Grande Finale

14:

Seth Speaks

I couldn't explain the emotions that rushed through me at the very moment, having the man all of Egypt hated standing before me. I guess it was fear, for I knew that while all of Egypt hated him, he only hated me. I couldn't suppress the shudder that over took me.

Shiver. Shake.

"I thought… how…" Were the gods mocking me? How could this be? I didn't understand.

I started into the old face in a curious, horrified astonishment.

"Yes…" he hissed, a snake of a grin gliding over his taunt lips. The past couple of years had not been kind, I would later register, for I could see the thick lines of stress that weighed on his eyes and creased the once proud dimples. "Little did you know it would be me." Despite his distressed appearance, he seemed quite pleased with himself.

"But… why you?"

"Why not?" he threw back. "Why is it so hard to conceive that maybe one of your most trusted allies despised you? Is it so hard to admit that maybe not everyone loves you, not everyone is blinded by your falsity? I say so, for I feel nothing but burning hatred towards you, Haqikah."

My terror doubled when he withdrew a thin, slick blade from between his ratty rags. Even through its elder age it seemed to glow with an eerie malice. Its metallic song scratched on my ears like the screams of a hundred mourners.

"Now, shall I tell you another tale, or should I destroy you?" He flicked the blade between his fingers in deep thought. "Both seem so tempting, don't you think. But, as much as I want to see your red blood drip from this knife, I'm afraid I would feel no satisfaction unless you understood why it had to be your life on this blade and not your darling pharaoh's."

Bomani. I had completely forgotten that I was not alone in this palace of gods. I still had him, and with him was a fleet of soldiers and guards at my call. Why weren't they here now? Had something happened elsewhere?

"He won't be coming this time, Haqikah. He won't be here to breathe live into your lungs with his Horus powers, and he won't be here to pull you from the depths of that cool pond that nearly grasped your last breath, he won't be here to capture this assassin. Oh no." he seemed quite entertained with himself and laughed a great laugh.

What had happened to him? Why was he so confident that my savior wouldn't be saving me? What had happened in the mere moments I had left his side?

"Now, any good story starts from the beginning."

Thoughts of Bomani and his youngster in my belly swam through my head and I slumped against the wall, my eyes fixated on that winking blade.

"Oh, I remember the first day I met you, charming you were, so young and fresh and lively. Back then you still had your spirit and slave values," he paused to toss me another one of his grins, "you weren't as realistic as you are now." He was indicating my protruding stomach. My hand covered it protectively.

"No worries, my queen, I mean not to hurt the child in your stomach until you are no longer a threat to my future." He didn't give me time to comprehend this as he continued with his tale. "I hated you at first, though I never showed it, I thought you ignorant and dull, but I never thought you a threat… no, not until you teased that Prince Bomani. I (or you for that matter) would never have guessed that he would fall so thoroughly for you. That was my first mistake, young Haqikah, I underestimated you. When I heard that you would now be living with the royal family I was outraged and brought my protest directly to Akiiki, he turned it away with a laugh.

"Even he, a king of kings, had fallen for your little tricks. But oh, I never fell for it. I knew I had to get rid of you if I wanted to someday take the throne. I had to destroy you and that wretched little boy, Jabari, before you corrupted Bomani to the point where he would grow a mind!

"So I stirred the threatened hearts of people that once lived in villages along the Nile, villagers that wanted nothing more to take their revenge on the pharaoh for taking their land. I told them the weakness of the palace and marked the rooms where you and Jabari slumbered in." At my astonished look, he smirked, "Ah yes, that was me.

"They attacked, and just as they were about to get rid of you once and for all, you used your cursed priestess abilities to once again set yourself free. Not only that, but you saved that half-son that I had hoped to kill. You even managed to find a way back into the safety of your stupid Bomani. And there, you used your superb intellect to point the blinded men to victory against my army. For it was my army that I had spent many years collecting. I had spent my life dreaming of the moment I would be able to overrun Egypt once and for all, only to find it stopped by one woman."

He once again paused, taking a step closer and crouching down before me. "Have you ever seen snow, my queen? Have you ever felt the frozen tears of the gods in a land forsaken of hope? It's a beautiful thing."

He stood again and resumed his story. "You managed to get the upper hand in the battle, and my army was destroyed. Even my hired assassin, Sanura, couldn't pierce your shriveled heart with her straight aim. And even when I sent her to kill Pharaoh Akiiki, and as you watched him die on that bed, you still didn't give up hope. And it was to my loathing that I found that you had been adopted as Egypt's princess, and Bomani's bride-to-be.

"So enraged with Sanura I was that I chased her far into the desert, her and her four comrades with a small assortment of my remaining warriors. She held secrets you could never know. But then your men intercepted. Your men. They arrived and Sanura joined them in battling away my soldiers and even her own men, who had turned against her. And she won, her and that cursed priest-turned-warrior won, and she fled back to your outstretched hand.

"I was seething, I couldn't believe that your influence was growing so rapidly. I watched you for quite a while as you went on with your pleasantries, burrowing deeper and deeper into affairs that you had no business in. It didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that Jabari was now my only hope. I could easily corrupt a mind so young. All I needed was Bomani out of the way. But you overheard that conversation, didn't you. Aw, Shani was an easy pawn to persuade, tempting her with power I would never give her, supplying her with poison, with Neema.

Once more my expression gave away the surprise I felt and he laughed. "You didn't know that? Neema was another pawn of mine. Ordered to take Bomani's eyes and not let them stray. The ugly whore was never aware of it, mind, she followed too closely to her mother, who, as you have probably guessed, was under my thumb.

"Shani failed, an outcome I had been preparing myself for, it seemed as though you couldn't die, and once again you were able to weasel out of a death sentence. I was tricked for a little while, but when I saw Bomani sneak into the palace late one night, I knew I had been tricked. Soon you did too.

"Neema had obviously failed in claiming Bomani when the engagement was announced, and she moved back into her home with that patriot idiot and that pawn of a mother. This was my second mistake, ever thinking that Mukantagara was helpful. So angered with her daughter she was that she begged me for poison to kill her. Shani, at the time, pleaded with her, telling me in secret that Mukantagara's alliance and money would be needed greatly in the future. How wrong those monsters were. For you found that poison, and you located my little dwelling.

"I won't hide anymore, Haqikah, I'm not going to watch that Son of Seth grow in your belly any more. I will kill you, then soak my knife in the demon's blood."

My hand was digging into my robes in shock, real, numbing shock. That was all of it, Neema, Bomani, Jabari, Mukantagara, Akiiki, Sanura… they had all been pawns. But in the end, it was only myself and the man before me.

There was silence in the room. He was waiting for my response, for me to acknowledge his story. He had spent such a long time on it, had dreamt of my horrid reaction for so many years. But I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing he had succeeded.

I stood. I didn't stand with a mousy look upon my face, I stood with a firm smirk plastered on my lips, and he hated it. The blade sung with the need to remove it.

"I should have known, really, I should have guessed it was you. You were the only one that protested my marriage to Bomani; you were the only one that was unaccounted for during the war (while you had a very good excuse—"

"Oh, so you admired the way I faked my death then?" he said as one of his eyebrows arched in suggestive praise.

I shrugged passively, trying my hardest to conceal the real fear I felt. "It was well done, and I should have kept my eyes focused, else I wouldn't have missed it."

"Yes, that sand storm did kick the dirt into your eyes," he said with sadistic smile.

"The storm may of, but you never will," I said in a firm voice, "I will never fall to you."

The man's shoulders went tense. "And why is that?" he asked in a cautious voice.

I held out my hands. "You said it yourself, I can't die."

He was now shaking with badly hidden anger. "'Can't die?' Is that so?" The blade chorused a retort and shook with its owner.

My fingers touched the ring that circled my wedding hand as the other went to stroke the symbol growing in me. "Isn't that what Immortality is? Never dying?"

This seemed to break him, his sanity snapped and he charged forward with a large roar. "How dare you mock me!"

I tried to shy away from the cold metal, but found it even sharper against my neck. "You're right, after all, you are the one that made me. I should treat you with more respect."

The tip of the knife bit into my neck and I hissed. "Stop mocking me!" he barked.

I managed to open my eyes and looked deep into his. "But you did. Without you, I would have never had the opportunity to defeat that army and prove to Egypt I was intelligent. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to kill a murdering queen, which proved to Egypt that I was loyal. Without you, I wouldn't have had the reason to save a pharaoh, which proved to Egypt that I loved their people. Why, without you I wouldn't have been more than a mere priestess."

The knife was digging deeper into my throat as I spoke, and the man holding it growled in anger. "You vile wench!"

I was near tears as the blade continued to slice into my skin and drink my blood. I still managed to respond: "How can I be vile? I spent my whole life saving my people from vile. Yes, I may have grown from your hatred, but I'm only as good as you are evil," I gave him a coy grin, "and that makes me very good."

The knife was released completely and I drew a shaky breath. But his surprising strong arm wrapped around my wrist and dragged me to my feet. "I have a present for you."

I didn't bother struggling against his grip, there didn't seem to be any use, as there was nowhere to go. Bomani was gone. It was only he and I.

He pulled me harshly into the gardens and I still continued to be passive. I wouldn't let him know that I was scared of his touch, and of his icy blade, which sent shivers down my back.

The garden seemed to stretch on forever into the darkness. The stars were bright and the moon was full. It was such a picturesque night. I was missing it.

It was nearly ten minutes later that he pulled me to a stop in front of a row of hedges. "I was deeply offended that you didn't accept, nor like, my wedding gift to the two of you," he confessed as he turned me around so I was now face to face with the hedge.

"It was nothing we wished to keep." I tired to respond calmly. I looked carefully at the hedge, something about it didn't seem quite right. The night was thick and the sky dark, I could barely make out the plant, even when it stood a foot in front of me.

"Is that so, well, I think I'm going to make you want to keep it." He then shoved my forward and I braced myself to fall into the plant. When I stumbled forward and finally managed to secure a footing, I found that I had not run into any plant what so ever. I opened my eyes and looked around to find that I had been tricked by an illusion, all of the palace guards had been tricked by an illusion. There was a passageway hidden by the cameflouge hedge, and I had just been pushed into it.

He followed me in, grabbing my arm and leading me off to the right of the passage. We followed it for another few moments until it led us to a beautiful, moon-struck clearing. This blue-cast area was a shockingly inspirational and tranquil, but its beauty wasn't what made me awe struck.

The large casket that had once been our wedding present was standing upright in the center, the door swung open so I could make out the mold. Fastened to the inside of the door was a bed of sharp needles, the width of my finger and as long as my hand.

"You never did try it out."

My worst fear came true as he tossed me into the casket. The mold inside was made for godly man, I still had much room to move around and shield my stomach from the needles as the door came swinging shut. However, the width of the casket was not great enough to keep the needles from penetrating my back. I moaned and whimpered simultaneously. I pressed my whole body up against the back of the crate, in hopes of escaping the stabbing pain.

I heard him speaking from the outside and strained, despite the pain, to hear what he was telling me. "Seth locked Osiris in a crate, that you know. But then Seth sealed up the crate and poured molten lead into it. The guests had to watch in horror as their host was roasted alive, but no one dared fight against the mighty Seth. It was said that Osiris's screams of agony were heard all over Egypt. Well, queen, now I want to hear yours. Scream, scream."

I wouldn't.

From above, I heard a small trickling and, bending my head in the most awkward position, I looked. There, among all the darkness was a tiny whole, and pouring down the hole was a stream of steaming lead. It splashed against the needles and dripped down them like a bared waterfall. It splashed up against my back numerous times and again I moaned, but I didn't scream. I could smell my skin burning and it was beginning to pool at my feet. I found footings in the mold and tried to lift myself further in the crate. I couldn't tip it, tipping it would have me lying in it.

It was getting closer and closer, and the bottoms of my feet were burning. I could smell it, it was a sickening scent.

Then I heard it, the solo word that made and broke my world. "STOP!"

It was Bomani. He had found me. Don't ask me how, but he had found me. The fountain of lead ceased. I struggled to hold myself above the pool, hoping that help would be quick. But from the sound of it, Bomani wasn't there because of me.

"Who are you?" he was asking the man.

Bomani of all people should of known who he was. Had the man hid his face?

"Your enemy," was the only reply.

"You are the owner of that casket." Did he not know I was in here? Did he not know that I was holding his child above its death? If only I lost my will power?

"And you," the man was saying, "must have received my message."

I wanted to scream for him. I wanted him to help me. But another part of me wanted him to leave, while I cared for him very much, I needed to do this. Bomani was just a pawn, I was the queen. I was the significant piece among all other pieces. It was my job to get rid of the opposing pieces.

I let my hand run along the edge of the door, ignoring the penetrating feeling the needles caused me. There had to be a way to get out of here. There had to be a way.

I was stunned into silence as a voice rang in my head. You aren't this weak, it told me.

My mind hollered in surprise.

This coffin was never meant for the family of Seth.

I felt it then, a surge of unexplainable power running through my whole body. It pounded in my head and throbbed in my muscles, it raced in my blood and sang in my heart.

"Who… who are you." I murmured in a weak confusion.

Why, I am your father, your patron god. I'm what you have been ashamed of for so long.

"Why—" I was interrupted as another wave of strength as it flooded me. "Why are you helping me?" I asked in another whisper.

Because you aren't ashamed now, are you?

"I'm proud of who I am."

I am you.

My whole body quaked as the third and final wave of power washed over me. I rattled the box in suppressed strength and finally a scream vibrated from my lungs.

"Finally!" the man from the outside shouted.

"What is going on?" Bomani was shouting as I heard him race forward.

But it was too late. I had been a priestess to Egypt, a princess to Egypt, and a queen to Egypt. But I was their fellow and savior first, and I wouldn't see it fall into the hands of such a black-hearted man. The crate's door came swinging outward instantly. I don't know how, for neither the man nor Bomani were close to the door. But it went flying from its hinges and the lead it had held in place came gushing out and into the cool grass.

"Haqikah!" Bomani shouted in surprise as I emerged from the crate slowly, blood finally ran freely from my open wounds, blisters were bubbling, and I was panting with exhaustion.

"You will never die, will you?" the man asked, when I regained enough strength to look at him, I instantly noticed the black mask he wore over his face.

"Why do you hide, Vizier? Do you fear discovery?"

Bomani drew his saber and was swinging it before the man. "What were you doing to my queen?" he bellowed, between anger and insanity.

I stared at his beautiful saber, then at the small dagger the man held. I wouldn't let Bomani kill him, nor the other way around. I stared at that little dagger and felt the heat in my heart rising. I couldn't stand to look at it. It was all my life revolved around, war and destruction. Without that, I would be nothing but a little priestess, if that. Maybe I was a vile wench, maybe feeding off such vile practices like war made me vile. The anger was beginning to boil in me.

"Guaaaah!" The man suddenly screamed, the blade falling from his hand to fall on the grass with a gentle thud. It was glowing red with heat.

Soon, the echo of Bomani's weapon caught me ear, as it also fell to the earth, burning red.

"No weapons," I said flatly.

The man was shaking with either surprise or fear, I didn't know which, and I couldn't have cared less. I approached him slowly, raising my hands towards him in a welcoming way. He seemed to watch in horror, but his terror had nailed him to the spot. For though his mind screamed for him to attack, he could do nothing but stand, holding his burnt hand.

My two hands wrapped around the mask and I slowly pulled it from his head, revealing his wide eyes and white lips.

"You!" Bomani said in detest. "How!" he may of very well hit insanity.

I placed my hands on the man's cheeks. Stroking them softly.

"Such a hard life it is, watching someone come out of a poverty filled house and take over the palace. How the anger must of built up. But you are a fool," I said fondly. "You could never rule. You could never have Egypt."

He was shaking all over; I could feel it under my hands. "Stop."

Because of him I had been forced to live in constant fear, the death of my friends and comrades, of a pharaoh and of many men of Egypt. I've had to watch assassins cut down my best friend and fear that everyday my husband wouldn't be coming home to me. That maybe the poison had snuck in, and he had consumed it.

"The dead can never rule Egypt."

His face paled right before I broke his neck. The feel of the snap and the feel of his limp body falling at my feet overpowered me. The power it had taken to end his life was the power I would never use again. I had avenged my patron father, at such a great cost.

The dead man didn't bleed.

He laid there, his eyes staring up at that beautiful sky, a sky that shouldn't have been tainted with his gaze. His mouth parted and his tongue sticking out slightly. Could he coax the gods into believe his innocence with that forked tongue?

"No!" Bomani hollered as he seemed to awake from his mad silence. He grabbed his cooled blade and rushed before the body. He rolled it over and rammed the saber into the body. He withdrew it and did it again, then again, and then a fourth time. He wept in loathing and wiped his hands in the blood.

I watched in a bloody silence as Bomani took the man's knife and cut out that wretched tongue. He held it in his hand. Then he was silent. It was said that at that moment he had found complete peace with himself, that a voice had come to him and had calmed his soul. Though, you can never trust rumors.

And me, well I had finished with the last of my childhood. All that was left was to start all over again. I stroked my stomach.

I would only hear that voice in my dreams.

But dreams are only dreams.

This is reality.

It's amazing how life can settle back down so suddenly. Oh yes, that body was but on display and then destroyed, and oh did the people rejoice. But, in the long run, it didn't really matter what the people thought.

I sit on our couch, staring out into the gardens and watching the birds as they leapt into the cool ponds to escape from the spring heat. This was my reality.

Oh yes, I do have nightmares. I still feel the man's body slipping from my bloody hands. But those are only nightmare, and I wake up every morning to this peace and I know that it was for a good cause. It was just.

"What happened next mother?"

My glassy eyes focused on the bright face of my son, now five years in age. A beautiful boy with his father's strong features and my deep wisdom, he got the best of both of his parents. He was lucky. "What was that?"

"You were at the part where you got rid of the bad man."

"Oh yes," I sighed as I leaned back in remembrance. "The people did cheer after that day, and your father and I were there after considered the greatest rulers of all Egypt. Everything fell back to normality. It was said that your father started the new age."

My little boy came and sat at my knee. "Is that all?"

I have him an incredulous look. "'Is that all"! I do declare, I thought my life was exciting!"

"Yes," he drawled, "But when Uncle Jabari tells the tale he makes it sound so grand."

"Of course, one at his age does tend to have an overactive imagination," I said in a scornful, yet playful, voice.

Khalid stood happily and stretched. He was about to run into the garden when he turned to ask me one last question. "If my mother is Seth and my father is Horus, what am I?"

I stared in silence for a few seconds before laughing. I pulled him in and wrapped him in a hug. I rubbed his sandy hair and cradled his firm shoulders. "That makes you mine. All mine."

When he pulled away he was making a face, but we both shared a laugh before he ran into the gardens.

I sighed and let my eyes wander back into the gardens. Oh, how things were nice.

"Where do we go from here?" Bomani asked as he emerged from the adjourning room, he had obviously been eavesdropping on my conversation with Khalid. "What's the ending of your little tale?" He sat next to me on the couch and together we stared out on the little playing birds.

"Well, I was once told that any story starts at the beginning," I began. "I guess a good story stops at the ending."

"What is that?"

"'And they lived their rest of their days happily ever after.'"

Bomani sighed in contentment and slouched further into the couch. He seemed very tired. "That is a perfect ending."

"No, it's not," I corrected critically.

His eyes flung back open and stared at me in horror. "What else could you possibly need in a story?"

One of my hands fell to my stomach. "A little girl?"

Bomani allowed an exasperated sigh to escape. "That's all?"

"Yes."

Then I will have the perfect ending.

That's it. Over a year of pain and writer's block as finally come to its conclusion. If you would please review for this, especially this chapter, it would mean a lot to me. I might be doing another drawing for this happy day.

If you have any questions, ask them in a review and I will answer them in a special "Author's notes" Questions may concern any topic, such as characters, historical information, or what's to become of this story.

Thank you for reading; it has been an adventure for me this past year.

Love,

Apples

P.s. Happy Holidays