Priestess of the Nile (2 page)

“He was amiable, pleasing to look at and well-spoken. Educated. I didn’t dislike him.” She shrugged and bit her lip. “It would have been the answer to my prayers to have my own household, maybe children someday—” She broke off. He thought tears glistened in her eyes. She laid her head on her knees, facing away from him again, watching night hunting birds swoop over the river to catch insects. “The truth is I have no dowry.”

“Your father is village scribe and there is no dowry?”
How can someone in such a responsible position allow his daughter to be at such a disadvantage?
“Does he drink his fees away? Or gamble?”

“No, he’s a good man.” She sounded weary, halfhearted, as if she had defended him before but had a hard time believing her own words. “The dowries are for my stepsisters. It was decided I’ll stay in the household and help my stepmother, look after them both when they are elderly.” She raised her head, forced a game smile to her lips and looked at him. “My father is a mild person and my stepmother is quite forceful about how things are to be done, despite her delicate health. I’m well past the customary age for marriage in my village.” She shook out the shawl, tucked away the remaining dinner in the hampers. “I must go. Fortunately there’s enough moonlight for me to see the way home over the dunes.”

He rose as well, dusting the sand off his kilt. Glinting in the moonlight, a silver coin lay in his palm. “I would pay you for the concert.”

She shook her head, pushing his hand away. “I sing for the joy of it and to honor the Crocodile God. I’m glad it pleased you but I can’t take payment. Tithe it at the next active temple of the Crocodile God you see, on my behalf.” She grabbed the fish creel by the handle, straining at the weight. “I’ve enjoyed our conversation, sir. May the Great Ones grant you a safe journey.”

“And to you, Merys.”

He watched her walk away, trudging across the dunes.

Merys paused at the top of the bluff and set the heavy basket on the ground. Her shoulders ached already and the walk to her village was a good half hour. Glancing over her shoulder she realized Bek remained on the beach below, watching her. He lifted a hand in farewell and moved away in the other direction.

I must have been touched by the sun, to be so free and easy with a total stranger.
Merys rubbed her forehead and sighed. She hefted the two baskets into the air and resumed her walk inland.
I was so frightened when I first saw him standing on the beach! But he was kind, like an old friend, well met again. Imagine, he has seen Pharaoh, been to Thebes and other great cities.
She considered, shook her head and missed a step.
Bek can’t be some ordinary merchant. His kilt was the finest linen, intricately pleated. And those golden arm bands—even the village headman, richest man in the village, doesn’t own jewelry so fine.

I’m glad Bek appreciated my songs.
Merys smiled, feeling her cheeks heat with a blush.
It was so pleasant to have a man’s company all to myself, to hear the compliments, flirt a tiny bit.

She let her burden sag to the ground again, rubbed her hands on her skirt, then resumed her burden with a sigh. She had calluses from all her hard work, but tonight the weight seemed extra punishing. The woven handle dug into her palm and fingers.
I made the best of it I could for Bek’s ears. It is too shaming to admit—even to a stranger—that I, a daughter of the house, am treated as their servant.

Wouldn’t those silly, spoiled girls be green with envy if they had seen me sitting with Bek?
Merys chuckled.
All those muscles
.
His chest was rippled with them, his abdomen chiseled. He outshines the captain of the guard, who trains all the time. Bek moves like a man who has known combat. Definitely not a scribe.

And such a handsome face.
Merys stopped on the path, closed her eyes and recalled a picture of Bek smiling at her as she sang.
His eyes are most unusual, a pale green, nearly golden. No man in our village has such eyes. And his smile made my knees week. Odd he wore no wig, if he is so well to do, but I liked the way his hair hung straight to his shoulders.

The outer wall of the village was now in sight, glazed bricks glinting in the moonlight. She walked a bit faster. Despite Merys’s brave words to Bek, she knew her stepmother would be upset if she didn’t arrive before midnight.
The woman has a shriek like a hyena.
And the guards on duty at the gates would make ribald comments to her as she walked.
At least Captain Sentef made them more respectful toward me, even if he didn’t propose. But they persist in whistling and making mock invitations no girl of good family should have to hear.
Merys squared her shoulders in annoyance.
If I were the acknowledged priestess of an active temple, such men wouldn’t presume to address me at all.

Setting the impossibly heavy baskets on the ground one more time, putting her hands on her hips, Merys stretched to relieve the cramping muscles. She looked over her shoulder in the direction she had come.
I wonder if I’ll ever see him again.
Merys tipped her head to the sky, as if asking the moon goddess to provide an answer.
Oh, girl, you are too foolish. Your Crocodile God sends you a handsome man with whom to while away a few hours, which has never happened before,
ever,
yet you are greedy for more
.

Gritting her teeth, she yanked the load off the ground and walked faster, suddenly eager to get home and fall into her bed.
Maybe I can dream of Bek.
She vented a wistful sigh.

Getting past the guards was less of an ordeal tonight than usual.
Perhaps they were too tired to prolong the sport of teasing me.
Merys made good time through the streets to her father’s house on the eastern edge of town. As she walked closer, a small shadow detached itself from the darkness beside the gates.

The lurker whispered her name in a hoarse voice. “Merys?”

She put a hand to her chest, heart pounding with adrenaline. “Tyema, silly girl, what are you doing out here so late?” Merys dropped the creel and caught up her half sister.

“Waiting for you, of course.” Circling Merys’s neck with chubby arms, the small child gave her a hug. “I was so worried. The big girls made jokes that you’d finally been eaten by a crocodile. And Mother said she hoped you were. She didn’t mean it, did she? Not really?”

Merys hugged her back, holding the embrace for so long, Tyema wriggled a bit. Putting the girl on the floor, Merys strove to be reassuring. “No, I’m sure she wasn’t serious, sweetheart. Help me carry the fish?”

Tyema bent and added her mite of strength to the task. “Well, better not let them hear you coming in. Mother wanted to beat you.”

“I’m sure by tomorrow when she’s eating the fat fish I caught, she will have forgotten all about how mad she was today.” Merys got them through the gate and walked quietly toward the kitchen area at the rear of the house, Tyema limping along beside her. “Is your leg bad tonight?”

“Uh-huh.” Tyema nodded, her face twisted in a grimace of pain. “Will you rub some lotion on it for me?”

“Of course. Why didn’t you ask your mother to do it?” Merys maneuvered the big basket through the doorway of the kitchen and set her burden on the floor with a sigh of relief.

Tyema’s hand crept into hers. “Mother said my leg is repulsive. She doesn’t want to touch it.” Tyema paused and took a deep breath. “I’m not repulsive, am I?”

Good thing I wasn’t here when that fat cow called her own child repulsive. I might actually have slapped her this time.
Aching shoulder muscles notwithstanding, Merys lifted her young half sister and carried her down the hall. “Of course you’re not ugly. The gods made you this way for a purpose. We just don’t know their intent yet.”

Tyema yawned and snuggled into Merys’s arms. “Yes. I’ll show them all someday, even Mother.”

Merys kissed the top of her head. “Someday we both will.”

Bek made a new habit of stopping at the abandoned temple on the Nile whenever he could, timing his arrival to the hour before sunset. Not surprisingly he often found Merys there. She sang for him, all the beautiful old songs no one else knew and few appreciated in her village. Wine and fruit to supplement her frugal dinner rations were the only form of payment he was allowed to make. Their dinners lasted till well after sunset. Occasionally Bek had a twinge of conscience as Merys would leave their beach, hiking the trail home, but he consoled himself that there was no other motive on his part than companionship.
What harm could there be in whiling away some hours with good company and song? We are merely acquaintances with a shared enjoyment of music and old tales. Aren’t we?
He told her about the great cities of Egypt and stories of the gods. She shared the events of her daily life with him, talking in particular about her youngest half sister, Tyema, who Merys obviously loved like her own daughter.

“Why do you care so much for the girl?” he inquired after one story about the new puppy Tyema had been given and its predictable but amusing misdeeds in the household.

The smile on Merys’s face slipped and she grew serious, eyes downcast. She toyed with the fringe at the edge of her skirt. “I’m never going to have my own child.”

The answer shocked him. She sounded so resigned, so hopeless. He drew in a breath.

Words tumbled from Merys’s lips as she went on trying to convince herself that her love for the little half sister would be enough. “Tyema is so smart, so sweet. My stepmother dislikes her because she was born with a deformed leg and foot. There’ll be no dowry for her either, I fear. If I were going to teach the lore of the temple to anyone, it would be her.” Merys studied him. “I would love for you meet her someday, Bek. You tell the best stories, especially about the gods. But, of course, I have no way to know when your travels will bring you here so I can’t plan ahead…”

Bek paused in the act of drinking wine, realizing she watched him closely, jaw set, a frown on her lovely features. He lowered the wineskin with a stir of foreboding in his heart. “What?”

She blew out a breath and shook her head. “You aren’t a merchant, are you?”

“I never said I was.” He took his drink and wiped his lips. “Merchant was your guess and I…didn’t correct it.”

Merys nodded as if expecting an answer along those lines. She rubbed her hands on her thighs and sat straighter. “What
is
your profession? Why do you sail the Nile?”

Ah, I have been expecting this line of questioning for a while.
“I’m a courier, of sorts. And I perform any tasks that my ruler sets me.”

“You work for Pharaoh?” Her mouth made a little O of surprise and her expressive brown eyes opened wide.

“In a manner of speaking.” He laid his fingers on her soft lips. “But you must not speak of me to anyone.”

“I don’t. People wouldn’t understand we are only friends. My village is full of busybodies.” Perhaps remembering some recent gossip, she pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes.

He set the wineskin between them, unsettled by her mood. He was a little resentful, slightly angry. After all, these evenings were for his amusement. Weren’t they? “You seem sad tonight, Merys.”

She lifted the wineskin to her nose, sniffed it and took a more generous swallow than her usual drink, then slapped the stopper closed. “Well, my oldest half sister has recently become betrothed…to the captain of the guard.”

“Oh.” Bek tried to think the issue through.
Attempting to understand the emotions of another person has not mattered before, nor have I cared to try, truthfully, but when it comes to Merys I want to venture beyond my own limits.
“To have your suitor choose another must hurt.”

“I told you before I didn’t feel anything special for him. But I
did
wish to have my own house and a family. Obviously, he didn’t love me, because if he had, my lack of a dowry wouldn’t have stood in our way.” She looked Bek straight in the eyes, her manner warm, intense. “There is no man in my
village
I have feelings for.”

His gut clenched. With a worldlier woman, he would act on the invitation in her eyes, distract both of them from her troubles with a few hours of physical pleasure. Pulsing with the twinges of arousal, his cock twitched.
Perhaps I can offer some comfort at least, without taking things too far.
Reaching out, he gathered her close, inhaling her scent as he hugged her. She was a sweet armful, all soft curves and smooth skin, every inch of her body desirable and arousing. Bek cleared his throat, swallowed hard. “I’m sure there will be someone else for you, someone who will value you properly, dowry or not.”

Face upturned to his, Merys leaned closer, her lips parted on a sigh. “Bek?”

Taking a deep breath, Bek concentrated on blocking his intense response.
Sweet Merys is out of bounds for someone like me
.
Now I’m going to have to hurt her. How did I allow matters between us to come to this unfortunate place?
In precarious control of his physical reaction to her, Bek patted her shoulder, disengaged himself and stood hastily. “Well, I can see you wouldn’t be in the mood to sing tonight. I must be going, in any case.”

She scrambled to her feet, holding out a hand to him. “Will I see you again?”

“Perhaps. I don’t know when my journeys will bring me to this beach again.” Ignoring her outstretched hand and the stricken expression on her face, Bek bowed to her and walked away. His hearing, more keen than most, brought him the sound of her muffled sobs as he climbed toward the temple ruins.
There’s no going back. I can’t offer what she wants—a husband, a home, children—and I won’t abuse her trust by taking liberties, no matter what I desire.

Pausing on the bluffs, Bek contemplated the dark surface of the Nile and sighed. He kicked a pebble off the edge of the cliff and listened to it bouncing and crashing below.
I’ll just stay away from this beach from now on. I have indulged myself too much already, especially if she thinks herself in love with me
.

Acid rose in his throat at the thought and he swallowed hard. Something precious had been ruined.

I let things go too far.

From her spot on the beach below, Merys watched Bek until he walked away from the cliff’s edge and moved out of sight. Then she too left the sand, trudging despondently along the pathway to her village. The taunts and comments of the guards at the gate passed over her head. She was too distracted to heed them tonight.

Tyema wasn’t waiting at the entrance to the house since Merys was returning home relatively early. Avoiding everyone else, Merys climbed the outside stairs to the small shabby room she shared with her young sister and found the girl in their bed, playing with her puppy.

“Why are you home so soon tonight? Didn’t your friend come to see you?” Tyema asked, giving Merys a hug. Looking more closely at her half sister, Tyema frowned. “Are you crying?”

“Maybe a little.” Merys wiped her face off with the edge of her skirt and reached out to pat the puppy. “Remember you aren’t supposed to talk about my friend, because I’ll get in trouble, serious trouble, if Mother ever finds out I was meeting someone secretly.”

Steepling her pudgy hands, Tyema scrambled to her knees and bowed to Merys with heartfelt solemnity. “I swear, I remember. But wasn’t he there tonight?”

“He—he couldn’t stay. We only had a brief chat. I don’t think I’ll be seeing him again.” Merys flopped onto the mattress, hiding her face with her arm.

Tyema scrambled closer and wriggled her way under Merys’s arm, cozying up to her side. “Did you have a fight?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, sweetheart.”

“I’ll pray to the Crocodile God that you see your friend again. I’ll use the prayer you taught me. Maybe I should pray right now?” Tyema’s voice rose with excitement and her eyes got very big.

Merys tousled her hair and laid her hand gently over the little girl’s lips. “Shh, silly goose, don’t wake the household with my problem. Go to sleep and have sweet dreams and I’ll try to do the same.”

Bek’s resolve to forget Merys lasted for a month, through the Nile’s season of floods, and was reinforced by a very unpleasant encounter with Isis, Queen of the Great Ones. One afternoon he was working his magic to clear away a large sand dune threatening to shift and block a tributary of the Nile. Suddenly the brilliant sun warming his back dimmed. Breaking off the small tune he hummed as he worked, Sobek shaded his eyes and stared up at the sun. Clouds had come from nowhere, obscuring the light. The blue sky faded, became more and more gray. He watched with mouth open and a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Majestic shafts of pearly luminescence radiated down from the sun’s hiding place behind the cloud bank, terminating on the riverbank directly across from him. One minute the light was shining on sand and scrub brush and the next minute the queen stood there, tall, silent, swathed in her customary black sheath.

He went to his knees in the river, hands crossed over his chest, head bowed. “I did not expect to encounter you here, my lady.”

“What a surprise to find you working.” Scorn burned in her voice. “You have been absent from your duties to my river quite often of late.”

What can I say to that? It’s true. I allowed my fascination with Merys to pull me away from my tasks far too often.
Sobek stayed silent, gritting his teeth.

“The Nile floods, which are life-giving to the humans we watch over, were compromised by your dereliction of duty. Extra work was required from me and several others to ensure that the kingdom doesn’t suffer famine as a direct result of your negligence.” In the blink of an eye Isis stood next to him, a dry hillock of sand rising to provide her a platform above the water.

“I didn’t mean for such a tragedy to occur. I’m sorry.” He squared his shoulders and looked her in the eye. “It won’t happen again.”

“Have you no explanation to offer?” Frowning, Isis raised her eyebrows. “I am willing to listen. I owe you that for all your centuries of faithful service. Surely something very…
important
must have prevented you from carrying out your critical assignment here on my river?”

Bek feared this new tone in Isis’s voice. It sounded almost like a challenge to confess.

Clearly she suspects something. I am grateful she cannot watch my every movement up and down the Nile. I don’t dare tell her about Merys. Isis has no tolerance for improper involvement with humans.
Sobek shook his head.
 
“I have no excuse, my Queen.”

“You must be punished, then, as a reminder not to stray from duty.” Isis raised her hands to the sky. Rumbling like thunder, her voice echoed off the water and the river banks.

“I call for the cold from the outer darkness. Blanket my erring warrior with your crystalline embrace.”

Apprehensive, Sobek watched as sparkling, fluffy white flakes fell from the sky around him. He reached out to catch one on his hand, marveling as it turned into a tiny drop of water. In the next moment, the novelty of such beauty gave way to unease, then panic as the substance fell faster, more thickly. Icy whiteness coated him, piled deep and immovable around him, and burning cold ran through his limbs. Driven to his knees, he collapsed and sprawled onto the sand. Missing beats, his heart slowed. Congealing, his blood flowed sluggishly in his veins. His arms and legs felt like blocks of granite. The beautiful but deadly blanket buried him until he could hardly think, until his muscles ached.

I can’t tolerate much more of this cold.
Shivering violently, going on instinct, he tried to move, to shove the white flakes aside, to crawl to a warmer patch of sand,
anything.
He lay helpless under the glistening shroud, his breath a mere puff, his vision gone to black.
Merys, Merys, Merys,
whispered a little voice inside his mind, the only lucid thought remaining to him.

Isis clapped her hands and the clouds blew away in an instant. The sun’s rays stabbed down, focused on Sobek’s body. As the searing heat poured over him, he felt the life returning to his limbs inch by inch and his thoughts became coherent again. Water cascaded off his body and ran into the Nile. The queen knelt beside him, hand on his shoulder, staring into his eyes. “You won’t forsake your tasks again, will you?”

“No, no, my lady.” He forced the words out past lips that were numb from cold.

“If the Nile fails to inundate their fields when the appointed time comes, if
I
fail, then the humans will all perish.”

“I know this. I won’t fail you again.”

“See that you don’t.” Isis shook her finger in his face. “Whatever
distractions
you have been indulging in must not interfere with your role. If there ever is a next time, I will not have mercy. Do not test me on this.” Isis stood and vanished.

With great effort, Sobek rolled over onto his back slowly and lay baking in the sun, regaining his strength and thinking bleak thoughts.

Eventually in the course of his duties he found himself in the area of Merys’s village. Temptation tore at him.
I could watch her from the temple, listen to her song and not let her know I’m there.
Pleased with that idea, he nodded and redirected his journey to the old temple.

As he walked out onto the cliff overlooking the beach, he did indeed hear her pure voice raised in a lilting melody. Many long weeks had passed since he had enjoyed the pleasure of hearing her sing. She stood in water to her knees. The rush of contentment that came over Bek at the mere sight of Merys amazed him and he paused on the trail, his jangled nerves soothed.

The sweet high note Merys held came to an end as she put a hand to her throat, then bent over the tiny waves. She searched along the riverbed, no longer focused on her song.

A movement to the right caught his eye.
What is the name of Set’s horns is that crocodile in the shallows doing? Is it actually swimming to attack her?
Enraged, Bek threw himself down the trail at a breakneck speed.