Page 28 of Ra (The Scarab Prophecy #1)

Azi’s brain startled, yanking her back into consciousness. Slowly her eyes opened, searching for the reason she was awake.

“Azenath! Do you hear me?” Neith demanded, standing over Azi, her arms crossed, her lips pressed together in irritation.

“Wha?” Azi mumbled, as she blinked slowly, not yet moving any other part of her body.

“Did you hear a single word I said?” Neith asked.

“Huh?”Azi asked, coming awake slowly, her body stiff, her neck aching, her hair plastered to the side of her head, a drool trail making its way from the corner of her mouth down her cheek and neck to her collarbone and the soggy shirt it had decorated while she slept.

She blinked her eyes to clear them and sniffed in a very unfeminine manner while looking around for the sound that awakened her.

Neith wrinkled her nose distastefully as she took a step back. “Perhaps not quite a whole bottle all on your own next time.”

Azi zeroed in on her in the darkness. “Dr. Weaver? Why’re you here?” she asked, her words running together ever so slightly as she tried to wake enough to have a remotely intelligent conversation.

“Because you’re here. Why are you here?”

Azi looked around the sun room to make sure she was definitely still in her own house. “Uh, because I live here.”

“You should be elsewhere!”

“Okay. Where is that?”

“With Ra!”

Azi seemed to almost collapse in on herself. “Are we still doing that?”

“You drank a bottle of wine and fell asleep. It’s only been a few hours not weeks or even days, so yes, we’re still doing that,” Neith snapped.

“I don’t want to do this anymore. In fact, I’m not. I packed some clothes, I’m leaving. I’ve had enough.”

“Yes, I noticed the bags in the living room. But you can’t go until you see to Ra.”

“He’s not my responsibility.”

“Yes, he is. You brought him into this world. That makes him your responsibility. He no longer wishes to live in it, so you must send him back.”

Azi got shakily to her feet, her hand gripping the back of the chair she’d been sitting on. “Wait, say that again?”

“You heard me, Azenath. You need to return him to the temple. He doesn’t want to be here any longer.”

“You are more than capable of sending him back.”

“I’ve washed my hands of the whole thing. It’s up to you to return him, or to leave him wandering clueless, and vulnerable, without any kind of guidance at all.”

“He begged for another chance to live. Why would he give that away?”

“How should I know? It makes no sense to me. He’s ungrateful really.

But the point is, he’s at the temple, ancient chants and all, trying to return to whence he came.

You could help him if you are as kind as he professes you to be.

I, have decided that I will not be blamed if he throws away this chance. So, it falls on you.”

“Dr. Weaver!” Azi exclaimed, taking several steps toward her.

Neith reached out, placing her hands firmly on Azi’s shoulders as she looked directly into her eyes. “Azenath, I am Neith. The goddess Neith. Dr. Weaver is a costume I wear.”

A rush of energy shot through Azi, all the alcohol leaving her body like it had never been there at all. Her mind was suddenly clear, her body rested and strong.

“He is remorseful.” Neith thought about it for a moment, then she smiled at Azi. “I think that maybe he’s turned out to be the best of all of us. It’s a shame to see him returned to nothingness.”

“It sounds like you care,” Azi said.

“They are all, of me, even you. But do what you will, I tire of the dramatics. I have other things that call for my attention.”

“Wait!” Azi called out, so many questions suddenly occurring to her.

But Neith was gone.

Azi sighed as she snatched up the empty wine bottle and took it to the kitchen.

She wandered aimlessly around the kitchen, wiping at a spot here or there on the counter top, then meandered into the living room, a sense of fear growing inside her with every passing second.

“What is wrong with me?” she whispered, glancing nervously around.

She picked up the remote and turned on the TV, flipping channels, looking for anything to distract her from the uneasy feeling overtaking her.

But no matter what she did, the image of Ra alone in the temple, trying to return to the other side haunted her.

She imagined him pounding on the walls, shouting threats, promising favors.

She imagined him still there when the tourists arrived in the morning, still threatening, shouting.

Then she imagined him taken into custody, locked in an asylum unable to make anyone believe the outrageous story he told.

They’d either drug him into submission, or keep him locked up forever, or both, depending on how irate he became.

She pictured him miserable, hurting, trapped, and it almost killed her.

“Damn you!” she exclaimed. She grabbed her purse and her keys, and rushed out of the house, on her way to Ra.

Neith materialized almost exactly where Azi had stood before giving in to her need to go to Ra.

“Finally!” she said. “I thought I was going to have to push you out of the house with my own hands!” She took a minute to look around the living room, noticed a glass of peach tea and a jar of salted cashews.

“Oh! How nice,” she said, taking a seat on the sofa and waving her hand at the TV to change the channels until she found the game show network, where she promptly started shouting at the contestants and their wrong answers.

She picked up the glass of tea and the jar of cashews, sitting back, while she propped her feet up on the coffee table.

She munched on the cashews, and sipped her tea, laughing when the red balls were dropped and wiped out every dollar the people on the game show had accumulated.

“You deserve it! I told you the answer was wrong! But does anyone ever listen to me? Nooooo! They get offended when I try to give them the answers! Hmpf! Idiots! That’s good for you!

No money for you!” she yelled at the television as she grinned happily and snacked on cashews.

~~~

Azi arrived at the Temple of Ra, driving her car right up to the closest curb to the walkway before she threw it in park and jumped out.

She jogged along the walkway leading from the parking lot to the tomb and the temple beneath, hesitating only briefly when she didn’t see the guards that were usually posted there.

She hurried into the tomb, then down the stairs and into the temple, coming to a stop when she saw Ra.

He was leaning against the wall, one forearm resting on the wall itself with his forehead against it. The other hand was pressed to the ghost-like relief of himself on the wall behind the dais the throne originally sat on.

“What are you doing, Ra?” she asked.

Ra turned quickly to face her. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I came to make sure you’re alright.”

He flashed a sad smile. “Thank you. But it wasn’t necessary. I belong here.”

Azi nodded, slowly assessing the situation. “You do know that you can’t live here, right? Your fans will start arriving in throngs tomorrow.”

“I hope to be gone by then.”

“Where are you going?”

“Back to where you found me. I shouldn’t have come, Azenath.”

“How are you planning to get there?” Azi asked.

“I’m working my way through the old prayers, surely one of them has to work, right?” he asked.

“I don’t think so. You’re just human now, remember? You’d only be praying to yourself.”

He turned back to the wall, and pressed his hand against the outline of himself. “I just want to go back.”

“Why? When I first met you, all you wanted was to live,” Azi said.

“I shouldn’t have been here. There should never have been a chance to live again.”

“I don’t know, I thought it was kind of fun.”

Ra looked over his shoulder at her and flashed another smile before he concentrated on placing his hand on the heart of the image of himself.

“So, do you think that the image of you is so washed out compared to the others because you’re not there anymore and they are?” Azi asked as she slowly approached him.

“What?” he asked, turning to her just as she stopped beside him.

“Your image is pale, hardly any color, they’re all bright and vivid.”

Ra backed up a bit and looked at the images of himself and all the other gods. “I suppose.”

“Do you really want to rejoin them?” she asked, watching him as he ran his hands over the faces of the other gods.

“It’s the only thing I know to do. I don’t know how else to make this right.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m trying to make things right. Whatever occurred between myself, Neith, and the others should not have had an effect on your life.

And from all accounts I’ve seen, it’s affected all of your life.

Every bit of who you are has been guided by those with an agenda to resurrect me — us. I am truly sorry for that, Azenath.”

“You can’t blame yourself for the actions of others.”

He nodded. “But I wanted to live again, too. I didn’t care what the consequences were.”

Azi watched as his lips began moving, his hands pressed alternately from one relief of the gods to another.

“If you really want to go, I brought this,” she said, extending her hand with her golden scarab sitting on her palm.

He nodded and smiled genuinely for the first time since she’d arrived. “The sacred scarab.”

“Take it,” she said, lifting her hand just a little to indicate he should take it from her.

“I believe it is you who has to place it in its spot.”

“What will happen if I do?” Azi asked.

“I’m not sure. Hopefully it will return me to whence I came.”

“Are you sure you want that?”

“It doesn't matter what I want. It’s for the best,” Ra answered. “Go on,” he said, stepping aside and gesturing toward the space in the wall the scarab would fit.

Azi stepped forward and placed the scarab in the same hollow she had before, nestled in the carved hand of Ra’s likeness.