A bellow penetrated the foggy shreds of her semi-consciousness. Trueth fought her way back from disjointed dreams featuring stars-the galactic, not the human variety, the coldness of outer space and a pair of sightless hazel eyes.
Another bellow.
As long as she lived, she would never forget the clamour caused by the hippopotamus bulls as they roared their territorial rage over the banks of the Nile. Nothing in the world compared to it, Trueth thought, while staggering towards her pathetic excuse for a shower. She nearly stumbled over two furry bodies en route. For reasons as yet unknown to herself, Metjen's pets had decided to take up residence and she had spent the night with one warm little body glued to her side while the bigger one had taken possession of her pillow. She had not minded, did not now; they were company, comfort and memorial all rolled into two living, purring mammals. If they only refrained from turning her bed into a grooming parlour, their morning breath was a lot worse than hers ... .
A few buckets of lukewarm water later, a knock cracked the silence of her apartment.
'Yes?' She hollered into the corridor, hoping her visitor would hear.
Apparently he did, for Seisi yelled back. 'It is I. We have been called by the holy circle to join them in the temple of Osiris. They are preparing for the ceremony to contact Iseret in the fields of the rushes.'
A jolt of wild hope shot up from Trueth's diaphragm, making her so dizzy she had to steady herself on the sea-green tiled wall. Imhotep had come through, had listened and not only that, had acted with the efficiency and lightning speed that was his trademark. Maybe all was not lost yet.
'What are we supposed to be doing? Oh, tell me later.' She raced towards her dressing room, then stopped. Her little maid was curled up on the space in front of the door, fast asleep. The fact was; Trueth did not require a servant, did not want one, but felt sorry for the little sprite. So she nudged the girl awake and sent her off to find a dress suitable for the occasion while Trueth knotted the strings of her loincloth, applied the bandage that stopped her breasts from bouncing around. Her maid returned, nearly drowning in the voluminous pleated folds of a flowing white linen robe. Once dressed, Trueth still had to put on her face. Eye liner she avoided, but she could not resist using a dash of the cassia oil Metjen had given her; most likely he had felt guilty at the time.
Trueth waved off further ministrations from the maid and proceeded towards the door among the girl's noisy need to be useful. Seisi had been waiting patiently on the balustrade following the antics of some falcons wheeling through the skies. Or maybe those were the vultures gathering, one never knew.
Trueth was impressed, never before had he presented himself in his full regalia as priest of the sun god. He did not wear the long robes Metjen hated with a passion. Instead, an ankle-length yellow shendyt covered most of Seisi's legs but revealed his well-sculpted upper body. Golden anklets, armbands and collar denoted his rank, as did the white skull-cap bearing a winged sun-disk embroidered in gold. His eyes were soothing pools of green in a bronzed face, shaded by the type of curvy lashes that should be forbidden to men. He could have climbed straight out of one of these wall paintings, yet he was real and she was only too glad for his spicy presence.
Seisi grinned. 'You seem to approve of my appearance.'
'May the hippos deal with hyper-perceptive priests.'
He burst out laughing but got serious again quickly. 'They are waiting for us. We shall not dally.'
'To come back to my question, why us?'
'You called out to the deities, we both knew Iseret in her later years, you even were an initiate in her sanctuary. Come now, Imhotep has readied his barge for us, we shall make good speed to the temple.'
The boat indeed seemed to fly, leaving her high spirits behind. What would they do if Iseret did not consent? She always had been an independent spirit... . By the time they arrived, joy had transformed into a state of alarm the sinister row of reclining jackals in front of Osiris' home on Earth did nothing to alleviate.
Instead, her tension worsened as they penetrated into the heart of the darkness that prevailed within these gigantic places of worship. Seisi's sun-flow carried them downwards aboard the flying bridges until they reached a level she had never been on before. He stepped into a landing a hand breadth above an opalescent glow pooling like a liquid haze at their feet, giving off the by now familiar metallic scent of high magic.
'We need to wait. I can take us no further,' Seisi said. 'Pray, keep away from the edge.'
There was movement in the vapour, bizarre shapes and patterns swirling about, faces even...she looked closer...familiar faces... . She leaned even closer.
A hard grip on her arm jerked her backwards. 'Watch out, lest the coils of Apep squash you in their grip! What you see is only an illusion to fool intruders.'
Trueth was still rubbing her arm when the mist suddenly withdrew into nowhere like a prodded snail would disappear into its house. They were left with another level of central tower complete with a flying bridge that was already veering in their general direction.
'This was not here when we first arrived through the portal.'
'No,' Seisi said. 'Back then the temple lay empty of power.'
They had arrived in a long corridor with a bronze door on one end and a wall composed of obsidian blocks on the other. Raised hieroglyphs and figures marched all over the glossy surface in uniform black, giving the obstacle a decidedly sinister appearance. Trueth wondered where the builders might have obtained the stone when Seisi stepped up to a chiselled representation of an eye of Horus and raised both of his forearms towards the wall, palms out.
She was not sure what she had been expecting, the fact that the obstacle dispersed into many multi-coloured sparks was as good a response as any. She followed Seisi into a spacious hall built from the same black rock. Behind them, the wall re-assumed its previous solidity. Trueth stared at the dark polished floor, wondering.
This place was stranger than fiction.
Seisi nudged her in the ribs. Of course, Trueth kept forgetting the formal salute the resident management seemed to take for granted. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, bowed from the waist-and wondered how people with back problems survived in this world.
Come!
The voice of Selket's high priestess sounded in her mind. Not for the first time Trueth asked herself how mind-talking worked. Did they emit energy from their brains that tickled the language centre in her cranium into action? Did they send actual sound waves from their minds? She would have to ask, but right now was maybe not the best of all times.
Seisi kept a safe distance from the collection of high priests air-seated around a pond-sized hole in the ground, from where issued more of the treacherous pearly haze. As she regarded the colourful array of the prophets, she wondered who the traitor was, who among them had crossed the line into darkness. What would happen if they failed; if Ptahmes came into power, would he be able to tip the balance and block the circle completely? Assuming, of course, he was a dark priest and not just a murderous bastard.
They should not be here! A shrivelled old man mind-snarled on their right. Despite his less than martial appearance, his outfit tended to indicate he served Montu, the god of war.
The high-priestess of Bastet shoved her bracelets up her arm. We agreed they should join, so they shall stay, she projected from across the hall.
Trueth joined Seisi on two mats placed right behind the airborne prophets. The priestess in front of them was serving Isis, the goddess of birth and rebirth, to judge by the insignia dangling from the woman's collar. Maybe this was a good omen, Trueth thought and carefully arranged her limbs on the mat. Her robe tended to get in the way of good manners, this time was no exception and she sat down with an audible plop.
We shall call forth Iseret from the Realm of the Deceased. You will not understand what you see. Nor comprehend what we do. I tell you, do not speak or act without being asked.
Jolly decent of Imhotep to instruct them on proper behaviour during the upcoming séance, Trueth thought. Not a wink later, she was even more grateful for the heads-up. The members of the holy circle grabbed masks out of nowhere and started to adjust them over their faces. Metjen's ancestor had disappeared under the bizarre long-beaked head of an Ibis. He was joined by the Horus falcon, a mummy, a cow—Trueth started, they must have found a replacement for Iseret, the last high priestess of Hathor. Others just wore faceless masks bearing the symbols sacred to their gods. From nowhere, a soft humming sounded as the light around the circle solidified into glowing streaks slowly swirling around the showy forms, dimming them to uniform grey.
The Halloween party Kemet-style was as ridiculous as it was scary, Trueth thought. She was trying to wriggle her leg before it fell asleep, her limb being completely out of synch with the rest of a body in full alert mode. The insistent humming grated on her nerves, yet nothing happened. All the while, Trueth tried to keep still despite the adrenaline racing through her body.
She wriggled her foot; Seisi placed a warning hand on her ankle.
The ethereal tendrils kept floating from the hole towards the far-away ceiling of the hall. There was no source of light other than the glowing layers around the priests, yet she was able to witness the prophets suspended motionless above the floor.
Apart from the hum, all was quiet...maybe she was mistaken, that buzzing had not been there before. It sounded like a submerged swarm of angry bees.
Still, nothing happened.
Or so she thought.
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Comeback Part 2 will follow on Friday, 2 October!
This chapter is dedicated to CeliaCaine who read CT1 all in one go and had some excellent observations which prompted me into a bout of interim editing. Chapter 1 has already been changed, some more will follow. Thank you!
The image is from DeviantArt copyright aldreaalien.