The Solar Princess

You that I served.

With the help of Dr. Charles Raymond and a few of his direct contacts, he was able to spin the story into one of a Greek woman who had been kidnapped and held prisoner by wicked men, wrapped into rags and placed in the tomb to hide her while delirious from narcotic drugs. He convinced the local villagers and the archaeology team who had seen her not to say anything more on the matter as the police needed to conclude their investigations into the men who committed such a heinous crime.

The locals and archaeologists didn't want to draw too much attention from the criminals on the loose, so their fear helped them to remain quiet. Rumors circulated, yet nothing official made it to the newspapers.

Farouk chuckled as the doctor in charge of his care recounted the local fears. Charles was certainly a charismatic man when he turned on the charm. Gaining friends and loyalties easily. The doctor and police chief, only a few of those enamored with the man.

The doctor's eyes flickered up to Arsinoe where she huddled on a bed next to Farouk.

Once the story had been set and the doctor could see that she was calm around Farouk, he played along with the idea that she had overcome the mental anguish of the reported drugs as well as the sickness that was commonly associated with such circumstances.

The straight jacket had been removed and Arsinoe was given a chance to bathe. Her golden hair fell in reconditioned curls and her eyes never left Farouk, except while the doctor was there.

*****

She watched everything that happened in that room, around her. The new world was so foreign, so overwhelming.

Arsinoe still couldn't see the remnants of her lover in the man that lay before her. He was younger, darker, his eyes no longer held the flecks of green. Impressively, he was taller, much taller than she was. And his physique was just as defined as the man she knew intimately. However, everything was different.

Though his knowledge, his mind knew too many details. He reminded her of how they met, the way she had stolen his heart. He spoke of the battle in Rafia, facing Antiochus after hearing her words. The new man looked at her with the same love in his eyes as Ankhmakis had as he remembered how passionate she was.

"I had joined the military service because of the life it gave me. I had been born a nobleman's son. My oldest brother gained control of our families lands when our father died. My second brother was a priest to the temple of Osiris. I had no real future for myself. All that I was good at was fighting skill. So, that was what I did." Farouk had told her.

Arsinoe had known that much about Ankhmakis, yet it sounded so strange to hear those words fall from Farouk's lips. His friend sat quietly beside them and listened. The only other person she had learned to speak with. Charles seemed like a good man, yet the openness of everything made her nervous. They spoke of things that could get her killed in the palace.

Farouk had cupped her face as he continued. "I had never intended to fight for the Greek Pharaoh, your brother. I loved my people, and my land. I wished to see them free of foreign abuses. However, when Antiochus challenged Ptolemy, I followed orders. For no other reason than to stop yet another foreign power from taking claim of my home, stealing our wealth and resources."

His thumb grazed over her cheek, the way that Ankhmakis had so many times before. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine that she was truly in his arms again.

"It was you who held me captive. You who gave me passion in the heat of battle. The Greek queen who loved my home as much as I. The Greek queen who willingly took up arms to fight to protect her people with a fierceness of unity. Not claiming superiority or authority, but oneness with the people she ruled. Born on our lands, raised in two cultures. You showed more loyalty to Egypt and our people than any Greek Pharaoh before you. It was you that I followed. You that I served. You that I was willing to give my heart and my life to."

How could such words tumble from someone she had never seen before? Such passion and intimacy?

He confused her.

Half of her wanted to crawl back into the bed next to his injured body. Unwilling to be more than a few feet from him at all times. He provided the only source of understanding and comfort in the insanity of her situation. The other half wanted to flee in fear. Could it all be a ruse, a hoax meant to entrap her? To betray her lover? She could not put such games past Sosibius, his intrigues were deceptive.

To complicate matters, the physicians who tended to Farouk were blatantly appalled by her need to be near him. Charles had told her that modern customs were more modest than she was accustomed to. It didn't make sense. She was a queen. She never left the palace without her layers of silken wraps. Never touched men, other than her family or Ankhmakis. How could they be more modest?

She leaned back and closed her eyes as the physician cleaned the burns across Farouk's skin and re-bandaged his injuries, yet again. She hated to watch that process. The memories of the fire that nearly took her life when her brother died. Memories of burning in the village as the fire engulfed them both. Of the searing pain as her body healed from its centuries of death and injuries. The bandaging that reminded her of the wraps that she woke to find herself in, knowing that she had been mummified like the Pharaohs of old.

Still, she couldn't leave his side.

She would not watch, yet something held her there. Deep in her heart, she accepted what her mind could not. Farouk was her life. By the magic of the gods, she knew that she was meant to be with him.

Once the physician left, she looked at him again. "Will you tell me now?" Farouk looked up at her. "Tell me how this came to be? That I am here and whole, while you are different, injured, not healing like me, in this time..."

He took a deep breath. "I don't know everything that was done. I was not a priest. I don't know the magics used. My brother was the one who helped you, he was the one charged with our burial when I died." A small smile lifted his lips. "I read that we were buried as though we were in an embrace. Like we were asleep together."

Her eyes dropped. "I never looked. I couldn't see until I was out of the sarcophagus and ran in fear when I could."

He shook his head. "It no longer matters."

Charles entered the room as they talked. "Please don't stop there boy, I would like to know how this was accomplished as well." Arsinoe frowned at him. "My apologies, I forget to speak in Greek from time to time. I was persuading him to finish telling the story."

She nodded her head in agreement.