Within the Branches of Alternity
Jeff Young
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Jeff Young
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3. The Bull and the Bellsnickel
Rough stitchery joined the jackal’s head to the man’s neck. The severed head in the corpse’s lap was turned so that the eyes were looking at this unnatural surgery. He was seated, legs crossed, leaning against a hieroglyph covered wall. A hank of his dark wig was tied to a reed imitating a flail and placed in his right hand. The left hand held another reed twisted into the curve of a crook. Trails of blood radiated outward across the wall, but they were not the spray from a wound, rather painted outwards as though rays extending from the victim’s head. The tongue was also gone from the corpse’s head and showed protruding from the jaws of the jackal.
Nemtari cursed her perfect memory, wishing that the horror of what she saw could be erased; excised like the images of the Old Gods from the walls of the temples of Karnak. She pulled her black shawl tight drawing in a ragged breath. But she was an Eye of Horus and as Aten had supplanted the old ways; her destiny overwhelmed any thought of a normal life. She turned and bolted down the walkway to escape the scene of the butchery of yet another innocent. Blessed with a perfect memory, further honed by the endless testing of the priests- she could never forget.
Fortunately, Nemtari ran headlong into her guardian. His rough hands caught her and spun her around thrusting the beaten gold mask into her hands. Even though she hated the wretched thing, it was familiar and in that way a comfort. So like a hawk, she allowed herself to be hooded to calm her racing mind. The cleverly designed eye slits only allowed her to look down so that she could move without stumbling. If she was like a hawk then her guardian was the jesses that kept her from flying free. She reached out a hand and he placed it onto his shoulder and led her out into the streets of Karnak.
Even though she was trained as an observer, her mind was drawn to the similarities of the prior murders. Instead she focused on the accelerated beating of her heart. Thinking about the other three cases would bring the images into absolute clarity, making her re-live the witnessing once again. She had to preserve the completeness of her current impressions for Essora, the guardian of the Living Light, Pharaoh Akhenaton.