An old memory…
“Kah! Kah!” seven year old Ahkmenrah ran up to his older brother who was in the middle of talking to a young woman he was interested in. “Ahkmenrah, how many times have I told you not to run off!” Kahmunrah scolded his brother who had escaped his teachers once again. Ahkmenrah whimpered slightly, Kahmunrah only shook his head as he picked up his brother and sat him on his knee. The young woman Kahmunrah’s soon to be wife known as Layla only smiled at the young boy. “Enough pouting, what is it?” Kahmunrah asked, having run out of patience.
Ahkmenrah frowned, snuggling into his brother's chest as he said, “Tahmunrah has returned”. Kahmunrah felt his blood grow cold, Layla tightened her grip on his knee. “What? Why wasn’t I informed?!” “Mother told me to come and get you, so we can hide together and…” Kahmunrah turned to look at his baby brother wondering why he had stopped only to realise Ahkmenrah was looking behind him.
Kahmunrah turned only to groan when he saw his 21 year old brother walking towards them with their mother and father. Kahmunrah groaned, he tightened his grip on both Layla and Ahkmenrah. Yes he was 23 and the oldest but that didn’t mean he had to like all his family members. In fact Kahmunrah only hated one person in the whole universe and when he meant hated, he actually meant wished dead. Kahmunrah couldn’t count the amount of times he prayed to the gods to take his brother early, Tahmunrah was an evil human.
“Ahkmenrah, I told you to inform Kahmunrah that your brother was home safe from his journey and not to leave us…”
“I’m sorry mother”
Tahmunrah smiled, “It is fine, Mother. It seems the little bird still needs to go through his lessons before he has a correct understanding of what you actually requested”. Shepseheret only nodded at her middle child, inwardly she was angry but for now she would let her husband deal with it. Merenkahre gestured for Layla to leave, with a quick curtsey and kiss to Kahmunrah she left intending on going back to her chambers.
Kahmunrah only groaned as he held Ahkmenrah’s hand tightly in his own.
“Kahmunrah”
“Tahmunrah”
Merenkahre didn’t miss the snarky tones of his two elder sons, instead his eyes fell on his youngest who seemed to be watching the birds in the small pond while ignoring his brothers who seemed to challenge each other silently. The pharaoh could never understand why his eldest sons never got on.
“My sons please wash up. We have prepared a banquet for Tahmunrah’s return, we are celebrating his new marriage. Kahmunrah please help Ahkmenrah get washed and show Tahmunrah to his new chambers” Merenkahre ordered as he took his wife’s arm and walked back towards the palace, he hoped leaving the brothers on their own would do them some good. However, their parents were oblivious to their rivalry.
Kahmunrah was quick to lift Ahk onto his hip furthest away from Tahmunrah. During their gentle walk back towards their chambers, Kahmunrah hoped the silence would last but sadly that wasn’t the case for one particular moody brother.
“So Kahmunrah, how have you been in my absence? Has the brat been behaving?” Tahmunrah asked while holding one of his daggers in his hands. It was so clean that one could see their own reflection in it, if they dared looked. “I have been happy and content, Ahkmenrah has been great. We haven’t had to deal with a bratty prince complaining about his daily life in killing his wives off” Kahmunrah snarled, turning to his brother who wore a look of anger, Ahkmenrah by this time was hiding behind Kahmunrah’s legs.
Before anything could escalate, Layla appeared. She was walking towards the three brothers, she greeted them with a smile. Ahkmenrah took the opportunity to hug her, she eagerly hugged back. She wore a dress that hugged her curves and showed off her skin, Kahmunrah smiled. He was to marry her at the weekend. She would be the most beautiful bride, her silky blond hair shone like the sunshine according to Kahmunrah. A giggle made Kahmunrah snap out of his thoughts, he looked to his baby brother only to smile. Ahkmenrah was skipping down the corridor with Layla who laughed with him.
Kahmunrah shoved past Tahmunrah following his siblings unaware of the danger his brother would cause.
Later that night after a large banquet, Kahmunrah decided to retire to his room for the night, after putting Ahkmenrah to bed. He decided to go and say goodnight to his soon to be wife, his father was quite strict on their interactions but his mother encouraged it. However, when Kahmunrah got to Layla’s corridor he saw what looked like a scuffle. His father’s personal guard urged him not to go inside but he stubbornly shoved past to see his future wife on the bed covered in her own blood. She had been murdered and a note was left beside her. Kahmunrah couldn’t help the emotions that overwhelmed him, he snatched the note from his father who had just arrived…
‘Remember what I said, You don’t deserve happiness and neither does the brat! Hope you can save the next one before I have to kill another! Haha! - T’
Kahmunrah was furious but he wasn’t the only one. Merenkahre sent out a warning for his son Tahmunrah to be found and brought to him immediately. The pharaoh knew his middle child had some issues but he didn’t think killing would be one. There was only one thing he could do to set his son free, which was sending him to command one of his army’s or so he thought.
A strangled scream of pure fear rang through the corridors of the palace, Kahmunrah was moving before he even realised it. The guards following straight on his tail, Merenkahre didn’t care that he was pharaoh, he rushed after his eldest son. That scream only belonged to one person and a fathers instincts are never wrong.
Ahkmenrah was in danger!
The two arrived on the scene to find Tahmunrah had Ahkmenrah by the throat and was in the middle of choking the child. From what Kahmunrah saw in the flashes of anger were the cuts, bruises and broken objects in his baby brother's chambers.
“Ahkmenrah!” Merenkahre yelled out startling Tahmunrah who turned with only one look on his face, pure evil. The pharaoh didn’t know what to do, his son was walking towards him with a knife and had a look of evil on his face. The guards tried to disarm him but Tahmunrah took them down. Merenkahre could only watch as his son who had commanded his army’s or so he thought, Tahmunrah had made sure the men in the army did the worst things possible. His son tried to kill his brothers. Kahmunrah at one point had enough, his mother had arrived and held Ahkmenrah in her arms, the little boy curled tightly in his mothers embrace while their father stood in front of the two.
Kahmunrah would do one thing and that was protect his family and that certainly didn’t include Tahmunrah. Despite Merenkahre’s best efforts he couldn’t stop the violent duel in front of him, even the guards couldn’t do anything. Ahkmenrah whined for his parents, the two reassuring him everything was alright. At one point Tahmunrah was getting annoyed and decided to throw a dagger at his brother and sweep his legs out however it backfired as Kahmunrah caught the dagger and when he went down he tripped his opponent. Tahmunrah fell face forward onto Kahmunrah but due to the back fire of the move, Tahmunrah had fallen on his own dagger. It went straight through his heart, the middle brother choked on his blood, Kahmunrah shoved him off him in shock.
Merenkahre watched in shock as his eldest shoved his middle son. The blood coming from his son's chest was just too much, Shepseheret couldn’t even find herself to comfort her dying son, not when Ahkmenrah had fallen unconscious due to his own blood loss. The priests were quick to help the middle prince, they soon learned they were too late. Kahmunrah only stood in shock as he watched his brother's eyes close for the last time, the lifeforce slipping from them.
Tahmunrah saw one thing in his eyes as he closed them, the betrayal of his family. They didn’t come to his aid, he saw the way they rushed to Ahkmenrah’s side. Oh how he would get his revenge in the next life. Nothing would stop him, he would kill Ahkmenrah if it was the last thing he did!
A broken family somehow became whole after the middle prince was buried in the royal chambers far away from where the pharaoh’s tomb would be. In reality, was Tahmunrah actually dead or did the gods heed his earlier prayers.
A shorter chapter! Stay Tuned for more updates next week! :)