CHAPTER FIVE

Zoser ate dinner with his father that night. Ever since Jandi had moved in with her husband's family they hadn't had too many family meals, but Sabian, trying to keep his "perfect father" image up until the time came for him to pass his plans on to his son, decided that he should celebrate his son's small but significant victory. He had decided not to shame himself or his elders in front of Pharaoh and instead decided to leave when he was going to lose his temper. It was the sort of thing that some ministers never learned to do.

After the meal, Sabian went to his quarters to "prepare a speech for an upcoming meeting", as he put it. He was really planning how to announce Zoser and Kyrie's betrothal. He hadn't said anything to his son yet, nor had Rymon said anything to his daughter. They wanted to wait for the right time. Always waiting for the right time, Sabian thought bitterly. You have to wait to make announcements, to make alliances…to commit murder. He sighed. He knew that it was best to wait until Zoser could carry out his plans. Rushing into anything now would expose him and ruin his carefully laid out strategy.

Zoser stayed in his room for the rest of the night, not wanting to run into Raziel again. He knew that messing with the Grand Vizier of Limia wouldn't be good for himself or for Egypt. So he planned to stay away from Ayena. However, he didn't plan on Ayena wanting to talk to him…or knowing where his quarters were. And he especially didn't plan on her coming to visit him that night.

"Zoser?" She asked, standing in the doorway of his room.

Zoser, who had been lying in bed in nothing but a kilt, looked up to see her standing over his bed. "Ayena!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" He remembered Raziel's warning all too well and hoped that she hadn't been followed.

"You didn't come to see me today and I thought maybe something was wrong." She sat down on the edge of his bed.

He jumped up immediately. Was something wrong? Of course something was wrong! He had been physically threatened! "No, nothing's wrong." He lied. "I just was so busy…"

"Why are you acting so strange?" She asked, her white dress seeming to glow against her dark skin.

"Strange?" Zoser giggled nervously. "I'm not acting strange."

"Yes, you are." She stood up and walked over to him. He banged into the wall. "Oh, are you all right?"

"Fi-" His voice cracked a bit. He cleared his throat. "Fine."

She smiled. "Raziel spoke to you, didn't he?"

How had she known? He wondered.

"This isn't the first time father's sent me to do his dirty work…and this isn't the first time Raziel has gone with me, either. He watches me like a hawk." She saw Zoser nod uncertainly. "He never acts upon his threats, just likes to scare people off."

Zoser let out a relieved sigh, but sucked his breath in again when Ayena wrapped her arms around his neck. "Wh-what are y-you doing?"

She put a finger to his lips. "Shh." Then she leaned up to his lips and began to kiss him. He quickly pulled away.

He was a stammering mess. "W-we can't-can't d-do this, Pr-pr-princess."

"And why the gods not?" She asked.

"Because I'd like to have a head in the morning." He gestured for her to leave, but she walked over to his bed instead and lay down on it.

"Lie with me, Zoser." She pleaded.

He wanted to, so badly, but wasn't sure what to do. He looked at her beautiful form lying on his bed, remembering the other women he'd been with. They had never meant anything. They had been something to amuse himself with. But Ayena was different. She actually had the potential to mean something to him. He'd only known her for two days but already he felt as though he was falling in love with her.

He knew that if Raziel found out about this that he was a dead man, but suddenly he didn't care. He walked over to the bed and slid in next to Ayena, kissing her hard. Gods, it felt good. A few moments later they were naked, slipping into the safety of each other's company. Zoser couldn't remember anytime in the past where he had felt this good about anything. All other women escaped his memory and suddenly he couldn't even remember who he was, only that the woman he was with was the only lover he would ever need. Ayena, a much more experienced lover than he was, took control, something that he had never experienced before. He had no worries anymore. He ceased to exist. There was only Ayena, only the love he felt for the woman who was now giving him more pleasure than he'd ever experienced.

They lay there afterwards in each other's arms. He kissed her on the forehead as she played with the amulet that hung around his neck.

"What does this symbol mean?" She asked, twirling it between her fingers.

Zoser looked down at it. His mother had told him the story and he struggled to remember it. He smiled, pulling her closer to him. "It's the Eye of Horus, our family god. He offers protection and identifies me with other members of my family. My father has it tattooed on his palm, as will I if I become a minister. If I were to become a merchant it would be put on my shoulder. Soldiers would have it on their arm. And so on." As he talked, he took it off and slipped it over her head. "The story of Horus goes something like this: According to the old myth, a rivaling god, Seth, tore out Horus' eye. Seth was his uncle, who contended with him for the Egyptian throne after he had killed and dismembered Horus' father, Osiris."

"Sounds…interesting." Ayena said, sorry that she'd asked. She suddenly didn't want to wear it and put it back around Zoser's neck.

She kissed her new lover, her hands grabbing the back of his neck. They fell back into each other's arms and stayed there until Ayena began to worry. She was afraid that she would be missed. She dressed herself and left, only after giving Zoser a passionate kiss. He stood in the hall, naked, watching her run back to her room.

He had fallen in love for the first time in his life.

() () () () ()

Raziel was waiting for Ayena when she got to her room. He'd had a feeling that she had gone to see Zoser and wanted to stop this foolishness once and for all. She was ruining his plans. She wasn't supposed to fall in love. She was supposed to hate Egypt, she was supposed to go back to Limia and tell her father that no matter what Pharaoh decided that she wouldn't stand for him to align with Egypt. How did she expect him to overthrow King Azric if he had a strong ally like that? Of course, he knew that she had no idea he was planning a coup. How could she? She was a foolish, headstrong girl who fell in love easier than rain fell from the sky.

Ayena was giddy when she came into her room. It was dark and she hurried over to her bedside to light the torch.

Suddenly a hand was over her mouth and a familiar voice said, "You went to see him, didn't you?" She tried her hardest to break away, but her assailant, a man she had known all her life, wrapped his other arm around her body and repeated, "Didn't you?" He could feel her nod. He threw her on the floor then lit the torch on the wall. In the firelight his face looked even more evil than usual. "I told you not to go to him, bitch!"

"My father will hear about this!" She yelled.

Raziel slapped her across the face. "Shut up!" He picked her up and threw her down on her mat, climbing on top of her. "Let's see how loud you scream when you really have something to yell about!"

His mouth was on hers, hard, rough, forced. There was alcohol on his breath. She bit his lip and he yelled. Then he slapped her again. He ripped the top of her dress off and bit her neck. His hand roamed over her body and she kept trying to force him off of her, but no matter how hard she tried, he would push against her harder. She screamed as loud as she could. He punched her in the mouth, but she just kept screaming. He was about to force himself inside of her when two large hands suddenly pulled him off of her, pushing him against the wall.

A fist came in contact with his stomach, then a knee lifted itself into his groin. Raziel doubled over in pain. The person who had assaulted him stepped over his body into the hall.

"It came from in here!" He called to someone outside of Ayena's room.

The sound of pounding footsteps could be heard as Raziel tried to stand up again. Two guards joined the third who was checking on Ayena. The one who had punched Raziel told one of the men to "take care of the ass on the floor", then directed the other one to go to Pharaoh so that he could get a messenger out to King Azric.

After Raziel and the other guards had left, the first guard said, "Are you all right?"

Ayena just looked at him and started to cry. She cried for what seemed like hours, but it was really only about fifteen minutes or so. The guard, whose name was Kylon, sat next to her, almost putting an arm on her shoulder, but deciding against it.

"Princess?" He said, after she had calmed down a bit. "He'll get what he deserves."

() () () () ()

News of the attempted rape reached Zoser's ears the next morning. He had been strolling the grounds before morning meal and had overheard two guards talking about it when he came back inside from the gardens. His immediate reaction was to run to Ayena's quarters to see if she was all right. Once there he tried to get in, but was stopped by the two guards that usually guarded her door.

"No one's allowed to go in there except for the doctor and Pharaoh." One of them said.

"You don't understand! I have to-" Zoser began.

"No one's allowed in there!" The second one, a full two heads taller than Zoser, repeated. "Now, get out of here!"

"I have to see the Princess!" Zoser yelled. He tried to force his way in, but was stopped by both guards who picked him up and would have carried him away had Ayena not intervened.

"Stop!" She croaked from her room. Her voice was raw from screaming so much the night before. "Let him come in."

The guards looked at each other, shrugged, then dropped him on the floor. He stood up and brushed himself off. Once inside, he saw the broken, bruised form of Ayena lying on her bed. Her face was puffy, her top lip split. Her right eye was swollen shut. Zoser rushed to her side, grabbing onto her hand. She shuddered violently, so he let go again.

"No, no." She shook her head as much as she could. "Please, hold my hand."

He did, hesitantly. "Princess, why did this happen?" He couldn't understand why her father's most trusted advisor would try something so horrible.

"Why does Raziel do a lot of things?" She replied. She was silent for a moment. Then, "I'm glad you're here."

"So am I." He kissed her on the forehead. "You're going to heal. And Raziel's going to be punished for what he's done."

"Let's hope." She said, sounding a little less than convinced. "Let's hope."