Crescent Moon Read Free Page A

Khepri to slide over her outstretched arms.
    The dress settled around her body, falling straight from her shoulders,
but hugging her lithe hips and swishing around her ankles.
    “You are beautiful, Mistress,” Tawaret said, giving Khepri a proud smile.
    Khepri glowed under her approval. Everything she was, everything she
stood for, was a reflection of those around her. All took pride in her status
and her beauty. When Amun was pleased, a good harvest and wealthy visitors
followed.
    Shouts sounded from outside the window.
    Tawaret hurried over and lifted a woven papyrus mat covering the small
window. “The boat is pulling up to the quay. Any last instructions?”
    Khepri shook her head. “Just help me with my wig.”
    The handmaiden scraped Khepri’s brown hair into a bundle and tied it, and
then settled the raven black wig over her head. Although made of human hair
rather than horse, the tightly woven wig was hot and made her scalp itch. Those
inside the temple walls knew of her odd preference to wear her own hair, but
after she’d been wed to Amun, they no longer teased her. While they gossiped
freely inside the walls, they were careful to preserve secrets from spreading
to the outside. Those who lived and worked inside the temple coveted their jobs
and would do nothing to risk them.
    Their loyalty was something Khepri never doubted—and one of the reasons
she hated leaving her sanctuary. The servants protected each other as a family
would. Today, they couldn’t protect her as she ventured to the river and
greeted a royal visitor.
    Her stomach tightened. She wasn’t ready, even though she’d prepared for
this visit for years. She’d serve Pharaoh in the sanctuary, call upon the gods
for their blessings, and hope the king wouldn’t request more. The thought this
was the one living man who was entitled to command her body made her stomach
revolt. Having a stranger touch her, even a living god, left her feeling
breathless and little nauseated.
    She’d been spared so many hardships since the previous God’s Wife,
Nephthys, spotted her in the fields that she ought to feel ashamed of her
unruly thoughts. And she truly was grateful for her education and for being spared
a harsher sort of life.
    But even though she’d been raised to submit to Amun’s will, she wasn’t a
submissive person by nature. She was willful, stubborn, and always questioning,
qualities Nephthys had ignored but which others had found appalling when she’d
been named Nephthys’s successor. How she’d come to be here, a girl from such
lowly beginnings, was just as unlikely.
    While still a young girl, The God’s Wife had discovered her while she
played with butterflies. The insects had swarmed, lighting on her hands and
lips. No doubt they’d been lured by the honey she’d eaten and left smeared on
herself. The beautiful lady carried on a litter on the road beside the fields
viewed the butterflies as a sign and had purchased her from her beaming mother
that very hour.
    From that moment, Khepri’s life had changed forever. Why she thought of
that now, she wasn’t sure. But she didn’t have time to wonder whether she was
receiving some sort of premonition. Aware now of the many faces turned her way,
Khepri strode with more confidence than she felt through the gates of the
temple and down the stone-paved road to the quay beside the river.
    The barge was exactly as she’d envisioned it—a red-painted hull with gold
symbols surrounding the prow, calling to the gods of the river and the
creatures who inhabited it. Ropes were flung over the side. Dockworkers
scrambled to tie off the barge. The usual jovial shouts and coarse language
were absent. All were on their best behavior, taking their cues from her quiet
demeanor.
    As the plank was raised and tipped over the side of the boat to land with
a shudder against the wooden quay, Khepri schooled her features into a polite
but remote mask and strode down the pier.
    The vizier was the first off the