The Queen of the Nile Chapter 2, a short story by harrylime. Date added: 2011-12-05. Times viewed: 3258.
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- Intro: She was hoping to take both of these girls with her to her tomb to rest beside her for all eternity in sweet repose.
CHAPTER 2
THE TIME: 2011 B.C. THE PLACE: The Valley of the Pharaohs (A Royal Sister Betrayed)
The shadows created by the revered Sun God RA marched across the desert floor east of the largest of the pyramids at the sacred site of Hawara .
The young girl in the flowing white gown of a royal virgin sat petulantly on the granite plug intended for the newest resting place for the royal Egyptian elite. She did not know what day it was. She did not even know what year it was. Her calendar was her emotional ebb and flow that coincided to the lunar cycle. For some strange reason, she was put off by the blind obedience to the divine Crocodile God of her family and was drawn to the comfort of mother Moon and her ever changing face in the heavens above.
The setting sun made the “Black” pyramid of the King appear even more mysterious and impressive as night approached rapidly. The attractive dark skinned girl was Neferuptah, daughter of a King and anointed to be ruler of the Kingdom by virtue of lack of a male heir and her position as the senior female offspring. The granite plug was waiting patiently to be placed atop her final resting place here only a short distance from her father’s more elaborate eternal abode.
Neferuptah was not in a good mood. She felt slighted at the abbreviated design of the tomb intended for her final resting place. It just would not do. She felt that she should be accommodated in a separate room in the main pyramid right next to her father. After all, she would be a ruler regardless of her sex and deserved equal treatment and reverence from the inferior masses. The bias against females was just too irritating to even contemplate. The Queen to be felt she should be exempt from this ages old gender bias that would rob her of her deserved resting place.
Her female slave-girl attendants, Lila and Zeruba, fanned her and shaded her from the setting sun to keep her skin tone as light as possible. The lighter skin tone was seen as more pleasing to the Gods and a sure sign of royal upbringing. She could see Lila was starting to get a little fat around the middle. Neferuptah hoped it was from eating a little too enthusiastically at the well provided food table rather than a dreaded unauthorized pregnancy in the royal household.
The not-yet Queen looked in pity at the pretty slave-girl. The penalty for being with child in the service of royal family was quite harsh. The eunuchs took sadistic pleasure in squeezing the life out of transgressing slaves and casting their lifeless bodies to the hungry dogs outside the palace walls.
She was hoping to take both these girls with her to her tomb to rest beside her in sweet repose. She knew they would take the fatal glass just to be honored in such a manner.
Her younger sister, Neferusobek, was stirring up trouble again.
She called her “Sobbie” and enjoyed making her life a hell whenever she could. Her younger sister was infamous for creating dramas that often resulted in the punishment of the female slaves of the household. Often, the poor girls would be strangled right in front of the family so they could see the life drain from their hopeless bodies. Sobbie was always excited at one of these punishments and stayed charged up for several hours after it was all over. Ptah or “Fatah” was sad for the slave-girls. She knew they had a rough life although not as rough as the slaves outside the royal household.
Sobbie was a creature of hidden desires and very complex thought processes. She was so secretive that Fatah rarely knew what she was plotting next.
When Lila came to her bed and whispered in her ear, Fatah was confused and reluctant to believe the treachery of her own sister.
“Mistress, your sister, the crocodile goddess in human form, has poisoned your step-brother and is even now plotting with the Lord Regent to assume the dead King’s duties as ruler supreme. She also intends to ready you for your interment at the new tomb of royal blood in Harawa.”
Fatah was so astonished, she arose from her bed stark naked and ran out of the chamber to her sister’s sleeping place. She kept silent because her sister was stretched out across the long form of the Lord Regent in obvious carnal exhaustion. Suddenly, the ramblings of her slave-girl Lila did not seem so preposterous any longer.
She ran down to the somber hall of mummification far below the castle. The hooded priests of ancient Gods stood silent and listened to the naked young not-yet Queen repeat the full story of Neferusobek’s squalid betrayal of the rightful line of royal succession.
The head mummification priest placed his hand on Fatah’s head.
“You are the rightful Queen of the Nile, little flower of the Moon goddess. Your crocodile worshiping sister will take the throne with evil intent, but her reign will be short and painful. We must prepare you for your journey to another Kingdom. It will be a land of many wonders and you will reign supreme. Remember the lesson of not allowing those close to you to gain your trust. Always be on guard against the forces of darkness that threaten the path of truth and right. Accept your fate and be a good Queen in your new realm.”
Fatah remembered being stretched out on top of a marble table. She saw that her blood was being slowly drained from her body yet she was still conscious and very much alive. The priest opened the sacred book and started to read from the Book of the Dead. She saw her two slave-girl servants taking the final glass of their journey to accompany her to the new realm.
The priest was chanting in a very strident and bone-chilling voice. It was obvious that all the other priests were fearful at the magic spell. It had never been attempted before to the best of their knowledge. The banging at the iron door was an ineffectual intrusion on the power of the transition taking place.
“We the gods of the Nile breathe the eternal life of the Moon goddess into our servant Neferuptah. We send her on her journey to eternal existence in the spirit world of unknown time. Protect her from all evil and keep her on a safe and happy road to total dominance of her new realm.”
The hooded priests all cut a small incision into their finger and they inserted their fingers each in turn into the young girl’s open mouth. Fatah felt her own life blood draining away but it was being replaced by a force so exquisite and overwhelming that she trembled with the power infused into her inner core.
To all appearances, the three young girls were all dead and the process of mummification began. Only the head priest and his closest assistants noticed the slight changes in applying the vestiges of extended life to the Moon Goddess. The layered binding hid the inner glow that flickered resolutely inside the young girl and refused to go out. The carefully prepared remains were fitted inside the sarcophagus and all of the priests read selected texts from the magical book.
Finally, the copper blade secreted in the sacred alter was taken out reverently by the high priest. He held it above his head so all of the priests could see its power. They trembled with fear. It was almost like looking into the eyes of God.
The blade came down very slowly.
The high priest struck the sarcophagus three times and after each blow, he repeated,
“By the light, in the light, keep the light lit until it is time!”
Shortly after this secret ceremony, the head priest commissioned a complete purge of all present to preserve the secret. His very last action was to imbibe the final glass to insure the transference of the Moon Goddess Neferuptah was forever a lost secret. A secret to be kept until the time came for the resurrection of the rightful Queen of the Nile into the land of the living.
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