Midnight Lotus ~ An Egyptian Fairytale

~ 14 ~

Amon stood leaning, with crossed arms against the railing of his ship, alive and furious, and staring right at me.

I stared back. Bird eyes burning with hate. If not for the wooden bars of my small cage I would peck his beautiful eyes out. I refused to believe my family were traitors. He planned this... I was certain.

I'd come to consciousness to the howling screeches of Anaka's monkey rattling its wooden cage beside me. I stared out, disoriented, at the view of a ship deck sailing away from my home. They had taken our warships. We had five, or so, in Helios as retainer vessels. The rest were stationed North, at a bay in the Mediterranean coast to guard against potential foreign invaders. Ironic that the real threat was from the South.

The sun was high as smoke snaked through the sky from the white dot of my palace still burning in the distance as the boats rowed south, towards Amon-Set's kingdom. The smell of death curdled in the air and I could almost taste the burnt flesh on my tongue with these heightened bird senses.. I squawked softly, unable to shed tears, or block the stench that strangled my senses and settled into my feathers. They had burned my people, denied them to walk the path of the dead to the afterlife.

Trailing with the smoke, a few boats followed in procession down the Nile, piled high with spoils; the food and treasures of my people, not to mention a few animals. Livestock mostly, goats, sheep, cattle and some ostrich. They had taken Zahara's Hawk, that damned monkey, and a few cats as well.

Several soldiers on deck were all celebrating, passing skins of wine and food around.

I heard shouting below me before seeing Amon emerge pacing back and forth on the back of the deck before he stilled, his eyes finally settling on the pile of spoils, where I was wedged between Anaka's monkey and a cat that kept pawing at my crate.

"Why-" Amon hissed, the vein on his neck bulging, "-did you take all this?" His head turned, addressing a soldier, who was tipping wine down his gullet.

The man wiped at the dribble of red on his chin before answering with a lazy grin. "Figured we could use it more than those traitors could in the afterlife." He laughed at his own joke. But it was cut short.

One moment, Amon was in front of me and then, in a blur, he was down the side of the ship, pulling the sword at the guard's hip, and running it straight through him. The man's eyes widened in shock, a garble of surprise on his lips before he tipped backward off the boat and into the Nile, where a hungry hippo or crocodile would pick up its next meal.

Hushed tension fell upon the ship.Not even the animals made noise as he stalked like an apex predator down the length of the ship, bloody sword in hand.

"Anyone want to join him?" he roared.

Silence answered, and all merriment died. The soldiers went about the rest of their duties quietly and Amon stomped back below deck. This was a version of Amon I hadn't seen. The version that lived up to the whispers of his bloodlust. The version he had carefully kept hidden from me. The killer.

Between the yowls and bays of the creatures not accustomed to the rocking of the river, I was to pick up whispers from two soldiers taking a break at the back.

"Did they find the Priestess?" A short man with hair braided tight to his head asked the large bald headed man beside him. Both were ripping at pieces of bread leaning over the back of the boat.

I recognized the larger one as the soldier who clipped my wings and I committed his sweaty bald head, short stubble beard, and dark eyes to memory. He had an ugly jagged scar down his right bicep and-gods willing-when I returned to my human body again, he would be one of the first to die, along with Amon and Sarena.