In honor of my Kickstarter for the Special Edition of the DANCER OF THE NILE Trilogy I’m sharing an excerpt today:
Nima the dancer has been recaptured by the enemy general who desires her and put in a cell. Earlier in the book the snake goddess Renenutet had given her a golden bead and now Nima tries to use the magic contained in the bead to aid in her escape.
Tiny gold and red sparks were flying into the air from the bead, disappearing into the gloom. She sat bolt upright, watching wide-eyed as the five tiny serpents untangled themselves from each other. Only a few inches long, they were too beautiful to be frightening, golden scales glinting as each slowly undulated across the blanket, ruby eyes glowing in the darkness of her cell. Reaching out in wonder, Nima let the closest snake crawl into her hand, exclaiming at the tickling sensation as the snake’s belly rasped across her palm. The snake coiled for a moment, hood flared, wisp of an emerald tongue flicking in and out, tasting the air.
One of the others slithered across the bed, falling off the side. As Nima watched, still holding the first snake, the free-falling reptile winked out in a blaze of colorful sparks just as it hit the floor. Worried if she didn’t move quickly, she’d lose them all, Nima got off the bed, hand closed around the snake she held. Its tongue touched her fingers in featherlight sensations. She grabbed her mug with her free hand, tossed the dregs on the floor and dropped the snake into it, going back to the bed to catch the others. A second snake was working its way down the wooden leg of the bed, and Nima managed to capture it by the tail just before it reached the floor, dropping her captive into the cup with its fellow. Yet even as she did so, a third snake disappeared in a soundless explosion of color. She was searching in the blanket for the fifth when a voice spoke from right behind her.
“Foolish girl, you squander the weapons I gave you.”
Renenutet—for it was the snake goddess herself, in human form—reached past Nima’s shoulder, holding out one hand. The remaining three snakes flew through the air to her like tiny arrows, wrapping themselves around her wrist to create a fabulous bracelet.
Heart pounding, Nima sank down on the bed.
Stroking the living bracelet as if to calm the snakes while frowning at Nima, the goddess said, “You can’t call the snakes of Nebu merely to amuse yourself, girl.”
You didn’t exactly provide me a scroll of instructions with the gift. Nima bit her tongue as she left the bed to go to her knees before the Great One. “I’m grateful for your continued assistance, my lady.”
The goddess reached out to stroke her hand through Nima’s hair, patting her cheek as a mother might. “You are so like her, and she was my favorite.”
“My mother?” Nima asked hesitantly.
“Yes. She was trained to my service from the day she could walk, would have been the high priestess over all my temples one day. She was like a daughter to me, the child of my heart. Until she let herself be distracted—” Renenutet frowned, withdrawing her hand, and the snakes on her wrist writhed, hissing.
“Distracted by my father.” Nima closed her eyes for a moment, wishing for the thousandth time with a dull aching pain in her heart that her mother had told her more about the mysterious father she’d never met.
“You and I must both let the past go, child,” Renenutet answered in a low voice.
The goddess put her hand under Nima’s arm and effortlessly drew her to a standing position. Tingles of energy ran from the spot where Renenutet held Nima upright with inhuman strength. Passing through her body in torrents, the sensation fizzed and sparked, settling in her injured ankle. Pain assaulted Nima as the injured muscles and tendons knit back together. She bit her lip to keep from crying out.
In an attempt to distract herself from the healing process, she blurted out a question. “How—how are you here? The Hyksos boasted to me no Egyptian Great One could enter this place because of their god’s spell.”
Laughing so hard the black plumes on her crown shook, the goddess released her and stepped back. “These males—gods and humans—they always think they rule the world, forgetting I’m an Elemental Elder goddess, born in the start of time. I have powers and abilities the modern ones like Qemtusheb and Horus fail to consider.” She raised a finger. “They forget my creatures own the cracks and crevices of the earth. Let foolish men block access above ground or through the sky—I can’t be deterred so easily. Luckily for them and all their schemes, I prefer my own duties to their endless quest for power and dominance.”
The door crashed open, startling Nima. Sword at the ready, the guard stepped across the threshold. “Who are you talking to—”
Turning her head, Renenutet snapped her fingers, and the man fell dead in a boneless heap, his sword clattering away across the stone floor. Nima ran to the corpse, swallowing her nausea, and wrenched his belt knife from its sheath despite her shaking hands.
VS: The adventures are far from over. Nima still has to be reunited with Kamin, the Egyptian soldier she’s fallen in love with and the enemy army is preparing to launch a surprise attack on Egypt…
If you enjoyed this excerpt and are intrigued to know more about the entire story and the other two books in the trilogy, please check out the Kickstarter! The Special Edition is gorgeous, with character art, custom end papers, sprayed edges (and there are chibis available through the campaign (just one example below).
