Magic of the Nile (34 page)

Across the wide expanse, the two young ladies-in-waiting were wreathed in a cloud of black magic influence Tyema knew only she could see. While she watched in horror, both women were thrown off their feet by an invisible force, plunging into the Nile.

Did the black magic rebound on them when Sobek intervened to save me?
Kicking off her sandals, Tyema sprinted across the deck. Shrieking, Baufratet was clinging to the edge of the barge, feet and lower legs dangling in the river. Two officers were already working to haul her back onboard. Hooking one arm around the nearest piece of ornamental fretwork, Tyema leaned over the river and searched in the ship’s wake for Nidiamhet. The girl was nowhere in sight for a moment, then broke the surface, being carried away from the boat by the current. Clearly panicked, she was flailing her arms, eyes and mouth wide open in soundless terror.
 

Taking a deep breath, Tyema jumped into the water, clutching her amulet as she called orders to the Nile crocodiles sunning themselves on the far bank. “Find the woman who fell, help me!”
 

As she went under the cool surface of the water herself, Tyema heard someone else falling or diving next to her, but her focus was all for the helpless Nidiamhet. Holding her breath, opening her eyes under the water, Tyema saw the first crocodile arrowing toward her through the murky water. Reaching out, she gripped the spikes on its back. The creature immediately changed course and brought her to the surface. Craning her head, brushing clinging wet hair from her face, she saw Nidiamhet feebly attempting to swim. The girl was drifting with the current, moving perilously close to a group of curious hippos. As the crocodile carried Tyema nearer to the herd, she saw at least one baby in the cluster and knew even if Nidiamhet didn’t drown, the hippos might attack her in the belief she was endangering their young.

In response to Tyema’s earlier orders, another crocodile came up directly under Nidiamhet, raising her out of the water, draped across its back awkwardly. Shrieking, the girl fainted. Floating like the log it often pretended to be, the crocodile awaited further commands from Tyema. Meanwhile the hippos were becoming agitated, forming a circle around the calf, facing outward, mouths stretched open in challenge, exposing their powerful teeth.

“Ema!”

Checking behind her, she saw Sahure in the water, swimming strongly toward her. “What in the seven hells are you doing?” he yelled.

The crocodile supporting her rolled its gleaming eye at the new arrival but made no aggressive moves, obedient to Tyema’s command. “I’m not sure how much I can get Sobek’s creatures to do for someone else,” she told Sahure, spitting out water as the Nile lapped at her. “Or how long I can control them. We’ve got to get Nidiamhet out of the river.”

Treading water, he eyed the hippos. “Can you summon a few more crocodiles to put themselves between the herd and us?”

Getting a fresh grip on the spines of the animal beside her, she said, “I can try. I’ve never attempted to hold so many at once.”

“Do that, and I’ll fetch Nida.”

Closing her eyes, she chanted a command, calling for guardians. She felt Sahure push off, swimming to meet the crocodile carrying Nidiamhet as the animal swam lazily nearer to them. A rush of water forced her to open her eyes, watching four crocodiles knife through the waves to take up positions between her and the hippos. Hippos could kill a crocodile, she knew, and she was anxious about endangering Sobek’s children. She sent a prayer to Tawaret, visualizing the Hippo Goddess as she’d been on the night of Seknehure’s birth.
Please hold your creatures in abeyance. We mean no harm to their young.

“I’ve got her,” Sahure yelled. He was swimming with powerful strokes to Tyema, pulling an unresisting, probably unconscious Nidiamhet along on her back. The crocodile which had been assisting the woman before Sahure arrived sank beneath the Nile’s surface.

“I’m losing control, they don’t want to be near the hippos,” Tyema shouted. Tremors ran through the crocodile she was clinging to as it flexed its muscles, twitching impatiently. She stroked its head, just behind the eye. “I only need a few more moments, please.” Blinking, the animal stilled, moving just enough to keep them afloat.

The queen’s barge had come about and was bearing down on them. Although Tyema knew the crocodile wanted to be gone, it stayed, as did the four swimming in lazy circles between the hippos and her. “Quickly, get yourself and Nidiamhet out of the water,” she said to Sahure. “The crocodiles will protect me, take me out of harm’s way, but not the two of you.” She was tired, cold, her arms were growing weak. As if sensing her condition, the crocodile adjusted, taking more of her weight.

A few moments later, Sahure was behind her, tugging her away from the crocodile, which rolled its eye at her and abruptly dove, swimming down and away with a flick of the powerful tail, leaving twin eddies in the surface of the Nile for a moment. Tyema was dimly aware of Sahure holding her tightly while sailors from the barge lifted the two of them in a net out of the Nile and safely on deck. Nidiamhet was nearby, coughing up water, being fussed over by her friends and her mother.

Baufratet was also being taken care of, weeping and lamenting her close call in dramatic fashion.

Queen Ashayet herself brought a robe to wrap Tyema, giving her a hug, heedless of her damp and muddy condition. “How fortunate you were right there when those foolish girls fell into the river.”

Shivering now, Tyema couldn’t speak.
One or both of those women is a sorcerer.
She reviewed the moments before the black magic rebounded from her protective amulet, trying to pin down which girl had been surrounded by the stronger aura, or might have made some gesture to hurl a spell. Her thoughts and memories were like the disjointed pieces of a puzzle which she was to tired to assemble, after the excitement and exertion of the time in the river.

Sahure was rubbing her arms, holding her tight. “As soon as we get to the palace landing, I’ll have you to your rooms and into a hot bath,” he said.

*****

He carried her from the barge dock directly to her chambers, snapping orders at the waiting palace maids Edekh had dispatched to pour her a hot bath. Once the bathing pool had been refreshed with heated water, he banished the servants from the room. Even Renebti and the baby were sent to her chamber, so adamant was Sahure about privacy. After stripping Tyema’s muddy, damp dress from her shivering body, he stepped into the pool with her curled in his arms and lovingly bathed her, washing her hair with sweetly scented oil before wrapping her in a large towel. Afterwards he carried her to the bed. Drying himself off, wrapping a towel around his loins, he joined her on the webbed mattress, but not before yanking the heavier curtains closed to provide additional privacy. Pulling her into his embrace, he held her close.

“I know you’re protected by the Crocodile God himself,” he said, “But I thought my heart would stop when I saw you jump into the Nile today.”

“You’re not protected and you came in after me,” she said, covering her mouth as she yawned. The whole ordeal had taken a great deal out of her, particularly the tense minutes holding the crocodiles against their will to assist other people. She refused to think about the next steps she must take to sort out whether it was Nidiamhet or Baufratet wielding the black magic. She’d probably used her power over the crocodiles to save the sorceress, for the time being. All of that could wait until tomorrow.

“As if I’d stand by and watch the woman I love drown or be killed. In some ways you don’t know me at all,” he said, reaching out to pick up the sea shell-decorated comb on the side table. Using smooth, slow strokes he removed the snarls and tangles in her hair.

“Do you still love me?” Immediately wishing she could recall the forlorn question, she hated the plaintive tone in her own voice.
I sound like my younger self, the outcast, crippled child, begging for crumbs of my mother’s affection. I swore I’d never do that again.

Dropping the comb, he tightened his arms around her, holding her close to his heart. “I never stopped loving you, not even the night you first rejected me. I was angry, yes. Was I an idiot for leaving Ibis Nome in such a state? Absolutely. But have no doubt my love stayed true.”

She retrieved the comb, stroking her finger along the edge of the teeth. “I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize.” He kissed her cheek. “I think I understand more now, having seen you here in Thebes. What I proposed to you originally wouldn’t have worked, would it?” Not waiting for her answer, he continued, “The queen warned me I’d failed to give proper consideration to what I was asking of you and she was right, as usual. You’re like a special lotus, which can only grow in one place in the Black Lands, in the Ibis Nome, am I right? Take you away from your sheltered cove for too long and you won’t thrive.”

She took a deep breath.
Time for truth. Either I trust this man with the full story of my past and how it affects me to this day, or I let him go forever.
“No, I can’t thrive, as you put it.”

“So I must think of another solution, because I still intend us to be together as man and wife, with our son.”

Surprised, her heart aching, Tyema twisted to gaze into his face. “There’s no solution, my love. Your destiny calls for you to stay here, in Thebes, where you can do great things for Pharaoh and Egypt. Mine calls for me to stay in Ibis Nome. ”

“I refuse to accept your dreary interpretation of our fates. Just as I refused to become your temple guard.” His tone was intimate and teasing. He kissed the soft spot where her neck joined her shoulders and she arched against him to invite more caresses. It was like a dream to be back in his arms, held close against his strong body. Unable to stop herself, Tyema ran a hand down his arm, tracing the curves of his muscles, well developed from all the military arts he excelled at.

Sahure whispered in her ear. “I want to understand the underlying problems because clearly there’s something I don’t know yet. Most of all, I want to apologize for being so high handed and arrogant on our final evening in your rooms. I was wrong to assume you’d give up all you’d achieved in your life for me and my precious career. I spent many a sleepless night in regrets.”

She was too tired to keep her secrets from him anymore. He deserved to know what separated them.
Let me tell him with no softening of the ugly truth, put his surety we can overcome anything to the test. And if his love fails the test, better for us both to know.
“When I was born, my right leg was withered, misshapen.” Pulling aside the sheets, she extended her right leg as if to be sure the limb hadn’t reverted to its childhood state, pointing the toes and flexing them. “My mother said someone had put the evil eye on her, cursed her, that I was demon spawn, an animal, and should be killed,” Tyema said. “Or so I was told, over and over.”

His arms tightened. “Set’s teeth, what mother would say such a thing of her baby? A child is a gift from the gods.”

Somehow it was easier to talk because she couldn’t see his face, yet his strength and love were wrapped around her. “My half-sister Merys saved me, treated me like her own child, saw I was given to a wet nurse. My father was the town’s chief scribe at the time so there was plenty of deben, although Merys had to shame him into hiring the woman. Merys raised me. She taught me to walk as best I could, forced me to do exercises to strengthen my withered leg. She also taught me the traditional songs of the priestess since the gods had gifted me with a strong voice and sense of music.” Tyema wiped away a tear.
Speaking of it is like reliving the horror.
 

And yet somehow it wasn’t. Telling Sahure was curiously simple, inflicted no pain. Maybe even felt good, like lancing a wound? Tyema decided to give him more details. “Other children in the village taunted me, threw stones at me sometimes when I tried to play with them. I’d no friends but Merys.”

He rubbed her arms gently to warm them. “Children can be cruel to those who are different.”

“In my tenth summer, the Hyksos raided the village. Merys was—was killed on the beach, below the old temple.” She took in a breath, gulping as the tears threatened to overwhelm her. Even though she knew Merys was safe now, beyond the ability of anyone to harm her, the memories were overwhelming tonight. She’d never spoken of these matters to anyone and found she couldn’t stop.

Turning her to face him, he put a gentle finger on her lips for a moment, before resting her head on his chest, holding her close, curled against him. “I know the unspeakable acts the Hyksos commit, no need to say more unless you wish to continue. May your sister’s
ka
be at peace. And you?”

“When the Hyksos attacked the town, I was taken prisoner, along with most of the other women and children. The Hyksos commander said although I was flawed, I’d make an interesting sacrifice to their god. Something amusing for the demons to chew on, he said.” Tyema knew if she closed her eyes she would still see the man, as if he’d stood taunting her now, not fifteen years ago. “We were carried away up the Nile in ships. I hadn’t been on a ship since that day, in fact, until I had to sail to Thebes to bring Pharaoh the new crocodile for the temple. What an ordeal the journey was, but Sobek ordered me to come.” She did close her eyes then, biting her lip.
Treading too close to the true reason why I’m here.

“If sailing causes you distress, which I can understand it might, how did you manage the voyage to Thebes? Did your physician give you a potion or a spell?”