The Prince and His Slave

Arius - [Punishments]

I looked  at my dead father and tipped over, falling to my side as an unbelievable amount of thoughts ran through my mind. I couldn’t think. There was too much to think about. What the hell was I going to do?

       My Uncle Amenmose walked over, pulled the headdress off of my father and put it onto himself, with no emotion what so ever. “Get up, Arius.” He said. “We have much work to do.”

       It took me way to long to straighten my thoughts up, but when they were somewhat straightened, the one thought that seemed most important was the one that said to save Alexandra’s grandfather.

       I looked up at him and the second I did, Uncle Amenmose spoke up. “Guards! Take the Kings murderer to the dungeons.”

       “No!” I yelled.

       I heard Alexandra right then too. I turned my head and saw her with Haru, hands over her mouth and eyes watery.

       But before I could argue and stop him, Uncle Amenmose called the guards onto me as well, holding me back, covering my mouth.

       “Take to bodies to the priest and immediately start the mummification.” Uncle Amenmose said to a few guards. He then looked at the others in the throne room. “Clear out. Those of you who aren’t supposed to be here leave now.”

       And everyone did just that.

       It took about five days to sort everything out. Amenmose was quickly crowned the Pharaoh of Egypt and the funeral preparations for my father and grandfather had officially started. The worst part was that I stood by his side for every one of those days because I was forced too.

       But that was five days without knowing whether Alexandra was alright. That was way too long.

       But on the sixth day… things got stressful.

       “Bring in Ishaq.” My Uncle said.

       I looked up and saw the guards walk in with Ishaq in between them. People started to gather around as my uncle and Asim spent a fair amount of time discussing something.

       I looked out the crowd in the throne room and saw Alexandra there; she was holding back tears and was in Subira’s arms.

       I was a little relieved now… knowing that Subira was there for her.

       When my uncle looked up, he seemed surprised by the crowd but didn’t seem to care much. He cleared his throat and looked straight at Ishaq. “Ishaq.” He said in a loud and clear voice. “Since your intentions were clearly righteous we have decided to make your punishment for killing the pharaoh less severe.”

       I felt relief and saw relief in Alexandra’s eyes as well.

       “However, you must still be punished. Therefore, Lord Asim and I have decided on three stages of your punishment. The first stage will be public flagellation for your return to Thebes after being banished.”

        People gasped. My eyes widened.

       “The second stage will be a tour around Thebes, in chains, so the people of Egypt can see the murderer of their King.”

       I bit my lip.

       “And the last stage,” he said with a sigh, “will be your execution.”

       “That’s less severe?” I yelled.

       My uncle Amenmose didn’t look at me. “Yes. The punishment for killing the Pharaoh is much worse than all of these punishments put together.”