I have finally found an editor to help me with this, so I hope that the potential stylistic changes do nto jar anyone. I have began to compund the plot, as you'll soon see. Also, I apologise explicitely for the strange implications in this chapter, they were partly my editor's idea. I could certainly tone it down if asked!
Atemu gripped the letter in a tense fist before throwing his cape around himself and dashing swiftly to the door. He could change later, this was important! If someone had had the audacity to have sneaked into his room to deliver the latter he could be in dire danger.
His bear feet pattered on the cold stome of the palace floors as he made his way to Isis, the palace seer's bedroom. His cape swirled around him like a lavender wind as he flung the door open. Wide-eyed, his lucid purple orbs scanned the room for the seer woman. But... she seemed absent.
Atem heard a strange swishing sound, and Isis wandered out of a small room to his left. "MY PHARAOH!" she cried, covering her bare chest. Atemu looked away in shock, his cheeks burning brightly. Suddenly, he realized with horror that he was still dressed in the almost-translucent garment he had worn to meet Seto the night before.
He pulled his cape around himself in a self-conscious coccoon before turning coyly back to Isis and handing her the strange letter.
"Someone entered my room early this morning, before I awoke" he said in a low murmur. "They left this. I know not what it means."
He turned to her concentrating on her face, and pleaded. "Please. You msut tell me what it means."
She unfolded the letter and looked over it. Immediatly her hands began to shake and she looked at the young king. "My Pharaoh, this is a symbol of death! This means that someone has breeched the castle, and has left this as a fatal warning! Mahaado, the Captain of the Guards, MUST be contacted at once!" She dashed from the room to summon a messanger boy, and Atemu was left in the cold ornately decorated room alone and stupified.
He sighed a shuddery sigh and brought a hand up to his face. The mark of death? It... it made sense. The pharaoh was the sun. The sun was gone.
After taking a few moments to collect his terrified mind, he scampered out the door with a sob. He wanted to be somewhere safe. And right then, the only one he felt safe with was Seto. It slammed loudly behind him as he vaulted for Seto's room, tears falling from his eyes and shining in their decent like liquid crystals.
The guards and servants gawked at him as he ran through the palace. He could scarcely blame them. He was sobbing madly and hardly dressed at all.
He did not care.
He finally reached Seto's door and threw himself upon it, still sobbing and too exhausted to knock.
The door fell away before Atemu could react and Atemu found himself in the lap of the Priest of the Millenninum Eye, his uncle Akunadin.
"Great Pharaoh, my son, what has you so distraught?" Akunaduin sank to his knees in front of the boy and gently brushed away his tears. Atemu scrubbed at his face, but he still could not find the air to speak. He gasped like a fish out of water pathetically struggling.
"N-nothing, uncle," he said, erecting himself to full height and trying to regain some modest sense of dignity. "Mahaado will inform you later. Is Seto here?"
Akanadin stared at him "Master Seto has gone to market for the morning. Can I assist you in dressing, my Pharaoh?"
Atemu paused. He was quite old enough, and capable enough to dress himself. But thought of the Letter sent shivvers down his spine. He nodded.
"As you wish," the man said, taking Atemu's small hand in his larger one and leading him off in the direction of his chambers. Atemu smiled in spite of his distress. Their was somethong soothing in the man's tone.
"What has Seto gone to market to buy?" he asked coyly after they had walked a ways. His cheeks burned brightly, for he knew the truth. Seto was shopping... for him.
"He would not say," his uncle said plainly. "I fear he may have gone to find a woman."
Akunadin laughed. If only he knew.
Atemu smiled at the thought of what his cousin might bring. They reached his chambers and Aknadin led him inside. "You forgot to wash before bed last night, my Pharaoh. There is kohl smudged across your face. Come, you shall wash and then dress." Atemu was led to his bathing room where attendents had already filled his washbasin with clear water. Under the watchful eye of his uncle, the man who had raised him in his father's stead, Atemu stripped off his cloths and settled himself in the cool water.
He washed himself slowly, contemplating his situation as he scrubbed the dirt from his body and gently washed his face clean. If he had received the mark of death, what sort of person has invaded his guarded chambers to deliver it. He was in danger. Dire, dire danger. A soft tremor danced up and down his delicate spine at the thought of someone invading his chambers as he slept. Watching him sleep...
Then again, perhaps this would be a good excuse to share a room with Seto. Seto, who could keep him safe and ease his flustered mind. He sighed. No. That was rediculous.
"Something truly must be upsetting you, pharaoh," his uncle said. Atemu flushed bright crimson, suddenly horridly aware of his state of undress as his uncle's hand brushed his back.
A bunched length of dripping linnen was rubbed where his shoulder met his neck and a delightful shivver sent an electric warmth though his whole body. Atemu sighed and leaned forward, allowing his uncle to gently wash his back and thought of Seto's smooth hands carressing him in the same way.
The man's fingers wandered up to his slender neck and maasgaed slowly. Atemu was beginning to relax. He slumped back sinking all but his neck and head into the comfortingly cool bath. The scent of oils wafting about the room further aided his relaxation. He gave a contented sigh.
"Uncle," he finally said. "I do not want you to hear of this second hand from a massanger. Last night, someone came into my room and left a threatening message." He sighed again, delicate chest rising and falling in the foamy bath. "Tell me. Tell me what I should do."
Akunadin was silent for a long time. His skilled hands even stilled in their movements. "A message, you say? What makes you think this message could be threatening?" Atemu moved to look at him with tears shining in his azure eyes "Uncle, the seer Priestiss Isis told me it was a forwarning of death. Of my death! What shall I do?"
An odd glint crossed Akunadin's eye and Atemu was not yet old nor wise enough to see the seeds of betryal. "This is indeed dire, my son. I shall speak to Mahaado this day. Until then, we shall place extra guards at the palace entrance and turn away all those who's business is not urgent." Atemu sighed feeling comforted by the Priest's foreknowledge. "That will be of great ease to my mind. Thank you, uncle."
"It is my pleasure to reassure you," the man said. He stood erect, trailing a hand through Atemu's hair as he moved away, returning with a neatly folded pile of freshly cleaned clothes.
Atemu gathered himself with a heavy sigh, delicate limbs unfolding to bring him to full height. He steeped out of the bath dripping wet and lifted a linen cloth from a nearby seat and began drying himself. He shivered a bit in the drafty room, but smiled dispite it. PErhaps all would be well after all...
Akunadin smiled, watching Atemu scrub his unshaven hair dry. "Tell me of this message, my Pharaoh?" He asked as he stepped forward and began wrapping Atemu's glistening, still wet body with a soft linnen undergarment.
The slight pharaoh shivered and pulled the margent close to himself. The electric, charged feeling was returning. He had to stop associating every kind touch with Seto...
"It was a sunrise," he said slowly. "A sunrise... with no sun at all. It was blotted out with sketchy ink. Uncle, I fear that someone plans to murder me! And he has been in my room as I slept..."
He daintly grasped a robe from the set and wrapped it about his shoulders with a soft sigh. "I am sorry to have troubled you with this," he said.
"It is a fair concern." Akunadin intoned gravely "and you were right in asking for our help. It would be a great loss if a theif slipped inside our walls and murdered our Pharaoh in his bed, as well as a great shame to myself and the other five Priests sworn to guard this Kingdome." The priest of the Eye bowed his head in mock respect and revrence, a hidden smile maligning his withered features. His hands rested on Atemu's hips and the boy wiggled them enticingly in his distress.
"I-I-I must go," Atemu stammered, tearing himself away from the older man, his face flushed fully. "I must meet with Mahaado."
He dashed out of the room, still wet from the waist down. He should not feel such things around Akunadin whether he was feeling them with Seto in his mind or not.
He pulled his rode around him and shivered. He looked about the palace for Mahaado, finally locating him in the dining hall.
"I suppose that Isis has told you of the message," he murmured, settling into the head seat.
Mahaado looked at him, suprised. "Of course, my Pharaoh. In fact, we have been waiting for you for quite some time. Where have you been?" Atemu blinked, looking innocent, "I was in the bath. It seems I became quite dirty in the Gardens last night." Mahaado nodded briskqly, comletely ignoring any double meaning in Atemu's words. "Now, Per-Pharaoh, to the matter of your distress. I think it is prudent of the priests and of me as the head of security to post a guard around yourself at all times and around the doors to your chambers as well. No one may see you at all, not even a member of the sacred Millennium Priests unless the guards fail to detect malicious magic."
Atemu mouthed words but no sound escaped his flushed pink llips. If he were under guard at all times, he would hardly ever see Seto. But... if he objected, they would surely be found out.
He sighed, nodding slowly and surely. "I agree," he said.
Perhaps he would have to sacrifice his precious, treasured time with Seto in order to keep there affair in the dark.
But... perhaps he would not have to sacrifice anything.
I truly am sorry to leave you hanging out on a ledge like this again, but it seemed a good place to end it.
Please, please review! I need the input on what to do and where to take
this. I feel that I may have gotten in over my head in taking on such a
large project. :sighs: Please!