by Candy Crum
During the day, I learned to be a servant. Even less than five years old, I was taught strict discipline. I was given ample time to play and be a child, but I was also taught how to cook basic things, how to wash clothing, and how to fetch water, though I was too small to ever carry it back on my own at that time. Anything that I was tall enough to reach or strong enough to lift, I was taught to use and employ as a tool.
During the nights, my mother taught me nobility. She taught me how to speak properly. How to read. How to write. I was terrible at it, but I did love to try. I even learned some things about imports and exports, though I was too young to understand most of it. She taught me to walk tall, even as a small girl, and how to move with confidence.
“Never allow anyone to force you to look down. You may bow your head as a sign of loyalty. There is no shame in that. But do not ever allow anyone to force you to submit. You are strong. You are smart. You are beautiful. Believe me when I say, a beautiful woman with strength and intelligence is a true force to be feared. No one can stand in her way. No man can cage her. Maybe her body, but never her spirit.”
I’ll never forget that as long as I live. I was only five years old on that day, but those words stuck with me. I believed them with all I had. But as a child usually does, I had my own ideas.
“I will never be weak. One day, I will be strong enough that no one, not even their army, can cage me.”
My mother smiled at me like a mother does upon hearing her child’s wild fantasies. She touched the side of my face and kissed my forehead.
“Then you will be a queen that no one can touch. A true warrior for your people.”
Looking back, that conversation gives me chills. Neither one of us knew just what a pivotal moment that had been or what it would lead to. It was that same night that my mother held me in her arms and told me that she was pregnant. I would have a little sibling. Of course, the Pharaoh wanted a son, but it would be a long while before we knew what sex the baby would be. It didn’t matter to me. I was just happy to see my mother so happy. She loved being a mother. Even though I knew the new baby would be their legitimate child and would be welcomed by the kingdom as such, I was still excited.
There was no way for me to know just how much my life was about to change.
Chapter One
For nine months, I watched my mother’s belly grow. Every day she grew more and more beautiful. I was so very grateful that I got to see my little baby sibling develop as he or she did. It seemed like forever to someone like me, an impatient child that wanted the baby right away. Then, finally, just two months after my sixth birthday, a beautiful baby girl was born.
It hurts to speak her name. Soon enough, you will understand why. So, for now, to keep whoever may read this from making any assumptions based on what they may know about my life and my beginnings, I will simply call her, Ineni, after one of the many queens of Egypt.
Ineni was born with beautiful black hair as soft as silk, and that flawless darker skin that we Egyptians were blessed with. Her eyes, unlike mine, were a deep chocolaty brown. She was perfect, and I loved her from the moment that I laid eyes on her.
“She is yours as much as she is mine to protect, you know,” my mother, Nefertari, said to me. Her smile was so pure. She was filled with so much happiness right then. “We are a family, my sweet Khanae. You are sisters. You must always stick together. You must always protect one another.”
“I love her,” I said as I gently ran my hand across her little fuzzy head. “I will always protect her.”
She smiled again. “I know you will. And when you are with her, you must always remind her of the things I will teach both of you. There will come a time when she will listen to you more than me. It happens with all younger siblings. You have been alone this whole time, and I have been all you have come to depend on. You listen to me because I am your rock. She will have you as a barrier between us, and she will use it. I promise. Being the older sibling is a great responsibility, and I will need you to be my rock in return. Can you do that for me?”
I remember kissing little Ineni’s face then and telling my mother that I would do anything that she asked of me. I’d meant it. Some promises, however, are quite difficult to keep!
As Ineni grew, we became fast friends. She was trained, just as I had been. She was taught that in public, I was her servant. In private, however, she was more than welcome to hug me, kiss me, or tell me that she loved me. She was free to call me sister. My love for her grew every day, and I loved the short moments that I got to hear her call me sister. It was a high position, as far as I was concerned, and one that I took seriously.
One day, I was sent to the river to gather water. I remember that day well, as I do most. That day in particular, though, opened me up to a world that I wasn’t quite sure that I believed in. As an Egyptian, we were taught about the gods. We built obelisks out of respect for them, and had temples built in their honor. By the age of twelve, I had a great knowledge of them, but I didn’t trust them.
In my eyes, I couldn’t understand how the gods could allow my mother to be assaulted by a man and then force her to go through a pregnancy with a child she would never fully be able to embrace. Then force that child to live a life as her mother’s servant, instead of allowing her the luxuries that other children had with their own mothers. Even the children that grew up poor were still able to hold their mother in public. I could not. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in the gods…
I just hated them.
I believed they existed. I’d heard enough stories to believe in their existence—but I hated them. As long as I respected them, I figured that I didn’t have to like them much. Just don’t make them angry, and all will be well. Things wouldn’t get worse.
All of that went through my mind on that day traveling to the river. It was a long walk, and one that I would make alone. I had quite a bit of time to think on the way there. Just as I had as a smaller child, I was grateful for the life I’d been given. It could have been so much worse, or never have existed at all. But like most would, I suppose, I still had moments of weakness. There were times when I was bitter about my limitations. My six-year-old sister had the world at her feet. I didn’t care about all that. I only wanted my mother. Our mother.
The desert was particularly hot that day, and the sand burned my feet and ankles as I walked. More than anything, I just wished that I could have had someone to talk to during my journey. I wasn’t even able to take a horse. I had to go on foot. That was not by the order of my mother, I should point out. But of Ipy, the woman that posed as my birth mother to the public.
When I reached the Nile, I dipped my feet in the water. It was so cool and felt so wonderful against my hot skin. I stood there, looking across the river and watching the waves of heat rise off the sand. It must have been just over a hundred degrees that day. My first priority upon arriving was cooling myself, but it quickly dissipated as the thirst set in.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and leaned over to get a drink, but I was struck with dizziness because of the abrupt change in position. I slipped, falling hard and hitting my head on a rock that rested just at the river’s edge. I immediately fell unconscious—the moving water flipping me over onto my stomach. While unconscious, I had no way of knowing that my face was also down in the water. I was drowning.
While blacked out, my eyes opened elsewhere. I was surrounded in pitch darkness, with only the subtlest of ambient light. I had to focus my eyes hard as I looked around, trying to find my way. There was nothing around me. No sign of where I was, or what I was seeing. I could find no one.
“Hello?” I said.
There was nothing to respond to me. I felt around for what seemed like several minutes. I could hear the sounds of my own breath, and I could see it coming from my mouth in little puffs. It had suddenly grown very cold wherever I was.
“Hello, girl,” a voice said. It was deep, dark. A growl accompanied each of the words as if they scratched the
ir way out of his chest. There was a bone-shaking chill that came with it.
Fear raced through me, and my breath quickened as I looked around in an attempt to find something, anything that would allow me to escape.
“Are you afraid?” he asked. I couldn’t answer. I became frozen as I realized the voice was closer. “You need not answer. I can smell it.”
Dear gods, I thought to myself. Please… Please save me.
There was a laugh then that echoed against whatever walls we stood within. I had never felt a tremble in my life quite like that.
“You pray now, but not long ago, while on your way to the River Nile, you cursed us?”
My eyes widened, and my jaw dropped. Chills raced through me, raising goosebumps on my skin as he came into view.
“Anubis.” It was all I could manage to say when I saw him.
The Egyptian god of death himself. I dropped to my knees and bowed my head. As I mentioned earlier. I didn’t have to like them to show respect.
Tears fell down my cheeks. I knew that I’d fallen, but I had no idea of what happened to me after that. If I stood there with Anubis, however, it was pretty obvious.
“Relax, girl,” he said. “Rise. Your time is not yet, but soon will be if you do not heed my warning.”
I dared to look up. Anubis stood there, his full form towering over me. I was just under five feet tall at that age and down on my knees. At his full height, he was well over seven feet tall. Maybe over eight. It was hard for me to judge right then.
Slowly, I stood, terrified of what he may do if I moved too quickly.
“W-warning?” I asked, my voice trembling.
His eyes were coal black. He looked like a hybrid between a Doberman and Great Dane. His shiny fur was the same color as what we would now call a “blue” in dog coat coloring—though I must add, that this would change over the centuries—and his obsidian eyes seemed to swallow and even radiate darkness. Only the ambient light gave away their location. His ears were tall, his shoulders broad, his legs full and powerful. His hard, lean musculature was obvious, even under the thick coat of short fur. Looking at him then, I could not deny his beauty, his otherworldly presence.
“Yes, child. And quite a warning it is. Come.”
He did not give me an option. He reached out and rested his massive hand on my shoulder. Everything around us changed, and we were suddenly standing on the edge of the Nile. I saw my body lying there, face down in the water. Blood stained the water where I lay, and I knew there was quite a bit of damage. I ran to my side and tried to move my body, but it was of no use. I couldn’t even touch it. I was nothing. Just a spirit lingering in whatever purgatory Anubis held me in.
“I thought you said that it wasn’t my time yet!” I said.
He sighed. “I did. Do not question me. You should know that it is rare that I have the patience to do something such as this. So rare, in fact, that it has never happened. Understand?” I noticed then, in the bright light of the sun, that his mouth did not move. Somehow, I was able to hear him, though he didn’t speak out loud.
I nodded. “Forgive me, Anubis.”
“Very well, then. Come. I do not wish to linger here. I have the ability to freeze time, as the other gods of death from all over the world can. We rarely have cause to use that power, but I feel now is such a time. Your body has been isolated and frozen in its state. You have only been unconscious a few short moments. You will live.”
I stood and made my way back to his side. My eyes were blinded as I looked up in an attempt to see his face.
“There are others like you?”
“Do not be foolish. None other is like I am. We are all unique, but all the same. Unfortunately for you, I believe you will one day come to know this.”
“I will?” I asked. I didn’t like the sound of that at all, but I was terrified to ask too many questions. Instead, I chose to stick to short ones and judge his irritation. Not something I’d recommend, by the way, if ever you come face to face with such a god.
“You are a pure soul. Your heart is one of the kindest I have ever seen, despite your hatred for us, the gods.”
I remember how prideful I felt at that moment. Not only had the gods watched me, Anubis specifically, but he knew me well enough to know that I was a good person. At that moment, the pain that I felt for how I’d grown up disappeared. It had led me to that very moment when I was chosen by Anubis to help in some way. I didn’t know that for sure, but I was certain that he needed me for something. Had I not grown up like I did, I may have been someone else entirely. I may not have been the one that he needed.
“You need my help?” I asked.
Anubis sighed again. “I am bound by nature to be a neutral being. I cannot fight for the side of good, nor can I fight for the side of evil. I am simply a collector. I collect those who have passed on and take them to their final resting place.”
My eyes lit up. “But I can! I can help you in the land of the living. But I must tell you… If you ask something of me that would cause someone harm, I cannot help you. You can allow me to die right there where I lay.”
His lips curled back. I couldn’t tell if it was a snarl or a smile, but his following words confirmed it for me.
“That ferocity, even in the face of a god, is exactly why I have chosen you. You are willing to stand up to someone you genuinely fear, even accepting death—as long as it means you do not hurt another soul.”
“If you can do no good or bad, why would you choose me to do good for you?” I asked. It didn’t make sense to me then.
“My job is to maintain balance. What I have seen… What several of the gods of death have seen… Let me just say that nothing will ever be the same. If it is allowed to come to fruition, balance will forever be thrown off its axis. Egypt will become the cradle of civilization for all those who are damned.”
My brows furrowed as I looked at him. “And in all the world, with everything all of you have seen, I am the only one that can help?”
His eyes narrowed as he looked down at me. “Child, it must be you. If this fate is sealed, you will be the first victim. You will be the first to be eternally damned.”