A "geeky technical note" for ya;)...This chapter was always part of my original concept, and while I rewrote most of my earliest notes, the vision scene is still pretty much exactly as I first wrote it, barring minor revisions.

Princess of the Darkness, your reviews were much appreciated! You rock! :)

Title belongs to Sting ("A Thousand Years"...go listen:)

Chapter 17

Destroyed a Thousand Times

Nefertiri covered her face as she wound her way through the Medjai camp, relying on pure luck to find someone she recognized. She'd never come here before; Achsu-rai had always said it was too dangerous to chance someone seeing her. There was no way, however, that she was going to stay away now. She had to find him.

Out of the corner of her eye Nefertiri saw Khalil exit one of the shelters, carrying a small child in his arms. She hurried over to him, forgetting to conceal her face. As soon as he saw her, he set the child down and pulled her to the side.

"Your highness, how did you get here?"

"A secret passageway, what else?"

Khalil sighed. "I told him he shouldn't have showed you that."

"I feel a bit faint, might we sit down?"

"Of course. Are you all right, Princess?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I've been a bit ill of late, but I think I'm finally getting over it."

He directed her to a short bench. "That's good to hear."

"Khalil, I'm so sorry. About your father. I know what he meant to the both of you."

Khalil smiled, his face betraying the lines of grief that had aged his handsome face in an instant. "Thank you for your condolences, highness. But I must insist you get back to the palace at once."

"Where is Achsu-rai?"

"I don't know, he's disappeared."

"Well, when will he be back?"

"I don't know, highness. Perhaps I should escort you back to the palace."

"Does he trust you?"

"What?"

"Achsu-rai. Does he trust you?"

"He tells me so."

"Then I am going to tell you something, Khalil. I'm terrified."

"Of...of what, highness?"

Nefertiri looked skyward. "The future. The end is coming. I can feel it at the back of my mind, on the tip of my tongue, always there, haunting me. I don't know what I'm expected to do."

"Perhaps..." Khalil began. "No. You must get back to the palace before someone realizes you are missing."

"What, Khalil? What were you going to say? Tell me."

"Achsu-rai would kill me."

"What?"

"There is a woman...she...she knows things. She tells people their future, but only if they need to know."

"Would you take me to her?"

"But Achsu-rai--"

"I don't care. I demand you take me to her, or I'll report you to my father."

"Your father would certainly not approve of this woman."

"He will believe what I tell him," Nefertiri said coldly, drawing on the ancestral instinct that had commanded nations and made many a man stronger than Khalil cower before the throne. "Take me to her. Now."

As they drew even with the hut, Nefertiri's steps faltered and she looked again to Khalil for assurance. "What should I--"

"She'll know you're coming," Khalil told her. "That is, if she has anything to tell you."

"Thank you," Nefertiri said, before drawing aside the door flap. Khalil caught her arm before she could duck through it.

"Are you sure you want to know? If there's something coming...wouldn't it be better to leave it up to fate?"

"I've had enough with waiting around for fate. I have to know."

Khalil nodded and released her arm. "Knowledge is powerful, highness. Use it wisely."

Nefertiri stepped into the shadowy tent and her senses were immediately attacked by a combination of darkness and strange smells.

"You have come to see me," came a voice from the gloom.

"Yes," Nefertiri said. She stepped forward a little more and focused her eyes on the Medjai woman that sat there. She wove some sort of incense around, the smoke curling up and over them to form a hazy film at the ceiling. Without another word, the woman beckoned for her visitor to sit with her, then clasped her withered hands with the younger woman's, squeezing them tight. The veins of her hands seemed almost black in semi-darkness; the purple tint of her robes gave her an aura of the mystical. To Nefertiri, it seemed like hours before the old woman began to speak again.

"A terrible storm hovers over Thebes. It waits in the wings to slay its victims. The palace will be in ruin."

"Someone's going to attack the palace?"

"No. Only its inhabitants. I see...two souls struck down...three. Four, five, six...seven..." The princess shivered as the old woman reeled off the numbers. "One survivor, to tell the tale....Much bloodshed. In the name of love. In the name of lust. In the name of loyalty. There are many misguided souls wandering the palace, waiting their turn for fate to drag them to the underworld."

"Am I one of seven? Am I to die?"

"Hush, child, and be patient. The Bracelet, yes the Bracelet. The man who has cursed you is already here, I can feel him. He will not be able to save you, poor child. He will not be able to save himself."

"Who? Who is he?"

"Patience, child. Indeed, you must be patient. Three thousand years will pass before I can give you the answers. Before your death."

"Three thousand years? I'm not going to die for--"

"Don't be silly, child, no one lives that long. No one except..." Now it was the old woman's turn to shiver. "You must stop the Creature, or all will be lost! No, you will stop him." She furrowed her brow in concentration. "The man who has cursed you is there, also. You must not lose sight of this man, he is your protector. You must watch over him, as well...But it will not be enough. Poor man. He is so sad."

"But he's the one that cursed me!"

"Quiet, my child...child." She paused. "Yes, I sense another soul...but you will not know him quite yet."

"For three thousand years, I suppose," Nefertiri said dryly.

The old woman opened her eyes. They were foggy at first, then cleared as she focused on the princess. "Poor child."
"Stop calling me that!" Nefertiri pulled her hands away.

"I do not speak of you. I speak of the child within you. He will wait, patiently. He waits for your death."

With that the old woman collapsed onto the blanket. Nefertiri sat there, frozen. Most of what the Medjai woman had said flew from her mind as she focused on the last fragment. That, at least, she could understand.

Nefertiri was with child.

~*~*~*~

Talk about an oracle--MBooker mentioned that possibility in her review of chapter 13, which was the chapter before I first started hinting at it! Wow! :) Things are getting complicated . . . :)