“My lady, when did you ever take vows?You were simply born to be what you are.You’ve never chosen such a thing. Your vows, so to speak, were inherent.”
My throat tightened.How right he was.I had certainly never chosen.
“But you can change it,”he added.“The bloodstone is very, very powerful.Using it, you can change your situation.You can disavow the Order and live a normal life- a life that doesn’t end in tragedy.If you choose,”he added.
“I am weary of listening to this!”I snapped. “You have brought me here to a place where I should no longer be… and to make it worse, you brought Pothinus here as well, and now the treacherous snake has stolen my bloodstone.”
“Ah, Pothinus the eunuch,”Annen sighed.“That poor soul is lost.He is evil through and through.There’s no hope for him.”
Bewildered, I stared at him.“Then why would you reveal the Order’s secrets to him?Your mother’s secrets?”
“I did no such thing,”he objected, his black eyes flashing.“Before he died, he unearthed secret scrolls that were well-hidden, scrolls about the Order.He already knew.I only brought him here so that you could see that if you chose a different path, it wouldn’t matter.But things are going so wrong.”
He stared at Cleopatra.“I’m sorry, my queen.I have failed you.”
“Why do you say that?”Cleopatra asked softly.
She had seated herself behind Annen’s desk, her slender legs curled beneath her.As she spoke, she sifted absently through the piles of scrolls.
She unrolled another scroll, gazing at the scrawling Egyptian written in bold, black ink.I only caught a glimpse of scrawled incantations to Anubis before Annen gasped and hurried around the desk, gathering it away from her with his talon-like fingers.
“I’m sorry, my queen.I mean no disrespect, but there is some magic that is much too dangerous for you to be exposed to.”He quickly rolled it back up and stacked it with the mounds of others along the wall behind him.
“If it is so dangerous, Annen, perhaps you should not leave it out in the open,”Cleopatra admonished lightly, but she didn’t ask any further questions about it.She turned to me.
“Charmian, what else would you like to ask this priest?”Her face was drenched in weariness and I found myself wishing that I could take her concern away for her.But I couldn’t, because I felt it myself.
“I want to know how I am going to get back home if we can’t retrieve my bloodstone from the eunuch. And I’d like to retrieve it before he uses it for something horrible.”
“My lady, I thought you knew.Your bloodstone is tied to you, in every way.There is no way that Pothinus can use the magic of your bloodstone unless you are present and wearing it.On that same note, there is also no way that you can leave here without it.”
I felt a lead weight drop into my stomach and I stared wordlessly at him.
“Why?”I whispered. “Why have you done this?In bringing me here, you have wrecked everything that I have worked for for so long.”
He nodded miserably.“Yes, my lady.I know.I have failed our queen and I have failed you.I meant only to help, to help you escape what killed my mother…”his voice trailed off as he dropped to his knees, his ancient back curving as he groveled at Cleopatra’s feet.
“Please forgive me, your highness,”he begged.“I did not mean to inflict this onto you.”
“Please stand,”she asked, pulling at his arm.“We need your help now, not theatrics. I am sure you meant no harm.”
He raised sad eyes to her.“No, my queen, I meant only to help. I saw the future and I knew what would happen if I did nothing.But now it is being used against Egypt and I am very sorry for that.”
“You meant no harm,”I murmured.“What else can you tell us?”
“What else would you like to know?”He rose slowly to his feet and folded his hands in front of him, waiting for the onslaught of questions as the light from the lamp flickered on the wall behind him.
“Annen, we have to get my bloodstone back from Pothinus.Speed is of the essence now. I will discuss the secrets of the Order withyou later… I am curious as to what you know that I do not. But for now, I need my bloodstone.”
Annen shifted his wise gaze from me to the queen and then back again, eerily calm.When he finally spoke, it wasn’t reassuring.
“My lady, I will happily speak to you at any time that you wish.But you should know that your situation right now is certainly dire.Maybe even more so than you realize.”
Cleopatra and I eyed each other apprehensively.How could it be even more dire?
He turned to face me before he continued, impaling me with his intense stare.He shook his head and my gaze was drawn to the large black discs in his earlobes.They had to be at least two inches in diameter.Amazing. It must have taken years to work up to that size.Gazing at his gnarled hands and wrinkled face, I tried to imagine how old he was.
He pierced me again with his onyx stare and opened his mouth, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted when another priest quickly entered the chambers.
“Annen, we require your assistance.Thutmose has fallen- his ankle is broken.I can see the bone.Can you bring your herbs? We need to make a poultice to wrap it with.”With a quick bow to Cleopatra, the other priest was back out the doors and Annen turned once again to us.
“I’m sorry, my ladies.My services are required.But we can discuss this further at a later date.”
“How about this evening?”Cleopatra suggested.“Please come as my guest to dinner tonight.We can discuss it further then.As you know, time is of the essence.”
“Of course, your highness.It would be my great honor.”Bowing low, he rose slowly and gathered a few foul-smelling jars from the dark shelves behind him.We followed him out and when we came to a T in the hallway, he turned to me.