by Stephan Loy
Osiris stood there just out of reach, glorious in state regalia.
“Let’s find mommy now.” Nefera tugged at the goddess's dress.
“Nephthys!” Isis grabbed the body before it fell to the mud. She shook her sister with desperate intensity.
“Isis!” Amnet protested, but did not interfere. Perhaps propriety froze him aghast. Perhaps confusion immobilized him, or fear.
Anubis might have acted where Amnet failed, but Hordedev got there first. He seized Isis's robes at the sleeves and hauled her away from her sister. Nephthys dropped like a bag of sand. If Anubis hadn’t caught her, she would have struck the mud with a splat.
“Let me go!” Isis protested. She struggled but Hordedev held her fast. He gritted his teeth against the expected wave of lust for her and ... and found only a ripple.
“Let me go!" Isis screamed. "You don’t understand! She has to be stopped!”
“Why?” Anubis asked, glaring at Isis.
“None of your business! None of your business! It’s family!”
“Well, I’m her son, so I make it my business.”
That brought Isis up short. She froze, her shoulders heaving. Hordedev wondered why he felt so little. “Anubis?” Her dirty, sagging hood turned to see who held her. “Hordedev!”
“Yes,” Hordedev said, the shame of past dishonors inundating his soul where desire had not.
But Isis confused his feelings even more. She twisted around and hugged him.
“Oh, Hordedev, you’re back! I missed you, I dearly did!” She pushed away, ensuring she hid within her robes. “But, there’s no time. Nephthys has done something foolish. She’s gone to bring back Osiris, but she did it without my help.”
“Excuse me?” Anubis said, startled out of umbrage. “My mother did what?”
“It was foolish of her. She’s drunk with newly found power. She doesn’t realize the danger, that she may be able to get to the west, but she can’t necessarily find her way back, not without me as a beacon.”
Anubis cocked his head. “You two were able to do such a thing, to go to the west without dying? Ingenious. How did you do it, might I ask?”
Before she replied, the humans raised a clamor. Someone yelled to Amnet. There were Setim boats close by. The former high priest ordered his own boats to meet them, to delay their reaching the island. Then he turned back to Isis. He bit off his words, and licked his lips. “Goddess, are you staying or leaving? It matters for how we defend you.”
“She and the goddess Nephthys are leaving.” Anubis began to lift his mother. “Prepare their craft and transport the body of Osiris.”
“No!” Isis shrieked. “I can’t leave! She knew I can't leave! If I leave them now, they’re lost forever!”
Anubis sighed and laid his mother down again. “Perhaps you’d better explain.”
Isis just stood there, wavering and unfathomable. “I can’t,” she moaned. “It's an act of spirit, not of reason." She brought her hands together and leaned toward Anubis. "Help me; we must act.”
Hordedev released her. He opened his mouth to declare his allegiance, but Anubis stopped him with a glance. “No,” the god said. “No one does anything until I’m satisfied.”
“Please, Anubis, for your mother’s sake and for the sake of your father. Trust me.”
“Trust you? I don’t even know you.”
Isis leaned into Hordedev for support, facing Anubis as he cradled his mother’s body. Hordedev edged away, minimizing contact, and wondered what the problem might be. Why didn't they compromise to get something done? Why didn't Isis explain herself? Why didn't Anubis take a gamble? Then he realized the truth of the matter. The two gods were trapped. They faced one another across a great gulf of natures, separated by reason and the gut thrust of life. They could not surmount their inborn differences in the little time allowed them. Someone else must intervene.
“Lord Anubis,” Hordedev offered into the impasse. “It’s true you don’t know Isis, and so you’ve no reason to trust her blindly. After all, there are others you also wouldn’t trust, and for well-founded reasons. Two of them come this way.”
“Please make your point,” Anubis said. “I suspect there’s a time limit here.”
“You don’t know to trust Isis, but you trust Thoth, don’t you?”
“So?”
“Thoth trusts Isis.”
Anubis furrowed his brow, and Hordedev knew the point was made. Anubis respected a layered argument.
“Oh, in the name of Ra!” Isis cried. “Your mother’s a goddess of death. She can find her way to death, but not to life without my help. Feel her, Anubis. Is she not cold? Does she have no pulse? Anubis, act! Your mother is dead! She will stay dead unless you help me!”
“Osiris, I’ve come to save you,” Nephthys called. All at once it rushed upon her, her licentious betrayal of this good and gentle god, whose honor she had sullied for a measure of his seed. Then Set had compounded her shame with treachery of his own, a vile betrayal that Nephthys had suspected, but whose victim she hadn’t warned. Her sins sought to strangle her, but the memory of that night in Osiris’s arms buoyed her through disgrace. She wanted to touch him as she had before.
“It’s nice to see you, Nephthys, a shock, too.” Osiris held out his arms in invitation. She flew into them and held him in a ferocious hug.
“Well, sister! A very fine greeting indeed!”
He couldn’t know what pain he brought her. But joy mixed with that pain, a memory of short-lived worth.
“I missed you,” she said into his chest, then corrected herself. “We all did.”
“Including Set?”
She went cold at his unexpected bitterness. She pushed away and scrutinized him. She found anguish hiding behind his smile.
“I was a fool,” Osiris said, and brushed a lock of hair from Nephthys’s face. “I was a fool, and now I’m dead, dead at the hand of my brother. I should have expected such treachery from him; his intentions were always obvious.”
“You were always too trusting, Osiris.”
“Yes, I suppose. Now, everyone suffers because of it.”
“You couldn’t have known. No god has ever ... it hasn’t been possible.”
Nephthys felt a tug on her dress. Nefera stood beside her, face brimming with tears. “Mamma...” she whined.
“In a moment, dear. I’m having a conversation.”
Osiris stifled a snort. He pushed Nephthys gently away and stooped to the little girl. “You still don’t understand them, sister. You have to be more than that.” He spoke to the girl, patting her arms. “Now, young daughter of guards, what did I tell you about those tears? What would your father think?”
“But, I want my mamma?”
“Of course you do, and you will see her again, I promise. But, it may be a while, and in a different place. When next I see Ra, I’ll take you there myself.”
His promise placated her, but she still looked betrayed.
“In the meantime,” Osiris continued, “your daddy has assigned you as my captain of guards. Keep your eyes sharp for enemies, and you can’t do that through tears, okay?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Now, you go rest over there, and later I’ll play a chase game with you.”
“What about her?” Nefera asked, glancing at Nephthys past the corners of her eyes.
Osiris replied as if to a trusted adult. “I think she’s kind of lost, just like us, only she doesn’t know it yet. Remember how confused you were? We have to show her kindness.”
“Well, okay. But she shouldn’t say things she doesn’t mean.”
“I agree. I’ll talk to her about it. Now, may I have a minute?”
The little girl hugged him, then turned into the gray void. Osiris stood, frowning.
“I haven’t the heart to tell her the truth, that we may be lost in this place forever. I only hope that Ra will send someone to guide these souls, that they may continue their existence as they were always meant t
o.”
“Oh!” Nephthys jumped, as if pinched. “That’s me!”
Osiris looked at her, confused.
“That’s me, Osiris. That’s why I’m here. I’m a goddess of death, meant to lead the dead beyond. I discovered it only yesterday!”
Osiris continued to stare, making Nephthys uncomfortable. Too late, she realized how vapid her words must sound.
“Isis sent me here to bring you back,” Nephthys tried again. “I’m the only one who can come here and then go back again. You see? I bring people here, and on to the afterlife, then I return to the world for more. Isis figured it out.”
“Nephthys...” Osiris shifted his stance. He ran his fingers across the surface of his state wig. “Nephthys, are you sure you discovered what you think you discovered?”
She straightened, her face flaming. “Of course I’m sure! Don’t you know your purpose? Don’t you know when your purpose is right, when you’ve fallen into your nature? I’ve been lost for eons, Osiris, never fitting in, always on the fringe, always pointless in life. Now, I’ve found my reason for existence. I’ve found it in death. It feels so natural!”
Osiris took Nephthys into his arms. “Sister, sister, sister,” he whispered. “I fear you’ve done something unwise again...”
Nephthys bristled. She pushed him away. “What do you mean, again? I rescued your wife from Set. I set her on the mission that led her to your body. She came to me to bring you back. What do you mean, unwise?”
Osiris kept his face bland. “I saw you the time you were here before. I was right over there,” and he pointed into the gray, “but too far away to get to you. I recognized you, and I recognized Isis in the light that was your lifeline.”
“So?”
“So, where is your lifeline now?”
The question startled Nephthys. She looked around, found only Osiris, the child, and featureless gray. Her stomach churned.
She had to take Osiris back.
But, which way was back?
Amnet sent boats to meet the Setim, then deployed the rest of his men to guard the island as best they could. More Osirans arrived from all over the swamp. He placed them about the island or sent them to reinforce the forward defenders. No one complained. Grim-faced and silent, they went to their duty. For most of them, this desperate, probably final stand defined the gist of their lives. They had lived for Osiris, their lord and god. Now they would die for him.
“What is your wish?” Anubis asked Isis. He lowered his mother into the fluid mud.
“I intend to save Nephthys. If I can save Osiris as well, I will. You can help or watch. The choice is yours.” Isis clutched Hordedev's arm, felt him quickly turn her touch away. Yes, she should be careful; she had inflicted enough pain on that good and faithful boy. Even through the filthy wrappings cocooning her hands, her power endangered him.
"Please," Isis begged him, "help me to Osiris."
“What’s the matter?” Hordedev asked. “Your condition--”
“Nothing. Help me.”
“What?” Anubis asked. “What condition? What are you doing, Auntie?”
Isis leaned against the platform. She drew her gaze over her husband’s body. She caught the gasp beside her as Hordedev noticed the corpse for the very first time. And, why shouldn’t he gasp as he witnessed the proof of her power? For Hordedev had helped retrieve the body, had helped caulk the holes in the macerated coffin. He had smelled the evil stink of death, and had held little hope that his queen could accomplish her quest.
But Osiris lay on his wooden slab as intact as the men about him. Except for the rags of his long decayed vestments, he might only have slept.
Anubis spoke to Isis’s back. “Auntie, I demand you explain. All this is beyond my experience, beyond the experience of anyone. It must be explained. The ramifications must be calculated. We must plan, not react, to such momentous events.”
“I think you should tell him,” Hordedev whispered. “He’s starting to get upset.”
“No time.” Isis laid hands on Osiris’s chest and closed her eyes to seek her way.
“I’m sorry,” Hordedev said. “Sorry for the things--”
“Please, Hordedev. I need to concentrate.” Then she poured herself into her husband, into the fibers of his skin, into his organs, and into the marrow nestled within his bones. She poured herself into blood, into the tiny building blocks that made her husband the god he was. She flowed deeper, deeper, until the body beneath her palm became a current of sparks, of flickering, aware, viable light. She poured into the root of his existence, into the river that carried his spirit, and traced its meandering courses toward his essence. She knew few words for the places she poured; she only knew they led to her love, to that spark of him still missing from his lovely but still-dead form. So, she poured into him and flowed to meet him, and left but a thread of herself with the living.
“What is it?” Anubis demanded. “What is she doing now? If you’ve answers, Hordedev, I want to hear them. I warn you both--”
“She’s pregnant,” Hordedev said, holding his goddess by bunched wads of robe as she swayed over her husband. His words staggered Anubis. For once, the god seemed unsure of himself.
“How would you know she’s pregnant? The ways of the gods regarding creation--”
“No,” Hordedev said. “Not creation. Pregnant. In the way of humans. You should know, just look at her. Aren’t you the expert in human anatomy? Perhaps you haven't noticed through her robes.”
Anubis’s mouth hung open. When he spoke, his voice sputtered with bluster. “Oh, this is preposterous! An abomination! What you say--”
“She’s pregnant,” Hordedev repeated. “I know what pregnancy looks like.”
This was too much for the scientist god. Anubis just stood there, working his mouth like a beached fish. To spare his new lord further bewilderment, Hordedev changed the subject. “She wants to bring Osiris back. From the looks of things, she’s doing it.”
Anubis jerked his eyes toward the body, but showed no reaction to its apparent solidity. Of course, Hordedev thought. He had never experienced a rotted god.
“You should get over here,” Hordedev said, trying to keep impatience at bay. “She’s on your side, and she needs your help.” Hordedev assigned no boundaries to what he'd do for Isis. Help was his penance for dishonor.
The strength faded from Nephthys’s voice. “Isis will come for us. That was the plan. I would find you, and Isis would lead us back.”
Osiris deepened his frown. “Well, for your sake, I hope she does. And I hope you’re right about why you’re here. I’ve seen so many arrive in confusion, with no real sense of where they are or how they came. I’ve explained the sad facts too many times. Lately, I haven’t had the heart.”
For a moment, his meaning escaped her, then Nephthys flinched away from his words. “You think I’m dead? You think I’m dead and don’t know it?”
“No one else comes here, Nephthys.”
“Well, I’m not dead, Osiris. I’m the queen of death, but not dead myself. I can come and go at will,” and her voice lost authority, “if I just knew the way. But, Isis will come for us.”
Osiris turned away from her. He lowered himself to the indistinct ground and crossed his legs. “Again, I hope you’re right. For your sake.” He gestured for Nefera, a short distance away. The girl ran to sit in his lap. “For me, it doesn’t much matter. I’m not going back.”
“No, you don’t understand. Isis and I have healed your body. We’re going to take you back, give you life again.”
Osiris hugged Nefera. He pinched her nose and she giggled. “No, you misunderstand. I’m not going back. These people need me. They need someone to lead them, to bring order to their lives, to help them make the afterlife something better than hell.” He tickled the girl, but the eyes he turned to Nephthys were serious, even sad. “Don’t misunderstand me. I love Isis. I miss her every minute. But, this is who I am, helping these people help themselves. You said y
ou knew when you’d found your nature? Well, this is mine.”
“You can’t be serious.” Nephthys hugged herself at the shoulders. She couldn't have heard correctly...
“I am. I did much in Abydos, and there are some who recall what I did. Abydos and places like it will live for millennia. Abydos doesn’t need me. These people here, they need me. They have nothing, only bewilderment. I can bring them so much more.”
Nephthys’s heart pounded under the weight of her stupefaction. She wrung her hands. “Osiris, you can’t mean it. People need you back in the world. Abydos needs you. Isis needs you.” She bit her lip, afraid she’d say too much.
Osiris’s eyes held misery, but also a spark of eagerness. We are all our natures, Nephthys thought. The humans, who made their own natures, were, oh, so very lucky.
“Tell my wife I love her,” Osiris said. “But tell her my work continues.”
The enemy approached. Setim boats poled out of the mists and charged the island. Their complement of priests jeered and shook their axes.
“It comes to battle!” Amnet shouted. “All men to the east!”
Hordedev gritted his teeth. His senses screamed to turn around, to take up a weapon and fight. But his place was with the goddess; he held her semi-conscious body erect beside her husband while she worked her mystical deed. If he released her, she would collapse, along with the spell she wove. Everything would be lost. He gritted his teeth and held her there against the urge to fight, and against the thrill she sent through his nerves.
He hoped nobody cleaved him through the back.
He heard the crack of stone splintering stone, the grunts of men in combat. Someone fell against him and rolled away. Hordedev arched over the goddess to protect her as best he could. What about Nephthys? he thought. Never mind, he could only protect the one.
From the edge of his vision, he caught a movement. He glanced left and right as a horde of jackals swarmed past the platform from the west. Some snarled and leapt at the Setim, ignoring the flagging Osirans. Others encircled Nephthys’s body and threatened any who stumbled too close.