The Pharaoh's Dancer

Unable to Refuse

Amunet had grown accustomed to keeping the secrets of others. When serving as a slave, one hears a variety of things ranging from affairs, political scandals, and even plots of murder. However, never had Amunet ever been personally involved in any of these. She's always been the person they confided in rather than expected anything from her. Now staring at Kamilah who looked menacingly beautiful and terrifyingly serious in front of her, Amunet wasn't sure what to do. 

"Why would you ask me to do such a thing?" Amunet asked forgetting her manners for an instant. Kamilah appeared to not take notice and turned away without acknowledging her statement with any amount of weight or importance. She toward over the slave and retracted the goblet of wine she'd originally offered. 

"I believe it's quite obvious," Kamilah said brushing her hair over her shoulder. "My son won't ever take the thrown as long as Pharaoh Teremun is alive. So I need him removed. None of his sons are old enough to take the thrown so their dear uncle Chisisi will take the title after his half-brother's demise."

Kamilah's shark eyes turned to stare hard and long at Amunet. The slave girl felt a shiver run up her spine and found herself recoiling from the gaze. Kamilah's skin radiated a killing aura that consumed the room and she stood still, powerful, and determined at the center of Egypt. Kamilah downed the last of the wine and tossed the goblet onto the floor. Amunet watched it spin on its rim leaking drops of the remnant liquid. Her eyes eventually found Kamilah's again who was still staring at her with a soft grin spread across her face. 

"If I refuse," Amunet began in a slow and conscious tone. "I die." Kamilah didn't answer but the smile on her lips had disappeared and her brow pulled into a crease. "If I accept, that will also lead to my death. I think it highly unlikely that I will live if I kill the Pharaoh."

"Yes, that does cause a small rift in this job I'm assigning," Kamilah said glaring at the slave. She tossed her hair again and spun around hastily causing her dress to billow around her and blowing a soft breeze against Amunet's cheeks. She walked gracefully to her desk and pulled out a reed and pigment. She unraveled a scroll, dipped the reed in the pigment, and wrote in perfect hieroglyphs. Amunet watched her in silence and jumped slightly when the consort twirled around once more in a flourish of her hands. She tossed the scroll at the feet of Amunet and appeared fairly proud of herself. "With the power as a Royal Wife of the late Pharaoh Horemheb, I promise to guarantee your safety if the task of killing Teremun is completed. With every guard I have and every spare coin I possess, I will deliver you from Cairo, Egypt and give you another life and another name in another country where you will live the rest of your life as a free individual."

Amunet's eyes widened and her ears perked up. She crawled toward the scroll and looked at it closely. Kamilah seemed surprised by her actions but Amunet took no notice. Unlike most slaves, Amunet was well reversed in literature and writing. Msamaki had believed it made her more desirable and had put in the money and effort to make her as sophisticated and desirable as possible: a slave who could easily be mistaken as an elite. Amunet wanted to laugh at how quickly he'd given her up after all the effort he'd put into crafting her. Kamilah extended the reed to Amunet with the same devious grin on her face. The pigment dripped from its tip and time seemed to slow down the drop until it hit the parchment. Amunet looked between the consort and the contract, reading over and over every single line and every word. She took the reed in her hand gingerly and simultaneously took a deep breath the shook her shoulders and blew her hair around her face 

Death or Freedom: those were the two options. Amunet didn't have to think about it for long before she was signing away her fate and staring up at her new master.