Early in the afternoon, Sitefnut had commandeered a workroom--such were kept for the mages that worked in the palace--and had the body of one of the three maresh that they'd felled the day before hauled in and laid out on the table. Sitefnut grinned. A number of years of surreptitiously taking apart animals small and large to see how they worked on the inside was about to pay off. Imhotep's image stood by her, looking down at the body. It was larger than she was, powerful muscles wrapped around a large-boned frame, and she carefully opened its mouth to look at its teeth. It had the usual complement of hyena teeth, though the mouth was slightly oddly shaped, probably to facilitate speech.
She picked up her sharpest knife and got to work.
Two hours later, with Imhotep's help identifying the odder aspects of the maresh' systems, she had a better idea of why they were the way they were. There were small, spongy sacs--glands, Imhotep had said--attached to most of the major nerves in its body. Each of these sacs also connected to a blood vessel, and it appeared that the poison both spilled into the bloodstream from those glands and made its way up the nerves, causing terrible pain.
It had been a shock to realize that the maresh was female. Not only that, Imhotep pointed out the signs of her recently having been pregnant, though she didn't show signs of being a nursing mother. It was exceedingly difficult to tell the sex from the outside, as the maresh had, along with many other hyena traits, inherited a masculinized genital arrangement for both males and females.
The maresh had two hearts and an odd, gill-like breathing arrangement, possibly a high-flight adaptation. But the most interesting part was the brain. Sitefnut had seen human brains before--stick around a village long enough and inevitably someone died by cracking open their skull--but she'd never seen a hyena brain before. This one seemed to have one half of each. The hyena half had a long nose-like bit on the front that the human brain was lacking, and it was overall smoother than the deeply wrinkled human half.
She'd almost missed the most interesting part. Near the brain stem, where the large arteries ran into the brain, there was another gland, this one large and with a texture akin to liver. The arteries ran directly into it and then out in smaller courses on the other side.
She poked it with her knife. "Filtration, you think? Cleanse the blood before it gets to the brain?"
"Almost certainly." Imhotep bent close. "Despite its creator, this is a work of art."
"Hm. I'll bet it creates a counteracting agent, otherwise it wouldn't work very well."
"Could be." Imhotep grinned in evident delight. Both of the hyenas had their front paws up on the table, giving the maresh a closer look. The air was redolent with hyena musk, blood, and the beginning hints of decay.
The wings are interesting, Isu said. Look at the muscles they have to support them! She nosed the mottled grey and brown feathers. Bet they could hit you with these and they'd hurt.
"They probably wouldn't," replied Imhotep. "The feathers are fragile, and if they break too many, they can't fly."
"And be careful with the wings, Isu. If they groom them like birds do, they're probably covered with their spit, and poisonous," cautioned Sitefnut.
I knew that! Isu harrumphed.
A few hours later, she put the body together as much as she could and wrapped it in a cloth. She'd have to call for servants to take it away and bury it, and bring the other two bodies to where one of the priests could cast Gentle Repose on them, saving them against need. She was thinking hard, and as she walked back to her quarters her steps were slow.
The rest of the afternoon was spent reading through the book of notes that Menes had taken, Usi helping her decipher the ancient Hieratic it was written in--it was in an unfamiliar variation of book script. There were certain gaps, but overall she was pleased with their completeness. What she was not pleased with were the contents. Anubis had had a direct hand in creating the maresh, which could not be a good sign. And they had been given the scent of the blood of a Chosen when they were created and the promise that the blood of a Chosen could quell the pain they felt every moment, thus giving them a compelling reason to hunt her.
Evidently, they could track her wherever she went--but she could also track them. "How?" she asked Imhotep. She was cross-legged on the floor, the book in front of her, copying out the relevant sections. "A smell thing, do you think?"
He laughed, his rich voice filling the room. "Reach out, Sitefnut. Open up those feelings that you like to bury. You can feel them. After all, there is more to being Chosen than waiting for Usi to die."
She frowned at him but closed her eyes, settling into the light trance that she used for serious study mode. She reached out with her senses, wondering if she'd even notice if she found them.
She needn't have worried. There was nothing at first, and then the scent of blood filtered into her nostrils, rich copper. Then an image hit her brain. An army. An army of maresh coming this way, wings working, their gills open to filter the air. She realized that she could feel them, feel them as their blood pumped, feel the pain as their poison coursed through them. Glorious sunset pain, the maresh calling to each other with that eerie cry that was like yet unlike human laughter.
And there was one, alone, far south. It was wingless, standing, watching. It turned, seeming to see her, and its dark eyes glittered as it stared at her. "Chosen," it said. "There you are."
Startled, she broke the trance, coming back to herself with a gasp. "The wingless one. Reneb?" she asked.
"It is. The first and the most formidable. He was a pharaoh after Menes' time." Imhotep's eyes held little humor.
Sitefnut drew a breath inward. "And now he knows where I am, but if he'd talked to Menes lately, he'd know that anyway."
Imhotep shook his head. "More importantly, he knows that Chosen has awakened."
Sitefnut froze. It had been there, in the section she had just copied. When the female Chosen joins the immortal, this will end. She set her mouth. "Ignorance isn't going to protect me any more. I'm already in over my neck in this."
"It did a good job for a while, but now it's coming to bite you." They spoke for a while about what Imhotep knew of Reneb, Sitefnut getting a picture of a supremely confident being who had been shaken in that confidence only once--by the Chosen who had become Imhotep's Rememberer.
She shook her head. "I want to see if I can fix the maresh. They'd be invaluable allies, if I could get them. We'll see." She rolled up the book and gathered up the papyrus she had been writing on, rolling it up and storing it in her scroll case.
Isu padded over, nudging her with her nose. I feel like some fresh air. Come outside? Sitefnut frowned, but got up and followed her. The request was unusual--as was the fact that both Imhotep and Usi stayed inside.
In the small garden, Isu trotted around the outside with her bumpy gait, working off some evident restlessness. I will be so glad when we're gone from here! It'll be good to run again.
"I like it here, but I agree. I'll be happier when we're no longer a sitting target. We could go to Nubia. If we can't bring that poor sacrificed girl back to life, we should at least find her family and return her body to them."
Would you? Isu paused and cocked her head. Bring her back, I mean.
"Of course! She didn't deserve the death she got. But I think that if I were a priest, I'd run around bringing everyone back to life."
Isu snorted. You aren't too far from one at the moment, you know.
Sitefnut chucked a clod of dirt at the hyena. She charged over and knocked Sitefnut down; recognizing this game, the mage wrestled with her familiar, rolling around in the dirt of the garden with her, both of them laughing. A passing thought flitted by her mind about exactly how undignified this was, but she dismissed it.
Isu didn't use nearly her full strength, but it was still enough to leave Sitefnut panting. She rolled up and put her back against the stone bench, and Isu came to lie beside her, her front legs sticking out in front of her. Are you ready to listen to me now? asked Isu, her tone suddenly serious.
"I was before, goofball," she replied.
You weren't. You just rejected what I told you out of hand without even thinking about it.
Sitefnut brushed at her dress. "What, exactly, did I dismiss?"
The fact that you are quite close to being a priest yourself.
Her brows drew together. "You were kidding, right?"
No. Isu's eyes were intent on her face. I most certainly was not.
Sitefnut's hand stopped in mid-brush. "Mind explaining yourself?"
She flicked her ears in a hyena shrug. Have you ever wonder why I am a priestess, while all the Rememberers before me have been mages? Sitefnut nodded slowly. Part of the reason is that Rememberer is what Chosen can become. With two Rememberers, we can show you two things you may become--or one thing you already are, and one thing you may yet be.
"Me, a priestess? That is about the last thing--"
I know. And yet, Sitefnut. And yet. Who carries a part of a god in her head? Who has made the decision to let herself love that god? Who has to have faith in that god, in order to love him?
Sitefnut glanced around. Imhotep wasn't visible, though she assumed he was paying very close attention to this conversation. "But I don't feel a calling. Aren't you supposed to feel some sort of attraction to worship a god, to become a priest?"
Isu flicked her ears again. When it comes to that, are you certain you haven't? Remember the stories you've told. Didn't you like and admire Imhotep when you saw what he'd created?
"But I liked the things he made as a mortal, not a god," she replied, slowly. "I love the man, not the god."
Tail-thump from Isu. Are you so certain of that? They are one and the same. Bite the man, and he bleeds divine. Godhood changes you, you know. Just ask the badger.
There was a curious tightness in Sitefnut's chest. "I don't know, Isu. I really don't. I don't know anything about the Order."
You don't have to, just as I do not. Free yourself from the idea that priesthood means that you have to find a new place among them. You can be as independent as you want to be. Besides, it's not as if you do not have the god himself to tell you if you're falling into error. Isu's voice was filled with laughter. And it is not as though you need them to provide for you.
"I can do that myself, thanks." Giving up, she reached over and rested her hand on Isu's shoulder. "I'll think about it, all right? Give me a little while to get used to the idea before I decide if I want to do this or not."
Of course. I just wanted you to think about it. The hyena rolled over, splaying her legs out, evidently enjoying the sunshine on her belly.
Something occurred to her. "You know, Raise Dead's not a particularly low-level spell. Isn't it hard to practice spellcasting as a hyena?"
Isu snickered. I wondered when you were going to get around to being curious about that. I spend a few hours a day while you're asleep praying and such.
She raised her eyebrows. "And I take it you spend this time as your elven self?"
And you sleep as a hyena, of course. It works out, and you never notice. She looked remarkably silly lying like that, mouth lolling open, hyena completely relaxed in this unnatural environment. Usi and I are currently working on getting the heart gems unlinked. Neither of us likes the idea that if one of us dies, the other does too.
"Any luck?" asked Sitefnut, curiously.
Enough to make us optimistic that between us we'll be able to do it. It's a cunningly worked thing, but I think we're better than it.
Sitefnut smiled. "Let me know if you need any help."
Of course! Isu rolled over and rose to her feet, shaking herself off. She looked at Sitefnut with a certain hope in her eyes and asked, I don't suppose there's time this evening for a bath? If we're going to head out into the desert again, I'd at least like to start out clean. Unlike Usi, who could take or leave bathing in his hyena form (but generally acquiesced to Sitefnut's requests to wash him), Isu liked baths, especially since regular bathing meant that the parasites that beleaguered most hyenas mostly stayed away. As a result, both of the hyenas were far less scruffy-looking than most wild hyenas.
She laughed and replied, "I think so. Come on, then, let's see if we can persuade someone to part with some hot water." She got to her feet, and the hyena priestess and her familiar walked out of the garden, Sitefnut's hand on Isu's shoulder.
