War Of Egypt II • The Persians

Chapter 17: Where I Stand

    Kha approached the high gates and smiled darkly up at the armed men who took their place surrounding the walls of the palace. He rolled his eyes and stabbed the stone staircase at his feet with his sharp sword, instantly breaking it open. The god then cracked his knuckles and beckoned to the head archer that stood right over him, tilting his body over the walls to look down at Kha. He beckoned again and wiped the perspiration off his temple with his wrist.

    After much debate between the archers, two of them disappeared and later appeared with a female demon. Kha gritted his teeth and clenched his fists upon seeing her, he had had enough of Persian demons since two days ago. The demon watched him intensely as he did, her. She was prettier than the ones he encountered days ago but he knew that her beauty was only a glamour compared to the real thing deep inside her. She squinted at him one last time before whispering to the archer-he nodded and walked off. Soon, Kha's head dropped back down to face straight ahead as the brass gates groaned opened. He nodded at the demon and stepped forward into the gate. The palace and it's layout was not that different to Egypt, he glanced around and back over his shoulder as the gates closed again.

    Lifting a brow, Kha slowly took in his surroundings. He was standing on a lower platform, beyond him were stairs that led up into the courtyard and right into the palace itself. When he took to the stairs, Kha took a moment to admire the landscape of colorful flora that covered the large courtyard and scraped up the palace walls. All around the area were sculptures of the major Persian gods. He seemed impressed that the current ruler did not make drastic changes to turn it into a choatic wasteland. Framing the rectangular shape of the courtyard, crystal still water flowed and gave bloom to the rare lilies that littered it. The colors were an explosion in Kha's eyes and the scents were an intoxicating wave. When he proceeded further down the pathway, he saw someone waiting at the end. The green viney plants alongside the path dropped a few of their precious white flowers and allowed it to be swept across the trail.

    The sunlight caught in the dark knee-lenght locks of the goddess' hair as she raised her head and looked across in his direction. Kha rid his mind of a memory and forced himself to halt at the end of the stretch of pathway between them. He knew he could not go further and instead he allowed the host to approach him.

    She did so, slowly and carefully like a true Queen. The goddess was dressed in a velvet dress that swept all the way down to her feet, it was held up by a belt right beneath her full breasts, and over her head she wore a silk in a lighter shade of red. Her bare arms showed definition underneath the bronze armlets she wore. Kha lowered his head to avoid looking at her just as she came into his view.

   "Asire," Kha swallowed and faced the smooth pavement to the bottom of his feet with interest.

   "I want to see them." The goddess replied quietly and stopped in front of him. She extended an arm into Kha's line of focus and he looked up as a result. "I want to see those eyes."

    Unexpectedly, Princess Asire smiled kindly at him. They had not known each other before, so Kha really did not understand the message behind the smile. He simply nodded his acknowledgement of her and displayed his heavily tainted eyes slightly down to her. Asire's body went ridged for a moment before her senses came back and she pulled back the silk cover over her head to tumble around her shoulders. The Princess then carefully reached over and snatched Kha's jaws, tilting his head at different angles to gaze into his eyes. After a while she dropped her hands down, a look of satisfaction on her face.

   "Kha," she raised her head slightly. "What brings you to my Kingdom?"

   "It came to my attention that I had competition for the throne of Egypt," Kha nodded with a smirk. "Of course I should have known that you, Princess Asire, were behind this. I have no issues identifying someone as passionate as me, someone as determined."