The Queen Of Gods

Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

A tight ball of anger rested in the pit of my stomach as I stood in the entrance to my temple. Rubble littered the floor, the remains of columns, walls, and statues.

The High Priestess of this temple rushed towards me, a horrified expression on her face. Perhaps I should have warned them I was coming. I hadn't thought about that.

"Your Eminence." She bowed low. "I'm so sorry for what's happened here. I was tending to the girls when they arrived..."

"It's all right, Anku," I assured her. "I came to check you were all okay."

"Oh." She blinked a couple of times as she tried to process what I'd said. Perhaps she'd heard of some of the other gods becoming angry when their temples were damaged.

I had more important things on my mind, though. This was the temple where we taught the trainee priestesses. Some of them as young as five. And unlike me, the demi-goddesses who served me could be killed.

"Is anyone hurt?" I asked. "I can send back to the main temple for some of Serket's healer priestesses."

"Only Senebsima," she assured me. "But it isn't serious. Just a cut from where she was pushed aside."

My anger began to bubble away inside me. "What happened? I was only told that the temple was attacked, not the details."

"Why don't you come inside properly, Your Eminence? There's some wine and fruit we can put out..."

I shook my head. "I'll come inside, but save the food and drink you have for the journey to the main temple. I can't let you stay here."

Her expression warred between relief and regret. I imagined she didn't like the idea of leaving her own domain and entering someone else's. But I couldn't have them stay here. With the amount of damage that had been done, any protection spells would have been ruined, and if Seth's men came back again, they could risk being even more injured.

"Would you excuse me for a moment to talk to the others and let them start packing?" she asked, nerves filling her words. She didn't like being so unsure about what she should be doing. Probably because I so rarely visited this temple. I had to change that. If it was worth saving.

I nodded. "I want to have a look at what's been done anyway, then I'll know what to tell Ptah's builders."

"You're going to fix it?" Anku's eyes lit up. This was what she'd been hoping for, but she hadn't dared to tell me directly. My heart broke a little bit. I thought I'd created a good environment for my priestesses to work in, but it seemed that wasn't the case.

"If we can, then yes. We'll see what Ptah's priests say." It was the best I could do. Work on this scale would probably take decades to fix.

Seth was going to pay for this. It wasn't like this was my favourite temple, but that didn't mean I didn't care about it. I wanted all of my temples to be safe places, filled with laughter and joy.

And he'd filled this one with pain.

Anku disappeared, no doubt to find the other priestesses. With the small girls to account for, they'd have a lot of work to do in packing everything up. Luckily, I had enough space for them all in the lodging back at Karnak.

I paced the room, being careful not to step on any of the sharp pieces of rubble. Pottery shards littered the floor among the stones, and there were some patches of damp, probably caused by water or wine.

None of it was irreplaceable, unlike the people who called this place home. I was relieved they weren't hurt, other than Senebsima, and that she wasn't hurt badly, but it only went a small way towards quenching my anger.

All that being here was achieving was convincing me that Ma'at was right. Seth needed to be stopped, and no matter what, Horus was going to agree to help with that.

I stubbed my toe against a smashed statue. The head rolled against the floor, revealing my own face staring back at me, the nose chipped off in the fall. I hoped it wasn't some kind of prophecy for how I'd end up. I had no idea if I could be permanently maimed. I'd always wondered, but it hadn't been the kind of thing I wanted to try.

"They're all packing now, Your Eminence," Anku said, stepping back into the room.

"Good. Now, tell me what happened." I would have had her sit first, but it didn't seem like there was anywhere good to.

She chewed on her lip, probably working out where to start. "We were about to start morning lessons. That's why I was with the girls and couldn't save any of this..." She waved around the room.

"I'm glad you were with them," I said, making sure to keep my tone soft and the anger out of it. I wasn't feeling any of it towards her anyway. She'd done the right thing in protecting the lives of the younger priestesses. I'd always want her to do that over protecting some stone effigies.

It wasn't like I was going to be forgotten any time soon, anyway, so it wasn't even that dangerous for my name to be destroyed in one temple. Even if I had been at risk, then I wouldn't have wanted her to protect me over children. I supposed I could have put that feeling down to my motherhood aspect, but I wasn't convinced. It seemed to be a perfectly reasonable response to people I cared about nearly being killed.

"Than what happened?" I prompted when she didn't continue.

"Three men came in, I think one of them was another god. They started smashing things and laughing. I took the girls to the back of the temple so they couldn't hear anything, and hoped they wouldn't come that far..."

The anger didn't want to be contained any more. They'd feared for more than their lives.

"Did they do anything to anyone?" The words came out low and cold. If Seth was standing in front of me, I could have ripped him to shreds with my bare hands. No one would be calling me the Goddess of Joy after that.

"No. They left after giving me a message. They said to tell you that Seth said to stop."

I shook my head. "Of course they did." I hadn't needed to hear his name to know he was behind this. No one else would have even considered destroying one of my temples. Even Horus, and he claimed to hate me.

I took a deep breath, surveying the damage again.

"I'm glad you're all safe. Please, make for Karnak as soon as you can. There'll be lodgings and positions waiting for you, and plenty of space for the children. Do any of them have families?" I asked. Some demi-goddesses were abandoned as children, others lived out in the human world until they stumbled upon us, but there were some who came from families already living in the temple compounds.

She nodded. "Three or four."

"I thought so. Send word to their families now. If they wish to join their daughters, I'll ensure that there are rooms supplied for them. If they need me to speak to one of the other gods on their behalf, let me know, and it will be arranged."

Her eyes widened. Perhaps she hadn't expected me to suggest any of that. "Thank you, Your Eminence, I know the families will be more than grateful."

"They don't need to be. It's only right for families to be kept together. The girls have been through enough." I pushed the thoughts to the side before I let my anger get the better of me.

"I'll see it done," she promised.

"Thank you, Anku. Please, send word when you're at Karnak and we'll work out your position among my household. I promise it won't be a demotion, but I don't know how long this will take to rebuild, and we need to find a way to continue the girls' education." She was a good High Priestess, and they were hard to come by. The last thing I wanted to happen was for her to think I didn't care about that once she was under the management of her counterpart at Karnak.

"Thank you." She dipped her head.

"I need to go see Ptah about the damage here, but if you need anything, please let me know." That was a slight lie. I wasn't going to see the creator god straight away, I had other things to do first.

Including getting ready for a showdown with Horus. But I wasn't about to tell her about the inner workings of my day. She had enough to worry about with moving everyone.

"Thank you for everything you've done," I assured her before I left. I refused to become one of those goddesses who no longer cared about the people who served her, and if the past few days had taught me anything, it was that I was starting to become one.

Now was as good a time as any to change that.