Anubis
(Sorry the cable went out last night before I could get this scheduled to post.)
Anubis copyright c.2015 T.A. Chase
Part Thirty-
Jamil’s confusion was evident in his frown. “You’re telling me that each one of you died in some way. Then the gods chose to resurrect you, so you could save the earth from destruction. What kind of destruction and how did they know it’s going to happen?”
Anubis bit back his laughter. “They’re gods. Just as the one you all worship nowadays is omnipotent, so are they. People might not chose to believe in them any more, but they still have power. They saw the earth wreathed in fire and blood. They knew mortals would bring it to the brink by greed, violence, and various other evil. They had one of their priests cast a spell to give my brothers and me eternal life and powers to stop it from happening.”
“You died? How?”
He knew Jamil would eventually ask that question. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Anubis sorted through his thoughts. How little could he get away with telling Jamil? To be honest, he had no interest in telling him anything, yet he understood the only way Jamil might believe him was if Anubis told the truth.
::You do realize he doesn’t have to believe you. It doesn’t matter. We can deal with whoever is robbing Petra without him.:: Thoth reminded him.
::I thought you were gone.::
Thoth chuckled. ::We’re digging through very dusty books in the library. Kellan is muttering about how disgraceful our treatment of these books is. I’m quite capable of multi-tasking. Don’t tell him anything if you don’t want to.::
His brother was right. Anubis really didn’t have to explain anything else to Jamil, yet he couldn’t help but want his lover to know everything about him.
“Ahmed?” Jamil touched his shoulder. “I guess I should call you Anubis, huh?”
“When we are alone, Anubis is fine. When we are out among others, Ahmed is best. There are very few people who know of our existence. Some groups believe the rumors about us and look for the spell that created us. We have collected every book that surfaces that has the spell—or variation of it—and hide it away.” He shrugged. “It seems like men don’t want to lose their power and wealth as they get older, so they become desperate to find the Fountain of Youth.”
“Humans fear death,” Jamil said. “We don’t know what comes after and that scares us.”
Anubis nodded. “I understand that.” He took a deep breath. “You’ve been impressed with all the knowledge I have of Prince Okilma and his family. My knowledge comes from the fact that I was his bodyguard and lover up until my death at the hands of our enemies.”
Jamil stiffened, jerking his hand away from Anubis like he’d been shocked. “You used to live at Petra? All that information wasn’t from your tribe? Do you have a real tribe?”
Shaking his head, Anubis pushed to his feet and stalked to the windows. He stared out at the street below them. “My tribe died when Prince Okilma did. I was an orphan when I went to serve the royal family. I was chosen to be his closest companion because of that very fact. My loyalty would always be to him and I’d be grateful to be saved from a life of slavery.”
“Were you grateful?”
He smiled. “Yes, I was, plus I loved Okilma as a brother when we were younger. Then as we grew older, I discovered I loved him as far more than a brother. We became lovers before he took over the throne. There was no taboo against two men loving each other like we did. I was his bodyguard as well, and when he married Eesha, I swore to protect her too.”
Anubis saw Jamil edge closer to him, his curiosity getting the best of him. “Weren’t you jealous of them?”
“No. I understood he needed to marry and have children to secure the throne for the next generation. Plus the princess was a beautiful soul, gentle and kind. She accepted Okilma’s relationship with me without anger or hatred.” Anubis swallowed against the sob threatening to escape as he thought of Eesha. “She’s the one who lead me to the book in the caves. Her spirit had been tasked with the mission of making sure I found it.”
A soft pulse in his chest told him his god acknowledged his sorrow and then a tiny burst of joy informed him Eesha was indeed happy again. He pressed his hand to his heart. Thank you.
“How did you die?”
“We were attacked. Unfortunately, our enemies overwhelmed us and we were captured. They told Okilma he had to sacrifice one of the royal family. If he did that, they would leave the rest alive. Even though I wasn’t blood, I was considered part of the family, so he gave me to them.” He ignored Jamil’s rough gasp of surprise. “They slit my throat and made Okilma and Eesha watch me bled out. I’m pretty sure they murdered the prince, princess and their son shortly after I died.”
Jamil slid his arms around Anubis’ waist then rested his forehead between his shoulder blades. “I’m sorry.”
Anubis turned in his embrace then placed his knuckle under Jamil’s chin to raise his head. He stared down into Jamil’s eyes. “You believe me?”
“I believe you think what you’re telling me is true and you’re hurting because of that. I am sorry for that. Whether it’s true or not, I’ll still have to work on that. The fact that you and your friends appear and disappear before my very eyes is a trick I need to figure out.” Jamil rolled his eyes. “I’ll admit I’ve been trying to figure out how you knew so much about this obscure group of people that we’d never heard of before. Something told me it wasn’t just from legends told by your tribe.”
“I have no tribe except for my brothers,” Anubis said softly. “We have been alone in the world, fighting against a tide of evil I’m not sure we can conquer.”
2 Responses “Anubis”
Great as always have a wonderful weekend
awesome – thanks! have a nice weekend. 🙂