Chapter 34. The Rescue
"No!" Demir cried out, his fists clenched, clawing into the weave of the linen shirt he wore. "Ay is killing everyone because of us! We represented an inconceivable danger to this evil puppet master."
The bodies of the three were shaken by convulsive, uncontrollable weeping when the setting shifted once more, and they came to rest in Queen Meritmut’s bedchamber.
There, in the warm gloom of the room lit only by the flickering flame of a sesame oil lamp, Meritmut and Meritbastet knelt upon a woven reed mat. Pressed tightly between their joined palms, they desperately held a miniature figurine of the goddess Bastet, sculpted from dark bronze. The figurine—a sacred cat sitting proudly upon its hind legs—had two minuscule eyes of green malachite that gleamed mystically in the semi-darkness, catching the glint of the fire.
The two women pressed their foreheads against the cold metal of the statuette, sharing the same agony and the same divine hope. Their hot tears streamed down the bronze back of the goddess, leaving glistening tracks.
"O, Bastet, protector of the hearth and mother to the innocent," Meritmut whispered, her voice broken by sobs, whilst her trembling fingers stroked the alert ears of the figurine. "Show your boundless power and loving-kindness! Protect these children whose only fault is their bodily wholeness. Take their pure and blameless souls into your care, and we promise to serve you forever. O, Bastet, in this life and in all lives to come, we shall be faithful to you alone!"
Meritbastet swayed gently to the rhythm of an ancient incantation, pressing her lips to the stone plinth of the miniature. She could feel her heart hammering like a fleeing wild creature.
"You, who banish the shadows of the night and shield infants from the venom of serpents, have mercy upon my sister’s son, the little Prince Peryaton, and snatch him from the path of the heinous Ay. Have mercy, great, all-powerful, and truth-loving Bastet, upon my sister’s second son, Prince Quaaton too! And we, now and in all lives, whether in the bodies of women or in white feline bodies, shall be faithful to you alone!"
Their prayer—a blend of lamentation and sacred spell—filled the chamber with a dense, almost palpable energy. Beyond the barrier of the ether, Remi and the children felt the vibration of those desperate whispers begin to soothe their troubled souls, but what followed in the very next second was entirely beyond their expectations.
Into the queen's bedchamber, stepping out from that archaic version of a mirror of time, walked Shehrazad, younger than they had ever known her. She was enshrouded in long, black garments. She was still wearing her mourning clothes for the family so brutally torn away from her.
At the sight of the woman in black, the two sisters stopped their prayer abruptly. The striking resemblance between Shehrazad and Queen Tiye stole their very breath!
"M-mother... glorious Tiye!" one of them stammered.
Shehrazad gathered the two sisters into a tight embrace and, pointing towards the infants sleeping upon their mother's bed, said simply:
"Quickly, Ay is heading this way, accompanied by a few of his loyal men. Today, he will proclaim himself Pharaoh!"
Meritmut lifted one of the children into her arms, Meritbastet the other, and without further explanation, they entrusted the infants to Shehrazad, who stepped back into the waters of the mirror and vanished.
"That explains a great deal..." Remi whispered, squeezing the children's hands as they witnessed the transformation of the two sisters into graceful white cats, in the very second before the bedchamber doors were violently flung open.
"The Queen! Where is Meritmut? Marriage to her will ease my ascent to the throne!" the High Priest Ay thundered. "Search everywhere! And the twins! Find me the infants!"
In a fit of rage, he kicked a copper vessel, then strained and, with the help of a soldier, overturned its entire contents onto the floor of the queen's chamber.
Two white, feline silhouettes slipped nimbly between the legs of the intruders and, in the blink of an eye, vanished from sight.
Within the ether wall, upon the faces of the three, the bitter tears gave way to broad smiles of satisfaction.
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