Page 86 of A Thousand Nights Before Dawn
Ramses closed the door behind Zahra and returned to his seat by one of the walls, where he promptly closed his eyes and draped his cloak over his face to return to sleep.
“She knows about this place?” Zahra asked Namir, setting her scrolls down on a bare spot on the table.
“Of course. She showed it to me when we were children.” He pulled out a chair for her to sit in.
“Thank you.” Zahra sat, pulling one of the scrolls to her. “What are you doing down here?”
“I had some time in between my investigations, so I came down here to read up on the queen you told me about.”
Zahra blinked in surprise. “Queen Asenath?”
Namir nodded, sitting across from her and pulling out a scroll. “I was intrigued by her story. She was the daughter of the first Pharaohs, and it was they who started the tradition of the Pa-sekhemty Feast.” He pulled out other scrolls, all of which were frail. “I also found records of a lunar eclipse that happened around that time, which verifies what you saw in your vision.”
The wordvisionsent shivers down Zahra’s spine.
Namir pushed his scrolls in Zahra’s direction. “I think she may be related to how the Thoth came to be given to us by Re, but I can’t find anything here on that.”
Zahra took the scrolls and looked over them. The record described the events around Asenath’s death as her father had explained it, though with it was an older record in Badari. The symbols for Re and Nebthet were there, though the account itself only described that it was the first Pa-sekhemty Feast.
Zahra’s eyes narrowed on a glyph that she recognized but did not know the meaning of. She had seen it before, but where she had seen it escaped her.
“I have tried to decipher what that character means, but I am not sure,” Namir said.
“It is the name of anetjer,”Zahra stated, picking up the piece of papyrus.
Namir’s eyebrows raised. “How do you know?”
Zahra opened her mouth, but she was not sure how to answer. She stood, taking the papyrus with her as she traveled to one of the shelves. In a few moments, she found the papyrus she was looking for and brought it back over to the table. She opened it about the Thoth, moving her finger along the glyphs until she found the ones she was looking for.
“Sun, moon,” Zahra read, “andstars.”
Namir leaned forward, looking where Zahra was pointing. “I thought those were the glyphs for Re and Nebthet.”
“They are, but they also describe the sun and moon.”
“Then why is there a third glyph?” Namir asked. “At least in Aur, Nebthet is thenetjerof the moon and stars.”
“She is for my people as well.”But perhaps she was not always.
Zahra took to the shelves, scanning over the papyrus that were there. Namir shifted in his chair, glancing at Ramses sleeping in the corner.
Zahra’s hand trailed across the edges of the scrolls until one caught her eye. She snatched it from its hiding place, opening it up. She realized Namir was watching her, and she looked over at him. “What is it?”
“I should get you a dress.” Namir leaned back. “You should dress as one of the scribes, not as a servant of the library.”
“But Iama servant,” Zahra countered. “I don’t mind the work of a library servant. It is different from what I do for my usual work.”
“But it does not suit you.” Namir closed his mouth upon seeing Zahra’s surprised expression, and he turned his attentionto the scrolls on the table. “It is something for you to think about. If you are comfortable helping as a servant, then I won’t stop you.”
Zahra turned back to her task, her cheeks hot and her hands clammy. He thought she could be a scribe? She glanced back over at Namir. He was fiddling with the edge of a papyrus, his forehead creased and his leg bouncing.
Zahra bit her lip to hide her smile as she returned her gaze to the papyrus. On it was displayed a painting with rich colors. The art depicted Re’s journey through the night. For twelve hours, Re traveled as Atum through the underworld. Each section of the painting was marked by even lines, showing each part of his journey. In the tenth hour, Apep—the great snake—attacked. Atum was protected by othernetjeru, who stayed with him until Apep was defeated. Atum’s rebirth occurred at the end of the twelfth hour, where he returned to the mortal world as Khepri.
Apep’s form guided Zahra’s eye down to the end of the papyrus. Its tail extended all the way to the first hour of Atum, where a hand held it. Zahra looked closer. The hand was cut off by the edge of the papyrus, but it was clearly holding Apep’s tail, as if guiding it toward Re. On the hand was the same glyph from the other papyri—stars.
A thought came to Zahra’s mind, one that made her breath hitch with realization. A sharp pain seared through her skull. Zahra cried out, dropping the scroll and bringing her hand to her head. The papyrus landed at her feet.
Namir jumped up from his chair, causing it to knock over with a thud.Ramses flinched, pulling the cloak off his head. He got to his feet, his hand on his blade.
