INJASUTI
CHAPTER FIVE
Kathryn studied herself in the mirror. She was in an adjacent room now, sparsely furnished with only tall mirrors and alcoves containing veils, dresses, gowns, sandals and headgear. Her face had been 'painted', which was the only way she could describe how Hanim had done her make-up. Her cheeks were rouged, enhancing her cheekbones and forming a contrast with her clear, light skin. The mascara around her eyes was dark, like kohl. Hanim had used her fingers expertly to apply the kohl and then a fine brush to curl her eyelashes. Now Kathryn's eyes appeared extra blue-grey. "Red for your lips, Eminenza…" Hanim had murmured almost absently as she began applying the lipstick.
After that Hanim had started on Kathryn's hair. It had been washed and dried earlier. Kathryn had been surprised at the drier which was handheld with no pushbuttons to switch it on or off - it simply whirred the moment Hanim took it in her hand and began to dry Kathryn's hair. Now her hair was brushed back from her forehead and an extra long wig pinned to the ponytail. Then Hanim had painstakingly braided white and gold ribbons in the long braids that fell down her back. Ornate gold combs pressed into her hair on each side gave her a very Roman regal appearance.
But it was the next step that made her gasp. From the alcove, Hanim had brought a headdress so beautiful that Kathryn couldn't stop gaping. Ornate, full of gemstones, the metal something that resembled gold. It shone, it breathed royalty; this diadem was placed with the utmost care on Kathryn's head. It was surprisingly light and fitted perfectly, blending with her hairstyle so that her hair and crown appeared like one single unit.
Her gold toga was draped over a light blue chiton and at the waist a long, braided cord was knotted with the ends hanging down her side.
"I look like a Queen," she had said in hushed tones.
"Eminenza, you are a queen," Hanim had responded cheerily.
"I can tell you that I feel like one in this get-up. I've never looked like this, not even in fancy dress."
"Fancy dress? I do not understand, Eminenza."
Kathryn looked at the perplexed Hanim. "When you dress up as someone else, like a famous person, or characters from a drama, in the same clothes as that person… Well, it's play-acting…"
"Eminenza, but you are not an act! This is not a play!"
She had given the young woman an amused smile.
"I know, Hanim. I am Queen Khaira."
"That's right!"
Kathryn was beginning to like this unaffected young woman.
'What is my function, Hanim, other than just being Queen Khaira?" Kathryn asked suddenly. It was curious that no one had told her anything yet about further duties.
Hanim's hands stilled, her smile vanished.
"I am your handmaiden only, Your Highness. It is for the Enlightened Supreme Commander Afzhal Serinius to announce your duty…"
Kathryn gave a light sigh. She wasn't going to get anything out of Hanim and at the back of her mind was still the horrible way in which women and their babies died. Did her task have anything to do with such a rite?
Hanim had taken a deep bow, saying that her escorts would arrive to show her the Place of the Weeping Water. Left alone in the room, Kathryn began pacing. A knock on the door made her jump.
"Enter…"
Framed in the doorway was a well-built, broad-shouldered young man with only a cloth draped around his waist. His hair was very straight and pitch black, the bangs cut evenly. He held two leashes in his right hand to which were tied two of the most magnificent looking dogs Kathryn had ever seen. Their coats were sleek, grey-brown and their ears pointed sharply. Like the dogs of Ahmuhnrah of Egypt… The young man yanked the leashes and the panting dogs instantly went down on their haunches as if they bowed to her.
"Your Highness," said the young man who looked like a junior pharaoh, "I am Kephtah. I am to show you this world."
On foot? Kathryn wondered as he waited for her to follow him.
She nodded. The moment she stepped outside her room, there were two more escorts, a male and female who looked alike and were dressed like Hanim and Livia, though their tunics were of a coarser fibre.
"Come, Highness…"
"Wait…" Kathryn said as she thought of something. The three stopped in their tracks. The dogs became restless, their tails wagging. Kathryn smiled. They sensed they were going for a walk and to be rudely stopped was no good. Back home, her dog Molly did the same. There was a sudden flash of Mark holding Molly, an image that vanished instantly, to be replaced by the image of Chakotay who looked sad and dejected.
"Please," she said, "I wish to see Queen Toreth. I was told she is ill and will not recover."
Kephtah gaped, then closed his mouth again. Kathryn mentally blinked at the man's magnificent upper torso that glistened in the light from the sunbeams thrown on the terracotta paving. Did he rub oils on his body? she wondered. Did those pectorals bulge and move independently? When it seemed that Kephtah found his tongue again, he blustered, "But, Your Highness, I have been instructed - "
"Do not worry, Kephtah. I shall not report you."
Then Kathryn wondered whom she would report to if such an eventuality did arise. That scheming Supreme Commander Afzhal Serinius? Kathryn watched how indecision warred with royal command on the young guard's face. It would be almost comical if the whole situation weren't so bizarre and mysterious. When it seemed that royal command won, Kephtah simply nodded to the man and woman who appeared friendly enough. Yet as she watched the exchange of looks between them, it seemed that he was telling them to keep quiet about what he was going to do. They smiled and bowed deeply to her.
"Follow me," said Kephtah imperiously.
She walked behind him, the dogs between them, and the couple behind her. Down the first stairway, through passages that confused her, down another stairway, then a long, narrow corridor. The dogs began to growl softly and Kathryn thought they must be near where Queen Toreth lay dying. At the end of the corridor they entered through a door which led to yet another set of steps. By the depths they descended, Kathryn deduced that they were either below ground level of the palace, or in the belly of one of the terraced floor levels. There were no windows here, yet she could feel a waft of air that circulated around them. Down this short flight of steps, they found themselves in a tiny square. Kathryn looked up, and although she knew there couldn't be an opening since they were underground, the ceiling was painted a dark blue, almost black, with tiny stars giving the impression of the sky at night. It was very impressive and very realistic. Kephtah walked a few steps, then stopped, the dogs becoming increasingly agitated. They were at the entrance of a closed door with a sign on it. It looked completely strange yet also teasingly familiar.
Kathryn stood fascinated for a few seconds. In the centre of the cartouche was the symbol of a goddess, the goddess Tanith. She couldn't think what the other symbols were, but assumed that the two circles on each side of the triangle to be the binary suns of the Almazin system.
She was certain that Kephtah never once put his hand to the door to knock, yet the door opened silently, with a woman draped from head to knees in a black shawl peeping suspiciously at them.
"We come to see Toreth," said Kephtah peremptorily.
At that moment, Kathryn moved from behind Kepthah, and the woman saw her. Instantly she opened the door wider and then proceeded to bow deeply without saying a single word. When Kathryn touched her shoulder, the woman looked up. Kathryn gestured with her other hand; slowly the woman rose again to her feet. There was a look of deferential fear in the old woman's eyes. For a moment Kathryn thought the woman would bow to her again.
She also noticed that the couple remained outside the door. The dogs though, scurried inside the darkened room. Once again, there were no windows here, but air circulated in the room. A light source from somewhere in the room made it possible for her to see where the dogs had gone to lie down. Kephtah motioned to her to move forward. He took hold of the old woman's hand.
"We shall wait outside. Please, Highness, we do not have long…"
"I thank you," Kathryn whispered. She waited for the door to close before she moved to the bed.
Kathryn tried not to appear shocked at Toreth's appearance. Even though the woman looked emaciated, she was still young. Probably no more than thirty in Earth years. One hand lay atop the thin sheet that covered her body. Tiny blue veins were visible on the back of her hand and forearm. She lay completely still, though Kathryn could see by the imperceptible rise and fall of her bosom that she was still breathing.
Before Kathryn could call her name softly, Toreth opened her eyes. There was no surprise in her look. It was a gaze that held recognition, although obviously Kathryn had never seen her before, nor had Toreth seen Kathryn. Could the dying woman know that Kathryn had been brought here as a genetic descendant? It was the one conclusion she could come to when she pondered on why she had been whisked from her ship here. She remembered hearing Livia speak of a match for the Queen. Kathryn smiled at the sick woman.
"Hello… My name is Kathryn."
"You are Khaira," Toreth breathed through thin lips.
"Yes. Yes, I am Khaira."
"The new Queen."
"I am to be inducted today," Kathryn said. The dogs, now quiet, began to sidle against her legs. It was not threatening; instead, it seemed they were transferring their loyalty to her. Kathryn patted their heads in turn and they made sounds of contentment.
Toreth's hand seemed to come to life suddenly as she grabbed Kathryn's arm and tried to raise herself. She slumped against the pillow.
"I…am…dying…"
Kathryn nodded, not knowing what to say.
"If you take the throne you cannot look back. You will be forever bound by the Laws of the Injasuti. Please, do - not - take - the - vow…"
Kathryn frowned heavily.
"The Vow?"
"To be obedient to the Law."
"Do not worry, Toreth. By tomorrow I shall be back with my people."
I sincerely hope so…
Kathryn's words seemed to appease Toreth, whose face had become more animated. Toreth had golden brown hair like her own and blue eyes. Kathryn shook her head to dispel the image of a likeness between them.
"Khaira…"
"Yes?"
"I have a little boy. My husband - "
"You were married? I understood the Queen could not marry. There - there are eunuchs…" Kathryn let her voice trail, almost embarrassed to mention the eunuchs.
"A queen is only mated to produce a girl child. After that she must lie with eunuchs. I was mated. I miscarried… There was time enough, Afzhal said, for another child to be born. Then… I fell in love…a tribune of the High Command. He - we met after…" Toreth paused, as if she actually counted her words. A wan, deathly smile formed on her mouth. "We married in secret, you must understand, Khaira. It was against the Law. The Emperor married us. Arun Adamian - my husband - we made a beautiful child together. Aidan was taken from me when he was born…"
A tear rolled from the dying woman's cheek.
"How old is your little boy?" Kathryn asked.
"Five years old…"
Three Earth years. Still a baby…
"Do you know where Aidan is now?"
"Supreme Commander Afzhal Serinius took Aidan away. A woman takes care of him. She lives in the First City…"
"I will find him for you, Toreth. I will - "
"It will be too late for me, Khaira. All this time I have never forgotten my son. He lies in my heart. Please, please let him know that I loved him with all my being. All my being…"
"I promise, Toreth."
For a few minutes Toreth lay breathing heavily, rasping gasps forced from her lungs. She began to speak again.
"Beware of Afzhal Serinius. He poisoned me… I am certain of that. He will do anything to keep you imprisoned in the palace. He is a fanatic. After - after my husband was murdered by Afzhal's hand, I had no choice. I am not in favour of the Offering. But I had no choice, Khaira. I had no choice. He brought me eunuchs to pleasure me after my son was taken away.
Kathryn remembered overhearing Afzhal and Livia speak about the eunuchs servicing the queen. If she went to bed tonight, they would be introduced to her. She shuddered at the thought, praying fervently for a moment that Voyager was near, that Chakotay would do everything in his power to prevent anything from happening to her. Eunuchs…they were anachronisms. How old was this civilization?
"Beware - " the dying woman whispered again.
Toreth was weakening. The hand that had clamped convulsively around her arm suddenly slackened and dropped on the sheet, lifeless. Kathryn gasped.
"Toreth, please, tell me about the Offering…" Kathryn's voice held an urgency that made her heart race. "Please…"
"Beware…beware…"
A silence fell in the room. Toreth's eyes closed gently, as if she had fallen asleep. But the heaving bosom had stopped.
Toreth was dead.
When Kathryn looked up, distraught, Kephtah was standing next to her. The dogs had gone quiet; they sat regally at her feet, waiting for her to move.
"There is nothing we can do but mourn for our late Queen Toreth," said Kephtah, his voice tinged with reverence and regret. The old woman began to wail softly as she prostrated herself over the still figure of her mistress.
When Kephtah touched Kathryn's shoulder, the dogs growled softly. "We must leave, Your Highness," he said.
Kathryn nodded mutely, wondering at the dead woman's warning to her. At the door, she turned and took one last glance. An old handmaiden dressed in black shawls, lying over the body of her mistress, was an image Kathryn knew would remain with her for a long time.
Now they moved silently, swiftly through the corridors of the palace going up, up until finally they stood outside, the bright sunlight almost blinding in their them. The couple seemed to come to life suddenly. The man clicked his fingers and suddenly there appeared a small carriage, drawn by two magnificent white horses. Kathryn remembered Hanim telling her about the white horses of the Injasuti Plains.
When the man indicated that Kathryn should enter the carriage, she asked, "What is your name?"
He looked perplexed. She wondered whether her universal translator was scrambling the phonemes. The woman looked equally perplexed. It was Kephtah who explained, looking sheepish for not doing so earlier.
"They cannot speak, Your Highness, and are partially deaf. Their vocal chords were damaged at birth. They are brother and sister, born twins."
Kathryn thought how quickly their condition would be remedied had they been on Voyager…
"What are they called, Kephtah?" Kathryn asked as the woman got in to sit next to her.
"If you mean their station, Your Highness, then they are lower than your handmaiden in status, although they are not slaves. Their names are Abry and Shabgah."
Kathryn looked at Shabgah and touched her hand. "Shabgah…" Only then did the woman smile. It pleased Kathryn and when she gave the signal to move, the horses pulled forward with a jerk. Kephtah and Abry sat in front on a box with the dogs squeezed in the small cabin of the carriage. Kathryn stroked the dogs. Since no one had told her the dogs' names, she decided to give them names.
"You're Nemo, and you're Bligh," she told them as she pointed to each dog. Shabgah nodded with pleasure, then quickly lowered her head again. Unused to this kind of deference, Kathryn clicked her tongue in annoyance.
She glanced up at Shabgah again quickly, a moment in which the woman lifted her face briefly but not before Kathryn saw a distraught look on the woman's face. Now her heart began to race furiously. She had just witnessed a Queen in her dying moments, spoken to an Egyptian-looking young guard with bulging, gleaming pectorals, and now she was on her way to the Place of the Weeping Water with a distraught deaf and mute woman sitting next to her. They knew something that she didn’t. Did they think to surprise her with something strange, evil? A sliver of fear crawled up her spine. Whatever it was they wanted her to do, she was going to fight it. With no idea of Voyager's exact whereabouts, she prayed once again that they'd reach her in time to disable the force field and get her out. She'd have greater bargaining power once she was safely back on her ship…
A sudden thought struck her.
Where, she wondered, was Supreme Commander Afzhal Serinius?
It was like nothing Kathryn ever imagined, this, the Place of the Weeping Water. The horses had snorted, then stopped suddenly.
Kathryn revisited the journey here in her mind…
Because Shabgah was not speaking, and Abry and Kephtah remained just as quiet on the way, she had gradually become aware of the sound of water. At first, it was a faint rushing from a distance. She couldn't see the river that was visible from the courtyard, and the people she had seen working the gardens had seemed like ants in the distance.
Now the sound captured her - like a backdrop in a picture came the faintness of water spilling against and over a million pebbles, as if just looking at it created its resonance. Kathryn glanced quickly at Shabgah, whose hands were folded on her lap and who smiled benignly at her, before cocking her head again for the sound. Against the echo of rushing water other sounds blended in, such as the singing of exotic birds of paradise, the sudden squawking of a bird as it flew up, disturbed by something unseen. Kathryn closed her eyes, longing suddenly for home, for leaves she could touch, for rain she could feel against her skin, for the radiant sunbeams dappled on the ground under the great oak, for the river that snaked elegantly through the Grand Canyon, but mostly, for home.
Everything was green - green and glistening, the myriad varieties of leaves and fronds sprayed with mist, precisely as if nature had polished them to shiny brilliance.
Another sound merged with those of the rushing waters and the calling of the birds. It sounded like the wailing of many voices. Kathryn frowned. The weeping sounded musical, as if it had been carried to the present from a great, great distance, an echo that drifted from ancient times harmonising with the birds of paradise. It was so beautiful, yet to Kathryn's ear it was the saddest music she had ever heard.
Another glance at Shabgah who now looked up and shrugged her shoulders at Kathryn's querying look. She wished suddenly that Shabgah could hear the musical weeping, to explain it to her. Kathryn peeped through the opening on her side of the carriage and asked Kephtah, "What is that sound? That echoing weeping sound?"
"I do not hear anything, Your Highness."
Was he lying? she wondered as she sat back. Was that why Abry shrugged and Shabgah remained passive? The carriage rolled forward, the rushing waters now becoming more defined, louder, like plunging from a great height. Was it a waterfall? Weeping Water seemed to mean a waterfall. Shaking her head mentally to try and dispel the sadness, she lay back, her eyes glued to the distance. Something caught her attention. Through a slight aperture in the forest, where the rays of the twin suns plunged to the forest floor, she noticed something. Rows of flat stones that reminded her of gravestones. It was gone the moment the horses veered down the path in another direction.
"Are those gravestones?" she asked, leaning out the window again.
"It is the Tophet, Your Highness."
"Tophet?"
"A graveyard."
Then her hunch had been correct. Who could be buried there? How old were those headstones? She thought she'd ask Kephtah later, just as soon as she had seen the "weeping water". Still, as if it followed her, the echoing sad song remained in her conscious. Why couldn't the others hear it?
Finally, they stopped.
They were on a large landing platform with a path that led to the waterfall.
The waterfall.
Its beauty was astounding. From high over a cliff, the water rushed and plunged into the depths of the large pool, into the river that snaked surprisingly thinly away from them in the opposite direction. Where the water plunged into the pool, there was another platform, a much smaller one, facing slightly away from the falling water so that if one stood there, only the mist would spray the person's face.
Kathryn couldn't keep her eyes from it, her longing gaze riveted to the sight, the sound of the musical weeping still within her. Now, perhaps the wailing took on meaning for her. She had a glimpse of the Tophet in the distance. Perhaps for those who had come to bury their loved ones, their grief was so great that the gods wished to capture their sorrow in sad songs? It began to make sense to her.
"Come, Your Highness, our Supreme Commander is waiting for you," said Kephtah.
Instantly, Shabgah alighted, moving to her side of the carriage and guiding her out, taking great care that Kathryn didn't miss her footing. The dogs bounded out, then suddenly, meekly flanked Kathryn on both sides. Kephtah handed the leashes to her. He walked in front, with Abry and Shabgah behind them. Closing her eyes, Kathryn hoped and prayed that she'd not be required to do something against her will. An image of being bedded by eunuchs made her emit a light moan of disquiet. Shaking her head, she willed Chakotay's image into her consciousness. A Chakotay standing on a planet during shore leave, bathed in the sunshine, smiling at her. "Please…please…stay with me, Chakotay…" she entreated his image.
They descended down a gradual slope from the landing pad, approaching what seemed to her to be a deep entrance carved in the sandstone on the side of the cliff. They entered, the dogs restless again but sidling close to her. Kephtah plucked a flaming torch from the wall of the cave and guided them down the tunnel until they reached a large cavern. Kathryn noted strange glyphs on the walls of the cavern, some haphazard, others appearing more formalised. Could they be messages? Her universal translator only picked up phonemes and gave her the closest meaning to English. An image of Kiridis came to mind. Didn't Chakotay say that he studied classical texts to the nth degree? When Bligh yanked on the leash, her attention was brought again to the urgency of her presence in the cavern.
In the centre was a metallic hexagon-shaped console, long, thin spikes protruding from it. Light flickered lazily from its core. It stood about a metre tall, yet threw rays of light throughout the cavern. Kathryn had wondered about Injasuti's technology. If their technology matched that of the Federation, notwithstanding the Procurator who brought her here through subspace, then it was subtle, to the point where it was almost unnoticed, at least in the area surrounding the Place of the Weeping Water.
The dogs had broken free and each guarded the opening to a tunnel. Kephtah, Abry and Shabgah moved respectfully away, backing against the wall behind her. Kathryn wondered why they behaved so strangely. In the distance, like an echo, she could hear the water.
As silently as a ghost, a tall man appeared from one of the side tunnels. When he approached Kathryn, he bowed deeply, then straightened up. He had a thin, gaunt, face with angular planes, eyebrows that seemed to originate from the centre between his eyes, arching sharply upwards. He wore a goatee that grew to a long point.
"Your Highness…"
His voice was a light tenor, almost a thin screech. A thought struck Kathryn as she recognised it. It was the voice of the man she’d heard outside her room, in conversation with Livia Gaiden, the housekeeper.
"Who are you?" Kathryn asked, maintaining her air of ignorance.
"I am Supreme Commander Afzhal Serinius, Keeper of the Eternal Offering."
"Ah, the Offering," Kathryn started. "I have heard too much of it since I have recovered this morning. Tell me now, Supreme Commander, what is the Offering and what is my role in this?
The Supreme Commander smiled, a sly smile that made Kathryn's heart lurch suddenly in fear. He rubbed his hands together. He lifted his chin, turned his head slightly to his right.
"Come!" he commanded in a peremptory tone.
Silence at first. Then the sound of shuffling feet. Kathryn turned her head in the direction of the sound, the footsteps coming closer. In the tunnel entrance stood a young woman dressed in a long robe, her head wrapped in a shawl. Kathryn's eyes met hers briefly, long enough to register a look of awe and distress. But it was what she held that drew Kathryn's attention, her eyes fixed inexorably on the bundle in her arms. The woman moved slowly until she stood next to Afzhal Serinius. Kathryn heard the cry of a baby. The woman lifted the shawl away from the baby's face and Kathryn saw a tiny, pudgy arm sticking out and thrashing the air. The mother's hand grasped the little one's hand. Her lips moved as if in song. The baby stopped crying.
Instinctively Kathryn moved to look at the baby, but Afzhal's hand went up and she paused, her eyes not wavering from the child. Afzhal took the baby from the mother; he held the baby up, above his shoulders. Then he lowered the child. The shawl had fallen away so that its face was exposed. The baby turned its head and looked at Kathryn.
For a few seconds, her heart stopped. She was staring into the bluest eyes she had ever seen on any human person. And then the baby smiled open-mouthed, the tears of earlier halted. Kathryn felt as if something squeezed her heart. She wished to hold the friendly baby in her arms, already open to perform that action.
"This is the Offering, Queen Khaira," said Afzhal proudly. "This child is to be Offered to our Venerable Supreme Goddess Tanith. And you, Queen Khaira, as the Incarnation of our Goddess Tanith in whom we all believe and find hope, you will drive the dagger into her heart before you place her on the burning arms of our Tanith."
Only then did the horror of her task strike her. The image of twenty eight babies in their mothers' arms on a stricken vessel came to her. They fled to escape this, the realisation stormed through her. She had to kill a baby.
"No…no…no…!!" Kathryn cried.
******
END CHAPTER FIVE