She shivered. “Yes, I do.” I’ve fought my urges all my life, but you know that, don’t you, Kenmut?
Kenmut smiled knowingly and continued. “Centuries ago, as I traveled across the night sky, I noticed a single, beatific earthling. She had been coming each evening to enjoy my arc while I made my journey across the heavens. This beauty would stand at the edge of the Nile, her face to the stars, and watch for me each evening. She would stay the entire arc of my trajectory each night. This creature captivated me, enthralled me and soon consumed my waking thoughts. I would search for her every night. I’d send out shooting stars to amuse her. I’d blink and twinkle my lights, and brighten the night sky with fireworks. Anything to make this loveliest of creatures smile.”
Kenmut shrugged. “I fell in love, and after my travels each evening, I’d leave the heavens and fall to earth to be with her. My mother warned me against this, but it was beyond my godlike control.”
“And you got her pregnant,” Kelsey said, matter of factly.
“Of course. I am a god.”
And you royally pissed someone off in the process. “So who did you get mad?” Kelsey asked. “Were you already married?”
“No, I was not married. But chaos did ensue, because another goddess had claimed me as her own, though I was never hers to claim. The vain and beautiful Ustha was my cousin Twilight Decan, who rose four minutes after me each evening. We grew up together and traveled the same night path concurrently. She believed we would exist together forever in eternity, and no others would ever come between us.”
Ustha, as in the Usthatan!
“When she found out that I had impregnated a human, she went insane with jealousy. She appealed to the goddess Anput to help her curse me and my heirs. As payment, Ustha cut off her lustrous, long blond hair and gave it to Anput, who had always been jealous of Ustha’s beauty. Anput placed it on her head and it transformed her. She turned from a dark, jackal-headed idol to a blond goddess. You see, Anput is consort to Anubis, the Protector of the Dead, and Anubis was so taken with Anput’s new look that he granted Ustha any wish as thanks. Ustha asked that he curse my heirs, so that when they died, she could take their souls and annihilate them so that they could never be reborn. Anubis agreed to look the other way when the souls came to him. You see, Decans' lives are measured differently than other gods. The only way for my Decan family to exist is if my heirs' souls are returned to the heavens when they die. If all my descendants are dead and all their souls wiped out, my entire Decan family will be destroyed. We will simply disappear from the night sky as if we never existed. And then the Decans will become thirty-three.”
Jay crinkled his brows. “So the constellations will disappear from the sky completely?”
Kenmut nodded.
“Wait,” Kelsey said. “The way I heard it is that when a constellation disappears from the night sky you’ll heliacally rise again in seventy days.”
He smiled slightly. “Yes, that is what the ancient Egyptians believed. That once a Decan is no longer visible in the sky, it means her or she has died. Our belief is that we travel to Duat, the place souls go after death for judgment, and then we would be reborn.” He gave Kelsey a knowing look.
She swallowed. “Duat? I heard it called a different place.”
“They are all the same place, Kelsey.”
The same place? Duat? The bardos? Xanadu? Even gods go through Xanadu?
“So, if she killed you,” Jay asked. “You’d just travel to Duat and then after seventy days you’d come back. So what’s the problem?”
Kenmut cocked his head. “The problem is, that would only work if Anubis broke his bargain with Ustha. He should be the Protector of the Underworld, but because of their agreement, he’ll refuse to let me and my family purify and return to our place in the sky. The same way he’s refusing to allow any of my descendants to move on now. If he stops all their souls from being reborn, my family will simply cease to exist. We will not rise again after those seventy days.”
“And then there will only be thirty-three Decans in the night sky,” Kelsey said.
He nodded. “Yes, just thirty-three.”
Jay studied him. “But you’re obviously already ill. Did Ustha put a curse on you, too?”
A dark expression settled across Kenmut’s face. “Ustha can’t hurt me directly. What you see before you is my own doing. I have personally allowed myself to become ill to compensate for my actions. To protect my descendants. When any of my progeny are born, I give each of you a small piece of my own soul, a part of me that will automatically come to you as my descendant. This piece of me protects you. When you wear your opals, you are hidden from Ustha and her minions, and she can’t find you. When you die, your existence won’t disappear into nothingness. You can fly right directly to Osiris, bypassing Anubis, and I will get the pieces of my soul back. But Ustha is cunning and has an army behind her, and I simply have not been able to save you all. In fact, thousands upon thousands of my descendants over the years have been turned away.” He appeared pained.
So I’m spiritually the daughter of Mara, and in this lifetime genetically the physical descendant of a human female named Femi who slept with a god and got pregnant? That made some kind of convoluted sense. She had to be the physical descendant of someone. But who would have ever thought it would have been a match between a human and a Decan god? My life will never, ever be normal.
“Unfortunately, the pieces of my soul are so powerful that whenever any of you are near each other, you make each other ill. It’s ironic. Here I give you a piece of my soul to protect you, but you pay for my sin by being ill all your lives if you are near others related to you.”
“Over the centuries, I’ve influenced your parents, pushed them to give you charms and talismans to protect you, but there is only so much I can do. My children have spread throughout the world, but there are less than a hundred left. Enough to continue my Decan family’s lineage for the time being, but also small enough for Ustha to do major damage to my family.
“Since Ustha is forbidden to kill any of my descendants directly, she has her army of minions do her bidding. They are her cult of worshipers who call themselves the Usthatan. When any one of my descendants is born, she finds him and has him implanted so her people can locate any of them wherever they are around the world.
“In desperation, I appealed to the god Imhotep, the architect of the first pyramid and the inventor of dressed stone, for help. I was always one of his favorites and he created opals for me. These are potent gems used to hide my brethren and also protect you from each other. I wear one as well so that we are cosmically linked.” He took out a pendant from the folds of his clothes and held out a spectacular gem. The size of a golf ball, it glowed with an exquisite inner light of radiating colors.
I’ve seen that before. In Xanadu. The Empress used to keep these on her dressing table. “That’s no opal. That’s a Cintāmaṇi Stone.”
Kenmut nodded. “That it is. It is a wish-fulfilling gem. I wish my children to be protected from Ustha.” His lip curled in disgust. “But she has taken some of these stones for herself, making her own promises to her followers.”
The glowing wristbands… “Her followers wear these stones as well?”
Kenmut nodded. “A form of them. Theirs resembles a luminous pearl. It’s how they track you.”
Jay looked stunned. “So you’re saying that every time I’ve had my asthma attacks, it’s because I’ve been near another descendant?” He looked at Kelsey with renewed interest. “And when I took off my dad’s gift, I felt fine until I met you, and then I started getting sick again.”
And I started getting my stomach aches exactly when you showed up, and when we’re not both wearing amulets. Kelsey rubbed her stomach. But I’m late. What if that’s not the only reason?
Kelsey cocked her head. “I read that the ancient legends called the opal stone the Patron Stone of Thieves, because whoever wore it became invisible.”
“A
ll legends have a basis in fact,” Kenmut said. “It’s mankind who has changed them to fit his own needs. Imhotep took the colors of all precious gems and imbued the opal with them. He produced opals in the billions and spread them out throughout the earth so they could be easily found. And now, just like in centuries past, when you wear them, you are invisible to Ustha and your brothers and sisters, even with your implant.”
The thought of someone implanting her without her knowledge made Kelsey feel violated. “How did they do that? Did they kidnap us?”
Kenmut pursed his lips in distaste. “It’s why you both have your scars.”
So our scars really were about Armand repaying his debt. He somehow let them hurt us. “What exactly did they put in us… Grandfather?” I don’t even know how to address him.
“A strand of Ustha’s hair. She kept a lock of it, and has her minions implant a small piece in every one of my heirs. When she runs out, she waits for Anput to cut hers.”
“At first I thought my scar had come from an accident, but then I learned it was my father repaying a debt,” Jay said. “How could this be if it was Ustha’s doing?”
Kenmut’s expression darkened and Kelsey could tell he’d become suddenly furious. “Ustha is not a patient woman. She decided to take matters into her own hands and made a deal with your father. One he should have refused, but didn’t take seriously at the time. His desire for fame and riches overrode his sense of reason. I should have destroyed him for the bargain he made and sent him right to Osiris myself, but I seem to suffer fools well. For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to kill him for mere stupidity. I guess we all make mistakes. Even gods. I will let him speak of his trespasses to you directly, and have him make his own amends as he sees fit.”
Jay pulled his shirt down and craned his neck to try to look at his scar. “I feel just like all those people who claim to be abducted by aliens.”
Kenmut gave him a shrewd look. “All of those people were abducted, but not by aliens. They were all taken by the minions of Ustha. Humans can’t imagine something like that would actually happen, so they labeled my poor children insane or crazy. In reality, every one of them told the truth and suffered because of it. All of them are my children.”
Jay turned to Kelsey. “So, look at that. I guess that means we’re related. We must be like cousins or something, a thousand times removed.”
Kenmut shook his head. “You’re actually much closer than that.”
“How close?” Jay asked.
“Kelsey is your sister.”
Kelsey swung her head around. “How am I possibly his sister?”
“You have the same father.”
Kelly scoffed. “My father never would have cheated on my mother with another woman. You’re wrong.”
He smiled at her naiveté. “It wasn’t your father who cheated, Kelsey. Your mother did. The same way Nut and Geb got together, Margaret had an affair with Armand and got pregnant.” He opened his arms wide and smiled. “And now, here you are.”
Kelsey was glad she was sitting. No, no. That’s not true. Margaret Porter was a saint. Kelsey was stunned into silence and suddenly found it hard to breathe. It’s not possible. Her mother would never have cheated on her father. She turned to Kenmut to tell him how wrong he was, but he had finished speaking. With a wave of his hand, the entire room lit with a dazzling white glow and it blinded her. When she finally managed to open her eyes again, she and Jay no longer sat in the cavern, but rested back in Armand’s apartment, lying on his bed.
Kelsey shot out of the bed, nearly falling on the floor in her haste, and raced to the computer. She pounded the keys and dialed her mother.
Claire answered quickly, as if she’d been expecting the call. Her eyes looked bloodshot and her face was puffy. She’d clearly been crying.
“Don’t you dare hang up on me again, Mom!” Kelsey ordered.
Claire wiped at her eyes with a tissue and blew her nose. “I won’t hang up this time. I promise. I’ve been waiting for you to call me back. I need to apologize to you for my behavior earlier. I was just… caught off guard.” She tried to smile.
“Why are you crying? Because you hung up on me, or because you kept secrets from me?”
Claire shrugged. “Maybe a little of both. Oh, Kelsey, this is so hard. I don’t ever want to speak badly about Margaret. She was my best friend.”
And she was my mother.
Kelsey stared at her, stonily. “Is Armand Dupuis my father? Did my mother sleep with him and get pregnant with me?”
Claire gasped and flinched. “How did you find out?”
Kelsey’s stomach clenched violently. So it was true. Everything Kenmut said was true. So many lies. She glanced at Jay, who stood in the doorway out of the screen shot. He appeared as shocked and disgusted as she felt.
“Let’s just say someone in the family told me.”
“Who’s there with you?” Claire strained to see behind Kelsey into the dimness of the room.
“My half-brother, Mom. Armand Dupuis’s son, Jay.”
Her eyes widened as Jay poked his head in the screen shot and gave an awkward half wave. “Um, nice to meet you, Madame.” He moved quickly back out of view.
Claire teared up again. “Oh, Kelsey, you weren’t supposed to find out like this.”
“And how was I supposed to find out? When were you planning on telling me Benjamin Porter was not my father?”
Claire shrugged. “Possibly never. Margaret begged me to never to reveal it to anyone, including you.”
Kelsey leaned forwards. “You have to explain to me what happened.”
Claire stared at the ceiling for a moment and then nodded. “I will, but whatever you hear, I don’t want you to think for one second your mother didn’t love and adore your father. Do you understand?”
Oh, please, how much could she have loved him if she slept with someone else? “Sure.”
Claire shook her head. “I don’t think you do. There are people who talk about love at first sight. Your parents had that. From the very first moment they met in school, their eyes locking across a packed lecture hall, they were destined for each other. They believed in the same things and had the same hopes and dreams. It was as if their destinies were intertwined. They had a glow about them, Kelsey. Anyone and everyone could see it from a mile away. They were the truest of soul mates. Unfortunately, they were human beings and things just happen sometimes…” Her voice trailed off. She paused for a moment to collect herself. “Armand was their professor at their college. They knew him as the famous archaeologist who discovered the Golden Twin Coffin. Let’s just say he enjoyed celebrity status at the school. Highly educated, handsome, rich, and a persuasive charmer who carried a great presence about him. He adored being idolized, and people did idolize him. He always had a gaggle of student admirers around him at all times to feed his oversized ego. The man paraded around like royalty.”
“And my parents were part of his gaggle of groupies?” Kelsey asked, coldly.
Claire nodded. “Yes. In fact, they formed part of his core inner circle of groupies, if you want to call them that. But your parents were different than the others in his entourage and I think that’s what attracted Armand to them most. They were brilliant students and always had their own personal agendas and accomplishments they wanted to reach. From the moment your parents met each other, their hopes and dreams were pinned on finding the mystical land of Xanadu. While the pyramids and ancient Egypt had always intrigued them, as you know, another prize always held first place in their thoughts.
“Armand liked to surround himself with brilliance, and your parents had that, indeed. He enjoyed their company immensely, so early on he invited them during summers to work on various expeditions with him. One summer, years after they graduated, he invited your parents to Egypt to work with his team on an excavation of a funerary temple in western Thebes.”
Claire took a deep breath and steeled herself to continue. “Unfortunately, one night, wit
h too much sun and too much wine, your father didn’t feel well and went to bed early. Margaret stayed up with Armand and…” She paused and Kelsey saw her wring her hands. “Oh, your mother was never a drinker, Kelsey. She could never handle much more than two glasses of wine. In college she was the worst girlfriend to go out to bars with.”
“Go on, Mom.” I really don’t want to hear about my mother picking up guys in bars.
“So after your father went to bed, she and Armand spent the rest of the evening talking and ended up finishing off a second bottle of wine. He was just so captivating and persuasive and … he seduced her.”
And got her pregnant with me.
“She regretted it terribly the next morning.”
Kelsey remained quiet for a moment. “Did my father ever find out?”
Claire shook her head vehemently. “No. He never knew. She even tested you after you were born, hoping to discover that you were really Benjamin’s, but you weren’t. The only people she told were Armand and me, and I didn’t even tell Martin until you came to live with us. When we rescued you from Tibet, the doctors did an enormous amount of blood work on you. I feared Martin would have questions if anything anomalous came back, so I told him the truth. Kelsey, I’m so sorry you had to find this out this way. Your father, Benjamin, loved you more than anything in this world. He is and always will be your father, regardless of genetics and DNA. Please don’t ever forget how much you meant to him.”
Forget? How could I? I loved that man with every inch of my being. My father was my knight in shining armor, the man who protected me from nightmares, who taught me to read. Who taught me everything that made me me. I could never forget that. But I could be angry at Armand. Very angry. And I could be angry at my mother, too. My saintly image of her is now completely tarnished.
Claire interrupted her stormy thoughts. “Your mother was human, Kelsey, and she made a mistake. Everyone does. But your mom told me that it proved to be one of the best mistakes of her life, because she had you. She loved you as strongly as any mother loves her daughter. She just did a stupid thing. “
The Quest of the Empty Tomb Page 11