Chapter Nine: The Plagues
Nefthi was gathering water from the Queen's Lagoon, when suddenly the water began to bubble around her. From it, millions of frogs emerged, hopping up the steps after her.
"By the Gods! Help me! Someone, please help me! It's a curse!" she screamed as the ran through the palace, the frogs at her heels.
"Silly girl, there are no such thing as curses," Seth mumbled as he took a sip from his cup of wine. He spat it out as millions of insects crawled from his cup and the food on the low table next to him.
"My King, we just received word that cattle and sheep are dying by the thousands. No one knows what is causing this sickness, my King," a scribe panted as he ran past the guards and up the dais, handing Malik a papyrus sheet from his satchel. Malik snatched the papyrus sheet from the scribe, and after scanning it, crumpled it angrily in his hand.
The attention of everyone in the palace was drawn to the balcony, as a faint buzzing grew louder and louder. "Do you hear that?" a guard whispered. Suddenly swarm after swarm of insects flooded into the Audience Chamber, attacking the guards and everyone else that had not run screaming for cover.
"Father, I'm frightened!" Rishid squeaked, shaking in his seat.
"Come here, I will protect you," Malik said, pulling Rishid closer and shielding him with his arms.
Outside the palace, the citizens of Thebes were in a state of panic as they ran screaming for cover. "By the Gods! It's a curse!" a woman screamed as she grabbed her child and ran.
From a hill overlooking the city, Atemu watched as chaos descended. "Once I called you brother! Once I thought the chance to make you laugh was all I ever wanted!" Atemu whispered as he stared.
From the palace, Malik ran to the balcony in time to see stars falling from the sky and thunder clapping. "Even now, I wish that God had chosen another, serving as your foe on his behalf was the last thing that I wanted!" Atemu whispered as he turned, unable to watch anymore.
Below his observation point, trees and the thatched roofs of the Egyptians had caught fire. People ran from their homes, desperate to escape the growing inferno, their prized possessions and children in tow, their screams echoing through the city.
"This was my home! all this pain and devastation, how it tortures me inside! All the innocent who suffer from your stubbornness and pride!" he spat in disgust as he walked through the city.
"Mother! I'm frightened!" a small child cried, as his mother ran and wrapped her arms around her child.
From his balcony, Malik watched with seething anger as locusts descended on the palace, and spread into the city, ruining the vital crops that the Egyptians needed for the dry season. The farmers tried in vain to swat the locusts away, but it was no use. The locusts came by the millions, leaving dead crops and devastated farmers in their wake.
That night, a sickness fell upon Egypt, causing painful blisters to appear all over the skin. "Get up, you fool!" Malik shouted, as he hauled a guard to his feet, he himself afflicted with the sickness.
He looked up, and, to his anger, saw Atemu watching, miraculously unaffected by the sickness. "Malik, all you have to do is let my people go! All of this will end! Set your anger and pride aside and do this one thing for the greater good!" Atemu whispered, his heart sinking.
Malik stormed from Atemu's view, angrily brushing the curtains to the Inner Sanctum aside to find Mahado and Seth feverishly applying ointment to the blisters on their skin.
"You fools! Get out there! Find a way to stop this nonsense!" Malik bellowed, overturning a low table. "Yes, my King!" Mahado and Seth muttered as they ran from Malik's presence.
Malik stood, a pillar of stubbornness. "You, my so-called brother! Is this what you wanted?" he shouted as fire rained down around them. "How could you have come to hate me so?"
He watched as below him, the people of Egypt ran through the streets, screaming and crying out for the Gods to save them.
"Let my heart be hardened and never mind how high the cost may grow! I will never let your people go!" he shouted, shaking his fist. "Malik, let my people go!" Atemu shouted.
"I will never let your people go!" Malik screamed, as he stormed into the palace, unable to look at Atemu any longer.
Darkness blanketed Egypt, all but the Slave Village, as once mighty statues crumbled to the ground. "By God," Atemu whispered as he approached the tattered palace.
He walked through the columned halls, pausing to place his hand on a column with a large crack in its base. Feeling his heart sink, he stopped to look up at the broken statues of his family, the family that he once loved with all his heart.
"Malik? Malik, I know you're here! You always come here to think," Atemu called as he searched for the one person he desperately needed to talk to.
"Ah, let me guess! No, wait, don't tell me! You came here to demand that I 'let your people go!' Am I right?" sneered a voice above him.
"I had hoped to find you here," Atemu said casually, clearing his throat.
"Get out of here, Atemu!" Malik shouted, throwing his cup of wine at Atemu, the cup shattering as it hit the floor.
Unwavering, Atemu stood firm. "Come on, Malik, we need to end this!" he said, stepping closer to the statue. "Malik, come on! Talk to me! You used to talk to me about anything!" Malik ignored him, his anger seething too much for him to formulate words.
Sighing, Atemu looked around. "This place, so many fond memories," he said, grinning. "I remember when you switched the heads of the Gods in the Temple of Ra…ah, never mind."
"If I remember correctly, you were there switching heads right along with me!" Malik snapped, looking down at Atemu.
"Ah, you're mistaken, I never did that," Atemu said innocently.
"Oh yes you did! You put the hippo on the crocodile and the crocodile- "
"On the falcon…ah yes, I remember now!" Atemu said, chuckling as the memory came flooding back to him.
"Yes! The priests thought it was a horrible omen and fasted for six months! Father was furious! You were always getting me into trouble!" Malik said as he hopped down from the statue's lap and stormed away.
"But then again, you were always there to get me out of trouble as well," he said, turning to face Atemu. "Atemu, why can't things go back to the way they were before?" he asked, hurt flickering across his face.
Before Atemu could answer, a small voice pierced the darkness. "Father! It's so dark, I'm afraid!" Rishid said from his corner, his torch unable to break the heavy darkness. Malik rushed over to Rishid, bundling in his arms to protect him from the darkness. "Why is he here? Isn't he the one that caused all that destruction?" he asked, glaring at Atemu as Malik bundled him in his arms.
With his back to Atemu, Malik stood. "Yes," he replied. As he turned with anger burning in his eyes, he growled, "but we have to wonder why?"
"Malik, you know why! Because no kingdom should be built on the backs of slaves. Your stubbornness is bringing this destruction to Egypt! It would all stop if only you would let the Nubians go!" Atemu snapped.
"I will not be told what to do! I will not be threatened! I am the morning and the evening star! I am Pharaoh!" Malik hissed, pointing at Atemu, anger burning in his veins.
"Something is coming, Malik! Something much worse than the destruction and devastation that happened thus far! Malik, I beg you! Let go of your pride for once before it destroys everything you love! Think of your son!" Atemu shouted, gesturing wildly at Rishid.
"I do think of Rishid, and it's for him that I make this decree: you Nubians have been nothing but a thorn in this kingdom's side," Malik said, as he stepped closer to his father's mural.
"My father had the right idea about how to deal with your people," Malik growled as he looked over his shoulder.
"Malik, no!" Atemu cried, his heart racing.
"And I think it's time I followed suit and finished the job," Malik shouted, as he whirled around, pointing at Atemu.
"Malik, no! I beg you to reconsi-"
"And there will be a great cry throughout Egypt, such as never heard before!" Malik bellowed, his voice echoing through the chamber. Atemu felt his heart sink, as Rishid stepped back, away from his father.
"Malik, you bring this upon yourself," Atemu said sadly as he shook head and left the chamber knowing full well the devastation that was about to descend.