A/n: evil grin a famous doctor/high-priest will make a guest appearance in this chapter. And no I'm not basing him on the movie; I'm basing him on the REAL man who had some fourteen titles. For ancient Egypt, and starting off as a middle classman that's pretty good. They included Chancellor of the king of lower Egypt, first one under the king, administrator of the great mansion, hereditary Noble, high priest of Heliopolis, chief sculptor, chief carpenter ext…
Chapter six
Her Decision Past
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Seth stood across the street watching the princess.
He'd met her once before and had fallen in love with her in just that one meeting.
Now he had taken it upon himself to be her secret guardian in his spare time…which was steadily increasing.
His heart skipped as he saw her look up directly at him and smile slightly.
Her attention was caught however, by one of her horses and took a handful of grains from a nearby stand and held it out to the solid white steed.
She smiled and patted its head as it's lapped up its snack from her hand.
Seth was startled by a loud crack and yelling.
Coming straight for Anzu was a chariot with no driver.
The horses had been spooked.
They narrowly missed her but the carriage broke off with a sickening snap and he dashed forwards, grabbing her and pulling her to the ground just out of the way.
It came to a rest with a spray of sand and dust right at his heels.
He glanced back at it, then down at her.
She was staring up at him with shocked violet eyes.
He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his side and ground his teeth together before sitting up.
She stood quickly and stared first at the object of her near death and then at her unknown rescuer.
She began to thank him but his eyes seemed dark and he reached up to her.
"Princess…"
His eyes closed and he fell back.
She kneeled next to him but guards took him away before she could try and wake him.
She stopped one of them.
"Where are you taking him? He just saved my life!"
She was shaking and the urgency in her voice made the others stop.
"The doctor of course Princess."
She shook her head frantically.
"Take him to the palace and have our doctor look after him, he's much better trained."
They looked at her for a moment and then at each other.
Anzu glared at the three.
"That wasn't a request."
They nodded and carried him away.
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Anzu paced outside the doctors room later that day waiting for word on her rescuer.
Finally he came out and bowed politely.
"I have stopped the bleeding, removed the splinters from his side, and seared the wound to prevent infection but otherwise he's awake now if you'd like to speak with him."
She nodded and he started to walk away but she stopped him.
"Has he asked for me?"
He smiled and gave a slight nod.
"You don't recognize him do you?"
She shook her head.
"Should I?"
He nodded with a wider smile.
"All I'll say is the pond. That should evoke a memory."
He bowed once more and left her.
She suddenly looked angry and stormed into the room.
"So you're the one that pushed me in you jerk!"
If he hadn't been so injured she'd have smacked him.
He smirked and closed his eyes.
"I was a kid and I didn't know you were a princess."
She scowled at him and folded her arms.
"I almost swallowed a fish because of you!"
He couldn't help but laugh when he opened his eyes.
"Ow! Don't make me laugh it hurts!"
She smirked and looked away.
"Serves you right."
He smiled warmly as he watched her.
She wore a white dress of fine cloth, pleated from the waist to her ankles and nearly see-through.
Most of her jewelry was missing and she only wore her royal attire. Her crown, armbands, wristbands, and necklace.
The words came from his mouth without his meaning to.
"You're beautiful."
She looked shocked and stared down at him, unfolding her arms.
"Don't think flattering me will get you out of this."
He shook his head.
"I mean it. That's why I pushed you in and was teasing you. You were beautiful to me even back then. I was only ten but…"
He stopped as she was staring at him.
"I'm sorry."
She folded her arms again.
"You mean to tell me you pushed me in the water and called me ugly because you thought I was cute? That just doesn't sound right."
He smiled and nodded.
"I know I was a horrible little kid…if it means anything, I'm sorry."
She smiled and nodded.
"Thank you."
He smirked.
"Come her…I want to tell you a secret."
She sat next to him and leaned down.
He brushed her hair behind her ear and whispered.
"I love you…now what are you going to do about it?"
She blinked wide-eyed at him for a moment before closing her eyes and kissing him.
She stood quickly and smiled down at him.
"I'll see you later okay? Bye!"
He sighed contentedly as he watched her run out.
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After he had healed Seth was bound and determined to find a way to stay at the palace.
Nothing had really come of their brief kiss and he wanted more.
That's when he started sneaking into her room at night.
He would just sit and watch her the whole night and leave at sunrise just before she would wake.
This went unnoticed by all but one man…Imhotep.
Seth had begged him to teach him the ways of a high priest and was late to his lessons every day.
Imhotep was curious how long this would go on before his pupil ran out of valid excuses.
It was late one night however that Seth would gain the absolute trust of the Pharaoh.
He was late that night, Imhotep keeping him two hours later due to his lateness that morning.
He walked silently down the hall and began to enter the room when he heard her voice.
"Take anything you like, just please don't hurt me!"
He slid silently into the still darkened room and watched closely.
Anzu lay in her bed a man was sitting next to her, his hand pressed gently to her throat.
"I'm afraid it's not possible to take anything I want because one of the things I want is you."
It was at that moment that Imhotep rounded the corner in his nightly ritual of making sure Seth's watch didn't become something more.
Seth stopped him before he entered the room.
"She's in trouble, thieves."
Imhotep nodded and pulled the Sennen Rod from his kilt.
"I'll take care of him, you take the rest."
Seth nodded and the two charged into the room.
Anzu screamed as one of them was thrown over her head and out the window.
Imhotep glanced at Seth for a moment.
"Get her out of here!"
Seth nodded and picked her up, carrying her out into the hall.
He didn't get far though.
The guards had heard her scream and were on their way.
When they saw Seth holding the princess half pulled their swords and surrounded them while the other half went on into the room.
He set her down and she stood there frozen.
Her entire body was shaking and she screamed as one of the guards pulled her away.
Seth spun around just in time to see her fall.
"Princess! What did you do to her?!"
He was kicked in the stomach and dragged away.
He was thrown into a room and nearly passed out when he looked up to see the Pharaoh.
He put his head down and placed his hand over his heart.
"I beg thee do not punish me great king. I was defending the princess. On my soul I swear it is the truth."
Before the pharaoh spoke Seth looked up and over his shoulder back to the door as they heard Anzu and a guard.
"I said I'm fine!"
"But princess your father is with him."
"Than he won't mind my say in this."
"You don't understand, what if he tries to…"
Smack
"He didn't try to kidnap me he was saving me from the thieves and if you touch me again I'll have you beheaded."
"But princess!"
"For the last time I fainted because I had sixteen swords pointed at me, I think you would too if you had just been assaulted by thieves and then frightened to death with swords."
Before he could stop her she ran into the room, kneeling next to Seth and looked up at her father.
"Please do not punish him father, he tells the truth. Six thieves robbed me and their leader threatened to choke me. If it weren't for Imhotep and Seth I might have been harmed."
He looked down at her.
"So he took you from your room? Why was he there?"
Seth dared not look into anyone's eyes, least of all hers.
"Every night I sit beside her and watch over her."
She sat up and blinked at him for a moment but couldn't hide the smirk playing across her lips.
"So I was right."
Seth's eyes grew wide.
She immediately frowned as her father glared at her.
"You knew of this?"
She nodded, the smirk returning.
"I woke up one night about midnight and he was sound asleep by me on his knees."
Before another word was spoken a scream pierced the air and Seth rose as a guard was thrown in dead.
Anzu shivered as she heard the leaders voice.
"Your high priest is almost dead and soon you will be."
Anzu looked on in horror as he stepped into the room.
"Soon you will be mine princess, and all of Egypt shall bow at our feet!"
Seth suddenly saw the sennen rod and glared hard at the thief.
"You will not leave this room alive thief! And you will not lay a single finger on the princess for if you do I shall cut off your head slowly!"
He dove onto the man, wrapping his hands tightly around his neck.
He grabbed the rod and was about to plunge the bladed end into the thief's heart when he heard Anzu scream.
He turned to see the pharaoh crumpled on the floor and another thief holding her with a knife to her throat.
For a single instant his heart stopped but he leapt to his feet.
He closed his eyes for what felt like an eternity as he held the rod out in front of him like he had seen his mentor do so many times before.
'If I truly was meant to hold this powerful item than it will work for me now.'
When he opened his eyes he fixed them on Anzu's and spoke calmly.
"Princess…close your eyes and in just a moment this will be over, but I beg you if only for your own sanity, do not open your eyes."
She closed her eyes tightly and Seth focused on the knife at her throat.
After a few seconds the mans had began to twitch and in think of an eye he threw the knife at Seth.
He stepped out of the way and it plunged into the leaders heart.
Without a weapon and his leader dead at his own hands, he began to run but Seth held up rod and it began to glow.
"Be gone from this world!"
Anzu flinched as she heard the mans painful scream.
She couldn't imagine what Seth had done to him.
For a moment all was silent as Seth glanced around.
He looked up suddenly as she called to him.
"Seth…where are you?"
He approached her and knelt before her, kissing her hand.
"You are safe Princess."
She pulled him to his feet and wrapped her arms around him, feeling the tears beginning to sting her eyes.
"When everything was quiet I thought…"
He gazed down into her face and placed a finger over her lips.
"It's okay."
Unknown to both, Anzu's father rose silently to his feet and looked around.
The two thieves lay dead, and in the middle of the room stood his daughter and the boy who had saved her life.
They held each other closely and Seth wiped away Anzu's tears with a gentle touch.
"Stop calling me princess."
Seth looked shocked.
"Is it right for me to call you by name?"
She shook her head and her next words melted his heart.
"I don't care! I love you Seth!"
He gazed down at her and lowered his head so that he almost touched his lips to hers and spoke softly.
"I love you too…can I kiss you, please?"
She smiled softly and closed her eyes as he kissed her deeply.
Seth stepped away sharply when he opened his eyes to see the pharaoh standing over them.
He glared at both of them and took Anzu forcefully by the arm.
"This will not go on."
Anzu bit back tears as she looked up at her father.
"Why not? I love him!"
He took a deep breath.
"Because you are supposed to love the prince. He will be arriving in a few days time to reside with us until his eighteenth birthday."
Anzu and Seth looked shocked and chorused in unison.
" But that's four years? We're only fourteen!"
Anzu's father smiled suddenly and nodded.
"That is exactly why the two of you must stay apart."
Anzu wrenched her arm free and glared at her father.
"My mother was twelve when she took the thrown and fifteen when she married you! That is not fair! She got to choose who she married! You were only a local priest!"
A sudden pain flickered through his eyes.
"Perhaps that's why she died so soon. You have no idea what stress I am put under Anzu, your mother was not ready to take the thrown, or marry when she did. Neither was I. The stress she was under was too great to take alone but it killed her in the end. Now be gone!"
She regretted her words now, her mother had died just four years ago at the age of Thirty-two.
Anzu turned to Seth for a moment with tears in her eyes and dashed away, back to her room.
Seth turned to the door as she ran out and was startled to see Imhotep.
How long had he been standing there?
From the hurt expression on his face, Seth guessed long enough to see the last few minutes.
As he began to walk by the older man, he stopped.
"I believe this is yours."
Imhotep shook his head and closed Seth's fingers around the rod.
"You've earned it…I let slip from my grasp, it no longer belongs to me. You will do greater things with it than I."
Seth watched in aw as his mentor kneeled before the pharaoh.
The air was thick with tension as he spoke his next word calmly, sealing Seth's fate.
"I resign my title as High priest in this palace and pass it on to Seth."
Seth smiled almost bitterly as he left.
'At least I will be near to her.'
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Three days passed and all were awakened on the fourth morning by trumpets blaring loudly…the prince had arrived.
Seth had held his hopes up the last few days that he might still have a chance with the princess.
Imhotep had left that very night and Seth was more than prepared to take over fully, however this meant the end of his nightly visits to her room.
He sighed to himself as he stumbled out of bed and grabbed for his lamp, it still being dark out.
He fell back with a huff as he heard it crash to the floor.
Giving up on lights all together he went to his window and gazed down at the approaching party.
His blood froze when the prince stepped off of his horse and looked straight up at him.
'You lousy…! I can't believe this, my own cousin!'
He pulled away from the window with a disgusted glare and kicked the shattered pottery pieces across the room.
'Beaten by my own damn cousin! There's no way I'll be able to win her now. Mr. Handsome has arrived, I'm a lost cause.'
He lay back down, fighting back tears.
"Why does it have to be the one person I ran away from? Why can't I get a happy ending once in my life?"
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Thus ends another chapter at 3:32 am. Please review!