Going Forth By Day

by Mary R Woldering

  She heard the Great One’s thoughts: Calm, calm. Blessing of the first time’s sweetness of light to you. Do no harm. Gently rest, in Her abiding name.

  Ariennu felt the rush of ecstasy flood from the children go through her hand and up into her arm. For a moment, the light from the stones grew stronger as they recognized her touch. A dizzy feeling floated through her entire body. Marai and everything he had ever been to her held and touched her once again. All of the joy of being lost in his strong arms that incredible afternoon when she embraced his pure joy came back to her in an utterly sensual rush. She fought the pleasure, keenly understanding that the Children would want to communicate to her through sensuality. Passion was the emotion that drew them to Earth eons ago. It was the way they spoke to each of their hosts now. Her eyes silvered. She wanted to cry out in the intense pleasure of the feel of Marai inside her, but her thoughts quieted as the Children of Stone lifted her thoughts and carried them to a strange dark box lost deep in the blackness of a forgotten chamber. Everything was still, silent, and lifeless. Marai’s body had become pale, cold, and very hard like stone itself as he lay there.

  Oh damn, Ari cried out internally. She tried to fight her way back from the dark and to keep her pleasure hidden because the old man desired to control her with it. Somehow, he had discovered that aspect of the Children and knew the thing on his hand could control them and weaken her. I wanted to see where he lay dead, and this is it. I know it! I know it now. Lose me in the silence. Lose me now! she cried, but suddenly realized: wait, you told me there was no body to see; that my Marai had been burnt to dust in the light of ultimate knowledge. If that’s so, why am I seeing this? Goddess, you can’t know what I see! Ariennu refocused her energy into blurring all that she saw with rainbow prisms. She sighed heavily in joy so Hordjedtef would think it was merely the growing thunder through the depth of her womb. Then she relaxed and let the vision come.

  Her shadow stretched out along the surface of a black polished stone tomb. She ached in pleasure but sobbed like a child. The top of the place where he lay dissolved in the steam of the memory of their passion. For those moments, he was alive again. Aset. Oh Great Goddess I am Aset to bring and nurture life out of my dead womb to revive his seed in me. She felt faint with ecstasy and saw nothing but blurs. It’s too late to go to him, too late to revive him, too late to bring Asar back from his untimely death. Her free hand touched her brow. She noticed the Child Stone had risen.

  Hordjedtef saw it too. “But, they do speak to you, and they will continue to speak to you as they have just let me see,” he said. “I can see when a vision has formed behind someone’s eyes, even yours,” the confidence in his voice increased. “At first, I thought you were nothing, some tired wastrel of a ka’t as you would have most think. I didn’t know your duty, your sacred gift, but now I do,” his eyes thinned a little more.

  Goddess, he can’t know what I saw. If this isn’t a fantasy, Divine Aset, please open my eyes to the truth but blind him to what you showed me. Ariennu blinked. The servants moved about, as they cleaned for the party. The only thing she had managed to keep private was the spiritual struggle between the two of them, which the count was coming close to winning. She sensed that the others in the open plaza merely thought the two of them were sitting calmly, deep in reflection. Instead, her struggle against the show of pleasure left her trembling in more ecstasy.

  The presence of the water bird overtook the visage of the elder gentleman. She had not seen it before, but sensed when it happened. Now, she saw it clearly. The down-curved dark beak and shiny black eyes. The speckled feathers horrified her so greatly that her concentration frayed, even though such a bird in real life would only annoy her before she kicked it out of her path.

  “You’re the secret keeper now, aren’t you, dear?” Hordjedtef seemed so satisfied at his discovery that he rocked backward, but continued to hold her hand firmly in the box.

  The sensations of pleasure continued to ripple through her body. Her nipples stiffened. Everything from her kuna-gate to the depths of her womb ached in joy. Between her clenched thighs all had melted into throbbing, helpless waves of pleasure. He was winning.

  “Oh,” he quipped, “you may wish to keep your secrets from me.” He continued, boyishly entertained as he studied her physical response. “And maybe you will try just that, but at some point these ones in the box will whisper to you where the other eight I seek are and they will link your thoughts to them. At that time I will learn it from you, if I but simply speak their name again.”

  For a moment, Ariennu perceived the roaring dark sound of a word: ‘Auuuuu.’ No it wasn’t right ‘Nauuuuu’. The darkest sound she had ever sensed flooded up from the pit of some hidden abyss in her heart. Nauuuuuu. “Eight?” Ari gasped, open-mouthed in a combination of passion, terror and anger. “I don’t know of eight,” she tried to free her hand in vain. The ecstasy and whatever had come into her hand through the dark ring-like thing on the high priest’s middle finger stunned her with the memory of so much pleasure that all of her strength to resist, fled. The priest’s words hammered inside her ears.

  “Oh, but you do know very well. We both know there were seventy-eight that fell to earth, and that there are four of them now hosted within once mortal flesh, which should leave us seventy-four. I have somehow counted only sixty-six little stones,” Hordjedtef’s expression became at once calm and bland in satisfaction. “You knew how many there were when you came out of your house to see us. You are not a stupid woman despite your origin in the alleyways of Tyre. I have read your heart, in unguarded moments, and know of your life as a thief. Counting, ciphering, and even ways and numbers are not beyond your grasp. You indeed brought all remaining seventy-four of them, but managed to hide eight from us. One was lost in the death of your sire, but soon enough the others will turn up with a reapplied and diligent search when we have divined how the others call out to it.”

  She felt his nails dig into her hand. The pain gave her a brief surge of freedom from his spell. She pressed his wrist once with her free hand that had an instant before touched the opalescent stone her brow. Hordjedtef’s hand bent up in tensed pain, and Ariennu quickly drew her own hand away and off of the child stones. “And now you are lying to me most fiercely,” she smirked quickly.

  The old man nursed his hand, amazed that she had broken free of his spell and the power of the ring on his finger.

  “Perhaps everything you’ve said, even about my Marai, is a lie.” Ariennu stated and then shook her head to clear it. She forced herself to her feet, still wobble-kneed from the fading sensations. “Now if there’s nothing more you need to explain to me, I would like to check on His Majesty to see if he feels rested enough for this evening.” She turned her back to him, still shuddering inwardly in a kind of horror at her inability to overcome the heka the elder priest had used when he questioned her. “You claim I know things, I tell you I don’t. Maybe I’m lying to you too. But,” she turned to look at him as he closed the box of stones and tucked it into the chest he’d brought, “you’ll have to explain to me why it is you even think you have the right to ask me about the Ta-Ntr as you call them, other than greediness. You never explained to me or any of us why you need to lay hold of the Children of Stone. Can you answer that?” She smoothed her shift and went to the stair, then headed up to the king’s guards to seek entry into his room.

  The priest’s eyes widened at the audacity of her question and at her leaving their exchange without being dismissed, but he didn’t answer.

  Something he wears on his finger? That’s how he does it. I wonder what it is? Little ones? she asked her inner thoughts. A slight whisper returned. Ariennu glanced briefly, but saw the priest was preparing to leave. He had beckoned for his groom to help him rise.

  Worry not.

  It is hidden and forbidden

  You will overcome it

  Remove it from the fear

  that gives it power

  Another thought distra
cted her, as if the Child-stone wanted her to stop thinking about the dark thing on Hordjedtef’s finger.

  Deka, a concubine? Incredible. And this priest’s grandson is taken with her, is he? Still no excuse for not sending so much as a thought to either of us after all we’ve been through. She knows what we were and that we’ve gone back to it but with just less sickness and starving. To think of her not sharing something that juicy. I’ll get her tonight, and then I’ll use her pretty pet to get at the old man, too! She’ll just have to step back while I work him, if she won’t help over fear of losing him. She owes us!

  Ariennu turned at the top of the stairs, staring quietly back at the priest as he moved away from the pool. Her lips curled into a quiet sneer for a moment before she cleared to a more cheery expression and asked to see her king. Hearing talking from the king’s chamber, she found he was deep in a conversation with his vizier “Neb”. He looked up for a moment and saw Ari standing at full height so she could to see above the guards. Winking and nodding at her, he acknowledged her and told her he was too busy to talk at the same time.

  After she saw he was well, she turned and allowed the guards to escort her back to the women’s area. She did like to check on the king, but in truth it had been a simple diversion to increase the distance between her and that horrid old priest. As she walked with the men, the Great One, who was apparently leaving the palace for a short while, passed beside her. The chest containing the box of Child Stones was tucked tightly under his servant’s arm. She could not believe how smug he was and how innocently he walked away after what he had done to her.

  Ari shielded her thoughts and made no direct eye-contact with Hordjedtef. In the comfort of her prismatic mask, she cursed him. That man will die begging for mercy! First he kills Marai, now he came to me with questions about the eight? And him gloating like some dung-eating keleb holding me down and cramming it to me! I need to speak into dear King Menkaure’s heart. I need to tell him what happened today, but how could I even do that without seeming like a whining little child? she grumbled to herself.

  The encounter with Hordjedtef left Ariennu emotionally drained, which gave way to fatigue. I should nap too, she thought, then wearily trailed to her bed amid the fussing of the other concubines over the status of each other’s hair. Completely uninterested in their banter, she sat hard on her frame bed, stretched out, and fell asleep.

  CHAPTER 25: ARRIVALS

  Ariennu woke suddenly when the crowd of women and children in the room thickened. While she had slept a solid and dreamless nap, it had become late afternoon. After she rose and went to the privy, she returned and stood by the doorway to the orchard for a few minutes. Some children of early guests played in the wide yard. When their parents released them, they darted off to amuse themselves with the monkeys and hounds. Some had little toys they had brought, others engaged in a stickball game and games of chase. Later in the evening, as the celebration wore on, the children would fall asleep in the women’s area until the festivities ended. Naibe watched at the edge of the yard, too.

  Oh, Little One, the elder woman laughed at the sight of Naibe watching so intently, but it also saddened her. She wondered how different Naibe would have been if she had always been pretty and had been genuinely loved by men all her life. She might have married and had ten babies before her years were done. Maybe she would have grown old in the arms of her beloved. Maybe it would have been Marai.

  Ariennu felt another wave of sadness come over her. Marai should be here to see her laugh and play like this. This isn’t right. None of this is right. Instead, he’s gone. He’s just a ghost now, she shook her head and stared into the wide, green orchard of olive trees, fig bushes and date trees.

  Naibe had found a new little friend. Ari saw he was a slim, light-brown-skinned boy about six or seven years old. His head was closely shaved with a single braid looped and fastened to the side of his head with a single band in the fashion of little boys of Kemet. To the elder woman’s surprise the child suddenly dropped forward from his waist as if he was about to do a handspring, but then began to walk on his hands instead. The boy wobbled a little as he righted himself. Naibe-Ellit caught him, but then the child stayed in her embrace for a moment. He gained a smoky hue before he darted off behind a tree. Then, he was suddenly gone as if he had been a dream.

  As Ari watched, curious about the child, Naibe sauntered wearily to the rear entrance of the women’s rooms. She paused for an instant, looked up, smiled at someone on one of the many balconies in the distance, and then came in to sit on her own bed for a last minute rest.

  “I hope you didn’t wear yourself out playing like that, Baby One. It’s going to be a long, hot night.” Ariennu followed the young woman back to her bed, noticing Naibe’s uncomprehending stare. Her quiet whisper turned suddenly reflective and sad.

  “Oh, I’m fine. I was just walking and seeing the little ones play. Mama, I miss him so much.”

  Ari bowed her head, “Me too. I’m going to get that old high priest though, swear I will, even if I die doing it.”

  Naibe looked up at Ariennu, the edge of her light brown eyes turned a little golden in an indication of quiet ire. Her hands pressed into her lap. “I saw him sitting with you. Did something happen earlier?”

  “Bastard is trying to make me tell him something about the Children,” Ariennu almost told the young woman about his desire to know the location of the eight stones, but she stopped. Maybe Naibe is strong enough to withstand whatever the high priest might try, she thought. Maybe she isn’t. “I fought him off for now, though,” Ari bent closer to the younger woman to whisper. “He wears this black thing on his finger, Baby. It keeps the Child Stones from hurting him and makes it easy for him to get into our thoughts. Just stay away from him and don’t try to look at the thing on his hand if he comes up to you or asks you something. Maybe if you don’t look at it or try to block it out, it won’t have the power to take you,” Ari stopped. Her voice trailed off because she saw Naibe had stopped listening. The high priest wasn’t one of her worries at the moment.

  Both women lay back for a moment, oddly distracted by other thoughts. In a very short while, the celebration would commence. Ari knew she wanted to be free of everything but the essence of joy tonight. She didn’t want Naibe’s sadness or loneliness to make its usual inroads in that plan.

  “Did you see Majesty looking at the children playing too?” Naibe asked her. “He was watching me a little from his rear porch. I think he might ask for me to come to him soon, now that he feels better.”

  “You and your little friend who walks on his hands, eh? Whose son was that?”

  Naibe paused, a look of bewildered confusion on her face.

  “Friend? How do you mean, Ari?” the young woman shivered a little. “I was by myself. There weren’t any children who wanted to play with me, I was just watching them.”

  Ariennu frowned. She knew what she had seen and couldn’t understand why Naibe would want to lie about a new young playmate.

  “You saw a little boy? About how old?” Naibe mulled over what Ari said, mystified.

  Ariennu rose and sorted out a carved bone comb from the girl’s basket. She sat beside Naibe and began to pull her braids loose.

  “Six or seven. You telling me I was seeing things?” Ari yanked at the young woman’s hair gently.

  “Oh. Him. I dreamed him up, MaMa.” Naibe looked up, her large light-brown eyes rimmed with moisture that wanted to be tears again. “I was looking at the children play and it made me sad again because I wanted to have a baby, a little boy, for Marai so very much. Now he’s gone. I used to talk to this little boy in my dreams when we were all living across the river. I knew back then he was waiting for my womb to make him. Sometimes, I even used to hear his voice back when Marai…” Her face fell. One tear drooled down her plump cheek.

  Ariennu sat beside Naibe-Ellit to console her with an embrace. “Funny you said that. That man even had me wanting to make a baby for him before he l
eft… Me! So you’re saying I saw into your secret the way you do with others? I gave that child a shape made of air?” she combed the girl’s long wavy tresses and re-braided them tightly so they wouldn’t come loose.

  “Oh not so tight, Ari,” Naibe held her hand up to stop the elder woman. “I just want it done with one braid on the top. The rest of it just tie back with one ribbon so I can take it loose in case I decide to do a dance tonight.” she reflected for a moment while Ari combed out her long black hair out again. “About the boy though. He was there, I guess, I just didn’t think anyone else could see him. I told him I wouldn’t be able to give him life anymore, but he tried to tell me not to be sad; that he would still come into me one day. You think it could mean he has chosen another to sire him, and not Marai?”

  “Maybe,” Ariennu shook her head, “and it’s bound to happen sooner or later unless you’re as barren as I am. Do you have the heart seeds I gave you?” Ariennu remembered the vision of the boy more clearly.

  Naibe didn’t answer.

  Ari knew this meant Naibe hadn’t eaten them, and probably wouldn’t use anything stronger in the way of solving an unwanted pregnancy than the mild Acacia and honey pessary. To her, any child would be a gift of the goddess, even if it came about under dreadful circumstances.