“Look! I have raised them from the ashes,” she said, pointing to the monsters. “Then I can raise the dead. But you will owe me.”
“Anything you want!” How easily a man in a stalemate could make promises! Had he known he was pledging his soul to the devil. The echo of his oath stood over the wilderness.
“There is your kingdom and the whole world! I desire them! I will come to you after you have recovered all that is lost and enthroned on your throne, and on the thrones of your children, and their children. The whole world will be mine, but you will have luxury and prosperity for centuries. Then I decide what to do with this world.”
She didn’t say everything, but that was enough for him. He knelt before her and thought everything was a dream.
“I consecrate you to my service, the first angel of the universe,” she slashed a claw across his forehead, sealing the contract with a living seal. You put such a mark on a man, and the man is in her power. The seal of the angel on the flesh will not let him disobey.
“Here is your new kingdom!” She remembered throwing a peri tear and creating a small lake in the sand, making Menes lean over it and at the bottom he saw a magnificent white stone city.
It is only a reflection!”
“Everything in the world is just a divine dream. Whether it is real or not depends only on me. I will give you the kingdom, but remember, all that is yours is mine from now on, too.”
And she began to lift her dead warriors from the already devastated battlefield. She didn’t do it for nothing. Menes had become the first ruler of Egypt, and there would be others after him, and she must rule them all.
Alais awoke from her memories. Why had she wished for this? Strangely, she didn’t understand it herself.
“I told you to!”
A black shadow clung to Alais’s wings, enveloping her entire figure in darkness. A black mist enveloped her golden body. Alais wanted to pull away from it and couldn’t.
“Why do I feel like the darkness is a part of me?” She asked aloud.
“Yes, it is.”
The voice that responded toВ her was disembodied, but it made her flee from the desert.
The ruined temple
It was time toВ go toВ Menes. ToВ do so, she would have toВ leave the deserts. The king mentally called out toВ her. His call was filled with despair. Alais could not understand why, for Menes was now the ruler. He was no longer inВ danger ofВ losing theВ war.
“Go and see what’s going on with Menes,” she commanded Remy.
“He wants to see you, ma’am,” Remy, hovering over the desert, knew all too well.
“Is he waging a new war?”
“With the help of a dead army, he has won many wars already.”
Alais didn’t like that Remy called the corpses, filled with demon energy, a dead army. But they were.
“I gave Menes a gift – gave him an invincible backbone. What more could he want?”
“When the bodies of the warriors you brought back to life have rotted away, the demons will be gone. Menes will be without an army,” Remy reasonably reminded him.
“Does he know that already?”
“He has not studied magic, nor is he suspicious, but he is desperate for you to come to Egypt.”
“We are in Egypt. These deserts are officially the domain of Menes, ever since he led his invincible armies out of here.”
“But he wants to see you in the king’s palace. It’s not that far from here. It’s a midnight flight. Menes erected a magnificent residence in a white-stone fortress. This fortress is called the white walls – Inehu hedge.
“How the Egyptian language is like the angelic language!” Alais wondered. “It’s all your and my other servants’ fault! You flew too close to people and even communicated with them. The Egyptians have adopted the sounds of angelic speech from you.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“I don’t like humans,” Alais drew protective signs in the sand. Now no man shall cross this boundary of the wilderness. No human must see the golden palace the demons have built in the sands for their mistress. The structure mimicked the heavenly mansions, but it stood on earth.
“I wish I could get my hands on that angel who taught the people how to make crafts and wield weapons. I would skin him! He instilled intelligence into a savage tribe that, without his angelic intervention, would have remained mere animals. Men are not angels! They breed and eat and drink like ordinary cattle. What apostate would think of teaching them the sciences of angels? Where is this apostate hiding?”
“I sent helpers to look for him, but they didn’t find anyone. This angel doesn’t seem to be one of your cohorts. Maybe Michael sent him. By the way, you know that Michael has built a huge temple on the border of the Sahara to keep you out of the deserts. For some reason he is very reluctant for you to visit King Menes. Is he jealous, perhaps?”
Remy’s voice became ingratiating. He flew around Alaïs, whispering:
“Imagine: this temple is modeled on the heavenly structures. It is as if it was made of clouds, but the material is strong. It is white stone. My centurions saw Michael hauling the blocks himself. He is sure that this temple will keep you out of Memphis.
“Is it a temple of heaven on earth?” Alais wondered. “It happens! Let’s go see it, and pay King Menes a visit too.”
The Temple of Heaven stood on the border between the desert and the lands beyond. Alais looked upon it as a stronghold of the enemy. It had been built here by her brethren left above. That was why the structure looked so ethereal, even though it consisted of heavy blocks. The white stone was stacked with openwork turrets that jutted into the clouds. Only angels could have built such a structure. To men it would have appeared as a fairy tale. That’s why people didn’t see this temple.
Alais looked up at the heavens. Empty! She heard no more angelic calls toВ return. Then it was time toВ conquer the land.
The temple stood as the watchtower ofВ heaven on earth. If it was gone, there would be no control ofВ heaven. Destroy it with fire? The creature sitting on the minaret was inВ her way. Alais took aВ closer look at it. It seemed toВ be limping and dragging aВ broken wing behind it. The white creature with the broken wings is aВ cripple! It was put here as atonement for sympathizing with the rebels. Does it still feel such sympathy for her as toВ yield? It had moved with incredible speed, bypassing the domes and bell towers, it was now hiding behind the lancet window opening, but it still wanted toВ watchВ her.
“Fly to me?” Alais beckoned with the tip of her forefinger.
The white creature shook its horned head negatively. It couldn’t fly.
“Then crawl!”
The creature crawled obediently down the wall, scratching the white stone with its long, crooked claws.
“Who left you here to keep watch?” Alais wanted to go toward the crawling creature, but Remy stopped her.
“It’s contagious.”
“Is it even to me?” Alais looked into the creature’s rotten eyes. It really did seem better to stay away from it. It could be bait.
“How many creatures like it are there in this temple?”
“Countless,” Remy counted. He could see through the walls easily.
“It’s not a temple.”
“Then destroy it, mistress. It is within your power.”
“But it is the temple of heaven, and to heaven we have lost.”
“Everything that stands on earth is yours.”
Alais frowned. The temple irritated her greatly. It reeked of Michael’s aura. Surely he had a hand in the construction. The structure combined the features of all the religious buildings in the world. So Remy whispered. He flew over the world, watching people who noticed the higher beings begin to build temples. Such temples were only monuments to incredible encounters between humans and demons or angels, but this one was special. It was not built by humans, but by angels themselves. The unburned angels who remained in heaven were hated by Alais. How dare they build anything on earth!
Alaïs walked forward, treading bare feet on the scorching sand. The fiery sand itself was turning to ash beneath her feet. She couldn’t do that in sandals. A chain of scorched footprints stretched across the sand like a living black snake. Alais didn’t fly, but walked forward, not knowing why. The temple was calling to her as one living organism. This temple was the seal of heaven on earth. With it, the heavens claimed the desert and the earth. It should not be so. This land is hers! And this temple is superfluous.
AВ voice inВ the wind that blew suddenly from the minarets warned, but Alais stepped forward.
And the temple collapsed. It was without fire. It was without the use ofВ force. No trickery. It was simply from the fact that she had come close.
Debris fell at her feet. The crushed white creature groaned. Would it die? What difference does it make! The temple is gone. That is, there is no seal ofВ heaven either. Alais clenched the stone wreckage inВ her fist and crushed it into ashes. The world is at her mercy.
Pharaoh Menes
Tinis was the capital, but the royal residence was not there. Remy reported that Menes deflected the flow of the Nile with a great embankment and erected the fortress of Inebu-hedge on the spoils. It was stunning in its splendor. That’s where it was worth going from the start. The cold celestial temple did not impress in comparison to the architecture of the royal palace. Here Alais had been long awaited. Apparently Menes had warned everyone that a deity would one day come to him.
People who saw her fell toВ their knees. It even made her feel sorry for them. The nobility and the rabble alike lowered their faces into the road dust as the deity approached. They dared not look up at her. Probably people were afraid ofВ going blind. Alais had noticed that the glow ofВ the sun made human eyes hurt, and she was part ofВ the sun. So the fear ofВ those who encounter her is not surprising.
The king’s palace was not only inhabited by humans. There were dead warriors with red eyes in every dark corner of the palace. Toward Alais stepped the horse Menes had once called Urey. A bracelet in the shape of a snake wrapped in rings ran down its black hoof. Alaïs remembered where the bracelet had come from. She patted Urey’s scruff. The horse’s eyes glittered red, like two large rubies. There was a devilish spirit in the horse’s body.
“Greetings, Urey!” Alais stepped away from the horse. She could fly through the halls of the palace, but she thought it more respectable to walk. Her feet in gilt sandals clattered across the marble floor. Lotuses were in the air. Ponds and pools were full of them. The palms, scattered everywhere, provided pleasant shade.
Alais passed gardens, baths, and lavishly furnished halls. There were many servants and lords everywhere. But where was the Pharaoh himself? Where was Menes? He was not in the king’s bedchamber. The great bed stood empty.
“It’s daytime,” Remy realized as he flew in from above. “People don’t sleep during the day, they go about their business. Pharaoh must be in the throne room. It’s somewhere over there.”
Alais felt nostalgic. There was a throne in heaven too, and that throne didn’t go to her. It was all Michael’s fault. She hoped he was now weeping fiery tears over the wreckage of his temple.
Menes was well established in Memphis. The city was indeed white, as the name communicated. Even the royal palace was built entirely of white stone. In hot climates white is practical because it does not heat up as much in the sun as materials of all other colors. But that’s not why Menes chose white. The white stone had gold ornaments embedded in it everywhere. Apparently, this combination reminded the king of a deity he had once met in the desert that had helped him win. Alais knew perfectly well that people think of angels as being composed of two colors: white and gold. No matter how she looked, she still retained her angelic appearance. Pharaoh Menes did not discern the darkness that enveloped the angelic silhouette. Had he decided that Alais was a good deity? Could he have been deluded at the sight of her beautiful appearance as to decide that a good deity was capable of raising dead armies from death?
People exhibit mental blindness at the sight ofВ the beauty ofВ angels. Rumors reached Alais that Michael was fooling the heads ofВ mortals toВ use them as his puppets. She appeared inВ Memphis toВ put an end toВ this. From now on, humans are just her puppets. It is everyone, starting with Menes.
Menes founded aВ kind ofВ cult ofВ worship inВ his palace for the deity he once met. The wall paintings vividly displayed the story ofВ how the pharaoh had met aВ deity inВ the desert. Alais could hardly recognize herself inВ the drawings. Human artists could not convey angelic beauty as well as human sculptors. The golden statue inВ the niche looked only roughly like Alais. Bundles ofВ flowers were fragrant at its foot. Some worshippers were already praying toВ her. The appearance ofВ the living deity came as aВ shock toВ all.
Listening to people’s thoughts, Alais learned that Menes had declared himself a living deity as well, and that all future pharaohs should be worshipped as gods as well. Apparently, the treaty with Alais had had this effect on him. Menes decided that by accepting help from the deity he himself had become related to the gods.
The dead serpent crushed by Urey also became part of the king’s symbolism. Now Urey was a wreath in the form of a serpent, which the pharaoh himself wore.
Menes was waiting for her. Alais sensed that he was counting the minutes until she arrived. His heart was beating like a caged bird. Why does people’s heart beat so hard when they want to behold a deity? Alais always kept her cool, even as she flew into battle in the heavens. Today, for the first time, she was nervous. The image of the handsome, swarthy warrior who had lost his army did not leave her memory. Now she would see him again. Only now he is not a wanderer, but a pharaoh. She cannot bestow upon him more than she has already bestowed upon him. You could say she put him on the throne. Angels are not supposed to share their power and authority with anyone, but she did. She went against heaven again. Pharaoh is her proxy.
The doors ofВ the throne room swung open before her. Fanciful ornamentation on the doors repeated the story ofВ how aВ destitute pharaoh had actually been adopted byВ aВ desert deity. Now all pharaohs are considered children ofВ the gods.
Alais entered the throne room and was embarrassed for the first time. Instead of the handsome young man she remembered, some old man sat on the throne. The luxurious pectoral, Urey, and wig could not hide his ugliness. It wasn’t Menes! Alais recoiled from the insignificant man who happily extended his arms toward her. This is some kind of impostor. There are wrinkles stretching across his skin. He is not attractive at all. Jewelry is the only attractive thing about him. And then there are the eyes! Alais was stunned to notice Menes’ beaming eyes on his wrinkled face.
So this really is him? But why had he changed so much? What had happened to him? Was it Michael’s jokes? Did he take away Pharaoh’s beauty so there would be no one to be jealous of?
Menes sent away the slaves with their lampshades and the courtiers who had brought some reports. He wanted toВ be alone with the deity.
Alais’s first impulse was to fly away from here, winging away. The changed Menes was her first great shock since she’d fallen to earth.
“Didn’t you know, mistress?” Remy held her back. “People get old!”
“Are they aging?” Alais didn’t understand what the word meant. It had never been applied to angels. “What do you mean, they grow old?”
“Time breaks down human bodies,” Remy began to explain patiently. “The longer people live, the more their physical makeup deteriorates. The skin dries and wrinkles, the body becomes weak – this is called old age. There is no such process with angels.”
“Has anyone tried to reverse the process?”
“It can’t be reversed, it can only be completed. It usually ends in death. Once a person is too old, he dies. But Menes isn’t too old,” Remy hovered like a blob of darkness over Alais’s shoulder, whispering in her ear. “Pharaoh is sixty years old, if I’m not mistaken. It is not yet the latest phase of old age. But you have come just in time to see the ruler alive.”
Alais didn’t listen to him anymore. It turns out that people are even more fragile than she thought they were. Such a concept as aging shocked her. Angels didn’t grow old even after hundreds of thousands of years, but humans take half a century to shrivel up and turn into living relics. How awful!
So the beautiful warrior with the blue-black hair will never come back toВ her again. Menes is here, near, and at the same time he is gone. There is an old man on the throne.
Overcome with disgust, Alais walked over toВ him, leaned over the throne, and hugged him lightly.
“I have come to take what I promised,” she whispered. “From now on you and all your descendants serve me!”
Pharaoh said nothing against her. He had no intention ofВ bargaining from the start.
“Does this mean you’ll never leave me again?” He said, almost triumphantly.
“Yes it does,” he nodded, “but perhaps you won’t be happy about it.”
The beginning ofВ the reign
She was wrong. Menes had many problems that only aВ god could solve.
“I have long been planning to build you a temple in the middle of the desert, but I cannot find the place where we first met,” Pharaoh said. “The temple must stand there, and the pilgrims must come to it in droves with gifts and petitions.”
Such pomp was not part ofВ AlaГЇs plans. Why would she want aВ temple inВ the middle ofВ the wilderness and crowds ofВ worshippers?
“Let’s leave it for later.”
“It would be too late for me.”
