Mistress of Pharaohs. Daughter of Dawn. Natalie Yacobson

for you to come to Egypt.”

      “We are in Egypt. These deserts are officially the domain of Menes, ever since he led his invincible armies out of here.”

      “But he wants to see you in the king’s palace. It’s not that far from here. It’s a midnight flight. Menes erected a magnificent residence in a white-stone fortress. This fortress is called the white walls – Inehu hedge.

      “How the Egyptian language is like the angelic language!” Alais wondered. “It’s all your and my other servants’ fault! You flew too close to people and even communicated with them. The Egyptians have adopted the sounds of angelic speech from you.”

      “Is that a bad thing?”

      “I don’t like humans,” Alais drew protective signs in the sand. Now no man shall cross this boundary of the wilderness. No human must see the golden palace the demons have built in the sands for their mistress. The structure mimicked the heavenly mansions, but it stood on earth.

      “I wish I could get my hands on that angel who taught the people how to make crafts and wield weapons. I would skin him! He instilled intelligence into a savage tribe that, without his angelic intervention, would have remained mere animals. Men are not angels! They breed and eat and drink like ordinary cattle. What apostate would think of teaching them the sciences of angels? Where is this apostate hiding?”

      “I sent helpers to look for him, but they didn’t find anyone. This angel doesn’t seem to be one of your cohorts. Maybe Michael sent him. By the way, you know that Michael has built a huge temple on the border of the Sahara to keep you out of the deserts. For some reason he is very reluctant for you to visit King Menes. Is he jealous, perhaps?”

      Remy’s voice became ingratiating. He flew around Alaïs, whispering:

      “Imagine: this temple is modeled on the heavenly structures. It is as if it was made of clouds, but the material is strong. It is white stone. My centurions saw Michael hauling the blocks himself. He is sure that this temple will keep you out of Memphis.

      “Is it a temple of heaven on earth?” Alais wondered. “It happens! Let’s go see it, and pay King Menes a visit too.”

      The Temple of Heaven stood on the border between the desert and the lands beyond. Alais looked upon it as a stronghold of the enemy. It had been built here by her brethren left above. That was why the structure looked so ethereal, even though it consisted of heavy blocks. The white stone was stacked with openwork turrets that jutted into the clouds. Only angels could have built such a structure. To men it would have appeared as a fairy tale. That’s why people didn’t see this temple.

      Alais looked up at the heavens. Empty! She heard no more angelic calls to return. Then it was time to conquer the land.

      The temple stood as the watchtower of heaven on earth. If it was gone, there would be no control of heaven. Destroy it with fire? The creature sitting on the minaret was in her way. Alais took a closer look at it. It seemed to be limping and dragging a broken wing behind it. The white creature with the broken wings is a cripple! It was put here as atonement for sympathizing with the rebels. Does it still feel such sympathy for her as to yield? It had moved with incredible speed, bypassing the domes and bell towers, it was now hiding behind the lancet window opening, but it still wanted to watch her.

      “Fly to me?” Alais beckoned with the tip of her forefinger.

      The white creature shook its horned head negatively. It couldn’t fly.

      “Then crawl!”

      The creature crawled obediently down the wall, scratching the white stone with its long, crooked claws.

      “Who left you here to keep watch?” Alais wanted to go toward the crawling creature, but Remy stopped her.

      “It’s contagious.”

      “Is it even to me?” Alais looked into the creature’s rotten eyes. It really did seem better to stay away from it. It could be bait.

      “How many creatures like it are there in this temple?”

      “Countless,” Remy counted. He could see through the walls easily.

      “It’s not a temple.”

      “Then destroy it, mistress. It is within your power.”

      “But it is the temple of heaven, and to heaven we have lost.”

      “Everything that stands on earth is yours.”

      Alais frowned. The temple irritated her greatly. It reeked of Michael’s aura. Surely he had a hand in the construction. The structure combined the features of all the religious buildings in the world. So Remy whispered. He flew over the world, watching people who noticed the higher beings begin to build temples. Such temples were only monuments to incredible encounters between humans and demons or angels, but this one was special. It was not built by humans, but by angels themselves. The unburned angels who remained in heaven were hated by Alais. How dare they build anything on earth!

      Alaïs walked forward, treading bare feet on the scorching sand. The fiery sand itself was turning to ash beneath her feet. She couldn’t do that in sandals. A chain of scorched footprints stretched across the sand like a living black snake. Alais didn’t fly, but walked forward, not knowing why. The temple was calling to her as one living organism. This temple was the seal of heaven on earth. With it, the heavens claimed the desert and the earth. It should not be so. This land is hers! And this temple is superfluous.

      A voice in the wind that blew suddenly from the minarets warned, but Alais stepped forward.

      And the temple collapsed. It was without fire. It was without the use of force. No trickery. It was simply from the fact that she had come close.

      Debris fell at her feet. The crushed white creature groaned. Would it die? What difference does it make! The temple is gone. That is, there is no seal of heaven either. Alais clenched the stone wreckage in her fist and crushed it into ashes. The world is at her mercy.

      Pharaoh Menes

      Tinis was the capital, but the royal residence was not there. Remy reported that Menes deflected the flow of the Nile with a great embankment and erected the fortress of Inebu-hedge on the spoils. It was stunning in its splendor. That’s where it was worth going from the start. The cold celestial temple did not impress in comparison to the architecture of the royal palace. Here Alais had been long awaited. Apparently Menes had warned everyone that a deity would one day come to him.

      People who saw her fell to their knees. It even made her feel sorry for them. The nobility and the rabble alike lowered their faces into the road dust as the deity approached. They dared not look up at her. Probably people were afraid of going blind. Alais had noticed that the glow of the sun made human eyes hurt, and she was part of the sun. So the fear of those who encounter her is not surprising.

      The king’s palace was not only inhabited by humans. There were dead warriors with red eyes in every dark corner of the palace. Toward Alais stepped the horse Menes had once called Urey. A bracelet in the shape of a snake wrapped in rings ran down its black hoof. Alaïs remembered where the bracelet had come from. She patted Urey’s scruff. The horse’s eyes glittered red, like two large rubies. There was a devilish spirit in the horse’s body.

      “Greetings, Urey!” Alais stepped away from the horse. She could fly through the halls of the palace, but she thought it more respectable to walk. Her feet in gilt sandals clattered across the marble floor. Lotuses were in the air. Ponds and pools were full of them. The palms, scattered everywhere, provided pleasant shade.

      Alais passed gardens, baths, and lavishly furnished halls. There were many servants and lords everywhere. But where was the Pharaoh himself? Where was Menes? He was not in the king’s bedchamber. The great bed stood empty.

      “It’s daytime,” Remy realized as he flew in from above. “People don’t sleep during the day, they go about their