If Ra really was coming, then maybe I'd be able to gain his favour, and when everything went south with Seth's latest plan, I might be spared from the death I was certain his slaves would face. I might be immortal, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t be killed. I'd seen it happen too many times not to be ready. Gods were immortal, they couldn't be killed even if the others wanted them to be. I had to make the most of this opportunity if I wanted to survive.
I'd lived too long to accept death so easily.
CHAPTER THREE
EVERYONE RAN AROUND like the end of the world was already happening. I supposed that was kind of amusing considering Seth's constant plans towards just that. I wasn't sure why he hadn't just given up already. He was a god. He was immortal. He lived in the lap of luxury. The only explanation I had was that he was just a bit of an ass, and nothing else mattered to him other than his ego. I'd been led to believe that all men could be like that, but I refused to believe it. There had to be some good ones out there. For other people's sakes, not my own. All of my chances had well and truly passed, and I didn't expect that to change.
Charaxos threw a cloak over his shoulders, before shooting a disgusted look my way.
"Where are you going?" one of the harem girls asked. I was glad she did, I wanted to know myself, but knew he wouldn't tell me if I asked.
"It's none of your business," he snapped.
Well, so much for that.
"Lord Seth said no one was to leave..."
Charaxos raised his hand, and the girl shrunk back. Seeing what was going to happen, I stepped in between the two of them and stared the man down. He'd tried the same trick on me so often. I'd learned not to be scared of him long ago. He didn't have the guts to strike someone. He feared them retaliating.
"She's right," I said softly.
"That rule does not apply to me." His words might sound good in his head, but he lowered his hand regardless. "But if you must know, Seth has sent me on a mission to acquire some new slaves."
I swallowed hard, unsure how I wanted to respond to that one.
"Slaves?" the girl asked. I should thank her later with an easy job.
"Just more of you." He shrugged as if people's freedom wasn't a big deal.
"Where are you even going to get them from?" The question slipped out without me meaning it to. I knew it wasn't the wisest thing to do, and yet, I couldn't help it. There wasn't a slave market like there once had been, so it wouldn't be as easy as that. I hoped he didn't mean to kidnap anyone. I'd make sure to ask when they arrived, though I wasn't sure what good that would do. Once they were here, they wouldn't leave, just like me.
"It's better if I don't tell you." His hatred shone through in his eyes, no doubt part of his annoyance at my past refusals of him. Or maybe it was more recent, and he just hated the fact Seth had put me in charge of the preparations for Ra's visit and not him. I could see that kind of thing frustrating him. He wasn't the most logical of people.
Part of me wanted to argue against what he was setting out to do, but I knew that if I was aware of the pain and suffering he was going to cause, then I'd feel the need to do something about it, and there was a problem in itself. I couldn't do anything. I had no power, no freedom. I was as trapped as the harem girl stood next to me. Despite the fact she'd been here for several decades, she still had no clue how things worked. Either that or she'd walled off her true feelings to make sure she didn't go crazy. I'd seen what the harem girls had to do. It was the one thing that made me grateful Charaxos had taken a liking to me in the beginning. At least I hadn't ended up as one of them.
"I'm leaving," he announced, turning so his cloak swirled, nearly hitting the two of us.
"Why does he even need a cloak?" the harem girl asked. "It's hot."
"We live in Egypt. It's always hot."
"Then why does he need it?"
I shrugged. "Why does Charaxos do anything?" I responded, not intending to get an answer from her. "He's never going to tell anyone he sees as lower than him, so I'd just leave him to it." It barely mattered to the other slave that he was on the same level as me. I didn’t expect that to change any time soon.
"And you're alright with that?" She cocked her head to the side.
"You're full of questions." I looked at her again, properly this time, to try and put a name to her face.
"I'm just one of those people."
"Hmm." That didn't seem likely. I'd have to keep an eye on her and try to work out what she was up to. I didn't know why I was so interested. It wasn't like I could do anything about it even if she was up to something. But maybe, just maybe, I could help her and finally do the right thing.
THE GIRL STRUGGLED AGAINST CHARAXOS' tight hold. I glared in his direction, already annoyed at his treatment of her and I hadn't even heard her story about where he'd found her. There was no doubt in my mind that it was her side I should believe, either. Charaxos was untrustworthy, to say the least.
Plus, I still remembered how he'd acquired me. I wasn't falling for his charms again.
"Get her some clothes and put her to work in the stables," he demanded of me.
"No."
He raised an eyebrow, but I just stared back, not giving in to the pressure that he hoped would make me cave. I'd learned one thing about Charaxos over the years. He didn't understand women. And he definitely didn't understand me.
"I gave you an order," he threatened.
"And right now, I'm more important than you are," I reminded him. "I need her for the preparations." That was a lie, I could do without another person easily enough, but at least it would get her out of his grasp and undermine him. That meant I could give her a nicer job, rather than scrubbing the floors in front of Charaxos while wearing nothing but a rag. He called it character building. I called it demeaning.
Without saying a word, he walked off, leaving the two of us standing in the courtyard. I let out a sigh of relief. I'd expected him to put up more of a fight, and was surprised he hadn't. But I'd take it. The easy way was always the best.
"Are you okay?" I asked the girl.
"Of course not," she spat back. "What am I doing here?"
"I don't know." She didn't look like she came from poverty, which meant her family probably hadn't sold her. While that might have been illegal anyway, that didn't stop people from doing it.
"You have power over that man. You must know something."
"Honestly, I don't even know why he did what I asked," I admitted. "All I know is that you're as stuck here as I am. You can either stay with me, and I'll make sure you get jobs that aren't too bad, or you can take your chances with Charaxos." I didn't like having to threaten her like that. She'd already been through enough, the last thing she needed was me adding to it by being nasty. But at the same time, I did need her to stay around me voluntarily. That way, I could keep her away from warming someone's bed against her will. At least, that was the theory.
She glanced in the direction Charaxos had gone, clearly trying to make up her mind about who to trust.
"Fine. I'll stay with you."
Another sigh of relief escaped me. "Thank you. Do you have a name?" It felt rude of me not to have asked already, but I had so much on my mind that it had slipped my mind.
"Sophia," she responded sharply. She was going to be trouble. I could tell that already.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Rhodopis."
She wrinkled her nose. "It's a pleasure to meet me? Really? You're going to try that one on me?"
I rolled my eyes. She really had a lot to learn if she thought I was the bad guy. "Can you cook?" I asked instead of responding to the accusation she made. It wasn’t that I didn’t feel for her. I did. But there was no point fighting this situation, it was her new reality.
"No."
"What can you do?" I asked.
She shrugged. "Normal stuff."
Helpful. Not having lived in the modern world, I had no idea what normal stuff was.
"Fine. I'll take you to the
kitchen, and you'll do what the cooks say."
She thrust out her bottom lip. "And if I don't want to?"
"Then you'll find yourself back in Charaxos' care, and I won't be able to do anything to help you out of it."
I knew I'd won even before she said anything. Defeat was an easy emotion to recognise in someone's eyes.
Unfortunately.
CHAPTER FOUR
NERVES FLUTTERED in my stomach as the procession drew closer. This was what all of my planning had been working towards, and a little part of me still couldn't believe that Ra and his priests were actually coming here. I wouldn't have thought he'd want to be seen talking to Seth at all, and yet, here he was. And there was no denying it was him. There was always a chance that Seth was just putting this on as part of his grand plan, but I doubted it. There were too many people and far too many pennants for it to be fake.
"This is what we've been worked to the bone for?" Sophia sneered.
"This is a visiting god," I pointed out, though deep down, I had to agree with her. It was a lot of work to put in for something that I didn't think was worth it. Or that I'd believed might not even happen.
"Gods aren't real," she muttered.
I raised an eyebrow as I looked at her sideways. "You don't believe in the gods?"
"Of course not."
"But you are one," I pointed out.
She laughed bitterly. "You're joking, aren't you?"
"Alright, you're not a god like Ra or Seth, but you're a demi-god, like the rest of us are."
"A demi-god?" Disbelief shone through every word. "And how do demi-gods come into being?"
Had she really just asked that? It was probably the easiest question to answer even if she used common sense. "The child of a human and a god most of the time. Sometimes it's the child of two demi-gods. I have no idea which you are though." For that matter, I had no idea what I was either. I'd been sold so early in my life that I'd never actually gotten a chance to meet my parents. I wasn't sure what I'd say to them if that changed now.
"And you expect me to believe that?" She laughed again, and it was clear that she wasn't believing a word I was saying.
"Think what you want, but in a couple of hundred years, when you haven't aged, and the rest of us are still the same too, you'll realise I'm right."
"A couple of hundred years?"
I shrugged. "That's normally how long it takes for people like you to start believing. I'm not trying to trick you. I'm just telling you how it is."
"I'm going to escape," she announced.
"Then why would you tell me that?" That was beyond stupid. She didn't know me from anyone else. If I were her, I wouldn't be telling me about my plan.
"I don't think you're going to do anything to stop me."
I supposed that was true. "I also won't help you, either. It's pointless trying to run away. They'll catch you every time."
"You sound like you have experience," Sophia said darkly.
"I do. I've tried to run away six times since I was brought here. All of them in the first five hundred years. I haven't tried since." And I didn't want to think about the punishments I'd received as a result. None of them had been pretty, and all of them had left me scarred. It was one of the reasons I'd had tattoos done on most of my upper body. Charaxos enjoyed inflicting pain on others, but Seth hated seeing the results.
"Hmm."
I was saved from responding by the head of Ra's contingent reaching the gate.
"Aren't you going to go down and meet them?" Sophia asked.
I shook my head. "I may have had to plan this, but I'm a nobody. Seth will greet them himself."
"Then where is he?"
I chuckled. "He'll be here in a moment. He's just playing games with Ra and making him wait."
"If I do believe in gods, then that seems like a very reckless thing to do."
"You can say that again," I muttered though I hadn't known any other god's rule but Seth's. For all I knew, they were all like that. "We should make our way down there, though."
"Why?"
"We've done the work, we're damned well getting credit for it," I pointed out. I didn't add that I hoped someone in Ra's party would recognise her and answer some of the questions I had about where she'd come from. Most of the new slaves here came from birth, not from buying and selling. Mostly because there weren't open slave markets any more.
Which left a big question mark over Sophia's head. And I had a feeling there was something more beneath the surface. It just wasn't something I'd managed to work out yet. Unfortunately.
We made our way into the throng of slaves waiting. Many of them held golden platters of fruit or bowls of water, ready to receive the guests and offer them the traditional welcome they deserved. Absolutely none of which was modern. It would be so much easier to put the water in bottles of some description. But in this section of the world, we acted like nothing had changed in thousands of years. It was both enjoyably familiar, and achingly hard to deal with. A little part of me wanted to see the world, and not just spend my time locked up here.
I wasn't sure how long we waited for. I suspected it was something like half an hour. Other than the beating heat of the sun, there was no way to tell, and leaving to check one of the many sundials around would be frowned upon.
Large doors at the other end of the courtyard thudded as Seth flung them open and came striding out. Two of the harem girls followed him with feather fans, but he was walking too quickly for them to be any use to him. In all likelihood, he'd just brought them out with him as a show of power and nothing else.
"Open the gates," he commanded.
Two of his soldiers stepped forward, each grabbing one of the ornate golden handles, and pulling the gates open.
I tried to crane my neck, desperate to see what the visiting god and his party looked like, even though I knew it probably wasn't anything special.
Trumpets sounded and in strode a man who radiated power. There was no doubt in my mind that it was Ra. He commanded attention in a way that Seth completely lacked. I hoped no one risked pointing it out to our overlord. Seth wasn't the kind of man who'd take the comparison well. Most likely, it would end up with someone flayed.
"Welcome, Lord Ra." Seth's voice boomed around the courtyard. Too late. He'd noticed how Ra's presence filled the place.
"Thank you for hosting us, Lord Seth," Ra responded, quieter and less like he needed everyone to hear his words. A bolt of respect shot through me.
As did the realisation that Seth had never earned it from me. The only emotions I had about my god were fear and contempt, neither of which made me very loyal if I didn't have to be.
The rest of Ra's party filed in. Even without trying, I could pick out which people were gods, though I didn't recognise any from the wall paintings. No doubt they were all minor gods. That way, only Ra was at risk when he walked into enemy territory.
A man at the centre of the parade caught my attention, and even across the vast space, our gazes locked. His golden eyes shimmered in the sunlight, and my heart skipped a beat. I had no idea who he was, but there was something about him that made me want to know more.
Which meant I had to stay away from him. I couldn't risk the trouble he could cause.
CHAPTER FIVE
CHATTER from the feast filled the room, the din hurting my ears. I was surprised by the number of people who'd been invited to have a seat at the tables, though between the majority of Ra's party, and the gods who lived under Seth's protection, it added up to a fair few people.
I searched through the crowd, looking for the man with the golden eyes just so I could stay away from him. I knew that if he spotted me, he'd start a conversation. Mostly because all of Ra's other followers did the same. And a lot of them had probing questions that I didn't dare answer.
"Is this it?" Sophia demanded, surveying the hall.
"You really don't appreciate your position now, do you?" I asked.
"What is my position? Didn't you s
top me from getting one?"
I sighed dramatically and set down the pitcher of wine I was carrying. "I stopped you from becoming a harem girl. A sex slave. If you have a problem with that, I'm sure they'll still take you."
"Oh."
One of the tables to our left indicated they wanted serving. Desperate to keep her out of the harem, I sent Sophia over to them with the pitcher of wine in hand. To my relief, she listened to me and hurried over with the pitcher. That was unexpected. Maybe pointing out what she could have been had done enough to convince her to tow the invisible line we were all forced to obey.
"Oi, slave!" a man shouted.
I picked up the wine flagon, knowing it was what he'd want. Swaying my hips as I walked in a way that I hated but knew was expected, I made my way over to the table. From what I could tell, these were all just priests of Ra. Half-gods like me, or mortals with special powers who now found they could live forever. No one I should be worried about.
"Would you like more wine, my lord?" I asked, the honorific grating on my tongue, even though I knew it didn't mean anything. They wouldn't usually be given such titles, and I was sure they knew that as well as I did.
"I'd like more than a little wine," he jeered.
"I will arrange for one of the harem girls to see to your needs," I said through gritted teeth. I hated the fact that the girls would be made to do such a thing, but in a cruel and twisted way, they were used to it. They served the gods and half-gods here at the compound on a daily basis. It was just a part of their life, just like serving was part of mine.
"I don't want some harem girl. I want to say I lay with a goddess." He grinned widely.
"I'm not a goddess, but I'm sure there's a few around who might be interested if you charm them." I leaned in and topped up his wine. Even if that wasn't what he wanted, I wouldn't be seen as not doing my job.
His arm lashed out, and fingers clamped around my wrist. "I want you."
"I'm not for having, my lord." I tugged my wrist down, trying to free myself from him. His grip was too tight for that, and a brief flash of panic went through me. There was nothing I could do about it if he decided to force himself on me. I was a slave. I had no rights here.
Servant of Chaos (Forgotten Gods Book 3) Page 2