So here's my excuse. It's a great excuse, I promise. I had an epiphany and realized the last chapters needed rewriting. Like, it needed another elaborate death scene, some fighting, a more emotional, angst-filled finale, a defining moment between old friends, and a whole new twist to lead to a sequel (heh heh:). And I'm still not even done. If I had the energy I'd even rewrite the first few chapters, but we won't get into that now:) But some of the chapters are longer, and I think I might even add one. So now it'll be a lot better than it would have been, which means y'all can enjoy it that much more:) Thanks for your patience, and I hope it was worth the wait. Special kudos to Mythica for helping me straighten this chapter out. :) ~Buff

Chapter 25

"Contract Terminated"

Achsu-rai walked slowly as he made his way back in the general direction of the Medjai camp. The sun had not yet set, but the hallways of the palace were awash in the golden glow of the early twilight. He had time yet, before he had to be anywhere. Maybe Nefertiri would catch up with him, if she could get away from Ramses. He missed just being able to talk with her like they had before, without having to worry about being discovered. She'd always known exactly what to say, and he needed something to calm his conscience.

"Achsu-rai!" he heard from behind him. "Achsu-rai, wait!"

As soon as Nefertiri drew level with him she flew into his arms. He simply held her, knowing she needed the silence as much as she needed words. "Are you okay?" he asked after a few moments.

"So you did it," she said, her words muffled.

"What?"

"The Hom Dai. Imhotep has been cursed."

Achsu-rai pulled back from the embrace and studied Nefertiri for a long while before answering. "Yes."

Nefertiri suddenly wouldn't meet his eyes. She seemed to be focusing instead on the wall just beyond his head, studying the illustrations there as if they were terribly important. "I hear you are to be married."

This being the very last thing Achsu-rai expected her to say, he was quick to deny it. "No. Who told you that?"

She let out a deep, shuddering breath, realizing a bit more the depth of her brother's treachery. "Ramses."

"Then he was mistaken, I have heard nothing of the sort. I think I would know."

Nefertiri glanced back down the hallway. "I think Ramses knows. About us."

"What?" Achsu-rai took her hand and pulled her into a empty room down the hallway, shutting the door tight against intruders. "Why do you say that?"

"He found the letter you wrote me. He was asking me questions about the Medjai."

"He must have been bluffing, or he would have confronted me."

Nefertiri turned away so he wouldn't see the tears that had begun to sting her eyes. "Maybe."

"Is something else wrong, Nefertiri?"

"Wrong?" She turned back to him, wiping a tear from her eye before she did so. "Besides the fact that I am to married to Hadamer in two days? Or did you mean the splitting headache I seem to have developed recently?"

He'd heard her wrong. That horrible, icy feeling in his stomach was doing cartwheels, and he had to fight to speak. He'd heard her wrong. He had to have heard her wrong. "You are to be..."

"Married, Achsu-rai."

"I...I don't know what to..."

"Oh, just believe. That's all we have to do, believe, is it not?" Her sarcasm was met with a blank face, and Nefertiri felt panic spreading throughout her again. Her fate was in his hands and he wouldn't even look at her. "Would you just say something?" she said, softer. "Please, talk to me."

He found his voice, finally, though it came out a bit sharper than he had intended. "What do you want me to do, Nefertiri?"

She threw up her hands. "It doesn't matter what I want, apparently. No one asked me what I wanted when they planned my life. What I want, Achsu-rai, is something I can never have. I want to be with you, I want to run away from all of this and have a family with the man I love and be happy. But I cannot ask you to leave your people, and I know that you wouldn't. I can do nothing anymore but what they tell me to. So go ahead, give me an order. Tell me how to run my life, tell me my fate. Everyone else does, why not you, too?"

"I can't just up and leave, you know that."

Nefertiri took a deep breath, and the tears she had fought throughout her speech began to spill over. "There's something else."

Achsu-rai felt his anger ebb just slightly as he looked into her eyes, recognized the look there. "Nefertiri?" he asked, taking her hands. "What is it?"

She moved closer to him, instinct telling her what her heart refused to believe. "I've been trying to tell you for ages, I've just been so afraid of what you might say."

"Tell me."

"I've known for a few weeks now. The oracle told me; I really should have known..."

"More predictions from the oracle? Nefertiri, she cannot--"

"No, it is a fact... Achsu-rai... I'm pregnant. I'm going to have a child."

"Oh, Nefertiri." He took her face in his hands, wiped away an errant tear with his thumb. How could fate be so twisted as to taunt them like this? They had been given everything, and now those around them threatened not only their happiness, but their very lives. A child! Imagine what they could have together, a family, a life... But he knew it wouldn't happen. Somehow, deep within himself, he knew it wasn't to be. The happiness of mortals was not something the gods concerned themselves with.

Her voice, tiny, timid, broke through his thoughts. "Are you angry?"

He shook his head, needing her to understand how he felt but somewhat unsure himself. "No. No. In different circumstances I would be overjoyed."

"But in these circumstances?"

"I wish more than ever we were normal. I wish we weren't who we are."

"What if...what if we just told Ramses? About us? Maybe he'll understand, maybe--"

"He's already shown that he won't."

"What did you expect?" Nefertiri pulled out of his arms. "How did you think this would end? Did you think you would just get tired of me? Or that we would continue live out our other lives in daylight and keep our love a secret forever?"

"Not forever."

"Then what? What do we do, Achsu-rai? I need your help. Tell me what to do, I beg of you."

"I thought you didn't want people dictating your life."

"I don't want strangers telling me to marry a man I despise. I want you to tell me that we're going to leave this godforsaken prison and start over somewhere else, a place where they won't judge us just for being in love. Tell me, Achsu-rai. Tell me, or come up with some other brilliant idea to get us out of this. That, or turn around, and walk away. Leave with me, or without me. Tell me."

Achsu-rai closed his eyes, mentally calculating the odds for such an impossible escape. They could round up enough wealth to get them out of Thebes, at least. She could hide at one of the Medjai settlements for a while. Enough time to make Khalil grow up, to get the elders used to the idea of the young man leading the twelve tribes. Time to slowly detach from them all...leaving his people, already in turmoil, in the hands of an inexperienced leader. How could he turn his back on his people, on his duty, even for...love? Imhotep had not been able to accomplish the feat, what made Achsu-rai think he could? Achsu-rai knew well enough that neither he or Nefertiri could live that way...

...Together. But...apart....

"It isn't that simple," he said, "and you know it."

"What, then, I'm just going to marry Hadamer?"

"No!" Even though Achsu-rai was trying to be logical about the situation, that was one scenario he would not explore. "No."

"Oh, I see. Even if I can't share your bed you don't want me sharing anyone else's."

"All right." Achsu-rai felt his anger bubbling over, trying to break free from its thin facade but still held in place by months of practice. "Maybe that's true. And what's wrong with feeling that way? I don't want you, my lover, my soul mate, the mother of my child, sleeping with another man. I don't know how the priest was able to stand it; I certainly could not, and don't intend to."

Her eyes had welled up again, and she reached for him but he did not react. "I'm sorry. I won't marry him; I won't marry anyone but you."

"You don't have to marry Hadamer. Don't worry."

"But...what about you?"

He drew in a breath, wondering how if he'd have the strength to do what he intended. He had to. "I can't leave. But...you can."

Her brow creased in confusion. He wasn't saying... "What?"

"I can get you out of here. I can get you away."

The pieces were beginning to click, but still she refused to give them refuge. "But what about you? I'm not leaving without you."

"Maybe, maybe someday, but I can't...Khalil isn't ready. I can't leave my people, they depend on me."

"But--"

"No buts, Nefertiri. This is the way it has to be. I have to protect you, I have to get you out of here."

Her eyes flashed at the command, but she did not object in the way he expected her to. "My life is worth is worth nothing if it means forfeiting yours."

He swallowed, trying to get past the dread that was rising in his throat. "Don't talk like that. Nothing is going to happen to me. I'm going to protect you, okay? You have to think of the safety of our child. Nefertiri? Answer me! Okay?"

It took her a few moments to reply, and even then she wouldn't look at him anymore. "Okay."

"Look, we have to make them believe everything is fine. Tell them you'll marry Hadamer in two days and you couldn't be happier with your brother's decision."

"I don't know if I can--"

"You have to tell them, Nefertiri, they'll think something's wrong."

"No, that's not it." Her eyes met his again, and that split-second of doubt again chilled his veins. When she looked at him like that, how could he think he could live without her?

"I...I don't know..." Nefertiri continued, "...if I can live without you."

He took a minute to answer, knowing that if he didn't clear his head, his plan would never work. "It's our only choice."

"A choice? We have a choice? No one ever told me that. Seven souls struck down by fate. One survivor, to tell the tale. I almost hope the oracle was right."

"I will not allow anything to happen to you, princess."

It hit him too late what he'd said, too late to regret it. Nefertiri looked as though she'd been slapped in the face. "Princess? You haven't..."

It was better this way, it was. He just had to get her away. They needed distance. A quick, clean break from the happiest days he'd ever known, for her sake. Her life, their child's life, depended on getting out of this cursed place. He'd get them away from this prison. The words of the oracle pounding in his head, he said, "That is your title, is it not?"

Nefertiri drew herself tall, willing her tears to dry. "All right then." She backed away from him, though everything in her screamed not to. She spoke again, though the words seemed dulled in her ears. "Goodbye...Medjai."

"I'll come for you tomorrow."

Nefertiri turned and walked away from him while she still had the will to. One foot in front of the other, step by step, inch by inch. She couldn't have him in her sight a moment longer. If she'd turned around, she was afraid she'd be tempted to throw herself at his feet, begging forgiveness for invisible crimes. But the princess wouldn't do that. She wouldn't allow herself to.

If she'd turned back, if she'd seen him, she would have known he was thinking the same thing. She would have seen a tear in his own eye, she would have seen his lips form words, though she couldn't have heard them...

"I love you, Nefertiri."

As Nefertiri threw back the door to the throne room it clanged noisily on the wall, drawing the attention of every eye in the room. She ignored the stares and walked straight to the head of the room where Ramses sat on his throne, conversing in hushed tones with Hadamer. When Hadamer saw the princess he straightened up, and with dread she noted something like hatred glimmering in his eye.

As Nefertiri neared the men her foot caught an errant fold in the carpet and she tripped. Although she was able to catch herself before she fell, her circlet slipped from her hair and met the tiles in front of the throne with a clatter.

Hadamer leaned forward and picked the delicate crown up carefully. He held it up, and Nefertiri realized what he meant to do. She lowered her head, allowing him to place the crown upon her hair. She fought a shudder as his hands brushed against her, and she did not look up again. "Thank you, Hadamer," she said, "you are most kind."

"One of my better traits, I have been told." Hadamer sat down on the step, putting him into her field of vision again. "Even when some among us do not deserve such kindnesses," he added.

"I would expect nothing less from my future husband."

His voice was bitter, betraying something less like hurt feelings than hurt pride. "Have you decided to deign to become my wife, then, Nefertiri?"

"It would be my honor, Hadamer," she said, through gritted teeth. The men looked vaguely confused at her unexpected pronouncement for a moment, but Ramses quickly recovered and ordered celebratory wine brought from the kitchen. The room thundered with jubilant support for the happy couple, but the noise was mostly lost to Nefertiri.

And as Ramses and Hadamer accepted the congratulations of the court, no one seemed to notice the single tear that trickled slowly down her cheek.

~*~*~*~

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