Shadow of the Sun (The Shadow Saga) (33 page)

“Tonight?” Mother asked, perturbed. She looked down at my tearstained face but didn’t greet me.

“Yes, my Heart.”

“She glanced behind her. I shall have my attendant dress me and I shall meet you in the reception chamber.”

She closed the door. Netri and I glanced at each other; with the uncomfortable feeling we interrupted something. We averted our eyes.

“Let us go to the reception chamber and receive our guests,” said Netri. One by one the Council of Twelve arrived. The limestone floor had just been washed. Candles glistened in the orange-hued alabaster holders placed around the room. We sat upon our gilded thrones, ready for Father to proclaim his news.

“Merit-Aten passed her initiation at the Gem-pa-Aten tonight. She is our first candidate of our Aten Mystery School. Tonight we have begun to break the patriarchal Amun lineage. She will be the first feminine energy introduced into this male-dominated pattern.”

Everyone extended their blessings to me. Everyone present, except my own mother who sat with her jaw clenched.

My father continued, “It is my utmost regret that we also encountered an assassination attempt upon our lives tonight.”

The room broke into a chorus of shouts and questions. I glanced at my mother and it seemed that the coldness in her expression, changed to alarm.

“This is outrageous!” she exclaimed. “What happened?”

“An archer who perched upon the Karnak pylon almost earned his commission tonight. Fortunately, Pentu aborted the crime. No one was hurt. A life was taken though; Merit-Aten’s cat deliberately intercepted the arrow that was meant for my daughter.”

I felt my heart was drowning in sorrow. I waited all this time. My cat loved me. She wanted me. And now she is dead because of me. Was everyone doomed because of my love for them?

Ra-Mesu stood and grabbed the hilt of his sword.” I shall find the perpetrator and have him whipped and hung upside down from the pylon. That will send a message to any others who dare attempt these vile acts in the future.”

“This is very disturbing,” said Parrenefer.

“Next time you may not be as fortunate,” said Grand Djedti Ti-Yee.

“Precisely why I summoned you. I have had a vision that a new city dedicated entirely to the Aten will blossom. I decree that the Aten worshipers will leave Thebes. Everyone who wishes to live in harmony and peace shall join us.” His voice rose with optimism. We couldn’t help but share his dream.

“Where do you propose we go? Upper Khemit already has an established government and territories. We would be unwise to be too close to any bordering countries, because our enemies could outnumber us,” said Ra-Mesu. “After all, Sire, you have not yet established a standing army to protect Khemit’s frontiers. And while I honored your request, this has weakened our boundaries, making us susceptible to invasion.”

“Our astronomer will draw a star graph to assist in choosing this new land. It must be upon a positive energy matrix to allow us the best possible outcome,” Netri stated.

“I see a site like no other yet established,” said Amaret, who stared trance-like into the distance. “A central location, yet we will have the protection of the Aten who will watch over us like a radiant beacon of light.”

“How will we find this promised land?” asked Ra-Mesu. “Should I send my best scavengers out to search for it? We could send an envoy to ensure that the land and passage will be safe.”

“No, we shall set sail and it will be shown to us,” replied Netri.

“Do you wish to take the royal barge,” asked Meti, “after the near-fatal attempt upon your lives? Would you risk having your daughter knock on death’s door by sailing in full view of all we pass?”

Netri paled. “Of course not. I would not jeopardize Merit’s life or anyone else’s. My advisors are rebuilding the ship to keep us safe.”

Meti sniffed.

The icy chill of her voice froze all warmth in my heart. She had shut the window to her soul and left me standing outside.
Oh, Mother forgive me.
I wanted to throw myself at her feet and pound my chest with closed fists. I’d beg for her to look at me. If given the choice between an initiation and the love of my mother, then of course I would prostrate myself to regain her adoration.

* * *

F
ive nights later, barges laden with supplies anchored in the Thebes harbor.

First, the guards escorted Meti to a plain barge strapped with food. Elaborate special cabins built in the lower deck housed Meti, Meket-Aten, Ankh-es-en-pa-Aten and attendants. I was assigned to the servant’s boat along with Parrenefer and Amaret. My beautiful cabin was painted in turquoise, the color now dearest to my heart. In order to offer the greatest protection for my father, the craftsmen designed his barque with an interior skin of metal. This would ensure that long range military archers would be unable to penetrate his boat. He had a custom-made bed built within another metal casing in the lower deck.

Our disguised flotilla journeyed upstream. Paddles sliced the water, and only a lone stork flying overhead sent us off under the grace of the ebony sky. Perhaps because Amaret saw the pain locked within the prison of my heart, she took pity.

“Merit-Aten, come look upon this land with another type of vision.” With hesitation, I rose and heeded the warning of not gazing directly into her eyes. I sat at her dirty feet on deck beneath the canopy of stars. “Your Majesty,” she said, “May I lay my hands upon your head?” Her hands were outstretched, ready to perform the deed. “You may.” She laid the warmth of her hands upon my temples and made soft grunting noises as she assessed my abilities. Occasionally she peppered the unintelligible sounds with ‘good.’ I could sense that energy poured in through the top of my head, as if some unseen hand watered a parched flower. Then she tapped my forehead three times.

“What do you see?” she asked.

Did she want me to tell her about the barques surrounding ours?

I told her about the stars in their configuration above us in the filament, and the color of the waves as they slapped upside the boats.

“No,” said Amaret with a sudden harshness. “You sound like you have an empty naos,” she said referring to the dockhouse on the top deck of a barque.

“You think I’m not intelligent?” I said clenching my jaw and thrusting my hands upon my hips.

“Do not bore me with the obvious. What surrounds me has no interest to me. Tell me the unseen. The way we earn our living is to perceive what others cannot.” She popped a pistachio nut in her mouth and spit out the shell.

Oh, this would be too difficult. The unseen, the veiled, the disguised. I stammered, fearing her judgment of my rudimentary skills. Amaret would be a difficult teacher to please; my intellect wouldn’t impress this wizened elder as it had my teachers in the Harem school.

I tried to find something that would shine from the light of the stars above. Shadows showered the shoreline. Unremarkable fishing boats passed us. Desperate to find something to offer her, I looked for a perch wagging about under the water; or a hunched black bird atop a clutch of papyrus umbels.

“If you find it difficult then close your eyes,” said Amaret as she spit out another shell, which whizzed past my ear.

“Close my eyes? If I shut my eyes then it will be impossible to see anything at all,” I argued, even as I averted my eyes like Grand Djedti taught me.

Amaret stiffened upon the stool. “Merit-Aten, you make me weary.”

“I closed them,” I said, not wanting to displease the only friend amenable to me.

Pictures formed in my mind. Movement. Yes, a clatter of feet behind the trees on the shore. “Feet,” I said. “Our soldiers. I can see our insignia upon their shields. Counselor Ra-Mesu rides in a shining chariot pulled by two thundering horses. And General Horemheb and his scouts scour the opposite shore.” I peeked to see her reaction.

“Good. Continue,” she said, as she rotated three balls in her hand and turned them over and over. “Ra-Mesu, such a master of deception, devised the plan of traveling in our barges disguised as fishing boats.”

“Hundreds of foot soldiers protect us,” I said, seeing this clear vision.

“Yes. What do they look for?” she asked.

“Assassins. More assassins,” I replied.

“What type?”

“Archers, the kind that shoot from afar.” I remembered the arrow that slew my cat and hunched my shoulders forward as if the motion could protect my aching heart for the fresh onslaught of pain and grief.

“Good. Are there any of these long-range archers out there?”

“Not yet. No one knows about our departure.”

“True. But once the news spreads of our clandestine exodus, tongues will wag, I assure you. Action will be ordered. And I am teaching you this skill because it could be your young eyes that save us.” Her message was clear. We couldn’t mistake this journey for a pleasure ride. Danger lurked around every bend.

“I understand.” Fear flooded my senses. As my eyes swept the shoreline, I imagined all types of terrible evils. My breathing became irregular, yet I wanted to be helpful.

“You dare not go to that dark place,” admonished Amaret without sympathy. “I have enough to worry about without you conjuring up illusionary demons to haunt us.”

The seer pinched me. The shock of her action forced me to be present.

She knew fear would make me lightheaded and short of breath. Yet she didn’t give me the respect as a future Per Aat.

Amaret disregarded my indignation. “We have no time to waste with fear. Back to the assignment. What else do you see? How fares your father?”

Focusing upon the Radiant One, I saw Father prone in his enclosed copper lined vault that served as his bedroom. “His breathing is slow and he looks pale and chilled. Pentu pulled a coverlet over him and pours an elixir into my father’s mouth.”

“And your Meti?” asked Amaret.

I turned my inner eye to spy upon the face that wouldn’t seek mine.

“She is ill at ease.”

She paced within the confines of her cabin. Her crossed hands clutched her elbows. Her possessions of beauty were thrown without care upon the dressing table. Her elaborate braided wig lay askew like a nest of asps. A heavy jeweled collar clanked against the metal box. Nefertiti, shorn of her once lustrous locks, was now washed clean of rouged lips, kohled eyebrows and liner.

An orchestra of candles surrounded her; even the flames adored her and bent in worship. The elegant shape of her clean shaven skull was held up by her swan neck upon the wings of thin shoulders. So lovely. I envisioned her so clearly that I reached out, hoping that within the privacy of her heart she could embrace me.

“You belong to the Aten. Give up your earthly mother,” said Amaret.