Blessed Lands Egypt Chapter Twenty Nine
Blessed Lands Egypt
Author: J Carrell Jones
Table of Content
Chapter 29
Ferruk was furious. Pharaoh had stripped him of his titles, in front of everyone. He took away his servants and froze all his assets. He was under a cloud of suspicion and there was talk of criminal charges. He was under house arrest until a formal hearing was convened. And currently the Police Chief and Adjutant General rifled through his belongings. And to make matters worst, Pharaoh gave Ayruyi and her father to Honute. He had to make his own meals and draw his own bath. It was a very embarrassing and compromising position, luckily he could make phone calls.
The first call he made was to his lawyer, the second to a friend who owed him a favor. The third, which took some time, was routed to Pharaoh’s temple. An operator who had not heard the news connected him to Ayruyi. While he waited he drank the last of his alcohol. Pharaoh himself gave it to him. It was a fitting present. The drink came from the Cursed Lands. It was fermented with corn and it had a bite.
Ayruyi was soaking in a bathtub. Honute had given her and her father the “day” off. At first she hadn’t understood, but when Honute told her to get out and leave him alone she finally got the message. Her father had gotten the idea earlier. He kissed her on the forehead and said “The Gods have heard our prayers.” He disappeared into his hotel room. She remembered hearing room service knocking at his door. It was hard at first but after several hours she decided to take a bath and relax. Ten minutes into her bath the phone rang. She jumped out of the tub and dripped water in a beeline to the phone. Her thoughts were that Honute-Ra really did need her. She heard Ferruk’s voice and a chill shot up her spine. She froze.
He said, “Ayruyi, it’s me, Ferruk. Are you there?”
She remained silent, frozen, scared, and upset.
“Ayruyi? I am worried about you. I miss you?”
Then it finally hit her. She no longer belonged to Ferruk. Broken, weak, foolish, criminal Ferruk. Honute-Ra was her new master and her god. He cared about her and treated her like a person. “May Anubis drop you heart in the river Styx.” She said.
Ferruk was silent. He was shocked that Ayruyi would say such a thing. “But Ayruyi, I’ve never told you this before because I thought it would be inappropriate, but I love you.”
A moment passed.
Ferruk said, “Ayruyi, are you there? I need to hear your lovely voice.” A few more seconds ticked by, then he heard what sounded like laughter.
Ayruyi couldn’t help herself. She started out slowly and before she knew it became hysterical.
Ferruk felt the bottom of his world fall from under him. He slowly placed the receiver in its cradle. Ayruyi’s laugh haunted him for a full five minutes. Afterwards, he spat at the phone and cursed her lineage. “I should have given you away when I had the chance.” Then he yelled at the phone. “I hate you. You will pay, and pay, and pay. I swear it!”
Ayruyi hung the phone up feeling guilty. For a full five minutes she stood dripping wet staring at the phone. Then she smiled to herself, laughed softly, and walked back into the bathroom to enjoy her bath. She allowed herself the thought, ‘Ferruk the fool, Ferruk the clown, Ferruk the idiot, asshole, child.’ It all tumbled out in a dizzying wash of emotion. She ran back, soaking wet again, to the phone, picked it up and yelled. “Ferruk, the fucker! I hate you!” She hung the phone up. Then she went back to truly enjoy her bath for she knew who the real master was and who the real slave had been. Ferruk could never have her again.
The Oracle slowly moved across the room and sat heavily in one of two large upholstered chairs. A small table was nestled between them. A tea pot and two pewter cups sat next to it. "Young Priest Honute, thank you for coming. How are you feeling? Last night was quite a show, was it not?"
Honute stepped through the doorway and looked around. He walked to the Oracle and without asking poured tea into each cup. He looked puzzled, then quietly sat down.
The Oracle laughed sweetly, took a cup and sipped at it. She relaxed and folded herself deeply in the chair. "You don't recognize me, do you?”
Honute searched her face for something recognizable. “Only that you are the Royal Oracle. And that you had been assassinated.”
The Oracle laughed. “I am still here thank goodness. It was one of Ferruk’s bodyguards who told of the plot. I saw it through my bowl anyway, but decided to give the would-be assassin a chance. I saw good things coming from him. Now to answer that question. We met many years ago. You were but a boy, so young and frail. No one believed you would survive.”
Honute said, “Survive?”
The Oracle nodded.
“I was told that as a child I was sick and dying and that there was this . . .” He looked at the Oracle. “. . .woman who saved my life. It was you!”
The Oracle laughed again. She sipped at the tea and smiled broadly. “I love this chair. It is so comfortable.”
Honute nodded. He had noticed the chair being very soft. “How?”
The Oracle placed her steely eyes on Honute.
He stared back.
She nodded approvingly. “The conditioning has not left you meek. That is good.”
Honute frowned. “Meek? Conditioning?”
“When your father brought you to me I knew you had destiny. You had a rare disease called Neurendodegenerative phalagitis. One in five hundred million can get it. It is passed on from generation to generation. The last time it was seen was over 2400 years ago. A young boy by the name Tut had a form of it but it was misdiagnosed. We all know the story. He was murdered.”
Honute nodded. He knew who King Tut was. Who didn’t? But he shared a disease with him? That was different.
“He was never treated. Had he been, we would be worshiping one god.” The Oracle chuckled. She reflected as if she had been privy to a private joke. “I treated you when you came to me and here you stand alive and well.”
Honute nodded again. He looked at the Oracle and wondered how old she was. She looked ancient. “What did you do to me?”
She laughed. “Nothing.”
“Nothing.” Honute repeated.
She smiled. “Nothing.”
Honute frowned. “Seriously. You’re playing with me. You treated me, so it had to be something.”
She sipped at the tea and let the liquid languish on her tongue. “Nothing in the sense that I really didn’t treat you with medication or some such potent elixir that I let everyone believe. I gave you a neurotoxin.” She laughed hard.
Honute nearly dropped his cup. “You meant to kill me?”
“The disease is actually an indicator that something else is happening in your body. The disease is a result of your body trying to change on one level and your body fighting that change on that level. The nerve tissues begin to break down and the outer surface of your muscles and bone begin to deteriorate. Your joint endings in your hand had swelled and if not stopped you would have eventually literally poisoned your own body and gone into cardiac arrest. Very nasty way to die.”
Honute nodded.
“What I did was stop your body from fighting the change. The neurotoxin paralyzed you long enough to let the transformation happen.”
Honute stared. “Transformation? I don’t understand.”
“Honute,” she said, “you are special. Once in every several generations does something like this happen. Ra, Osiris, Isis, Thoth, Seth, and many before you have once been mortal. They all went through this.”
Honute put his cup down. “Thoth? Ra? Isis? Mortal? You are lying! How could you say such things? You are the Royal Oracle, a position of high regards and responsibilities. I can not believe what I am hearing. He dropped down to his knee and with clasped hands said, “Oh, Mighty Thoth, please forgive the Oracle, she must be old and of need of sleep.”
The Oracle laughed out loud. She sipped her tea and said. “Honute, young man, please sit back in your chair.”
Honute stopped praying and sat. He stared down at his feet and felt doom start to overcome him. What was he to do now? The Oracle told him his gods had once been mortal. But once he started thinking about it, it really didn’t make all that difference did it? Pharaoh is the flesh and blood embodiment of Ra and Osiris. He is mortal and will eventually die and he will be replaced.
The Oracle watched Honute’s face with interest. He was taking this a little better than she hoped for. Thoth had refused to listen to her for days. It was when she elicited the help of Ma'at did he understand. But back then he was uneducated and a bit stupid. Honute was different though he reminded her of him.
Honute looked up and saw the Oracle looking at him. Her eyes had changed to a lighter shade of brown and the pupils were huge. He quickly looked away.
“Honute, I see you have come to the realization that it doesn’t matter how one begins the journey, just how the journey ends.”
He kept his head down, but said, “But why are you telling me this?”
“You are going through some changes now, let them happen. I have foreseen your future and it is as it should be.”
“I still don’t understand?”
His humbled look reminded her of Osiris when she first told him. Seth was a problem. He relished the change and pushed the envelope too quickly. He went nearly mad with jealously and envy of Osiris. “Your journey has begun, Honute. You will never truly be alone. Remember that.” She put the cup down and started to get up.
Honute got up and quickly moved to her side to help.
She held his hand as she lifted herself up. “And such a gentleman you are. You are worthy to have the gift. Go now and talk to Akila. You two have much to discuss. Tell her everything, hold nothing back.” She stared him in the eyes.
Honute almost flinched, almost.
The Oracle smiled, “Hold nothing back, including your heart.”
Honute blushed.
The Oracle walked to one of the doors on the far side of the room and disappeared through the doorway.
Honute walked to the door he stepped through earlier. When he emerged into the hallway Akila was waiting for him. He smiled. “How’d you know to meet me here?”
“One of the Oracle’s assistance asked me to wait here. I just got here seconds ago,”
Honute stared at his feet. “We have to talk. I have some things to tell you.”
Akila nodded and walked along side of him.
After several minutes they ended up in an open park area. Honute lead Akila to a stone bench and both sat down. He looked her deep in the eyes and smiled. She smiled back. After a moment he said, “Akila, I love you with all my heart and wish for you to be by my side.”
Akila beamed and hugged Honute. She kissed him and whispered in his ears, “And I love you too my priest. I love you too.”