Page 102 of A Thousand Nights Before Dawn
Zahra’s brow furrowed. “Of course I did. You said…”
Had he said anything? She recalled hearing his voice, but she could recall nothing of what he said.
“What did you say?” she asked, dropping her hand to her side.
Omar opened his mouth, but as soon as he spoke, Zahra’s head pounded again. He held up the papyrus, pointing to Apep at the bottom, then pointing to the symbols on the papyrus of the Thoth.
Sun. Moon.And stars.
Zahra cried out as pain shot up both sides of her head. She fell to the floor, groaning as force pushed on her mind. Omardropped the papyrus, rushing to her side, but she couldn’t hear him.
Visions ran through her mind, tugging on memories that had been pushed into hiding. She saw the oldpr-aa, intact and beautiful as it had been in ancient days. Asenath screamed from within as she was stabbed by akhopesh.Her chosen groom leaned over her, begging her to breathe. A voice hissed from the sky, and Asenath’s eyes became black like tar.
A darkness covered the visions, and Zahra couldn’t hear the words of the voice or see more than Asenath’s terrified face. She shut her eyes, trying to fight the building pressure in her skull.
Something was keeping her from remembering.
Zahra gritted her teeth as she focused on an image in her mind. The hand that held Apep’s tail was clear in front of her, but darkness was eating away at the image.
Selene!Zahra thought.Help me!
Moonlight poured into Zahra’s mind, pushing against the darkness. The memories returned to her. Zahra grunted, falling forward and catching herself on the floor. The darkness sat like a wall in the back of her mind, thick and concrete.
Omar held Zahra’s arms. “Zahra, can you hear me?”
Zahra took in a deep breath, wiping at her bloody nose. “Yes.”
Omar helped her sit up, and her trembling hand reached for the papyrus he had dropped. The painting was as vivid as she remembered it. Her thumb stroked the symbol on the hand that held Apep’s tail. “Do you know whatnetjerthis is supposed to represent?”
“That was what I was trying to tell you,” Omar said, “but you couldn’t hear me.” He retrieved the other papyrus from the table, comparing them side by side with the one in Zahra’s hand. “Her name isIset. The stories about her are very old and very few. She has been mostly forgotten by Aur’s people. She is the mother of Apep—the great snake. She was thought to have beenthenetjerof the stars and Nebthet’s sister, but she betrayed Re and became thenetjerof chaos. There used to be more records of her, but I have not been able to find any for years now.”
Zahra rubbed the remaining ache from her temples. She recalled reading about Iset now, though she was not sure why she couldn’t before. Katerina herself had said thekereswere creations of Iset, and Zahra’s visions and dreams of the First Pa-sekhemty Feast had shown Iset working with Asenath’s kin to kill her.
Zahra winced as pain flooded her mind again. There was still something about Asenath’s death that she couldn’t recall, but she was not able to push past the darkness. Her thoughts turned to her curse. If thekereswere creations of Iset’s power, then Iset could only kill Asenath when neither the sun nor moon could intervene—during a lunar eclipse.
Zahra’s grip tightened on the papyrus. She had tried to think of who had cursed her, but she could never think about it for long. Now she knew why. Someone was working with thenetjerof chaos, and Iset had been forced from their minds anytime they got close to discovering that. They couldn’t curse Namir as Asenath had been cursed, so they cursed the only one who could help him—Zahra.
She had to tell Namir, but she did not know where to start. She still had so many questions. Did he already know of Iset, or were his memories trapped like hers?
Omar watched her quietly. “Poulaki mou?—”
Zahra sighed heavily. “She is trying to kill the King. That’s why the assassins only attack at night. They want to kill him during the blood moon. I don’t know what will happen if they succeed, what will happen ifshesucceeds, but we have run out of leads, and I… I…” Zahra tossed the papyrus to the side and buried her face in her hands. “I don’t know what to do.”
Omar was silent. “Zahra, how have you become a part of this? If what you say is true, if this ancientnetjeris after the King, then he should fight it with the Pharaoh Queen.”
“Because.” She stood, plucked a papyrus aboutsibylsfrom the shelf, and dropped it in his lap. “Selene asked me to.”
Omar’s eyes went wide as he opened the papyrus, looking at the drawing of the ring. “Your mother was right after all. Our people already came to Aur.”
Zahra sucked in a breath. “So she was asibyl?”
“No. She—” He rolled up the papyrus. “This is not a conversation for right now.”
Zahra put her hand on her father’s arm. “Patér, please. I must know.”
Omar hesitated. He sighed after a few moments. “That’s one word for what she was, yes.”
Zahra’s heart beat fast inside her chest, and she leaned forward. “So, she had gifts? Dreams? Visions?”
