Free Dangerous Love by Stephanie Radcliff Page A

Festival of the Stars is all set for tomorrow, my Pharaoh. The ritual to honor the Gods is set for tomorrow night at dusk. It would be the entire temple’s honor if you led us, Your Highness.”
    The Pharaoh rested her head on her fingertips as she gazed down at the old woman. The Festival of the Stars happened every year and she was used to this request. This year, they were requesting her help a little later than they usually would. Normally she’d have weeks, if not months to prepare, but famine and then floods hit the country and she was kept busy trying to help the people. It was the first time talk of a festival to come up all season. Though she agreed that they needed the festival to lift the people’s spirits, all she really wanted to do was rest. Her head ached and she would’ve loved to go to the infirmary for a solution. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a slave girl carefully setting refreshments on a table for the court members. She kept her face blank, but inside she smiled. Her little love was working so hard to please her Pharaoh, even when they weren’t alone.
    The young girl was a gift from the Emperor of Japan. The man sent a gift of some of his best slaves to seal the alliance between their two countries, and the young girl was one of them. She wasn’t that young, only 24 summers, but she was younger than the Pharaoh by 2 summers. The Pharaoh often teased her about being so young. What amazed everyone was the closeness in their looks. If one didn’t know the differences between them, they would’ve assumed the young girl was the Pharaoh’s twin. Even though they were born to two different mothers, they looked remarkably similar. Only the Pharaoh herself knew the difference between them. But that, of course, was because she was given the opportunity to know her little look-a-like more closely than anyone in her court or palace.
    She stood up and raised her hand to silence the loud jabbering that was going on between different members of the temples. Each one was trying to make her hear their specific idea for the ritual for the next night, but she already knew which one she was going with. The groups immediately hushed, looking to their leader for her decision as she said, “We will go with the Temple of Goddess Nephthys. I and a set amount of people will hold the ritual in the temple before greeting the crowd outside. Now, if there’s nothing more to discuss, I would like to prepare for tomorrow. The temple members will meet me in the morning to go over the details of the ritual.”
    With that, she walked down off of the steps. With a flick of her wrist, her two shadows and the young servant girl followed her. They all walked across the palace to the Pharaoh’s room, and she pushed the doors open before the guards could even get there before her. She walked into the room followed by the young girl, her shadows closing the doors behind her and taking guard up outside of them. Inside the room, the Pharaoh yanked the crown off of her head and tossed it on her bed as she said, “Bunch of imbeciles.”
    “They’re only trying to help, my lady,” the young girl said as she waited for her mistress to sit down. Once the Pharaoh sat at a small table covered with various beauty articles, she grabbed a brush made out of reeds and proceeded to comb her lady’s hair.
    The Pharaoh sighed softly at the gentle treatment of her servant. This was one of the best parts of her day, going to her room and being pampered by her sweet little one. Only a few knew of the secret relationship she and her servant girl had. The Pharaoh wanted it to stay that way, so she paid those few rather well out of her own treasury. The court didn’t know about the few extra pieces of gold that were taken out each month. What they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. Most of those that knew refused the money anyway, so it wasn’t like it was a huge amount going missing every month. Of course, those people were some of their