“Glorious King.” The man bowed deeply to my father. “We have a slight problem with the preparations.”
My father looked at the man behind the bowing man. The look hardened my father’s face, and he turned to go down a different hallway than we were walking. I followed close behind, unsure what was going on.
“Seme, this better be worth interrupting our welcome home,” my father told the man who had been bowing to him.
Interrupting our welcome home? I really had no clue what was going on, but it seemed it wasn’t putting my father in the best of moods.
“Rai?” General Paramessu asked when Seme looked faint at the reaction he received from my father.
“There seems to be a problem with the engagement,” the second man who my father had looked to replied. “Seti was previously engaged, and their family isn’t accepting that it is broken.”
“What is there not to accept?” the general asked dubiously. “We no longer wish to marry Seti to their daughter. It was a decision that both Seti and I came to together. And they technically broke the arrangement two years ago when she ran away.”
“That’s the slight problem,” Seme added, finally getting his voice. My father nodded to him to explain more. “Seti’s former betrothed’s family is demanding that he follow through with his engagement.”
“They can’t demand that of him,” my father boomed.
He wasn’t taking the news well. I wasn’t happy to hear that Seti was promised to another, but I kind of expected it. He was a good catch both in ancient Egypt and the future I grew up in.
My father’s servant hurried away from us and motioned for the group that had been waiting to join us in the courtyard we were all standing in now.
“They can if the engagement was consummated and led to pregnancy,” Seme replied to my father. Behind him, a girl stepped out and bowed to my father.
I sucked in my breath at the sight of the girl. Her pregnant belly was a bit of a shock, but it was even more shocking to look at the brunette and the smirk she was trying to hide. Next to me, Seth drew in a breath of shock.
“Oh, glorious King. I’m sorry to have ruined the engagement for your daughter,” Melissa said with fake sorrow. I just about wanted to gag, but her protruding belly kept me from looking away.
Seth tugged on my hand and stepped behind everyone.
“I didn’t know it was her. I have never met the girl I was promised to,” Seth quickly told me as his father joined us behind everyone. They formed a private barrier as he urgently continued. “Father,” Seth said from beside me. “That’s not my child.”
“Did you sleep with her?” his father asked.
“Yes, but I’m certain that’s not my child,” Seth continued to deny it. My mouth would have dropped open if I hadn’t suspected that already.
“If you consummated the arrangement, then that could very well be your child,” the general replied. He wasn’t mad at Seth, but was more disappointed than anything.
“Father. I promise you that’s not my child,” Seth added again. “I’m certain that I never got her pregnant. There are ways in the future to keep that from happening.”
The general looked at Seth and they shared a look that could only pass between father and son. The general nodded to Seth and went back to my father’s side. Seth tugged on my hand and leaned down to me.
“I never touched her again after I met you that first day you moved into the dorms. I’ve never even let her back into my door room even after Logan set her on keeping us apart. Others don’t exist. You’re the only one for me.”
Okay. That cheered my heart up a little bit.
“You are declaring that your unborn child is that of Seti, son of Paramessu?” my father asked Melissa.
“Yes, my lord,” Melissa bowed her head with her answer.
My father looked at Seth and me, and our joined hands. How were we supposed to get out of this one? It wasn’t like they did DNA testing in ancient Egypt. Heck, it was thousands of years before the first scientist even recorded findings on genetics. I hated to think that everything now was ruined by her.
I looked up to Kye. He was looking around the room as I wanted to do. We knew the truth. Logan was behind this. Seth was my happiness, and he was trying to ruin it. I expected him to act, kidnap me, or something. We weren’t prepared to deal with him like this.
“Then you may join my harem for now until my daughter and son-in-law come into power. The gods have informed me that Mari will be my only child. In turn, she will rule Kemet and Seti will be made king. As king, he may take as many concubines as he wishes.”
I couldn’t stop the giggle that was bound to come out at the look at Melissa’s face. I guess my father was ready for Logan’s games after all. Seth squeezed my hand and my giggle came out as more of a cough.
The two men that had brought the problem before my father exchanged looks. I was guessing now that they didn’t expect things to turn out that way.
“My lord, if I might add something,” Seme spoke, his head bowed to my father.
“Go ahead,” my father replied and the short, squat man stood back up.
“By suggesting she join the harem, you will be insulting her entire family. Tuya is from a noble family in Memphis. She had been promised to Seti since they were children. This will upset her whole clan.” Melissa painted on her best pained expression to hide the hatred I saw behind her eyes.
“I have no choice on the matter. The gods have spoken to me and insist that my daughter wed Seti. Their union will bring prosperity to our people in the likes that we have never seen. I won’t risk that for the fact of upsetting one noble family,” my father replied. “The best I can do is offer her a place in the harem.”
“At least let her marry Seti. As long as she is his wife then her family might accept the broken agreement,” Seme begged.
A man stepped out from the shadows. His head was shaved and his eyes were lined with dark kohl. He bowed only slightly to my father.
“The king is correct. We would greatly upset both Horus and Seth if we don’t wed his daughter and Seti,” the man added. “We also can’t perform a second wedding for at least two harvest seasons after the first. Her only option is to stay in the palace harem.”
I was beginning to get confused. There were many people weighing in on everything. I got the part that I needed to marry Seth. That much had been clear for days, and I wasn’t going to ever suggest otherwise. I understood that my father expected me to rule when he was gone. The goddess expected that of me. What I didn’t get was why Melissa was pregnant, and how she really was Seth’s intended fiancée. Seth seemed to honestly not have known either.
“While I’m sorry that the engagement needed to be broken, the king is offering a fair and reasonable offer,” General Paramessu added. His eyes focused on Melissa as he talked, and she squirmed under his hawk-like gaze as he took in everything about her. “I can even offer a monetary compensation for the loss of their daughter to the harem of the pharaoh. I promise to give them one full year’s salary once the child is born.”
The room was filled with audible gasps. It was clear that he was offering way more than anyone expected. Even Seth’s head snapped up in surprise to his father’s willingness to pay off Melissa.
“Once the child is born and confirmed to have red hair that is found in every member of our family due to our ties with the god Seth, I will pay your family my salary for the year,” the general explained. They may not have had DNA tests, but it seem that General Paramessu had his own testing standards.
“But, General, no one in my family has ever had red hair,” Melissa replied. Her smug fakeness was completely gone. Her eyes said that her child wasn’t going to be a red head.
The second man who had received the harsh look from my father when we first arrived stepped forward.
“The general is correct. To prove that the child is born to Seti, the gods would bless the child with red hair,” the man agreed with the genera
l. He was trying to stay on my father’s good side.
“But…” Melissa started to complain, but she had nothing to follow it with. That wasn’t going to be the case, and the more she complained the worse it looked for her.
“Your concern makes me wonder if this child you carry is really Seti’s child. He went away with his father at the end of the last growing season. It is now planting season. How long have you been with child?” my father asked. He seemed comfortable with the scene that was unfolding.
“She ran away from her family this past year to follow the military and be near Seti,” the first man, Seme, replied for Melissa. I stared harder at the man. He was way too defensive of Melissa. Something seemed off with him.
Seth said nothing but glared at the man and Melissa. They were both openly trying to ruin his good name. I was surprised he stood silently.
“That may be the case, but as the priest of Seth has confirmed what General Paramessu has explained, if the child is born to be Seti’s child, it will have red hair. If the child is born with any other color, we might have to reverse the agreement the General is generously offering,” my father replied, shrugging like it didn’t matter to him.
The Seme’s face fell at the suggestion. He was certainly in on it. He had to be working with Logan and knew the truth of Melissa pregnancy. I stared hard at the man. I was unsure what his position was to be near to my father, but I didn’t like it. He was one of Logan’s spies, and I didn’t want anyone like that near me or Seth. It was bad enough when I thought that I’d actually have to see Melissa around the palace, but a spy for Logan was much worse.
“My lord, you’re being unreasonable. They were intended to be married. Of course this is Seti’s child, and what if her family’s gods have a stronger will?” Seme was throwing everything out he could think of.
“And it seems that you have both confirmed our suspicions. Guards, lock both them up until the child is born. If the child doesn’t have red hair, send the girl back to her family and pay General Paramessu. Seme will have to pay for his decision with his life in servitude.”
“And if the child has red hair?” Seme asked. Even he didn’t believe that was possible.
“Then the offer of the General stands,” my father replied. He nodded to the guards who took both Seme and Melissa into custody.
The man who had come to my father’s side during the argument nodded to the man that had defended Seth’s family. Each man bowed to my father before leaving.
“Well, I never thought I’d see the day where those two weren’t ready to fight each other,” General Paramessu said as my father turned from where we stood in the courtyard and back into the building.
“Well, they will have to get along once these two come to power,” my father replied. “Oh, do I wish I could live long enough to see that happen.” Both my father and the general laughed as they led the way into the palace.
While some of what was going on made sense, other parts were still confusing. My father laughing with the general over all of it was a bit weird to end with.
“Who were those two men?” I whispered to Seth as we followed them.
“The priest to the temple of Seth and the priest for the temple to Horus,” Seth explained. “They haven’t gotten along for over five decades, since they were young children. This is just another fight they seemed to have brewed up.”
“And the one who brought Melissa here?”
“Seme is one of the servants to your father, at least he used to be,” Seth added.
“What will become of him?” I asked. I was pretty sure, from the looks of both him and Melissa, there was absolutely no chance for them to win at the game they started.
“Probably be sold to the mines.” Seth shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. One less person working for Logan in this city is better for us.”
It hit me then. One less person. How many people did Logan have in my father’s country? Logan couldn’t time travel in or out, but he could bring as many people as he wanted to the borders and walk them in. For someone like Seme, who had been working for my father for years, Logan had been plotting for a long time. We had six stones from the goddess, and she said she had made one hundred when she shattered her body into the chalcedony. That meant Logan had ninety-four people that he could call on to do favors, just like Melissa and Seme. I had a feeling this battle was going to take a long time, and that there was no one that I would be able to trust until we defeated Logan. We would never know where he planted another person.
It was going to take some determination on our part to keep up with Logan. He already had a head start and was proving he wasn’t going to let it be easy for us. I squeezed Seth’s hand. I hated our odds, with my small family of eight against his family of ninety-five. It didn’t sound fair.
What I really needed was some lessons from our dads. They didn’t let the incident with Melissa even faze them, they were laughing while they walked. Yes, we would have to be more confident, like our fathers. I glanced once more at Seth. He grinned at me as if he knew what I was thinking. Yep, we could do it. Us against them. If I was a betting woman, I wouldn’t have chosen us. But I knew better. We were going to win this. Whatever Logan sent our way. We were going to be fine.
Chapter 7
Wedding Night Problems
The four days passed in a blur. No one made another mention of Melissa, and I kind of felt bad for her being locked up. Kind of, until I remembered that she was lying and trying to force Seth to marry her. I knew also it wasn’t Seth’s child. The look on her face when the general explained that without red hair the child was someone else’s confirmed beyond any small lingering doubt.
It was hard to know that Seth had a life before me, but I didn’t ask any questions. I had seen with my own eyes how Melissa threw herself at him. We knew that she was working for Logan in the last time I was in the future. She had never left Seth’s side for a moment. Now the only question was how long before Logan was going to show up to play the game with her.
I waited on pins and needles our first night back for Logan to appear, but soon realized he wasn’t around. Kye got sick of me checking with him, and soon enough my mother began pestering me enough to forget about everything else. I had no clue what any of the food choices were, what clothing was appropriate, or even how to deal with the musicians my mother was listening to for the tenth time. It was all meshing together for me, and didn’t make much sense to begin with. I kind of figured that Kye had asked her to help with the planning as I wasn’t much help
By the time my first full day in my father’s home ended, I was more than happy to go to bed. Three nights in a row I was exhausted. I would have been worrying more about not doing enough to keep Logan away, but Kye was right. We had to get married first. That was one step that would hopefully change everything.
Without knowing where the days went, I found myself prepped and pampered and ready to get married. If I had time to think more, I would have been nervous. But no one gave me a minute alone. I was constantly watched, nagged, and asked questions. At least Seth promised that tradition dictated that he and I be left alone for three days after the wedding. I was looking forward to those quiet three days.
Our days back passed in a blue and in no time it was already my wedding day. It was a bit rushed but I was ready for it.
“Honey, do you remember everything I told you about the ceremony?” my mother asked for the fifth time in ten minutes.
“Yes, Mom,” I replied. It wasn’t like I had time to forget. Every spare moment she had repeated the same text over and over again. I didn’t understand the words, as they were in a language only the priests knew, but I knew my reply, and when I had to say it.
I was a bit nervous about everything. The days of planning had been enough to keep me from Seth. We didn’t have time to talk about anything including how he now had a stone. I was still anxious to see if he could use his time travel powers, but we all knew it was best he not openly practice it. We still di
dn’t know who Logan had watching over us, but we doubted that much didn’t get back to him.
I stood in the hallway alone waiting for Seth to arrive to take me to our wedding. This wasn’t how I had planned my life. Really. Marriage wasn’t on the horizon until after college, maybe after I got a job. Everything was moving so fast. I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to keep up with all of it. I felt like I was getting more and more into everything, yet had less and less control. My life was one big action scene, and still hadn’t slowed down. I wanted more time to think. I wanted to be able to fight back and win. I wanted Logan out of my life. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was the right thing to get married so quickly? Would it be enough?
Every doubt I had faded when Seth turned and began walking down the hallway toward me. His deep red hair was still cut short, but had grown out a little to make him look more like the guy who fell onto my lap in what seemed like a lifetime ago. He grinned at me as he neared, and that just made my heart beat even faster—if it were even possible. His brown eyes with their new blue lining sparkled with as much happiness as his smile. Wearing his little skirt as always, and a large cape attached to an incredible amount of gold around his neck, I could finally see it. He wasn’t wearing the pharaoh crown like my father, but I could see it just the same. Seth was born to be pharaoh. Our fates were always meant to intertwine on so many levels.
“Ready, Princess?” he asked, giving me a little bow.
I only nodded as I bit my lip. I felt out of place while he looked perfect. My long dress had been dyed a deep green color in contrast to the normal white that everyone else wore. It matched Seth’s cape perfectly. I wore just as much jewelry as he did, but it didn’t make me confident like him. I had all the confidence in the world when dealing with my fate, but getting married made me feel out of place, and the clothing made me feel like I was just a little girl playing dress up.