Soul Awakened (16 page)

Huh!

Her curiosity propelled her the rest of the distance. She looked inquisitively at Inpu.

“Interesting is it not? Almost sterile.”

She leaned over her father’s body and inhaled. Again, nothing. “How’s that possible?” It completely defied the stages of organic material breakdown. Her father lived in reven form for over five years until Lilly pierced his heart with her sword and that was over a month ago. Revens were the epitome of zombies in horror movies. Rotting corpses with insatiable appetites for their previous form, living humans. It’s what made spreading the curse so effective.

Her father should be nothing but bones and strings of decayed tissue, but there he lay completely intact. Or so, she assumed based on what she saw through the cloth. She walked over to the sarcophagus and looked inside. “Was anything special done when his tomb was sealed?”

“I oversaw his entombment. I did nothing extra. Fascinating though, I have never seen anything like it.”

“Lilly’s power has healing properties. Maybe it induced some type of stasis?”

“I think you should examine the body.”

Kendra cringed. Was she ever going to get through this? She couldn’t bring herself to lift the shroud, let alone cut into his flesh. She wondered how a family could ever stand there and identify the body of a loved one in the morgue.

Okay, she needed to be logical and objective.
Yeah, right.

She forced herself toward the foot of the alter.
Yes, let’s start at the feet
, she cajoled herself. She pushed up the large open sleeves to her white gown and grabbed the bottom edges of the white linen and folded the cloth to expose his body from the knees down.
See, I can do this.

She walked around to the other side. Leaning in she narrowed her eyes. Gone was the mottled gray skin with tracks of red veins, typical of a reven. His skin was perfectly intact. She reached out to turn his leg, but then retracted it. Not quite ready to go there and afraid of what she might see—a nightmare she’d rather avoid.

“Would you mind? I want to see the underside of the leg.”

Inpu slid his hand under the ankle and knee and lifted the extremity. The limb gave no resistance.

“No lividity. No rigor mortis,” she said stunned. Only dirt stained the soles of his feet.

Kendra took a seat and looked at the priest. “Can you pull the drape back, but still keep his face covered?”

A sympathetic looked crossed the Underworld god’s expression. “Let me know when we need to stop and take a break.”

A tear traversed her cheek. “I never got to say goodbye to him.” She wiped the moisture away. She didn’t know why she picked that moment to reveal her regret, but it was something that was eating at her insides. “They kept his condition a secret from me.”

Inpu sat next to her. “Your sisters no doubt wanted to protect you.” He remained quiet a few moments before continuing. “It is never too late to say goodbye. Would you like a few moments alone?”

 “Maybe a few.” She wiped both cheeks and sniffled.

He smiled gently before rising to leave. “I will be outside if you need me.”

“Thank you.”

Inpu bowed and then departed the cell.

Kendra felt as if she had aged one hundred years in an instant. It took all her effort to approach the alter. Inpu had pulled back the cloth as she requested. He’d been thoughtful enough to provide modesty to her father’s nakedness.

She marveled at the integrity of his body. Although his skin was pale, it didn’t look like the pasty yellow laboratory bodies or the grayness of a revens. His skin retained a peach undertone. Thin dark hair still covered his arms, chest and legs. The only mark on his body was the two inch horizontal entrance wound over his heart. Despite the explosive energy that was released from Lilly’s body, there was not one burn mark to be found. Unlike Kepi’s whose had smoldered black.

She wanted to say her goodbyes, but couldn’t do it without looking him in the face. God help her, she couldn’t find the strength to remove the sheet. She turned to fetch Inpu and found Lilly standing in the doorway. Sorrow beset her sister’s beauty. She wore a flowing white gown with her blonde hair falling freely around her shoulders.

Kendra bit the sob that overtook her voice. Lilly strode forward and embraced her tightly. With the simple touch, the flood gates to Kendra’s tears opened into a torrid waterfall. She cried for so much more than her dead father. 

“Nebt told me you would be down here.”

Kendra took hitched breaths to slow the emotional flood gates. She forced her logical side to the forefront and dried her eyes. Clearing her throat, Kendra grasped her sister’s hand and pulled her forward. “I need you to tell me if he is soulless.”

“Of course he is…” Lilly words halted, cut off as she looked at the body lying before her. “He looks…”

“Perfect? I don’t know how to explain it. Any chance his soul traversed the Underworld and rejoined his body?”

Lilly shook her head and squeezed Kendra’s hand. “I don’t see any living energy anywhere in his body.” Lilly traced his chest wound with her fingertip. “See.”

Kendra staggered another breath. Her sister could heal any living organic being, but in this case the wound remained open. “I can’t bring myself to uncover his face. I was going to get Inpu to do it when you walked in.”

Her sister wiped her hands on her dress and walked to the head of the alter. She grabbed the edge of the cloth and pulled the linen free.

“Oh, my God,” Lilly gasped.

Kendra had diverted her eyes to the floor not wanting to see her father’s face, but Lilly’s reaction caused her to look up. Her body tightened expecting to see something completely monstrous. The way he looked as a reven.

“It looks like he’s sleeping.”

Kendra agreed. His face held a peaceful expression. She had this creepy feeling he would open his eyes, if they called his name.

Lilly covered her mouth with her palm to stifle the soft cry. Her sister had always blamed herself for their father’s death. It was her blood that unlocked the tomb, released the goddess, and unleashed the curse upon their father and humankind. Kendra wondered if her sister finally had relief from her guilt. At least their father wasn’t suffering any more.

“He looks good.” As soon as Lilly said the words their gazes met and both blurted out a laugh despite the tears in their eyes. “I can’t believe I said that.”

“Me neither,” Kendra snorted.

Lilly brushed a strand of his dark brown hair from his forehead. “There were so many times I stood on the other side of the observation glass wishing I could somehow get through to him. Let him know we were here.”

Kendra stared at her father resting peacefully. Her scientifically founded mind still couldn’t comprehend anything beyond the tangible. There was no scientific evidence to support humans had souls. The concept of a superior god or gods had been nothing more than individual or group belief. She had spent time working with hospice patients on their death bed. When death came it was purely physical. The heart and lungs ceased to function and brain death occurred. That was tangible. There wasn’t any bright light that lifted the soul from the body or evidence that people lived beyond this life.

Yet, Kendra’s belief system had been turned upside down the day Asar walked into their lives and opened the Underworld to them. Before his arrival, she was convinced the revens were caused by some dormant virus, setting the world up for a new pandemic. How wrong she was.

The revelation that there was life after death made her question everything she knew to be real. She had always wanted to believe in a place you could spend with loved ones the rest of your life. Not a bad idea considering how painful and difficult this life had been. She wanted her father back. Her family whole again. Now, the afterlife was real. She stood in the paradise isle, but the pain was still present and her family incomplete.

If her father found his way to them, she wouldn’t have to say goodbye. 

“Maybe he did know on some level,” Kendra said, but wasn’t convinced considering how consuming the curse had taken control of his mind. Only one thing mattered, hunger. Insatiable hunger. Kepi would pay for what she had done to her dad.

Lilly walked around the table. “You did an amazing thing last night. I didn’t mean to jump on you. I’m scared. Bakari is so unstable. How is he ever going to get it together to kill Kepi?”

“I don’t know.” Kendra had her own concerns about him. Wouldn’t he want to kill the goddess that tortured him for five long years?

“Asar told me that Menthu taunted him with the fact that the traitors could be right under his nose and he wouldn’t even know it. I hate to even bring up the possibility to Asar it could be Bakari.” Lilly pulled Kendra over to a bench and sat. “I don’t want that thought in my head, but Kepi is cruel. It would be so like her to do it.”

Kendra wondered if this would be a good time to bring up the fact that Bakari branded her with his mark. Considering the protectiveness of her sister, it would only worsen her suspicions. She hoped her sister’s theory was unfounded. Kendra would make it her mission to find out the truth, because Bakari was going to help her destroy the goddess once and for all. Never one to be vengeful, Kendra would make an exception for Kepi.

If there was a traitor in the Underworld, who was it? Bakari? Or the owner of the long brown hair she had found on the sarcophagus when she collected the evidence. She would have to make it a point to review the evidence bags. If she could rule out Bakari as a suspect, then they had someone else to be concerned about. Someone had let Kepi into Aaru to kidnap Bakari.

Her eyes gravitated to her father. He had brown hair, but not the length of the strand she found. Kepi had possessed the body of a goddess that had an uncanny resemblance to Lilly with blonde hair. Asar, Kamen, and Bomani had black hair. Inpu and Nebt both had long dark brown hair, but they were far from suspects. Nebt was Asar’s counsel and second in line. Inpu was Nebt’s husband and about the gentlest male she had ever met. They lacked motive at least from what she had seen of the pair.

There was always the rivalry with the Creation Pantheon. The Carrigan sisters were descendants of the Mother Goddess and rightly belonged there, but Asar refused to give them up. Needless to say it didn’t go over well with the Creation Protector gods. There was plenty of motive there, but didn’t match Menthu’s taunt. He specifically said the traitor was
in
the Underworld.

“Kendra?”

“Huh?”

“I asked if you and Inpu were still going to prepare Dad’s body?”

“What?”

“Are you going to perform the funerary ritual?”

Kendra looked at her father’s corpse. The rituals had been utilized by the Egyptians to minimize decay of the body, preserving it for reunion with its soul in the afterlife. Her father’s body was in stasis for all intents and purposes. “I’ll discuss it with Inpu, but I’m inclined to say no. At least for now.”

A male cleared his voice behind them. Kendra turned to find Inpu bowing. “I am sorry to intrude. I came to check on you and overheard your conversation.”

Kendra stood up. “Please, I would love to hear your perspective, considering the state of his body.”

“I agree. I think leaving your father in his current condition is best.” He walked forward. “I only recommend washing the skin with herb oil and wrapping the body in linen.”

Kendra sighed. Mummies were not only in the movies.  

Bakari had lost consciousness sometime during the night. He woke on the cold hard floor, which was not much different from his tomb. He splashed cold water on his face to ensure he was awake and not having another one of his hallucinations. The separation between reality and insanity was indiscernible at this point. Hell, he dreamed of fairies and butterflies dancing around him.