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The Queen’s blissful expressions showed how much she loved her shadow, how happy she was to be with him, always surrounded by him. The shadow was never detailed to show his features, so Ben simply imagined the slave’s features transposed onto him.
But suddenly, the murals stopped.
The beautiful colorful scenes faded into murky black and dark blue. Even the ceiling lost their stars, smothered by what appeared to be ominous clouds.
As they turned the corner of the tunnel, it felt suffocating to keep walking. The dark waves depicted on each wall, and the roiling clouds above made it feel as if they were drowning beneath the sea, tossed to and fro by a mighty storm.
“What the fuck…”
Ere stopped so abruptly that Ben bumped into his back. Sorin reached out a hand to steady them both.
“Do you see what I’m seeing?”
Ben looked at the ceiling and brought his torch closer.
The clouds that rolled darkly across the sky took on a sinister shape:
Like half a dozen shadow dragons clawing their way out of the abyss.
Jaws full of jagged teeth wide open in resounding roars that must have echoed like thunder. Black smoke and gray fire emerging from their gaping mouths. Gigantic wings spread to dive upon their helpless prey.
While beneath them, almost obscured by the tidal waves, Ben could make out five small ships.
“This must be during their return from the Land of Punt,” Ben whispered, as if speaking too loudly could make this dream or nightmare evaporate.
Or worse—come to life.
“Don’t those dragons look familiar to you?” Ere whispered back.
Ben could only nod.
They looked just like the shadow dragons from the Celestial Realm.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
~1487 B.C. Ancient Egypt. 18thDynasty, Regency of Hatshepsut.
“Take down the sails! Take them down!” the master sailor shouted to his men as Heba’s ship was tossed like a child’s toy upon massive tidal waves.
The storm had come upon them without warning. One moment the sun was setting into the horizon with a gorgeous warm glow, and the next the wind was like a physical force that almost capsized a couple of ships laden down with goods from Punt.
As she looked back from whence they came, the sea and sky had crashed together, as if magnetized by streaks of lightning that zigzagged between them. The once calm waves now rose and churned with agitation, mirroring the advance of burgeoning black clouds.
Icy rain speared into them like javelins tossed from an angry sky. Everyone on deck was instantly drenched to the bone.
Shai gave rapid-fire orders to the men—get the rowers onto deck, for below deck was rapidly getting flooded; offload some of the heavier valuables to make the ship lighter and make room for some of the men; wrap ropes around their waists to secure them to sturdy posts on the ship so they wouldn’t accidently be thrown off.
Falling into the choppy, tumultuous black waves would mean certain death.
Heba was shoved into the enclosure along with some of the guards, Senenmut and Pa-Nahsy, while Shai continued to help the sailors and remaining guards out on deck.
She shivered with cold but barely felt it. She could barely conceive what was happening.
The entire voyage to Punt had been nothing but bright sunny days and blue skies. Where did this storm come from? How had they not seen it?
It was as if an angry god had decided to unleash his fury on just their ship.
In fact, she couldn’t even see the other four ships within the storm. Either they had lagged behind or sailed ahead. But one moment they were there, and the next they weren’t.
