“So it is true,” she whispered. “My husband was quick to fall for a young, pretty face, but Mery is different. He was right about you. That was no act. You are touched by the divine.” She leaned forward and seized Neff’s wrist, holding her firmly. “Tell me, child: What did you see? What message do the gods have for me?”
Neff’s pulse began to race.Say it!she told herself.Come what may, you must tell her!
When she spoke, her voice was steady.
“It is not so much a message as it is a question, my queen. Do you protect the crown or the one who wears it? Beware, for if you fail to do the former, the latter will come to destroy all that the light touches. Sanctify yourself in the truth; wrap your armsaround that which burns this kingdom until the fire has gone out. Only then will you find peace.”
The queen blinked, seemingly unable—or unwilling—to comprehend the message. Her lip curled. “Say that again.”
Neff’s body began to shake.She’ll have me killed, my throat cut…
She began again. “D-do you protect the crown or the one who wears it? Beware, for—”
“Again!” the queen raged. She stood and snatched a ceramic cup from the side table, hurling it against the wall. It exploded in a shower of shards and bloodred wine.
Neff didn’t flinch or cower. She spoke slowly and clearly, her hands folded tightly in her lap. “Wrap your arms around that which burns this kingdom until the fire has gone out. Only then will you find peace.”
A palace guard appeared in the doorway. “Queen Bintanath, is everything all right?”
The queen kept her eyes on Neff. “Leave us!”
The guard hesitated before bowing his head and making his exit.
The queen’s face twisted into a mask of fury. “How dare you make these insinuations!” she snarled, gripping Neff’s wrist so tightly that it hurt. “How dare you suggest I am living a lie, that I don’t have the kingdom’s best interests at heart! I don’t need some skinny, impudent little whelp like you to tell me how to…how to…”
Neff didn’t move. She felt sick and dizzy with fright, and the pain in her wrist brought tears to her eyes, but she didn’t make a sound. A single tear broke free and rolled down her face.
Queen Bintanath saw it, and her fury drained away. She released her grip on Neff’s wrist and took a step back. Already, a purple bruise blossomed there.
The queen sank onto the bench.
Neff cradled her wrist in her hand and took a shudderingbreath. “I-I only did what was asked of me, my queen. To deliver the message I was given.”
Queen Bintanath dropped her gaze to the three small necklaces still clutched in her hand. One for Kenna, one for Sita, and one for Mery.
After a moment she spoke, her voice soft and strange. “You think you’re ready to be a mother. You think that when the children come, the wisdom of the world will wash over you, and you will know what to do. You’ll know what is right. But you don’t. You don’t.”
The queen fell silent after that. Neff remained in her seat, tense, counting the droplets of wine splashed across the floor in front of her. After what felt like a long while, she decided it was safe to rise. She bowed to the queen and dismissed herself from the room.
You did what you set out to do, she told herself as she hurried to her own chambers.You told her the truth.It was a relief, after so many lies. Though she feared what calamity that truth might bring.
***
The cat greeted Neff at the door, yowling and winding around her ankles. She leaped onto the table as Neff collapsed onto a stool and poured herself a cup of water with shaking hands.
“Hello, Cat,” Neff said after gulping down her third cup. “How is your day? Better than mine, I hope.”
The cat purred and swept her tail across the black leather cylinder marked with the sign of Sekhmet. Reaching for it, Neff carefully removed the scrolls from the container, unrolled them, and weighed down the corners with small stones. Kenna’s letter to her, written on a scrap of papyrus, lay on top.
Nefermaat,the note read,I cautioned you about using powerfulmagic when we last met, but perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps the time for caution has passed. When you told me about this Oracle of the Lamb, I confess I found it difficult to believe. I am a priest, but I am also a man of logic and reason, and the oracle defies both. How can the future be both predetermined and dependent upon our actions?
After much thought, however, I have concluded that the world is so complex, it encompasses all possibilities, including one in which you are at the center of a cataclysm. You have endured great hardship in a short time, made greater by the fact that you are only a child, and yet these trials have strengthened you.
I have taught you many things, little sister, but I think you have taught me more. You may not be of royal blood, but like the children of pharaohs, your power is innate. You need only use your education—and your faith—to meet this challenge. The rest is up to Heka.
Enclosed here is the set of scrolls that I discovered in the secret wall that day in the House of Life. I trust you will use them wisely when the time comes.
With Amun’s blessing,
