Amazon
Category:
Women
Publisher: Matador
ISBN-10: 1800460457
Type: Fiction
Pages: 360
Copyright: November 30, 2020
ISBN-13: 9781800460454
Price: $6.49 (eBook)
In 1988 a young Egyptologist, Cassandra Seldon, has been asked to go on an excavation to Egypt to prove her timeline theory, which predates the First Dynasty. But there are others on this excavation that want to prove her wrong. As events unfold, she finds her life running parallel to an ancient Egyptian queen.
The year is 1988. A young Egyptologist, Cassandra Seldon, has been sent to Egypt to find proof to support a new timeline theory, called Dynasty Zero, predating the First Dynasty. However, the reserved Archaeologist, Mark McCormick, is also on this excavation to prove her wrong.
While there, she discovers a papyrus in the tomb of Queen Iput. As she deciphers the story unfolding, she finds her life running parallel to the queen’s. The story takes us back to 2350 B.C., Ancient Egypt, where we learn about Queen Iput’s first-born son and how he was murdered. Cassandra is desperate to learn the denouement of the queen’s story. And in a strange twist of fate, recounting the events, which lead back to the time-line theory, she senses the queen’s journey may give her the answers she is seeking.
However, when her boss, Dr. Edmund Ramsey, discovers her deciphering the papyrus, she finds her job is in jeopardy. Is this unearthing a journey for Cassie, or is it her destiny?
Excerpt
She took another sip of wine. “It does please me, very much. You have made it so I will long be remembered in the afterlife.” She placed her hand upon her stomach, her head tilted back, then, suddenly but slowly, she slid off of her chair, falling upon the tomb’s floor. He picked her up and laid her upon the slab of rock in the burial chamber. “I feel… ill… maybe the wine has gone bad.”
He placed the headrest on the slab and gingerly lifted her head onto it. “Just rest as the goddess Maat judges you for truth and justice. For you see, I only finished what you started. What you did to secure your future and lineage! So now your wine has been poisoned with opium and hemlock, and mixed with the sweetness of shedeh, to secure my future and lineage, for no one can know the tale you have weaved.
“And with your death I have secured the dynasty. There is no enemy I cannot defeat, for I am my own worst enemy. My poor little cosset. It is time for your secret to be buried along with you. You are my sacrificial lamb.”
The queen whispered, “For the betterment of Egypt?” She tried to lift her head.
“Don’t try to get up. You know one taste of the poison makes you ill. It is time for you to make your final supplication to the gods and goddesses.” Her eyes began moving rapidly from left to right. “You look pale and tired, so I will do it for you as Maat takes you into the afterlife. ‘You do not fear the darkness that is rising to claim you, in fact you welcome it…’” She watched him until all the images in the room intertwined, too close to death to be able to do anything, and then closed her eyes.
She heard him breathe deeply before speaking. “May the curse of Maat, daughter of Ra, follow you into the underworld. Your public and ritual life was not in harmony with the cosmic rhythms of the universe. Since you have disturbed the harmony, you must suffer the consequences. Your indestructible nature will follow you out of this natural world. Your life in the underworld will be chaotic and violent, for you opposed the right order expressed by Maat. Should you ask for forgiveness and accept Ra’s judgment of the wider order of the universe, only then will your ka and ba be forgiven. And with the help of your akhu, your descent from the underworld will cease and your ascent to the afterlife will begin. Accepting Ra’s judgment is the only way to cosmic harmony.” He leaned in closer. “Hurry, the god of death, Anubis is near. Do you ask for forgiveness?”
Queen Iput nodded, and then her body went limp. Her akhu drifted skyward toward the gods, her rebirth now complete. She had already departed when he picked up the jug of poisoned wine and the rock crystal cup, placing them into the basket he carried before leaving her tomb.
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