Today I'm sharing an excerpt from my latest new release,
Lady of the Nile: Gods of Egypt. This is the seventh book in my loosely
connected series and I really love writing paranormal romance set in the 1550
BCE time frame. I've always been totally, fascinated by ancient Egypt and I
love putting my own twist on the era.
Here’s the story:
Tuya, a high ranking lady-in-waiting at Pharaoh’s court,
lives a life of luxury, pageantry and boredom. Khian, a brave and honorable
officer from the provinces temporarily re-assigned to Thebes, catches her eye
at a gold of valor ceremony. As the pair are thrown together by circumstances,
she finds herself unaccountably attracted to this man so unlike the haughty
nobles she’s used to. But a life with Khian would mean leaving the court and
giving up all that she’s worked so hard to attain. As she goes about her
duties, Tuya struggles with her heart’s desires.
When Tuya is lured into a dangerous part of Thebes by her
disgraced half-brother and kidnapped by unknown enemies of Egypt, Khian becomes
her only hope. Pharaoh assigns him to bring the lady home.
Aided by the gods, Khian races into the desert on the
trail of the elusive kidnappers, hoping to find Tuya before it’s too late. Neither
of them has any idea of the dark forces arrayed against them, nor the obstacles
to be faced. An ancient evil from the long gone past wants to claim Tuya for
its own purposes and won’t relinquish her easily.
Can Khian find her in time? Will he and his uncanny
allies be able to prevent her death? And if the couple escapes and reaches
safety, what of their fledgling romance?
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The goddess Mut was much revered in Thebes, which is the
capital city at the time of my stories. Her name means ‘mother’ and she had many
titles and duties, and was considered to have been involved in the creation of
the world. The hieroglyph for her name
was a vulture, and so the bird was sacred to her. The ancient Egyptians
believed all vultures were female, given children by the wind. Mut was often
depicted with the wings of a vulture and I’ve used that reference several times
in scenes where I featured her. (She’s also in Magic of the Nile.) As with any Egyptian deity, the names, stories
and attributes changed over the course of thousands of years of worship, so I
do my research and then decide which core set of ‘facts’ I’ll stick to for the
purposes of my story.
The excerpt – a vision
Tuya has in which the goddess Mut delivers a grim prediction:
Tuya stood on a hill, in the shade of a beautiful palm tree,
watching groups of people walk along a path across the river from her. They
danced and laughed and kissed and talked amongst themselves, as if going to a
wonderful festival or special event. Men and women strolled hand in hand,
oblivious to anything but each other. Families traveled in little groups, the
babies in adult arms, toddlers and young children skipping and running ahead,
only to rejoin their parents.
“How do I get over there?” Shielding her eyes with her hand,
she searched for a path leading away from where she stood, or a bridge to cross
the river.
“But you positioned yourself here, why do you now want to
leave?”
Surprised, Tuya turned to the woman standing beside her
whose presence she hadn’t noticed before, being so intent on the parade across
the way. She seemed familiar, but no name came to Tuya’s tongue. “I didn’t
choose to stand here.”
“Indeed you did. You worked hard and cleverly to achieve
this elevated role. Don’t you remember all the times you chose the path of
service over more demanding—and perhaps frightening—opportunities? Opted for
the safety of the familiar?”
“I never—”
“You refused numerous offers for your hand, stating you
couldn’t leave Ashayet early in her term as Royal Wife, or when she was
pregnant or nursing or later as a young mother.”
“I was needed!”
“The Royal Wife has fifty ladies-in-waiting, with dozens
more who’d relish the chance for the appointment for a year or two.”
“I also serve the goddess at the temple.”
The woman laughed. “As one of a hundred. Did anyone other
than the goddess notice when you stopped singing today? Or started again?”
Feeling a chill, and a bit frightened at her unknown
companion’s knowledge, Tuya searched again for a path to the river. A low wall
surrounded the spot where she stood, and she got goosebumps when she realized
there was no break, no exit. She could step over the rows of nearly laid bricks
but fear made her pause.
“Where are they all going?” she asked.
“They travel the road of life,” the woman said. “With all
the experiences, good and bad, you’ve chosen to shield yourself from. The highs
and the lows of a life lived. Not
merely observed, not simply drifted through, like a ship caught in the
backwaters of the Nile. You chart a safe
course going nowhere except the tomb.”
A sudden fear entered Tuya’s mind like a slithering cobra.
“Am I going to be in trouble when my heart is judged?”
“No, for you’ve committed no crimes against the gods or
Egypt, told no lies.” The woman tapped her on the chest. “Your heart is true
but untried, untouched. Indeed, many envy you for your closeness to Pharaoh and
his Royal Wife, for your comfortable, easy life in the palace.” The other shook
her head, causing the gold and turquoise beads in her hair to chime. “You
represent potential untapped. A waste, but nothing to punish.” She gathered her
fine linen skirts in one hand, preparing to leave the enclosure.
Greatly daring, for Tuya now realized she was in a vision
and the person with her was either a goddess or a servant of the Great Ones, she
put her hand on the lady’s arm to detain her. “Is there time to change?”
Laughing, the woman shifted away from her. “You? Change your
path now?” She gestured at the wall surrounding them. “You’re close to the
point where destiny is completely set. Shai the god of Fate only has so much
patience, waiting to see what a human will do with their choices, and you’ve
exhausted his. He’s moved on to others.”
Terrified, Tuya realized while they’d been chatting, more
rows of bricks had been laid by invisible hands and the barrier was higher. “I
don’t serve Fate, I serve Mut.”
Shaking a beringed finger at her, the other said, “All but
the Great Ones are subject to Fate. Rare indeed is the intervention by a god or
goddess on a human’s behalf.”
“Why show me all this then?” Tuya stared at the procession
of people across the river, still happily moving through what she now
understood were their lives. As she watched, several solitary men and women
greeted each other and continued their walk hand in hand. Her heart ached as
she recalled several good, worthy men she’d had as lovers but who drifted away
when she refused to commit to marriage. It’d been a long time since she’d even
exerted herself to flirt and seek a new lover. She couldn’t remember the last
time a nobleman or high ranking officer had sought her out.
“Perhaps the goddess has a soft spot for you. Perhaps she
had hopes for one who was a favorite.”
The breeze lifted the curls of Tuya’s elaborate wig and
brought the scent of the blue lotus to her nostrils. “Change is terrifying to
me, ever since I was a child and my father died. Our whole world shattered and
nothing was ever the same again.” She wrapped her arms around herself, seeking
to keep the grief and frightening memories of the years after his death at bay.
“How can I risk suffering such upheaval again? How can anyone blame me for
creating a life of safe comfort?”
Patting her arm, the other said, “Only you can decide if you
wish to break the wall of the sheltered life you’ve created. Don’t wait too
long.”
And she turned into a bird and was gone, winging toward the
river on ivory white wings.
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