Fire Queen Ch 03

Writer's note: Hello everyone, sorry for such a long wait between the previous part and this one, life caught up with me. I don't know how often I'll be able to upload these stories as I only write them when I have spare time, but I will promise to upload them as long as I can.

I hope you enjoy the story of Rahotep and Amenia. Please remember as before that this is totally fictionalised and not to be taken seriously. I do research various things for these stories to give them a bit of legitimacy, but then it's a time more than 5000 years ago, so maybe they did happen and their story has been lost to the ages? Who knows...

Otherwise, I hope you enjoy. Don't forget to hit that heart and leave a comment if you do!

Tsania x

*****

My mouth was dry and my head throbbed as I woke.

I didn't recognise the place I was laying in. Canvas that had seen better days stretched over my head, and I seemed to be wrapped in rough cloths that smelled like animal waste and river mud. I groaned and rolled, planning to stand upright, but the thin reed mat that I lay on wasn't as wide as I thought, and my hand went straight into the foul-smelling mildew that covered the floor.

I had no idea where Amenia had brought me. The entire night was a blur, from when the guards escorting me to my father's sickbed had turned on me, striking me with the butts of their spears on my temple and back. It was all I could do to protect my head and vitals. The rest of the ordeal came in glimpses of images.

Djet laughing on the throne, crowing his victory. His fury when his guards said my Amenia had gotten away safely. I had been so overjoyed at this. Even if I was to die then and there, at least my love would be alive.

Then she stepped through the fire. She looked like she'd been sent from Ra's own imaginings. Fierce, flaming and furious. I didn't know how she had come there, but she'd made sure I survived my brother's coup.

Now I was here, somewhere that stank like low tide, and had no trustworthy allies save a blood-haired slave.

What would become of me?

I rolled back into my cocoon of foul blankets and tried not to lose my mind into the misery.

The canvas shifted aside to reveal a shuffling woman dressed in rags. She was covered in river muck and her dirty, clawing hands began to sift through the cloths that lay over me. In my surprise I slapped away her searching paws. She drew back only for a moment before she grasped my collar and shook me.

"Rahotep. Stop, it's me."

I looked up at Amenia's muddy face. Her gorgeous hair was wrapped up into sweat stained rags that looked like they'd been on her head for years, not a few hours.

The only thing that gave away her colouring was her eyes, rich like the rarest amber. They would give any man pause should he meet their gaze. She shuffled into the lean-to, her movements as though she'd suffered for years of hard times. She held out a small sack to me, and I opened it to find day old flatbread, the type given out by holy men in the temples during the fast of Opet.

She then handed me a waterskin, bulging with cool, fresh liquid.

I drank deep from this as she watched beyond the flap of the canvas.

"Where are we?" I asked at long last.

"In the shanty town by the river, where the forgotten and unwanted live. We are safe enough, but not for long. As soon as you can stand we must leave this city."

"But Djet..."

"I do not know who in this city we can trust. If we stay we will be killed. Even now, his guards have spread word you've murdered your father and they are looking for you. They are searching the houses of your closest advisors as we speak. I have heard word that armed soldiers are questioning people on the street if they've seen a tall noble with a fire demon in the shape of a woman."

I swallowed hard. She didn't look at me as she spoke. She seemed so different again from the reserved noble slave I had come to know in the past few weeks, and even from the savage animalistic wretch she'd been when we first met. Not for the first time I wondered who she was.

"What do we do?"

"First, you need to stand, and learn to not walk like a Prince Regent."

"How do you mean?"

"You have lived all your life in the safety of the palace or behind your guards. You've slept on the softest beds and worn the softest cloths. You've not suffered a moment of hunger or cold or fatigue in your life."

"Hey that's not - "

"Not like your subjects have. You walk with the knowledge that everything you see belongs to you, and it's obvious you're royalty. You have to walk as if you've never slept a whole night through for fear of someone stabbing you while you rest."

"You sound like you know a lot about this." I sat up slowly. Now I'd had water and was slowly munching on the dry bread, the ground didn't feel like it was going to slip out from under me. I sat up, stooping so my head didn't touch the canvas above me. Finally she turned to look at me fully.

"There was almost a year between when the bandits took me and when Djet bought me for his menagerie. There were many things I learned in that time. When to stand out and when to blend in was one of them. Many of the girls I was sold and lived alongside were born to that life. They helped me when they could." She shrugged it off, but I could see there was more to her thoughts than just that. I wondered what she'd seen in that time.

Before I could think of anything to say to comfort her she ran her fingers through my hair roughly, making it stand on end. Then she scooped some mud from outside the tent and began rubbing it over my face and where my arms were exposed, making me grubby. I tried my hardest not to retch as the damp muck cooled my skin in streaks that raised goosebumps.

After these ministrations she dragged me out into the daylight. It was fairly late in the morning, yet around us were people sleeping still in many small shacks and wrapped in rags or under makeshift tents like we had been. They really were forgotten and unwanted.

Amenia had me walk up and down, poking me in the stomach or slapping my shoulders until she had me walking hunched and cowed, reducing my height and long-practiced warrior's stance to a curled shuffle that belied pain.

As the vagrants around us began waking up and taking notice of what we were doing, Amenia decided we were ready. It was only just past noon.

We shuffled through the streets, trying to disappear into the crowds of people. We were headed toward the North Gate of the city. As we got closer we saw more and more soldiers on street corners, paying attention to people who passed. The Opet festival had drawn crowds from all over, all wanting to celebrate the Gods' joining. During the days the markets were open and merchants from all over swarmed, shouting their prices and wares from wherever they could set up their shops.

Around these improvised stalls people milled. Everything was looked at and sampled and the din of their haggling made it impossible for me to communicate with Amenia, but she pressed on through the crowds. We were headed toward the richer part of the city, and our rags were beginning to look out of place. Even though we kept our heads down, I could still see some of the soldiers nudge each other and nod in our direction.

As two pushed off from their posts and began moving through the crowd toward us, I slipped my fingers around Amenia's wrist, drawing her backward. She looked at me, questioning, but my attention was held by the soldiers. She followed my gaze, and then pushed me back the other way, out of the marketplace and toward an alleyway. Finding the back of a busy inn, she quickly crouched near the refuse pile where a scrawny and patchy dog was picking through the scraps.

I only had a moment to realise what she was doing before the soldiers sauntered around the corner.

"Hey, you can't be here." They approached us, holding their spears in an aggressive stance, but only as if to use the blunt ends on us, or to shoo us along. Amenia ducked her head and shuffled away, and I followed. Besides watching that we did get up to go, they didn't pursue us further. Once they were satisfied we were on our way, their attention shifted from us.

Amenia pulled me in to a shadowed archway out the sight of the busy passers-by. With my back up against the wall I tried to ignore the immediate reaction my body had to the proximity of hers. It seemed even smelling and looking how we both did, she still plucked at my heart and loins. Her own attention was elsewhere, though.

"I've arranged to meet Ankhet a day's journey North out of the city. Unfortunately because we're so out of place in this district it would seem that we can't exit through the most direct gate. The Eastern Gate will be heavily guarded due to the pilgrims' events that go on there after sunset." The events I was supposed to reside over with my father. I swallowed hard, the emotion constricting my throat. "The Western Gate is still receiving the final few travellers who are coming to the city for the festival and the start of the dry season. We'll have to risk it, although leaving the city at such an auspicious time will draw some attention. The only other option would be the South Gate but it'll take an extra day to go around the city unnoticed to where I planned to meet her. She will have moved on by then."

I wondered for a moment when she'd made such detailed plans, hoping I didn't already guess the answer, when she pulled on my shoulder, pushing us both out into the roadway again. We kept our heads low, shuffling along the busy streets. My head still stabbed with pain as the bright afternoon sun beat down on us. The dust of the city seemed to rise in a haze around us from the hundreds of feet kicking it up. Normally these were the quietest hours as everyone rested in the hottest part of the day, but with the festivities of the night time, there was more to be done during the day.

Amenia lead us Westward to where the last of the merchants who wished to spend the dry season in the safety of the city walls trundled their tired caravans under the watchful eye of the guards posted high on sandstone towers either side of the open gates.

Nimbly picking our way through the crowd against the stream, trying not to draw any unwanted attention, we moved toward the gates and to freedom.

I felt a hand grip my shoulder and yank roughly backward. My hand slipped from Amenia's grasp.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going, boy?" The guard spat into my face. I had never been spoken to like this and it took everything in me to not react with indignation.

"Please, sir!" Amenia protested, her hands up in submission as she came between the guard and me. "My brother is but a mute simpleton! He doesn't mean any harm." She cowered as the guard raised his hand as if to smack her down.

"Did I ask you, whore? Ra's stride, you both stink. Why are you leaving the city?" The guard demanded of her. My fists clenched with the desire to beat him into the ground, but I kept my head bowed and my shoulders stooped, hiding my height and bearing as much as I could. A second guard joined the first.

"Sir, there are many beggars in the city now, our normal spots are taken by strangers and we keep being moved on by other guards. We wished to walk a short way out of the walls to beg alongside the road instead. We will be back by nightfall, we promise." Amenia raised her outstretched palms above her head as she bowed, appealing to the guards' pity.

"Come on, Ramek. We have more important things to attend to than tormenting an idiot and a whore. Leave them be." The second guard said. The first, Ramek, grunted and turned away. Before he took a step though, he turned his face back to me and spat at me. I flinched away and breathed harshly through my nose as I brought my fury back under control.

"Fucking dumb brute." Were his departing words. I silently watched them, telling him I would remember his behaviour for the next time we met, when I sat upon my throne again. Amenia tugged at my wrist, and we moved quicker out of the city then. She followed the main road west, moving further and further into the desert sands.

As the sun got heavier in the sky, the crowds on the road began to thin. Finally, in the hour before dusk, there was no one visible on the road in front of us or behind us. We began to relax and walk with our normal strides, making better time.

"Why did you say I was mute?" I asked. We had barely spoken since we passed through the gates.

"I wasn't sure you could hide your accent." She shrugged.

"My accent?"

"Your royal accent. I've never heard you speak as if you weren't giving a command, and you don't command men like that looking like you right now." She smirked over her shoulder at me.

"I don't command people." I heard the petulance in my voice as I said the words. She threw back her head and laughed. The sound carried across the bare sands stretching either side of us in the gloaming.

"Stop it. You need to warm up now, and I'm in no mood for your nonsense." Amenia whirled around as her tone hardened and her brows came down over her lovely eyes.

"What?" I startled.

"Come on, you'll be warmer in my bed anyway." I blinked as I remembered my first words to her in my chambers all those weeks ago. It seemed like an entirely different lifetime. I swallowed as sadness and fury overtook me. She softened, seeing my demeanour change rapidly before her.

"Rahotep, I'm sorry." She stepped toward me, pressing her soft form against mine and wound her arms around my waist. We stood for a moment in this embrace, until my heart slowed and my muscles loosened from their clenching need to strike out. "I promise you I will do everything I possibly can to help you get your name back and to secure your rule."

Even though I doubted she could do anything as a slave girl, the fierceness in her voice made me smile against the rough rags still masking her hair.

"Ho, there!" A voice made us spring apart, immediately on guard. A man approached us out of the setting sun, two camels led by two cloaked women followed close behind. This man was as tall as I was, but his girth was almost thrice of mine. The camels were laden with packs and the silks the women wore covered them from head to toe so even their faces were hidden. I recognised their garb as the clothing of the people across the Eastern Sea. They must be traders, and profitable ones at that.

I stooped once again, turning my eyes downcast as I pulled on the demeanour of the mute simpleton like a cloak. Amenia stepped forward, ready to greet the newcomer.

"Good Evening, merchant." She said clearly.

"Well met, child. I thought I heard the laughter of an angel as we crested that last hill. I guess I was right. Is this your husband?" His gaze focused on me and I shifted my eyes away, trying to disappear into the sands surrounding us.

"My brother. Please forgive his silence, he's a mute." Amenia was still wary.

"Ah, that would explain it. It is not customary in my culture that a woman would speak with her man present. Nevermatter, we were about to make camp and make supper when we heard you laugh. We decided it would be more hospitable to invite fellow strangers to sup with us, if you would?" He waved to the two women and they lead the camels from the sandstone road into the sand a little way. As they began unloading packs from the camels, the man looked at Amenia and me expectantly. She glanced at me and I let a small nod tilt my chin.

"We don't have anything to share at your table but dry bread and water, sir." Amenia said.

"Don't worry for that, my wives and I have plenty to feed us all and tomorrow we will enter the White City and be able to replenish our stores regardless. Come, it's the first night of Opet. It would be our honour to dine with strangers beneath the cloak of Nuit herself." The man gestured to us, beckoning closer to where the women were now raising a simple white gazebo.

Amenia shrugged and I lead the way toward where they stood. I bent to push one of the stakes deep into the sand, as one of the women moved swiftly to tie a guy rope around it and tighten the roof of the tent. Between the five sets of hands, it wasn't long before they sat together with the front of the tent tied open and a fire crackling just beyond the entrance. One of the women crouched over it, her veil pulled tight and her pale forearms moving swiftly to turn the seasoned vegetables on the grill they'd set up. The lid of a small pot hanging low over the fire began to tap as the water within began to boil. The woman dropped some meat and other vegetables into the steaming liquid.

"My name is Qays, and these are my wives, Ishraq and Sukayna. We are travelling from the far West cities back to our homeland in the North East. We intended to spend the Opet Festival in the White City and visit old friends there, but unfortunately Ishraq turned her foot in the last town we stayed in and hasn't been well enough to travel, so we are late. What are your names, friends?" Qays rolled up his sleeve as he drew out a wineskin and five clay cups. He poured a drink for each of them and then handed across the deep red liquid. I sipped it gently as Amenia answered for us both. It was bitter at first, but then a strong fruit taste came through.

"I am Tije and this is my brother Nebit. We were in the White City for the festivities, but there wasn't much room for us. We decided to go to another city for the festival where we might have better chance of work or begging locations."

"Nebit and Tije, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. May your journey bring you fortune and happiness." Qays raised his cup before drinking deep. Amenia and I followed suit.

"I believe it already has, kind man. The road brought us to you. May you find wealth and peace on your own journey back to your lands." Amenia raised her cup to him and again we toasted. "Tell me, Master Qays, would you be willing to trade on the road?" I saw Amenia's words lit a fire of curiosity in the old man's eyes as his merchant's interest was piqued.

"That rather depends, my dear. What would you have to trade?"

"I have the last of my mother's jewels. We were born to a wealthy family but when both our parents passed no husband would take me in with my mute brother to care for too. I've been trying to get by and feed us both but..." Her face screwed up for a moment. "It is difficult for a young woman to find legitimate, secure employment. I have resorted to selling what we have and begging for what we need. I would hope that the next city would be kinder to us. I would like to approach the place looking less like we crawled from sewage. Would you perhaps have some simple, clean clothes for my brother and me?"

"Let me see these jewels first and I shall tell you what, if anything, among my wares you could trade them for." Qays leaned forward on his cushions.

Amenia reached inside the loose rags she wore around her torso and drew out her hand. She opened her fist to reveal three coloured stones within. I recognised them as pieces from my personal royal jewels. I caught her glance at me as she tilted her palm, allowing them to catch the firelight and glitter in the night. Even as I pushed down my growing anger at the thought of how she had gotten these trinkets, I could feel the man beside me begin to vibrate with a new emotion.

"Your mothers' you say? Where did you really steal these from?" Amenia immediately closed her fist and drew it back to herself.

"I didn't steal them, I told you. They were our mother's." Qays snorted at her words.

"Your mother was the late High Queen of Egypt?" Qays demanded. I lifted my eyes and stared at him. "You two aren't related at all, I can see it. You, my girl, are of the far northern tribes. Even with your hair wrapped and that filth on your skin I have met many a man with your eyes and none of them have ever had relatives with his colouring too. So who are you and why do you have Queen Iset's personal jewellery?" Qays demanded, his voice raising as he fixed a stare on us both. Amenia opened her mouth to respond but I laid my hand on her arm to stop her.