Blog Tour: Wickedness/Deceit by Deborah White

Today Dark Readers host the final blog tour for Deborah White's awesome yet a little strange series. I have already reviewed Wickedness and Deceit shall follow shortly. 

Now I have been given an extract of Nefertaru's story.

Deborah White/Nefertaru’s Story

Setna leaves, but I am well guarded and there is no hope of escape. When he returns bearing the ring, I know I will not see Asru again in this life. I clench my fists tight and swear I will never wear the ring. One of the guards forces open the fingers of my right hand. He bends my ring finger back until he hears it crack and I scream out with the pain of it. I must have fainted, because when I wake the ring is tight on my finger and burns into my skin.

  “I am not afraid,” I say defiantly, spitting out the words. “Send me to Thoth. I will be reunited with Asru there.”

 I must have said something funny,because Setna laughs. He throws his ugly great head back and laughs and laughs.

Setna will not leave me alone for even the blink of an eye. Not now. There are always guards at the door.

Handmaids prepare me for the journey. They brush my hair until it shines as red and fiery as the setting sun. They bathe me. They anoint my skin with sandalwood and lotus blossom oil. Incense is burning. The smell of cassia, myrrh and aloes fills the room.

I can hear chanting, rhythmic and hypnotic. It began early this morning, before even the first cockerel began to crow. The chanting will not stop until I am sheltered in the arms of Thoth. Perhaps I should welcome what is to come, but I am so terribly afraid. Ever since I was first brought here, fear has been a dark and unwelcome presence; an impatient visitor waiting to be let in. Now that I wear the ring and I understand what HE, Setna has planned for me, fear has opened the door into my soul and stepped in. No… not fear. Fear is too gentle a word for what I am feeling. Terror. Because you see, Setna has a plan.

He shows me my coffin. My likeness is drawn on its gilded surface. I am shown wearing my wig.Thick ropes of dark hair frame my face. He describes how I am to be given poison and then once I am dead I will be mummified and laid down in the coffin with the Emerald Casket at my feet. The ring is throbbing on my finger. It burns so hot I can hardly bear it. Then I seemy name is carved on the coffin. But it says NefArtaru and not NefErtaru.My name is misspelt. And he can see from the look on my face that I know what this means. My soul will not be given passage into the afterlife and I will not be able to take the Emerald Casket safely back to Thoth. And though my spirit will be trapped here on earth it will be powerless to protect the spells and casket from Setna…or any otherwicked person who might covet them

  “The spells will be mine at last, to do with as I choose,” Setna looks triumphant. “And I will have the ring too Then I will open the Emerald Casket and…”

  There is a sudden noise coming from outside the inner temple doors. Cries and shouts and the guttural, bubbling sound of men dying horribly. A fleeting look of panic passes across Setna’s face. He spits out the words, “No Guardian will ever stop me!” Then he is calm again and acts swiftly. My head is pulled back by my hair. My mouth is prised open and the poison is poured in. I try to spit it out, but I can feel it trickle down my throat.

Now I can hear the doors being smashed open. Setna’s face swims in and out of focus. I am lifted up and placed inside the coffin. My life is ebbing away as surely as grains of sand blow in from the desert. His voice is urging me to hurry and die…but as my ring finger is severed from my hand and a jolt of hot pain sears through me, for the briefest of moments I am brought back to the world again. I can hear shouting and my own voice calling out, “Asru where are you?” But then all sound grows faint again and I know I am falling back into the darkness.

You can find out more about Deborah White at www.deborahwhiteauthor.com