The Queen Of Gods

Chapter 5

Chapter Five

If I got to Horus' temple and found him there sulking, then he was going to have a reeducation about the word wrath and what it meant. He was lucky he hadn't seen it from me already, given the disrespect he showed to me and my followers at every turn. But hurting Khonsu would be a whole other level for him.

Deep down, I knew Horus wouldn't have done anything on purpose, but that wasn't doing much to cool my annoyance. I'd only just finished one stupid quest that involved tracking down gods, including him. I didn't need another one, no matter who I was doing it for.

"He's not here," the priest at the door said the moment I entered.

I sighed. "If he's told you to say that, then..."

"No, Your Eminence, I promise. This time it isn't an order from Horus." The priest frowned, no doubt wondering why I was here given how badly my last visits had gone. I felt sorry for him. I didn't imagine it would be a particularly pleasant being trapped between two gods who wanted to get one up on each other. A small part of me regretted putting him in that position. But then, Horus was his master. He was the one who should have controlled the situation.

"He's really not here?" I tapped my foot softly against the floor, hoping he understood how angry I was going to get if he was messing with me.

"No." His voice shook as he said the word.

"Then you won't mind if I take a look then, will you?"

I didn't wait for him to respond, and swept through the archway to my left. The temple is strangely deserted, though there hadn't been many people hanging around before anyway. Perhaps Horus had ordered all of his priests to leave so he could sulk in peace. That sounded like him.

But the priest at the door had said he wasn't here. I had to admit that the truth in that statement did seem a bit more likely with the lack of people.

But I had to be sure. I wasn't sure whether or not I wanted Horus to actually be inside his bed chambers or not. For one thing, I didn't want to see whatever he was up to. But him being there would make things easier for Khonsu. He wouldn't have to worry about what had happened to the other god.

Despite my distaste for some of Horus' choices, a sense of dread settled in my stomach. I didn't think I was going to find him here. I had no idea where he was, or what he was up to, but he wasn't going to be here.

I still had to make sure. I'd look foolish if I went on a mission to find him, only for him to have been there the entire time.

The curtain between the antechamber and Horus' private sanctuary fluttered in a light breeze, only increasing the unease I was already feeling.

This wasn't good.

A whiff of something rotten reached me with the next flicker of fabric. My eyes widened. What had happened here?

I pushed the curtain aside and entered the room, the stench growing stronger as I entered. This wasn't good. At all. Gods couldn't die, but that didn't mean something horrible hadn't been done to Horus. I might not like him, but I didn't want him to be hurt. It would set a bad precedent for whoever was doing this.

Flies buzzed around the room, covering something on the bed. I gagged. Whatever was lying there, it wasn't a good thing. It never was.

I waved my arms at them, and they moved out of the way, but it wasn't enough to make sense of what I was seeing.

A sheet stuck out from whatever it was on the bed, and seeing no other option I tugged on it. Whatever it was the flies were attracted to was heavier than I expected it to be. I tugged harder, and the whole thing slid off the bed with a loud thump. The flies buzzed around, going into a frenzy above me. At least they'd been put off by the sensation, though the same couldn't be said about the smell. Moving the thing from the bed had only made that worse, instead of better.

I gagged, but turned my attention to what was in front of me all the same. From the lack of noise coming from the sheet, I had to assume that it wasn't Horus lying there. Which was a good start.

It took me a few moments to work out what I was looking at. Or that I was looking at two different things. They'd been dead for a while, hence the flies and the smell. I imagined the heat wasn't helping with that either. If the carcasses had been left outside, then they'd have dried out, but that wasn't what had gone on.

And it had turned rancid. A lump formed and bile threatened my throat. If I wasn't careful, I was going to throw up my breakfast.

Hooves, feathers, and horns made up the tableaux in front of me. If I'd seen them while they were lying in the position they'd been in on the bed, then perhaps there would have been more of a message for me. But it was too late now. Besides, it was pretty clear already.

One of the cows from a temple thirty miles from here, and one of Horus' sacred hawks, lay dead in front of me. They hadn't been treated with the proper dignity that should be offered to any animal, never mind one that was sacred to a god or goddess, which left only one culprit. No one else would be capable of it. Most gods and goddesses held a reverence for their sacred animals, but Seth's approach was no doubt different. Which made sense. His sacred animal didn't actually exist. I'd heard it was simply referred to as a Set animal by the humans today. What they didn't know, was that it had confused us all back in ancient times too. My theory on the matter was that Seth didn't want to be associated with any one creature and wanted to make himself special. Or his followers did.

I should call for some of Horus' priests to tend to the hawk, and some of my priestesses for the cow. They might have been treated badly as they died, but I would make sure they had the proper rites for their afterlives. But it was cruel to make any of our people go through with moving the creatures as they were. And I didn't want anyone to see the tableaux and spread rumours about what had happened.

Which meant I needed to get them ready to be seen. The flies were starting to settle on the bodies again, turning them into a carpet of black.

I wiped away a tear. Now wasn't the time for that. I'd start by burning some incense to mask the smell and clear out the pests, then I'd focus on cleaning the two magnificent creatures in front of me. Once that was done, and only then, I could call for priests and priestesses to carry out the rest of the rites.