Heretic of the Nile

002

Mereneith stared at the young man for a brief moment. A prince of Egypt?

A shallow dimple appeared on the man's left cheek as a smug smile tugged at the corners of his lips. But that was wiped off his face the moment he saw her throw her head back and burst out in a fit of laughter.

"Yes, and I'm Queen Hetepheres."

"Are you mocking me? I'm telling you the truth! I am a prince of Egypt."

"If you really are a prince, then why would you be sneaking around the temple like some thief?"

She bit down hard on that final word, folding her arms across her chest as she stared down the insolent fool. Did he think she was dumb? She had only just seen a real prince of Egypt take a tour around these same vaults and it didn't take a genius to figure out that the young man standing before her right now was definitely no prince. The plain white wrap he was wearing looked like it was made of even poorer quality linen than what the priests wore and he didn't even have a teensy bit of gold adorning his body.

"I—I—" the man stammered, chewing on his lower lip. "Oh forget it!" He made a sudden dash for the stairway, pushing past Mereneith so quickly that she almost lost her balance and toppled over.

When she gathered her wits about her, Mereneith immediately chased out of the vault after him, emerging in time to see his shadow slip out through the west archway and vanish from view. Taking a deep breath, she was about to take off in a sprint when someone called out her name loudly from behind. Her feet froze in mid-step.

"Mereneith, where are you going? The high priest wants some of the best crystals we have sent to his study. Prince Kanefer wants to bring some back to the palace for the queen and the princesses."

It was one of the senior priests of the temple, an uptight old man by the name of Nephi.

Before Mereneith could stop him, he had already headed straight into the vault wanting to fetch the crystals himself. She rushed back in, catching the look of horror on his face as he stared at the broken clay fragments still lying haphazardly on the ground.

"What happened in here?" he screeched, his thin lips setting themselves in a hard line.

"I can explain," Mereneith started. "There was a thief who snuck in here and he knocked over three of the clay pots. I've already salvaged the crystals—they were some of the newer ones so they wouldn't be ready for another couple of months anyway. We can set them up in new pots by the end of the day and there wouldn't be much damage done."

"And where is this thief that you're talking about?" Nephi looked around the vault, his right eye ridge arching upwards skeptically.

"He escaped, right before you appeared."

She was certain that she would have caught that wily fox had it not been for Nephi's sudden interruption. Now he was running scot free and Nephi clearly didn't even believe a word that she had just said.

"Negligence is a serious offence in the house of Ptah, Mereneith, and lying is far worse. We allowed you to stay as a crystal keeper because Rekhmir vouched for you, but it appears that all we have done is to raise an ungrateful, irresponsible, dishonest child."

"I wasn't lying! There really was a thief. He was this tall," she raised her hand slightly above the top of her head, "and he was wearing a plain white shendyt and... and..." Her shoulders sagged downwards and the air just left her lungs like a deflated balloon. Her description was so generic that even she knew that it sounded like a weak excuse. Even though she had an image of the man's face imprinted in her mind—his pointed chin and sharp jawline, eyes that slanted slightly upwards at the edges and that offensive dimple on his left cheek—she couldn't find the words to describe him.