“I think you had better ask Alex that question.”
Nakhtifi looked more than a little confused at Ramses’ reply, but asked anyway.
This rather took Alex by surprise, though as he now had all the information he needed, he decided to go out on a limb with his answer. “As I see it, Henuttawy was only exiled from Egypt because of her love for the warlock …” That was it, upon hearing ‘warlock’ all eyes were instantly on him.
Kate was more than a little annoyed that he was suddenly the centre of attention as she had not given him another thought.
Nakhtifi very quickly said, whilst pointing, “I did not mention the warlock, it was him.”
Nobody tried to stop Alex from talking, though having been interrupted he changed tack. “Why did you try and keep the warlock’s power secret from us, and feed us this story about the sonic boom?”
Bast and Rose both started to say sorry, but it was Ramses who carried on. “I told them you were too clever to accept such a story, though it was a good story, Rose,” he said as he raised his glass of red wine to her. After taking a rather large gulp, he continued. “We have never experienced such power from him and did not want you to be worried by it until we knew more. That is all. Nothing more sinister than that.”
Alex decided to carry on as he felt he had adequately made his point, and Ramses’ answer appeared to be genuine. “As I was saying, Henuttawy, a daughter of the mighty Ramses, was only exiled from Egypt because of her love for the warlock. This love turned her against her family which is why she has been in exile for over three thousand years. Fearful, in all that time, to return to her homeland, because it was made very clear what would happen if she ever did. Why then does she choose to return now? Why? Who would not fear the wrath of Ramses?” Alex gestured towards the great pharaoh, who took a mock bow as he raised his glass in triumph. “So, I feel we have to look at several things. Firstly, who has been promoting Henuttawy’s name within archaeological or academic circles.” Alex paused as he could see confused faces all around him.
“I understand,” said Rose.
“Well, I wish I did,” said Gadeem.
“You will in a minute.” Rose smiled at him. “Alex is right, as Henuttawy is no fool. She most certainly does not wish to be removed from the afterlife or she would have come back centuries ago. For her to come back now, she must be confident that Ramses cannot remove her.”
“Remove her! I will not only remove her, but also my useless guards who she managed to evade.”
“Sorry, Ramses, but I’m not convinced you will be able to.” All eyes were again on Alex. “She is in love with the warlock, so her only reason for returning is to share that love. She cannot be with him if he is locked away. She can only be with him if he is free.” Alex felt confident, he was even enjoying the look of extreme displeasure on the face of Kate. He waited a few seconds before saying, “Henuttawy has returned because either she feels that she has gained enough knowledge of ancient magic to be able to free the warlock, or, she has brought someone with her who can free him. Either way, the only way to keep him safely locked up, as your magic has done for so long, Gadeem, is to get rid of Henuttawy.”
Ramses stood. “Excellent, absolutely excellent. I have just listened as young Alex here ran rings around Nakhtifi without him even knowing it. So skilfully done, it was a joy to listen to. It was just like you, Gadeem, when you were at your best.”
Gadeem actually thought he was still at his best. He had been responsible for many, if not all of Ramses’ greatest victories. He not only used ancient magic, which until now had been powerful enough to keep the warlock safely locked away, he also deduced so much, which had given Ramses the upper hand on far too many occasions to count.
“There is just one thing you did not get quite right, young Alex,” said Ramses. “We need to be rid of both Henuttawy and the warlock. Once and for all we need to be rid of them both, and you are just the person to do it.”
Chapter 2
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If Looks Could Kill
Until now Alex had been extremely proud of how he had been able to obtain the facts of the matter from Nakhtifi. He was even happy, exceptionally happy with how angrily Kate looked at him. Though if those looks could have killed, he would never have stood a chance. To hear Ramses say he was the person to get rid of both Henuttawy and the warlock somewhat diminished his satisfaction. He did not want the guilt of removing anyone from the afterlife directly on his shoulders.
In many ways, he had been doing what he had accused Kate of so many times: not working as a team. The problem for them was the emergence of their ancient memories. Alex would be fifteen in a couple of months and Kate had held her fourteenth birthday party at the Winter Palace last week, yet their brains had to cope with the uneasy mix of ancient and new memories. Their new memories, the fourteen or fifteen years of memories they had acquired whilst they grew up, were fine. They both knew how to cope with the vast majority of their teenage emotions, even if Kate was so frequently rude and acerbic. Despite, possibly even because of this, Alex had fallen in love with her. Kate also had feelings for him, even though they were both young and not really able to appreciate where these feelings would take them.
The problem was their ancient memories. These remained far from fully clear to them. Remembering life experiences that they had not themselves experienced, from a time they knew almost nothing of, added confusion rather than clarity to their lives.
Kate’s ancient memories came from well over three thousand years ago, in the time of Nakhtifi, whom she had discovered was her closest ancient relative. She was descended from an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, though one who was immediately forgettable. Average height, average build and with an almost featureless face. Yes, everything was there, eyes, nose, mouth and ears, though there was nothing memorable. He was pleasant enough, though rather bland. His father, Ramses II, was the exact opposite. Once seen, he could never be forgotten. He carried a presence, a wit, and an intellect Nakhtifi could only dream of.
Alex, on the other hand, was related to Aryamani, an ancient Nubian king who lost everything, not only his power, but also his country, all because of his love for Cleopatra VII, the Cleopatra, a Greek! A large man in both height and breadth with a skin so dark it shone, he was a true warrior of a man, but also a man with a heart. Alex felt privileged to be related to him. He felt he had found his place in the world.
Kate had never known her father, lost her mother and had thankfully lost the awful Aggie, the heavy drinking and abusive grandmother she had been forced to live with. She was now part of Alex’s family, as his mother and father, Babs and Quentin, had taken her under their wing. The issue for Alex, and he had never felt this so strongly before, was that they were not his parents. He was adopted. He was also slightly darker skinned than an average Egyptian, whereas Babs and Quentin were extremely fair skinned. Until Alex had become aware of his ancient memories, he had always considered this to be political correctness taken to the extreme. Now he thought differently, and he did every time he looked at the button which he had in his pocket: the one from Aryamani’s tunic with the head of Cleopatra on it.
Today, on the roof of Rose and Gadeem’s villa, there had been far too many long pauses in the conversation, and right now was no different. Nobody knew what to say, yet somebody had to say something. It was Rose who eventually broke the silence.
“Do you know, I have never liked rollercoaster rides, yet this is like the most extreme ride ever. Every time I feel the ride is coming to an end and I will be able to get off, there is another bend, another dip, and another death defying fall. I really do not think I can take much more. No single person should have the right to take our happiness away. The warlock must die, he must be permanently removed from the afterlife.”
Rather than reignite the conversation, Rose’s comments had shocked them. Not one of them had realised how low she really felt, though when they examined their own feelings, not one of them felt any different
.
“This is nothing more than bullying, extreme bullying, but it is bullying.” Kate’s hands moved to her hips. “Look … we have the warlock, who feels he is hard done by because he is not a pharaoh. His ‘gang’ are also failures. Merenptah, your thirteenth son, Ramses–”
“My thirteenth son … that should have told me something. I really should have drowned him at birth.”
“Yes, that might have been a good idea,” said Kate, “because he was a failure. By joining the warlock’s ‘gang’ he hoped to gain the glory in the afterlife that he craved in life. It was just the same with Ay, as they were both failures. Ay was nothing more than a general who promoted himself to being pharaoh, after he killed Tutankhamun. He knew he should never have been pharaoh, but there was no way he was going to let himself be buried amongst nobles. He was so fearful of the ancient gods that he had no option except to build his tomb away from the Valley of the Kings. It is completely out on its own at the end of the Valley of the Monkeys, Baboons, whatever!” Kate’s rant was running out of steam. “I do not know anything of Henuttawy, but what I do know is that our lives are being destroyed by underachievers, by jealousy.”
“My daughter, my lovely daughter, was anything except an underachiever.” Ramses was, for a rare moment, vulnerable. This time there was no boyish humour to hide behind. His true feelings were exposed. “I went away to battle. I was away with my troops … and Gadeem of course, for over half a year. When I returned, I had won the battle and brought back great riches, yet all this was for nothing as I had lost Henuttawy.” A single tear ran down his cheek. “She was totally infatuated with the warlock, my warlock. Yes, as you guessed, I was the one who gave him his position. A position he retained for many years after my death with both Nakhtifi and Merenptah.” A second tear followed the first. “I left Waset,” the ancient name for Luxor, “for battle, only to return to a place I did not recognise. I was powerless to remove the warlock, yes me, the mighty Ramses, was powerless. Gadeem, as he so often had to, came to my rescue. Whatever we did, whatever we had to do, had to be carried out quickly and for the greater good ...” Ramses stood; he threw his glass at the wall; before the splash of vibrant red wine and broken glass had time to land, he had intentionally stepped outside of the safe area for an ancient. He disappeared to the ground below, landing with a heavy thump.
“What Ramses should have told you is this,” said Gadeem to an already shocked audience as he rubbed a hand across his forehead. It was apparent that not only had Kate and Alex never seen Ramses as vulnerable as this, nobody else except Gadeem had either. “It was my decision, my plan, to exile Henuttawy. All of Luxor knew she was Ramses’ favourite. I shall not go into the politics of it all, but Ramses had to act quickly. He had to take decisive action or he would have lost everything. Could you imagine a broken Ramses and Luxor under the control of the warlock?” From the slight shaking of heads, it was obvious that nobody could. “We did not have the luxury of time with which to take the warlock on. So, I–”
“S … sorry Gadeem,” said Rose interrupting with some hesitation, “but why couldn’t you and Ramses take the warlock on, because you know ancient magic?”
“It was a bad time, Rose. We had left Luxor to fight a battle we should never have fought. We killed many innocent people and many good, honest soldiers. We also lost many good soldiers of our own. We had to make a triumphant return for the morale of the people, yet we returned with a much smaller, as well as a totally demoralised, army. Ramses and I realised far too late that it was the warlock who had manipulated us into going to war.” Now it was Gadeem’s turn for tears. They ran quite freely, though for the moment he was able to continue. “This gave the warlock over six months to put his plans in place. On our return, we had less than twenty-four hours before Ramses would have lost everything. We did not have the luxury of time to work out who was on our side, who said they were on our side but were actually working against us, and who was on the side of the warlock. It was much more than his magic we had to contend with.”
Gadeem paused, put his head in his hands, and to much surprise as well as more than a little shock, he smashed both fists down onto the wooden table top in front of him. Several glasses flew into the air. Most smashed upon landing.
Alex was amazed by the speed of his reactions. Without realising what Gadeem was going to do, he had managed to catch his nearly full glass of tamar-hindi and return it to the table without a drop being spilt. Any other time this would have been seen as an amazing feat.
Gadeem shouted, “I was the one who made Ramses send Henuttawy away. I did not give him an option. I demanded it and I demanded that it was done very publicly and within the hour.” His head went into his hands and he sobbed.
Rose put her arms around him. Bast wiped a tear from her eye. Nakhtifi sat looking like a fish that was out of the water. For the first time since they had regained consciousness, Kate and Alex shared a look which confirmed that the only way to rid everyone of this misery was for them, along with Cairo, to work together as the team they were. Their eyes remained locked as they started to nod slightly in a mutual unspoken agreement.
“There was nothing else we could do.”
“For the sake of the ancient gods, Ramses, do not creep up on people like that.” Bast immediately wished she had not spoken.
“There was nothing else we could have done. Gadeem was correct as usual, though being correct is sometimes very painful to live with.” Ramses moved over and patted his friend on the shoulder. Rose let go of Gadeem as she felt him straighten up. “We could not let the warlock take control of Waset … sorry, Luxor. If we did, it would only be a short while before he controlled the whole of Egypt. Henuttawy was always a free spirit, so if I said she had fallen in love with the warlock, then it would be believed by my people.”
“So, are you telling us now, after over three thousand years of lies, Henuttawy was not in love with the warlock? It was all made up and my husband was the person who destroyed not only her life, but also her afterlife?” Rose was angry.
“It was not like that, Rose.”
“Then, Ramses, you had better tell me what it was like.”
“Please do hear me out before any well-intentioned interruption, I beg of you.” Rose nodded, everyone except Gadeem nodded. “We had no option except to sacrifice a few in order to save the many. The warlock loved war, and though it was to be many years before my son Merenptah would become pharaoh, he also had a great love of sending people into battle. He craved the role of the great war leader. He would so easily have turned into the Napoleon of his time. He and the warlock were very close, though they both worked for themselves, against Egypt, against its people.
“Both were very close to Henuttawy and there had been rumours of romantic ties throughout Luxor. All Gadeem did, in a stroke of genius, was take it one step further. Once Henuttawy was accused, at the highest level, of pursuing a romantic relationship with the warlock in order to take control of the country, whilst I, her father, was away fighting to protect Egypt, it undermined his power, his credibility. In the eyes of the people it showed him as someone who could not be trusted. Of course, he denied it. That was when I had to do the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I sent my innocent, favourite daughter into exile. This sealed the fate of the warlock. His powerbase slipped away almost instantly.
“Yes, I ruined Henuttawy’s life, but one life ruined must be better than a whole country ruined.” The look of extreme sadness and emotional turmoil on the face of Ramses stopped Rose from saying anything. He sat down next to Nakhtifi. “If I had known there was no absolution from my guilt in the afterlife, I would never have done it. Reliving one’s guilt century after century has been more than I could bear.”
Kate wanted to ask a question about Ramses’ death, though she did not know how to. She wondered why he still had guilt, when at the time of his death he should have been absolved of this. She knew there were the ancient gods, but was there a God? She did not know
how to phrase the question, or perhaps it was that she did not want to ask the question for fear of the answer. Meeting with ancients had so confused not only her, but also Alex, as neither believed there was anything after death. They were obviously wrong! Kate decided the question would have to wait for another time.
Rose gave Ramses a half apology, though it was still too early for her to work out how she really felt about the actions of both him and Gadeem.
“May I ask a question, Ramses?” asked Alex.
“Of course.”
“If Henuttawy was never in love with the warlock, why is she back here helping him now?”
“That, my boy, is the question we need to answer.”
“There is just one other thing I wish to ask.”
“Okay.”
“Why, if Henuttawy is innocent of any wrongdoing, do you wish me to get rid of both her and the warlock?”
For the second-time Ramses stood; his glass full of red wine hit the wall like a missile just before he bellowed, “Because I cannot bear to see her, I cannot bear this guilt.”
Chapter 3
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Planning for Action
“Yes, Cairo, twice,” said Kate as the three young adventurers sat at their usual table in the bar at the Winter Palace. Three, Cairo’s father and the person who waited on guests in the bar, stood motionless, jaw dropped, whilst supporting a large pitcher of tamar-hindi, along with three chilled glasses, on a round silver tray.
“Is there an ETA on the tamar-hindi?” asked Alex.
Three looked blankly at him.
“An estimated time of arrival?”
Three failed to respond to Alex’s attempt at humour. He did, however, respond to Kate as she bellowed at him.
“That’s great, Kate. We now have to wait for him to make another pitcher of tamar-hindi.”
“How did I know he was going to send the tray into the air?”
Luxor Lost and Found Page 2