new pharaoh wanted too much. As soon as he ascended the throne, he already behaved differently from all his predecessors: his fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, the entire royal dynasty of Egypt, revered on a par with the gods. Amenhotep was also revered as an earthly god, but Alais knew that he was not. And he knew it too. Ever since the dark winged lover left him, Amenhotep, the current Akhenaten, realized that he, like every ordinary representative of his people, is only mortal. He didn’t want to put up with it. Already in the second year of his reign, he chose a different name and a different fate than that of everyone who sat on the Egyptian throne before him. He wanted to become a god in reality. Alais didn’t mind his feeble attempts to transform, because after all, everything he did, he did for her.
Now she ruled Egypt, like all its provinces. But some didn’t like it. Although they saw the wings behind her, they insincerely worshiped her as a deity. They felt creepy at the sight of her face, hypnotized by unearthly beauty, but they were embarrassed by the girl’s body.
It especially confused the commander-in-chief Ujai. According to the long-established unwritten laws of advantages, here he felt himself the strongest. Moreover, it was not only a matter of physical strength, which might seem overwhelming. He felt himself in charge of all the military forces of the country, and this gave him an unconditional advantage. With everyone except the ruler, he behaved unceremoniously and arrogantly. For the daughter of Pharaoh, as Alais was first introduced to him, he kindled with base sympathy, but as soon as he received a refusal, he fiercely hated her. Once he sent her jewelry and flowers, and now he was ready to crush the walls with his bare fists, just to harm her. Alais fed on his rage as a source of life-giving energy. When people are angry, rampant, or simply worried about something, their power is so easy to steal. That’s all she needed from people – to drink from them all her life, like juice from a fruit.
It is good that Ujai did not know about this, otherwise he would have made an effort on himself and restrained his emotions. Today he has gathered a whole regiment of people who share his opinion. He easily incited others to take risks. Therefore, it should have been eliminated. He, in turn, dreamed of eliminating her. Who will win? Alais looked at him and her eyes laughed. The mortal did not know with what force he had contacted.
«I understand why I have to obey Pharaoh’s orders, but why should I obey you? Why should we all?»
Others didn’t support him with an approving giggle just because they were a little afraid of the arrogant creature with wings and golden claws, but they continued to stand a little further from Ujaya. A whole small army, located in a semicircle in the large palace hall.
It was worth studying them all before destroying them, even though there was little time. Something told Alais that the instigator here was not Ujai at all. Someone, more secretive and dangerous, lurked behind a crowd of human heads and bodies. She inhaled the scent of cruelty and evil through her nostrils. Whoever this person was, but now he was hurt, as it seemed to him, quite by accident. Just a pinprick. This is how the creatures with iron claws that served her acted. They roamed about the floors of the palace, and no one would have distinguished them from the cats. It will be easy to detect by the smell of blood.
«You!» Alais stretched her hand forward and pointed directly at the wounded man. «Speak for yourself! No one is obliged to voice your thoughts and desires for you, even if you brought him with an army to this hall».
Ujai could not object to this. He suddenly felt that he was losing the ability to speak at all. His throat was constricted like a stranglehold. The other congregation exchanged furtive glances. They knew who had brought them here. But how did she know? Fear and suspicion are the first weapons to confuse the enemy. Alais was aware of her strength.
The instigator had no escape from her. His blood attracted like the exquisite aroma of wine. He had doomed himself as soon as he turned against her. And it didn’t even matter who he was: one of the priests who did not support the cult of Aton, a disgruntled official or the pharaoh’s son lost in a harem, who envied that she had chosen Smenkhkara, and not him. Alais followed the smell of blood, paralyzing everyone who got in the way with her gaze. Those who saw her now knew: you will not object to the deity, you simply cannot open your mouth when it pronounces its truth, you will not enter into confrontation with the deity, because in his presence you will be numb. Those who thought otherwise were stupid.
The instigator was bleeding before she even touched him. The body was covered with red blisters, as if it had been doused with boiling water. He decomposed before he died. But along with him, a dozen more soldiers were covered with a rash. They did nothing to her, but they died the same way. Their number continued to increase until it exceeded half of those present. Ujai looked and could not believe his eyes. His best people knelt or fell flat on the floor, and in the blink of an eye turned into vile rotting remains, as if someone had been drinking from them all their lives.
«Together with everyone who disobeyed, I will kill forty more innocent people,» Alais explained. It doesn’t matter. How indifferent she said it, as if she had crushed insects that deserved it.
Her golden nails were not bloody, but looking at this creature, Ujai involuntarily imagined that someday he would have the blood of the whole world on him. And he once loved this creature. Did you think you loved?
But did you yourself act better, asked the voice of conscience in a distant corner of his consciousness, did you yourself not chop down hundreds of people in battles, did not give orders to advance and not spare anyone. Ujai filled the memory of the slaughter with wine. Alais never ate or drank anything, except human blood. She did not hack to death hundreds of people in battle, she killed forty people with witchcraft. But how did she do it… With what amazing indifference! As if it was her sacred right to take the lives of people around the world.
«Forty is the number of my god,» she explained calmly, but so that everyone would hear. «Remember that together with each of the guilty forty innocent people from his inner circle will be killed. Or just people dear to him».
«And so Aton orders?» Ujjai is finally speechless again.
«Aton?» Her graceful eyebrows arched in amazement. «What does Aton have to do with it?»
It seemed that her laughter would now be heard, but an amazing silence reigned in the hall.
«You said ’your god,»» Ujai said after all. «That is, the sun god?»
And again a sly smile. What was behind it? This creature knew much more than told them all, and even Pharaoh. How cleverly it manipulated everyone and everything here! How delightful it looked! He hated Alais and yet could not take his eyes off her. He wanted to look at her and look until he finally loses his mind. This is how the one who is doomed to burn in its rays looks at the sun. Ujai now felt so condemned, who had been suspended high in the mountains in the desert to be burned entirely – a long painful execution. He knew this firsthand. Alais flapped her dark wings, dispelling all his illusions. Creation of gold, darkness and the power of solar fire.
«The first name of the sun god was not Aton», Alais looked at him, no longer laughing.
«What’s the difference? Egypt is ruled by you, not he. On his behalf, but still we will all have to bow to you. Instead of the cult of Aton, then there will be the cult of Alais, and it does not matter if there is a god at all.
«It is not in your power to look at the one who was considered to be a god from the beginning and at the same time not to lose his mind, man».
The last word made him angry. An insect, that’s what she really wanted to call it. People were just insects to her. And it doesn’t matter who they are: slaves carrying blocks for pyramids or royal entourage – they are all just people. It’s just those who live and die, from whom only a handful of rotting meat and bones will remain in the end, and she is different. There is nothing human in it.
It looked more like a sculpture cast in gold tones. The stone features expressed nothing, and at the same time the cold face seemed to be something vulnerable, almost defenseless. He