I fell silent. There was something comforting in looking at the world through Tia’s eyes. Everything was so clear to her. It was black-and-white. She was brave in a way I wasn’t sure I could ever be.
It was easy to be brave when Amon was with me. I relied on his abilities. His knowledge of the world he moved in. Now I knew he understood very little about the assignment he’d been given. He was being used by the gods. I was, too, of course, but at least Amun-Ra and Horus had summed things up pretty well. I now knew Seth’s agenda and the reason the brothers had to do the things they did.
I wasn’t sure if that information would change his perspective or not. Whatever that understanding brought, at least he’d know. He and his brothers. They could make an informed decision. Recognize their true place in the Egyptian pantheon. They’d see Seth for what he was. At the very least I needed to make sure they were made aware of everything Amun-Ra and Horus told me. For a moment, I wished I’d had more time with Amon to tell him everything I’d learned, but then I thought perhaps it was better that I hadn’t. Especially now that I knew Seth could spy on our dreams together.
We soon entered a large bathing chamber with a sunken tub. There were three women already in the room. One stirred fragrant oil into water that was so warm, steam billowed out. When she looked up at me and smiled, I saw her blink sideways, like a crocodile. Another, whose short-cropped hair resembled something more like fur than hair, set candles on the tiled corners of the tub and lit them with a wave of her hand. The third, a beautiful blonde who could have graced the cover of any NYC fashion billboard, spread white flower petals on the water, and the girl who entered with me began tugging on the ties of my robe.
I gathered the edges tightly in my fist. “Um, is this ritual something I can do by myself? I’m not entirely comfortable with getting naked in front of a bunch of strangers.”
“You do not wish us to be present?” She frowned.
“Maybe you can just teach me the spell and I can do it on my own?”
She shook her head. “It is too complicated and requires all four of us to speak. Perhaps if we leave while you enter the water and then return to begin the incantation?”
“I guess that would be okay.”
The women left and I hurried to disrobe and slip into the steaming water before they returned. As I sank down onto the seat, the fragrant liquid lapping my chin and shoulders, I realized Tia was shocked.
What is it? I asked.
It is…pleasant. I did not think immersing yourself in water would be. Will we wash our mane now? she asked.
I was about to answer, but just then the girls came back. I was nervous about them being there, but I soon let go of my inhibitions when they began chanting, raising something in the air. Each girl stood at a corner of the bathing pool and lifted a lump of muddy clay shaped like a brick.
The first girl spoke:
“Lands of the south, keep the stinging sand at bay.”
When she finished speaking, I let out a gasp as she tossed the softened brick into the water. Dirt rose and billowed out from it. I drew my feet up closer to my body and wrapped my arms around my knees.
“Fires of the east, repel the raging beasts that mark her path.”
The second servant concluded her statement and also threw in her clump of mud. This was repeated two more times, but the next girls were even closer to me, and the splash from the bricks soaked my face and hair. One said,
“Waters from the west, flow over the darkness and reveal the hidden faces,”
while the last one added,
“Winds of the north, overthrow those who would stand in her way!”
Flotsam and dirt coated the surface of the pool, and I felt the grit flowing between my flexing toes.
My once relaxing and soothing bath was now full of filth and muck. When I lifted my arm from the water, bits of dirt clung to my skin. “This isn’t really going how I expected it to,” I said. As I sat there in the cooling water, my soaked hair dripping onto my neck and shoulders, the girls disappeared.