“What to do, what to do…” she muttered, tapping her lip. “If only it were smaller, I could hide it away and always have it at hand.”
As if the staff heard her plea, it began to glow.
Eyes wide, Sita watched as the wooden staff shrank in her hand until the two metal serpents contracted to the size of worms, one red and one black. She shrieked as the little serpents slithered up her arm, her neck, and onto her left ear, curling around it like a fanciful piece of jewelry. There, the serpents settled and froze in position, their heads bent over the shell of her ear as if they might whisper into it.
Once the shock wore off, Sita touched the serpents gingerly. They were cool like metal. If she combed her hair over top of them, they would be completely hidden. “Yes,” she said with a satisfied smile, “that will work just fine.”
***
“And through your bounty, O Renenutet, the kingdom will flourish. Through your mother’s milk, we, the children of Khetara, will grow strong.”
Meryamun’s prayer floated over the gathered citizens, the words recited in a monotone as if by rote. To Sita, standing at the back of the crowd, it sounded as if he wanted to get the ceremony over with, that he had something more pressing on his mind.
He’s about to get a lot more to think about.
Sita wore the same plain black robes that she’d stolen from the palace storeroom the night she fled, and she had pulled the wide hood over her head, shielding her face from view. Gathering her resolve, she stepped into the empty aisle leading up to the dais where her brother stood in a blaze of sunshine at the temple gate. She approached slowly and steadily, past the ram-headed sphinx that flanked her on either side. She knew that the statues were meant to represent Amun—not Khnum—yet Sita couldn’t help but feel the oracle’s divine lamb was watching her through their eyes. People began to murmur as she passed them.
“Who’s the woman in black?”
“What is she doing?”
“She’s going toward the king!”
By the time she reached the front of the crowd, Sita had stirred such a hubbub that the guards took notice. She scanned the guards’ faces and saw with dread that Femi wasn’t among them.Just because he’s not here, doesn’t mean he’s…
She didn’t allow herself to finish the thought.
Mery lowered the basket of bread and grapes he’d been holding aloft and searched the area for the interruption, annoyed. He was dressed in a rich scarlet schenti and a bejeweled cobra-themed collar, with the double crown on his brow.
When she saw her brother, Sita had an irrational urge to rushto him and fall into his arms. Maybe it was the familiarity of someone she used to love—
My twin. My mirror.
She smothered the feeling as soon as it came, like snuffing out an errant spark before it caught fire.
Remember what he did, what hewantsto do, Sita told herself.Don’t let yourself fall under his spell.
“Guards! Stop that woman!” Mery commanded. “Who dares interrupt a sacred ritual?”
Four guards charged toward her. The crowd fell silent, cowed by the king’s wrath.
Sita stood between the first two sphinx, threw back her hood, and said: “I do.”
There was an audible gasp from the crowd, and the guards all stopped in their tracks the moment they saw her face. Sita watched as Meryamun’s face flit through a series of emotions in quick succession—shock, relief, fury—before compelling itself into a guise of rapture.
“People of Thonis!” he announced, again raising his arms to the heavens. “Today is a truly blessed day! Our beloved Princess Sitamun has returned! Thanks be to Amun for keeping her safe from harm and delivering her home! Thanks be to Renenutet for rewarding us with the greatest bounty of all!”
Having been given permission to respond, the crowd roared.
Mery set down the basket and strode forward to pull Sita into his arms, drawing her into a bittersweet, cassia-scented embrace.
“Where have you been?” he whispered harshly in her ear. “I’ve scoured the entire kingdom for weeks, making excuses for why you vanished, and now you reappear in the middle of a festival to embarrass me in front of my people?”
Mery pulled back to study her face. Then he smiled, that same blazing, heart-stopping smile. When he spoke again, his voice waswarm honey—sweet and intoxicating. “Oh, I see. You didn’t do this to embarrass me. You were afraid that if your return wasn’t witnessed publicly that I might…what? Kill you?”
Sita kept her face passive. “Let’s just say I see the board now.”
Mery chuckled. “Do you? Do you really think so?”
