Isis found it difficult to breathe for a moment. Osiris stood before her declaring himself, and she couldn’t bring a single word to mind in response to his declaration.
He squeezed her hands. “Isis? Did you hear me?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“So . . . that’s it? You have nothing to say?” Osiris asked a bit nervously.
She grinned. That she could make the handsome god uneasy gave her a tiny boost of joy. Isis slid her arms up around his neck and touched her lips to his in a brief kiss, delighting in the small shudder that ran through his body. “I love you, too,” she murmured against his mouth.
Isis felt his smile but was soon lost in his passionate embrace. Each touch was a new discovery; each kiss she committed to memory. When his hands stroked the sensitive feathers on the insides of her wings, her body trembled with pleasure. She had longed to be held by this man. Now that she was finally in his arms, Isis recognized that her imagination had been sorely limited.
Being able to express her love for Osiris and feel his love in return with every touch of his hand, every kiss, and the tender way he gazed upon her was a magic all its own. This was what she’d always desired—someone who would hold her heart as she held his. This fragile, new, and glorious thing they had discovered together was so precious to her, so perfect, that there was only one thing that could mar it—Seth.
Pressing lightly against his chest, Isis broke the kiss. “Do you pledge your love to me and only me, then?” Isis asked.
Her expression was intense, the colors in her eyes churning. It pained Osiris that she could still doubt him. “Yes,” he answered softly. “Whatever the consequences may be, and for as long as the cosmos allows our love to exist, I am yours, Isis, as you are mine.”
Isis took his face in her hands. “Then, Osiris, let us make an unbreakable vow.”
Chapter 5
Husbandry
“An unbreakable vow?” he echoed.
“Yes. I’ve given the idea a great amount of thought.” Taking his hands, Isis pulled Osiris deeper into the stables and cast a spell to make sure they were truly alone. When she was satisfied, she explained, “You know that Amun-Ra sent Shu to separate Geb and Nut?”
Osiris nodded. “She was his secret wife, but the stars exposed their relationship and Amun-Ra used the god of the wind to keep them apart.”
“I will not have such a thing happen to us.”
“How would we stop it?” he asked. “The stars are everywhere.”
“That’s not exactly true. There is a rift in the heavens when the night succumbs to the day. If you stand in just the right spot, the stars are blind.”
“Where? And why have I never heard of this?”
“It is at the pinnacle of Mount Babel. I heard of it from my sister. Nephthys told me it is the only place she finds peace from her visions.”
“But Babel is a forbidden place. The gods aren’t supposed to go there. It is an area of great confusion and contradiction. The harmony of the cosmos is fragmented in that location. How has she managed to remain sane?”
Isis frowned. “She might not be. At least, not fully. Nephthys has been affected by it, I believe, but she suffers for her visions more than she shows, and I wouldn’t take away a thing that gives her comfort. I certainly wouldn’t betray her to Amun-Ra. Besides, I have been able to heal her mind when she returns. Mostly.” Isis shook off thoughts of her sister and focused again on their own problem. “Babel comes with its dangers, certainly, but that is exactly why it suits our purposes.”
Osiris touched her face. “I’ll not lose you to the mountain’s madness,” he said softly.
“You won’t. Even if we are lost, we will find one another.”
“How can you be certain?”
Isis waved her hand and two small vases appeared. One was a blue glazed faience with a silver feline head for a lid, and the second was carved alabaster with a golden cobra on top. Carefully, Isis removed the lids of the jars and circled her arms over them, murmuring a spell as she did so. “We will each hold a piece of the other’s heart. They will guide our steps until we find one another.”
She placed her hand over her heart and closed her eyes. When she drew it back, a lovely amethyst heart scarab sat in her palm with wings made of gold pounded so thin they were almost transparent. She held it out to Osiris, who took it. He marveled at the luminous gem and traced his fingers lightly over its facets.
As he did, he could feel the beat of her heart. It both soothed and frightened him. The idea that he could lose her—and what’s more, lose himself—scared him to the depths of his being. But more than anything, he wanted to prove himself worthy of her love and trust. The least he could do was trust her in return.
With great care, Osiris placed her heart scarab in the alabaster vase and closed the lid. Then he murmured a spell of his own to seal it with the sap from a tree that was so sticky, he’d never found a thing in nature to dissolve it. When he was satisfied, he called forth his own heart scarab—a gleaming, golden diamond framed with shafts of ripened wheat stalks the color of sunshine instead of wings.
“It’s beautiful,” she said as he handed it to her.
It was such a strange sensation to have your heart seized by another. Besieged would be a better word, for Isis had surrounded him. Captured him, body and soul. As he stood there in the shadow of her wings, he perceived that he was her willing prisoner, he’d offered up his wrists to shackle himself, and yet he knew there was no place in the cosmos that could offer him such contentment.
What they were doing was mad, impulsive. But wasn’t love a form of madness? For a fraction of a second, he wondered if perhaps the love he felt was a spell she’d cast upon him that caused him to leap where he would normally be cautious. Then he cast aside the notion. He was still the master of his own desires. Besides, even if Isis had bewitched him, he no longer cared.
He’d seen the sickness of love in others before, but Osiris hadn’t understood it then, not fully. Now he recognized the condition in himself. Isis was an intoxicating flower and he was a helpless bee mesmerized by her. Now that he’d tasted her, he was dusted. Filled with her honeyed pollen. If the weight of it dragged him down so he drowned in her embrace, then he’d consider his life well spent.
Isis was his purpose.
Isis was his everything.
All his life he’d been looking for her, and he hadn’t known it.
Osiris watched Isis put his heart scarab into her own blue vase and seal it shut before turning to him. “We’ll need to be careful with Seth,” she said, pulling him from his thoughts. Isis walked away a few paces and then turned back. “It is nearly time for the swelling of the Nile. Am I correct?”
“Yes. I oversee its rising so that the crops will grow. It’s still a little early, but the time is at hand.”