Sita woke to the sound of a falcon crying.
She sat up in bed with a gasp, startling Nebet. The older woman sat in a chair by her side, mending a hole in one of her fine dresses.
“It’s all right, dear,” she said, patting Sita’s hand. “It’s all right.”
“What was that?” Sita asked, looking out the window into the thick darkness. There was no falcon in sight, yet it had sounded so close…
“Hmm? I didn’t hear anything.” Nebet’s voice was strange. She fumbled her sewing needle, and picked it back up with shaking fingers. “Go back to sleep, Princess. You need your rest.”
Sita rubbed her eyes. Nebet had found her wandering the palace halls after her father’s death earlier in the day and escorted her back to her chambers. She’d been so distraught, she hadn’t told Nebet about Mery’s intention to make her his queen. Shedimly remembered falling into bed and crying herself to sleep. But that had been in the afternoon… Had she really slept through the day and into the night?
Outside, she heard a distant commotion. A dull clatter of footsteps. Alarmed voices that were quickly stifled.
“What time is it?” she asked, suddenly feeling an inexplicable sense of urgency. “What’s going on?”
Nebet’s lip twitched. “Nothing you need concern yourself with, Sitamun. Best if you stay here with me.” There was an unspoken coda to that sentence.Where it’s safe.
Unease bloomed in the pit of her stomach. She’d assumed that since Mery told her about his plot to kill their father, he’d shared all his secrets. But he hadn’t said a word about his plan to marry her. That he’d kept in the dark. What other plans would be brought into the light, now that the king was dead?
“Nebet,” she said, “I command you to tell me what’s happening.”
The older woman stared at the dress. She clutched it so tightly that her knuckles turned white. There was a long pause before she finally spoke.
“A little while ago, one of the other attendants informed me that seven of the king’s personal guard have been killed.”
“Killed?” Horrified, Sita threw the covers aside and went to Nebet.Was Femi one of them?Her heart raced. “How?”
“All I know is that the prince himself ordered their deaths. It is… upsetting…” Nebet’s face crumpled, but she quickly recovered her composure. “But I trust he had his reasons. It is not my place to question the will of a pharaoh.” She reached out and gripped one of Sita’s hands. “Neither is it yours.”
Sita pulled her hand away. “How can you say that? What possible reason could he have for such savagery?” Her voice was high and a little hysterical. “I have to find Femi.”
“Sitamun,please.” Nebet clung to her, her face filled withterror. “Don’t go. I implore you.”
Sita narrowed her eyes. She’d known Nebet all her life. She could tell when the woman was keeping something more from her. “What aren’t you telling me?”
The attendant pressed her lips into a thin line.
She’d commanded the woman to speak, and yet still she held back.What could be worse than the deaths of the guards?
“Nebet!” she cried in frustration. She was about to grab the older woman by the shoulders and shake her until she confessed, when Mery’s words came back to her.
You and me…we belong together…my twin…my mirror.
Was it true? Were she and Mery so alike? In the past, such a comparison would have made her proud, but no longer. Her brother may have started out with good intentions, but he’d gone too far. He justified one murder in the name of the greater good, but clearly it hadn’t ended there. Where would he stop? How could she have not seen it sooner? And what had keeping that secret done to her? She nearly assaulted her beloved Nebet for trying to keep her safe. A fresh wave of self-loathing washed over her.
If it’s not true, she thought,if you’re really not like him, then prove it.
Be the one thing Mery could never be.
Honest.
She took a deep, calming breath. “Let me bring you some water,” she said to Nebet.
The attendant, who’d been watching her with apprehension, slowly relaxed. When Sita brought her a cup, she wrapped her hands around it like a talisman.
“Thank you,” she said, and took a sip. Sita knelt before her, a gesture which seemed to take Nebet by surprise. “Sitamun?”
“I love you, Nebet.” Sita had never said it before, though she hoped her actions had. “You have been more of a mother to methan my own, and you’ve given me more devotion than I deserve.”
