The Queen Of Gods

Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

"Are you sure Horus won't mind you being gone this long?" I asked Khonsu between breaths. The mountain was both easier and tougher going than I'd expected, but at least that meant I could talk with my companion.

He chuckled in response. "What's a few days to a god?"

I shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I've never felt the way you two do about one another towards anyone."

"Woah, we don't feel anything. It's just sex."

"Tell that to the look on your face whenever you say his name," I pointed out. "Don't forget I'm..."

"The goddess of love," he finished for me. "It's annoying that you're the goddess of practically everything."

I shrugged. "I can't help it."

"I know. But there has to be something you don't know anything about."

"I'm a solar goddess not a lunar one?" I turned down the small dirt path which appeared to spiral up the very tip of the mountain. We should be at Atum's temple within the next fifteen minutes, which was a relief. I didn't like how long it had taken us to get here. Nor how isolating the trek had been. Not when there were so many other things we should be doing back at Karnak.

"Nice try. We both know that doesn't really mean anything."

"Hey, I tried," I protested.

And it really wasn't my fault that I was the goddess of so many things. Humans had done that to me, it wasn't something I'd decided for myself. Though some of them did link together nicely, and I liked that.

"So what is going on between you and Horus?" I asked after a few moments of silence.

Khonsu sighed. "Something? Nothing? I couldn't tell you. That god is a closed book that no one can read."

"For what it's worth, I think he likes you."

"How could you possibly know that? He barely gives you the time of day, never mind intimate details about his emotions," Khonsu pointed out.

"You may be right, there. But some things, I can sense. And when I said your name the other day..."

"You said my name while blackmailing him?" Hurt threaded through the man's voice.

"No, I promise I didn't. I mean, I didn't even blackmail him in the end."

"Wait, but wasn't that why you were going in the first place?" he asked.

"It was. And I was ready to do it. But while I was there, I realised he had to come to the decision on his own terms, like I did. It isn't up to me to blackmail anyone. That's not my style anyway."

"Isn't it exactly what Ma'at did to you?" he asked.

"Hmm. Not really. She threatened to blackmail me, but I doubt she'd actually have done it. This agenda of hers has definitely loosened her up, but I don't think she'd compromise herself that way. How would she be able to carry out her job if she did?" Justice was important to her, and she wouldn't betray that to get what she wanted. Which might have made what she did to me an empty threat, but I supposed that didn't particularly matter once I'd decided I was going to do what she wanted anyway.

"But Horus said he'd been thinking about what you said yesterday morning. Before we left," Khonsu mused.

Ah. So that was where he'd been. I had wondered, but felt like it was rude to ask without the topic being raised by him first.

"I'm glad to hear it," I admitted. "But that wasn't to do with blackmail. I just reminded him of his past battle with Seth, and what our duty to humankind was. I didn't expect him to be responding to it so soon, actually."

"He was distracted all night." Khonsu pouted at that.

I let out a snort, before trying to cover it with a cough. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh. It's just hard to imagine Horus in such a tender moment."

"We can talk about your bedchamber visitors instead," he suggested.

"That would be a very boring conversation," I assured him. "I can't remember the last time I took a lover." Even that had become boring over time, and it would take someone special to change that.

"Then why was there a man's perfume lingering in your chambers when I went to play with Ura?"

"I thought you only liked to play with Horus' snake," I teased.

Khonsu smirked, the amusement shining through his eyes. "And sometimes, I like to play with something smaller."

A wry chuckle escaped me.

Our conversation paused for a moment as we came to a set of stairs carved into the mountain side. There was no denying they would make things easier to climb. I supposed the whole place was designed to be difficult, but not impossible. A temple would only have been set up in order for human worshipers to visit.

"We must be getting close," Khonsu observed as we began to climb.

"Yes." Excitement and nerves warred within me. I was looking forward to potentially convincing another god to join our cause, but at the same time, I'd never stood before anyone as old as Atum before, and I knew it wasn't going to be easy.

"But you still haven't told me who was in your chambers?" he prompted as he held back a stray branch so I could step past.

"Thank you." I took it from him so he could come past without it hitting him too. "And it was Amun. He decided to pay me a visit."

"You found him?" It was impossible to miss the surprise in his voice.

"I think it was more a case of he found me."

"Did you persuade him to join Ma'at's cause?"

Ah. Now there was a loaded question. I hadn't persuaded him at all, but that was mostly because I hadn't even asked yet. I'd been too distracted with the way he made me feel. But somehow, that felt like something I wasn't ready to admit out loud.

"No, not yet," I said. "But I'm working on it." His ankh rested heavily in my pocket, reminding me of what he said. Perhaps after we returned from persuading Atum, I'd call on him, and I'd say what I needed to before I let him get too close.

"That's a shame. If we could have secured Atum today, and had Amun ready, then we'd only have to finish convincing Horus, and your job would be done," he said.

"Hmm." Somehow, I didn't think it was going to be as easy as that.

I was saved from answering when we turned another corner and came face to face with the place we came to visit.

I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight before me. Atum's temple was nothing like I'd expected it to be. It was fairly squat, with the entrance and windows carved into the mountain itself. There was no doubt that it felt right for the god who supposedly created everything. Including himself.

Nature had reclaimed part of the temple, with lush vegetation curling around the statues and giving it a wild look. There wasn't anything like it at sea level. There couldn't be. The monuments there were either too well looked after, or two far away from the Nile for this to happen. But with the cool breeze at the top of the mountain, the plant life had flourished.

I suspected there was something magical about the place. Something Atum had created to give himself some peace. But that didn't detract from the beauty of it.

"Why do I feel like it would be disrespectful to go inside?" Khonsu whispered.

"I don't know, but I get it." The feeling was one which had come over me too. It was probably an old protection spell that still emanated power. The stronger ones could last for thousands of years with ease.

"We could go back, pretend we tried..."

I snorted. "And Ma'at would send me right back." I paused for a moment and considered my options. I really didn't feel like I could step inside, despite knowing I had to. "You don't have to come, if you don't want to, though."

"I do," he countered. "I've come this far. Not going with you for the final part of the journey feels like some kind of betrayal."

I smiled uneasily. "Then let's get this over with."

After taking a steadying breath, I stepped forward and towards the temple. If Horus couldn't scare me away, then I wasn't about to let an old protection spell. Especially when I wasn't doing anything that needed protecting from. I was here to ask for help. Nothing more. I could do this.

Khonsu followed me, with a similar hesitation in his stride. I hoped this wasn't a sign of what was to come once we got inside.