The Concubine's Tale (7 page)

“The scroll tells that?”

“The narrative does—apparently all the details of the story came out years later. Rumors of Benak-Ra’s involvement in a plot to harm Seti came to the fore. He fled into the city, and the soldiers were searching for him.”

“Nayari and Khanu couldn’t have known that at the time.”

“No. They hid in the cellar of Horeb’s home that night, and Khanu asked Nayari if she wanted to go home. He offered to make up a story—that he’d kidnapped her—so she could return to Ammonptah unharmed.”

“But Ammonptah would still have given her to Benak-Ra. They couldn’t have known Benak-Ra was on the run.”

“Khanu wanted it to be Nayari’s choice. He knew they’d face a lot of hardships in hiding from Ammonptah, especially if his plot succeeded. They had no choice but to leave Egypt and make a life for themselves somewhere else.”

“She didn’t take him up on the offer.” Grant shifted and settled Cait into the crook of his arm, then shifted again. “Can we move?”

“Come to the bedroom.” She untangled her legs from his and rose. She stretched for him, and noted with satisfaction that she wouldn’t have long to wait for a repeat performance. “I’ll finish the story in there.”

With Grant trailing behind her, Cait stopped to retrieve another condom from the drawer, then sauntered into her bedroom. She never sauntered, but it felt right somehow, sexy and fun.

With a wink, she pulled back the thick comforter, exposing almond colored sheets of Egyptian cotton. Funny that Nayari and Khanu probably slept on straw mats and thought them luxuriantly comfortable.

Grant slipped into the bed. “Nice room.” He pulled her close. His warmth surrounded her, and she sighed.

“To answer your question, no. Nayari didn’t let Khanu sacrifice himself for her. She wanted him with her always, and she couldn’t bear the thought of going back to Ammonptah. She pledged herself to Khanu and agreed to accept whatever life had to throw at them. The next morning, just as planned, Horeb led them into the desert.”

The cave to which Horeb led them was nothing like Khanu expected. He’d imagined a dark, damp hole where they would huddle in fear of every sound, waiting for a safe time when Ammonptah would no longer care what happened to them. Instead, Horeb took them to a wide, sunlit grotto of rock near an oasis of tangled palm trees and low bushes. A spring bubbled up amid a pile of smooth stones, and the water was cool and clear.

“Others must know about this place, Horeb. Can you be sure we’ll be safe here?” he asked his friend. He hated to sound ungrateful, but a magical spot like this would not remain unknown for long.

“I come here often. I discovered it when Setma and I were younger. We spent quite a bit of time here…alone.” Horeb winked.

Khanu turned to look for Nayari, who had wandered off beneath an overhang of striated rock. She sat on a smooth shelf of sandstone that looked to be the perfect shape for sleeping. She sighed, and her eyes drifted closed as she relaxed against the warm stone. He prayed they were as safe and content as she looked. The journey had been long and exhausting, and she needed to rest, but Khanu wasn’t sure he’d be able to enjoy their solitude.

Horeb clapped his shoulder. “Now would be a good time to change your names and think about who you have been and who you will become. If someone does arrive, they will meet a pair of young lovers hiding in the hills to escape the disapproval of their families.” Horeb raised his eyebrows and glanced at Nayari, now sleeping peacefully in the rock alcove. “The farther you go, the less likely anyone will recognize you.”

Khanu nodded. Horeb had always been the clever one, the cautious boy who managed to break the rules without ever once getting caught.

“Take care of her, Khanu, and be well, my friend. I will come back in a few days with some supplies for you.”

“Thank you, Horeb. You have done more than any friend should ask of you.”

Horeb only smiled. He left the cave, and Khanu stared after him for a long while, then moved to stand near Nayari. She slept deeply, her dark head resting on her crossed arms. He let his gaze wander the luxurious curve of her hip and down her thigh. He felt a stirring, but he would not wake her—yet.

He settled next to her and curled himself around her. Had he realized he would fall asleep almost instantly, he might not have closed his eyes just for a moment to rest them. With her clutched against his chest, her rhythmic breathing matching his own, he began to dream.

Chapter Six

The Chief of Heaven danced in a circle around Nayari, his long, swollen member protruding from his hand, straight as an arrow. She stood silently, naked before him, her eyes closed in ecstasy. Khanu waited outside the circle in which Min danced, watching the god weave closer and closer to Nayari. He wanted to step in, to claim her for his own, but how could he challenge a god?

A hand fell on Khanu’s shoulder, startling him. His heart raced when he turned and looked into the fearsome visage of Set. The god himself, part man, part animal, and all-powerful, gestured to Min and Nayari.

“Take her.” His command was clear and strong, delivered in the voice of Ammonptah. “She is yours. Don’t let that creature have her.”

“He is Min—”

Pain lanced through Khanu’s shoulder, and the hand of Set became a claw with the talons of a hawk. The talons dug into his flesh. “He is inferior to me. I am the god of the pharaohs. God of kings. I am their blood and their flesh. Take her in my name, and your union will be blessed.”

Khanu needed no further encouragement. Even as Min thrust his straining erection at Nayari, Khanu reached across the circle to claim her. She danced out of his way and fell into Min’s outstretched arms.

“You can’t have her just for the taking. You must earn her.” Set released his death grip on Khanu’s shoulder and rivulets of blood ran down his arm. With eyes the color of the sun, Set followed the trail of crimson drops. “Like me, the blood of kings runs in your veins. You must prove yourself worthy to claim your prize.”

“How?”

“Save Pharaoh. Blessed of Set, he is the true ruler of this land. Ammonptah is a pretender to the throne, and he will hold your heart in his hands if he gains power. He will hold her body beneath his again and ravage her in a fruitless effort to bring forth progeny. She will die at his hands, having failed her purpose. Do you want that?”

“What can I do?”

“Stop Ammonptah. You run from him like a rabbit runs from the jackal. You must prove your loyalty to Seti, and you will have everlasting peace. Then you will have her by your side forever.”

“I’ll kill Ammonptah.” The words sounded strange in Khanu’s mouth. How could he pledge to kill the man who had been his master?

“No. You will help Seti to kill him. And then no man but you will touch your beloved Nayari.”

Khanu looked back to the circle, and anger surged in him at the sight of Nayari cradled in the arms of Min, eyes closed, head back, her slender throat exposed to the god’s lips.

“I will do whatever you ask of me.”

“Then wake.”

Khanu sat up with a cry of defiance. Cold sweat covered his body and, for the first time in his life, his hands shook. The god Set had come to him in a dream and commanded him. He had to obey.

He looked down at Nayari, who stirred fitfully in her exhausted sleep. He smoothed her hair and kissed her brow. “I will do as Set commands me, for you. You will not have to leave Egypt in shame.”

Grant slid his eager hands over Cait’s hips, molding her to him in the sensual warmth beneath the crisp sheets of her bed. She moved beneath him, wrapped her legs around his and moaned softly when he kissed her neck and worked his way to her lips.

“Khanu dreams big,” he said against her mouth. She stretched and laughed.

“The gods were so much ingrained in everyday life that it wasn’t uncommon for people to feel their actions were guided by them.”

“Khanu believed his dream was a message from Set directly.”

“Of course. An offer he couldn’t refuse, so to speak.”

“What did he do about it?”

Cait’s response was lost in a sigh as Grant’s tongue swirled around her nipple. She drew her legs tighter around him and took him inside her again, reveling in his length.

“He left her in the cave.”

Nayari woke alone, silver moonlight bathing the grotto where she’d slept so long, dreaming of Khanu. His scent lingered on her hands, and the flavor of his mouth remained on her lips. She shivered for want of his arms around her.

Where had he gone? She called his name, straining her tired eyes in the half-light, wishing he would appear.

A faint breeze stirred through her hiding place, and a deep fear gripped her. He’d abandoned her, but why?

With her heart pounding and her empty stomach aching with fear, she crept from the smooth shelf of sandstone that had been her bed and peered out into the desert between columns of rock. Beyond the wind-gnarled trees of the oasis, a ribbon of stars dusted the black sky. The brilliant disk of the moon seemed to mock her, its smiling face pale and harsh, reminding her of Baakah’s disapproving glare.

With a prayer to Isis for his safe return, Nayari wrapped her arms around herself and sank to the rocky floor of the cave to wait for her missing warrior.

“Did he come back?” Grant asked, his voice thick and sleepy now. With Cait’s head resting on his chest, her supple body stretched next to him, he felt completely at peace, except for the nagging anticipation. He had to know what happened to the concubine and her lover.

Cait mumbled something, and her long fingers flexed against his chest, stirring a feeling in him that he hadn’t expected. He thought of Khanu and wondered if a mere dream would ever entice him to leave a woman he loved at the mercy of the elements, even if the life of a king hung in the balance.

At this moment, he could think of nothing that could tear him out of Cait’s arms. “Don’t fall asleep now. I want the rest of the story.” He shook her gently, stroked her silky hair and rubbed one foot along the decadent expanse of her leg beneath the tangled sheets. “You said you’d go all the way tonight.”

“Hmm. I did.” She yawned and stretched languidly beside him. “Okay. Well, the story depicted in the scroll fragment ends there.”

“No! There has to be more—”

“Layton speculated only a few more sentences remained of the narrative. His researchers filled in the rest from obscure references to both Ammonptah and Seti found in the tomb of a man suspected to have been the magistrate’s successor. Layton’s journal entry concludes with some blatant embellishments.”

“You mean he made up the rest?”

“I’ll tell you what he wrote, and you decide for yourself.”

Nayari woke stiff and cold at the entrance to the cave. Moments after she opened her eyes a familiar sound startled a scream from her.

A team of oxen stood in the oasis, tethered to a cart emblazoned with the symbols of Ammonptah’s rank and station.

Her heart sank. He’d found her, and very likely Khanu as well.

Her instincts told her to run, but where? There was no other exit from the cave. She scuttled backward toward the sandstone shelf, but a shadow fell across her intended hiding place and a rough hand closed over the back of her dress, tearing the delicate linen as she struggled for freedom.

The arms of a warrior circled her, drawing her against a hard wall of muscle. Her dress hung, torn at the neckline and spilling from one shoulder. A familiar hand reached up to adjust the fabric against her breast.

Ammonptah himself stood before her. His black eyes held no compassion, none of the benign disinterest she’d come to expect from her master.

“Tell me he took you against your will, Nayari,” Ammonptah said, his voice rising over her indignant cursing at the warrior who held her fast. “Tell me the traitor seized an opportunity to avail himself of your nubile body while under my orders to protect you.”

Nayari clamped her lips shut. She would never betray Khanu.

Ammonptah paced before her, his wrinkled hands clasped behind his back. “He’s told me as much. That he saw you at my house and wanted you for himself out of jealousy for my station. Thinking you a virgin, he wanted to be the first to sample your pleasures and drew you off the road on the way to Coptos. He claims you put up some resistance, but he threatened you with injury, and thus you complied with his demands. He tells me you ran away from the temple out of shame, unable to bear the possibility that the child of someone other than your master might grow in your womb.”

Nayari kept her eyes averted. Her heart ached for Khanu, to have shamed himself with such a terrible confession in order to spare her Ammonptah’s wrath.

Her struggle had dislodged the shoulder of her dress again, exposing her breast, the nipple taut with fear. To her disgust, she felt the arousal of the warrior behind her, pressing against the curve of her bottom. She arched away from him, bile rising in her throat.

“You’ve only to corroborate his story, Nayari. Tell me he violated you, and I’ll set you free. I’ll give you to the house of my nephew, who would be glad of a concubine for himself, even one so misused as you have been.”

“What of Khanu?” The question slipped out unbidden. No matter what Nayari said to Ammonptah, there would be no mercy for her brave warrior.

“He’ll die quickly or slowly, depending upon your answer. Confess his crime to me, and I will see that his entrails are fed to the dogs this evening. Protect him, and I’ll think of a more fitting punishment for a man who would betray his king.”

“You are not pharaoh, and you will never be.” Nayari spat the words, consumed with hatred for the man she’d once thought of as her benefactor.

Ammonptah’s vicious slap snapped her head to the side. The sting of it felt like acid against the delicate skin of her cheek.

“I will be pharaoh. But your disloyalty has cost me. Benak-Ra will not want you now that a common servant has taken his pleasure with you. I will have to make another payment in your stead.”

Nayari only stared defiantly. Tears stung her eyes at the pain Ammonptah had inflicted, but she held her master’s gaze. Secure in the knowledge that both she and Khanu would die no matter what, she denounced her loyalty to the magistrate and spat at his sandaled feet.