Chapter 12

Sulihotep listened to Li Na relate what she had observed inside the palace. When she finished her story, he walked her back over some points. He was especially interested in the drumming she heard and the sweet flower odor she smelled. Satisfied he’d heard it all, the Amunaten spoke.

“The drums and incense are from a Kush religious ritual practice by a small tribe very far up the Nile. The particular rhythm of the drums lulls your senses. The smell is from the bloom of a rare orchid. According to their Shamen the flower’s odor allows you to see visions. Clearly Inumut is using the ritual to cloud people’s judgement.”

Li Na nodded, that confirmed what she saw, and that reminded her of something she forgot to mention.

“I also noticed that the Hêtshepsu and his wife were wearing crimson robes. Does that mean something?” she asked.

It was the Amunaten’s turn to nod.

“Red robes are worn by the Priests of Seth. Seth is an old and powerful God still worshiped by the Kush. He is the brother of Isis and Osiris and is the God of chaos, violence, and deceit. Amun-Ra stripped Seth of most his powers centuries ago.”

The ancient priest rubbed his chin in thought.

“Seth was one of the gods who gave pharaohs their power and authority. Some kings used Seth as part of their name to demonstrate their dominance and frightening power. Then Seth killed his brother Osiris. Seth was eventually defeated by Horus and the deceiver’s power was greatly reduced.

“Inumut must have found a way to restore at least some of Seth’s power, that’s why a temple for Seth suddenly appeared on the Avenue of Sphinx! If Seth is his benefactor, Inumut will be powerful in controlling other people, especially combined with the Kush Shaman magic he is using.”

Sulihotep, Alarec and Li Na worked out a plan to rescue Ruth, Kopi and the Royal Family from Inumut and Bintanath. The first step was to send a couple of priests to the Luxor Funerary Temple for an amphora of aromatic cedar pitch and a few rolls of linen mummy wrap.

Li directed a few of the priests in making aromatic cedar face masks while Alarec led four of his best warriors over the wall to subdue the roving guards and the guards at the gate. At the same time, Sulihotep took a dozen warriors to the guardhouse barracks and quietly secured the doors from the outside. He left the warriors there and returned to the front gate. The wicket was standing open when he arrived and an anxious Alarec and Li Na were waiting just inside with twenty masked warrior priests.

“When we breach the main entry door have your priests search the building and bring anyone they find outside. Do not allow them to enter the throne room. Keep them in teams of four. If any show the effect of Inumut’s influence the entire group leaves,” Sulihotep directed.

Alarec nodded as he struggled to hold his temper in check.

“If he has harmed my wives in any way, his death will be horrible,” the big man said through gritted teeth.

Li Na nodded her agreement as she checked that her quiver was full of arrows.

“It will take him days to die,” she promised.

The priests of Amun Ra silently entered the seemingly deserted palace. At the hallway junctions after the ornate entry foyer, Alarec dispatched a team in each direction of the intersection as the persistent drum beat throbbed in the air.

“Travel in pairs and round up anyone you stumble across. Be careful and return here at the slightest whiff of Jasmine,” Sulihotep instructed.

As soon the priests disappeared down the hallways the Amunaten turned to Li Na.

“Take two priests and silence those drums”, he ordered.

Li Na nodded, pointed to two female priests armed with bows and the three jogged off in the direction indicated by Sulihotep.

Sulihotep, Alarec and the four remaining priests headed towards the cavernous throne room.

As Alarec and Sulihotep eased towards the throne room, Li Na and her archers were swiftly moving through the palace halls toward the sound of the rhythmic drumming. They turned the corner and saw three Leopard skin draped Kush Shamen pounding on Zebra skin covered drums. The Shamen were oblivious as the archers skidded to a stop and drew back already nocked arrows. Li Na held up her hand.

“Just scare them off, they are unarmed,” she cautioned.

Then she fired her arrow into the drum of the center Shamen. The drummers looked up just as two more arrows thudded into their drums. As one the drummers jumped to their feet and bolted from the alcove. Li Na sent another volley of arrows over the fleeing men’s head as an added incentive to keep them moving.

Li Na watched the drummers for a few seconds as they ran before turning her attention to the braziers emitting the seductively fragment smoke. She nocked an arrow and turned to her companions.

“Be ready to protect Lord Amunaten,” she said.

The drumming stopped just as Sulihotep, Alarec and the four warrior priests reached the entrance to the Throne Room. Sulihotep stopped the party with a hand signal and he and Alarec crept forward to peer into to room.

The space was more of a tropical glade than an actual room. It was easily a hundred feet deep and probably seventy-five feet wide. There were three arched entrances, the largest was the grand entrance where visitors arrived for audiences with the Pharaoh. Opposite the Grand Entrance was a smaller archway in front of the alcove in which the drummers had been playing. Hallways radiated out from the alcove leading to the kitchens, servant quarters and the rear entrance to the palace. The last archway was centered on the wall, to the right of the dais and left of the grand entrance. That archway was smaller and led to the seraglio and the quarters of the Pharaoh.

Like the temple of Sobek it was open to the sky. Instead of a pond full of crocodiles, Ramses throne room had burbling fountains, colorful mosaic floors and golden statuary. This night it was also decorated with the beautiful naked wives and concubines of Rameses the Great, a half dozen of Inumut’s Officers and two bewitched Warrior Priestesses of Amun Ra.

It took the revelers a few seconds to realize that the pulsating drums had been silenced. Because he was not in a trance like his enthralled captives, the Hêtshepsu was the first to notice the silence. He spun around on the lion skin draped throne he was usurping just as Li Na fired an arrow at the aromatic brazier closest to her. He pushed the young princess from between his legs and leaped to his feet.

As soon as the power-hungry Vizier turned away Alarec motioned the other priest forward.

“I will protect the Amunaten. You four gather up Inumut’s men and get the women out of the room, be quick and be quiet,” he whispered urgently.

The priests nodded and crept into the room just as Inumut pointed at Li Na and her archer priestesses. Suddenly, Li Na’s limbs were paralyzed, and she felt as if her body was on fire. Inumut smiled cruelly as the archers cried out in pain and fell to the floor.

“I am under the protection of the Mighty Seth,” shouted Inumut, and his voice carried loudly through the room. “Yet you dare to try to harm me.”

Inumut raised his hand and curled his fingers.

“Do you feel my fingers squeezing your throat Whore of Ra?” he asked Li Na.

And she could ... she rose to her knees and scrabbled at her throat with her hands, vainly attempting to loosen fingers that weren’t there.

That was the moment the Servants of the Cult of Amun Ra quietly stepped through the highly decorated grand entrance. When Sulihotep’s party were within a dozen steps of the dais the Amunaten rapped his iron tipped staff on the floor. The staff struck the marble floor with a loud thunder clap that drew the revelers eyes away from Inumut.

“Let her go Inumut,” Sulihotep said. His voice was soft and calm, yet it brimmed with authority, and, like the Hêtshepsu’s, it boomed throughout the room.

Inumut spun around and faced the interloper who dared give him orders. His attention no longer on Li Na, she slumped to the ground clutching her throat. When the Hêtshepsu saw the voice belonged to Sulihotep, his face purpled with rage.

“So, bumbling priest of a worthless god, you once again intrude in my business,” Inumut snarled.

Then Inumut paused and cocked his said to the side as if he was listening to some unseen person. He nodded and returned his gaze to the Amunaten and said, “Yet your appearance here is fortuitous old man, because now I can forever rid myself of you and your burrowing vermin’s petty and annoying presence.”

And then Inumut, Rameses’ Grand Vizier, began to change. He started to grow bigger, and his face stretched into a long, fearsome wolf’s muzzle. Ears stood up on top of his head, long like a donkey’s but flat across there tops. When he stopped growing, Inumut stood before them as Seth, the twelve-foot-tall God of Chaos. Seth had a wicked looking double headed spear in his right hand, a huge khopesh hung from his jeweled girdle and a heavily decorated metal usekh covered his upper chest. Seth was awe inspiring in his monstrous beauty.

While Inumut was changing, his wife, the Princess Bintanath, dropped to her hands and knees. Her body trembled and convulsed, and wings sprouted from between her shoulder blades. Her face seemed to melt as her mouth and nose became a beak and her face transformed to that of an eagle. Her arms became the bird’s legs and her hands its talons. From the waist down her body changed to that of a large lion complete with an angrily swishing tufted tail. When her change was complete, a five-foot tall, seven foot long heavily muscled Griffin, a beast of destruction and war, stood menacingly at Seth’s side.

Alarec, the large and fierce Northman, swallowed his fear and stepped in front of the Amunaten, his shield up and his battle axe at the ready. He was prepared to die defending the High Priest of Amun-Ra.

Sulihotep put his hand on Alarec’s arm and said, “Stand easy my son. Skill and weapons are of no use against Seth’s enchantments. This is a task only I am equipped to accomplish.”

Alarec nodded and reluctantly edged away, still ready to defend the High Priest. Alarec did his best to ignore the wolfish giant that Sulihotep faced so serenely. Instead, he split his attention between the Griffin and scanning the crowd for Ruth and Kopi. He quickly spotted his youngest wife; she was on the left side of the dais where Bintanath had shoved Kopi and her mother. Then he saw Ruth handing Kopi a piece of clothing. His heart caught in his throat in fear for his wives when they drew the attention of the Griffin.

Alarec took a step forward and clanged his battle axe on his copper covered shield.

“I see you, Bintanath, hag wife of Inumut,” he yelled at the Griffin.

Ruth had regained control of her faculties when the drumming stopped. She had shaken herself loose from the tender clutches of Princess Meritamen and quickly took in her surroundings. She immediately saw Li Na on the floor, Alarec standing beside the Amunaten and Kopi just now groggily sitting up on the edge of the dais. She started to crawl toward where Kopi sat.

Kopi was staring at her mother, a look of bewilderment on her face. Her mother, Queen Nefatari, lay beside her daughter. The Queen much slower to regain her senses because she had been enthralled longer. When Ruth reached the dais, she called Kopi’s name softly. Kopi gave Ruth a confused look when she realized they were all naked.

“My clothes,” Kopi squeaked.

The squeak reached the ears of the Griffin and it started turning its head. That was the moment Alarec banged his axe on his shield and taunted Bintanath the now Griffin. She turned her baleful yellow eyes back to the Priests of Ra and made her displeasure known.

Ruth shushed Kopi, handed her the tunic the princess had earlier discarded on the floor, and whispered, “Pull the Queen off the back of the dais while Inumut and Bintanath are distracted and go to Li Na, she looks as if she could use your help.”

Kopi nodded, slipped into her tunic, scrambled off the dais, and dragging her unresisting mother behind her, hurried to where Li Na lay. Kopi dropped down to her knees beside her exotic wife.