Princess, Crown Not Included

I shook my head, then looked back at the prints, as if hoping that the movement would remove the marks from the sand. But no, there they still were, bold as the Sphinx, a set of human foot prints accompained by hoofprints. I checked with my own foot, just to be sure that they weren't mine, but these were far too small to be made by me, and I knew for a fact that Tarik wore steel horseshoes: the horse that had made these extra prints had none. So that meant only one thing.

Someone else had been in here.

I was outraged. The Valley of the Kings was a sacred place, you couldn't just waltz in anytime you felt like it. (I'd conveniently forgotten that that was exactly what I'd been doing for the past month.) Fuming, I stormed into the shadows of the valley,in the hope that I could find the son of a jackal and kick him out.

I reached Father, only to find that the trail of prints stopped right by his tomb, which of course only made me more mad, because that meant that the sneaker had been coming to visit my own father without me even knowing.

The tracks led off behind one of the bigger lumps of rubble from the valley's sheer face. Whoever it was was behind it. I snuck quietly over to it, gesturing for Tarik to keep quiet, before throwing my hands behind it, grabbing a large clump of hair and dragging them out. I glared down at the top of their head, noting that the "they" was a "she". That didn't stop me putting all my strength behind hurling her against the wall. Her ebony black ahir fell forward in front of her face, which hid her features beyond recognition even if she hadn't been crumpled up so low that her shoulders were brushing the floor.

"What in Ra's name are you doing here?!" I yelled at her, using my "Pharaoh voice". She mumbled somthing inaubibly. "Get up! Stand in the presence of your Pharaoh!" She stumbled to her feet, her black hair falling out of her face and revealing the pair of emeraldine eyes I would know anywhere.

Astarte.