«You probably want a war to break out because of you».
«War?» Alais grinned cruelly. «War for me means an indisputable victory. The hand that has risen on me will immediately dry up, the sword aimed at me will instantly turn against its owner. I know who my father is, and this is not one of the deathly Egyptian gods, but you know his name».
She bent down and whispered in his ear. And these were the words of an angel.
The winged man in the sand seemed to be saying the same to him, but the way she said it sounded scary, almost like a snake. More precisely, she would have scared the snake with her hiss. What a stark contrast to such beauty. For some reason, this combination made it even worse.
Alais knew her own worth, and was fully aware of her own strength. She will crush the whole world, just step on him with her heel, and he will crack under the weight of her oppression.
«Maybe hes worth it,» her eyes declared slyly. «With the pettiness of people and their intrigues, with their hypocrisy. Show me at least one infinitely kind person, and I will spare the world for his sake, as Michael (this is the name of that winged guard that you saw in the sands) is ready to do for the sake of only one believer as a whole a swarm of wicked people. He has repeatedly stated that only one person devoted to God is worth sparing an entire country of atheists for the sake of his sincere faith. He believes that the faith of one pays for the excesses of many. Lets say Im ready to do the same, but I need one absolutely pure soul. A person who never wishes harm to anyone and under any circumstances. If I see such a person and do not be disappointed in him, as God was disappointed in me, then I may save the human world from destruction, which the Almighty now wants. After all, he created the devil as punishment for arrogant people. He created me.» The tip of the snake tongue licked his cheek. «I am a punishing force because people have become too cruel. Rivers of blood must be shed to cleanse the world that God so carelessly created. He already regrets it, although he does not want to openly admit it. Hypocrisy is his strong point, but not mine. I speak openly, even though the truth hurts. I will not regret people, only beautiful things made by their hands, but there are already plenty of them in the world. Show me someone I can regret to stop me. Time is limited. Thirteen sunrises because thirteen is my favorite number».
Her wings flapped again, gracefully and somehow dangerously, as if they could twine around him and strangle him in a deadly embrace. Merira reluctantly retreated.
«Its a fair deal,» he nodded. If only she fulfills her conditions
«Just one person,» Alais repeated. «You only need to find one, but someone who will not disappoint me. He alone must be so pure as to become worthy to atone for the sins of all mankind».
The priest was afraid of her. Alais knew that. Backing away, he stumbled and fell. How awkward! Where can he find something.
But the deal was good. Just one soul! Alais had never met one like this before, although it seemed like an eternity remained behind her. Only one person, unlike all people, could change her idea of eternity.
And this man almost became a young man who uttered a strange request the other day in the throne room, but he somehow disappointed her.
Bloody hieroglyph
«If the Nile was filled with blood, and not water, then she would have lived there».
It was Ujais voice. Taor did not immediately notice him, and he, it seems, did not notice anything at all, except for his sore hand, which he swaddled with bandages and rocked gently, like a child. He himself seemed to be hiding from everyone and still talked with someone in the void. It seemed that he was absolutely sure that he saw some interlocutor in front of him, although the palace corridor was empty. He must have lost his mind from the injury.
It would be most reasonable to pass by, but Taor decided to show his concern and squatted down in front of the victim.
«Can I help you with something?»
Ujai looked at him like an enemy and even bared his teeth like a beast. Taor was not offended. It was already a sad sight before him. The man is alive, and his hand is already mummified, although not torn from the body. Something was stirring under the bandages. How strange! A withered hand cannot move like a living creature. Or something other than dry flesh is buried under the bandages. Taor remembered the birds that had been slaughtered. Suddenly, crazy with grief, Ujai has bandaged a live bird there, and it is now swarming in its death throes? Or is something bursting out of his body? An absurd idea, but so persistent.
The young man did not know what to say, how to entertain or console the person who seemed to need nothing, but Ujai suddenly spoke himself.
«Did you encounter something similar there, on the battlefield, where you were sent?»
What a meaningful phrase for a madman. Taor was alert. So the man in front of him still has not lost his mind?
«What unusual could I encounter there?» There really was a lot of indescribable happening, but let Ujai touch on this topic himself.
«With creatures that maim or burn people with just one touch, and at the same time look incomparable, although they are still creatures,» his tongue twisted, but his thought was sober. Taor remembered the dead who were resurrected and those who seemed impossible to kill.
«Ive seen a lot,» he said carefully.
«Youll see more here», Ujai drawled derisively. «Because here, in the palace, she settled».
«Who is she?» Taor did not dare to ask anyone about it. For some reason, it became scary to just ask a question about what worried him. «Pharaohs daughter? The daughter of some priest who taught her to conduct the mysteries? A child of one of the gods themselves?»
Ujai just shook his head. He did not know, only speculated.
«Pharaoh called her daughter. At first. But she appeared suddenly, already being an adult and winged. No matter how hard it is to believe it, the wings are alive, they grow from her back».
«Did you check?»
«Yes».
«How?»
«By chance. I touched her as she walked by».
«Has your hand started to dry out since then?» Taor guessed.
«No,» Ujai shook his head sadly. «Here the point is different. The first time I just got a little burned. It was necessary to be more prudent, but what can be done here when she walks nearby, right through the palace Now no one calls her just a princess anymore. She seemed to have become a ruler herself. As if God came down from heaven to rule alongside the Pharaoh».
«What about Queen Nefertiti? News reached me that not so long ago Akhenaten made her his co-ruler».
«Where do you see her here?» Ujai expressively looked around the empty space.
In some ways, he was right. Taor himself noticed numerous changes in the order of life in the palace. All representatives of the royal family, who had at least some kind of power, disappeared, as if they were deliberately kept under lock and key. The Pharaoh himself, sitting on the throne, seemed just a puppet.
Otherwise Taor would not have thought of interfering in the natural course of someones power struggle, much less making inquiries. Its none of his business. Asking about something like that, he brazenly climbs into other peoples secrets. But Alais Her face She seemed not at all a stranger to him. He wanted to know something about her, and what he did not understand himself.
Ujais diseased limb should have been a warning to him. Something similar can happen to him if he pokes his nose where he should not.
Ujais diseased limb should have been a warning to him. Something similar can happen to him if he pokes his nose where he should not.
Taor moved a little away from Ujai and watched his dry hand vibrate slightly under the bandages. What if you take a blade and cut them off his hand? What will he see then?
Taor could hardly resist the temptation to check. After all, he is a warrior. He saw a terrible death, and an unusual infection, and even the living dead in the last war. What he sees under Ujais bandages shouldnt scare him too much after that.
This was the very place in the garden by the pond where Alais performed the ritual with the slaughtered birds. Ujai just reminded him of a bird so withered that it only remained to be buried in the ground. He stopped looking like a living person. Anubis seemed to have forgotten to come for him in time, and the dry shell remained moving to live. But how long is it? The movements of the living corpse became more and more sluggish.
He wanted to say something else to Taor, but his language clearly did not obey. Then Ujai raised his good hand to his mouth and bit his own finger. The blood went slowly, there was little of it, as if it had almost dried up inside the body, but it was enough for him to draw a hieroglyph on the wall. Only one. And, probably, he drew it incorrectly, because there was not enough strength for the clarity of the lines. Taor did not know such a sign. You cant read it. And Ujai wont write more. His hand dropped limply.
«Lets go! I will take you to your chambers». Judging by his condition, much cannot be done for him. It is unlikely that he will last long. But you can do at least something to make him a little easier. Experienced doctors are familiar with drugs that help at least forget, if not relieve pain.
«Leave him alone!» The imperious voice made Taor flinch. He was like steel. You wont even hear such notes from commanders in war. The very tone made him obey.
Taor gave up his vain attempts to lift the seriously ill man to his feet and turned around. Before him stood the high priest of Aton himself. No security. No accompanying persons. Well, isnt it amazing.
«He likes to bask in the sun,» Merira nodded at the unfortunate man, as if he were some inanimate object. «After all, the sun is all that we live by now».
«But hes trying to stay in the shadows,» Taor looked back in bewilderment at Ujai, who was hiding in the shadows, entwined with plants, of a column. The hieroglyph inscribed in blood stood out strangely on it.
«Do you know what this man wanted?
«To touch the burning solar disk and not burn out?» Shrugging his shoulders, suggested the young man.
Merira looked at him like he was a complete idiot.
«Destroy you completely. Do you even recognize him?»
«Its hard to recognize him, but its still him».
«And if he feels good again, he will continue his fight for the first place, and, most likely, he will destroy you, as he intended at the beginning. Do you allow this?»
«Quite. I already had the experience of communicating with him when he was healthy», Taor wanted to turn around again to look at the bloody hieroglyph again, but Merira watched him so closely that it was uncomfortable.
«What kind of person would want to help his worst enemy?»
«The one who sees that he needs a doctor».
«He doesnt need him.» The high priest avoided looking back. «Its too late to do anything».
Taor himself was aware of this, but he could not pass by the person whom no one else helps. He could not understand how, in a palace full of servants and slaves, no one was still concerned about the state of the honored guest, who suddenly became ill.
The priests hand tugged urgently away.
«Lets go to!»
«But where!»
«If you want to achieve a high position here at court, you shouldnt ask too many questions,» Merira said condescendingly.
«But I dont want to,» Taor admitted honestly.
Merira stopped and looked at him carefully, as if checking to see if there was even a drop of lie in this.
«Thats what I wanted to hear,» he admitted unexpectedly.
«Simplicity!» the high priest led him to a strange place, more like the sanctuary of the old gods, located in the recess of the basement of the palace, far from everyone. «Simplicity is exactly what Im looking for in a person. I need someone like you. Anyone who is not looking for any benefits specifically for himself. Man is higher than all people».
It seems that somewhere between the pillars, painted with hieroglyphs, huge wings, the size of a man, flapped. Taor gazed there. Nowhere else is there a rustle or movement. He gazed up at the low ceilings, still painted with images of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu.
«This room has not yet been redone properly», Merira led him a little forward. «Tell me, have you ever wondered why a previously little-known god suddenly became the only god of Egypt?»
Taor just shrugged.
«I dont know much about anything. It is better to ask me about swords, about fighting techniques, about strategy, about war, about how to defend yourself and protect others, about how to lose as few people as possible in battle and at the same time win. This is an area in which I can answer any question, but everything else is beyond my comprehension».
«For example, why people here, in the palace, are ready, without any threat of war, to gnaw each others throats in order to make their way a little higher to the sun, that is, to the royal throne»
«All people have their own desires».
«And they all contradict each other, so you cant make everyone happy. Someone will still become angry with another, who, in their opinion, received more, and intrigue».
«Perhaps the new god will do something to change this».
«Aton!» Merira seemed genuinely amazed.
«Well yes! After all, the sun equally warms everyone with its rays», Taor remembered a new image of Aton with the royal ureus on his head and rays extending from him. For some reason, these rays looked more like severed human hands than a source of all the warming heat. «When it rises to dispel the darkness, one can believe that its light brings the same benefit to everyone». And evil desires simply do not remain.
He recalled the dawn over the field of his last battle. Before his rays, all the corpses in the darkness seemed to be the same cesspool. The bodies of companions, eaten by vultures, evoked pity, animals that have no name seemed to crawl right out of the ground and tore the flesh of the still living wounded, and dead enemies, who did not rise more painfully, but looked with empty eyes at the sky, as if beckoning to themselves, demanding only one thing for him to taste their dead flesh. He could hardly resist then. The urge to eat carrion and drink blood was almost unbearable, but the sun rose and it passed.
«Perhaps its for the best that the sun god is now the only one,» Taor said earnestly.
Why did the high priest of Aton look at him with slight pity, as a man who was deliberately mistaken?
«Do you already know that the Pharaoh is going to move the capital from Thebes to another city?»
«To Memphis?»
«No, to a city that doesnt even exist yet, but construction is about to begin», Merira beckoned him with his hand to papyri with some drawings, casually laid out on a low table. «The city that will be named after Aton. And it will not be like all those cities that you have seen so far. Its population will also not be composed exclusively of people». Merira stopped, as if someone had hit him in the mouth.