1 Chapter 1: Curse

Izna's POV ( 6 years old)

I wake up in the middle of the night. The royal guards marched in our palace. My brother Qebeh rushes in. He takes me in his arms and run. I don't know what's happening. I've never seen my brother terrified like this.

"Brother what's happening?"

"Shhh Izna don't say a word. They'll find us."

I feel scared now. Why is the guards looking for us? What did we do wrong? We are the royal Prince and princess. They're supposed to be protecting us. They don't come after royals unless someone committed a serious crime.

Qebeh finds a box to hide. He puts his hands on my mouth almost choking me. Sitting inside the box I hear people screaming, guards shouting, things breaking. It's like a nightmare.

"Check every corner. Catch them all!!! Pharaoh's orders!!!"

They eventually find us and drag us outside. I try to free myself from the guard's hand. He slaps me hard.

"Don't you dare hit the princess!!!", my maid Djher shouts at him.

"Silence slave!!!" One of the guards kicks her on the head.

They tie us and make us sit in a row. I see my brothers, my older sister, my mother and my newborn twin siblings. All of them are tied up. They throw the newborns on the ground like garbage. Both of them start crying.

"What are you doing?? They're just innocent babies. They did nothing wrong." My mother screams.

"Pharaoh's orders."

WHAT!!! Father ordered all this?? After a while my father the Pharaoh comes in his carriage.

Everyone get down on their knees.

"LONG LIVE THE PHARAOH!!"

He walks to my mother and hits her face.

"How dare you betray me!!"

"O great Pharaoh I was wrong. Please punish me. But have mercy on your children. They're innocent."

"Liar!! They are not the Pharaoh's children. They are the illegitimate children you had with this lowlife," The priest points at a dead man's body tied up behind the Pharaoh's carriage. "Great Pharaoh, according to the rules all of them should be punished."

"Neith, concubine of the great Pharaoh, you have committed the sin of trying to poison the great Pharaoh's drink in order to kill him. You and your children are hereby sentenced to death, your bodies will not be mummified and will be left to perish in this mortal world," A man reads the royal order.

"NOOOO!!! Spare their lives!! please!! They're innocent!!!" My mother begs.

The guards start dragging all of us to a fire pit. I scream and try to resist but I'm too weak.

"Hold on!" The Pharaoh stops him. "Let her go. She's my child."

"Great Pharaoh are you sure?"

"Yes. She has same green eyes and black hair as me. She's indeed my child. And him too. Let him go." He points at Qebeh.

They leave us and drag the rest to the fire pit. Even the newborns. They burn everyone including the slaves. I look at them with horror in my eyes.

"Izna don't look." Qebeh hides my face in his chest.

Before her death my mother curses the Pharaoh and the lands he rules.