City of Dreams by Anton Gill Page B

in by her father five years before when her baby brother had drowned there; but she loved to sit by cool water, inured to the stinging flies which gave people from the north so much trouble. And now she was going there again, for a great adventure; perhaps the greatest in her life. The anticipation overcame her fear, and there was fear: the thing which had most made her hesitate was the thought of the deaths of her two friends. But Iritnefert had been found by the river, outside the compound; and Neferukhebit in her own home. Besides, she would not be alone — only on the journey there and back. During the hour they would be together, she would be protected. The thought gave wings to her feet. She did not want to waste a moment of the time they would have.
    She arrived at the park. It was cool and dark, but familiar, and she felt no fear as she entered it, though she briefly touched the tjet amulet at her neck for luck. She was aware of her body, realising that it was taut as a lute string with anticipation. Every pore was alive. She could feel the root of every hair of her head.
    She advanced through the shadows less cautiously, her only fear now that there would be no one to meet her. The thought cast darkness over her heart.
    But there, standing at the edge of the pool, half-hidden in the deeper shade cast by a clump of leaning palm trees, he was waiting. Reassuring, smiling at her, and coming to greet her. Strange that he should seem so familiar to her now; as if they had always been close.
    ‘You came.’ 
    She looked up at him, wanting to reach up and stroke his face. His eyes held her. She had no will.
    ‘I never doubted that you would.’
    ‘I am on fire,’ she said, and was immediately ashamed of her candour.
    He moved away from her. Only a fraction, but she was aware of it.
    ‘This is a solemn moment. We must consecrate it to each other and to the gods.’
    ‘Yes.’ She was too awed to notice anything but passion in the voice. She knew from pictures in the Book of Instruction clandestinely glimpsed in her father’s library what to expect, approximately; and she had seen animals; but exactly what happened she could not imagine.
    ‘We do not want the gods to regard our deed as evil.’
    ‘They wouldn’t do that. It is good to create life.’
    ‘But in an evil world innocence must be protected. Come. The water will purify us.’
    She watched as if dreaming as he untied his kilt, all he was wearing, and let it fall to the warm ground beneath them. She looked between his legs, but all was shadow there until he turned towards her and she saw the snake’s head loom. Her first sensation was of unfocused disappointment. It was not as large or as upright as the one in the Book of Instruction .
    ‘Now you.’
    Dutifully, even hastily, she pulled the strap down over her left arm and stepped out of her dress. She regretted that it was too dark for him to see how beautiful she had tried to make herself, even using malachite as well as the usual galena. She let the dress fall and took a shy step towards him. He put out a hand and caressed her hair, her head, with tenderness and, she thought, curious detachment. But she knew nothing of these things.
    Then he was closer. There was the warm, acrid male smell of his body, and his left arm was round her, stronger than she thought, holding her against him. Her face was against his chest. Clumsily, for he was holding her too tightly for her to manoeuvre, she kissed him there, but he twisted away, bruising her lips and leaving her confused and rejected. What had she done wrong?
    ‘Teach me,’ she said, raising her head to look at him.
    He did not look into her eyes. He was steadying her with his left arm, fumbling with something in his right hand. She was held so tightly now that she could not struggle. Then at last his lips descended on hers and she closed her eyes.
    The pain which followed immediately was so sudden and so extreme that it went beyond feeling. She opened