by Unknown
“Should I go too?” Ma'at asked.
“I think we're good,” Sekhmet laughed. “Really people, she's pregnant, not the President of the United States. There aren't snipers out there.”
“It's okay,” I shook my head at Ma'at and left the ballroom with the feline goddesses. Just us cats, sticking together.
Chapter Nine
The bathroom wasn't far away from the ballroom but when I was finished, I came out to find Bastet on high alert.
“What is it?” I looked around the empty hallway.
“We heard something strange,” Bastet was staring off in the direction of the Hall of Two Truths. “Sekhmet went to investigate.”
The Hall of Two Truths was where Anubis, Ma'at, Thoth, and this goddess/thing called Ammut, judged souls. I'd once been forced to sit beside Anubis' gold jackal throne there, chained to his side. He would pull the heart from a soul and judge it. If it was worthy, it could go through the Golden Gates of Aaru, to make it's way through even more scary, demon-guarded gates and hopefully get to some sort of paradise, where it would live happily ever after in the presence of Osiris.
It was not somewhere I wanted to go hang out in after hours, as it were. Or ever, for that matter. It didn't exactly hold the best memories for me. I shivered as I remembered Ammut. Her hodgepodge body reminded me of the Hidden Ones, so it wasn't her form that bothered me. It was how she ate the hearts of the evil souls. How can a soul have a heart? Well, just like with my dead lions, souls in Duat were substantial. So it was a very real, very juicy heart that I'd watched Ammut devour and it was a memory I didn't want to relive.
“We can go back and tell Anubis about it,” I offered.
Then we heard a scream which was cut off abruptly and I reacted automatically; running in the direction from which it came. Granted, I couldn't run very fast and Bastet ended up racing ahead of me. When I reached the Hall, it was to find it completely dark. Still, I didn't have a problem with the dark, what with my triple threat of lioness, wolf, and dragon. I could clearly see Bastet kneeling over a body at the far end of the room. I rushed over.
“Is she alright?” I asked as I saw that the body was Sekhmet.
“Yes, she's fine,” Bastet whispered. “Please forgive us, Vervain. What we do, we do out of love for our father.”
“What are you talking-” before I could finish, Sekhmet lurched up and snatched the Ring of Remembrance off my finger as Bastet pushed me from behind. I screamed as I tumbled over Sekhmet. The golden gates leading to Aaru opened up and swallowed me whole.
I tumbled forward into the dark and was surprised when I landed softly. I heard the slam of doors behind me and stood up to see the gate shut tight. There didn't even appear to be a seam between the doors on this side of the gate. Still, I launched myself at the barrier, pounding my fists fiercely.
“Damn you nasty pussies!” I shouted. “Open the doors!” Rian reeled inside me suddenly and I felt his anger rising up my throat. “Easy now,” I soothed him and stepped back. “We can't lose our heads.”
“You cannot go back,” an eerie voice spoke behind me and I jerked around.
I was on the banks of a river, at its source actually. It began just twenty feet or so in front of me, bubbling up from underground. The ground was soft, dry sand and the night sky was a twinkling expanse of stars without a moon to rule them. I shivered when I saw that. I didn't like it when the moon was dark, it made my magic uncomfortable.
Beneath that moonless sky, standing right before me, was an ethereal looking woman. She gestured behind her, where a pair of sleek wooden boats waited in the water, bobbing gently in the bubbling froth. They were tied to a little dock with a simple rope. Beyond the boats, the river led to a narrow gate set into stone walls. The walls extended out to both sides as far as I could see. Sharp spearheads topped them and thick wood doors sealed the gate, stopping up the water which was slowly rising along the banks. Daunting yes but not as daunting as what surrounded the gate.
Guarding the gate were huge, hooded snakes; one with his head at the top and one at level with the water. They were breathing a constant stream of fire right in front of the doors. The fire didn't look normal either, it sputtered and sizzled, sparking blue in spots. An acidic smell filled the air and I realized why the fire looked so strange.
“They're venomous, aren't they?” I asked the spirit before me as I edged closer to the river.
“You cannot go back,” she said again. “The only way is forward. Welcome to the Watercourse of Re,” she turned, walked across the dock, and stepped into the boat.
“The Watercourse of Re?” I growled. “I thought this was the gate leading to Aaru? Did Re put you guys up to this? Where is that shiny bastard? I'm going to kick his golden ass!”
“Heteptiu, followers of Re are welcome on the Mesektet,” she held her arms wide to indicate the boat she was standing on. “But the followers of Osiris must journey to Sekhet-Aaru, and pass through the twenty-one gates,” she indicated the other boat.
“I don't want to get on either boat,” I grumbled.
She said nothing, just stared at me like I hadn't said a word. And waited. She waited in a really creepy, patience-of-the-dead sort of way.
“How are we getting through a closed, snake-guarded gate?” I asked her but she continued to remain silent.
I had no choice, I had to go forward and there was no way I was going through the twenty-one gates of Sekhet-Aaru. I assumed those were the demon guarded gates which the poor worthy souls had to pass through before they found Heaven. So I took a deep breath and followed after the creepy woman, stepping onto the Mesektet boat and heading to the prow, where she stood.
“Fine, take me to Re,” I snapped. “Come on, get this damn boat moving.”
She turned to face the snake gate and the boat began to glide forward. The woman barely paid me any attention as we floated calmly toward the monstrous reptiles. I cocked my head and admired the streams of their fire breath. It was so bright, the light carried all the way to the shore.
“Fire doesn't bother me, you know,” I said to the silent specter. “And I'm both a faerie and a goddess, so I'm immortal. Even if they are spitting venom, they won't hurt me. I just don't understand how we're going to get those big doors open. You wanna give me a hint?”
Nothing.
“I could change into a dragon and give them a push,” I offered. “That would probably do the trick.”
More nothing.
“My fiances will be looking for me,” I warned her. “They'll find you and your stupid Re boat. It would be in your best interest to help me get back to them.”
“You cannot go back,” she intoned again. “Ur-nes awaits. You shall be given herbs and grains of the field, water of life, and great pleasure. Look forward to your glorious afterlife.”
“Wonderful. Herbs, grain, water, and pleasure, what else could a woman want?” I rolled my eyes but then something occurred to me. I stuck my hand out, right into her, and nothing happened. My hand went right through her body and she didn't react at all. She did waver a little bit though. “What are you?” I frowned. “You're not a soul because here, souls are solid. You're like what a human would think a soul would look like. A fake ghost. A faux phantom.”
“I am Heka, Goddess of the Word,” she intoned. “I shall open the way for you.”
“Uh huh,” I narrowed my eyes on her. “Where exactly are we going?”
She just stared straight ahead. I was going to push her for more answers but while I was watching her, we had sailed so close to the gate, I could feel the heat of snake breath on my cheeks. My dragon twisted inside me, wanting to come out and bask in the flames. I pushed her back down resolutely. I had no idea what this place was all about or what would happen if I played in the fires of Aaru. They could be magic fire that somehow managed to incinerate even a dragon. Those damn Egyptians were weird... and tricky. Especially the cat ones, evidently.
Inside me, my son was shifty in agitation again, sen
sing my distress. I laid a hand over my belly and tried to calm him before he went dragon-baby ballistic. We'd faced tougher things than a few monstrous snakes. Hell, we were snake gods in a way, we could get through this. No problem. He seemed to agree with that and settled down to let me handle things.
Then the spurious spook at my side called out something weird in Egyptian and the snakes shut their mouths. The venomous fire ceased and the snakes eased back as the wood doors swung open (don't ask me how the wood managed to keep from being burned). The water that had been building up behind the doors was now released and we flowed through the narrow passage on the crest of a wave. I glanced up at the reptile in repose above me. His eyes were closed peacefully, probably enjoying himself a well-deserved nap after all his huffing and puffing.
“Welcome to Ur-nes, where Re is Lord,” ghost girl said. “Here you will find your pleasure,” she waved her hand to the right and I looked over to see six intimidating men standing on the shore, each of them holding some sort of weapon. The sky was dark in this region but they were standing in the light of several torches. “The gods of grain and seasons will see you to your new home.”
In front of the gods of grains and seasons was a long, thin boat but it remained tied to the dock there. No one approached it or made any move whatsoever. They just stood and stared at me like I was an interloper who didn't belong on their damn river. They were obviously not about to see me to my new home.
“What the hell is wrong with you guys? This is like a strange, screwed up, Disneyland ride!” I growled and then I shouted to the six gods on the shore, “I didn't ask to be here, you know!”
I turned away from the unresponsive gods in a huff, crossing my arms over my belly. Heka had gone back to staring straight ahead and the boat was continuing on down the river. Maybe I had to keep going with her, even though she'd pretty much told me to get off the boat. I looked towards the other shore for a clue.
There were a few boats docked there. They didn't have masts or rudders so I guess they were just rafts, not boats, and they were full of shadowy human forms. I knew those forms, those shadow people. I walked toward the railing in a daze, the vision I'd had in the swimming pool coming back to me.
“My baby is psychic,” I whispered as a chill went down my spine. Rian shifted inside me and I rubbed my belly as I spoke to him. “It was you, wasn't it, Rian? You gave me a warning. Too bad your mother was too dumb to understand it.”
Then a full sized boat emerged from the center of the rafts. It was large and loaded with people, their oars slipping into the water steadily to push the boat forward. Someone stood at the prow and although I couldn't make out his face, I was familiar with the arrogant stance. I growled, now knowing for certain that Re was behind this conspiracy. Trevor and Kirill had been right, the party had been a means of getting me into Duat so that those cat twins could toss me through the Gates of Aaru.
Which meant... was Re their father? Bastet said they were doing this out of love for their father. Oh, what did it matter? The last time I'd been stuck in Duat, things hadn't gone so well for me but this time it would be different. Because this time I was a dragon and dragons didn't put up with this kind of malarkey. I was going to make those monster snakes look like helpless worms and turn their sun god into burnt toast. In fact, I might just feed him to his own snakes. How's that for poetic justice?
I looked away from the approaching boat, trying to get control of my anger. I was way too close to my due date to let myself get this upset. I didn't want to go into labor early and end up giving birth outside of Faerie. So I crossed my arms and stared forward petulantly along with Heka, the ghost girl. That's when I noticed that we were approaching another gate, which was guarded by yet another pair of hooded fire snakes. Again? I was distracted momentarily by the irritating repetition (creativity is very important to me) and so was a little surprised when the thud came, indicating that Re's boat had come abreast with ours.
“Hello, Lala,” Re said as he jumped down next to me.
“Hello, dead man,” I snarled back.
“Now, Lala,” he held up his hands placatingly.
“Don't call me that,” I slapped him across the face and he stumbled back. “How dare you! You're abducting me? Seriously? I defended you. They told me I shouldn't come to Duat, that you would try something like this and I told them that there was no way you would do anything to hurt me. We've fought battles beside each other. You're supposed to be my friend.”
“I'm not going to hurt you,” he said gently. “I spoke out of anger the other day. I didn't mean any of it. I was just so upset that you didn't share my feelings, that you could have experienced all of what I had and not loved me back. As soon as I returned home, I realized that you must not have experienced what I had. That somehow, you had carried a link to those memories but not the memories themselves. I knew that I had to try one last time, to talk to you about what I saw. It was amazing, Vervain and I can't give up without at least trying to share that with you.”
“So you got a couple of pussy cats to shove me through the Gates of Aaru?” I growled.
“My daughters,” he confirmed my suspicions. “They did it for me. Because I needed to get you here, to my home, someplace where you couldn't run away before I had a chance to tell you everything,” he waved a hand towards the shore he'd come from. “Please, just hear me out.”
“They took my ring, the one my father left to me,” I glared at him.
“I asked them to,” he confessed. “I knew you could use it to leave. Don't worry, they'll bring it by later tonight and I'll return it to you. You have my word. Now please, Vervain.”
“Uh, let me think about it... no,” I stared at the snakes instead of him.
“Vervain, you don't want to go through those gates,” he warned me. “There are monsters beyond. It's dangerous.”
“I think I'll manage,” I shrugged.
“Not here you won't,” he grabbed my arm. “Here you won't manage anything without my help.”
“That's convenient,” I glared at him.
“It's why I brought you here,” he admitted. “But I promise I will see you home safely. Just have dinner with me, listen to me talk about what I've seen in my dreams, that's all I ask.”
“Dinner and conversation?” I lifted a brow. “That's it?”
“That's it,” he promised.
“You could have picked up a phone to ask me to dinner,” I huffed.
“And you would have said no,” he gave me a sad look. “Please,it's just a few hours of your time. Is that really too much for me to ask for when it was you who brought these memories back to me in the first place?” He held his hand out to me and I gave a deep sigh.
“Just dinner,” I put my hand in his.
“Thank you,” he whispered and pulled me into his chest.
“Hey now,” I pushed him back.
“I need to help you into the boat,” he nodded toward his ship. It was a bit higher than the one we stood on and the only way aboard appeared to be by a rope ladder. It would be awkward to climb that in my condition.
“Fine,” I grumbled and he lifted me into his arms with a satisfied smile.
A man was waiting at the rail and Re passed me up into his grasp before climbing the rope ladder. The man seemed human and he immediately put me down and stepped away from me, keeping his eyes cast down. As soon as Re was in the boat, the other men began to row, taking us back to shore.
Re led me to a luxurious couch set on the deck between the rowers, and helped me sit before sitting beside me. He was silent the whole way, probably didn't want to push his luck, and I had nothing to say either. I just sat there, trying to keep my cool so my unborn son didn't decide to roast everything in sight... and trying to figure out if that would be such a bad thing.
Boy, the Egyptians sure do know how to throw a party.
Chapter Ten
An Egyptian chariot waited on the shore for us, all gold with depictions of the sun molded into it.
It had two wheels with an open back; one of those standin affairs made for one or two passengers. It was hitched to a single white horse and Re helped me into it, showing me where to hold, before he took up the reins and drove me deeper into his territory. As we got further inland, the sky lightened a little. Though it was still night, it wasn't that heavy, dismal darkness that shrouded the river. I was able to make out rolling fields around us, bordered by sheer mountains in the distance.
In the middle of it all was a grand Egyptian palace, with soaring stone columns gracing the veranda, which was open all the way up the two floors of the palace. The columns were painted in bold colors and had gilded accents. They stood out against the stark white of the walls. Tall braziers stood on either side of the stone steps which led up to the veranda, illuminating the colored columns with wavering light. We rode right to the front steps, where a man waited to collect the chariot. Re passed him the reins without a word and the man bowed deeply.
“Welcome to my home, Lala,” Re said as he led me up the steps and onto the wide veranda.
“When do we eat,” I snapped.
“Momentarily,” he laughed. “Please try and enjoy yourself just a little. You'll be returned to your lovers soon enough. Aren't you just the least bit curious about my home?”
“Re, just get on with whatever you have planned,” I sighed. “I don't want to be here and you know it.”
“As you wish,” his expression hardened and he took my arm more firmly, leading me through the tall, elaborately outlined doorway.
We strode down hallways lined in more lotus topped columns. Luxurious rooms spread out to either side of us but we continued on, past a grand stone staircase and straight into the heart of the palace. Finally, we came to a dining hall; a long and narrow room with a single table stretching its length. A feast was laid out at one end and group of people stood along the walls near it. Re led me down to where platters full of steaming food waited. The aroma of roasted meat, fresh baked bread, and sauteed vegetables filled my nose. My stomach rumbled and Re grinned.