“I see,” the high priest said. “And I expect you brought her here to train under my tutelage?”
The high priestess bowed her head. “As the preeminent Hour priest of Khetara, I thought it best, Master. Perhaps if you teach her, she will be able to interpret the goddess’s message.”
Neff was amazed. She’d never be able to afford the services of an Hour priest to understand her dreams, and now she was meant to become one? For all her fear, the idea filled her with excitement.
Master Montuhotep crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. “I don’t know. A common girl…”
“Not the first,” High Priestess Karo said. “There are records of other children exhibiting a special connection to the gods, speaking their will unto man.” She paused, then added, “You forget that I was once a common girl as well. Unless you also doubt my right to the priesthood?”
The Master scoffed. “Of course not. But you know as well asI that the honor is most often passed from father to son. This is… highly irregular.”
The high priestess smiled and opened both her palms to the sky. “The gods work in mysterious ways.”
Master Montuhotep looked as if he had tasted something bitter and nodded. “Very well. I will do… what I can.”
High Priestess Karo bowed her head. “The goddess expects nothing less.” Neff could have sworn there was a threat laced between those words.
Master Montuhotep turned to Neff, his lip curled slightly in distaste. “You will come with me. These walls are sacred, and one must be cleansed of the…taintof the outside world in order to remain within them. Do you understand?”
“Yes, um, Master,” Neff replied, and started to follow.
“Just a moment, please,” the high priestess said. She put an arm around Neff’s shoulder and pulled her aside, into Amun’s shadow. “Now listen to me, child,” she said in a low, furtive voice. “The priests here are holy men, yes, but they are men still. The master will keep his word, but he and the others will not appreciate your presence in their domain. Just because you are allowed inside the temple does not mean you are welcome there. Take care in what you do. Watch. Listen. Do not disclose anything you don’t have to. And above all—choose your friends carefully. A good friend is a gift, but a bad one can lead to ruin.”
Neff’s pulse raced as she listened. The high priestess’s words reminded her too much of her mother’s. But the Mistress Karo wasn’t her mother. In fact, they’d only met that morning.
“Why are you helping me like this?” Neff asked.
The high priestess considered the question. “Because I was once like you. I thought perhaps I could save you from some of my mistakes.” A sad smile graced her face. “But it is really more for me than for you. You must make your own mistakes, Nefermaat.We all must. Just remember: you may doubt yourself, but never doubt the goddess. You are on this path because she deemed it so. Stay on it, no matter where it leads.”
Neff had been on the edge of tears all day, and once again they threatened to overflow. “I will,” she said, tremulous. “I promise.”
“May Bast be with you, wherever you go,” the high priestess Karo intoned, touching Neff lightly on the forehead, the throat, and on each shoulder. “Defender of the innocent. Avenger of the wronged. Lady of slaughter. Mistress of secrets.”
Neff watched the high priestess depart through the gate and follow Bast’s retinue, where the goddess would remain and receive blessings and gifts until she returned to her boat for the festival that night.
Master Montuhotep waited just beyond the gate, his expression grim. He watched the goddess pass by and then turned to Neff, who stood on the boundary between the outside world and the world of the gods.
She took a step, crossing under the winged scarab painted on the archway above her. One more step in shadow, and another into the light.
***
Neff followed Master Montuhotep through a large open courtyard and into a hallway lined with thick columns carved and painted to look like bundles of green papyrus. Together with the ceiling high above—purple-black and decorated with a thousand stars—the hallway gave her the sensation of walking through a great stone forest. He then led her to a small chamber off to the left, where half a dozen women clad in white linen dresses glanced up to see them. Like Master Montuhotep, they too were bald, their eyes lined with black kohl. But they also wore blue-green eyeshadow and rouge on their lips. The women all stoodat attention. The room smelled like a bittersweet mixture of honey and salt.
“The high priestess of Bast has brought us this girl to educate in the ways of the priesthood,” Master Montuhotep said, irritation clear in his voice. “You will put her through the purification rituals.”
Several of the women cast pitying glances at Neff, and for the first time, she began to understand what these rituals would likely entail. She put a protective hand over her soft curly hair. Suddenly it became hard to breathe.
Master Montuhotep must have caught one of those glances. “I do not care that she is young,” he added forcefully. “If she is to be a member of the king’s temple, then she is subject to the same customs as the rest of us. Besides, she is absolutely filthy. I will not have lice in my house of worship.”
Lice?Neff thought, offended.Just because I live in a village doesn’t mean I have lice!
One of the women bowed her head. “Yes, Master. Leave her to us.”
“I’ll be back for her shortly,” Master Montuhotep said, and turned from the room.
It was only then that Neff took stock of her new surroundings. The long low table in the middle of the room, covered in little pots and strips of cloth, the line of copper blades mounted on wooden handles, the pool of dark water in the far corner.
“We are Wabet.” The woman’s voice was kind but serious. “Novice priestesses in the House of Amun. You will remove your dress, please.”
