The
Ruler of the damned valley
Chapter 1 – The Newcomer
It
is in the middle of the night. Near the royal palace patter of horse
hoofs is heard. Pharaoh Atem and two of his priests return from a
long ride. At once in turn busy swirling reigns at pharaoh's court.
Servants come running along, bow reverently and take the superior
treasures away, amongst them cedar wood, gold, linen and gemstones.
Whereas some bring the horses in their stables, others provide that
nothing lacks their god, but he declines the wine and the food
thankfully. Atem has more important things to do. Carefully he lifts
a stranger of his horse and passes him over to a few servants with
the order to take him into a quarter. They nod and carry him zealous
away.
Next morning the unknown young man awakes in his new
accommodation. Somebody had brought him fresh linen and had put a
little bread with cheese on the table. He dresses and looks confused
around. "Where am I?" The room is not very big and only simple
furnished. A bed, a table and a chair. As well only a little light
shines trough the small window. A black cat whirrs and asks for
attention. He picks her up, holds her in his arms and brushes her
fur. "You are pretty..., he looks at her ...May you tell me where I
am here?" The cat miaows something unclear, as if she wants to
answer the question. Before he understands what she wants, it knocks
at the door and a priest in a white garment enters. He surveys his
guest. "My name is Mahado, he bows politely without losing the eye
contact to his opponent, Who are you?"The stranger keeps quiet,
looks sleepy outside the window. "I understand that you are
exhausted, but you should answer my questions."Still no answer.
Mahado sits down and tries again to get some information. His voice
shows no sign of impatience. "Please excuse my insistent manner,
but if you do not answer, we do not treat you like a guest any
longer. Where are you from?" "What concerns this to you?! Nobody
tells me where I am here!", he yells. Mahado flinches scared away
of the angry twinkling eyes. "You are at the pharaoh's palace. We
found you unconscious in the damned desert. If you can not entrust me
your name, may I ask you what you wanted there? It is prohibited to
go there, because every normal person would die." "What do you
want from me?! And why to hell am I here?!" He has grabbed Mahados
arm, but let off him immediately when he recognizes. He stands up
headshaking. "It seems you can not talk to you...Tell me when you
calmed down." He leaves the chamber. Only a few minutes later
another priest enters. It's Seth. He's different from Mahado and
goes directly to him. "What do you think you are?! Treat a high
priest so impatient!""What invades you to lock me up in this
room?!""Great!", Seth turns outraged away. "We saved your
life and for thank we can not even speak with you! What a hillbilly
we had captured if we can not even have an appropriate conversation
with him...", he says more to himself than to the man, but even so
loud that he can hear it. He looks again at the young man. "Tell me
from where you are immediately or I am forced to use my own methods
to get some information out of you! I am not as nice as Mahado!"
"Than I call for knowing why I am here at first!"Both stand face
to face now and naughty glance at each other. They remain lasting for
several minutes like that until Seth slaps him and promotes him to
the bed with his hit. "Do not risk it to look another time at me
this way! You are only usual riff-raff which does not have deserved
to be here! And you allow yourself such brazenness! You disgust me!"
"...!""End! I do not withstand this any minute longer!"With
a loud door slam he disappears.
"Where I landed here..." He let himself fall backwards onto the soft bed. "Will they kill me if do not talk...?"A tear is rolling down his face. "But how could I speak about something I can not even remember..." His hand encloses a small necklace which hangs loosely around his neck. He mourns about something, but is not sure what it is. Than he closes his eyes.
o his palace...