Hey everyone! Sorry it's taken me so long to update… I've written another half page in the chapter after this one! What's terrible is that I know exactly what's going to happen, I just can't—get—it—out!! Gr! I will try to work my hardest to get the next chapter done soon, but I'm not guaranteeing anything since I'm also going to be working on Kiseki and The Darkness Within Me as well as going to band camp from 3-8:30 every day for the next two weeks… anywho! This chapter is pretty much my favourite so far, and there is a picture to go along with it as well, so check out the picture website when you're done reading!
3. Lover's Quarrel
A grand palace loomed out on the edge of a large settlement, overshadowing almost everything in the midday sun. The pyramids were in the middle of construction, workers swarming around them like little ants and desperately trying to build them as fast as they were able in the scorching heat. Even though the pyramids were far away from the palace grounds, loud yells could be heard from the work sites as slave after slave was whipped to pick up the pace. The air above the ground was extremely wavy from all of the heat radiating off the cracked and parched sand that had crusted over to form rough flatlands as far as the eye could see. A giant river ran through the village and travelled north towards Cairo, a mere speck in the distance, and there were women and young girls doing laundry beside the banks.
Upon approaching the palace, a beautiful garden loomed out, full of fresh, tended plants of all sorts, most of which were obviously not native to Egypt. A large pond cleared the middle of it, lilies of all colours floating across its surface. Magnificent trees hung gracefully over the path that wound its way through it and towards the gate of the palace, shielding the walkers from the burning sun. The stony pathway was clear of sand and free of the snaking vines that twisted their way around other plants and trees all around it.
Inside the palace, servants could be seen running around, carrying items of varying heaviness, but they all walked with the same brisk pace, never slowing down except to talk to others about various jobs they were needed to do. Suddenly, they all stopped and lined up in two neat rows as the front doors opened and a small procession of people emerged. In the middle of them walked a proud, straight-backed princess who held an elegance about her frame that made everyone around her gaze in wonder. Her flowing silk sari was as blue as the sky and accented her bright golden eyes; long, smooth legs slid out from underneath the fabric with leather sandals laced about her small and delicate feet. A golden head dress held her brown hair back from her face, her bangs left out front to fall about her lightly tanned skin. Her curves were especially noticeable because a white sash was wrapped around her midsection, hugging her form. She stepped lightly, almost gliding over the paved floor towards the main staircase in front of the doorway; she held such a powerful air about herself that those who even chanced a look at her instantly bowed their heads once more, not daring to look for a second longer.
The princess kept her eyes straight ahead, not once letting her gaze stray from the top of the stairs, where a group of people was waiting to receive her. She held up a slender hand to signal to her guards to fall back, and they did so, bowing their heads, some even clutching their weapons to themselves and muttering some vow or oath in her honour, but she did not notice their actions as she continued to walk, somewhat straighter now that she was making her way by herself. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she got closer to the small mass, as though she had laid eyes upon someone not quite to her liking. As she ascended the stairs, a beam of bright sunlight passed over her, making the little golden bird around her neck gleam out, for it was so polished that it looked like it had just been taken out of the mould and had been painted with some slick oil to protect its surface. No one uttered a word until she had stopped in front of the horde, her feet together in an almost military-like stance, looking as though she was ready for a battle.
"Where is the high priest?" she asked, giving an inquiring look at the bunch. Her voice sounded like a perfectly tuned bell, though it rang out strong and steadfast. Obviously to the members of the palace it was most unusual for a female to be so powerful, and they seemed to be afraid to respond to her. One, however, came forth and bowed deeply before her on one knee, not looking up at her as she spoke.
"Our sincere apologies, most honourable princess of the South, but he is not here. You travel with great speed, and we had not intended you to arrive so quickly. We made do with the little time we had and prepared the palace for your arrival, yet we failed to bring you the reason of your presence. We have sent several servants in search of him; we apologise for any trouble he may have caused you with his absence. He meant no disrespect to you, great one, for he is a busy man." He finished with his speech and stood up, making sure he had backed into the group before daring to raise his eyes to look at her.
She looked rather annoyed, but still held her dignity about her as she nodded to acknowledge his words. Turning back to the front doors, she held her hand up to her guards and called in her foreign tongue, "Go and wait outside, this shan't take long," and they all bowed with their right arms crossed over their chests before exiting and standing in two straight lines outside. Nearly all in the huddle of people gaped at her willingness to be completely by herself in a strange palace, but she ignored their stares and glanced around. "Ah, there he is," she said, gesturing with her hand, her arm movement as flowing as water.
Everyone turned to see a tall man approaching, his purple cape billowing out behind him as he came forward with giant strides. He was shirtless, and a large golden ankh hung around his neck to fall in the centre of his strong chest; his cape was held on by two gold clasps, which were fastened to a small piece of fabric circling his neck. His silk, tan-coloured pants were held up by a black velvet belt, his feet covered by brown slippers. Gold bands were clasped around his upper arms and neck, and even more gold shone out from his ears; they had been pierced to allow several strings of gold pieces to hang from various studs, sapphires of a deep blue set into a few of them. In his right hand he clasped the Millennium Rod, which shone with its own light, much like the princess' necklace. His eyes matched the perfect blue of the gems and stood out of the brown hair that hung slightly about his face. He was a splendour to behold, and everyone turned to bow to him except for the princess, who watched him with a curious eye as he stopped in front of her.
"I take it you are the princess I'm supposed to be expecting?" he asked. And a stunning one at that, he added as an afterthought to himself, but he kept his eyes from feasting upon her perfect body, keeping them fixed on her golden ones.
She raised her hand in greeting to him. "I am she; I am honoured to finally meet you, high priest, and I thank you for taking the time to help me."
He shook his head. "Save your breath, this will not take much of my time to find a solution to your problem. Follow me." With that, he headed back to where he had originally come from, the princess carefully walking respectfully behind him, a light blush in her cheeks as she watched his strong form. He turned his head to the side to glare at all the inhabitants, who were still gazing in wonder, and they immediately resumed their routines, perhaps slightly faster than before she had arrived.
They walked down a few hallways before stopping in front of two very large doors, ivory embedded into intricate designs hewn into them. The high priest pushed open the doors with a loud creak to reveal an enormous room with statues of the Egyptian gods looming from above. It was lit by hundreds of candles, as there were no windows through which the sun could shine; some were arranged in clusters in small chandeliers, others were enormous and stood in their own poles at the feet of the statues. The room was extremely well kept; the statues' polished surfaces reflected every candle that was near them, lighting up the room more effectively than the candles would have by themselves. The floor had almost no trace of sand or dirt upon it, making it easy for one to see the elegant floor design chipped into it; both pairs of feet made a soft "pit-pat" on its surface, as both had been raised to step lightly in the presence of the gods.
At the front of the room stood the largest of the statues: Ra, the god of the sun. His head was turned to the left, accenting his sharp beak and keen eyes, set with rubies the size of a fist. His left arm was crossed in front of him, claws wrapped snugly about a tall staff, while his other talons were held out to his left, opened, as though to the heavens. As the girl gazed in wonder at Him, the high priest got down on one knee with his Millennium Rod on the ground to his left, murmuring words of the deepest respect in a form of Egyptian so ancient, hardly anyone knew how to speak it but himself and the other high-ranking individuals in Egypt. He stood up and faced her, looking somewhat angered.
"Are you going to pay your respects or do I need to do it for both of us?" he asked icily.
"I… I know not how to praise Him properly as you have… I have no experience in the ancient recitals of respect… I—I fear I will anger Him if I try," she finished quietly, hoping she had not done anything wrong already.
"Ra understands all praise; you need not fear, as long as you do it," he said, coming forward and leading her to the kneeling spot, gripping her arm rather strongly.
The princess swallowed hard and carefully picked up her sari to place a bare knee upon the floor, bowing her head and uttering a poem she had learned as a child to the towering statue. When she finished, she had to force herself to open her eyes and look up, somewhat fearfully, but breathed a sigh of relief when she saw no signs of vengeance. As she stood up, she heard some rustling and turned to see the high priest, now standing beside a table and flipping delicately through a thickly-bound black book, studying its pages closely.
"High priest?" she asked cautiously, clasping her hands in front of her and bringing her feet together once more, not wanting to take a closer step toward him.
His eyes darted to her, and she shifted nervously underneath his gaze; he seemed to be measuring her up with his eyes, debating about whether she was worthy enough to receive an answer. She swallowed and held her ground steady, staring right back at him with a proud air. He raised an eyebrow at her, taking her in one last time and thinking to himself.
Interesting...she doesn't tremble or shrink for my gaze like every other low life I have set eyes upon. She has a strong soul... or she might just be defiant to authoritative figures... like a spoiled rich brat. He kept his face straight and let his eyes fall back upon the book. "High priest is how the lower classes refer to me. My name is Seto, and I will only permit you to use it when we are not under the watch of common people."
"Why are you allowing me to call you that if you dislike anyone having knowledge of your name?" asked the girl, relaxing a little bit, but keeping her form straight.
He smirked, though keeping his gaze upon the book as he answered her. "Because I refuse to call you 'Princess' every time I speak to you. What is your real name?"
She flushed slightly. "I will not tell you my name, for only my closest acquaintances know of it; I never tell anyone what it is within the first ten minutes of meeting them."
"Then I shall make one up," Seto chuckled. "Shall I pick the name of one of the palace servants for you?" He grinned at seeing her take an angered step forward, and straightened up to look at her again, holding up his hand to tick off the names on his fingers. "We have quite a variety from which you can choose. There's... Anippe... Dalila... Niut... Kinou..." He paused on the last one, pondering it. "That shall be my name for you until you tell me the real one: Kinou."
She gritted her teeth, wanting to slap him for his immaturity, but she composed herself as she was brought up to do and walked over to the table at which he stood, folding her arms and deciding to ignore the fact that she was just given the name of a slave. "Is that the book you will be using to help my land?"
"Quite frankly, I was just looking through it out of curiosity; I need to know what you need before I come up with the solution," he said, closing the heavy book with a snap.
She closed her eyes, smirking slightly and mocking him. "First you don't bother to show up when I arrive, then you didn't bother to find out what my name is or my people's suffering before taking me in to help me? You must have been quite the disciplined one when you were in training. How long has it been since you were released from school to start practising your power?"
"My history is complicated, and I do not feel so inclined to tell it to one who chooses to disrespect me," sneered Seto, leaning forward and putting his hands on the table to look her straight in the eyes.
She laughed slightly. "By my father's grave, I would have thought that such an arrogant young man would jump on the idea of bragging about his upbringing, unless of course, it is a shameful one," she added nastily.
He growled softly, though not nearly loud enough to have her hear. "And I would have thought that such a snobbish young girl would have more sense than to pry into the life of one of the most high-ranking individuals in Egypt, one of the few who actually has had the liberty of being educated to read and write."
"Well then you obviously have not heard of me, high priest," she said, adding a somewhat sarcastic air to the last two words. "I am the only woman fortunate enough to have gone through a private tutor who taught me to do both before I was sixteen."
"A princess should know better than to claim fame to a myth. I had heard the famous story of the woman who could read and write, yet you are barely a woman; you appear to be a girl in my eyes. Besides, who would believe in that fairy tale anyway? A woman knowing how to write, how amusing."
She puffed out her chest slightly as she put her face extremely close to his. "I swear by Anedjib that you are mistaken," she hissed. "I have written on the finest papyrus made to date, while some barely even know it exists yet! I can write and read just as well as you can!" she shouted, pounding the table with her fist.
Seto smirked. "And I have written on papyrus written on by the pharaoh Semerkhet himself. He considered me like an adopted son to him because I impressed him early on in my life." He held his hand out somewhat, looking at his nails and flicking some stray grains of sand off of the table as he continued. "I went through school starting at age five, and was appointed a wab priest by the time I was fifteen. The other scholars saw me as a chosen one, thus making me a high priest when I turned eighteen. I have since then 'practised my power', as you called it, for nearly a year, and have become quite good at it if I may say so myself."
"So you are a mere nineteen years old?" the princess snickered, recovering quite fast from her shock at learning how young he was when he began rising in ranks. "Then I see no reason why I should show any form of respect to you, for you are hardly a man yet."
"I am old enough to command respect from royalty who are younger than me."
"Did I ever suggest that I am younger?" she snapped.
"No," he sneered at her. "But your manner gives you away. Granted you know the name of Semerkhet's predecessor, but you could have learned that anywhere. If I had to guess I'd say you were no more then sixteen."
"By Ra, I am seventeen!" she yelled, hitting the table with both of her fists before clapping a hand over her mouth.
Seto's face had a rather mixed look upon it as her yell echoed around the hall; it was one of anger and amusement, so his expression looked almost seductive. "You dare to cry out the name of the most powerful god in Egypt in his sanctuary just to prove your sincerity?" He moved around the table and walked right up to her to stare down into her golden eyes; she had gone rather pale and almost looked on the verge of cringing underneath his gaze. "I would say you are a brave soul to commit such a rash act, but then again you might have just been stupid. Care to inform me which one it was, Kinou?" he mocked.
"It-it was neither," stuttered the girl; she stood up straight and glared back at him, her voice becoming stronger. "I made a mistake. Nothing more."
A change overcame Seto and he suddenly wrapped his arms about her to pull her into a strong embrace, his lips connecting with hers. She let out a small yelp, her hands immediately going to his chest, as though to push him away, but as his kiss deepened, she relaxed into him, closing her eyes as she realised that she had been on the verge of kissing him as well. Her hands unclenched and one stayed on his chest while the other went to the side of his face, tangling slightly with his hair as her tongue began to caress his. They shared their passionate kiss for nearly a minute before he broke away from her, one of his hands going behind her head to tilt it up to him.
"What is your name, beautiful princess of the South?" he asked in his deepened voice, staring deep into her eyes with his now dark-purple ones.
She swallowed slightly, blinking away a small tear that had fallen from her eye.
"...Anji..."