Chapter 26 #3
“I’m not the weak, frivolous girl I once was,” Sita insisted. “If he won’t listen, then I’ll make him listen! He must act for the safety of the kingdom!”
Kenna studied her with his deep, penetrating gaze. “Yes, you have changed. I see it plainly. If anyone can get through to him, it would be you, Sitamun. For all our sakes, I hope you succeed.”
Sita said, “I can’t stay any longer, there are guards outside waiting to escort me.”
The young priestess’ lips tightened like she wanted to interject, but—seeing that she was between a prince and a princess—decided to hold her tongue.
“Know that if something goes awry, Neff and I have other plans,” Kenna said.
Sita was about to push through the curtain when Kenna’s voice stopped her again.
“Be careful.”
Sita gave a small smile and whispered, “I love you too.”
***
They came for her at sundown.
The head guard arrived at Sita’s chambers, sidestepping an attendant leaving with a basket of soiled linens.
“The king has called for you, Princess,” he said.
Sita looked up from the meal she’d just finished and nodded. Dressed once more in her usual fineries and smelling of cyprinum oil, Sita felt much like her old self again.
Too much.
She hadn’t considered what it would be like to be home, surrounded by the artifacts of who she’d been before.
She hadn’t thought how easy it would be to slip into old habits, like the rut of a well-trod but ill-fated path.
It had been simple enough to remake herself in Perset where no one knew her original form—but in the palace, she had a mold into which everyone expected her to fit.
She rose, and Nebet’s worried eyes followed her to the door.
In the hallway, they were joined by the two guards who’d been stationed in front of her rooms. As she strode toward the king’s chambers with this new entourage, Sitamun spoke.
“There’s no need to accompany me. I know the way.”
“King’s orders,” the head guard replied. There was no deference, no warmth, no standard formality of “my princess.”
It was not a good sign.
The guards stopped outside the king’s chambers, and two took up positions on either side of the door. The head guard gestured for her to enter.
Taking a deep breath, Sita pushed through the heavy curtain into a room transformed.
The last time she’d been in the pharaoh’s chambers, her father had been on his deathbed.
The room had been nearly empty, odorous, pitiable, much like Amunmose himself.
That had all changed. Mery had packed the space with luxuries—fine furniture, rugs, ornaments—until each surface was spread with fur, anointed with gold, and bedecked with every rare and beautiful thing that could be found along the Iteru.
Mery stood beside a copper bathtub in the back of the room, tearing petals from a bouquet of blue lotus blossoms and scattering them into the filled basin.
“Come in,” he said without looking up.
Sita took a few steps inside, but no more.
“Mery,” she began, not waiting for her brother to make the first move.
“There is no time to contend with what happened between us. I did not return for revenge nor forgiveness. I am here because you are king now, brother, and as pharaoh of this land you must know there is an imminent threat to Khetara. An army rides for Thonis as we speak. It is one of supernatural strength led by an equally powerful foe. His name is Setnakht, and he was once—”
“Get in the bath.”
Sita was so stunned, she didn’t know how to respond. “I’ve already washed in the basin. I don’t need a bath. Besides, you’re not listening to what I’m—”
“Get in the bath.”
Sita clenched her fists. “This isn’t a game! The kingdom is in grave danger. I swear it upon Amun himself! Do you think I would have placed myself back in your grasp if the situation wasn’t dire? Do you? Look at me!”
Mery stared at the water, fragrant and steaming.
“Look at me, Mery!”
He turned toward her. The glint in his eyes frightened her, but she pressed on.
“You’ve always known when people are lying to you. Ever since we were children. Can you not see that I’m telling the truth?”
Mery chuckled without humor. “I cannot, Sitamun, no. I thought I could see through people’s lies, no matter who they were. But I was wrong. I know that now. I allowed my affections to cloud my judgment. The lies piled up around me, putrid and rotting, yet I smelled only flowers.”
Sita’s forehead knotted in confusion. Is he talking about me or someone else?
“Frankly, dear sister,” he said, striding forward until they were only a breath apart, “it doesn’t matter if you’re telling the truth.
If this army you speak of is a ploy to deceive or distract me from your true aims, I will root you out.
And, in the unlikely event that you have come with honorable intentions, I have no fear of this threat.
“Tomorrow, I will bring such a curse upon each and every enemy of this land that none shall challenge me, lest I soak the earth with their blood. If you’d been at my coronation, you would know that I promised as much in my first address as pharaoh.
I won’t settle for merely being as great a king as Sematawy; I aim to surpass him.
And nobody—not some phantom, not even you—is going to stop me.
Now…” He paused and then added, his voice chillingly soft: “Get in the bath.”
The blood began to pound in Sita’s veins. “I’m not getting in the damned bath, Mery.”
Mery’s expression didn’t change. “Oh yes, you are.” He snapped his fingers and two of the guards reentered the room, marched straight over to Sitamun, and seized her by the arms.
Sita cried out in disbelief. “Release me at once!” She wrenched her body away from the two men. They didn’t react to her struggles. They dragged her to the bathtub, lifted her by her arms and legs, and lowered her into the water.
“Now, are you going to behave?” Mery asked.
Sita roiled with impotent fury. It was clear Mery wanted to punish her, shame her, and if she tried to fight back, he’d only make it last longer. “Yes,” she said, her lip curling.
Mery dismissed the two guards with a wave of his hand.
Sita’s white kalasiris clung to her body in the bath, making her feel heavy. The water was warm and sweet-smelling, and the room around her glinted with gold in the soft lamplight. When Mery stood over her, his handsome face was bisected by shadow.
“There you are,” he said. “Isn’t that better?”
Sita said nothing.
Mery reached out and threaded his fingers through the damp tresses of her hair. “My beautiful, sweet sister. Do you know, there wasn’t a moment that went by that I didn’t think of you while you were gone? That I didn’t long for the day that you’d stand by my side as queen?”
The blue lotus petals clung to Sita’s skin, exuding a heady, dizzying scent. “That’s never going to happen,” she said, recoiling from his touch. “It’s wrong, Mery. I’d die first.”
Mery clucked his tongue. “Those are ugly words for such a pretty mouth. Tell me, Sitamun, did you not spare a thought for your dear brother while you were away? Or were you too busy enjoying yourself with your new friend?”
Sita froze.
“Oh, yes. I know you were not alone. Not only because a girl like you couldn’t have survived beyond these walls without help, but because I can smell him on you.”
His fingers tightened in her hair.
Sita gasped in pain. She tried to call on the serpent staff, still coiled around her ear, but her mind had grown fuzzy at the edges and would not respond.
“You reek of his touch, sweet sister,” Mery snarled, dragging her up until her ear was at his lips. “And it’s going to take a long time to wash it out.” With that, he plunged her head under the water.
A wave of terror jolted Sita’s body as she screamed into the bathwater. She flailed, tearing at the hand that held her down, to no avail. Water sloshed over the edges of the tub as she thrashed, and her lungs burned hotter and hotter as they begged for air.
Just as she thought her chest would burst, Mery dragged her head above the surface.
Sita coughed up a gout of sweet-smelling water, then retched. She gasped in tortured, ragged breaths. She wanted to scream for help, but she knew the guards wouldn’t respond.
Mery watched her struggle with obvious pleasure. “Lucky for you,” he said when her breathing began to stabilize, “I can do this all night.”
And he plunged her beneath the water again.
***
Sometime later, Sita lay on the stone floor of Mery’s chambers, soaked and shivering in her thin, ruined dress.
She wanted to move, but she couldn’t. Her mind floated on a river somewhere out of reach, too afraid to return to her body.
Even in her state, though, she understood why her brother had chosen that specific punishment.
Unlike a lash, a fist, a rope, or a blade, the water would not leave a mark.
At least, not on the outside.
Dimly, she saw Mery cross the room to the door and draw the curtain aside. A demon stood on the other side, or what looked like one in the murk of midnight.
“Herihor,” Mery greeted the man with a ram’s face. “The princess has proved to be intractable, as I feared. Proceed with the plan. I’ve gathered the necessary items.” He handed over what looked like a bloodstained cloth and a lock of black hair. “You can do it tonight?”
The demon nodded and melted back into the shadows without a word.
Mery let the curtain fall and returned to where Sita lay. She stared silently at his golden sandals, the water from her body pooling beneath her.
“Tomorrow, Sitamun,” he said. “Tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow everything changes.”