The Gates of Amduat

Our king and queen called the green clad diplomats before them, asking what had happened to the delegation. The diplomats feigned ignorance, saying the route from the Door to their lord’s realm was dangerous. A powerful bandit-king, a fanatical renegade against their lord, laid claim to some the lands the delegation must travel through. It was possible he was the reason the king’s men never returned, for the bandit-king had sworn to slay anyone who were friends of their lord.

This outraged our king, and he summoned unto him the commanders of their armies. He ordered them to mobilize the armies and prepare to march through the Door. Our queen counseled caution. Under her advice, our king planned with his generals, and they sent a unit of fifty soldiers and another ambassador through the Door.

A week later, only one of the soldiers returned. His dying words were that he brought a message from the bandit king. His death-slackened hands lost hold of his burden, and out of the bloodstained bundle he carried rolled the severed head of the ambassador.

–

Mery stirred, her feet shifting the sand that had drifted into the tiny cave where she’d hidden herself from the sun. She started to sit up, but stopped when she felt something crawling on her arm. What is it? She fought the urge to move, to try and shake the creature out from under the sleeve of her tunara. Mery closed her eyes and took a calming breath. Creature of the shifting sands, return to your home. This traveler walks in peace and harmony.

A heartbeat passed, then two. Mery felt the creature stop. It turned around and it’s legs prickled down her skin as it meandered down her arm and emerged from under her sleeve. Dear Goddess, it’s scortalon. The light of the setting sun bathed the insect’s purple-hued carapace as it skittered along the wall across the cave floor.

It came to a sudden stop and remained motionless, it’s long, wicked stinger held high over its head. A moment later, a small sandmouse scampered out from its tiny hole. The mouse carried a seed of some kind from its burrow and now munched on it.

As Mery watched, the scortalon crept slowly towards the sandmouse, moving just one leg at a time. All the while, the mouse continued to eat, unaware of its impending danger. When the insect was less than an inch away, it struck. Its stinger pierced the side of the mouse once, and then again. The mouse let out a little shriek and tried to run, but it was too late.

It managed to scramble a few steps before it fell to the ground, paralyzed. Mery could see the terror in its eyes, and she looked away. Just like Tenef’s eyes. You passed through the Gate fifteen years ago, and I still miss you. She caught the tears rolling down her cheeks and licked them off her fingers. Forgive me, my friend, but I cannot afford tears this day.

She looked back at where the mouse had fallen, and saw the scortalon was dragging it towards the mouse’s burrow. Mery waited and watched, and the moment the scortalon disappeared from sight, she gathered up her meager belongings and slipped out of the cave.

The sky was streaked with gold, crimson and orange that faded into the deep, dark of night. The brightest of stars twinkled like little diamonds set in Mershema’s shawl. Mery looked up, her eyes seeking out the familiar constellations above. The Myran, guardian of the desert. Beneath your right paw is the Eye of Rahest. It will guide me to the oasis. With Basret’s blessing, I will reach it by morning. She drew her veil across her face, adjusted her bundle, and set out across the desert.

—-

The sun was a hand over the horizon when Mery finally spotted it. The oasis, thank Basret. Soon I’ll be in the shade, and refilling my empty waterskin. But what do I tell them if they ask why I arrive on foot? Despite her worries, and her aching back and legs, her pace quickened.

She spotted a rider leaving the oasis, heading in her direction. Who is that? Did they see me? They have never sent out riders to meet someone approaching the oasis before. Mery continued to walk towards the mass of green in the midst of the sand. When the rider got closer, she realized it was Nadim, and she lowered her veil.

“Sujah Meryetnebi! The gods are surely smiling on us today.” He pulled up his horse and came to a stop next to her. “Please, take my place, and come with me to the camp.” The man slid out of the saddle and onto the sand.

“Thank you,” Mery said, sighing in relief. She handed Nadim her bundle, and mounted the horse.

He tied the bundle to the saddle, and too the reins of the horse. He started to run towards the oasis, leading the horse behind him.

Their arrival in the camp started a flurry of activity such as she’d never seen before. Alim, Nadim’s father and leader of the nomads, rushed to her side and helped her down off the horse. “Welcome, welcome,” he said, and escorted Mery to his tent. One of his wives offered her a cup of water and fresh fruit, but Meryetnebi could sense an underlying anxiousness.

She accepted the cup and drained it slowly. “Thank you,” she said, bowing her head and gesturing her thanks. “Many blessings upon you and your family,” Meryetnebi said, and then looked at Alim. “Are you in need of my help?”

The man nodded vigorously. “Two of the children were playing and they fell from the wall.” He pointed at the ruins of the only permanent building at the oasis, a large, low building made of mud bricks. “We don’t know when it happened, but they were found a few hours ago. One is unconscious; the other drifts in and out, and mutters words we cannot understand.”

Mery set the cup down and stood. “Take me to them.”

Alim led her to a tent on the other side of the camp, stopping only to retrieve her belongings from Nadim. There was a woman walking out of it, and when she saw Mery, she raced over and flung herself at Mery’s feet.

“Please, Sujah, save my children,” the woman sobbed. “I’ll do anything. Pay anything.” It took a moment for Mery to recognize the woman.

“Adarah,” Mery said, taking the woman’s hands and urging her to her feet. “I am here and I will do what I can.” Mery walked past Adarah and into the tent. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw two small forms lying on the rope-slung bed.

She knelt down next to the children and touched their faces with a gentle hand. I am here now, little ones. Keelah and Mareen, you are both known to Basret. If your path does not lie through the Gate, then with Basret’s blessing, I will bring you back to your mother.

Mery stroked Keelah’s forehead, smoothing the girl’s dark hair back. She gently ran her fingers lightly over the girl’s head, feeling for bumps, being careful not to move Keelah’s. Mery found one at the back of the girl’s skull. A bad blow to the head, probably from when she fell. Now to check how much damage has been done. “Baset, Meryetnebi sujahet seneb saht,” she whispered, her eyes closed. Basret, grant me the knowledge to heal this child.

An image slowly formed in Mery’s mind of her standing on a vast white plain, marred by a series of fire-lined cracks. Sweet smelling, pale green liquid flowed from her hands, turning into a paste that covered and seeped and into the cracks, putting out the fire. Slowly, the damage disappeared, becoming an unmarked white expanse once more. A broken skull, and an infection? The liquid. It looked and smelled like suncatcher flower tea and… dedaemah root? Yes, that must be it. Suncatcher flowers help with infection, and dedaemah root helps heal bones.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, changing the focus from her vision back to the world around her. Mery opened her eyes to see Adarah kneeling, her face a mask of anxiety. “Keelah will be fine. She needs time to heal, and I will make a poultice to apply to the injury, and show you how to apply it.”

Adarah’s face brightened, and Mery could see the hope returning to her eyes. “Mareen? Can you help Mareen?”

“I will try.” Mery moved around to the other side of the bed. Mareen’s face was covered with a light sheen of sweat, and her skin was hot. At Mery’s touch, the girl’s head turned and she started to murmur in a low, breathy voice. Mery leaned in closer to try and hear what the girl was saying.

“…green…sound…ruined path…” Mareen sighed, and fell silent once more.

Mery sat back on her heels and folded her hands in front of her. What does that mean? A ruined path? There is nothing like that around the oasis. She shrugged, and knelt next to the bed. Basret, Mery prayed, what ails this child?

Her mind’s eye was assaulted by the devastation in the scene before her. The landscape of Mareen’s mind was rent and sundered, with a thick, glistening black slime coated most of the ground. In the middle of it all, Mery could see a child-like form, trapped beneath the slime, struggling to get free.

Mery’s mental self took a step forward, reaching out a hand to try and help. The slime reared up and struck at her, trying to pull her down and draw her under. She struck back, calling upon the cleansing flame of Basret’s warrior guise and sent it at the viscous black slime. It recoiled, and ear shattering shriek filled Mery’s mind as the vision abruptly ended.

“Sujah, what happened?”

Mery forced her eyes open to see Alim and Adarah kneeling over her. Alim helped her sit up. “Are you alright, Sujah?” he asked.

She nodded. “I’ll be alright.” Mery reached for Adarah’s hand. “I know what is plaguing Mareen. Before I can help her, I will tell you how to make the poultice for Keelah. Take enough suncatcher flower petals to make two pots of tea and put them in a grinding bowl. Get a piece of dedaema root the thickness and length of your thumb. Peel it, then chop it fine and put it in the grinding bowl with the petals. Grind the two things together until you create a thick paste. Add enough warm water to make the paste the consistency of three day old yula bean soup. Put half of the mixture into a fine cloth bag, and apply it to the bump on the back of Keelah’s head.

“You will need to cut Keelah’s hair down to her scalp around the bump, to make a bare spot this big,” Mery said, making a circle with her thumb and index finger. “It must be applied directly to the skin for it to work properly.”

“Yes, Sujah, it will be done as you command.” Adarah ducked her head and scurried out of the tent.

“What is wrong with Mareen?” Alim asked. In the shaft of light from the tent entrance, Mery could see the deep, dark circles under his eyes, and the pronounced worry lines.

“Something has taken her mind.” As Mery said the words, she heard Nefermewet’s voice, chiding her for telling him, for sharing the “secrets” of their visions. But now, as then, she ignored it. “I will do my best to free her, but it will take time.”

“Of course, Sujah.” Alim stood. “Word of your presence here will be all over the camp by now. I will have Nadim stand outside, and let only Adarah into the tent, until you say otherwise.”

“Thank you.” Mery lifted her hand and sketched out a blessing upon him before he left the tent. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I do not know who did this to you, Mareen, but I will fight it and drive it from your mind. She scooped a small amount of water out of the bowl next to the bed and patted her face with her damp hands.

Mery stood and moved around to the head of the bed and placed a hand on either side of Mareen’s head. She took another deep breath, and as she released it, closed her eyes and opened her mind.

Once again she stood in the ravaged wasteland that was Mareen’s mind, but this time, she was clad in brilliant bronze armor, a leather shield on her left arm. In her right hand was a scetar with a blade of flames. The black slime recoiled and folded into itself, growing bigger with each wave, until a man-sized figure stood before her.

“You are too late. The girl is mine.”

“Release her, and return from whence you came, or I shall destroy you.” Mery stood tall, her chin raised in defiance.

Its laugh clung to Mery’s ears like pitch. “You cannot defeat me. I shall claim you as I have the girl, and you will taste so sweet…”

“I don’t think so!” Mery lifted her sword and charged. It moved out of the way of her scetar with fluid ease, and slashed at her. She hissed as she felt the sting of its claws along her forearm. She attacked again, and it caught her down-swinging arm.

“You cannot defeat me,” it said, and started to twist her arm until she cried out in pain and dropped the sword.

“I already have,” she ground out through clenched teeth. A moment later, Mery heard a whoosh and a pop, and flames exploded around her.

The creature screamed and backed away. Tongues of fire licked their way up its legs and fanned out from the flame-kissed sword until the entire landscape was burning. “This is not the end, Meryetnebi! You cannot win!” it yelled before it was consumed by the inferno.

Flames washed over Mery, and with a jolt, she found herself back in her own body. Her face and hands stung and her forearm throbbed. She opened her eyes and all she saw was darkness. What? Why can’t I see?

Mery tried to stand, but her legs suddenly were afire and could not support her. “What…?”

“Sujah! You have returned to us!” Alim’s voice was heavy with concern, and a light flared into being.

“How long?” Mery asked, her mouth so dry it was hard to talk.

“Long past sunset, Sujah,” he said as Adarah rushed past him to her daughter’s side. “The krenna bird has long gone to nest to sleep.”

“Mareen!” Adarah cried out in joy. “Alim! Her fever has broken, and she sleeps peacefully.” She threw herself to the ground before Mery, prostrating herself in deep obeisance. “Sujah, you have saved my daughter. I do not have much, but it is all yours. My life is yours for saving my children.”

“No, Adarah,” Mery said, shaking her head. “Your children need you. All I ask of you is a place to sleep before I move on.”

“Of course, Sujah. I will go prepare it immediately.” Adarah pressed her forehead to the ground, then stood. She gave both Keela and Mareen quick kisses on the head, then fled the tent.

Alim watched her go with a smile of relief on his face. “Please,” he said, extending his hand to Mery. “Accompany me to my tent. There is food and drink waiting for you there.”

“Thank you.” Mery took his hand and stood, wincing as the circulation returned to her legs. He looked at her arm and his eyes widened.

“Your arm? How did that happen?” he asked.

Mery frowned, and looked at her arm to see claw marks on her arm. “Injuries taken when the mind fights are reflected in the body left behind. A simple cleaning of the scratches and I will be fine.”

Alim opened his mouth as if to protest, but nodded instead. “Yes, Sujah.”

Nadim still stood guard outside the tent, and the two men helped Mery walk across the camp back to his tent. He was opening the tent flap for her when the sentries called out that a rider approached.

“It is Bedir!” cried out one of the sentries. Groggy nomads stumbled out of their tents.

“Is he alone?” Alim asked.

“I cannot see… Yes, he is alone,” came the reply.

Alim frowned. “Where are the others?”

“He’s injured!”

“Go help him!” Alim yelled. “Bring him to me!”

Two of the sentries, dressed in dark, flowing tunaras, walked alongside the horse. Bedir was slumped forward in the saddle. “Alim, we were…” He collapsed, but one of the sentries caught him before he hit the ground. The dark stained bundle he carried in his lap fell to the ground and spilled open.