Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or any of the characters (unless otherwise stated) Kazuki Takahashi does, nor do I make any money from these stories.
14
Everyone was surprised when Akhenaden was bought into the room, he looked older than ever and one side of his face had been bandaged. He was forced to kneel before the pharaoh
"You will be pleased to know that Seto and Jou have entered the desert and are heading for Nubia as we speak."
Akhenaden looked up at the pharaoh, his one remaining eyed firmly fixed on him "I care nothing about Seto or the vile creature that he has chosen to take up with."
Aknamkanon sighed, "That is a lie and you know it brother."
"I am no brother of yours." He spat "If I were, you would not have taken the word of a worthless street rat over mine!"
Aknamkanon let out a deep breath "If that is the way you want it. That is the way you shall have it."
The pharaoh turned to Yugi. "Yugi do you know anything of what the baby brokers did? How they operated?"
Yugi nodded "Not only have I heard about it but I have witnessed it."
"Will you tell us please?"
Yugi bowed his head "If it is what you command."
The pharaoh nodded
Yugi sighed, "It started about five years ago, at first the townspeople welcomed it, because it meant that the children would survive and be well cared for, plus the families needed the meagre payments they received for the babies, they were paid slightly more if the child were a male. At first they only took the new-borns, then it was the one-year-olds then the two year olds. Once the child reached the age of three they were considered safe."
"It's all lies!" Akhenaden shouted
Yugi ignored him and carried on "Then about two years ago when things started to improve for the people and more of them were able to keep their children the 'Brokers' started to turn desperate they had suddenly lost a lucrative business." He looked up at the pharaoh tears shining in his eyes "I guess Bomani told you about Banafrit?"
"Yes." The pharaoh confirmed, "He told me part of it."
Yugi looked across at Minkah who nodded, silently telling Yugi to go ahead and tell the pharaoh, Yugi smiled at his courage "She was a beautiful little girl always smiling, it was rare to hear her cry and if you did it must have been pretty serious, anyway one day I heard her screaming along with her mother, I ran into Minkah's home to see what was wrong…that's when I saw them take the child, I tried to get her back but I was stabbed in the side."
"Do you know who it was that stabbed you Yugi?" the pharaoh asked
Yugi shook his head "No I don't I passed out and when I came too I found Minkah's wife lying on the floor her throat cut."
Atemu wrapped his arms round Yugi as he wept
"It's okay Yugi you don't have to go on." He whispered
"Yes I do, you need to know everything." Yugi shuddered "The first time it happened...their new way of doing things we thought it had been a mistake. Then we heard that the wife of a noble had given birth to a stillborn boy, the brokers were offered a high price for a replacement."
"Don't tell me Yugi." the pharaoh said sounding extremely angry
Yugi nodded "They found a replacement alright, the cord connecting the baby to his mother had not yet been cut."
"What happened?" asked a shocked Isis
"They tore the baby from the nurses hands, roughly cut the cord and left as quickly as they had arrived."
Isis threw her hands to her mouth in shock "These people are that wicked?"
"Even more so Isis."
"Don't listen to him he knows nothing!" Akhenaden screamed as the guards held him back from trying to reach Yugi.
"Will you tell us then?" the pharaoh asked angrily
"He's making this all up to ingratiate himself in your eyes!"
Once again Yugi ignored him. "Once they realised that they could command the highest prices for those 'still wets' as they were termed we began to see the brokers standing outside the homes of mothers about to give birth ready to snatch the child as soon as it had been delivered."
"They must have loved it when twins were born." The pharaoh muttered
Yugi shook his head "Sometimes twins were wanted especially if they were male and female, or even both female but two boys were rarely wanted."
"What did they do then Yugi?" Mahad asked
"If only one of the boys was wanted they would take one, usually the stronger of the two and kill the other."
"What! Why?" Karim asked "Surely they would lose money by doing that."
"It seemed they didn't want to take the chance of one of the separated twins finding out about the other and causing a power struggle among the noble classes. It was the same with triplets one would live two would die. Even if the mother were still holding them, the child would be killed"
"How horrible." Isis whispered
Yugi nodded "It was hard at first to live with the anguished cries of the women whose children had been taken, at one point we even tried to hide the pregnant women but it didn't work they were always found, we began to believe that we had a traitor in the town, someone was being paid for information, the brokers seemed to know what we were up too as soon as we'd finished making the plans"
"Why was this never bought to my attention?"
Yugi looked at him "We tried pharaoh believe me we tried, but the man who came to see you suffered for it."
"What happened to him?"
His name was Bakari he was a good man. He had decided it was time that the pharaoh knew what was going on, we were all certain that if you knew you would help us, he left to see you at the palace and we all waited in anticipation of the news he would bring home with him." He turned his head at looked at Akhenaden "He come home minus his tongue, it seems in his attempt to see you he told Akhenaden what it was he wanted to see you about. He was led to the dungeon after being told you were there talking to one of the prisoners. Having never been to the palace before Bakari had no reason to disbelieve him so he followed him without question but once there Akhenaden had the guards remove his tongue saying his crime was that he disrespected you by being blasphemous to the pharaoh's name. What he didn't realise was that Bakari was a man that could write and he wrote the story down for us."
Angry Aknamkanon stepped down from the throne "I think you have said enough Yugi, leave the scales with Shada and go back to your rooms with Atemu, you two do not need to witness this."
Yugi bowed "Thank you pharaoh."
Atemu led Yugi out of the throne room, once the pharaoh was sure they had gone he stepped in front of Akhenaden "Are you going to give us the names of the brokers?"
Akhenaden remained silent
The pharaoh looked at his guards "Bomani, Minkah take him to the interrogation room and string him up!"
Akhenaden's eye widened when he heard the guards names.
"Wait!"
"What is it pharaoh?"
"Give him 50 lashes."
"By your command pharaoh." They bowed before dragging the former priest from the room.
No I haven't got Bakura's name muddled up. Bakari means 'Noble oath' in Egyptian…
Chibi.