Pasht jerked from my pets suddenly, spinning toward the door with hackles raised and an uncharacteristic hiss, prompting Nakht and I to lurch upright.
One of the dancers who had been with us in the hall stumbled into our room as if pushed. She clung to the archway, trembling. It seemed as though a dozen men were storming down the corridor, but all of Pharaoh’s elite were in the hall or off in bedrooms by now, with only a handful of guards keeping watch in the direction those men were headed.
Rana, the other dancer, looked at us in terror, and I bolted off the bed.
“Meryt!” Nakht hissed, grasping my wrist to stop me. “What are you doing?”
“We can’t sit idly by and hide!” I yanked free of him to join Rana at the door, first to check that she was unharmed, then to peer out into the corridor.
Others were also glancing out of bedrooms. A few had clearly been thrown around like Rana and were sprawled on the floor. I could still see the men rushing down the corridor to my right, wearing dark clothing with heads and faces covered. All had khopesh swords, daggers, or spears.
A coup? They must have chosen this night knowing the people most suited to protect Pharaoh would be distracted, their numbers reduced.
“Meryt.” Nakht grabbed me by the shoulders, pulling me back inside the room. Rana, in her fear, had fled into the corner, and Pasht was backing into the other, still atop the bed. “Are you mad? We have to leave this to the guards.”
“You mean the guards who are asleep, drunk, or outnumbered?” I argued. “There has to be something we can do.”
“What? Those raiders will kill anyone who gets in their way.”
“I’m not saying we fight them, but we need to warn someone at least, or it’ll be a bloodbath before they’re stopped.” I peeked back outside, weighing our options. We knew every corner of the palace that was open to us, and there were many entrances to the great hall, which made up the center of Pharaoh’s stronghold. That had to be where the raiders were headed, and they were taking the most direct route, but it wasn’t the fastest. “We could circle around the other way, out of harm’s reach, and warn some of the guards before they’re attacked.”
Nakht opened his mouth to protest further, but looking at the frightened Rana and Pasht, and then out into the corridor as I had at so many others who didn’t know what to do other than wait it out and hope, he worried his lip. He knew I was right.
If it was a coup and the raiders were successful, a former master’s slaves were rarely treated kinder by usurpers.
“Fine,” Nakht spat like it was a curse he didn’t want lingering on his tongue. “But you do not leave my side.”
Taking hold of my hand to drag me along after him, Nakht raced out of our room in the opposite direction from the raiders. He might be the quieter, gentler one between us behind closed doors, but he was far braver than he would ever admit to himself, and in the end, he always did what was right. It was part of why I loved him.
The way we ran had more winding corridors and bedrooms for household slaves, but nearer to the great hall were also some of the rooms housing guards. We wouldn’t need to reach the hall itself if we could find someone awake and not amorously involved.
The first detour in that direction was a sharp turn past one of the palace entranc—
Nakht slipped, nearly dragging us both to the ground in his attempt to steady himself, only for me to start slipping too. Quick handholds of the walls were all that kept us from falling.Whatever we had slid through was so much slicker than spilled wine, but I was not prepared for what it actually was when I looked down and sawred.
And the body of a guard with his throat slit.
I clapped a hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. The men had gone the other way. They had clearly entered near here and taken out the guard, but they were far away now. We were safe. We had to keep going.
“I’ve got you.” Nakht squeezed my hand, guiding me slowly out of the blood spill. “I’ve got you,” he said again. “Always.”
“And I you,” I answered.
We continued, quickening our pace toward the guard rooms and the rear entrance into the hall. As we passed empty room after empty room, however, I feared there was no one we could turn to in time—just as two patrolling guards came from left and right of the great hall doors and turned about face to begin patrolling the other way.
“Wait!” Nakht and I cried.
The guards spun to face us, instantly on alert.
“There were armed men!”
“Heading past the dancers’ quarters to the other side of the hall!”
“You have to hurry!”
“Pharaoh and the guests are in danger!”
Nakht and I were well-liked by the guards, for we had performed for many of them, and even those who preferred a female slave in their bed respected our status. The pair turned without question, weapons ready to enter the hall.
