Oh, might I welcome you
as the king’s own steed is welcome,
thoroughbred, best in the stables!
How well the heart of a girl can feel it
(charge on and on, my lovely stallion!)
when her love’s not far away.
—Love song, Papyrus Chester Beatty I
Al Fahl rode the burning wind of the Western Desert, flying with his prize clinging to his back, up, up the soaring sandstone gebel to the desolate plateau above, galloping over hot sands into the flaming orb of the setting sun, taking the woman to meet her destiny.
The woman he wanted for himself.
At the hidden entrance to Khepesh, he came to a clattering halt and reared up, letting out a whinnying cry of triumph as he turned on his hind legs and brought forth the transformation unto his flesh, so he was once more a man.
Rhys reached around and caught Gillian before she slid from his back to the shadowing ground.
“My God, my God!” she sobbed over and over as he lifted her in his arms to carry her. She blinked up at him in abject horror, trying desperately to push him away. “What are you? What in God’s name are you?”
“I told you. I am one of Set-Sutekh’s immortals,” he said, sending a calming spell over her. “As such, I have the ability to shapeshift. I chose a stallion as my ka body.”
“Al Fahl,” she said with an all too clear understanding of what that implied.
“Yes,” he admitted. “A convenient mythology, but it’s a bit embarrassing to have such an unsavory reputation out there.” Now was probably not the time to tell her that much of it was true. At least it had been in the past. “Feeling better yet?”
“No,” she said, more forcefully than her limp state would signify. “Put me down. Please.”
“I shouldn’t trust your legs right now.”
He strode to the entrance of the rock-hewn stairway that descended into the underground tomb-palace of Khepesh and waved his hand over it, uttering the opening incantation. When the chasm of stone opened, he plunged down into the darkness, taking two steps at a time.
Gillian twisted in his arms, panic radiating from every pore. “Where are you taking me? Let me go.”
Obviously the calming spell wasn’t working.
“Darling, we’ve talked about this. You know where we’re going. There’s nothing to worry about. I swear you won’t be harmed. You promised to trust me, remember?”
“This was not part of the bargain. I thought... God, I don’t know what I thought. But not this!”
“Believe me, I know it’s a lot to take in. I went through it all myself.” He halted on a wide step and lowered her to her feet, but kept her body pressed close to his, just in case she tried to bolt.
The tunnel was dark as night. As a denizen of the underworld, he was used to it. He didn’t have to see her face to know what she was feeling. He could smell the fear in her shallow breaths, feel the doubts in her trembling limbs, and the need to escape in the clamminess of her hands as she clung to him in the blackness.
“You won’t be sorry, Gillian. You can have life without end, gifted with powers you’ve never even dreamed of.”
She let out a soft sob. “What if I don’t want powers, or to live forever?”
“Don’t be absurd. Everyone wants to live forever.”
The tension of her grip increased. “That depends on what one is expected to do during all that time, doesn’t it?”
Wise beyond her years, this one. It had taken him half a century to figure that out.
“It’s simple. You must serve our god, Set-Sutekh, and our leader, the High Priest Seth-Aziz. Apart from those few duties, your life can be your own.”
“I’m not a pagan, Rhys. I only believe in one God.”
“And yet you pour libations to the local spirits when you eat. I’ve seen you and your sisters perform this rite.”
She choked out a strangled curse. “I didn’t say I wasn’t superstitious.”
He kissed her temple. “I’m a Christian just like you, Gillian. But once you see the powers of these ancient gods, you won’t be able to deny their existence, either. I believe we all merely serve different aspects of God’s incredible creation. I don’t see it as a contradiction.”
“You’ve been living in Egypt too long,” she said unhappily. “Everything here is a contradiction.”
“So, you agree to come and see for yourself?”
She was silent for a long moment. “I’m afraid, Rhys,” she whispered.
“I understand. I was, too, the first time I entered Khepesh. But when I saw the wonders, heard what would be granted me, felt the power I could possess, I knew I’d found my home.”
After a long hesitation, she said, “I suppose...it wouldn’t hurt to look.”
“There is just one stipulation,” he told her.
He felt her tense again. “The sacrifice?”
“Other than that.” He ran his hand down her back. “You must come to us willingly.”
“Before or after I’ve seen it?”
“Both.”
“And if I’m not willing? If I don’t want to stay?”
Oh, she would be staying, all right. One way or another.
But he didn’t really want to think about the alternative. Unwilling mortals who had seen or learned too much were turned to shabti, robbed of their will and made a human servant, well-treated but unable to retain their former personality or a will of their own. It was a loathsome practice Rhys had been fighting for most of his tenure as master steward. But he knew the only other option for an unwilling initiate was to meet with some kind of fatal accident.
Neither was an acceptable fate for Gillian.
He wanted her alive and vibrant and able to say no. There was little joy in a conquest who had no power to deny him.
As for the ceremony...Seth needed a blood sacrifice, but it didn’t necessarily have to be Gillian. Nor did Seth have to take her body as part of the ritual. There were plenty of others in the palace who would jump at the chance to serve as sacrificial vessel. Rhys would just have to persuade him to choose someone else.
But either way, Gillian must be brought to Khepesh. And his job was to see it done.
In the darkness, he bent down and sought her lips with his. He brushed over them softly. “Never doubt it, you are already willing, my sweet,” he murmured. “Now, let us go.”
“Promise not to leave me?” she whispered, clinging to him.
“I’ll be there for you, darling. Always. That much I swear.”
And silently he prayed he’d be allowed to keep that promise.