It was already too late to retract their steps. Down below, the clashing of keen blades against one another was creating a deafening racket in the once-peaceful village, spilling blood and death over the Nile's bank. General Akiya was barking orders in a foreign language while his men hurriedly shifted their cargo onto the ship. He slowly backed towards the gangway, still holding Prince Iynefer hostage.

"You will not be leaving Egypt's shores today, General," King Sneferu's voice boomed. He stepped out from the shadows, accompanied by Nefermaat.

Kha's fingers clenched over the fabric of his shendyt. He wanted to rush out to stop his father, but he could not. He had to wait—wait and see what game Kanefer was playing.

"F-f-father," Iynefer stammered, looking far more fearful at being discovered by the king than by the blade at his neck.

"If you and your men come any closer, your son is going to become fish fodder," the general said.

"I lost a son the moment he decided to collude with the likes of you."

"Father, please, I can explain!" Iynefer's entire body trembled, his lips draining of colour.

"Do what you will, General, but none of you are leaving these shores, and neither are my crystals."

"I'm afraid that's not for you to decide, Your Majesty." Akiya gestured towards the background. "Luckily for you, not all your sons are imbeciles like this one. You'll be glad to know that your kingdom will be in good hands after tonight."

We've fallen into a trap, Kha thought. He looked around into the darkness that they were shrouded in, trying to search for signs of ambush. In order to leave Memphis undetected, they had opted to bring along fewer men. Although the soldiers they had brought with them were all elites, they could still end up at the losing end if Kanefer outnumbered them.

A whistling sound split through the air.

The first arrow landed—striking Nefermaat squarely on the right shoulder. The second prince cried out, collapsing to his knees.

"Nefermaat!" King Sneferu exclaimed.

"Get the king to safety!" Nefermaat shouted, and all at once the king's men swarmed in, surrounding the king and the second prince in a protective barrier.

"Kha, what should we do now?" Mereneith asked, her eyes staring in wide-eyed horror at the slew of arrows flying down towards the docks.

The king's guards were cutting down the arrows as they fell, but their numbers were dwindling as well. It wouldn't take long before Kanefer would secure victory. Already the Canaanites had finished loading their cargo onto the ship and the Canaan general himself was standing on deck, issuing the orders for departure. As for Prince Iynefer, he had been ruefully abandoned on the gangway once it was clear that the king's men no longer had their attention on the Canaan ship.

Kha gritted his teeth, fingers tightening over the roof ledge. "There's nothing we can do," he replied. "We have to wait. If we go down there, Kanefer will have us captured too, and then we will truly have lost. Let's go. We need to get out of here before they discover us."

Judging from the direction of the arrows, Kanefer's forces were stationed towards the west of the village, on the opposite side of the docks from where they were. Kha slid down the bamboo ladder, then reached out his hands to help Mereneith. Once they both had their feet firmly back on the ground, he beckoned to her to follow his lead, slipping into the hazy shadows cast by the acacia trees.

#

Kanefer moved more swiftly than they expected.

Within the short span of a day, news of the king's "deteriorating condition" had already been spread all over the streets of the capital, along with Prince Nefermaat's impending execution for crimes of assassination of both the king and fourth prince Kha. Naturally, Nefermaat had been stripped of all rights as co-regent of the kingdom while he awaited his death sentence, and Kanefer conveniently assumed full control of governance. With Iynefer backing up Kanefer's claims (bearing a wound to his neck he claimed had been dealt to him by Nefermaat's men), the nobles of the royal court had no option but to accept the story they had been fed.

"The king is gravely ill and has made the wise decision of stepping down from the throne. The crown of Upper and Lower Egypt will pass to Prince Kanefer, first son of King Sneferu and rightful heir to the kingdom— Bullshit."

Kha ripped the notice off the wall, crumpling it in his hands.

"This is a coup!"

"Shh! You're going to get us caught," Mereneith hissed, grabbing the prince by the arm and dragging him away. Already his outburst had earned them some unwanted attention from the few passers-by on this quiet street. The last thing they wanted was for soldiers to be drawn to them in broad daylight.

The duo had managed to hitch a ride back to Memphis on the wagon of a textiles trader, but they were now relegated to skulking around like street rats. When they first returned, they had camped outside the palace gates, thinking that they might see the king and Nefermaat being transported back. There was no such thing. Instead, security around the palace increased even further and not even a fly could enter or leave the compound. Even the palace servants stopped running their daily errands.

"He's going to execute Nefermaat—can you believe it? For crimes that he committed!"

"He already tried to poison your father, the man that gave him life. You honestly think he would be kinder towards a brother whose existence only threatens his claim to the throne?"

Kha let out a roar of frustration, kicking his worn sandal against the side of a brick wall.

"There's still time," Mereneith said. "We still have a few days before Prince Nefermaat's execution, and I doubt Kanefer will do anything to the king in the meantime."

Judging from what Kanefer had done, legitimacy over his bid for the throne mattered a lot to him. That was why he had gone out his way to frame Nefermaat for these crimes and why he had engineered the king's illness instead of choosing the simpler option of using force to get what he wanted.

"Days! What could we possibly do to change anything in a matter of days?"

Mereneith bowed her head, thinking about their situation for a moment. Then she said, "If it's legitimacy that Kanefer is after, then we'll force him to earn it."

Kanefer claimed that the King Sneferu was willingly stepping down and handing over the crown, but it would not be easy for him to force the king to hand over his seal in order to authorise the decree. Mereneith dared bet that the seal that would eventually end up on the parchment would be a fake. But even if it was real, all they had to do was plant the seeds of doubt in the heads of enough people in order to rally an outcry—to pressure Kanefer into letting the king appear before everyone. When that happened—

She took a deep breath.

"This is all very experimental and we'd be taking a big risk. If it fails then we'd be done for, but at the rate things are going we're done for either way," she said. Leaning in, she whispered her plan into Kha's ear.

The prince's jaw hung open for a second, then he snapped it shut again. "You do realise that you could be hanged for something like this," he said, his voice laced with disbelief and awe. "Mereneith, you are truly the heretic, you know that? To think you've lived in the house of Ptah for so many years."

A smile curled upon Mereneith's lips. "I guess Ptah kept me alive to save the likes of you," she declared.

"And perhaps the likes of Egypt."

#

There are those who claimed that the power of the people was greater than the power of the sword, and Mereneith reckoned they would be right. If only the people had the strength to band together and fight for their rights, there was so much more that could be done to improve the livelihoods of the ordinary man. Unfortunately, fear often crippled the masses.

A whisper in the alleyway, a shout in the marketplace—it didn't take much before rumours began to spread around Memphis like a raging wildfire.

"Did you hear? The king isn't ill—he's been poisoned!"

"They say that Prince Kanefer has the king and queen under house arrest."

"Prince Kanefer is in cahoots with the Canaanites. He's executing Prince Nefermaat because the second prince has evidence of his treason."

"But what of the royal decree? The king's seal was on it!"

"I heard that the seal is a fake. The officials who've questioned its legitimacy have all been arrested and thrown into prison. Is that not evidence enough?"

"But that is treason! Will he not face the wrath of the gods for this? What if the gods choose to punish all of Egypt for these sins?"

"We cannot allow this. If the gods become angry, then all of us will be doomed!"

The voices became louder and louder. More fearful. More angry.

It started with a handful of brave souls standing outside the palace gates. Then it grew by tens—then hundreds. Soon, the entire street in front of the palace was teeming with ordinary folk kneeling upon the hot sandy gravel, pleading for an audience with the king.

A stern row of guards formed a barricade in front of the imposing gates, their fingers gripped tightly around the shafts of their spears.

"I'll bet Kanefer is watching all this and wishing that he could haul in the rabble and sentence them to the prisons—but he can't," Kha said, a scornful smile curling upon his lips.

Mereneith and Kha were hidden behind a street corner, hoods pulled over half their faces to hide their identities from view.

"This is what happens when you're trying to be someone you're not. A tyrant pretending to be benevolent," Mereneith replied, shaking her head. If only Kanefer had continued to choose the path of ruthlessness and cruelty that he had bestowed upon his own family, perhaps he would already have won this battle for power. Unfortunately for him, he wanted it all. The crown, the adulation, the glowing record that would go into the historians' annals and be inscribed on the walls of every temple across the land.

That greed would be his downfall.

"He won't be able to execute Nefermaat as planned now. If he wants to push ahead, then he'll have to at least allow Father to appear in front of the masses in order to appease this crowd."

"He has no choice in the matter. If he goes ahead with the execution then it'll be tantamount to admitting that the rumours are true, that he's getting rid of Nefermaat for his own selfish reasons. He will bring out the king."

However, Mereneith was fairly certain that the king would not be in a state that they would like him to. For Kanefer to succeed in his coup, King Sneferu would need to be near death—which would not be difficult to achieve, not with the king's already-frail condition. Had it not been for the help of the Ak'heka crystal, perhaps the king would already have gone west.

"You must control your emotions when that moment comes," Mereneith said, turning to Kha with a stern warning. "We cannot afford to make a single wrong step, else all will be lost." They were already gambling with poor odds as it was.

The prince nodded, his resolve etched in the stiff corners of his eyes.

A commotion up front drew their attention back towards the palace gates, that had just swung open with a tired groan. The familiar figure of Prince Iynefer stepped out—Kanefer's new mouthpiece and loyal lackey. He still wore a bandage around his neck to cover the injury dealt to him by the Canaan general, and the ostentatious gold accessories he wore all over his body did little to disguise the wan state of his body after that ordeal.

Iynefer's thin lips tilted downwards in a scowl of disdain when he saw the crowd of commoners gathered outside. He raised his hands into the air to silence them.

"Quieten down! Quieten down!" he hollered, his shrill voice slicing through the ruckus. "I bring an important message from His Highness, the Regent of Upper and Lower Egypt."

When the noise died down, Iynefer continued, "His Highness has heard of the rumours that have been going around Memphis and would like to assure everyone that these rumours are complete lies that are utterly baseless. These are attempts by dissidents to stir unrest within our peaceful and prosperous city and bring disrepute to His Highness's good name. However, His Highness greatly respects each and every one of his loyal subjects and understands your concerns, hence he has consulted with the king on this matter. Hear this—on the day of the treasonous criminal Nefermaat's execution, our father King Sneferu himself has agreed to make a brief appearance so as to put to rest these despicable rumours once and for all. Now go back to your homes, all of you, instead of creating trouble here at the palace!"

The prince's lips twitched contemptuously as he surveyed the crowd once more, then he swivelled on his heels and disappeared back through the gates.

"Spineless bastard," Kha spat, "betraying his own father and brothers for the sake of power and riches."

Mereneith placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Few have the willpower to withstand such temptation," she said. "But at least things are going as intended. Let's go. We'll still need to find a way into the Great Temple to pick up the things we need for the execution tomorrow."