than enjoy. We will only share love and seal whatever comes next for us in that truth.”
“Command me then.” I nuzzled into his touch. “Dusk to my dawn.”
“Gladly, dawn to my dusk.” Meryt leaned into me to kiss me once more, reassuring me with that press of lips, but when I tried to push the kiss deeper, he pulled away and grinned, leaving me hanging on a tease.
He kept hold of my gaze as he sauntered toward Osiris, who seemed intrigued, awaiting what we offered.
“Watch,” Meryt said, “not as you would before, wary of upsetting our audience, but like Pharaoh would, believing all I am is yours and fearing no reprisal for making that known.
“My lord?” He turned to face Osiris. “Can there be music?”
Osiris snapped his fingers, and from the very walls came the lively yet sensuous melody and percussion of an unseen band of players.
With tears drying and eyes heavy lidded, Meryt sank his body into the sound like I had seen so many times before, giving himself fully to the music.
He twirled, arms arching above his head and hips swaying, making one wonder whether more of him might be revealed should the fabric of his loincloth swish too far.
It was entrancing, for he danced as if already in the throes of passion, making it clear what his body was capable of and practically demanding for its offer to be accepted.
Take me, it said. I am yours to be claimed.
I started to move too, however subtly in wait for Meryt to command that I join him.
Ever since childhood, I might have been the more limber one between us, but he was the captivating one, destined to surpass me no matter how many times I outdid him. He was the better dancer, and he lured in all who watched him to salivate for more.
Hips moving in a mime of rhythmic thrusting, Meryt dropped backward, spine arching to bring his head toward the floor. When he rolled upright, he swiveled his hips in a circle, stomach muscles taut with sweat already dripping down between their grooves.