Phew! This has been a CRAZY week, I spent the entire time working on chap 15 to be honest, but I have the whole weekend free and next week my work schedule is actually decent, so my goal is to get at least a few chapters written ^^ Especially since I got all the chaps to 23 outlined which will close the Egypt arc so I wont have to deal with writer's block like last time ;)

Sorry this is late in the day: I wanted to update it last night since I had work today and then I volunteered at the Estuary Center, but I was too tired: my poor Beta and I have been working ourselves ragged, and she's got college AND work!

So i hope it was worth the wait ;) and you all like the surprise at the end ;)

Disclaimer: I own nothing; all reference to historical people and places are fictional representations of themselves. I do however own the ship designs.

As always read, review, comment, ask questions, post theories and go nuts! Thank you all so much! I can't believe how popular this story is already! i knew it would be but i didn't expect it to be this fast! I haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet!

Chapter XIV: Traitors

The Eye of Timaeus was on the Nile less than an hour after dawn. From his position at the helm, Timaeus spun the wheel sharply. With a sharp jerk, the ship roared into the current. The repositioned sails caught the north bound wind and propelled the ship forward with a burst of speed. Down below the sailors heard their command to row and in unison they propelled the enormous weight of the oars forward in heavy circular motions, accentuating the current.

Timaeus steered into the Canopic current, veering right and the Eye of Timaeus flew. The galleon glided weightlessly through the Nile: sails flared and bow poised to strike, she bore all the ferocity, grace and majesty of a dragon flying across the sea. Her power born from strength, air, and sea: the air and waves her strength and the strength of her men her ally.

Timaeus stood at the helm, piloting the ship like he was an extension of the ship herself. With the wind blowing through his air, the pungent perfume of salt and papyrus reeds filling his throat, the cacophony of waves crashing at his ship's back and the rising sun illuminating the trek north: Timaeus could only smile a beaming grin of pride. A price only felt with the absolute achievement of his greatest accomplishment. This ship, his ship, was unstoppable.

"We shall arrive in Djanet by dusk," he boasted proudly.

"Excellent," Dartz approved with a regal nod. There was a pause before his next words. "Our young Udjalah will be pleased."

"He's finally going home," Timaeus agreed with a boisterous laugh. "Yugi will be delighted."

"Indeed," Dartz said equanimously. "Curious you only call him by his child name and not his title?"

"His personal preference," Timaeus said with a shrug then added with a curt smile. "I was happy to oblige."

"You've grown fond of him, I see?" Dartz asked with an arched brow. His tone did not change.

"I have," Timaeus nodded. "He's quite pleasant when he isn't being hostile." There was a chuckle in his voice. "But still incredibly stubborn."

"Indeed," The word was low and his next ones were lower. "Is that the only reason?"

Recognizing the drop in the tone, Timaeus switched the helm to manual and rotated to meet his King's stoic expression with one of his own. "What other reason is there?" The tone was neutral but the undertone bit with the accusation.

It was the King who broke the tension. "Do not think less of me," he said in an aged sigh. "But what did you and he quarrel over last night?"

The mask dropped and Timaeus blinked with bewildered surprise. With a grunt he answered. "I'd hardly call it a quarrel. We simply debated over where he would sleep. I insisted he take the bed in the Great cabin and I'd take the couch, but he constantly insisted it was mine. At last we compromised. Is that what all this is about?"

Dartz shook his head, his face torn between humor and antipathy at his own silliness. "A man's foolery," he chided to no one then met his general's gaze. "Yes, but I'm afraid that is not all," the King said almost apologetically. "Unfortunately, your," he paused and there was a veiled chuckle in his voice, "quarrel, aroused the whole ship. And the men's imaginations are not so innocent."

Were he a less controlled man, Timaeus would've raged. "Are they now?" His gloved hand clenched the wheel of the helm so tight the wood began to splinter. "Did they learn nothing from my last address?"

"They have their opinions but they know better than to speak them," Dartz mollified, and added "They would not dare."

"Regardless," Timaeus hissed through clenched teeth. "Yugi is a guest on this ship, and I will not condone misbehavior from seasoned men!" He abandoned the helm and stomped to the aft's rim and clenched the banisher. The burst of energy was not nearly enough to cool his temper, but enough to calm his thoughts enough to think. He looked above to the runners in the sails then below where in the berth deck the men were obediently propelling his ship north.

One figure stood out among the others. A small figure in an unusual uniform balanced a tray of plates in each hand. Timaeus recognized the costume immediately. He'd had it commissioned himself that very morning.

"Now where is he off too?" Timaeus asked no one, but aroused the King's curiosity.

Dartz strolled over in time to catch Yugi's trademark crown vanished beneath the trap door steps. "Wasn't he assisting your Surgeon?" The King asked, earnestly bewildered.

"He was supposed to be," Timaeus answered just as surprised. He had told Yugi about the lower decks. Why would he travel below decks with a tray of food? Had he not eaten? The mess' only entrances were from the main deck. "Nothing down there but the berth, the cargo hold, the ship's pump and—" A dark thought hardened his words. " "The brigs." Realization crept upon him.

The King looked surprised. "Pardon?"

"Take the helm, your highness," Timaeus ordered, too soft and sudden to be a command.

The King said nothing to the order but asked "What do you think he's doing down there?"

"I won't know until I ask him." Timaeus cleared the aft's descent and followed the spiral of the trap door. "If it is a simple errand, I will have a word with my quartermaster."

"And if it is not?" Dartz had meant the words to lighten the mood, but a shadow crossed over the Trierarch's face when he turned to him.

"Then he will have hell to pay." And he descended the stairs.

X X X

The atmosphere under the ship was far different then Yugi expected. Unlike the open and airy main deck with its cozy cottages, the berth deck was smaller, more condense. The curved walls of thick wood smothered two aisles of identical benches each holding twenty men and attached to a huge oar like a tree scrapped bare. Rows of low-hanging hammocks hung between them. Cannons were chained to its windows. It made Yugi feel claustrophobic and trapped.

His senses were assaulted his from every direction. Armorless, broad-backed soldiers, thick arms and skin slicked and shined with the sweat of labor, propelled the oars in wide circles. They rowed with their backs to the stern, pushing, not pulling. To Yugi's relief, they hadn't noticed him. The only sounds were their masculine grunts and groans and the yawn of the oar's protesting hinges. The stale air reeked from the salty, wet musk of labor, the perfume rot of wet wood and the alcoholic aroma of tar.

Yugi doubled his pursuit and nearly chocked when he reached the bottom of the stairs. Twice as worse as the berth, the cargo hold was suffocatingly hot: the air was thick, stagnant and wet with no ventilation system. Heat and humidity clung to Yugi's skin, even the light smock felt sticky and damp. He coughed, clearing his throat but only inhaled stale, wet air.

He immediately pitied anyone forced to stay down there and understood why Timaeus chose it as the location for the ships prison hold. A few minutes and Yugi would do anything to keep from coming down here again. It made him wonder what crime Timaeus' prisoners had committed to earn such a sentence.

The thought and a whiff of steam reminded him of his duty and Yugi scurried towards the stern where the prison occupied the lowest level of the ship's back. The journey was not an easy one: the Nile's strong waves roughened the walk and the ship's constant rocking and shifting sent him crashing into barrels and crates. Somehow, he'd kept the plates from spilling and exhaled in relief, and set the tray on a barrel.

The sound stirred the prisoners hiding in the shadows. Eyes peered through the criss-cross bars of iron, the squares just thick enough to slide the bowls through the bottom, and drilled into the stern where the wood was thickest. The air stale with only caged trapdoors for air and only small beams of light penetrated the thick shadows. Carefully taking a bowl in each hand, Yugi stepped into the light and immediately wished he hadn't.

"Traitor!" Maatkare threw herself against the bars. Arms stretched fully and hands curled like harpy eagle talons, clawing at nothing. Her shaved mop was matted in dusty clumps, her face smudged, her dark eyes were bright and dilated, and her face wild and dangerous: nothing about her resembled the domineering priestess who'd haunted his childhood.

Yugi jumped and crashed against the opposite cage. The bowl slipped from his hand. Stew splattered the floor. Quickly he masked his bewilderment and shook his head.

"Now look what you've done!" He chastised his sister. "Now you'll all have to share the rest." He groaned the words and slipped the rest of the bowls through the bars with a sweep of his foot.

Maatkare threw it at him with a scream and it crashed. "Don't you dare mock me! You inconsiderate harlot!" Her scream was rough from constant shrieking and bled with disgust and rage.

Behind her, her ladies found their courage and flocked about their mistress wanting to use it.

"Don't lie, boy!" They taunted, chittering like harem girls at court. "We hear the stories. We know the truth."

Yugi rolled his eyes. He slid the bowls into the other cage silently. Their eyes scrutinized him making him shiver. Too late he recognized why they were familiar.

"Well, well," a scratchy rasp, taunted. Yugi recognized the cowardly way he boasted. "The prince has chosen to grace us with his presence." There was no flattery in Siam's retort.

"You'd think an Atlantian general would keep a closer eye on his toys," scoffed one of Siam's younger and just as arrogant apprentices.

Yugi scoffed and chose to ignore them. But they were in their element. Maatkare was still growling. Siam's bulging eyes blazed with a crooked smile like a frog with a juicy beetle in its lips.

"And now he's playing coy!" Mocked one of the priestess cheekily. No longer were they the proud and dignified hem-netjer who faithfully served Amun. No longer were they the respected officials who served the Divine see ends and guarded the ipet-isut. They were just girls and guys. Young and frivolous and spoiled and robbed of their power needed to discredit his to earn it back.

But Yugi wasn't some soft-spoken maid. He rolled his eyes and snorted his disapproval with all the displeasure of a disappointed scribe master.

"Are you really going to sit there and squabble like a group of washer girls?" The retort was bitter and sharp, cutting through their words. The furrowed glare in his eyes and slitted smile on his face where like a slap across the face. A punishment for a child and meant to be just as humiliating. "You're hen-netjer of Amun! Since when do you listen to sailor talk and soldiers gossip and accept it as truth? You call yourselves servants to the Divine? You respect your masters as Per-ah's and God's wives? You think the Per-Ah would trust any of you to be part of his court if he saw you acting like this? If he so much as heard a rumor?" He chided but each word was harsh with mock laughter and they shrank back even Siam's tongue was twisted. "Do you want to continue as hem-netjer under your new Per-ah?" His gaze sharpened and so did his words. "Then act like it!

The words were like a whiplash to the side and they all silenced. Only Maatkare did not shrink away. Rage and bitter betrayal distorted her face. Desperate fingers clung to the bars like a newborn bat to its mother's fur, but she remained silent.

Satisfied, Yugi gathered the looters shards into the tray and turned to leave. He'd tell Rhebekka about the spilt ones when he got back. His fingers grasped the door when a dark chuckle echoed from the furthest, shadows corner.

Then it bellowed. "Strong words for an apostate whore."

Yugi spin on his heels. The tray set down with a clang.

"What was that?" He demanded in a low hiss.

The shadow rose and slithered forward with all the sinister of Apep's water snakes.

"You heard me, brother," Menkheperre spat the word like it was a soured wine. "Why would you care so much for ideal gossip unless it carries some truth?" Menkheperre said cheekily. Menkheperre who claimed taunts were childish and beneath him.

"What are you implying, Menkheperre?" Yugi asked dryly. His face neutral and his eyes hard.

Menkhperre's smile was a curve slit one that didn't match his iron-controlled face. "You can't hide it, Yugi." He sang the words; the first part, a drawn high note, the second, a long, low syllable. His name a hybrid of a spa and a chime. "Everyone knows."

"Knows what?" Yugi demanded stone faced. His fingers twitched, ready to curl. Claws flexed, ready to strike.

"That you sold us Divine Servants to fuck Atlantis' favorite pirate."

A second of silence, inmates waiting with baited breath for his reaction, and then it broke.

They'd expected Yugi to lunge like a wild beast savage with furry. Expected him to protest weakly and gasp in utter humiliation. Perhaps even remain stone faced and stoically repeat his dismissal of gossip as fact while neither denying not confirming the rumor.

Everything but what he did do.

He laughed.

A boisterous laugh hearty with humor and not a single effort made to contain it. He laughed so hard his sides hurt. "Oh is that what you think?" He clenched his sides to keep from shaking. "Funny, but I suppose that theory is better for your pride than admitting your superior brother outwitted you," he joked, calm and matter-of-fact. "He did send a foreign army to rescue me."
Menkheperre stumbled back like he'd been slapped. Maatkare shrieked. "You wretched—" She threw herself against the bars and her audience retreated with a collective scream.

Yugi didn't flinch. He'd live in fear of that temper as a child. Now her rages scared him like a tiger in a cage.

"That's enough. All of you." It was a command and not a yell. Sudden and low and relaxed as thunder. Yugi knew who it was before he stepped into the light. "You've embarrassed yourselves enough." Timaeus' words were sharp. Stray beams of light cast shadows over his face, illuminating his eyes with a menacing gleam like a predator unsure whether or not it wanted to pounce. Yugi saw their eyes bulge twice as shocked and twice as terrified. And Maatkare and Menkheperre were rarely shocked. He wondered what else could cause such a reaction

Timaeus' firm hand wrapped protectively around Yugi's shoulder, but he was hardly pleased with the rescue. Instead, he leaned into the embrace until Timaeus' arm slid strategically into place. "Did you hear them, Timaeus?" Yugi said and a voice, drawn and sweet. "Calling you a pirate when you came to rescue me?"

Timaeus arched a brow, but didn't protest. Yugi spun and pressed his cheek to Timaeus' midsection, and rolled to face them: his eyes half-lidded and his smile a pleasured slit, victorious. "I'm sorry; some people can just be so rude." He apologized in a slow, sultry purr. His fingers clenched the armor. It clung like a second skin and Yugi found no softness beneath it. He felt the powerful shoulders shift and he shivered.

Suddenly, strong arms were around his waist, pulling him up, and Yugi yelped. He met Timaeus' eyes: one bright as danger and wild as pleasure the other a pale ghost with a predatory slit. He understood Yugi's game, and he wanted to play. "It can't be helped I'm afraid." The words rolled off his tongue in a sultry purr. His thumb and forefinger curling under Yugi's chin, he rasped. "Some people are just rude with their gossip." He leaned closer. Too close and a familiar shiver of anticipation curled in Yugi's spine.

Yugi wasn't ready to relinquish the game, but he needed to regain control. Against all his common sense, he closed his eyes and pressed his lips to Timaeus' parted ones. It was meant to be quick, a brief display of affection to silence their bullying, but he's forgotten the arms at his waist. He didn't expect their swiftness until they dragged him half across the floor, until his toes dangled and crushed him to Timaeus' chest. His parted Yugi's lips with a practiced tongue and Yugi couldn't stop the moan that followed it. Or the electrifying pulse it sent surging through him with all the ferocity and anticipation of a lioness ready to deliver the killing bite.

He felt the heat in him, searing Yugi's fingers and chest, burning from his lips to his toes. Then it was gone. Timaeus pulled away with a smirk that left Yugi breathless. His single eye smoldering behind a half closed lid and the other just as seductive. "But I'd be a very poor betrothed if I didn't set the rumors right." He leaned in providing the illusion of kissing Yugi's cheek, but instead whispered "Don't play games with me, unless you intend to finish them."

Yugi panted through his glare. It was a warning and he understood the message clear enough. Had it been anyone else, he would've been insulted, but this was Timaeus. He didn't act like others did. He was impossible to predict.

There was a collective gasp behind them he barely heard. With a final smile over his shoulder, he said "No need to worry yourself with that," he said sweetly again, but the undertone promised revenge. "I think they've learned their lesson." He grabbed the tray with a swoop and finally abandoned the brigs with only the clatter of Timaeus' boots following him.

They didn't speak again until they reached the cargo hold, safe from the wall's ears. Yugi spun and glowered. "What the devil was that?"

"I could ask you the same question." The smirk was still there but his eyes were stern. "What were you doing down here?"

"Feeding the 'prisoners'," he paused before the final word. Timaeus stopped surprised.

Yugi shrugged. "Rhebekka needed someone to do it, I volunteered." The answer was simple, matter-of-fact.

He had been wrong. There were three explanations and it disturbed Timaeus how much the truth relieved him. How ready he'd been to expect the worst, but years of hardship has taught him such.

"What?" Yugi said with a tease. "Think I came to plot with my siblings?" Timaeus' face did not change, but it was clear he had. Yugi just laughed. "Didn't we just promise to be honest?"

"Don't tease me," Timaeus warned playfully. "There's nothing stopping me, from carrying you back upstairs like my bride to be."

"You wouldn't dare!" Yugi jumped and shuddered. "Amun, what possessed you to come up with such a…such a…" He couldn't find the right word.

"I only played along to your game, little one," Timaeus purred. "I think it fit."

Yugi grimaced. "That the last thing I need," Yugi grimaced. "Your crew already thinks I've stolen you from their princess, now you've given the hem-netjer the same suspicion?"

Timaeus stopped and spun, his face red. "Oh is that what they're saying?" The words were a dark laugh that curled into a bitter chuckle. "Well, I'll have to speak to them about that. Gossip is for girls, not seasoned soldiers."

The words brought Yugi no comfort. "Is it true?" he asked in a whisper.

Timaeus stopped. "Is what true?"

"About you and the princess?" Yugi admitted, his chest suddenly feeling tight.

There was a long silence, and then Timaeus said. "What did Rhebekka tell you?"

Yugi shook his head. "She told me nothing. Only that she'd heard you were close and it wouldn't have surprised her."

"And what do you think?" There was a warning in the tone.

Cautiously, Yugi shrugged. "I don't listen to rumors. I'd rather hear the truth, since it seems to concern me."

"Do you think it does?" Timaeus asked again, but this time he bowed to face Yugi's bent head.

He had no right to ask. He knew it, but that lingering curiosity was there, threatening to erupt, and yet the words wouldn't come to his lips, afraid of the answer. "Do you love her?" He didn't expect an answer to something so personal.

"I did once." Was the easy response. Yugi shot up in surprise. Timaeus smiled, his shoulders relaxed. "It's no secret that I did. I loved her the way one falls for a dear friend. The kind who has known them longest and understands them best. But it was not the love a man has for his wife. At the time, I believed it was, but soon learned it was not. At least for me it wasn't."

"Oh," Yugi said and bowed his head, ashamed how much that relieved him. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Timaeus strutted forward and pulled him to his feet. At his smile, Yugi brightened, which in turn made Timaeus' smile wider. "Surely, you know your first love is always the most difficult but it is hardly the last?"

"I wouldn't really know," Yugi chuckled. "I haven't loved since I was a child."

"A child?" That caught Timaeus by surprise. He arched a playful brow. "I can see you being a cute child."

Yugi blushed, about to protest when the boat shook. "What was that?" he asked.

With a gesture to follow Timaeus flew up the steps. Yugi followed nearly blinded by the light of the main deck. The sails shifted in the wind and from the helm, Dartz gave the wheel a sharp turn.

Timaeus grinned. "If my calculations are correct, and they rarely are not," he turned to a bewildered Yugi and grinned. "We shall soon be arriving in Djanet."

And with that this chapter has reached 100 pages on word! Holy smoke I did NOT see that coming! 100 pages and over 100 reviews in only 97 days! Wow! That makes this my most impressive story ever! I'm so proud!

Hope you all liked the surprises ;) The priests and the kiss ;) not how i expected their first kiss to go but I'm glad it worked!

Next Time: The Nile Arc has come to a close and the Djanet arc is about to beging: after an interesting three days, The Eye of Timaeus arrives in Djanet and Yugi is reunited with someone he thought he'd never see again.