Ok, I was sitting at my keyboard trying to write another chapter of the Queen of thieves, but I had writers block, go figure. So, I decided to write another story, hoping it would help me…let's see if it works!

Prologue

The wagon lurched to and fro, rocking it's passenger in a slow soothing motion.

At home in her beloved Rome it had just turned spring, but here in this strange land it was already summer. Or it felt like it. Jun'ko wiped at her forehead with the back of her hand. The sun beat down on her with no mercy, causing her to sweat profusely.

She breathed deeply and wished again that she could speak the language of these people. Very few Egyptians knew Latin, which made it hard for her to communicate. There was so much around her that she did not understand.

When she had hired the slave for this journey she had only the scroll that held the Pharaohs name. He hadn't understood her at first, but after a while of her pointing to the name over and over again he finally caught the meaning.

She wanted to get to Cairo. He had stared at her for awhile, studying her swollen figure. Obviously he thought her mad, a woman soon to give birth traveling alone and wishing to travel the hundreds of miles to meet with a Pharaoh that would no doubt cast her aside.

But Jun'ko had persisted, and offered him a great deal of gold. In the end he agreed.

She pressed her hand to her belly and felt the firmness of it. She looked down at the scroll clutched in her hand, as if just holding the Pharaohs name to her flesh could somehow bring them together more quickly. She closed her eyes and repeated his name in her mind. Akunamon, Akunamon, Akunamon…The very wind sang his name, and suddenly she was overcome with a giddy sense of wonder at all she had accomplished since she last saw him six months ago in Rome.

Jun'ko had known then that she was carrying his child, but how could she have told him? He was already married and had a 2 year old son, Atemu. It wasn't uncommon for Pharaohs to have concubines, but she wanted to be more then that. And she wanted her child to be more then just the child of a concubine. So she had said nothing.

Only after Akunamon was gone did she decide. He had left her only a scroll with his name and palace locations and the life in her belly.

At the end of a week she realized it was impossible for her to live without Akunamon.

Jun'ko had been married, to a man that saw her as nothing but a social convenience, and hostess to grace his gala parties. He had not sought her bed for three years; He preferred young boys. He didn't even object if she took lovers, as long as she was discreet. Had Jun'ko told him about being pregnant, he would have shrugged his shoulders and aloud the world to believe it was his. He would have cared no more for the child then he did for its mother, and realizing that made Jun'ko make up her mind. She could not doom this unborn babe to a loveless existence. Not when it had a father so willing to lavish affection on both mother and child.

So Jun'ko made her plans. She said nothing to anyone, not even her maid or best friend Kuni. Secretly she sold a few pieces of jewelry and booked passage on a boat to Egypt. With one small trunk and a few clothes, she sailed away from her homeland and husband to find the man she loved. Akunamon had expected her to write him of her decision. Before he had left he had told her so. But Jun'ko didn't want to wait. More then anything she wanted Akunamon with her when she had the babe. And if she had told him she carried a child, would he have believed her when she said it was his? She knew she carried the Pharaohs child; she had slept with no one else during his visit to Rome.

Jun'ko tossed her mane of blonde hair defiantly. But this child of Akunamon was impatient to be born. It should have another three weeks to spend safe in her womb. Yet instinctively Jun'ko knew that the pains she had been experiencing all day were a sign of inpending birth. Now they were more intense. She pressed her hands over her swollen belly and bit her lip to keep from crying out. She would delay the birth by force of will!

She would not drop her child here on the roadside like a peasant wife. The babe must wait till they were both safe with the Pharaoh.

But even Jun'ko Nuriko de Gervans could not stop the course of nature. All at once she felt a rush of warm water slither down her legs and a sharp pain held her in a seemingly endless grip. She gasped for air and clutched the side of the wagon. Either she must stop the slave and seek shelter or she would give birth there in the swaying wagon fit for hay.

Frantically Jun'ko pounded on the wooden seat the slave sat on, with her foot. He felt the kicks and turned sharply. "Yes? M'lady? What is it?"

Jun'ko lay back murmuring in what she hoped was simple and understandable Latin.

He shook his head in dismay, "I'm sorry, I don't understand you. Can't you try a little Egyptian?"

Then he peered at her more closely. He stared at the puddle of water at her feet and at her full belly shuddering with obvious birth spasms.

"Ra!" He breathed slightly "Your time's come hasn't it? And here we are in the middle of no where. Well actually, Esna is about twenty minutes from here. I'll find you some help." He sprang back into his seat and whipped the horses into a gallop.

In back, Jun'ko rocked back and forth. She had not understood one word of the driver, but she was sure he had grasped the situation. The pains were coming more frequently, each more intense then the last. Jun'ko moaned and bit her lip to keep from screaming. She refused to be stripped of her dignity.

Finally with a sickening lurch the wagon came to a stop in front of a small clay hut.

"Zahur! Come quick!" Mariasha calledto her husband. She had been married to the lazy lout for twenty years now. He was a rather large man that did very little. He worked a small inn that only saw maybe three costumers a week.

"Zahur! This slave's got a woman in his wagon about to have a babe! Come help me bring her in you lazy ass!" She shouted once again when he didn't answer her.

"What's it to us who has babies?" he asked with a whine. He was fifteen years younger then his wife, but he looked older, laden as he was with fat and grime.

"Zahur! She needs our help! You should get off your lazy hide and aid her." And with that Mariasha stormed out of the room muttering. Zahur grumbled and pushed himself off his stool.

"Damn woman!"

Within minutes Jun'ko found herself lying on a narrow cot covered with a sheet. The small woman had single handedly stripped her of her clothes and forced her legs up into the birthing position with a touch quick and business like, yet very gentle. Jun'ko gave her a warm smile of thanks before giving a moan of pain. All thought of dignity left her as another pain ripped through her body. She tossed her head back and gave a loud scream. She began to murmur once again in Latin but the old woman just shook her head.

"Sorry, I don't understand your tongue."

Jun'ko gave another scream and gripped the old woman's shoulders for support. Mariasha just smiled and allowed the girl to squeeze her. Mariasha looked between her legs and found the head of the child.

"It's just the way it should be, head first. And almost out. Don't worry none child. I've delivered dozens, and it's all over before you know it…Here it comes, girl! Now push! Push hard…"

Five minutes later Jun'ko's daughter was wrapped in clean blankets and squalling lustily.

"Now miss, here's your baby girl…" Mariasha stared into the woman's blue soft eyes and gave a warm smile.

Jun'ko didn't speak. She only smiled at the infant with a look of such peace and joy that it wrenched Mariasha's heart. This babe was born of love. Nothing else could account for the perfect happiness expressed on the mothers face. She moved to the foot of the cot to clean the girl and make her more comfortable. But when she pulled back the sheet she could only gasp with shock. The woman lay in a pool of blood. For a frantic ten minutes, Mariasha tried without success to stanch the hemorrhage. When she finally raised her head from the task the girl was gone.

It was half an hour longer before Mariasha went to the living room where her husband and the slave waited. She carried the swaddled infant in her arms.

"So it's born is it?" Zahur muttered sulkily. "Boy or girl?"

"A girl. Perfect little thing she is."

Mariasha looked down at the child then turned sad eyes up at the slave.

"You will not be needed…the mother has died."

Zahur groaned. "Now we have to find a family that will take the brat. We could just toss it aside on the road!"

Mariasha shot him a heated look. "I'm keeping her!" She said sternly

Zahur almost fell out off his stool. "Woman! You must be daft! No one would believe us if we said we had it! You being barren and all!"

Mariasha chuckled at her husband's stupidity. "No, we will raise her that is all. We don't need to pretend she is our own."

"Fine…then what shall you name her?" He asked scornfully "Have you figured that out yet?"

Mariasha just nodded.

"Yes…We shall call her Nariko…Gentle Child."

So…how was it? Should I continue? Or should I dump it and just goback to my other story…Don't worry, I will continue to write the other one I just needed some time to think…Anyways…R&R!