Feline Of Mourning

  An Egyptian Empire Story

  Laura Greenwood

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Author Note

  Also by Laura Greenwood

  About the Author

  © 2022 Laura Greenwood

  * * *

  All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission of the published, except as provided by United States of America copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at "Attention: Permissions Coordinator," at the email address; lauragreenwood@authorlauragreenwood.co.uk.

  Visit Laura Greenwood's website at:

  www.authorlauragreenwood.co.uk

  Cover by Vampari Designs

  Feline Of Mourning is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  If you find an error, you can report it via my website. Please note that my books are written in British English: https://www.authorlauragreenwood.co.uk/p/report-error.html

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  Blurb

  When Neffie switches shifts with another one of Bastet's priestesses, the last thing she expects is to lose one of the sacred cats.

  * * *

  With her job on the line, she embarks on a mission across London to try and find the cat.

  * * *

  Can she find it before she earns the eternal displeasure of her goddess?

  -

  Feline Of Mourning is a standalone companion story to The Apprentice Of Anubis series, a modern fantasy set in an alternative version of London where the Egyptian Empire never fell.

  One

  Something about the Temple of Anubis always sends a chill through me. It lacks the warmth that my own temple has, and if my best friend didn't work here, then I'd find any excuse not to be the one to check on the progress of the cats being mummified there.

  Despite my misgivings, I'm glad I have an excuse to come here and hopefully see Ani. It's been a while since we've had a catch-up, though not for lack of trying. Our jobs as priestesses keep us busy.

  No one pays me any attention as I make my way past the main mortuary and towards the rooms reserved for the mummification of animals. It's not unusual for one of the priests from Bastet's temple to come and check on the cats, and those working for Anubis either recognise me, or realise there's nothing to worry about now I'm past the guards at the front door.

  The carvings on the walls change from those of people, to cats, and I know I'm in the right place. I lift my hand and knock firmly on the door, waiting for the attending priest to answer. Not for the first time, I find myself worrying that there isn't anyone in and I'll have to go into the main mortuary. I can just about deal with the dead cats, I'm not sure it'll be the same if I have to face the rows of human bodies in the process of being mummified.

  The door swings open and I blink away my surprise at the familiar face staring back at me.

  "Nik, hi," I manage to get out despite my surprise.

  He smiles warmly. "Hey, Neffie, I didn't realise it would be you coming."

  "And I didn't realise you'd be on duty," I respond, trying not to show my relief that the door's been answered by my best friend's boyfriend and not a stranger.

  He gestures for me to step inside.

  "Is Ani with you?" I ask hopefully. I find it likely, they're always together, which means I get a chance to see my best friend at the same time as I do my job. It was a perfect set-up and even better than I hoped for.

  He nods. "They often schedule us together."

  "You'd have thought they'd stop doing that with all the trouble you manage to get into together."

  Nik lets out a snort of amusement. "We've stopped doing that."

  I raise an eyebrow. "More likely you've stopped talking about it because the two of you are up to something big."

  "No comment."

  "Mmhmm." Not that I blame them for interfering, if I'd discovered something as bad as organ stealing in my temple, then I'd do something about it too.

  I'm glad the drama in Bastet's temple is a lot less squishy.

  A black jackal rushes towards me, her tongue hanging out of her mouth in a happy grin. I reach out and ruffle the top of her head.

  "Hey, Matia. I didn't realise you were allowed in here."

  She gives a small yip in response, though I have no idea what it means.

  "Since Ani finished her Blessed training, she's allowed to bring Matia into the mortuary," Nik explains. "I like it." He smiles dotingly at the jackal. From what Ani's said, I sometimes think that the jackal is as attached to Nik as she is to Ani herself.

  "I can see why. I always like it when one of the cats keeps me company while I'm performing my duties." Though sadly I don't have one of my own.

  "Which we should be doing now," he says, seeming to remember what I'm here for. "Ani has just gone to the amulet store, she'll be back in a few minutes but we can get the checks out of the way so the two of you can have some catch-up time."

  "Right, yes, cats." I pull out my notes to check what I need to ask them.

  "I don't think any of the mummies are ready," Nik says before I can. "That's why there's just the two of us here."

  "Are you being punished?"

  "Not this time. They've assigned us to be the ones to say the prayers and give the rites. It's practice, basically. But maybe don't tell your superiors that."

  I chuckle in response. "My lips are sealed. We get assigned things like that too." Normally things that the more senior priests and priestesses don't want to do themselves. "I guess I'm just supposed to walk among them and check that everything's all right." I stare uneasily at the rows of small feline mummies lining the mortuary.

  "Be my guest." Nik waves towards them.

  "Do you know what I'm supposed to do?" I ask. "This is the first time I've come on my own."

  He shrugs. "Normally the priest who checks them just walks up and down a bit to get a feel for if something is wrong."

  "How can they tell?"

  "I'm not sure. Maybe they hope that Bastet guides them towards anything that may be wrong."

  I let out a loud sigh. "Bastet doesn't guide me to anything, I'm not Blessed."

  "I don't think that matters," he responds.

  "Maybe not." I glance at the cats. "Is that how you feel about Anubis?"

  He does a double-take, probably not expecting me to have asked that. "What do you mean?"

  "Do you feel like Anubis guides you even though you're not Blessed?" I clarify. "Not that I know how he'd do that."

  "Ani said that it's supposed to be a gut feeling," Nik responds. "Or that's what her Blessed mentor said."

  "Hmm. So?"

  "I've never really thought about it," he admits, reaching down to touch Matia's head as he does. I don't miss the fact he's reaching out for a sacred jackal while talking about his god. "Sometimes I wonder if Anubis is the one who nudged me in the direction I'm going."

  "Wouldn't he have Blessed you if that was true?" I stride down between the rows, looking at each of the cats in turn, but not seeing any real difference between them.

  "Maybe. Or maybe not. I was on the path to joining the priesthood already, he didn't need to help me on my way. Ani on the other hand..." he trails off, not needing to tell me that my friend needed all the help she could get. Not many women enter this temple, even ones with school records like hers.

  "Isn't that just one of the lies you tell yourself to make up for the fact you're not Blessed?"

  "Are you sure you shouldn't be serving Ma'at?" he mutters.

  I snort. "Sorry. I'm just curious," I admit. "I don't really understand half of what Ani says about being Blessed. It doesn't sound that different to being a normal priestess."

  "I don't think it is. She can do some things that I can't, and she has Matia." He scratches the jackal again and she leans against him. "But that doesn't mean she isn't special."

  "You would say that, you're in love with her," I point out, paying attention to his reaction closely. Not that there's any doubt in my mind. I've seen how he watches her.

  "I...I'm not going to deny that."

  "You haven't told her?" I turn to face him, a stern expression on my face.

  He rubs the back of his neck nervously. "There hasn't been a good moment."

  I sigh. "No wonder it took you two a year to get together."

  The door swings open, drawing our attention to it.

  "I'm sorry, Hannu managed to get tangled in the linen again. I don't know how he does it," Ani says as she comes inside with a basket of amulets in her arms. "Neffie!" Her whole face lights up when she sees me and she shoves the basket at Nik, hurrying over to me to pull me into a hug.

  I embrace her back, trying not to think too much about the fact she smells of disinfectant and embalming chemicals and why that's the case.

  "What are you doing here?"

  "I came to check the cats," I say, needlessly waving towards the rows of mummies. "I thought I could accidentally run into you, I didn't expect you to be the person on duty."

  "We must have the favour of the gods today," she responds as she pulls back. "I don't think there's much change here, but if you have time, we can go to the canteen and grab a drink? Nik'll be okay here." She glances at him as if to confirm.

  He nods. "I'll be fine with Matia to keep me company."

  Matia trots over to him and sits down as if in agreement. I don't think I've seen enough of the two of them in their natural environment to have noticed how in tune the man and the jackal are until now.

  Ani shakes her head in bemusement. "Do you have time?" she asks me.

  "I think so. But maybe you can give me an update on the cats as we go so I can say that's what I'm doing?" I don't think anyone will think twice about how long I'm gone, but it's best to play it safe just in case.

  "All right, but there really isn't much to tell." She links her arm through mine and leads me out of the mortuary.

  The moment we're outside, I take a deep breath, enjoying how fresh it is compared to their workspace. Now we're outside, I can focus on the important things, like catching up with my best friend while the two of us pretend to do our jobs.

  Two

  I sip on my water and lean back in my chair, taking a peaceful moment in the middle of a hectic day. I used to think I was kept busy as an apprentice, but now I'm a full priestess, I'm starting to realise just how wrong I was.

  Benerib hurries over and drops into the seat opposite, hurriedly fixing her hair so the pale roots don't show.

  I pretend not to notice, especially as I know she's self-conscious about her unfashionable blonde hair and prefers the darker shade that's seen as the beauty standard, even in a temple that celebrates the beauty in all.

  "Are you sure you're all right with us swapping shifts?" Benerib asks once she's done faffing.

  "Yes, it's fine," I assure her with an easy smile, not letting on that I actually wanted to swap shifts with her so I get to go and see Pedu up in the cattery. What she doesn't know, won't hurt her.

  And it won't be spread around the temple as gossip either.

  "Thank you. I owe you big time, Mum keeps getting on at me to come home and help her with my younger brother's letters. I'm not sure why she doesn't just hire a tutor."

  "Too expensive?"

  Benerib sighs. "Maybe. I think she's just hoping that some of Bastet's influence will rub off on him and he'll be able to enter one of the priesthoods himself."

  "Does he even want that?" The priesthood isn't for everyone, and nor should it be. Some people are more suited to the life than others.

  "Honestly, it's hard to tell," she admits. "But I'm going to go help him so I can hear the end of it."

  "Mmm, probably wise," I agree. "Do you know who else is on duty in the cattery?" I ask, trying to sound as if I'm not sure."

  "Pedubastis, I think."

  "Doesn't he prefer going by Pedu?"

  "I'm not sure," she admits. "But who goes by their shortened name here?"

  It takes everything I have to bite my tongue and not say something cutting about the fact that shouldn't be a thing.

  "Anyway, I should be off or I'll be late for teaching duty. We don't want that." She smiles and gets to her feet. "I'll see you around, Nefertiti."

  I smile in response, but it doesn't reach my eyes. The sound of my full name always sours me to the conversation. I've been asking people to call me Neffie instead of Nefertiti for over a year now, and hardly any of them do.

  Maybe it'll finally happen when I get high enough in the temple hierarchy to enforce it.

  I finish my drink and get to my feet, setting my mug down in the area assigned for dirty pots and offering a genuine smile to the woman behind the counter.

  She returns it, but doesn't say anything. Mum always told me that it's always best to be friendly with the support staff as you never know when they might need to help you. It's a good lesson, and one I plan on teaching my children if I ever have any.

  Though given the state of my love life, that doesn't mean anything.

  I head straight to the screen and tap out my request to see the schedule just to be sure that my shift swap with Benerib has gone through properly and neither of us are going to get in trouble for not turning up where we're supposed to.

  Sure enough, my name is now listed beside cattery duties.

  I let out a sigh of relief and close the schedule down. That's one less thing to worry about. But now I have about an hour to work out how to be around Pedu without turning into an awkward mess.

  Which is easier said than done. Maybe I should have told Ani about Pedu and asked for her advice. Then again, I'm not sure how much she'd have helped, the tactic hang-out-all-the-time-while-vaguely-flirting-for-a-year may have worked for her and Nik, but they're the exception, not the rule.

  I'm overthinking this. All I need to do is focus on being myself and trying to make a connection. Anything else is just overcomplicating things.

  Especially since I'm also heading to the cattery to do my job, and serving Bastet is just as important as my love life. The only reason all of this is happening is because my best friend's boyfriend works at the same temple as her and I'm feeling left out that none of mine have shared that with me. I'm sure it will pass. Or I'm about to discover what makes things between the two of them so great.

  Three

  The moment I enter the cattery, I know about it. Meows fill the air, along with the odd hiss when one of the cats gets in another's way. It's busy, but the warmth the cattery always exudes makes me wonder why some of the priests hate the cat duty.

  Then again, maybe this is what Nik was talking about when he said there was a feeling when the gods guide us. In this case, perhaps Bastet guides our preferences based on which of the temple duties we're most suited to.

  "I'll be one minute," someone calls from deeper inside the cattery.

  A moment later, Pedu appears from within the cattery, a tiny kitten in his arms. Surprise flits over his face when his gaze lands on me. "Sorry, I was expecting Benerib."

  "We swapped shifts, I'm..."

  "Nefertiti, I know, we've met a few times." He smiles at me, reminding me why I started liking him in the first place. Though I'm well aware that liking him from a distance is very different from actually liking him as a person.

  "I prefer Neffie," I say automatically.

  "Right, sorry. Not many people go by their shortened names here. But I prefer Pedu too."

  "I'll remember that." Partly because I already know. When everyone insists on using their full names, the few people who don't stand out.

  "So, is this your first time in the cattery?"

  I shake my head. "We spent a few weeks here while I was an apprentice, and I've had a couple of shifts since."

  "Ah, I'm surprised I haven't seen you here before. They've been assigning me to the cattery most weeks since my ordination a couple of years ago."

  "Do you like it?"

  He sets the kitten down in one of the cat beds. "I love it," he admits. "Have you ever done something that makes you feel like it just fits you? Like it's the thing you're meant to do."

  I let out a small laugh, only to try and smother it when he gives me a funny look. "I'm so sorry."

  "You shouldn't be, unless you were laughing at my expense." His tone suggests he knows I'm not.

  "It's just that a friend said something similar to me."

  Pedu gestures for me to follow him deeper into the cattery. "Oh?"

  "He was talking to me about the difference between Blessed and not Blessed," I say.

  "You have a Blessed boyfriend?"

  This time there's no covering my amused snort. "Nik is definitely not my type. And even if he was, he's with my best friend. She's the Blessed one."

 

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