by Lady Bast
The wax was where he'd asked her to leave it, softening slowly in a small copper bowl which sat inside a larger one filled with very hot water.
Duo hummed to himself as he kneaded the ball in his hands like dough. He was glad he'd had the foresight to make preparations even if he had overpaid Khemti-nub for the service. Still, it was always better to cast suspicion away from one's self. A servant walking around with a lump of wax was nothing unusual...a magician with a lump of wax was something to be feared.
But as fortunate as it was that the wax had had time to soften, it was a sad thing that his preparations had been needed at all. At almost every gathering, it seemed, Quatre found someone to suspect of treachery and needed someone to cast a little bit of magic...create a deterrent...serve a warning. That someone was inevitably Duo. He didn't like doing it any more than he liked speaking to the dead and he had tried to wean the Prince from such dangerous courses, but the Prince would do what the Prince would do and he, low in rank and without a fellow priest to replace him, would do as he was ordered to do. And what he had been ordered to do was make magic.
The tune rose until Duo was whispering the song into the night, his step slipping into the rhythm of his own music. Vile deeds were no reason for despondency, no matter what he thought of them, and he was happy that it was dark even if torches lit the hallways at uneven intervals. He'd always liked the night. The cold could bite you to the bone when it swept in from the desert, that much was true, but here in the city it was a milder thing and refreshed the gardens beaten down by the sun's unforgiving rays. It was a quiet time and though many would laugh at the thought of him enjoying a moment or two of peace, he did. Greatly. He could be loud, yes. He could roar like thunder, yes. But he could be quiet too. Magic was in knowing when the time was right for each of these.
"My love laughs not gently, she craves no placid water," [26] he warbled softly as he pressed a hoop of gold into the wax and folded it over. Kamenit's earring. He wondered if the man had missed it yet. Probably not...he wasn't the brightest star in the sky. If he'd had a thought in his head, he wouldn't have gone on about Iras or thought that mere infatuation would not be worth the Prince's time. "Wild is she, and brave; the shield and the sword."
Duo began to twist the wax into shape. Perhaps Kamenit would get off lightly. Surely the gods weren't so quick to crush a man in love? One head, two arms, two legs. "She has loosed the arrow that has punctured my heart..."
A thin cry caused the priest to pause in his singing and step closer into the shadow. It likely did not matter if he was seen or not, but now the trick was habit and one that could do him no harm. A moment to consider told him that the noise was no guardsman, but a child. A baby squall.
He was nowhere near his own chamber, but Duo knew that the hallway was lined with guests' apartments. Could the wailing have come from Heero's child? He could think of no one else with young children in the palace proper. Quatre had not sired any and his sisters lived elsewhere. Curious, he began to walk in the direction of the noise, even as his thumbs made an indent in the wax manikin's flesh and his fingernails made a clumsy impression of the glyphs he would have to carve.
Skulking in the shadows, he nearly made the grave mistake of stepping around the corner in full view of the two guards who stood before the chamber entrance. He did not think that he'd been seen for a quick step backward brought him safely behind the wall without prompting a cry of alarm. The guards had been dressed in blue and white...the colours of the Pharaoh. The chamber must be Heero's...or perhaps Relena's which would be just as good. A sly grin spread across his face. Heero would shit a litter of kittens if he found out his guards had let an assassin priest into his chamber. The joke was too good to pass up.
But how to go about it? Sneaking in would alarm the child's mysterious keeper and bring the guards running. And he couldn't possibly go in the front door...
Or could he?
Tucking the wax form into the back of his belt, Duo strode confidently forward. "Ah!" he cried with obvious relief. "I thought I'd never get here! Thankfully the two of you mark the doorway admirably...if you'll excuse me, I'll go about my business."
Confused, but very clear as to where their duty lay, one of the puzzled guards grabbed Duo's arm as he stepped towards the door. "What is your business here? Lord Heero's orders were to let no one pass."
"Lord Heero is in my Prince's palace," said Duo, offering his most disarming smile. "He is very superstitious and very protective of guests as important as Lord Heero. I am the one that expelled the demons from the newcomer. It is only right that I also see to the safety of the guests of my Prince."
The guard was unmoved. "Lord Heero carries no foreign demons, priest. Go back to your own chamber."
"No, he does not. But certain influences might have slipped by before the stranger could be purified. I understand that Lord Heero has a child. I consider him a friend. I would not see him or his family harmed. Neither would my Prince. This measure is precautionary." Duo swallowed a gleeful grin when the baby's cry drifted through the door, more strident than ever, followed by the frantic murmurings of a nurse. Whatever other gifts the child might have, timing was among them. "Would you risk it?" he asked slyly. "Do you wish to take the time to confer with Lord Heero? With my Prince? They are in the great hall. Go...ask them. I can wait all night if I must."
He stood patiently, arms clasped behind his back, looking as innocent as he could while the guards conferred with looks and gestures. "We will follow you inside. Your name?"
"Fair enough," shrugged Duo. What did it matter if his curiosity was sated under guard? Heero would be irked either way, he would get the information that he wanted, and the joke would be good for a couple of days worth of teasing at least. "I am called Set-Aket-Dua." He grinned as the guards opened the door and accompanied him into the front chamber where a young woman paced frantically, clasping a young child to her chest. The infant was howling in discomfort.
Paying neither occupant any mind, the guard announced, "The Pure One, Set-Aket-Dua."
The woman took one look at Duo and her brow creased in fury. "OUT!" she shouted, one arm pointing with authority toward the door while the other curled protectively around the infant, awkwardly trying to shield it from his presence. She advanced like a lioness. "GET OUT! I don't want your kind here!"
"He is here under orders from the Prince," said the guard, unperturbed.
His lie, not mine, thought Duo, very perturbed, as he forced a smile for the enraged woman. Whatever he had expected, this was not it. Still, he had dealt with worse. "The Prince is very superstitious," he said carefully. "I only mean to check for malignant spirits."
"Spirits that you planted?" snorted the woman. "There are no demons here. Get out!" In her arms, the baby screamed.
"Are you so sure?" Duo's smiled widened slightly. "Perhaps the child is possessed?"
"You've disturbed her!"
"She was crying before I came here. I heard her all the way out in the hall." Duo pursed his lips slightly as the nurse considered this. She looked harried and tired. The child had been fussing for some time. "Just let me take a quick look around," he said quietly, soothingly. "The guards can watch me. With a feel for the room, I can prescribe incense. A gift for the Lady Relena."
"You know my mistress?"
"We've met."
"Alright. But only under guard." The woman's distrust had not left her, but she was too tired to fight. Feeling vaguely ashamed, but not willing to miss an opportunity to gather information, Duo led the guards around the inner and outer chambers, pretending to look for supernatural infestations while actually recording his surroundings in minute detail. Women's things. Women's colours. A couch for Relena and a pallet for Miusheri. A secondary chamber with a bed for the child and her nurse. There was nothing masculine in the room. The Lady Relena slept alone.
The front room was a haven of soft things - cushions, furs, draperies - for sitting, lounging, playing games. There were many games stored on a small shelf, and a senet board in prominence on a table. The Lady was obviously a woman of intelligence and education...a fact reinforced by the neat pile of papyrus and simple scribe's palette that were tucked away in a box by the foot of one of the chairs. He moved, feeling the woman's eyes on his back, and when he turned to look at her he saw an animal cunning there. Cleverness turned by survival instinct.
She was an unusual woman and looking at her, Duo felt a pleasant chill. He liked the unusual.
She was slight, almost boyish, and wore her hair - her real hair - cut short. Not shaved as some women had been known to do to accommodate their elaborate wigs, nor long and wound up in coils about the head, but truly short. In fell in soft waves over her forehead and around her ears, making her kohl-rimmed eyes seem even larger. Though not too sharply angled, her face put him in mind of a cat's. A kitten's perhaps, round with youth. The child was still screaming.
Sighing, Duo knelt before her. "May I look at her? Please?"
"I know your kind," the woman scowled. "You make curses and poisons. I won't have my master's child near you. If you're through, get out."
"I promise not to harm her," Duo persisted.
He could be extremely persuasive when necessary and he was using every bit of charm that he could. Frustrated, afraid and near to tears, the nurse reluctantly handed the baby to the man with the silvered tongue. Duo made a show of checking her scalp through the strands of brown-honey hair, examined her ears, her eyes, her nose, and finally her mouth even as she screamed. Balancing the child in one arm, he reached into the thick hair near his scalp and drew out a thin vial - simply a hollowed bit of wood corked at both ends - from the twist of ribbon that held it in place. Snapping one end with his thumb, he up-ended the wooden vial and let its contents coat his fingers. He stuck his forefinger in the baby's mouth before the nurse had a chance to protest.
"What are you doing?" she shouted, reaching to snatch the child away.
Not looking for trouble, Duo allowed the baby to be taken and shrugged. "Just a little exorcism of bad spirits."
"She is not...possessed..."
The nurse stared in amazement as the child's screaming faded to whimpers, then her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What did you do to her?" she hissed. "Tell me!"
"Er...I don't think I could share the knowledge of my priesthood with just anyone," said Duo sheepishly. The woman's glare told him that the ground he now trod was unstable indeed. "Of course," he continued hastily, "I could probably share it with the child's keeper...but I would have to share it with you alone." He nodded slightly in the direction of the guards.
The woman thought it over a moment, then nodded. "Go wait outside," she instructed. The guards looked ready to argue with her, but she set her jaw. "If he tries anything, I'll call for you. And then I'll tear him to bits myself."
"I see why Heero has asked you to guard his child," said Duo amiably when the two men had left. "You sting like a scorpion."
"Enough flattery. What did you do to Bakara?" Her eyes flew open in alarm although she forced herself to recover quickly.
"Bakara," grinned Duo. It was a slur of Heero's language and Relena's. "Face of the Sun. Don't worry about her name. I don't lie...and I wouldn't like to see anything happen to the Lady Relena's daughter. I like children. They're very unpredictable."
The woman was having none of it. "What did you do to her?"
Duo sighed. "Oil of poppy and a little mint. She's teething."
"She can't be! She's too young..."
"Every child is the same?" Duo shrugged. "She's teething. Check yourself."
Highly suspicious, the woman poked a finger into the child's mouth and felt her gums. Indeed a little nub of tooth could be felt close below the surface. Seeing that the priest had not lied,, she relaxed somewhat. "I hadn't even thought...how did you know?"
"You have to know all the rules if you plan to break them. I recommend getting a strip of thick leather about the width of your thumb for her to chew on. May I sit down?" When the woman nodded hesitantly, Duo reached back to liberate the wax doll from his belt and dropped in a table before taking a chair almost directly across from her. "Oh...don't pay that any mind," he said when he noticed her staring at the wax figure. "Just something the Prince wants me to do."
"You are going to kill someone with magic." The woman's eyes were filled with accusation.
"Actually, I'm hoping to just scare him into an accident of some sort," sighed Duo. "Otherwise I'll have to do something to him myself. Magic's dangerous...I don't like to play with it."
"I don't want Bakara exposed to that kind of thing," the woman said firmly. Then, with veiled interest, "Is it Lord Heero?"
"No. Just some random idiot who can't keep his mouth shut. I don't mean any harm to your master or his family," the priest repeated.
"Why, then, are you still here?"
"To annoy your Lord Heero. He'll go insane when he finds out I got by his guards." Duo's grin was infectious...the woman couldn't help a small smile. "Although I did check the apartment and I will send your Lady incense. She's a charming woman. Also," continued the priest, blushing slightly, "I would like to know your name."
"For nefarious purposes, no doubt," the woman said with a snort although the way she turned her eyes away suggested that she was flattered.
"Very nefarious," confirmed the priest. "You're lovely."
This seemed to snap the nurse out of her reverie. "I am not," she said with faint disdain. "I am worth nothing as a bride and so I am a nursemaid. And hardly that," she added in a whisper, touching a hand to her chest. "Lady Relena nurses her own child as much as she can. But since you ask and have helped Bakara, my name is Her-di."
'Her-di who comes from on high," said Duo with a satisfied nod as though her name had been a confirmation. Then his eyes widened in alarm and he reached for the table. "Oy! That's mine!"
Bakara, calmer now, but too wide-awake to sleep, had fussed in her nurse's arms until Her-di had placed her on the floor to wander about. Now she was investigating the table and its contents. Evidently thinking that wax was good to eat, she seized Duo's manikin and stuffed one arm into her mouth before the priest could stop her. A shrill cry from her nurse surprised her into dropping it once again and - unwilling to go digging under the table - she reached for a clay bowl instead. Having none of it, Her-di scooped the child up before she could do any further damage.
"Bakara! You don't know where that thing has been!" the woman rebuked her charge firmly, more for Duo's benefit than the child's.
"The kitchen, I think," replied Duo, retrieving the doll and examining it closely. "Well, if Kamenit wakes up with a dent in his shoulder, we'll know it worked...although his name isn't clearly etched as of yet."
"Duo," Her-di's voice was cool and firm, "you...I might have misjudged you. You were kind to Bakara. But I do not like that thing and I do not want it here. Take it and yourself out of here so that I can put this one to bed without my soul being troubled by death and magic."
Her breath caught in her throat as though she had been slapped when the priest looked into her face and smiled. It was, perhaps, the saddest expression she had ever seen on man or woman. Given enough time under that empty stare, she might have changed her mind, might have asked him to stay, but she was given no time. "Yes," said Duo. "I should place this before Kamenit returns to his chambers. It's...more effective if he sees it before he sleeps. Perhaps we can talk somewhere open some day - the garden, perhaps - when I am not under orders from my Prince. Perhaps...ah..."
The doll tumbled from Duo's hands and he reached blindly to catch it, barely managing to save it from hitting the floor, so badly were his hands shaking. His hands, his arms, he trembled all over. His heart fluttered madly and he could feel the first pinpricks of sweat as they seeped through his skin. Her-di was staring at him with horrible fascination. He wanted to tell her that it was alright...that the attacks never lasted for very long...that he was quite accustomed to them by now...but he could never be sure that these would not be lies. He was dimly aware of the guards outside...they were speaking to someone. Heero and Relena had returned.
The nurse came to a swift decision. "Hide in my chamber!" she ordered. "If you are not here with my Lord Heero's permission, he'll flay you alive! You can leave when everyone is sleeping."
The offer warmed Duo's heart somewhat, but the trembling had already begun to subside. "Thanks," he offered, "but I don't want to get you into trouble. Besides, I have an appointment to keep." A last glimmer of mischief lit his eyes and he lunged forward to catch Her-di around the waist and kiss her surprised 'O' of a mouth before she could think to close it. Bakara squawked at the discomfort of being pressed between two adults, but by then he had left and moved toward the window.
"You can't go out there!" protested Her-di in a harsh whisper, looking back toward the door that had begun to open. "We're too high...oh!"
When a grim-faced Heero burst into the chamber with his wife and her handmaiden behind him, she was alone. Duo had gone.
On the rooftop, Duo offered the light from Heero's chamber a self-satisfied smile. It had been close...he hadn't think his arms would hold him...but he had made it. He promptly took out a dagger and used its tip to carve his glyphs more firmly into the wax, using the light of the moon and his own fingernail impressions to guide him. He wondered what Her-di had thought of his little departure. He hoped that it had surprised and...on some level...delighted her. If not...well...he could abide her insult far better than the thought of her remembering his pain.
"And it was fun," he reminded himself in a whisper and grinned. "Come on, little waxman...Ill introduce you to your new home."
Unable to leave until the Prince had given the signal, Trowa had lost sight of Duo. He was fairly certain that the priest had vanished from the hall shortly after having spoken with the man who had insulted the Prince - Kamerit? Kamenit? - giving himself just enough time to be seen with others before disappearing for the evening. There was little chance of finding him now, but Trowa remained curious. What was to be done about the nobleman? Had the warning been a veiled threat toward himself?
He did not think that the Prince would try to harm him directly and it would certainly be a black mark against the kingdom if he were to be killed in an accident, but Trowa could not help but wonder. He'd sent the protesting Tetiun back to their apartment and chosen to take a little stroll - there was nothing suspicious about that, was there? - through the known corridors and the guest wings and if he happened to stumble into unfamiliar territory, what of it? He was a stranger after all.
Despite his hopes, he hadn't actually believed that he would see the priest on his little journey and so was surprised when Duo drifted past the mouth of the corridor he was currently investigating. The priest did not run, but was obviously in a hurry so Trowa was forced into a light run to keep him in sight. He did not think that he had made any noise, but twice Duo paused and listened carefully. Each time, Trowa flattened himself into the shadows and prayed he would not be caught.
Either he had not been spotted or Duo had other concerns for both times the priest continued on his way.
Or perhaps the disregard had been deliberate. Perhaps the priest had wanted Trowa to see him turn down the corridor toward Prince Quatre's chambers. Perhaps it was a warning. Perhaps it was a threat.
Fairly certain that this section of the palace was off-limits to unescorted guests and particularly to political prisoners, Trowa pondered the matter carefully. It would be dangerous to press his luck, but...would it hurt to venture down as far as he could before a guard turned him away?
He needn't have wasted the brain power. The moment he set foot in the mouth of the corridor, a heavy hand fell on his shoulder. Followed everywhere he went...and so busy following that he had not noticed.
"I'm sorry, Prince Trowa," rumbled the voice of Rashid himself. "But you are beyond the limits of your boundaries within the palace."
The prince turned to face the giant, willing himself to meet his eyes with as much innocence as he could muster. "I'm sorry. I am not yet familiar with the design of the palace. I dismissed my body servant to spend some time alone with my thoughts...but now I'm lost. Would it be possible to find an escort back to the guest chambers?"
Trowa was fairly certain that Rashid did not believe him...but he did not look angry. In fact, he looked vaguely amused. "Of course, Prince Trowa. Abdul..."
A second guard stepped from the shadows and grinned at him. "Yes, my captain?"
"Please escort our guest back to his chambers and have the guard on his door sent to me to explain this. You can take his place tonight. I will speak to Heero about his own guard tomorrow. That will be all."
Abdul bowed to his superior and held a hand out to Trowa. The other rested lightly on the hilt of his sword. "If the foreign prince would care to accompany me..."
Trowa did so with little more than a nod. Although Abdul was friendly enough with an energy reminiscent of Duo, there was tension beneath the joking exterior and Trowa did not want to test his limits more than once a night. Their route took them back the way that Duo had come. In one of the doorways was a little wax doll.
Feeling vaguely uneasy, Trowa walked silently beside Abdul, his eyes focused only only on the hallway before him.
[26] Egypt is full of romantic love songs where one declares one's girl to be beautiful and quiet and gentle and of a highly spiritual nature, but Duo isn't your orthodox Egyptian.
"The Prince of Nekheb" copyright A.C.Smith (aka Lady Bast), 2002. Send comments to asmith@ican.net Please do not repost or print (other than for personal use) without permission. The Gundam boys and all their paraphenelia belong to whomever currently holds the rights...I'm just borrowing them for a while. No infringement is intended, really. Really really. Please don't sue me, I have no money. If, however, you have a burning desire to hire me and PAY me money to write this kinda stuff, feel free to track me down.