Chapter 2

THE TIME: 2011 B.C. THE PLACE: The Valley of the Pharaohs (A Royal Sister Betrayed)

The shadows created by the revered Sun God RA marched across the desert floor east of the largest of the pyramids at the sacred site of Hawara.

The young girl in the flowing white gown of a royal virgin sat petulantly on the granite plug intended for the newest resting place for the royal Egyptian elite. She did not know what day it was. She did not even know what year it was. Her calendar was her emotional ebb and flow that coincided to the lunar cycle. For some strange reason, she was put off by the blind obedience to the divine Crocodile God of her family and was drawn to the comfort of mother Moon and her ever changing face in the heavens above.

The setting sun made the "Black" pyramid of the King appear even more mysterious and impressive as night approached rapidly. The attractive dark skinned girl was Neferuptah, daughter of a King and anointed to be ruler of the Kingdom by virtue of lack of a male heir and her position as the senior female offspring. The granite plug was waiting patiently to be placed atop her final resting place here only a short distance from her father's more elaborate eternal abode.

Neferuptah was not in a good mood. She felt slighted at the abbreviated design of the tomb intended for her final resting place. It just would not do. She felt that she should be accommodated in a separate room in the main pyramid right next to her father. After all, she would be a ruler regardless of her sex and deserved equal treatment and reverence from the inferior masses. The bias against females was just too irritating to even contemplate. The Queen to be felt she should be exempt from this ages old gender bias that would rob her of her deserved resting place.

Her female slave-girl attendants, Lila and Zeruba, fanned her and shaded her from the setting sun to keep her skin tone as light as possible. The lighter skin tone was seen as more pleasing to the Gods and a sure sign of royal upbringing. She could see Lila was starting to get a little fat around the middle. Neferuptah hoped it was from eating a little too enthusiastically at the well provided food table rather than a dreaded unauthorized pregnancy in the royal household.

The not-yet Queen looked in pity at the pretty slave-girl. The penalty for being with child in the service of royal family was quite harsh. The eunuchs took sadistic pleasure in squeezing the life out of transgressing slaves and casting their lifeless bodies to the hungry dogs outside the palace walls.

She was hoping to take both these girls with her to her tomb to rest beside her in sweet repose. She knew they would take the fatal glass just to be honored in such a manner.

Her younger sister, Neferusobek, was stirring up trouble again.

She called her "Sobbie" and enjoyed making her life a hell whenever she could. Her younger sister was infamous for creating dramas that often resulted in the punishment of the female slaves of the household. Often, the poor girls would be strangled right in front of the family so they could see the life drain from their hopeless bodies. Sobbie was always excited at one of these punishments and stayed charged up for several hours after it was all over. Ptah or "Fatah" was sad for the slave-girls. She knew they had a rough life although not as rough as the slaves outside the royal household.

Sobbie was a creature of hidden desires and very complex thought processes. She was so secretive that Fatah rarely knew what she was plotting next.

When Lila came to her bed and whispered in her ear, Fatah was confused and reluctant to believe the treachery of her own sister.

"Mistress, your sister, the crocodile goddess in human form, has poisoned your step-brother and is even now plotting with the Lord Regent to assume the dead King's duties as ruler supreme. She also intends to ready you for your interment at the new tomb of royal blood in Harawa."