She tugged playfully on one of Mildred’s braided plaits. “Because of some insane reaction to my mother’s death, Pharaoh decided I was not his true heir. He stripped me of my rank and status. I am only the servant of the bitch he has chosen as his breeder. He expects her to bear him a litter of squalling gods and goddesses. I will not allow that to happen.”
“You want this sick little fantasyland all to yourself.”
“Fantasyland?” All the humor vanished from Nefron’s voice. “What do you mean?”
Mildred forced a dry chuckle. “I mean this isn’t a kingdom. You’re tromping around in an old movie set, playing ‘let’s pretend’ to the point of imbecility. Akhnaton isn’t a pharaoh—you aren’t a princess. He’s the product of an experiment in controlled eugenics, and you’re his progeny. He’s mutant, and so are you. Not royalty, not divine, just a couple of genetically twisted monstrosities with delusions.”
While she spoke, Nefron’s face twisted into something ugly and hard. Her grip on Mildred’s braid tightened, and she jerked Mildred’s head back painfully. “The only thing separating fantasy from reality is a matter of perception,” she snapped. “Since I am in charge, it is my perception of reality that matters.”
“Get to the goddamn point,” Mimses said impatiently.
Nefron glanced his way with bright, venomous eyes. He hastily glanced away. Returning her gaze to Mildred, she asked, “Did you tell your friends about the power of the ankhs? Did you make more of them? You were found in Pharaoh’s quarters. Did you give one to Krysty? Answer me.”
Mildred didn’t answer or even act as if she had heard the questions. She focused her vision on the wall only a few inches away from her face.
The room suddenly reverberated with a snapping crack. It took all of Mildred’s self-control not to scream as streaks of agony blazed across her back. Twisting her head back and around, she saw Mimses holding a whip in his right hand. The lash consisted of three pliant, knotted leather cords.
“Answer her,” he said. The cold, lustful light gleaming in his eyes showed that he really didn’t want her to cooperate.
“What difference does it make?” Mildred demanded between clenched teeth.
“The difference between life and death,” Nefron declared.
“Yours or mine?”
“Both. Our fates are intertwined at this moment.” She glared hard and unblinkingly at Mildred. As she did so, she said, “I cannot get a read on her. She is resisting me, and I cannot waste any more time here. I have got to attend to Krysty. Mimses, make this bitch talk or make her die.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jak was hot, thirsty, tired and cramped, a far cry from how he had felt in the hour before dawn when he had followed Nefron out of the small house on the outskirts of Aten.
She had led him along a mazelike path, circling around the city walls to the very base of the pyramid. Its massive proportions hadn’t impressed him overmuch. He had eyes only for Nefron. The memory of her body was still fresh in his hands, the taste of her on his lips, and the erotic scent of her skin, her sex still sweetened the air he breathed.
She told him where to climb, how to get there, what to do and when to do it. She held him by the sides of the head and kissed him deeply and passionately.
Senses reeling, Jak began the long climb up the side of the monument, not feeling the weight of his holstered blaster or the water skin slung over a shoulder.
He found the mouth of the ventilation shaft leading to the relieving chamber with no trouble, just where Nefron had indicated it would be. But, even as thin as he was, he had difficulty squeezing into it. He put his back against one wall and braced his feet against the other and crept down at a snail’s pace into darkness.
The rough-hewn surface of the stone scraped his back, snagged at folds in his shirt, and when the friction between flesh and rock increased, he began to sweat profusely. The painfully slow sliding of his boot treads and the inch-by-inch movements of his back had to be synchronized perfectly, or he would lose his precarious balance and pitch straight down into the King’s Chamber.