Chapter 16 #3
Femi directed Rae to the gardener’s entrance at the back of the king’s pleasure garden. From there, they were able to make their way down to the riverbank. Rae stood by while Femi drank his fill and washed the dirt and blood from his body. Thankfully, his wound had finally stopped bleeding.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked as he climbed out of the water. He’d stolen the khopesh and belt from the guard before they left, but other than that, Femi had nothing.
He slipped into the clean tunic she’d found for him in a laundry basket, then wrapped the leather belt around his narrow waist and cinched it tight.
“I have friends in the city I can trust,” Femi said, taking the khopesh from her proffered hand. He sliced it through the air several times, testing its weight, before thrusting it into his belt with satisfaction. With a blade at his hip, Rae could see Femi’s strength returning.
“This person you are protecting,” Rae asked, hoping to pry more information from Femi before they went their separate ways. “She opposes the king?”
Femi looked at her sharply. He hadn’t said it was a woman.
I’m going to need to give him more if I expect him to trust me.
Rae added, “If Sitamun opposes her brother, then she and I are in accord. As are many others, both in Thonis and beyond.”
The guard searched her face for a long moment, considering her words. Finally, he said, “You’re a spy.”
Rae didn’t confirm nor deny it. She waited to see what he would say next.
“You play a dangerous game, Raetawy.”
Rae shrugged. “You risked your life to protect the princess. I risk mine for someone equally precious.”
“I see,” Femi said. “And I imagine you’d like something in return for saving my life? Something to aid you in your mission?”
“King Meryamun intends to sacrifice a number of political prisoners during a mass cursing ritual at the Thonis fortress in several days’ time.
This is dark magic. It will set all of Khetara down a path from which I fear there may be no return.
I mean to free those prisoners before the ritual comes to pass. ”
Femi scoffed. “Then you mean to do the impossible.”
“I got you out, didn’t I?”
“I am but one man—and we barely escaped with our lives! Besides, the guards will redouble their number once they’ve discovered I’m gone. The prisoners you speak of, are they soldiers?”
Rae thought of the men and women huddled in that dark room, frightened and starving. She shook her head. “No, they’re regular people. Farmers, merchants and the like.”
“Then you would be lucky to visit them again, no less engineer their escape. I’m sorry, Raetawy, but that is the truth.
Better to make your stand at the fortress, though that too is a suicide mission.
” He rubbed the hilt of the khopesh with one hand.
“Still, I respect the choice to die for such a cause. Perhaps if you can disrupt this ritual, Meryamun will fail to gain the power he seeks—at least temporarily.”
Frustrated, Rae began to pace. “Tell me about this fortress. Does it have any special attributes? Any vulnerabilities?”
Femi rubbed the back of his neck, thinking. “There is one thing…”
They spoke a bit more, Rae committing every detail to memory, before they both sensed they could tarry no longer.
“You should find shelter before first light,” she told Femi. “I must go. There’s something I need to do before returning to the palace.”
“You mean to return?” Femi asked, incredulous.
“Of course.” She’d already decided to wait until the servants began the kitchen work at dawn and slip in among them. Tam would vouch for her rising early to complete her duties in case anyone asked after her, not that they would. The maidservants were all but invisible.
Femi bowed his head. “You are a brave woman, Raetawy. May Amun be with you in the coming days.”
“And Ra with you,” Rae replied.
Femi looked at her askance as the full understanding of her allegiance became clear to him. “Why did you save me not knowing if I’d have done the same for you?” he asked quietly.
Rae shrugged. “Because I’m a fool.”
Femi smiled. “A fool I won’t soon forget.”
With that, he turned and ran out of sight.
Sighing, Rae smoothed back her hair and hurried down the riverbank. Moonlight glimmered on the rippling surface of the Iteru. The night air was heavy with jasmine, which bloomed along the river like constellations of stars.
After a few minutes, Rae ducked into a dense thicket of papyrus and pushed her way through, the ground growing marshy beneath her feet.
She was almost to the other side when an arm like a tree trunk burst through the reeds, grabbed hold of her tunic, and yanked her out into the open.
An enormous man loomed over her, his fist pulled back, ready to strike.
“It’s me!” she exclaimed, raising her hands in surrender. “It’s Raetawy!”
Omari dropped his fist. “It’s late,” he said by way of greeting, and released his grip on her tunic. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
Rae peered around him at Kay and Buto, who slept huddled under blankets near the smoldering remains of a campfire.
The fishing skiff was tied up nearby, bobbing gently in the water.
It must be Omari’s turn to keep watch. She glanced at him uncertainly, surprised that she hadn’t received a warmer welcome.
“You must really miss me,” she said. “You look terrible.”
Rae thought the jab might wrest a smile from her old friend, but Omari only grimaced. “I hope you come with good news. If I have to piss away another day sitting here doing nothing, I swear I’ll go mad.”
“I have news, but I’m afraid very little of it is good.
” For the next few minutes, Rae told Omari everything that she and Tam had learned about the king’s political plans, the location of the Sakeshi prisoners, and the threat of their imminent demise at the cursing ritual.
She repeated what she’d discussed with Femi, though she neglected to mention its source.
Somehow, Rae imagined that Omari wouldn’t be pleased to know she’d helped a High Khetaran guard escape from the palace, no matter what information the act had won her.
“There must be something more we can do besides wait until the final hour,” Rae said when she’d finished. “But I can’t think how to improve our situation.”
Omari looked west across the river before answering. “What we need is leverage. Something to stay the king’s hand.”
“Like what?”
“Tell me more about this priestess you look after,” he said. “You said the king is quite taken with her?”
Rae hesitated, uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation. “Yes, she’s one of Meryamun’s closest advisers. From what Tam told me, she had a premonition that saved his life and has been at his side ever since.” She paused. “But she’s just a girl, Omari. Barely more than a child. We can’t—”
“Do you want your father back or not?” Omari retorted.
Rae felt a flush of indignation. “Of course I do! What kind of question is that?”
Omari scoffed. “The kind you must ask yourself when you decide what you can or can’t do in order to stop these High Khetaran scum from slaughtering us where we stand.
Or have you forgotten, during your cozy respite in the palace, why we came here?
Have you gotten too comfortable eating their good food, sleeping on their plush beds? ”
“No!”
“Then for the love of Ra, do what needs to be done!” He stepped so close that she could smell the beer on his breath. “This is no time to be squeamish. This is war.”
Rae stared at him, unnerved by her friend’s uncharacteristic aggression. Was prolonged inaction putting him on edge? “What’s wrong with you, Omari?” she asked.
“Me? I’m thinking clearly. It’s you who has your head in the sand. This Nefermaat could be the very thing we need to turn the tide. Can’t you see that?”
“It’s not that simple,” Rae argued. “There’s a chance that she and the prince might be plotting against the king as well. If she’s on our side—”
Omari barked a laugh. “On our side? Now I know you’ve been in the palace too long. Do you seriously believe she would go against the very man who placed her at the seat of power? Who showered her with luxuries? She’s manipulating you, Rae. That’s what High Khetarans do.”
Rae spun the gold bead on her swivel ring.
Her mind turned to the friendly young girl who’d spared her from the guard’s blade in the courtyard, who’d shared her breakfast that day in her chambers.
Except now, Rae began to see those events in a different light.
What if Nefermaat’s actions hadn’t been kind, but calculated?
What if her vision had revealed Rae’s true identity, and the priestess really had been deceiving her from the start?
Perhaps Rae had underestimated her.
When she put her feelings aside, she could see that Nefermaat was indeed the perfect target.
The priestess was their best chance at shifting power in their direction, and Rae had easy access to her.
Even if using Nefermaat as leverage forced the king to merely delay the cursing ritual, it would give them the opportunity to alert the rest of the rebels back in Sakesh and the time to transport more of their number to Thonis.
It was a good plan, and as their leader, Rae should have been the first to think of it. She felt a sting of shame. She glanced at Omari. He was watching her, waiting for her answer.
“You’re right,” she said. “The girl is no innocent. Every day she works to serve and protect the king, which increases his power.”
“She is an accomplice to the murder of our people,” Omari said. “Whatever comes to her, she deserves.”
Rae repeated the words in her mind, knowing she’d need to come back to them later, when the time came to do the difficult thing. Whatever comes to her, she deserves.
Grimly, she said, “We need to plan—and quickly. I must return before dawn.”
Omari took a step back, his tension falling away. “I knew you’d see sense, Ay,” he said approvingly. “This is going to work, you’ll see. You wanted to send a message to Pharaoh, to bring the fight for Low Khetara to his doorstep. This is how we do it. This is how we start.”
Her heart thus hardened, Rae agreed. “Let’s begin.”