Chapter 39
Neff
Neff faced the bloody tableau, her heart in turmoil. The horror of what she’d just witnessed was seared into her mind like a brand.
Rae moved to stand beside her, a strong, reassuring presence. When the rebel spoke to the group, her voice was gentle but firm. “I’m sorry, but now is not the time for mourning. The battle still rages.”
Reluctantly, Sitamun turned away from the corpses. “You’re right.” She bent to retrieve her serpent staff from where she’d discarded it on the floor. “I’m needed out there.”
“Not only you,” Karim corrected her. “All of us.”
They walked out of the throne room and through the corridor past the still unconscious guards.
Karim and Sita were hand in hand, and Rae supported Kenna with what looked like no effort at all.
No one walked with Neff, but a strange displacement in the air beside her reminded her that she did not walk alone.
“Thank you for your help,” she whispered, and hoped that Medjed heard her.
Kenna stumbled and would have fallen if not for Rae setting him back on his feet.
“How did you do it, brother?” Neff asked him. “I know you’re hardheaded, but that blow should have killed you.”
Kenna offered her a crooked smile. “A fine joke, little sister—though you should already know the answer to that question.” He pulled the Eye of Horus amulet from underneath his tunic and dangled it in front of her.
Neff squinted. A tiny square of papyrus covered in carefully written gods’ words had been fastened to the back of the amulet. “What does it say?” she asked.
“‘Hear me, O Ptah, divine craftsman!’” Kenna recited. “‘Should a heavy blow fall upon me, sculpt my head as if from stone, so that it remains whole and unbroken.’”
“A protection spell!” Neff was impressed.
“Indeed. One that is only triggered by a specific situation, as I taught you.”
“But how did you know this was going to happen?”
“When I first heard of your disappearance, I assumed your quarters would be searched, and that the Book of the Red Lady would be discovered. Mery was no fool. He would deduce I was the one who’d given it to you, which would alert him to our clandestine activities.
Knowing that, I assumed that he would conceive of a public display during which to execute me for treason.
Given the imminence of the cursing ritual, it seemed likely he’d do it there and use the same method of a blow to the head.
Therefore, a spell to magically enhance the durability of my skull was the natural choice. ”
Rae chuckled. “See, I knew you were clever.”
Kenna tilted his chin to indicate Rae’s armor. “I’m glad to see you found a vocation for which you’re better suited.”
Rae twirled the scepter in her other hand. “I suppose I have.”
As they neared the entrance, Rae’s curly-haired companion and a black dog with a white mark on its face came dashing into the citadel.
“Tam!” Rae called out. “Oh, thanks be to Ra! You’re all right.”
The dog raced up to Sita and Karim, greeting the princess first.
“After everything I’ve done for him,” Karim remarked wearily, giving the dog a pat on the rump, “Still, I manage to be second-best.”
“What’s going on out there?” Rae asked her companion.
“Many casualties on both sides, and the fighting continues. And Rae, there’s something else.” There was fear and confusion on the woman’s face.
“What do you mean?” Rae asked.
Tam wrung her hands. “You’ll have to see for yourself.”
A chill crept down Neff’s spine as she followed the others out the citadel doors. The scene in the courtyard was no less terrible than the one they’d left—bodies were scattered across the ground, and many rebels, tribesmen, and royal soldiers were still engaged in brutal warfare.
A young man ran toward them as they descended the steps, followed closely by a fierce-looking older woman with silver hair.
“Karim-sen!” the young man said, crashing into the Red Lander with enough force to nearly knock him off his feet. It was then that Neff noticed the familial similarity between them.
“Gamil, thank God,” Karim said, giving the young man a slap on the back. “You’re not hurt.”
The older woman pointed to her eye and then at Gamil. No, because I kept an eye on him, she seemed to say.
Karim touched a knuckle to his nose in thanks.
“We’re winning, sen,” Gamil said, oblivious to the exchange. “The Khetarans are few in number, and soon we will prevail!”
Rae stared out onto the battlefield and focused on a particular dead young man who lay by the trench with an arrow in his chest. “Perhaps,” she murmured thickly. “But the price was high.”
Sitamun pushed past them toward a tall man with deep brown skin, clothed in emerald green robes that must once have been exquisite. He was battered and bruised, and he held a bloodied khopesh in his hand. “By Amun—Harsi? Is that you? What are you doing here?”
The man called Harsi stopped short and stared at Sitamun, bewildered. “Your brother abducted me and has been holding me ransom, Princess. I assumed you knew that, since you appear to be on his side!”
“I’m not on his side,” Sitamun countered.
“Then where is he?”
The princess’s nostrils flared. “He’s finished. As is the queen.”
Harsi lowered his khopesh. “Finished?” He turned toward the screaming, dying men. “Then who are they fighting for?”
Neff saw something change in Sitamun’s expression. Saw resolve grow there and harden. Without another word, the princess strode past the man in green and mounted the platform. The serpent staff at her side glowed with sudden white radiance.
“Hear me!” Sitamun shouted, her voice reverberating across the courtyard. “Lay down your arms, for this battle is over!”
Weapons stilled mid-swing as every man and woman stopped and turned toward her.
Sitamun’s next words rolled over them all like a great flood.
“The king of Khetara is dead!”
There was a moment of stunned silence, followed by the dull sounds of spears and swords and hammers falling to the ground, one by one.
Neff took in the scene and realized something about it wasn’t quite right. The courtyard had been awash in afternoon sun when they’d entered the citadel. They hadn’t been inside very long, and yet the light outside was different. Darker despite there not being a single cloud in the sky.
“Something’s wrong,” Neff said.
Tam nodded as she pointed west.
A black circle was sliding in front of the sun. It had already obscured half of it, and it was advancing before their eyes. The light around them was fading rapidly, transforming day into night.
Around the courtyard, there were gasps, shrieks of terror, and confusion as people turned their faces to the heavens. Sitamun jumped down from the platform to rejoin them and grabbed Karim’s hand.
“What is it?” he exclaimed. “What’s happening?”
Neff gazed at the spectacle above her, as if she were staring into the darkness at the center of a flame. The noise around her melted away and was replaced by an insistent whispering.
“Beware, for soon the Great River of Khetara will turn to blood,” she said, adding her own voice to the chorus of whispers.
Sitamun, Rae, and Karim looked at her, their faces pale with wonder and fear.
“Lies will grow fruitful as wheat in the fields, and where once there was order, chaos will reign. A secret shall rise from beneath the earth—”
Visions of an infernal army marching toward Thonis filled Neff’s mind, stone soldiers leaving slaughter in their wake, along with a name that sounded more like a curse.
Setnakht.
“—and the Red and the White crowns will be forever broken.”
She saw the broken crown, the empty throne.
“Take heed, Thonis, Great House of Amun! Beware of what is unseen among you! Take heed, Sakesh, Great House of Ra! Beware of what burns and destroys you!”
Neff felt the power of four streams converging into a river, its inexorable current rushing toward a precipice, toward the unknown.
“Beware! Sorrow and ruin comes to the Children of the Two Lands!”