But Ahmose is not like the Overseers or the Gleaners. He is not a mindless tool of Ka. And as Eidhin would say, there has to be a line.
I step back from the glowing glyphs as I hit the last one, the two of us relaxing only once the dark stone folds away to reveal an empty street beyond.I slap the iunctus on the shoulder, making him flinch and glare around at me. I grin back and push him forward. Glad, again, that I made the decision I did. For all his testiness, Ahmose is also brave when it matters. Determined. He knows I’m an enemy of Ka, knows I’m planning something, and is increasingly intent on helping.
He’s become a true companion. Arealcompanion, flaws and frustrations and all. I’ve needed that, hiding like a rat beneath the living tomb of Neter-khertet.
“The building the message told us to meet behind won’t be far. It’s right near another tunnel entrance. Next to the river. We should be safe.” The banks of the Infernis are generally avoided, even by the iunctii. It’s no secret what will happen to anyone who falls in.
We make our way along quiet green-lit streets, the heavy menace of Neter-khertet glowering around us. It’s not just the colour meshed with the darkness of the obsidian surface. It’s that it’s soclean. So unremarkable in its uniformity. There are no cracks, no scars on any surface. There are statues and obelisks, astounding colonnades and temples inscribed with thousands of intricate gilded symbols. But it is all oddly characterless.Lifeless.
It embodies Duat’s western half so well, I suppose, that it’s impossible for its inhabitants to ever forget its purpose.
I lead us around a corner and down a series of stairs, quickly reaching the deserted courtyard behind the building. The river is visible from here, not a hundred feet away, the warning green lines running along its depths illuminating the rushing water. Another option I’ve considered, and reconsidered, and discarded each time. It’s one and a half miles wide, at least. Certainly swimmable. But even if it wouldn’t mean leaving Ahmose behind, and even if Caeror’s extra Vitaerium protected me enough that my body did not succumb to the poisons in the water, it’s too open. I would almost certainly be seen.
“There’s the entrance.” I nod to the seemingly blank wall as we stop. No way to open it from out here, but I did use this exit a few weeks ago. It was the easiest route out after another discovery of a filled-in tunnel.
“You think it’s a coincidence?”
“I doubt it.” The way beneath the river might be blocked off, but there are plenty of other areas in Neter-khertet this tunnel can reach. And Netiqret, from what little I’ve been able to glean, is nothing if not private. I close my eyes, check the location of the Overseer I’m still imbuing. She’s to the north, perhapstwenty minutes away. I instruct her to move in this direction as far as she can without raising any suspicion.
We wait in uneasy silence, undisturbed, for a while. Alternately watching the entrance I know is there, and the eerie green luminescence of the Infernis. From somewhere across the water, the wails and chants of a funerary procession echo to us.
“These iunctii appear to be from not long after the Rending,” I mutter suddenly.
At my side, Ahmose twitches uneasily. “What?”
“I …” I blink. Brow furrowed. “I don’t know. Sorry. Lost in thought.” There was more there, too, for a second. Gone now. A strange phrase to have so absently jumped to mind, though.
He casts me a confused, mildly worried glance, but before either of us can say more, there’s a soft grinding and we both tense as the triangular door I knew was there folds away, revealing access to the illuminated set of glinting black stairs.
The woman waiting on the other side looks to be in her fifties, perhaps older. Handsome and poised, more than a few touches of grey in her black hair, which is a thick, shoulder-length bob. She smiles. Her eyes, shadowed with makeup, do not as they sweep the area.
Behind her there’s movement, and to my vague consternation I spot a small child. A girl, not more than ten years old. A cherubic face and long hair plaited into three strands, one down her back and one over each shoulder. She stands oddly, unnaturally patient, her hands clasped behind her back. Just watching as the older woman finally speaks.
“Thank you for coming.” Vetusian, but it’s a rich, cultured accent, clipped and precise. “I trust you had no trouble getting here?”
“None,” I assure her before Ahmose can reply.
“Good.” The woman assesses our surrounds once more. “Remove your head coverings.”
Ahmose and I do so. The woman considers us, then steps back and bows her head. The child with her leans forward and whispers something in her ear.
“Neither of you arranged this meeting with Netiqret.” She addresses me, apparently deciding I’m in charge.
“I did. Just not in person.”
Her lips purse. “And how did you come by his name?”
“It was mentioned by a friend.”
“The name of this friend?”
“Djedef.”
She frowns. Bends down to listen to something else the girl has to say, then straightens and nods a curt acknowledgement to me. “Come.” Without waiting for a response, she swivels and starts back into the yawning stairwell.
“You’re taking us to Netiqret?”
“Yes.”
