Flight of Souls

Chapter 27 – Words from the Dead

A sudden groaning from the door took Tia completely by surprise. She'd been trying fruitlessly to pry the door open for some time. When the door began to swing inward, she backed up hastily, nearly tripping over the broken ceremonial spear she'd been using as a pry bar.

"Evie!" Tia exclaimed when the door opened wide enough for her to see the English woman standing there.

"Tia, you're alive!" Evie said in relief. She stepped into the chamber and flung her arms around the younger girl.

Thankfully, Tia returned her embrace. "I was afraid I would never be found."

Evie stepped back and looked around the chamber. "Do you know where you are?"

"A burial chamber," Tia said, with a slight shrug. "One that has never been robbed or despoiled apparently."

Evie smiled and stepped to the nearest sarcophagus, running her fingers lightly over its surface. "Yes, you've never been here. Ramses started building this tomb a few years after he became Pharaoh. You were dead by then."

"Ramses?"

Evie smiled. "This is an annex of the tomb of Ramses II. It's never been discovered. It's a secondary burial chamber."

"But you knew it was here?"

"Of course," Evie replied, moving to the next sarcophagus. "I've been here several times." She looked up. "This room was intended as a burial place for Ramses's children. He ended up having an entirely new tomb made for that, but several of his children or household members passed away before the new tomb was ready so they were buried here." She caressed the sarcophagus again. "This one is one of my daughters. She died when she was four."

"Oh, Evie," Tia said sympathetically. "Your own child?"

Evie smiled. "Kind of silly to be sad about it now, isn't it? It happened three thousand years ago." She moved to the next sarcophagus. "This one is one of Isa-Norfret's children."

"Isa-Norfret?"

"Ramses's second wife. I don't believe you ever met her. A nice woman, she and I got along very well." She pointed to the sarcophagus at the end. "There is someone you'd remember. Sitamen."

"Yes, I do remember her. She was one of his concubines, wasn't she?"

"Yes. She died in childbed, the child with her. They were mummified together and they're both in there."

Evie sighed again and walked along the row of coffins. "I was here for each one of the funeral processions." She stopped in front of another of the stone sarcophaguses. "You remember Khety, don't you?

"He was one of the court physicians, wasn't he?"

"Chief physician by the time of his death. He was Ramses's confidants, so when he died he was given the honor of being buried with his king." She ran her fingers over a beautifully carved cabinet beside his coffin. Idly she opened the door. "What's this?"

Tia came closer to see. "It looks like a scroll case."

"Yes," Evie said, archeological interest jolting her out of remembered grief. She took out the case and gently undid the ties holding it closed. A roll of papyrus slipped out when she tipped the case up.

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It was nearing dawn when Sir Randolph stepped aboard his yacht. He was weary, and looking forward to a few hours of sleep. Idly he glanced down the hallway as he made his way to his cabin. Suddenly he stopped, and stared at the door to the cabin the women had stayed in. The door was ajar. He went closer and looked again. The wood around the lock was splintered – the door had been jimmied. A sudden violent rage wiped away all trace of weariness. He shoved the door open and looked inside. The cabin was empty. Turning on his heel, he stalked off to find Jensen.

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"Now that I have reached the end of my life," Evie read, translating from the ancient Egyptian, "I must put down in writing what I know of the circumstances of the early days of the reign of my divine lord, Pharaoh Ramses II, although no one may see this save myself." She looked up. "Khety wrote this," she said incredulously.

"What does he mean, 'the circumstances of the early days of the reign of Ramses II?" Tia asked, coming closer to look over Evie's shoulder.

Evie continued to translate. "It begins with the arrival at court of the woman, Anck-su-namun. She was a woman of great physical beauty and Pharaoh Seti was enamored of her. Her son, Prince Horemheb was born some eighteen months after she became Pharaoh's concubine.

"I never imagined for a moment that Anck-su-namun would be so foolish as to play her Pharaoh false. Nor that the High Priest Imhotep would also be so foolish as to cast his eyes upon the mistress of the king. Yet, so they must have done. And when Pharaoh came upon them unexpectedly, they killed him. Anck-su-namun killed herself moments later. Imhotep fled the palace, taking with him the young Prince Horemheb and Princess Tiye.

"This rest I had from the lips of Pharaoh Ramses II when he returned from Hamunaptra. Prince Horemheb and Princess Tiye had been put to death. Imhotep had been sentenced to the Hom-die, and been buried at the feet of the statue Anubis in Hamunaptra. It had been Pharaoh's intention to leave the young prince and princess unburied, but Queen Nefertari intervened. Her fondness for her younger half-sister inspired her to convince her husband to bury them properly. He would not bring them back to Thebes, but consented to have them mummified and laid to rest in a small tomb some small distance from Hamunaptra. I added my own counsel to that. I remember Princess Tiye as a kind and gentle girl. No matter what she was forced to in the days after her abduction, surely in the final trial before the great gods Osiris, Anubis and Thoth, she was admitted into the blessed afterlife.

"Imhotep forced the princess to wed him, and did his best to get an heir of his body on her. A bid for the throne of Egypt, no doubt, but doomed to failure from the start. I examined her body before she was embalmed, and I think there is little doubt that she was with child. Poor girl.

"Imhotep was brought before Pharaoh Ramses before he died. In his last words he cursed Pharaoh with ten plagues, and vowed that his son would be the downfall of Pharaoh Ramses II. This disturbed Pharaoh, I think, and this was the reason for his next action.

"When Prince Horemheb was laid to rest in the tomb at Tirza, Pharaoh instructed the priests not to perform the Opening of the Mouth ritual on the young boy. He intended for the soul of the child to remain trapped so that the boy could be no threat to him.

"Imhotep believed that Prince Horemheb was his own son, not that of Pharaoh Seti, and so he told Pharaoh Ramses. I wish that I had known this before, for I could have told him the truth. It is impossible for Imhotep to have been Horemheb's father. About six months after Anck-su-namun arrived at court, Imhotep returned to Thebes after some years in the north. He had contracted a severe illness while he was away, and sought me out when he returned for treatment. While he regained strength quickly, he continued to use the potions I prescribed for several months. While these potions do not affect sexual performance or desire, they do affect fertility. It would have been impossible for Imhotep to father a child during the time Prince Horemheb was conceived. The boy was indeed the son of Pharaoh Seti.

"Had I but known that Imhotep and Anck-su-namun were lovers and that Imhotep believed that Horemheb was his own child, I could perhaps have saved Princess Tiye and the boy. If Imhotep had known the truth he would never have taken them with him, and they would not have been killed. I did not tell Pharaoh Ramses this truth. Should I have, I wonder? They were dead by then, his half brother and sister. I go to my grave wondering, and begging Ma'at, goddess of truth, to forgive me."

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Author's Note:

Ramses had word started on his tomb in the second year of his reign, and it was completed six years later. A much larger tomb was built for his children. To date it is only partially excavated, but they've discovered four of his sons – the eldest, Amun-her-khepseshef (by Nefertari), the second known as Ramses Jr (by Isa-Norfret), the 9th – Sethy and the 16th – Mery-Atum. They expect to find many more of the sons and some of the daughters before they're done. Anyone buried in the secondary burial chamber in this story is completely made up. It made sense to me that if the large tomb wasn't done, then some of the children who died early might have been buried in an annex of their father's tomb. Considering the lack of modern medicine, I figure there would be several children who died young. It also made sense to me that other household members might be buried there as well, so I went with it.

I have no idea if there is any sort of potion that would affect a man's fertility.

Thank you for the reviews, eris, Lometari, Liel and lilylynn. I appreciate them very much. And ephona, yes, there will be fluff upcoming, just not right yet.