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across from where she stood movement upon the raised balcony that overlooked the Nile. The curtains at the entrance to the balcony wafted in the breeze coming off the river, revealing Naunakht’s body lying listlessly within Khepri’s arms and two guards hovering over them both. Beneath Naunakht was a small pool of blood blossoming like a desert flower upon the balcony’s stone floor.

  Bastet saw Khepri’s frightful gaze as he looked upon Naunakht, whose own eyes were barely open and lethargic.

  “Who did this, Nauni?” he asked.

  Bastet approached the balcony, noticing the deep gash in Naunakht’s upper back.

  “It was Umayma,” Naunakht whispered. “She tricked Akil into summoning me and when he turned his back she – “

  The sister!

  Bastet’s heart pounded for two reasons now; her mad dash here in a failed attempt to avert tragedy, and the anger over what Umayma had done.

  “Bring the physicians!” Khepri snapped at the guards who were still standing motionless in apparent shock. “And bring me Umayma at once!”

  Both men rushed away, and Bastet could hear them shouting to others in the hall as they left.

  Khepri pulled Naunakht close to him, holding his hands firmly against the wound in her back. Naunakht’s eyes had closed again, and she was limp in his arms, her breath barely noticeable.

  “Don’t go, Nauni,” Khepri said. “The physicians are coming.”

  Within moments the physicians did arrive, but by then Bastet knew it was too late, and it was not in her power to stop death – only to bring about new life.

  She remained unnoticed amidst the chaos as the physicians anxiously attended to Naunakht. But it was a hopeless effort, for too much blood had been lost and the moment of death was near.

  Khepri carried Naunakht from the balcony and brought her over to the couch set in the middle of her chambers. Upon setting her down, he knelt upon the floor by her side, and Bastet noticed the tears running across his face. In that moment she did not see a powerful king. Instead, she witnessed merely a man broken by the greatest tragedy.

  And it was all her fault. If only she had attended to her task both mother and child might have been saved.

  Cursing herself for failing to prevent Naunakht’s demise, Bastet realized, though, that the unborn child was the key to the future, more so than the mother whose breath had suddenly trailed off into nothing.

  Khepri’s head had fallen against Naunakht’s inert bosom as Bastet nudged his side. Startled, he looked down, surprised to see the smoky mau from this morning’s dream. The physicians and attendants stepped back, also surprised by Bastet’s odd intrusion.

  “The mother is gone,” she said to Khepri, “yet there is still time to save the child.”

  “What? But there is no power on this earth that can save it now,” Khepri replied, looking at her as if she was not a goddess but some insane demon.

  Before Bastet could explain, there was a disturbance from just beyond the chamber and two guards entered, escorting Umayma.

  Khepri turned away from Bastet and glared at his sister. “You did this! And for that you shall pay.”

  “Yes, she will,” Bastet interrupted as she stepped between them.

  Then Bastet touched her earring with a bared claw and her shape wavered and shimmered, reforming and growing until she had transformed herself into a radiant, young woman, yet still with the head of a cat. A mane of jet-hued hair with smoky highlights streaking through it flowed in fine, straight tresses upon her now human shoulders, and a pleated white gown of shear cotton covered the rest of her hairless, bronzed body as she glided to within a foot of Umayma.

  “The child will be born,” she said. “And he shall bring an even greater prosperity to Egypt than any before him. But before that will happen, Umayma, you shall bear the punishment of the gods.”

  Umayma raised her chin as if to offer her throat to both Khepri and Bastet. “My life means nothing. Pharoah and the gods may have it. At least I will go before Anubis knowing that the bloodline will remain pure.”

  Bastet stepped toward her, glaring with malice in her olive eyes. “The gods will have your life, but not to take.” Then she touched the ring dangling from her cat’s ear and suddenly Umayma bent forward, clutching her stomach in writhing agony. “You shall continue to live so that Naunakht’s child will be born.”

  “What?!” Umayma cried as she continued to grapple with her swelling abdomen.

  Bastet tugged her earring once more to seal a spell over the womb to protect the child from any physical harm that its new mother might attempt.

  Bastet continued to glare at Umayma, those narrow feline pupils bisecting golden-green irises. “Since you so fervently wish to carry the heir of the Pharoah that you would kill for it, Umayma, then so shall I grant you your wish. You shall be the Great Royal Wife, and so shall you bear the next Pharoah of Egypt.”

  THE END

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  ONE SECOND BEFORE AWAKENING, a full length novel by Robert Hill.

  ONE SECOND BEFORE AWAKENING is a fantasy/adventure novel which takes place within a compilation of the various surreal subjects and scenes depicted by the great 20th century master, Salvador Dali. It is a world populated by space elephants, drawer people, amorphous cannibals, and the mysterious flower-headed Fates – the very witnesses of past, present, and future. When Drew Anthony finds himself stepping into the midst of a painting come to life, a painting rendered by Salvador Dali, the first thing he wants to do is to find his way out, not end up journeying across a spectacular world peopled by the magical and the terrifying. His odyssey ends up changing the destiny of a beautiful woman, altering the philosophy of the people within this bizarre, painted dimension, and transforming himself from just an average man from an ordinary world into a transformational messiah trapped in a surreal place.

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  AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY

  Robert lives deep in the heart of Texas where he teaches martial arts and writes in his spare time. He is a former military paramedic, former criminal investigator and private detective. He has had various poems and short stories previously published in small press literary magazines, but most notably in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, and most recently with Anotherealm.com. He is also self-published on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com, in both fiction and non-fiction categories.

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  Blog: https://thevirtualunknown.blogspot.com