CHAPTER THREE
"Minister Sabian." The man said standing as Sabian entered the room. "I am glad that you decided to come here tonight after all." He sat down and motioned for Sabian to do the same.
"This meeting is as important to you as it is to me, Minister Rymon." Sabian's voice was no longer jovial, but rather sly and it had an iciness that would chill the Nile. "My son should have been betrothed a long time ago, but his mother would have nothing of the sort. When she died, gods rest her soul, I planned to try again, but that blasted Jandi was just as stubborn as her mother."
Rymon nodded hesitantly. "Yes, well, my daughter Kyrie was betrothed, but, sad to say, the man she was to marry drowned a few weeks ago." He shook his head. "It was a terrible tragedy."
Sabian said nothing, but there was a glimmer in his eye that told Rymon that this was not news to him. He shook the thought from his mind. He was still mourning the loss of his future son-in-law and was most likely just trying to blame someone for the loss of a boy he had grown rather fond of.
"Yes, I can imagine." Sabian said, rather cautiously. He changed the subject. "Your daughter is a beautiful girl, Minister. My son will be happy to know that he is to marry her."
"Well, we haven't come to a decision yet." Rymon reminded him.
"Minister Rymon, I'm sure that you will agree that both of our options are running thin. The other ministers went through this process a long time ago. I've talked to them. We are the only two left." Sabian replied.
Rymon knew that he was right. He didn't like or trust Sabian, but Kyrie needed to find a husband soon and Zoser was the obvious choice. "You're right. Rotten, but, nevertheless, right."
Sabian nodded, pleased that Rymon agreed. Maybe drowning that sorry excuse for a man had been the right thing to do after all. "So, do we have a deal?"
Rymon looked over at his fellow minister who had a dangerous-looking smile on his face. He hoped that he wasn't putting his daughter at risk. "Yes. Yes, I think we do."
Sabian laughed bitterly. "Welcome to the family."
() () () () ()
Ayena laughed, splashing water in Zoser's direction. The two of them were sitting on the edge of a lake in the middle of one of the gardens, their feet dangling into the water. It was Zoser's favorite part of the palace gardens. When he was a child he would sit, just like he and Ayena were now, for hours on end, thinking, imagining. The day his mother died he had run out of the palace into the gardens and slid beneath the cool waters of this very lake, letting it wash over him, taking his troubles away.
"So, what do you think?" He asked her.
Ayena threw her head back, her hair dangling down, glistening in the moonlight. "I love it!" She giggled gleefully. "It's all so beautiful!"
"I used to sit here as a child. It was the one place I could escape to."
"I know how you feel. Where I come from we don't have a garden but there is a room at the far end of the palace that no one's used for the longest time. It used to be a servant's quarters. I found it one day when I was running from the palace guards. I had interrupted a very important meeting and they had chased me out."
"You sound like me when I was younger." Zoser chuckled, remembering when he'd accidentally walked in on the Pharaoh and his Captain of the Army discussing war strategies. He'd been run out by one of the guards and his father had punished him by not letting him eat his meal with the family that evening.
Ayena leaned back, remembering. "I used to go there and pretend I was a peasant girl."
"Why?" Zoser had never fantasized about being poor and didn't understand why anyone would want to.
"No real reason. It was just something that I'd never experienced before." She looked over at him. "Didn't you ever do that? Pretend that you were someone else, somewhere else?"
Oh yes, he'd done that. Every day of his life for the past seventeen years he'd pretended that he was anywhere but in the Pharaoh's palace, that he was destined to be anything but a minister.
Zoser nodded. "I still do that."
They looked at each other briefly, then looked away again. Zoser had had lovers before, but this woman was different. There was something about her that made him uncomfortable. He was feeling things that he never had felt for a woman before.
Ayena looked up at the sky, then at the ground, then at Zoser. "I should go soon. If someone goes to check on-"
"Princess!" A voice called out in the distance. "Princess, where are you?"
Ayena gasped. "It's Raziel!" She whispered.
"Quick! Hide!" The pair ducked behind a small grove of trees.
In a few minutes Raziel turned the corner. "Princess, are you out here?"
Zoser and Ayena huddled together, something that neither of them minded very much. Zoser pulled her close and she turned around so that she was face to face with him.
"Princess Ayena? One of the guards said that they saw you sneaking out. Are you here?" Raziel was looking behind statues and trees, something that scared Zoser just a bit. "It's dangerous to wander around at night in a strange country alone." Then Raziel seemed to stop and think for a moment. "Unless you aren't alone."
Ayena stood on her toes and whispered into Zoser's ear, "Leave it to me." She then kissed him briefly on the cheek and crouched down, crawling until she had reached a considerable distance away from where Zoser was standing, rubbing his cheek.
"Ayena? Where are you and who are you with?" Raziel already knew the answer to the second question.
Suddenly Ayena came through the doorway to the part of the garden where Raziel was standing. "Raziel? Is everything okay?"
"Princess?" The man spun around and ran up to Ayena. "Oh, thank gods."
"Is something wrong?" She asked innocently.
"What are you doing out here at night?" Raziel's voice was stern.
"It's none of your concern." She began to walk away from him.
Raziel caught her arm. "Yes, it is my concern. Your father put me in charge of you and I'm going to do my job even if it kills me." He flung her backwards and she reached back to keep her balance. It took all that Zoser could do not to lunge forward at him.
"Let's just go back inside." Ayena pleaded, wiping herself off but not losing her composure.
"Not until you tell me who you were with and what you were doing." He towered over her like a giant, but she stood her ground.
"I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk around the grounds."
She started to make up some wild story about a nightmare and Zoser decided that now would be a good time to leave. He started to back up, careful not to step on any branches that may have fallen to the ground. He was successful for a few minutes but he hadn't planned on a wall being right behind him. He bumped his head and let out a little yelp. Raziel turned towards the grove.
"What was that?" He asked, walking towards it.
Ayena rushed to his side and grabbed his sleeve. "It's probably just an animal, Raziel. Can we go inside now? It's getting chilly out."
Raziel stopped inches from the grove. Slowly Zoser sidestepped his way out of the trees and hid behind a wall.
"You're right Princess. We don't want you to catch cold." He pulled his sleeve from her grasp. "You go back to your room. I'm going to find this animal."
Ayena tried to get him to go with her but he wouldn't have it. Dejected, she ran back to the palace. Raziel climbed through the grove, looking for the young man he knew would be there. He heard the sound of running and looked out at the garden where he saw Zoser hurrying to get back to the palace.
Raziel stepped out of the trees, sneering. "Some animal, Princess." He reached down to his belt and fingered the handle of his sword. "I'll make sure that animal doesn't get into anything that he shouldn't be. Mark my words."
() () () () ()
Zoser was riding on a giant snake through Egypt; past the people he had known his whole life. There was his father, his sister, the Pharaoh, the Prime Minister, and many others. Suddenly Ayena was sitting behind him on the snake and Raziel was behind them. He rode an even bigger snake and was gaining on them. The giant snake had opened up his mouth and was going to swallow the snake that Zoser and Ayena were riding but before it could Zoser turned around and drove a sword through the top of the monster's throat. He pulled the sword out again and slew Raziel. Then the Pharaoh was in front of him. He was dressed as the Prime Minister and was giving Zoser his thanks and congratulations. He told the boy to come off of the snake so that he could receive his reward. Zoser kissed Ayena and then got off of the snake he was riding. Suddenly it started moving again and Ayena was carried off into the desert. Zoser looked at the Pharaoh who was laughing. It sounded like his father's laugh. He lifted the sword above his head, then drove it through Pharaoh's heart.
Zoser woke up drenched with sweat, his heart pounding.