was over or if they were getting ready to add some rotting meat and discarded trash to the water as well, and I was almost ready to get out and look for a shower when they returned. The mud-stained tunics they’d been wearing had been discarded. This time they were dressed in pure white. The material was so bright it almost gleamed.
Frowning, I stared at my dirty hands and compared them to the girls’ clean, pale arms. “So what now?” I asked.
My guide pressed her finger to her lips, gesturing that I should be silent. As one, the four girls took their positions at the edges of my now filthy bathing pool and raised their arms in the air, chanting:
“Amun-Ra, lend your power this day.
Cast aside that which is old and unseemly
Renew this woman and prepare her for judgment.”
The tiles around the edges of the sunken tub grew hot. They burned red, then shifted to bright orange, yellow, and brilliant white. The water surrounding me grew hotter as well and was now beginning to bubble and boil. I cried out, not because it was burning me, though it was pretty much as hot as I could stand, but because my entire body was tingling and the water began to glow.
“Like Horus, make this daughter bright.
Take her on your primeval wings
As she departs, a soul of Heliopolis,
To walk with the gods and see them in their true glory.
Transform her on this, the day of her death.”
Wait…what? Tia and I both thought at the same time.
“Accept the offering of her invocation.
Let her see the true and only sun.
Vindicate her. Sustain her.
Allow no evil to have power over her.
Benu Bird, he who leads the blessed to the afterlife,
Protect her heart in the judgment,
Help her find her spirit’s desire,
And take her to her celestial home.”
The room grew so bright I could no longer see my hand in front of my face, but when they ceased chanting, the light dimmed incrementally until I could begin to make out shapes and the outline of myself. When my vision finally cleared, the girls were gone. So was all the water in the tub.
My body was warm. My hair dry and clean. The tiles of the tub were pristine. There was no trace of the muddy residue. No outline of filth around the edges. My skin smelled like flowers and I felt utterly relaxed and refreshed. At the bottom of the tub, I noticed a symbol. It looked like a golden bird, and it gleamed and pulsed as if it had been the source of the heat.
I wasn’t sure if it had been there before and I’d simply not noticed it or if it had appeared as a result of the ritual. Uncertain, I stood up and climbed out of the tub. On a table nearby was a stack of white material and an ornate full-length mirror. I palmed through the clothing first and found a pair of white sandals next to the dress. My short spears and bow as well as my harness were next to that.
Picking up the dress, I held it up to my body and gazed at my reflection. There was something blue around my eyes. I leaned closer and touched my finger to the edge. Blue smudged my fingertip. Paint. My face had been painted to look like an Egyptian goddess’s. I wasn’t sure how or when that happened and was contemplating the idea that I might have passed out in the tub or frozen while the girls did my makeup, when I felt the brush of silk against my neck.
A deep honeyed voice, dripping with desire, said, “You are the most fetching and exquisite creature I’ve ever set eyes upon.” A pair of hands, very strong male hands, smoothed fabric over my shoulders.
I gasped, my eyes darting to the reflection in the mirror. “Horus!” I screamed, and grabbed for the robe he’d placed around me. Quickly, I shrugged my arms into the sleeves, wrenching the tie to draw it closed, and spun around. “What right do you have to enter my bathing chamber!” I yelled, jabbing my finger into his muscled chest.
A bubble of rage rose inside me and I raised my hand, tightening my fingers into a fist around his neck. It had been an instinctive move, and Horus grabbed his throat briefly, his eyes widening. But then, just as quickly, the power waned.
You will not hurt him, Tia said.
I wasn’t consciously trying to, I explained. It just happened. It must