Nefron smiled for the first time. “That’s for sure. Here.” She touched a red pencil to Mildred’s full lips, rouging them quickly. “No time to make up your eyes with kohl, but your eyelashes are long enough as it is. Besides, you’ve got good bone structure. You’re very pretty for a woman so old.”
“Thanks,” Mildred said dryly, pressing her lips together. It had been a long time since she had wom any cosmetics. “Did Mimses pick out this ensemble?”
“Yes, but consider yourself lucky. Usually the women he calls for aren’t allowed to wear anything at all.”
The door opened and one of the shaved-headed guards beckoned to them. “Come on.”
Mildred obediently crossed the chamber, feeling like a contestant in a Miss Belly Dancing contest. Before stepping through the door, she cast a glance over her shoulder. Nefron stared after her, her eyes burning with a strange, indecipherable light.
Chapter Fourteen
The two men marched on either side of Mildred, this time not laying a hand on her. At the end of the corridor, they ascended a winding staircase that led directly to a great, high-ceilinged hall. Her eyes darted around the vast room in wonder. She had seen splendor on this scale before, but only in movies, costume epics of the type DeMille had favored.
The hall attested to the wealth and power of its owner, not just by its size but by the richness of the furnishings. Lotus-topped pillars upheld the high ceiling, and smoldering bronze braziers filled the air with a spicy, aromatic scent that was at first unpleasant, then somehow soothing.
The polished surfaces of the walls bore a confusing jumble of pictographs and symbols and colors—bright reds, vivid greens, deep cyans, brilliant yellows. Plush chairs, divans and settees were scattered about, seemingly in a random pattern, but laid out and arranged so the eye followed the furniture to the open terrace at the far wall.
Late-afternoon sunlight shafted down a heavyset black man reclining on a cushion-piled dais. His gray-sprinkled hair was blunt cut and very short. He wore a linen tunic that exposed arms and legs that had once been firm with muscle but were now sagging with flab. His deeply lined face had a sensual, lupine quality about it. His eyes were almost hidden by puffy bags of flesh. A supple-bodied girl barely into her teens kneeled behind him, massaging his neck and shoulders. Her fingers moved deftly and expertly. When Mildred drew closer, she saw that his youthful masseuse was stark naked except for hieroglyphic designs painted on her arms, legs and budding breasts.
A pair of huge men, one wearing the head of a jackal and the other the head of a bull, stood on opposite ends of the terrace. Both gripped metauh staves in their fists.
Mildred’s two-man escort suddenly halted, turned smartly on their heels and strode back to the door. Mildred stopped, almost wishing thev hadn’t left her.
The black man gestured to her. “Get over here, woman. You’ve kept me waiting long enough.”
Mildred hesitantly edged onto the terrace, then to the base of the cushion-heaped dais. She locked her gaze on his face, dark eye to dark eye. His strength shone nakedly in his eyes, but it was an ugly strength, devoted only to fulfilling his own wants and whims. His eyes bored into hers as though they were trying to gauge her own strength. Remembering Nefron’s warning, she sent her thoughts skittering in different directions, tumbling over one another. For a woman with such a disciplined mind, she found it difficult to allow chaos to fill her thoughts, but she managed. She knew the man expected her to turn away, unable to bear that gaze. She met his expectations, casting her glance down.
“Gen-you-wine brown sugar,” the man drawled. “Real color by birth, not by a fucking bottle.”
Although Mildred was pleased that her guess regarding the uniform skin and hair color of Aten’s citizens had been correct, she said nothing.
The man grinned, showing off large, discolored teeth. “What’s your name, brown sugar?”
“Mildred.” She didn’t offer her full name, acting on the impulse to provide him with as little information as possible.