Heart of the Lotus

by Mary R Woldering

  Him I remember from grandfather’s plaza. Even taller and darker tonight as if that will help him. He’s by himself here, too. No servants. There is some sort of spell at work here, just like the one that put the guards to sleep.

  He nodded as the man went to one knee.

  I’m letting one of the men loose. Maatkare sent his silent intent to Deka and glanced over his shoulder at the twelve confused soldiers behind him. He stamped his foot and when they snapped to attention, he motioned for one of the men to come forward, take the sesh’s knife, and quickly pat him for other weapons.

  “I am Prince Maatkare Raemkai, General Overseer of the Upper Lands.”

  “Your Highness,” Aped sounded coy. “What’s this about that you must come this way and in the dark?”

  “Because it’s when you least expect it,” he answered. It was the standard warning given to any rebellious faction. “You see now…” he shifted his weight to his back leg. “We can take you like this, and we have, any time you oppose us. Just so you know it, we will spare your life and those in this rebel sepat tonight.” The prince read Deka’s immediate disapproval in her expression, but ignored it and continued scanning for tricks in the silent plaza.

  “Why spare them?” she snarled. “Send men to seek them, beloved. I know they have run into the grass. Someone warned them. I can send my own guards, Rutiy… Sutiy…” She began, indicating the two slightly cat-faced hulks who paced at their sides.

  Maatkare knew inwardly that the guards wanted to shed their human prisons and to go tearing through the village and surrounding area seeking any source of man-scent they could find. He knew he would have joined them too if it had only been before their feast.

  “These people do not deserve our mercy,” she continued. “Not after what they did.”

  Maatkare frowned, easing a sidelong glance toward her and stifling an inner worry.

  Did what? Putting forth ‘the slaughterer’ aspect again for effect. She knows we are to take him alive if we can. There aren’t any others remaining here. Pointless.

  “Shh, my sweet,” his hand wrapped her arm gently as he sent his best passion-laced thought: Be calm. Not so much at once.

  Her stare, which he knew was a cross between ecstasy and irritation cut through him as if it challenged his right to direct her. Maatkare faced the man on his knees again.

  “Well, speak. You heard me call your sepat rebellious.”

  Maatkare noticed his stone had begun to amplify the sesh counselor’s thoughts. The man’s face was calm, yet concerned. The prince read it as incredulous and accusing.

  What are you talking about? What did I ever do to you? I serve your grandfather! Who’s giving you these directions? Have you lost every shred of sanity? I already know you killed my guards for no reason at all! And what kind of thing are you to look as you did when I came out and then suddenly be a man again?

  “Your good highness…” The tall sesh tried. “Rebel? How did you find us as rebels?”

  Here we go, Maatkare sneered inwardly, then spat. “The boys who came into my camp with the half-breed sojourner to chase down my women a moon ago… among them, this one.” He nodded to Deka, but realized that his gesture indicated she was held against her will. “I’ve since made the discovery some were of Buhen, so you have forced my justice. Their wrongdoing falls on you.” He beckoned the men behind him to move closer. As they did, doubt fed back through his stone began to erode his resolve.

  What am I doing? This is Hordjedtef, not me. This is between him and the Akaru. I settled with the sojourners. I have most of the stones and they should know I intend to get the others, he thought, then felt a chill move over his own heart. Deka looked in his eyes expectantly, her fingertips at her lips.

  “Well. Do you answer?” the prince repeated, his pace tightening.

  “I did not know them. They were fisher-boys, not citizens of red or black land. They obey those who allow them to fish. Most were of Qustul, I was told.”

  “Qustul. Your grandfather, the coward. Hiding in his sanctuary and all but pointing the finger at you, his own blood, because he would not defend the boys and now shelters the half-breed and the other sojourners in favor of you.” The prince turned, hoping to sow the same doubt back at the counselor.

  Both men paused as the distant sky brightened and the wind shifted, bringing the acrid odor of singed grass and smoke back toward the building. Maatkare knew the sesh lacked the reserved nature of his elder. He grinned as the young sepat counselor tensed.

  “You would destroy an innocent sepat to get at my grandfather, a long loyal subject of the double crown? I cannot think His Majesty would agree to this.”

  Maatkare noticed Deka staring hard at the sesh. Her expression grew astonished, followed by a look of shock.

  “Beloved one. Wait. I know this man.”

  The prince paused. He had been about to order his men to seize and bind the man.

  “You two know each other?” Maatkare challenged, motioning men to take Apedemeketep anyway. “I want to hear that story since you swore to me you had no memory of this place.” He was aware of her uneasiness, but waited for her answer.

  “A lifetime ago, when I was waking up in my spirit, I saw him. I wasn’t sure, but now…” she cast a dismayed expression, as if she was looking for someone else in the room, then looked back at the prince.

  “I wanted the heart of one more, but not this one. There must be another person here. The fire has turned. It will be around us soon. We should go to the water with him and let the burning flush out the rest of them who hide from our justice.”

  A sudden push of chilled air and a drop in the temperature alerted Maatkare to the arrival of a spirit on that draft. He fastened one eye on the woman at his side as if she had done the summoning. He recognized the signature and sensed Deka trying to recall how she knew the young sesh.

  I know you. I know you. Who are you? You are not Ta-Te… Not…

  Nefira, control yourself. It’s heka. The man knows its use. My grandfather has taught him this illusion. The prince warned, his own hackles rising to the point of shifting again. Deka’s guards growled and made faint semi-feline hissing noises.

  “It is true,” the sesh admitted. “We have seen each other better than one year ago, in the city of the king. I had not thought she was the same woman when I first saw her. I had been told she had come here by the other sojourners.” The younger man spoke reverently, bowing his head, then facing Deka. “You did not think you would see me again,” he looked at his captors and spoke to the prince once more.

  “You have taken my weapon. Allow me to speak to the woman of the flame.”

  Maatkare’s heart fluttered in the rush of ecstasy. He knew the woman beside him drew the spirit of Menhit into her being just as he drew Wepwawet and Anhur, but to hear another who had no deep knowledge of either of them mention it unnerved him. He nodded and one of the men released the counselor’s right arm. It went to his pectoral collar and lifted it as he took a step toward Deka.

  She frowned, advanced, and placed her fingertips lightly on the man’s chest, pausing.

  She’s sensing his heartbeat, his health, his level of fear, Maatkare’s hunter instinct kicked in. She’d take his beating heart if she could, his thoughts rioted. Grandfather told me to bring him alive unless he fought… and now because she knows him, she won’t kill him.

  “Nefira…” he cautioned her.

  “Let her speak of how she knows me, Your Highness. Allow her to create words from slumbering memory,” Aped spoke and waited for a nod of approval.

  “You came to the market,” she began, sucking in her breath. “I remember it. Man-sun spoke to you and you said you were buying spice, but when I heard your words, I felt a force making me rise in a dance.” She withdrew her hand, darkness filtering over her face.

  “It seems your act to me then grants me the understanding that I owe you a debt. Had I not seen you and danced for you that day all the things I have learned wou
ld never have come to me.” She lowered her eyes briefly, then sought the prince’s expression.

  “We have our victory for the night. Do you hunger?” She kept an eye the young man, but let Maatkare seize her in his arms. He nipped at her neck, sighing in his own desperation. She nodded against his chest briefly, thrilled and trembling.

  “You are ordered to stay and to protect us, man of the dance, Deka responded in a voice husky with passion. Make certain no creature, no ether, or spirit visits us in these hours. Do not trick us as we rest. If you do, you will lie in a lake of blood; you, and all of yours. You know who I am, and you have opened the way for my return. Because of that alone, you are still breathing.”

  Maatkare reveled in her gaze as the image of her entire body burning and shimmering formed in his thoughts. The beautiful cinnamon woman he craved had faded and something hollow and without substance took its place, as if the human form itself had been a mask.

  Lady of the Slaughter. Menhit. Fear, he thought. No, not fear. Desire. Heat. Need. I can’t let her know. I will conquer this part her too, and vanquish it, he turned his back to give the orders to his men, and used that moment to gather his wits. “Six of you stay with this one. The rest of you, go signal the men to move into the city. Fight back the flames for now. We will decide what to do with this rebel Sepat… when the morning comes.

  Some men ran off to the outer gate and others dragged the counselor away and sat him to one side of the plaza. The fire had turned away again and now chased the grass along the riverbank.

  Maatkare knew Deka read his doubt, and tried to seem unaffected by the emotions the stone in his brow was forcing to the surface.

  “It will be alright, my love,” she whispered. “I feel and fear it, too, but that makes me strong… strong enough to rule at your side.” Her double skirt flurried and her arms rose as if she mimicked part of the dance that had caught the younger man’s attention in the flood tide at the market those months ago. It was the dance he saw in Hordjedtef’s plaza to night something about it made him choose her.

  Will you dance the wind and rain for me? he felt his first words to her echo like haunted enchantment. Will you open the sky and allow the return of the god?

  Chapter 18: Truths Obscured and Revealed

  It was daybreak, when Marai and the Akaru arrived in Buhen. Most of their journey over water and land had been in silence. Each man had been contemplating the possibility of war and how it might be avoided.

  The Akaru knew it would be suicide to challenge Maatkare and his well-trained troops.

  Marai thought a show of power might work at first, but most of the men had fled Buhen. The sojourner knew only the illusion of masses of defensive troops was possible. Now that the prince was hosting a stone, that ruse had little chance of working. Instead, he decided to see if the young general was as threatening when he was separated from both his troops and from Deka.

  “I know they’re feeding each other the energy to be undefeatable,” Marai reminded Akaru as they walked with only six bearers, who now doubled as Akaru’s bodyguards. Another small contingent who had come in the boat had been ordered to stay with it. “He’s like I was years ago; a new host. Because of our link, I sense it’s wreaking havoc with the discipline in his warlike spirit. He’ll need guidance and a firm hand if he misbehaves, not unlike our Djerah who insists on moving too quickly as he discovers his skills.” Then to himself he thought: A firm hand I’d like to place on him too.

  “I wish I could unleash my rage, Marai.” Akaru’s voice was soft, still wrapped in waves of contemplation and self-control. “I truly fear it coming forth. If I cross the line I’ve drawn, I will no longer exist. I fear I would not be able to come back to being a man of peace. At least I know they have not harmed Aped up to this point, and that the people all escaped safely. I woke them all and warned them to run from the city as soon as the first people began to arrive at Qustul Amani. There should be no bloodshed but that of the few guards outside the inner wall. I was too late to save them. If you can lead the prince away, I will speak to the woman he calls Deka Nefira Sekht. I know she is curious about me, even though she does not yet understand who I am.”

  Akaru had sternly ordered the few with him to remain out of sight, observe, and wait for a signal to come back into the city. Bringing no one with them and seeming defenseless other than what they suspected Marai might unleash gave them a chance to ‘talk’ to the prince and Deka.

  Marai sighed, almost tempted beyond his reserve to go ahead and make some examples, but spoke up for both of them when they came in sight of Maatkare’s guards. “You may take us to your General without threats. See?” Marai held up his hands and showed he bore no weapons other than a simple shepherd’s blade which he allowed the soldiers to remove. He said nothing in his own defense as they mocked his lack of arms or support troops. He even let them poke and jab him without retaliation.

  I remember the ploy, Marai thought. This is so very much like the day I was at my old home and N’ahab-atal the Thief’s men ushered me down the slope and into his camp. The outcome is not going to be the same unless someone gets foolish. Even then, it won’t be this prince who lies feeding vultures.

  That day, light like a blast from the heavens had erupted from the small of his back and issued as dark lightning from his hands. It had also been his first experience with bending time.

  I was so new then, that it scared me witless. Maybe I can put some of the same kind of fear into this prince. The Children must have a reason for him to be a host, or they would have allowed me to destroy him. Deka knows it too. She knows if it hadn’t been intended, the stone would have melted his head as it lay on their pillow.

  When he had meditated on the journey to Buhen, the only answer he received from his stone had been:

  Harm not he who you perceive as foul

  What your race calls good

  Must have a dark twin

  Matter requires the opposite

  It is the way of universal harmony.

  But these opposites always cause so much trouble for their counterparts, Marai shrugged. I still might reach out and choke him if I have the chance. What if he can’t be controlled or even ‘talked to’?

  Marai felt a pulse of energy and noticed the two hulking lion guards who had become men shuffling uncomfortably around the small boats docked at the river. Why are they not protecting Deka or Maatkare? he wondered. Reading them easily, he noticed them trading thoughts that they would soon be free to run in the grass again. They feel accursed. They aren’t even loyal to either Deka or the prince, but behave and serve because they think Deka will free them soon. Maybe I can use that as a last resort.

  Soon enough, the soldiers led Marai and Akaru into the walled enclosure they had seized, then past the second wall to the governor’s audience area. Inside, they both saw Maatkare slumped in the chair of authority, looking every bit like a decadent usurper. He had already started drinking the beer and wine from storage, but slight inebriation hadn’t decreased his abilities. Deka sat comfortably at his feet. Her eyes fastened on the Akaru in an expression of muted surprise.

  His grandfather? Marai felt her thinking. He’s a pink skin, and with spots all over. How did the goddess, or his mother allow such perversion?

  “Kneel, bastard,” Maatkare addressed him, his imperiousness vanishing into self-amused laughter.

  “Not going to happen,” Marai dismissed the general, glancing to each side to see two of the men moving toward him then stepping back just as quickly. “And don’t make me hurt your men by ordering them to make me kneel. I didn’t kneel for your grandfather, I didn’t kneel for you on the hunting field, and I won’t kneel for you here.”

  Even though Marai hadn’t done anything or even sent a feeling of doubt to the soldiers. They watched for Maatkare’s orders and receiving none, moved away.

  Apedemeketep sat on one side of the room, surrounded by guards; a calm and meditative expression on his face.

  Good, Ma
rai thought. Keep your heart detached from this nonsense and just trust that we’ll solve it all. This is way bigger than you are.

  “Hah. ‘This is way bigger than you are.’ Did you forget I was able to hear thoughts before I received this little boost in my head and now everything you think is clear as crystal to me? Tsk! Tsk!” Maatkare clucked.

  “What made you think I was sending Aped a private message? Maybe I wanted you to hear it to see if you were paying attention. You may think so, but you aren’t inside all of my thoughts, Child Stone or not, and you may never be.”

  Maatkare raised a finger, pointing at the two men. His soldiers flinched, ready for the next signal that never came.

  “Surprised you haven’t given the Akaru one of them, as you have become dear to each other,” Maatkare snorted.

  “You know already he has declined, so don’t try to make divisions where none exist.” Marai looked toward Aped. “And you can let the governor of this sepat go. You have the people you want in front of you. You have no need for a hostage.”

  Maatkare gestured to the guards to let the young man up.

  Aped sauntered toward the Akaru and embraced him, the hint of a limp in his step. Marai knew it was from his having been seated for several hours and not from any torture. That spoke to him of the general’s rational state of will, but as if the prince sensed his gratitude and comfort, he decided to change his command.

  “Take him,” Maatkare ordered. “Place him in the dry well beside the store rooms.”

  The Akaru tensed, almost lunging at the prince, but backed up and let the men take the young governor again.

  “What point is there in that?” shock sounded in the Akaru’s voice. “I will gladly trade places…”

  “Ah, but would your imprisonment and maltreatment cause others to rise up more than his? He is a priest candidate. I’m simply creating his Pit of Chaos Trial early here with any random snake, scorpion, and vulture to watch his progress. You are aware that, as one trained yourself, that the Pit re-creates fear.” Maatkare gestured, one slanted brow rising in mischief as Aped was hauled away.