by Daniel Caet
«Let’s play a game, the cat said to the mouse.» The voice came up to me high, clear and cloying and I could see in Sadith's face that she could hear it too. «There is no need for you to answer me, I know that you can hear me as I can hear your thoughts. Family gifts, I suppose.»
And a dark laugh completed the sentence. I had to make a huge effort to recompose myself and not let anyone of the guests in the store notice anything. That voice had put me in a state of anxiety that I did not like at all. Sadith came up to me as much as she could so I could see her face, trying to tell me something although I could not understand what, but her face clearly showed a single emotion. Fear.
«I guess for Helel it's not that easy, right? What a disappointment! Let me help you. Look at Sadith, look her straight in the eyes, concentrate and let your mind get into yours. That's it. Concentrate.»
Without knowing how, my mind began to obey his orders, to concentrate on Sadith's eyes as the voice told me and, suddenly, her voice filled my mind in a cry with a single word.
«Narmesh.»
I felt my heart stop in my chest and that feeling reminded me how fragile a human body is. She did not need to explain anything to me, that name could only mean one thing. Now the reference to family gifts made sense. My mind wanted to question what was happening, to convince me that none of this was true, that it was impossible; but impossible is for an angel incarnated in a human body and who had lived hundreds of years not to believe in impossible things. That voice that came to us, I did not know from where, but clear and strong as if its emitter were next to me, was that of my son’s, the son I had lost, that had been taken from me. And that thought made my skin crawl, not with joy but with fear.
«Well, I see that my reputation precedes me to the point that not even my father is glad to hear me! Well, father, maybe you will be happy to see me.»
Immediately, I saw Sarureptah's body turn to stare at Sadith and me, and smile at us cruelly. The body was that of the man we knew as Ankh's husband, but something about him was different, his composure, his presence, was much more imposing than it had ever been in that bastard, and his eyes had a shine they had never possessed. Suddenly, those eyes became completely black as night and the glow disappeared completely. It was only a second, brief so that none of Seti's guests noticed anything, but enough so that we could not miss it. My mouth wanted to speak, make some sound but then I remembered that those were not the rules of that game. I stared at that creature residing in the body of Ankh's husband and concentrated as much as I could so that my voice sounded loud and clear.
«What do you want?»
«The truth is that I expected a better reception from my father, I don’t know, a hug maybe. After all, it took us hundreds of years to find each other, don’t you think? But inevitably my dear aunt has had the time to fill your head with her version of the story I suppose. Too late for you to get interested in mine.»
«If it is to speak what you want, let's get out of here and let's talk, where there are not so many people.»
His laughter echoed in my head.
«But if I've already told you, it's not talking what I want, I'm here to play and, in fact, we're all going to play. After all, this is supposed to be a party, is it not?»
«Helel, don’t listen to him, nothing good can come out of this, I'll take care of him.» said Sadith, entering my head.
«No, you will not!» Narmesh's voice suddenly shouted. «You will not try anything, or I promise you that none of the people attending this party will be make it out alive. I have no doubt that you can live with the death of so many innocents behind you, but can you also carry that of your beloved Ankh?»
I watched as Sadith suddenly paled. Narmesh was willing to use Ankh as a bargaining chip for whatever he wanted, and I knew that neither Sadith nor I were willing to put her life in danger.
«This is the game, Helel,» he continued. «The cups of some of the guests have been poisoned with the blood of a demon Alauk, old acquaintances of yours if I'm not mistaken.»
He was right. During the angelic wars the Alauk demons had wreaked havoc attacking large populations that they poisoned by contaminating their wells with their blood, and causing us to come to the aid of men on numerous occasions by diverting our attention from the true objectives, what you would have called today guerrilla tactics. When we arrived at the villages it was usually too late, but on the few occasions when there was still hope for its inhabitants, the venom of the demon's blood could only be contravened by a thing, the blood of an angel.
«That’s right.» he said, laughing in a cold and cruel way. «The only thing that can save them is your blood, as long as you still have some of what you once were. What do you say, Helel? Are you still the god that you were or is there only the man who prefers to spend his hours among the skirts of Ankh?» said as he stared at me and his smile opened my guts. «Oh, but you do not need to be angry. I have no doubt that you are willing to try to save some of these miserable creatures but –and this is the best part–, we both know that even if you were still an angel you could not save them all. I gather that at most you can save one or two of the attendees. So, the question that will discover who you really are is simple. Who will you save, Helel? Will it be the pharaoh, his son, your dear Ankh or perhaps my detestable aunt?»
His words made me look at Sadith immediately and her face confirmed that what Narmesh had just suggested was correct.
«Yes, Helel. She has also drunk the same wine before going to look for you to try in vain to protect her girl», confirmed Narmesh dragging the words in his mouth. «Now everything is in your hands, father, show me what kind of man you are. But do it quick, the poison is even more so.»
My mind began to spin. I did not need to think about whom I wanted to save, of that I had no doubt. For me the pharaoh and all the other assistants could rot because my priority was to save my family. Family. The word echoed in my head as if to indicate that there was something wrong. Narmesh was also my family, even more so than Sadith and Ankh were. But I knew that the being who spoke in my head while he was still my son, he was beyond all salvation. Suddenly I remembered that Narmesh could read my mind, and when I looked into his eyes I could see in the rage contained in them that we both knew that he had heard me, and we both knew I was right.
«Decide!» he cried in my head and hatred thundered in his words.
I do not know if my body reacted instantaneously, if the little or much that remained of the angel I was took the reins or if I was simply a reckless being carried by the fear of losing once more those who loved, but giving no importance to the fact that someone could see me I used all my energies to transport myself to Sadith who was closest to me. In a second it was as if time stood around me, and I found myself in front of her. Her eyes reflected in mine and I understood. A gale of wind and sand suddenly entered the tent, blinding all the attendants who held their hands to their eyes, shouting and ducking their heads to protect themselves from the wind. Sadith had conjured that gale to protect my identity while I tried to save them. With inhuman speed I bit my wrist to pour my blood into Sadith's mouth. I knew that if my blood was still effective against the poison, a few drops would be enough. Without waiting to see if it had any effect I turned to locate Ankh visually and reach her, but I was not able. I searched the entire tent amidst the chaos of people shouting, trying to search in vain for a refuge from the gale, but I could not find her. In my despair I looked at Sadith and realised that Narmesh had deceived us completely. He knew that I would not let Sadith or Ankh die because of me and that, as a soldier, I would take the only logical option, save Sadith first so that she could help me save Ankh. I had been a real fool. Sadith caused the gale to calm down immediately, but the cries of the frightened people continued for a time. The shop was a real chaos, but in our minds the sounds of our surroundings completely disappeared to be replaced by the hissing voice of Narmesh.
«Pathetically predictable, father!»
«Where is Ankh?»
I asked with anguish. «You promised that you would give me the opportunity to save her.»
His laughter echoed in our heads again like the sound of a drum.
«Come to my house if you want to play, the cat told the mouse.» And a moment later the noise of the tent replaced his voice in our minds.
Without thinking for an instant, I grabbed Sadith and pulled her out of the tent. Nobody paid attention to our march submerged as they were in the surprise of what happened.
“He's in the palace,” I said to Sadith louder than I intended as I kept dragging her to one of the valley's limits where no one would see us.
“How do you know?” she asked. “You have no reason to believe that he is there. It could be anywhere else and if we're wrong ...”
“I'm not wrong, Sadith,” I said, stopping short and looking at her face. “You don’t understand, he is playing with us, he is the cat, we are the mouse. Come to my house, the cat told the mouse. His house. Can’t you see? All this time he has been under our noses without us noticing, pretending to be Sarureptah, the cat playing with mice.”
Sadith's eyes widened as if she understood that I was right.
“If it's so, we're going in the wrong direction, the boats are in the other direction, if we take one we can get to the palace in a couple of hours.”
“Too late, Sadith,” I said, holding her tightly against me and thinking only of our destination. To my surprise the effort to transport Sadith with me to the palace was less than I expected, but her body was only human and when we appeared in her palace rooms Sadith fell to the floor and began to vomit violently. I bent down to help her up, I had never seen her so fragile.
“Don't wait for me, Helel, I'll just delay you. Look for her. Only you can help her,” she said, her eyes full of tears with the concern that only an authentic mother could show.
I understood that she was right, and I left her to run out of her rooms in the direction of Sarureptah’s. The palace was completely empty as if it had been abandoned, and that reinforced the idea that I was right in thinking that Narmesh had brought Ankh there. I burst into their rooms, but they were completely empty. If he was not there, they could only be in another place, and without thinking about it, I transported into my cubicle from where I entered running in Ankh’s rooms. When I entered the space and saw what was waiting for me, my knees failed me, and I fell to the floor while the biggest pain I had felt since I was human took shape and tore at the inside. In front of me, the inert body of Ankh floated in the air, while her blood, which flowed from her open throat, accumulated beneath her forming a puddle on the floor of the room. That image, that smell of blood made something dark and tremendously powerful unleash inside me and an uncontrollable energy flowed through my body. The moment my fists touched the floor of the room everything began to tremble as if the building was shaken by an earthquake, the walls creaking around me threatening to collapse. A single emotion replaced the immense pain of what was before me. Hatred. A single desire occupied everything replacing the same desire to breathe. Revenge. Until all of a sudden, the darkness filled my eyes and my mind causing my human body to succumb to it. Everything around me became dark and I was one with it. And in that darkness the image of Ankh's corpse, of the lifeless body of the woman who had given me the only bit of light that could save me, made me understand that there was no hope, that with her died every possibility of redemption. That image reminded me that this possibility had never existed, no matter how much I deceived myself, for me there could be nothing but darkness. And at that moment, my being stopped asking why, why the light that could illuminate my life was snatched again and again, and it embraced the darkness that enveloped me surrendering without qualms.
When I finally opened my eyes, the light in the room blinded me. With them half-closed, I could see Ptehsure running away as soon as she noticed that I was beginning to wake up. I was in my bed, so I assumed that she or someone from the palace must have found me on the floor of Ankh's room, and led me there. I tried to sit up and it was as if my whole body was creaking with pain. At that moment, Sadith came through the door of my cubicle and sat on the bed gently forcing me to lie down again.
“Don’t you even think about it,” she said, “first you have to regain your strength.”
The words clustered in my head without coming out through my mouth. I wanted to ask about Ankh, to know what had happened to her, where her body was. I could not allow anyone else to touch her body, I would take her with me to leave her in the resting place she deserved, on the mountain, among the blood lilies that she loved so much, where no one could ever desecrate her grave. I tried to get up again but Sadith stopped me once more.
“Helel, you cannot get up so fast after three unconscious moons.” Those words stopped me in my tracks. My eyes looked at her incredulous, and she must have understood that for me that did not make any sense.
“Three moons? No, it cannot be. It's barely been an instant, it's impossible …”
“I'm afraid it's exactly like that, Helel. You've been unconscious for three moons, and we thought you would not wake up again.”
I noticed how my eyes filled with tears of helplessness that I could not control, and Sadith tried to comfort me by holding my hand cold between hers, warm and soft. But that gesture of tenderness only achieved that I ended up collapsing completely in her arms like a small child who seeks the comfort of her mother when he hurts himself. Sadith did not say a word, letting me get the anger, the sadness and the impotence out.
When I finally calmed down, she explained everything that had happened during that time. When she had been able to get to the palace, she had gone directly to Ankh's rooms with the feeling of something terrible as she saw that all the guard of the palace was absent. Upon entering the chamber, she saw the same image that I found myself, the body of Sadith, suspended in the air and mine at her feet fainted and completely frozen. Sadith had managed to break the spell that held Ankh in the air, and with difficulty she had been able to put her body on the bed. Then she ran to her quarters in search of Ptehsure to help her to put me on my cot without knowing that it would take me so long to find my way back.
When Seti and the court returned to the palace, the news ran from mouth to mouth like a disease. The official version was that, in the absence of Seti and the nobles, a group of thieves had managed to enter the palace and assassinate the guard. When they were discovered by Ankh and her husband, they had chosen to kill both of them. A version that no one could believe, of course, considering the amount of guard usually present in the palace and that Sarureptah's body had never been found; but that was the version that Seti wanted to believe and which the court would accept without hesitation. To further increase my pain, if that was possible, Sadith had to tell me that my desire to take the corpse of Ankh with me to the mountains was not possible. According to Egyptian tradition, her body had been embalmed and placed in a tomb on the west bank of the river, where the celebrations of that terrible night had taken place. The rage made her want to scream. Not only had they snatched the woman I loved from my arms, but I did not even have the consolation of being able to embrace her body once again before saying goodbye to her forever. Sadith's face clearly showed that it hurt her to see me like that, and seeing that pain reflected on her face made me realise how selfish I was being. My pain did not let me focus on anything other than me, my loss; but, of the two of us, she was the one who had lost the most because her daughter had been taken away from her, the girl she had raised and loved since the day of her birth and I understood that, just as my pain could not be compared to hers, neither did her love, which led her to put me above herself. It would have been expected a gesture of me towards her, maybe take her hand as she had done with me, but, if there is something that as a man I have never managed to dominate, it is the expressions of tenderness, not carnal love but disinterested one, and this time it was no different. My hand did not move an inch to get closer to hers. And yet, somehow, I know that she knew what I
felt and that there was no need for words.
That silence that was generated between us was broken by a single phrase that came from my lips.
“I'm going to kill Narmesh, I'll open his insides to take out his heart, and I'll dismember his body to spread it to the four winds, and there's nothing you can do to prevent it, Sadith.”
Her eyes looked at me seriously before answering.
“I'm glad,” she said, “because not only I won’t stop you, but I'll help you.”
That response gave me the strength I needed to get up and she did the same to get in front of me.
“However, there is one thing you should know,” she continued. “He awaits you.”
“How do you know?”
“Because that bastard left you a message written on the walls of Ankh's rooms with her own blood.”
I noticed how the anger built up inside me again as I remembered the blood of Ankh springing up from her body.
“What did the message say?” I asked without knowing if I really wanted to know.
Sadith hesitated for a second but finally spoke.
“If you want to play, go into my mouth, the cat said to the mouse,” she said, slowly saying each word. “He is calling you to his house, he knows that you will go for him and he wants to take you to his land. I guess you realise it's a trap, right?”
“I know, but I do not care. That monster my son has become must pay for everything he has done. I gave him life, and I will be the one to take it from him.”
And the fire accumulated in my eyes was enough for Sadith to nod without daring to ask anything else.