Chapter Eight – Reptiles, Restitution, Rewards and Reunions - Part 1
A/N The Historical Notes have been updated for this chapter.
Laughter rang through the garden accompanied by the sound of splashing water and the occasional squeal. The king's Steward followed the sounds and came to an open area that housed a large ornamental pool in which the two princesses and the Queen's servant Sesen were noisily frolicking. The Queen was sitting on the edge of the pool, her feet and lower legs immersed in the pool as she watched the girls play, a soft smile on her face.
Satneith couldn't help a broad smile from blooming on her own face as she watched the Royal Nurse, Segret erupt through the water's surface and splash the girls, the ebony skinned servant and the Queen, all of whom merrily splashed her back with hands and feet. She paused to enjoy the vision of Segret's beautiful body, naked and dappled with sunshine and water droplets. The wonderful sight of her lover was something she'd been missing in the past weeks as all her time was taken up with matters of state. The young Steward sighed as she thought of the news she was about to deliver and its' repercussions for herself and Segret and resolved to clear her schedule for the next two days so she and the beautiful noble woman could spend some quality time together. That decided, she moved forward and made her presence known to the royal party.
"Majesty." She bowed to Andrea and then smiled at the attentive princesses. "Highnesses." Much to the little girls' delight she accorded them each a small bow. "Nebet." Satneith smiled brightly at Segret who returned her smile even as she swayed sensuously through the water toward the pool's steps. As she reached the top of the steps she took one of the linen towels and wrapped it around herself before turning her attention to Andrea and Satneith.
"Majesty, as it appears the Chief Steward requires your attention I shall take their Highnesses to the nursery and have them ready for the evening meal within the hour." She was about to turn and address the mournful objections coming from her charges, still in the pool, when Satneith held her hand up in a staying motion.
"No need Nebet Segret, my news is for all of you, not just the Queen." Having said this she retrieved a sealed roll of papyrus from the small satchel she carried over her shoulder and held it out to Andrea; waiting for the brunette to dry her hands on another piece of linen before handing her the scroll, the queen took it, calling Sesen over so she could interpret as she read out the message. Waiting for her servant and friend to make her way to the pool's edge she thought for a moment then changed her mind and instead held the scroll back out to Satneith. Andrea made the decision that the Chief Steward knew that her grasp of Egyptian had considerably improved and didn't see any reason to hide that fact from her anymore.
"Nebet Satneith, if you would read it and then if there is anything I didn't quite understand Sesen can interpret for me."
The older woman's expression warmed a little with the realisation that the Queen had indeed been improving her language skills. She inclined her head and took the scroll back before breaking the seal.
"Majesty, some of what may be in this letter I already know from the dispatches to the Court, but I imagine there may be more personal messages within." So saying Satneith started to read.
"Second Akhet, Twelfth Day of Menhet, in my 21st Regnal year.Greetings to my beloved SisterNeferemkau, may Neith watch over you and my father Amun give you blessing. I trust my Hawklings have been keeping you entertained and I send greetings and my blessings to them through you.
By the grace of my father Amun the vile Kush have been rightly chastised and I will return in triumph with my troops as soon as matters have been settled here in Wawat to my satisfaction. We wait at my fortress of Iminuserkhepesh for the Kushites to arrive to bring their surrender and fealty. When all is disposed as I wish we will start our return journey.
My Sister, I have thought and dreamed of you here in the barren lands of the South. Your kind eyes and sweet smile, so shortly known, have been ever in my mind. I am longing to feel your embrace and grow impatient with our separation. To that end I have decreed that you, my Hawklings, and what servants you require will travel immediately to Syene there to await my return closer at hand than you are now. Nebet Satneith has been given instructions for your escort and travel let your needs be known to her and all will be as you command.
Fly swift and safe to me my Sister that we may wander in the garden of discovery together. I will count the days till we are together once more.
Your Lord, your husband, your beloved Sister, Mereneith.
Satneith let the scroll snap back and looked at the queen with some amusement when she noticed the young woman's very pink cheeks as she blushed over the intimate wishes hinted at in her spouses' letter. She was about to say something further when she felt cold droplets of water flutter over her feet when the two princesses dashed out of the pool and threw themselves at Andrea squealing in delight.
"We're going to see Mama! We're going to sail on the Great River and see mighty Kemet!" They uncannily stated in perfectly synchronised unison.
Andrea smiled indulgently and nodded. "So it would seem little Hawklings. Now dry off and go with Nebet Segret. You will need to decide what you wish to bring with you on this trip." Noting the glint in Neith-hotep's eye she added. "You may each bring four individual items to play with, and four joint games, but no more. There is no need to pack the entire nursery for our travels."
Segret smirked at the little girls sheepish grins and gave Andrea an approving nod of acknowledgement. The older woman had been very pleasantly surprised at how well the young Kefti woman got on with the princesses and how well she seemed to take to the role of a kindly but firm parent. The Queen's recent changes to the nursery routine had made her job all that much easier and her charges were happy and thriving. Supervising the girls as they dried off and dressed she started mentally listing the things they would need on the journey, as the list grew she turned to the Queen to get her instructions on something.
"Majesty, should I make arrangements for the Princess' tutor to accompany us to Syene?"
Andrea watched the girls noting how their faces fell just a little as they looked to see what she'd say.
"No Nebet, there will be no need for the tutor to come along, Sesen will see to the girls' needs as we travel. Have the tutor and her assistant continue with the lessons for the Princess' new classmates while we are away, that will allow them to catch up somewhat with Miwsher and Nedjset."
"As you command Majesty, I'll take their Highness' to the nursery now so we can make a start." Bowing to the queen first Segret turned and shooed the girls in front of her before discreetly turning and blowing a kiss to the Chief Steward as she passed her, causing Satneith to blush slightly and stare at her toes in embarrassment. When the little entourage had departed, the Steward cleared her throat and returned her attention to Andrea.
"I have arranged to meet with Vizier Nakht-Nebamun in two hours so we can discuss the logistics of your travel Majesty, perhaps you would like to join us so that we can ensure your requirements are known?" Andrea smiled, noting the respectful tone of the invitation, a great improvement from the Steward and something only recently attained.
"That would be quite acceptable Nebet Satneith. Are you meeting in the Council chamber?"
"If it is acceptable Majesty, perhaps we could meet in your quarters?"
"That is acceptable." Andrea rose and Sesen, who had remained silently attentive, moved forward to gather the remaining linens. "I shall see you then Nebet Satneith." She bowed her head toward the Steward and nodded at Sesen to follow her as she made her way through the garden toward her apartments. Satneith wasted no time and headed to the nursery to speak with Segret and make arrangements to see her later in the evening.
The young priest stumbled from the room and careened down the hall as the sound of crashing objects echoed behind him. Blood dripped down into his eyes from the cut on his forehead and he stumbled as his vision blurred before he hastily wiped the blood away and continued to flee the apartments of the First Prophet. He had been attending to his duties, delivering the High Priest's evening meal when he'd been hit squarely in the head with a heavy bejewelled goblet when he entered the reception area of the private apartments. The Lord Irsu was in a raging temper such as the Wa'ab had never seen before, grasping any and all objects that came to hand and hurling them at the walls, or in the case of the goblet, at the hapless young priest, his other servants having long since fled the scene of his rage.
On the floor, under an overturned table lay the tattered and torn missive that had caused Irsu's anger and loss of control. A dispatch from his agents in the South informing him of Mereneith's victory and Prince Sethirkopshef's wounding and his disgrace and sentence to exile in Wawat. Irsu had snapped and raged at having to rely on yet another incompetent fool, first that idiot Sen-Nefer and now this young arrogant princeling. Were his plans always to be thwarted thus? His raging resulted in every stick of furniture being broken or overturned and every smaller item in the room being dashed against the wall before he eventually began to calm sufficiently to think clearly. Finally losing steam he rooted through the debris for the papyrus, picking it up and calling for his servants to come and clear the mess away.
Letter in hand he moved into his small office space and sat behind his desk to think. True, the Prince was injured, but he yet lived, all was not lost. He scolded himself for being surprised at Mereneith's decisive victory over the Kushite barbarians. Sighing he reconciled himself to the loss of the gold that, along with promises of a half-hearted and hobbled response from Egypt, had induced the young king of Kush to commit his forces on such a grand scale. Youthful hotheads seemed to be the bane of his plotting and scheming, he only hoped that Sethirkopshef's injuries and disgrace would make him a more biddable agent in his own plans for power.
Chewing on a reed pen the First Prophet reviewed the current state of play and figured out which of his plans needed to be changed, rescheduled or abandoned. He needed to pull back and play for time, but he burned to be revenged on the She-Demon, Mereneith. Continuing to brood, his thoughts turned to the new Queen and he grimaced once again, noting that none of his petty little schemes for her embarrassment and disgrace had come to fruition any more than his plans to sabotage the coronation had done. He grinned as his mind began to form a new plan, that bitch Mereneith may be out of his reach for the moment, but the Kefti slut wasn't. His grin widened as he called for his personal servant and ordered him to fetch one of his less salubrious minions, one whose services had recently proven useful and highly effective.
Andrea made her way through the palace corridors, preceded and followed by her escort of four Followers of His Majesty, treading the now familiar route between her apartments and the Royal Nursery. She had the princess's with her, each holding onto one of her hands as they chattered excitedly about spending the night in the Queen's apartments. Andrea had noted the relationship between the Royal Nurse and Chief Steward and informed Segret that she would have the girls stay with her for the night, thus relieving the woman of her charges and freeing her to spend the time with her lover before they left Thebes. Segret had happily thanked her for the kindness and promptly gone in search of her lover.
Andrea's meeting with Nakht-Nebamun and Satneith the evening before had gone smoothly and been highly productive. Content to let them deal with the details of transport, security and logistics, she had dictated her personal requirements and those for the princess'. The latter had included the raising of higher side rails on the ship on which they would be traveling to ensure no inquisitive little Hawklings could accidently slip overboard, as well as an extended cabin to allow for greater comfort for the entire royal party as they travelled.
After the meeting, the Queen had discussed the preparations needed with her two chief servants, Sesen and Kitane. The Cretan woman had remained in her service but kept aloof from the other servants only really interacting with Sesen. This self-ostracism was in large part due to her reluctance to truly learn the tongue of her new country. Despite Andrea's gentle encouragement, Kitane maintained she was too old to learn a new language and was quite content with having Sesen interpret anything more complicated than the very basic commands she had learned to order around the lesser servants in their daily tasks required by the Queen. Unfortunately, this had not endeared her to her fellows and they had made a cruel game of goading the woman by claiming to not understand even her basic commands in their native tongue. Sesen interceded for her when she could, but she wasn't always available and at those times Kitane would often just see to a task herself rather than delegating the task. In the turmoil of preparations for the royal trip she had given up completely on communication and decided to do all the packing herself so Andrea and Sesen had left her to her work and spent the morning with the children helping them pack.
The royal party swept into the outer reception room of the Queen's apartments and Andrea sent the girls into the garden, she'd left instructions for a meal to be laid out by the pool and Sesen would be waiting for them. One of the Followers trailed after the girls and the other took up his post by the main door as Andrea moved into her personal reception room on the way to her bed chamber. She'd made arrangements for a small travel version of the girls' favourite game of Hounds and Jackals to made for them and she wanted to give it to them this evening so they could choose a another game to bring with them on their trip. Knowing that Kitane would be in the bedchamber she called out as she moved across the outer room.
"Kitane, did Master Carpenter Khu deliver the game for the children?"
There was no response, so she continued toward the bed chamber, walking through the doorway to be greeted by the sound of her servant's scream of terror. Andrea saw Kitane jump back as the basket she'd been opening tumbled to the floor beside her, spilling its' contents as it fell. The older woman followed it's descent to the floor, clasping a hand to her shoulder as she clumsily scrabbled backwards away from the chaos of cloth in front of her. The queen watched as the linen moved and suddenly two large cobras emerged rearing up nearly half their body lengths and puffing out their hoods as they turned to face Andrea and Kitane who lay moaning in pain at her Mistress' feet.
Hard earned and trained instinct served Andrea well as she immediately stepped between the agitated snakes and her injured servant. She reverently invoked the Mother's name, allowing it to come forth from her lips as an almost hissed sibilant 'hhhRRrrhhhhhhhheeeeeaaaaa'. The sound caught the attention of the serpents and focused them on Andrea. The Cretan Priestess reappeared as Andrea began the swaying movements of the Snake Dance, her arms and body moving in fluid motions as she chanted the incantations of Mount Ida here in this foreign land. The cobras appeared to be transfixed and began to mimic her movements, swaying gently from side to side. Andrea continued, willing herself to sink quickly into the trance of the dance. The absence of her heavy woollen skirts had her feeling slightly off balance as she moved her body in her form fitting linen dress, but she quickly found her rhythm and moved closer to the snakes inch by inch.
A low moan of pain came from Kitane who had started to convulse where she lay on the floor, her body reacting to the venom entering her bloodstream. The noise caused the cobras to suddenly rear higher in uncertain agitation. Andrea chanted louder to cover the sounds of the woman's distress and moved ever closer to the snakes as she continued the familiar words and hissings of the chant. Finally just a foot away, her body swayed low, her arms outstretched, she invited the Pharaoh's guardians into her embrace, not sure if these much larger and more dangerous creatures would accept the invitation or lunge in attack. To her relief the sturdy bodies moved along her arms, her continued gentle movements encouraging the snakes to shift and twist and eventually twine themselves round her forearms with just the space of their hoods rising from around her wrists. Her fingers stroked over the back of their hoods, encouraging them to fold this sign of aggression closed and allowing her fingers to close round but not yet grasp them just below their closed mouths.
Timing now was everything, her body's movements and her chants must be maintained as smoothly as possible as she searched out a likely receptacle for the cobra's to be placed in that could be quickly secured. She worried that these, much larger and stronger serpents would prove unwieldy if not actually unruly when she tried to ease them off her arms and away from her body. She was used to the much smaller snakes most of them harmless save for the deadly sand viper, of her native land. As with all priestesses, she had been given regular small doses of the viper's venom until she had built up immunity to its effects. She had been bitten only once, when she was 16 and other than the wound itself had suffered only mild illness rather than the paralysing and slow death that the uninitiated would have experienced. Eyeing the much deadlier snakes now in her grasp she prayed her conditioning would hold good against their stronger venom should she not be successful.
Spotting a large clothes chest with a hinged lid on her bed she moved towards it, still using the swaying steps of the dance and singing the snake songs. Positioning herself over the box, she added a fervent but silent prayer to Mother Rhea as she changed the tempo of her movements and the cadence of her chant. With relief she felt the coils around her arms loosen and begin to unwind starting at the tails and moving toward the head of each snake. Finally when the only contact was her gentle grip around the cobras' heads she eased their bodies down into the clothes chest, allowing the snakes to naturally coil in the bottom of the box.
Schooling herself to continue the much slower, wordless 'release' chant and not to hold her breath in supressed fear, Andrea gently released her grip and allowed her arms to fluidly sway slowly away from the deadly reptiles. She was nearly ready to close the lid when a horrid, wet, rasping noise rose from behind her as Kitane let forth her last strangled breath agitating and angering the cobras, one of which attempted to strike at Andrea's disappearing hand. She quickly managed to slam the lid shut, but not before one of the striking snake's fangs had grazed the side of her thumb in its' unsuccessful lunge. She draped her body over the box making sure the thrashing serpents within could not dislodge the lid and yelled for help. Even as she heard the thundering approach of the Follower of His Majesty stationed in her outer chambers and the hurried footsteps of more servants, she started to suck at her wound, spitting blood and the traces of venom she could taste mixed with it onto the floor until all she could taste was blood.
When help arrived she ordered ropes to secure the lid of the chest, and not moving until they were brought and securely tied. As soon as it was safe she called for water and thoroughly washed out the small cut on her hand, feeling the wound burn but feeling confident she had successfully neutralised the danger of the venom. Satisfied of her own survival, she moved over to Kitane's body and knelt beside it, gently straightening the woman's limbs and smoothing her facial features of the agonised clenching of her joints and jaw the poison had wrought. Sitting fully, she placed the dead woman's head in her lap and let the tears fall as she softly sang a lullaby she'd heard the older woman sing on their journey to Kemet.
Andrea wasn't sure how long she sat like this, only becoming aware of her surroundings again when Sesen's gentle voice spoke to her in quiet Cretan urging her to allow others to take care of her dead servant and to let the physician examine her wound. In a daze she allowed herself to be helped to her feet and guided to a chair where one of the king's doctors examined her hand asking what she'd done in the aftermath of the almost bite, and commending her presence of mind before thoroughly washing the wound with vinegar and wine and recommending it be allowed to bleed freely and not be bandaged so he could monitor its condition and be sure they weren't binding up the poison with a dressing.
Andrea's attention refocused when a makeshift litter appeared and several servants began to move Kitane's body. Noticing that the Vizier had arrived along with more Followers, she called him over and spoke in a trembling voice.
"Neb Nakht, see to it that Kitane's body is taken to Kyrie Nashuja's estate immediately, she will be buried according to the rites of her homeland. Sesen, please ensure that all of her belongings are gathered and make sure they are also sent to Kyrie Nashuja, that she may take comfort from them in the place of shadows and shades." Her voice caught and she found that she could not continue as she began to cry again. The Vizier stepped forward and assured her that her orders would be followed.
"All will be as you command Majesty." Nakht- Nebamun spoke gently to the young woman and directed a number of Followers to escort the body and Sesen from the room. The young Scribe, whose movements had been vouched for by the Queen, was to be escorted and protected as if she was a member of the Royal family. The Queen had been adamant on the matter; she would not lose another valued and loyal servant, especially not one she counted as a true friend as she did the young Chantress of Hathor.
When the Vizier had been informed of what had transpired, he had called up a full troop of Followers, posting them in groups of four at all entrances in and out of the royal quarters, including the internal entrances from the enclosed royal gardens. He'd then ordered the assembly and detention of all the servants who had been given entry to the Queen's quarters that day. Someone had had the audacity to try and assassinate the new Queen and had almost succeeded and he was going to find out who that was, even if he had to put every servant in the palace to the question. Mereneith would want heads as well as answers when she returned. In the meantime Nakht had arranged with Satneith to bring in his own personal servants, none of whom had been in his service for less than ten years, to take the place of the palace servants currently detained. He and the Chief Steward would be busy for some hours tonight, reworking the travel plans for the Queen and the Princess'. The additional security required would necessitate the provisioning an extra ship in the planned flotilla and they had only a day to make these new arrangements. He looked kindly on the frazzled Steward, sorry that her planned time with the Royal Nurse would not be possible before she left for Syene. Still, he thought, at least they could look forward to her eventual homecoming.
The Princess' had finally been ushered into the room by their guard once Kitane's body had been removed and were now seeking and giving solace as the Queen gathered them into her embrace. Despite the shock of events he knew he could not delay their departure, indeed he felt it best to get them on their way as soon as possible reasoning that they could be guarded more ably in the close quarters of a ship's cabin and the small palace of a local Governor, than in the sprawling corridors and chambers of the Great House of Thebes.
Seeing the Queen's continued distress and the growing agitation of his King's Hawklings, Nakht pulled the physician aside and ordered the man to add an appropriate amount of poppy juice to the royal cups to allow them all to sleep through the night and be fresh for their departure in the early hours of the following day. Leaving the man to see to his potions, the Vizier made his way over to the Queen and quietly told her about the poppy juice, her only reaction to nod in acquiescence, grateful for the promise of a dreamless sleep after the stress and sorrow of the day's events.