Chapter Eleven
The Sun God Ra was putting his chariot away for the night as Seti took over when I entered the hole in the palace wall. The first thing I noticed was the abundance of rats scurrying about in the garden along with a few snakes. At the top of the stairs a new gate was built in an effort to keep the vermin out of the palace. The gate wall was so smooth that it offered no claw hold for the rats or mice and was tall enough that they couldn’t jump over it. “Not a bad idea.” I thought, “The sisters wouldn’t have had anything to do if the humans had thought of this earlier.” Then, chuckling, I thought, “Except get fatter.” The guards made a pass and I vaulted easily over the gate. I needed information and the only place I thought I could go to get any, was to find Isom. The chamber door was closed and I couldn’t nose it open, so I scratched! I continued lightly scratching at the door till I heard the soft sound of feet coming to the door. A voice on the other side called out softly, “Isis?”
“Ok,” I thought, “So I pretend to be Mom.” As long as it gets the door open before a guard spots me. I let out my best Mom purr impression and entered the crack in the door before Isom realized it was me.
“Amun!” she gasped out, “I never realized how much you sound like your mom!” I saw that her belly had become quite large, as the time had passed. As Isom stood there staring in amazement I rubbed up against her leg, purring to beat the band. Then as if she were waking up from a dream she cried out softly, “You shouldn’t be here! King Ay gave orders for you and all cats to be killed on sight!” I continued the rubbing and then jumped up on her bed. She came over and sat beside me and began rubbing my fur. I could tell she missed this activity very much.
“My enemy has a name,” I thought, “and that name is Ay!”
“So much has happened since the cat attack of the priests!” she said, “King Ay said that this brutal attack angered the Gods and that the God Amun told him to kill you all!”
At this I was taken aback, “So, he turned the attack on him into an attack on the priests!” I mused, “How else could he defy the cat Goddess Bast and turn us into the bad guys!”
Isom continued to stroke and said, “I wish the queen would return, maybe she could soften his heart.” I was pretty sure that King Ay had made good on his promise of making sure the queen returned to her first husband as soon as he could and the trip was just a ruse. “King Ay is not a good king and the people are suffering. I talked to the new head advisor, Horemheb. He would like to see a return of cats to the palace, but has not had much influence on King Ay.” I decided that I might have an ally in this new advisor. “I see you still wear the protector amulet,” she stated, turning it over in her hand to read the inscription. “To the wearer of this amulet, all things granted.”
“Funny,” I thought, “I didn’t even know that was back there, and that gives me an idea!”
I jumped off the bed and padded to the door, then turned back toward the chamber bath area. The sandbox was still there, as I had hoped, “Not what you’re thinking!” and I smoothed the sand with my paw. I know that the Goddess Bast frowns on two-way communication between cats and humans, but for this to work I needed help in my corner. I scratched three hieroglyphs in the sand with my claw and looked up at Isom. She looked in the sand then took a step back, holding her heart. “This is not possible!” she said, but knelt down for a closer look. She mouthed the words of the glyphs shaking her head in disbelief at what she was seeing. “Isis is home.” she said, glancing wide-eyed at me. I nodded my head in response and she put her hand to her mouth again in disbelief. “ You can understand me?” she asked, and I nodded again. “Praise Bast!” she whispered. I then smoothed the sand again and scratched two more glyphs. “King murdered?” she asked, as she read. Again I nodded. “Who did it?” she asked. Once again I scratched out a glyph. “King? The king killed himself?” she asked.
At this I shook my head and hissed. “Just like pulling teeth!” I growled, “Bast will have my backside for sure if this keeps up!” I placed my claw on the mark above the king that stood for new.
Her eyes grew again, but with revelation and not amazement as she said, “Ay was the killer!”
“Bingo!” I thought and turned to leave.
“Wait!” she said, “You mean Isis is alive and went home?” I nodded as I reached the door, I placed a claw to my mouth and Isom said she wouldn’t tell anyone. I nodded again. “What about King Ay?” she asked as she opened the door for me. Her eyes grew wide again as I drew a claw across my throat. Isom saw me pad off in the direction of the advisor chambers, which is where I suspected to find the new guy, Horemheb. Fortunately for me his chamber door was not latched. I nosed into the chamber and discovered him sound asleep on the bed. I quietly jumped on the bed and noticed that I did not disturb him by doing so. I looked into the face of this advisor and recognized him as one of the lesser advisers to the murdered king. I had no cause to have ever suspected him as having a part in the “accident” and was about to find out how he felt about cats!
As is often the case with my kind I had no problem walking straight up the chest of the sleeping Horemheb and peered at him nose to nose. He awoke with a start, but I was ready for it and jumped to the foot of the bed. When he sat up in the bed I saw him about to shout out and I placed a claw over my lips. Horemheb froze mid shout at this, as his eyes grew wide. “Bast!” he remarked, thinking me the Goddess herself, then his eyes adjusted to the dim light of the room and said, “No, you are Amun! The former kings’ pet! I must have been still dreaming when I saw you…” he paused, as I again placed a claw to my lips. “This is not possible!” Horemheb started loud then finished in a whisper, “Is this the Goddess Bast I am talking to?” I decided, why not! If this gets me through to him any sooner then let’s go, I’ll be Bast. I know I’ll regret it later! In response to his question I nodded once.
“By the Gods!” Horemheb whispered in total astonishment, “Are you here to punish me for allowing King Ay to banish the cats from the kingdom?” Pointing a claw at him I shook my head. “You are not after me?” he responded, a look of relief swept his face, “Then who? The priests?” Again I shook my head. Then he hit on the correct person, “King Ay! Of course!” he said, and then continued, “The priests were not the focus of the attack by the palace cats, were they?” I shook my head once and he followed this line of thought, “The cats were after Ay! I knew it!” Horemheb started to put things together about the new king. I answered as best I could through nods and shakes on most questions. He asked what befell the old king and I responded with a claw across my throat as well as when he asked what happened to the queen. When it looked like he was all caught up to speed, he asked, “What is your wish? Why have you come to me?” At this I placed my paw on the amulet and turned it to reveal the glyphs there. Horemheb read the statement and looked back into my eyes. “You wish the king’s protector to get revenge!” His eyes were wide again as I nodded once. “Your will be done, oh Bast!” he stated, as I turned to go, then he added, “Are you going to kill him now?
When I nodded Horemheb said, “Wait! The king has placed guards at his chamber door. The people are not happy and assassins are frequent.” He got out of bed and went to his bath chamber to put his robe on. As he came out he closed the door to it and slid a chest in front of it. “If you want to get to him,” he said, “then I had better come along to help.” I was glad I made the decision to come here first. I didn’t realize I would find someone so eager to help assassinate a king… then I thought, no heirs, no queen, that leaves good ole Horemheb next in line.
“How convenient!” I thought, but revenge would be mine tonight and Ra will forgive me in time. Besides, Mom has a hard enough time keeping fellows around and I would hate to be the reason she lost another mate. Horemheb opened the door to the chamber and exited, followed closely by me. The time has come for my friend to have his revenge.
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As we turned the corner to the king’s chamber wing of the palace I noticed a series of guard stands and counted myself fortunate that Horemheb had put on a long robe! I entered the robe before the guards could see me, and this gave Horemheb a little bit of a start. “Oh!” he exclaimed as my fur brushed against his fleshy leg. The guards jumped back to attention as we approached and questioned the advisor as to why he was here. “That cat Amun came to my chamber and I have come to warn you and the king!” he said.
I gulped as I thought, “Oh! Great! He’s going to give me up to the guards!”
I was about to claw my way back to freedom starting with this traitor, when he continued, “I was able to get him cornered in the bath chamber then I closed the door trapping him there!” I rubbed my head against his leg, as he continued, “You must hurry! I don’t know how long that door will hold him!” I heard the guards race by like a herd of mules and Horemheb called out, “I will inform the king!”
I peeked out from the robe when he said it was all clear. We stood before the royal chamber and the future king opened the door just enough, a crack, to allow my access. King Ay was sitting up in the bed as I approached, perhaps due to the noise from the hall as the guards raced away, or simply because it appeared the king didn’t sleep so well at night. This last was evident in the dark circles around his eyes; it also looked like he has not been eating well either, all drawn and gaunt. Like Horemheb said, there was never a lack of assassins, especially if the people were displeased. This position of power he wanted badly enough to plan murder had all but killed him, I simply came to finish the job.
He screamed for the guards as I neared the bed enough for recognition. “Not this time, Charlie!” I thought and kept advancing. To give himself more room to maneuver, he jumped off the bed toward the balcony area. He was looking around for a weapon to use and realized he had jumped on the wrong side of the bed for that, when I sprang onto the bed, now blocking his path.
“What do you want?” he screamed at me, and almost passed out as I drew a claw across my throat. I sat there on the edge of the bed staring at him in his night shirt, only this one was made of much fancier material than the one I had first seen him in. “The king and queen have sent you to strike me down from the afterlife!” he babbled, eyes getting wilder. I jumped from the bed and landed a good five feet from him and he backed up to the edge of the balcony wall. He looked over his shoulder to the distance down and knew there would be no escape that way. With each advancing step I made the claw across the throat motion, this caused his panic to rise to dizzying heights. He saw that he might have a chance to jump over me and took it.
I raked his legs as he sailed over and he added new screams to the ones that still echoed through the palace. He ran to the door, but I saw that it wouldn’t budge. He pounded on it and screamed for the guards to help him, anyone to help him, but no one came. I saw how this was going down and chuckled. I jumped up on the balcony wall and looked back at the abandoned king. He shifted his gaze back to me and I saw the same look in his eyes that was there in the temple when he was preparing to send me into the afterlife. I saw his murderous gaze scan the side of the bed that had his weapons and he ran over and grabbed a spear.
“If they won’t help me then I guess I will just have to finish you myself! Like I wanted to before!” He drew back the spear and sent it hurling in my direction. The king may have looked feeble but he still had a strong throwing arm and the spear would have got me if I had waited a split second longer to slip off the wall. Before he could react I had leapt from the floor to the bed and onto his head. My claws dug into his scalp as I tried to get to his eyes. He grabbed me across the back and pulled me off his head. Before I could reattach, I felt myself being flung across the room right toward the balcony and the drop beyond. My life flashed before my eyes as I sailed just over the edge, my claws dug hard into the edge and I thought I was going to hang in there… “Whew!” I sighed, then the claws slipped and down I went.
It seemed further, but I felt myself stop a short distance from the ledge. Funny I had never noticed the small thin ledge that lie equal to the room floor, and would have missed it entirely had I not grasped the walls’ edge at the last minute. My back paws were squarely on this new ledge, but there was no room to put my front two down. I heard laughing coming from overhead and knew the king would soon be peering over the edge to taste his victory. I heard him say as he was closing in, “I will have my army kill all the palace guards and servants for this rebellion! Starting with that girl whose pet gave birth to this stupid monstrosity…” His head appeared just as I thought it would and in the place that I went over the edge. In the room I had, I propelled upwards across the top of the king’s head and down his back. The force I used in clawing for freedom had an opposite effect on the king as he was propelled over the edge, headfirst! I heard his screams as he plunged down the drop, the same distance as I had sent the blind assassin years before. Well what was good for one certainly was good for another! You can rest now, my king.