This is someone new...
Not the one you first will seek
the one who seeks you?
He is new...tell him..be open to him
Until that moment, Marai knew, Naibe had only used thought speech to Ariennu, Deka and himself. What he felt from her jolted him powerfully enough that his own senses sharpened and expanded in response. The Child Stone in his head woke suddenly and linked with the stones in all three women. He hoped the priest would not notice their stones had begun to glimmer.
Ariennu was burying all of their thoughts.
Deka was casting herself on the wind.
Naibe was seeking out the priest all by herself. She rose quietly after gesturing secretly to Ari, who impulsively pressed her hands as if to whisper “Good Luck, little Brown Eyes”.
Sensing the change in the atmosphere, the priest turned to look up at Naibe-Ellit as she began walking slowly around him. Her firm hip moved against his indigo-cloaked shoulder as she went to the basket of dates as if marking him with her scent.
The priest smiling a little wistfully, understanding the sojourner was attempting to read him as intently as he was trying to read the whatever thought randomly escaped the big man or any of the women.
And knowing now that he has died, you seek his legacy? his thoughts were sharp and clear, followed by his clear voice. I’m not the one you seek.
“I know the man who was an assistant of Djedi. He is an honored elder teacher.” the priest nodded. “But something tells me you have much more to you that you’re telling me.
Marai nodded, content but disquieted. He sensed this assistant had asked the younger priest to find who had been looking for him and to bring him a tale of wonder about it.
The Children of Stone, however, through Naibe’s “Ashera” soul, sighed that it was actually this particular priest who needed to learn something from them today. Marai knew Naibe would be the teacher for this lesson, but answered the priest before she began.
“The spirit said that I, as a messenger, should come to Kemet for study” Marai continued. “I was told I would assist many here in the unlocking the mysteries of the first time and of times even before that time.”
The priest wasn’t really listening. He was being actively bedazzled by Naibe’s own peculiar assault of inner voices that had begun to sigh in unendurable ecstasy.
“as a messenger ...assist many here in the unlocking the mysteries of the first time and of times even before that time.”
“Humph...” the priest shrugged, stunned that this Marai was actually naive enough to have spoken a rarely known part of a legend in his land. No outsider should have known that part. It was as if the sojourner implied he was the Benu, the keeper of the universal secrets. Was the benu not supposed to be symbol of the divine woman, the secret being as her egg and the successor/replacement born of fragrant fire as well?
Marai caught the priest’s astonishment for a moment, before he realized he had slipped.
“There are things imprisoned in my heart...and gifts” Marai shifted and stared into the priest’s dark eyes, watching his veiled reaction. “I believe I am this messenger...that alone.” The sojourner’s voice grew softer as he picked up his cup of warm beer, and sipped it. He watched Naibe-Ellit’s fluid movements near the priest.
Woman... Marai sent Naibe-Ellit one errant thought. Go easy on him...Your beauty kills me instead...
The priest heard every word Marai had said, as well as the words to Naibe.
“The messenger?” he repeated, sounding somewhat sad, then “I see...” The priest turned his thoughts to the beautiful creature beside him, noticing she was translating herself into golden star material. She moved in front of him, bending at the knee to lock her eyes into his.
At that moment, Marai knew he was beginning to hear the nameless priest’s thoughts as he reacted to her beauty. His senses thrilled as he heard the priest’s all-too-charming, silent utterance.
Blessed be...woman of the sea and star within this humble flesh. Know that I know you. Know that I see you. May your fears ease in your coming task. May you be filled with his every joy, the answer to your longing...The priest’s thoughts q quietly whispered to her.
Marai saw the priest’s right hand slipping into a fold of his robe to sensually stroke something resting in a false pocket near the top of the robe where the two sides could be tied together. A feeling of well-being rushed throughout the room.
This is why he hasn’t taken off his cloak on such a sweltering day. It’s an amulet of some kind...not an evil eye though... Marai thought then tried with all of his might to hide his reaction to the thought that followed.
“Djedi” in his vision had fingered a large crystal disc that glittered when he touched it. Although he couldn’t clearly see the object the priest was touching, Marai knew this was somehow the same amulet. It meant...
“My Lord, may I speak?” Naibe-Ellit’s voice fluttered in the studied shyness of the Ashera voice Marai knew from so long ago in the wilderness.
See with us Man of Ai. It seemed to be saying all over again.
This is someone new...
“Go on, woman.” The priest sucked in a little air, lowered his eyelids and coughed to break the charm of her calm, seductive gaze.
“If you do not wish to drink, have some of these. They are uncommonly sweet...” She showed him the pot of dates Ariennu must have passed to her a moment earlier when they sat at the back of the apartment. The priest took one, nodded thanks and bit it.
“Oh! These are exquisite!” He exclaimed. “I should order some right now for...” The priest almost said a name of someone but froze his thoughts again.
Almost, that time, young goddess...Almost... he chortled lightly.
Naibe-Ellit stared down at him. The gold-brown light glittering through her eyes, bounced back in a flaming brightness.
You are a Lord of Dance …I too, dance and would dance for you, so that you can understand...how my words fail me at times... her thoughts sprang up.
So that is the reason behind his excellent condition. Marai verified his original thought about the priest. Teaches physical movement and meditative motion...Worship dancing for one of the goddesses I would guess...
“These dates are those which “My Lady” adores away in Kina-Ahna?” The priest answered aloud. His slim hands clasped “Do they come with the dance you are wanting to show me?”
Marai watched carefully, wondering if he meant “My Lady” as in a goddess, perhaps Ashera or Hethrt? Or did he mean his own “Lady” and the warmth of his heart who lived in his home here in Ineb Hedj?
Naibe was charming the priest like a cat on a bird. She nodded, beginning to sway, circling her arms up then out as if caressing the air, drawing it down into her spirit. Her belly made the air shimmer and sigh...dip and sway. Her hands loosed the knot at the back of her neck and a piece of linen wafted to the floor.
“For you, esteemed one, a gift ...” She whispered, bending close to the priest’s ear, dusting it with another piece of her wrapped shift. “From my land to yours...from all women...a blessing because I know in my heart, you will not fail to be kind...even when it is asked for you to be hard.” The fire in her brow was blazing.
Marai was awestruck. His heart felt like jumping from his chest in desire, joy, and hilarious amazement. She was calling down The Lady...In her sacred guise of the evening star woman. This time, she offered the beer again and the priest took it, smiling in boyish enchantment, and downing it quickly.
Naibe’s back arched gracefully as she floated by the amazed priest and loosened her skirt. She draped the fabric across his lap then caressed her bare breasts, advancing and retreating with a complex series of stretches and poses. Her hair shook loose from the ties around it. The dark wavy mass swept to and fro over her naked shoulders as she moved.
“It is a sweet dance...and as accomplished as I have seen in our land…” The priest smiled nervously, then adroitly looked away. He changed the su
bject, by asking Marai “If the woman who weaves is your senior-most beloved, then these others are...” He stared into the now empty cup trying to avoid looking at Naibe-Ellit’s dance again.
“Wives also, consorts you would call them....” Marai answered, aching in his own longing. He felt the knowledge of Naibe’s wondrous body and all of its limitless passion as she fed it, like sweet sorcery, into the priest’s deepest thoughts.
“Ah yes,” The priest smiled “I too have a best beloved who has given me children. Two sons survive and are now grown young men...But there are no children for you, then?” He accepted a third beer and sipped at it, nodding rich approval at the dance and the drink. Naibe wove her way to Marai to give him a little more attention, but turned as she heard that comment about children.
The priest stroked the unseen thing in the pocket at his chest again, sensing the woman’s regret.
“No... None yet.” Marai answered realizing he had vastly underestimated the priest. That he wanted to wait to begin his family and that Naibe-Ellit did not, was the soft underbelly of contention in their thoughts. “Soon perhaps...” His face softened until the priest realized his victory. “Perhaps the goddess understands how unsettled we are until I meet with my destiny and have been opened...but then again...”
Naibe drifted by him again then settled by Ariennu. Her dance was over. The elder woman let her rest, tousling her hair and cradling her. As her breathing and reverie slowed, she bent to kiss her gently like a lover or a proud mother.
The priest pressed his lips shut into a flat, irritated line. He cleared his throat and tried to avoid staring at the tired but sensuous embrace between Naibe and Ariennu. The dates and third beer had begun to have a slight effect on him.
“By opened, you mean admitted to study?” He asked, his lips perched on the rim of the empty cup again. “That... is a gift which would take far too many years of discipline. Study begins when one is a child, as it did with me.” he sighed “I’m afraid the King makes all of the higher appointments, too. Some cruel shade has misinformed you. It could never have been the spirit of Master Djed Djedi of Seneferu. I’m afraid you have been deceived.”
Marai’s thoughts lifted quietly to Naibe-Ellit.
Then, see my love...He isn’t the one after all…No fear...not really... Naibe’s thoughts issued forward from the back of the room where she and Ariennu sat contendedly. Marai was more than a little upset that the strange cloaked man had found the desire to have a child in his Naibe’s heart and had decided to prey upon it.
“So sad... for this one, though” The priest continued delicately, pointing out Naibe, who sat straighter, still a little groggy from the power of her dance “That you would deny her the sacredness when she opens... plum-ripe and begging you...Do you not respect the gift she brings you? Are you even worthy to learn from us?” He spoke gently but on another level...So excellent...so much meant for more... and then But why IS that? The priest’s head inclined as if he were lost in thought. That thought seemed to approach and take Naibe-Ellit, who gently closed her eyes with sighing.
Oh, Goddess bless you, woman, you’ve done it! Marai no longer cared that the priest might have heard his excited thoughts..
The priest’s face colored rose-brown in shame. In getting his host to reveal himself, he had opened his own thoughts. He did miss the joy of having his wife in his arms every night, the way it had been in their early years together. Although they lived together, something had changed in the past few years. Life, sacred duty and responsibility always got in the way of any intimacy. They had so little time for each other. With sons grown and no more to come from her, according to the best of physicians, she had taken on more sacred duties in the local minor temple of HetHrt. As he moved through the positions of “the Five” he spent so much time traveling by land and river. As Second of Five, he was the Grand Inspector of the Ways. That meant days and even weeks away from his beloved wife.
“So you await invitation to study in the mystery of Lord Djehuti, Master of Days?” he hesitated for an instant, but didn’t wait for Marai to answer. “.Why were you directed here and not to the Grand Temple in Khmenu? Here is the place of Lord Ptah, Master of the Arts.
“Because of the apprentice?” Marai suggested, able to see that the man’s thoughts were rioting in discomfort.
The eyes of them...Now the Ta-Ntr woman looks here...
Marai felt the priest’s thoughts and sensed his pulse quickening.
When Deka sensed Naibe-Ellit entering the man’s heart, her afternoon reverie at the window was broken. Her eyes traced the priest lightly and a haunting smile crept over her taut face. Slowly her hands began to make an odd little gesture as if she was smoothing her cheeks. She made the gesture once again. This time, she reached out to the priest’s chest and to the hidden amulet, evoking it’s energy.
The priest stared deeply into Marai’s unfathomable and increasingly giddy metallic eyes in another desperate attempt to tear his thoughts away from the women.
“I believe this “apprentice” as you wish to call him would receive you, albeit briefly then.” the priest spoke abruptly. “Understand, he whom I serve lives nearby in a city estate. You may visit with him there, but you may not enter any temple as you are not yet clean or educated. He is here for less than a month, then he journeys to Khmenu for his turn at sacred duty.”
The priest’s thoughts regained control so abruptly that Ariennu, gasped just a little, almost protecting Naibe-Ellit, who still lolled in the aftermath of her own sensuality. His eyes blinked once, a quick smile dotting his lips, as if he had completed a decision of sorts.
“You cannot expect to enter our holy places unprepared. He will merely be interested in examining you and then he will determine if he should make a request of your appointment to study to our King.” but paused, “Come to the West gate near the Palace Group...” The priest set down his empty cup and began to get to his feet.
Ariennu quit Naibe for a moment and moved to fetch the priest’s staff from its place by the door. She was Wise MaMa now, tidying up her child before sending him out on an errand. Her arms encircled his neck for a moment.
“You will treat our brother Marai well there...” She whispered into his ear, using the word “brother” as a term of deep endearment. “It’s important in your life that you do.” She restored his hood, the back of her hand tracing his brow.
The Inspector’s memory filled with a sweetness and power he’d tried to forget for many years. The wise smile of his mother on the dawning of that sunny day-when he left her house for good, suddenly replayed in the elder woman’s face. Once again, through Naibe’s thoughts and on Ariennu’s face the image of his mother appeared.
His mother had seen the rage in her sons young, turbulent spirit that morning and she had let him go. He couldn’t know then that he would never see her again. She would be in the Field of Reeds before he ever knew of her death or was able to return to her in her final illness.
Ariennu’s hand slipped inside the cloak, closing on the amulet as she embraced the priest, lifting it from the pouch just a little, as if by magic.
“See how easily all can be taken from you my radiant son, that you may be aware of thieves when you least expect them. One day I have seen it, you will lose all because you failed to see the truth you desperately craved!” Ariennu whispered to him gently, barely aware of the words she was speaking.
“You are the one who does the right thing, who sets the things of the universe in right order and truly knows Maat. So are you named and thus it was etched in the stars before I gave you life.”
The priest froze, instinctively reaching for the amulet and finding Ari’s hand stroking it.
He brought it out of his cloak, just a little, so she could see it. The amulet was a nearly clear carved disk the size of a man’s palm. It was made of something like quartz crystal, so one could almost see through it, but etched with a character, and filled with pale blue, red, and gold forming the lunar eye of
Djehuti.
Ariennu stared, temporarily dazzled.
Wait...the Children...they...the... Not so, So... Her thoughts froze all of her emotions and she grew immeasurably still.
Mother, look, see, I still cherish it. I had to leave ...I had no choice. I just didn’t want to live a dead man’s fantasy as you and father have spent your lives doing...I had to seek the truth...IRI, do you understand; to do the right thing as my name dictates.
The priest’s thoughts repeated from the memory of that last morning, then recalled her quiet tears. He realized she already knew a thing he could not know that morning. It was the last time they would speak. Swept up into those thoughts and memories, he wanted to fall to his knees and cling to her skirt, to beg forgiveness for abandoning her in her last days... but froze in the same instant, realizing he had even further opened his thoughts to these sojourners.
These people... Who are they, really? The priest’s thoughts raced. A near giant with the manners of a perverse imp with his twinkling eyes...and the three consorts who serve him more as prophetesses or oracles of a god in some mysterious cult?...His senior would not only want to see them, he needed to see them.
“Two men will meet you when the sun has cleared our walls.” he instructed. “Start at dawn’s light and cross down river four landings. You will be closer to the Great Eternal House of Khufu at that point. When you are brought in, my senior, who serves as Great One of Five, will see you. You will receive the first scrutiny at his home.” He backed to the door, his words halting as his foot stepped backward across the threshold. “If you succeed, you may be invited...The women with you must understand you will possibly be gone for many days. When it is finished you will either come back to them to await further scrutiny, or we will send for them, that they be presented to the goddesses...” He smiled genuinely for the first time that entire day. A new confidence filled his expression, “I must go now to prepare.”
The priest continued backing to the edge of the step until the rays of the overhead sun struck and whitened his face. He was turning, just as Marai and Ariennu moved to see him to the door and down the steps. In a sudden gesture, the priest whirled, holding with the amulet high overhead, lips mouthing something with a delighted grin. Then he flipped the clear disc over in his extended fingertips. The sun caught the crystal, reflecting a blinding flash squarely into the eyes of everyone in the room. When the momentary blindness it caused had cleared, he was gone.
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