“We are the Imkhu, Nurit. Long ages ago, we were greatly honored to receive the first Spell of Life, flawed though it was. Just recently when Lord Osiris awoke once more and Lord Horus returned to us, we were again honored to receive the new, perfected spell. Some of us are also presently away from home. There are twelve of us, in all.”
“The old spell…” That scene came back to me from my vision of Rachel’s life, where she got to be present at a casting of the spell. “I was there once when it was cast… I mean, my tem-akh was. Is one of you that man that I saw it cast on? I don’t know his name, but I think he was curly-haired, his mother was a prisoner-of-war from Kerma. Something like that.”
Tchatcha-em-ankh frowned. “I cannot be sure. It has been so long… Was he a man of Memphis, or…?”
“Yes!” I exclaimed. Relief washed through me, be- cause the second he named the city I realized that was also where Rachel had served as priestess. Discovered in Thebes, brought to Memphis, the old capital… another puzzle piece snapped into place. Dear G-d, how long was I going to remain a mystery to myself? There had to be a better way to get at this stuff.
“If he was the man I am thinking of, no, he is dead. There are so few of the old ones left, Nurit. Of those that have survived, most turned away from our struggle with Apophis long ago. Only the Imkhu were deemed faithful enough to merit the new spell. Twelve out of hundreds that were created over the past many millen- nia. We will not fail so miserably this time.”
“You mean… you’re afraid that we — the new ones, might turn away, too?”
“It is possible. Apophis is a vast destructive force, which consumes all it touches. Yet it is capable of
seeming far less threatening than it really is. Over the ages, many immortals have been lulled into believing they need not exert themselves against it. Worse, some have even been seduced by that foulness that can seem fair. The power of Ptah and Ma’at which was handed down to Ra, stolen by the bold Lady Isis, married with the secrets of Duat which Lord Osiris learned and then translated into his very khat, is a power whose ultimate source is Creation itself. When a vessel of that power turns to the service of Creation’s enemy instead… that is a grave blow to us indeed, my dear. And it has happened before.”
He twiddled somehow with a sunken-relief carving on one of the walls and the whole wall screeched and moved, showing a little cupboard-type recess with scrolls and precious figurines stored inside it. Fingers deft and quick as my grandma’s knitting needles flew over the selection of scrolls and chose one.
“Look here,” he said, unrolling it carefully. “In simpler times — heh,” he chuckled. “I say that now. At the time, they did not seem simple at all, but compared to what faces us now… At any rate, in simpler times, we were governed by this code that Lord Horus handed down to us.”
I looked it over… even with Rachel in me, I only got scattered bits of the hieroglyphic writing, but he helped me by translating aloud. It seemed pretty simple, but…
“Let me get this straight. We all obey Horus? I — I mean, I’m not trying to insult anyone, but I, my tem- akh, was a priestess of Isis.”
“Do not let that worry you.” It could be just my para- noia, but he looked a tad feline as he said this. “Horus is the loyal son of Lady Isis. He governs with the wisdom his father and mother taught him. There is often… friction between those who are partial to Lord Osiris, to Lady Isis, to Horus the Golden Hawk, but in the end, such arguments are mere foolishness. All three were willing to die for each other, and they would face Apophis’s teeth sooner than betray each other. We, their followers, owe each other no less. Besides… no one is precisely sure where the Lady Isis is. Not even Her loyal cultists.”
“It seemed to me the women of Isis were a little disappointed I got called away so soon,” I said cautiously.
“No doubt they wanted theirs to be the first training you would receive. All of the cults take this attitude, I fear. There are many of the new Amenti who never come to the Imkhu, and many more who come only belatedly, with minds already biased along party lines. They spend their first days of the Third Life shut up like novices in
a monastery, kept busy with indoctrination and ritual, discouraged from exploring the vastness of Osiris’s web. The one advantage of this is that it often prevents the minions of Apophis from finding out about them before they have had a chance to learn something of their new form, but aside from that, I have to say I disapprove of the practice.”
“Yeah, but aren’t you part of the Horus cult?” “Shemsu-heru is the Egyptian term. Yes and no.” He hesitated. “I think I will leave it at that. We attend the Lord Horus, and we are the oldest of the Reborn who remain faithful to the cause. It is because of the latter, not the former, that I insisted you be brought here. You may certainly return to your sisters whenever you wish, but there is much of value to learn here, from your fellow Amenti. However attuned to Isis they may be, the cultists are only mortals. They have great power for mortals, but they cannot begin to understand the tests you will face.”
“Okay. But still, with this code, Horus said all the Reborn have to… heed his words always. That just means listen and respect, not obey without question, right?”
“Yes,” he said, though he hesitated. “We do not force this mission on any of the Reborn, not even the Amenti, not even the Shemsu-heru themselves. Indeed there are those that choose not to become involved at all in the struggle. I shudder to think what befalls them when they stand before Ma’at, but that is their affair.”
He sighed. “There are others of us who fear the new destiny that lies before them. At this moment, I am thinking especially of the Udja-sen, the Judged Ones, who face the Judges of Ma’at for the first time as you just have, but come out rather the worse for it. Although they are accepted in, shall we say, a probationary ca- pacity, their souls are rent mercilessly in order to excise their many flaws. Very often they remember nothing of their tem-akh’s life, and sometimes they flee Egypt the moment they quicken — recoiling from what they do not understand. Then there are other Reborn who are not of Osiris, Isis or Horus at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that there are creatures very like us, who cycle through life and death as we do, who were not made so by our Spell of Life but by something else entirely. I know that there are such beings in China, and I have heard of creatures in South America also. Somewhat nearer to hand, there are Greek Reborn who I believe stole a version of the first Spell of Life. At least some of them claim to be warriors for justice
and balance, but it remains to be seen whether they truly serve Ma’at, or not.”
“That sounds interesting….”
“It is a fascinating subject, but I suggest you content yourself for now with what can be learned from our temple library — at least until you have cultivated your powers much further. Even if these beings prove to be our allies in the end, they are unquestionably danger- ous. A cultural misunderstanding could prove tragic.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, back to the Code of Horus… this next part about fighting Apophis and all its minions, that’s the part Ahmed’s already explained to me, so I get that.”
“Has he? Excellent.”
“Then these Accursed that we’re not supposed to consort with, why do they get a special mention?”
“Unfortunately, we did not realize for some time how much of a menace they truly are.” He frowned. “Now it was always quite clear that those among the Accursed who call themselves the children of Set are servants of Apophis, because Set has always looked to Apophis for aid. As for the rest, they may claim to know nothing of Apophis, but their vile ways of drinking human blood and seducing mortals into slavery betray them. Moreover, their very nature — and here I hesitate to condemn, for our resurrection was once imperfect also, and even you were walking dead for a brief time — but their very nature, a body that neither breathes like the living or decays like the dead, also tells against the balance of Ma’at. At least we do age and die periodically and serve our time in Duat before returning. They, however, never go to have their hearts weighed. Not if they can help it.”
Drinking human blood. “Excuse me, sorry. Are we
talking about vampires here?”
“Our word is ghul, but yes. That is the English word. It will not be too long, I think, before you encounter one of these creatures yourself. Remember, though, do not fear them. They are accustomed to fear, so they will assume they have that advantage over you. But you are, in the long term, a far greater danger to them than the reverse. But go on for now… the fourth point.”
“The fourth point seems pretty duh. I mean self- explanatory. Shemsu-heru stick together. Of course… I mean, it’s still not clear to me whether I’m automatically Shemsu-heru or not. But I assume this rule was meant to apply to me too.”
“I would suggest that you consider all Amenti who have not betrayed the cause your brothers and sisters, and treat them accordingly. There is no need to com- plicate the issue.”
“Right. Now… let not a mortal worship you, nor let them know of your existence. Here I’m a little con- fused, because—”
“Because it was a mortal cult that raised you. This was written before Osiris granted the new spell to the loyal mortal cults, obviously. Now they are indispensable to us for that very reason, and for others. For now, I would say do not reveal yourself to mortals outside the cults. As for worship, that is a difficult point. Sometimes it is quite hard to stop them from worshipping us. And Lord Horus has been revered as a god for so many millennia that I doubt he could put an end to the worship even if…” He stopped.
“Are you saying Horus is not a god?” From Ahmed I expect such a statement. From this guy, it was a surprise.
“No, Lord Horus is not a god. He is a worthy king, our master, but he is not a god in the sense that Ptah or Ma’at is. Horus, Isis and Osiris were all ordinary mortals at one time. True, that time is now very remote indeed.”
I have to say my tem-akh felt very offended by this idea. The rest of me was actually kind of relieved. I figured the two of us could fight it out later. Maybe after I finally met Horus and had a chance to see for myself.
“Yes, but those people right outside—”
“Believe what they choose to believe. We have never told them Horus is a god. We only call him Lord Horus.” “Lord Horus, son of the morning. Have you ever right-out told them he’s not a god? Has he ever told them?”
He didn’t answer. I think he actually blushed a little. “Sir?” I pressed, a little appalled at myself. But if there was trouble in this paradise I wanted to know it
now, not 200 years down the road. “What is it? Are you
afraid they’ll leave if they realize he’s not a god? Or that they’ll take that Spell of Life and do something they shouldn’t with it?”
He shook his head. “You were well chosen, Nurit,” he said at last. “Many who have come to Edfu never even bother to ask this question.” He turned dark, narrowing eyes to me. “But I do wonder where all this boldness will go when you actually meet Lord Horus. So few are able to stand in his presence and not believe him a god then and there. It is very difficult for us to know what to do. What, after all, is a god? So many cultures have granted the honor to so many beings of so many differing accomplishments. Lord Horus does not always explain himself completely. All I know is that he has said the time of gods is past. It cannot be his wish that he be worshipped as a god. Yet as I said,
it is often hard to stop it when his very nature is such as to elicit worship. And we need the mortals with us. We need them to honor our advice. I ask you not to criticize what you do not yet understand. You will see him. Ask me again then.”
Hekau
I took pity on him. I guess I could have kept drilling him, but he really did look so conflicted, so vulner- able for just a second. You know, in a way the Imkhu are new at this, too. I mean at least if the spell always works the way it did with me — if there has to be a second person you join with to get this new “perfected” resurrection. That would mean he’s got somebody else in there too, or part of somebody else. That’s got to be hard to adjust to after all those thousands of years of being just himself.
I also didn’t figure we needed to go into the last part of this Code of Horus, because it just says “Seek not to make others like yourself,” and I don’t have the faintest idea how to do that anyhow.
He took me up a staircase onto the roof of the temple. “Let us see now what you remember of the ways of Isis,” he said.
“Only bits and pieces. If you mean magic, I don’t think I remember enough yet to really do anything.”
“Let us see,” he repeated. “Sit down. Now, you have not told me what your tem-akh is. I suspect the ba at the moment, but that certainly need not be so.”
“It’s the ka,” I said. I saw no reason to hide it. I sat down with my legs crossed.
“The ka. In that case, you will more likely excel at the art of making amulets, at least at first. But that is a time-consuming art, and we do not have the time at this hour of the night. You are Israeli, I am told… Jewish? Do the Jewish women permit a man with no dishonorable intentions to remove their hijab?”
“Go for it,” I said. “We were just trying to help me blend in.”
He unpinned the thing… pretty damn dexterously. I have to assume he has removed other headscarves before, probably with not-so-honorable intentions.
“Your hair is beautiful,” he remarked. “Now I am going to braid it and say the words of the spell that go with the braiding… and then we will see if you can unbraid it and remember the words to release the breeze I have woven in.”
Is this prehistoric Egyptian dude coming onto me or what? Okay. I’m not saying he did anything out of line,
and maybe I was just imagining things, but I thought I heard a note of passing interest in there.
Is that so impossible? the part of me that had been
Rachel asked.
I still wonder if anything would have happened if I had said or done something. I had this feeling ancient Egyptians were a little different about sex than Jews, Christians or Muslims or even Buddhists… that the idea of two unmarried people just deciding to up and do it by starlight would strike them as little more than a very pleasant evening’s entertainment. On the other hand, this was a temple and he was definitely on temple duty, so maybe nothing would have happened. Now that I think about it after the heat of the moment, I really think I want to pick with a little more care who I lose my virginity to. Probably the priestesses of Isis will have some good thoughts on how to mark the occasion… but those light fingertips brushing against my neck when I was already semi-turned on just by the mystical energy pouring along the north-south axis of the place and streaming off across the desert. Anyway. Let’s just say it would not have broken my heart for something to happen.
I caught more of the spell words than I expected to: a lot of god- and goddess-names, and constellation names. I — Nurit me, not Nurit ab-Rachel — would have figured just whipping up a little breeze to be such a huge group effort (at least until I think about the whole idea of a butterfly flapping its wings in Peking, etc, etc), but the spell was like a song. In fact, it was a song, or a chant, anyway, and I’ve always noticed that song lyrics are really chained in people’s memory. You start a line, and suddenly the whole song comes back to you even if you haven’t thought about it in years. So when he finished up his half, I was able to come in very smoothly with my half, undoing one braid exactly in time with each stanza. The number of braids is important too, I forget exactly why. As I kept unbraiding, the air stirred a little, then a little more, and soon there was this great cool breeze blow- ing across the top of the temple, carrying in the scent of the river. It was exhilarating. Not just the power I had, but the feeling that I was more connected now, that I was so tapped into the planet that I could speak and the winds would answer back. I guess I could have played cynic and told myself it was just a coincidence, but the simple fact is, I knew it wasn’t.
“I should go to Cairo and do this,” I remarked. “Blow off some of that smog.”
“You will be able to do more than that with practice. Sandstorms, even lightning, rain to flood rivers and lakes. Come back tomorrow, and we will work some more.”