Assistant Of The Gods, page 1
part #12 of The Apprentice Of Anubis Series
ASSISTANT OF THE GODS
The Apprentice Of Anubis
Book 12
LAURA GREENWOOD
Contents
A Brief Note
What Happened Before
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Author Note
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© 2024 Laura Greenwood
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Blurb
Returning home has never felt so good.
Ani never thought she'd be so happy to return to the London Temple of Anubis, but with a wedding to plan, her duties as Blessed, and Nik's Favoured Test on the horizon, it's safe to say she has her hands as full as ever.
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Assistant Of The Gods is book 12 in the Apprentice Of Anubis, an urban fantasy series based on Egyptian mythology and featuring an established couple, a jackal familiar, and the duties of an embalmer.
If you love Egyptian mythology, alternative versions of the modern day, temple politics, slow-burn workplace romance, and a world where the gods are real, then start the Apprentice Of Anubis series today with Apprentice Of The Dead.
A Brief Note
The Egyptian Empire World is set in an alternative universe where the Egyptian Empire never fell and replaced the Roman Empire. The split in the timeline happened after the Ptolemaic dynasty and the final Cleopatra's infamous reign. Instead of Egypt falling into the hands of the Romans, they fought back and gained control of the budding Roman Empire. All religions still exist in the world, but many have been absorbed into the Egyptian religion (this was common practice during their ancient history, so is something I adopted into the series).
For the purposes of this series, the Egyptian Empire spans much of Africa and Europe, as well as some of the Middle East.
I made the decision to keep a lot of the words and systems we use today (including place names like London and the River Thames) to make the reading experience as smooth as possible. If this was the real progression of events, those things would likely have been named differently.
Things I have kept are the Ancient Egyptian concept of a week (10 days, including a 2 day "weekend"), month (3 weeks), season (4 months) and year (3 seasons plus 5 feast days). The currency they're using is debens (derived from the Ancient Egyptian word for bread - something workers were often paid in). Names have also been influenced by Ancient Egyptian history.
What Happened Before
Court Of The Queen
Having stayed in Egypt at the request of Princess Iset to attend the coronation, Ani, Nik, and Matia get used to life in the Cairo Temple, which Ani is pleased to discover includes time in the mortuary. While they can't attend to traditional mummifications like Ani would really like, they are left alone in the modern embalming rooms, giving Ani a chance to get back to what she loves and not be Blessed for a moment. While there, she impresses Hapiu (the youngest of the Cairo-based Blessed) by how advanced they are in the temple. Ani offers to let him assist her.
Iset invites Ani and Nik to have dinner with her and Nahresi, at which she admits that she's looking for friendship, even if they can't have a non-political one. The day after, Iset is crowned as the Pharaoh in the start of a year-long coronation process. Ani attends as the representative of the Temple of Anubis, causing a slight stir among the Blessed of the other gods as she's the youngest in the room. It hits Ani partway through the ceremony that she's witnessing history, and she's a little taken aback by being acknowledged by Iset. At the banquet later, she's acknowledged by Iset, and glared at by both Ramesses and the High Blessed.
Back in the mortuary, Ani discovers that Hapiu's experience of the temple hasn't been the same as hers, and that he's been alienated from the other priests his age because of his Blessed status, while also not being able to spend much time with the other Blessed at Cairo either. Iset visits the Anubis Blessed in the shrine at Cairo to make her offerings to Anubis. She acknowledges Nik as well as Ani, only causing more ire from the High Blessed, but catching the attention of the second most important Blessed (Mahu).
Ani gets sick, but Nik does his best to care for her. Once she's back in the mortuary, Mahu comes to ask for her help, and quizzes her about some of what he read in her file before asking her to do something he could have done himself. Ani is confused, but assumes it's something to do with the way he always seems to be studying her as if he's trying to work her out.
Nik takes Ani to a camel racing event to celebrate her twenty-first birthday. While there, she thinks about how much he has changed and grown since they first met despite the small amount of time - and the fact that she actually does like some parts of being Blessed. It's the more dramatic political parts she isn't so keen on.
Ani and Nik are invited to court for a ceremony to honour those who helped the previous Pharaoh on his journey to the afterlife. Ani is granted a gift of lands, a patent of nobility, and the title of Favoured Of The Pharaoh, giving her more power than she's ever had before. At the banquet to celebrate the ceremony, she runs into Prince Ramesses and the two have a brief confrontation in which it becomes clear that Ramesses was actually hurt by the way things ended between them, and wants to avoid her as much as she wants to avoid him.
With their duties in Egypt finally at an end, Ani and Nik manage to fly back to the British Isles, arriving home to catch Hannu in their flat with Dhara, one of the apprentices who has recently joined the temple, taking Ani by surprise.
Most of the events of Duty To The Dead (from Dhara's point of view) occur in tandem with Death Of The Pharaoh through Court Of The Queen, with some of them stretching into Assistant Of The Gods.
Chapter 1
I stretch out my legs, enjoying the feeling of being in my own bed and knowing that when I leave the room, I'll be in a flat with people I know.
Unless Hannu's new girlfriend is still here, but knowing Hannu, then it's something that's going to last and I'll know her soon enough. Though I suppose that doesn't mean we're actually going to get on. She seemed very awkward when we showed up, or maybe that's because we barged in on a private moment. I can't say I'd have been any better in her position.
An alarm blares from my phone and I find myself chuckling. Nik knows me well, he must have set it before he left to go to the jackalry so I didn't forget that I have a whole day of meetings ahead of me. I'm not particularly looking forward to it, but I know I need to do it if I want to get back to my normal life.
And Hori is the first on my list, though sadly not to sign the papers for our temple housing. That'll come later once we've got back into work. And after I've cleared it with the High Priest, I need to talk to Ibi too to see if he can take on the funeral organising part of the process.
If I get out of bed now, I might even be able to give him a heads-up that I want to see him in my office later.
I wrinkle my nose. It sounds so formal when I think about it like that.
I throw off the covers and grab my robe from the door, wrapping it around myself and heading out into the kitchen.
Sadly, Ibi isn't around, but Hannu looks up from making his breakfast and gives me a surprisingly timid smile. "Hey," he says sheepishly.
"Hi."
"I'm, er, sorry about yesterday." He sets his knife down.
I shrug as I fill the kettle and flick it on. "Nothing to be sorry about. Though you didn't mention that in any of your messages."
"There was nothing to tell."
I gesture to the kettle and he nods. I pull out two mugs to make tea. I might miss moments like this once Nik and I have moved into our new house, but it'll be worth it. "It didn't seem like nothing."
He sighs and rubs a hand over his face.
I set one of the mugs down in front of him.
"Thanks, Ani."
"No problem." I lean on the kitchen counter and wrap my hands around my own steaming mug. "So, do you want to talk about it?"
"I don't know what you're on about," Hannu
"Mmhmm."
He sighs. "I've made a mess of things."
I raise an eyebrow. "You're going to have to elaborate."
"Where's Nik when I need him?" he mutters.
"He's taken Matia to the jackalry with him while he organises his Favoured Test with Inkaef." I rub a hand around my neck, trying to stop the fabric of my robe from rubbing against my sunburn. I should get some cream for that. "How would he help?"
"Because he understands temple politics a lot better than you do." Hannu takes a sip of his tea.
"Okay, now you've really lost me. I was talking about your girlfriend." I head over to the fridge and look inside for something to have for breakfast, forgetting that we have nothing because we've been away. I'll have to grab something from the canteen before my meeting.
"Dhara isn't my girlfriend," he denies.
"Does she know that?"
Hannu sighs and runs a hand over his face. It's concerning, I don't think I've ever seen him like this. Actually, that's not true, I've seen him like this once, and that was when he got the amulets wrong during our mummification test.
"I don't know what she is," he admits. "She's...something."
"Right. So what's Dhara got to do with temple politics?" I feel like I'm missing something. Maybe it would be better if Nik was here.
He gives me a blank look that makes me feel as if I've missed something obvious, even though I'm reasonably certain I haven't. "She's an apprentice."
"So?"
"Isn't that weird? I'm dating one of the apprentices."
I shrug. "Why would it be weird? So she's what? Eighteen?"
"Nineteen."
"Right, and you're twenty. So you're less than two years older than her," I point out.
"But I'm a senior priest and I'm supposed to have been teaching her."
"Look, I know you well enough by this point to be able to say that I know for certain you won't have taken advantage of that fact. But no one is going to think that anyway. You're a senior priest because of Ma'at's audit and that entire mess, not because you've climbed super high up the ranks already. If the audit hadn't happened, we'd all still be junior priests and still learning."
"Doesn't that worry you?" He finishes the rest of his tea despite the fact it's still scalding hot.
"All the time. And then I go and do dumb things like make the Pharaoh my friend," I mutter.
He laughs. "You've got to tell us how you managed that at some point."
"I was myself."
"With Nik there too?"
"Oh, he wasn't there the first time I met Iset."
"Probably for the best," Hannu muses.
I smile good-naturedly. "Are you implying that my future husband isn't good with people?"
"Nope, I'm stating it as a fact. Though Nik is good at people after you get to know him. And maybe if we all met him now he wouldn't be so bad."
I shrug. "Maybe not. But you've changed the subject. What's the issue with Dhara?"
He sighs. "I want to be High Priest."
"I know."
"Seeing what Hori's doing the past few months has convinced me," he responds. "Or at least convinced me it's okay to have the ambition. I don't want to replace him yet, obviously. But one day I do."
"Well, I can offer you the support of the only Blessed in the British Isles when the time comes. And that's not even a hypothetical." I take a sip of my tea, almost burning my tongue in the process. I have no idea how Hannu has already managed to finish his.
"Maybe you'll want to support someone else when the time comes," Hannu responds.
"Unlikely. I prefer to work with people I know," I point out. "But why do you think Dhara will be a problem with that? If anything, she'd be good for your ambitions. I mean if you're together for a long time you'll be a power couple within the temple. That's got to work in your favour."
"What if it comes out that we got together while she was an apprentice? Wouldn't that look bad?"
"I doubt it," I respond. "I actually don't think the marital status of any of the candidates came up during the last election. Though that is a better question for Nik, he did a lot of research on them all." I can barely remember any of it. Though it's not for want of trying, there was just so much going on during the High Priest elections that it didn't stick.
"I guess that would be interesting so that I know what it takes to become High Priest," he muses.
"Oh, definitely. If I knew how he organised his files, I could send them to you, but I'm clueless at that stuff." One of the many reasons we made a great team. "But look, Hori's probably going to be High Priest for a long time to come..."
"Unless you decide to depose him."
"I guess? But I don't really plan on doing that. I like Hori."
"Now," Hannu points out. "You probably liked Nik's father the first time you met."
I think back to our Day of Choosing. "Honestly, I was pretty out of it and was mostly focused on the fact I suddenly had a jackal following me around and had gotten my dream job. I didn't give much thought to Ahmose." I certainly think about him more now, but that's mostly because I have to spend time building Nik's confidence back up after Ahmose destroyed it. "But seriously, you have time. Probably twenty, thirty years. If you're not with Dhara any more, then no one will think twice about it. If you are, then everyone will just be thinking about how good a match you are. And if that's still an issue, then I'll invite the Pharaoh to visit or something, that should create a big enough commotion that no one will care any more."
"You would as well, wouldn't you?"
"You know it," I respond. "But you won't need it. And if you're this bothered about how much it'll reflect on your potential role as High Priest, then she's clearly important to you."
"You're not going to dissuade me from pursuing something with someone who works in the temple?"
I raise an eyebrow. "Would you listen to me?"
"Everyone listens to you, Ani."
"Yeah, but you're also coming to my wedding next week. The one where I'm marrying someone who not only works at the temple, but is also my assistant. I'm in absolutely no position to tell anyone not to date co-workers."
He chuckles. "All right, that's fair. But you are the person to talk to about power imbalance," he says. "And maybe even the better one to talk to about it than Nik."
Understanding dawns on me. "I see." I pause for a moment, trying to organise my thoughts. "Have you talked to Dhara about any of this?"
He shakes his head. "I don't know what to say."
"You should. She gets a say in this as well," I point out. "I get that it's complicated, and that right now, you're more important than her in the temple hierarchy, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way."
"Unless I do manage to become High Priest."
"Yes, but then you'll have power over everyone. Even me, to some extent."
Hannu chuckles. "I don't think anyone has any power over you."
"Then why do people keep telling me what to do?" I quip, picking up my mug and taking a sip. "You just have to decide if what you have with Dhara is worth it, and whether the two of you are going to be able to communicate. You just have to keep talking about things, particularly if one of you gets a promotion or something."
"But you don't think people will talk about us?" He takes his plate and mug over to the sink to wash them up.
"They probably will," I say. "You just have to decide if it's worth it. And you get used to it after a while." Kind of. I don't think I'm used to it at all.
Hannu's expression is a pensive one. "That's a lot to think about," he says.
"It is," I respond. "I'm here if you want to talk more, and I'm sure Nik can help from the other perspective too."
"Thanks, Ani."
"Any time." I smile and remember my tea, taking a sip. I hope he feels better after our talk. Though maybe I'm not the best person to make those judgments, especially when my relationship is going to be at the centre of everyone's thoughts while we're having our wedding.
