The oil lamps, dangling above them from every corner of the temple, trembled with every strike of lightning, cutting through the shadows that skittered over their bodies as they laid motionless.  Linda’s eyes were still closed… she didn’t want to open them and face reality.  If she kept them closed, she could still dream.  Maybe she would never wake up, and she would be his consort forever, entwined in his arms and in the solemn history of this exotic land.  When she felt him stir and break away from her reluctantly, she wrapped her arms across her chest to keep warm.  It was getting cooler now, the rain bringing fresh relief and the delicate scent of jasmine.

          “I am grateful for your sacrifice,”, the priest said after tying on his robe.  His voice was softer now, more human, with more than a hint of weariness, “but now you must leave.  If you stay here much longer, the consequence would be unbearable.”.

          Linda opened her eyes a little, squinting against the light of the oil lamps.  “What consequence?”.

His back was turned to her, his head hung and shoulders slumped, gathering her clothes hastily.  “Please… this is not my choice.  You cannot stay here any longer.  He is satisfied, and you have given yourself fully, but now we must leave!  Dress yourself!”.  Throwing her clothes on the naos, he ran to the front of the temple and peered out the entrance, wringing his hands and tugging at the sleeves of his robe.  A panic was growing inside him that was so real, so strong that it reached out and shook her from her reverie. 

          “What’s wrong?”, she yelled at him as she pulled on her shorts and T-shirt.  “Do I have to leave right now?  It’s storming!”.

           Tenhaten turned to face her, but she couldn’t see his face.  Behind him, the storm raged on, the rain beating against the limestone relentlessly.  He shouted something to her, then pointed outside… as she strained to hear him, a bolt of lightning hit so close that it shook the oil lamps violently, nearly knocking one of them off its hook.  Slipping on her sandals, Linda ran towards the entrance, but Tenhaten met her halfway.

           “You must go the other way!  A hidden passage is along the back wall… press against the wall and you’ll find it.”.  He wrapped his arms around her and led her back, but a sound from the front caught their attention.

“Heretic!!!”, she heard a man scream, and she tried to see who it was but the priest pushed her through the passage without another word.  She stood just inside, partially hidden in the shadows, and looked over his shoulder.  Three men, dressed in robes similar to his but with elaborate sashes adorned with turquoise, were standing at the front entrance.  Even in distance and darkness, she could see their shaven heads and naked brows, the gilded staffs in their clutched hands tapping against the glazed tiles of the foyer.  “We warned you too many times to stay out of our temple… you are not welcome here!  You have offended Isis and her children with your blasphemy for the last time!”.  The walls seemed to shake with their anger and they crossed the temple towards them with alarming speed.  

“No… no… this is my fault.  I shouldn’t have came here…”, Linda sobbed in fear, and Tenhaten turned to face her.  She could barely bring herself to look at him, but he gently touched her chin and raised her eyes to his.  He was strangely calm and reassuring.  “This is no fault of yours.  I knew I was taking a great risk by doing this… but His calling is too important.  Now you have to leave.”.  With a final gesture, he gently pushed her outside, but she couldn’t bear to leave him behind without knowing what would happen to him.   Peeking around the corner, she was unable to see anything at first… the priest stood in the doorway, his back turned to her again, his broad shoulders blocking her view.  Inside the temple, she could hear the voices of the other men, and they were closing in fast.  Tenhaten’s voice was plaintive but strong.

“I have done His will.  See the rain He has brought to our valleys?  I appealed to Him, and He listened.”.        

“Silence!”, one of the other men screamed.  “How dare you speak of doing His will, when you enter His temple unclean, with your head and body unshaved?  You are a disgrace to our Great Mother, and a disgrace to Min… your chanting and rituals are not sanctioned in the priesthood.  They are of a dark magic, not in Her name, yet you call yourself a priest?  We are done with you!  Khi-ah-ran!  Sehtop!!”.  Linda didn’t know what these last words meant, but they had a piercing, foreboding sound.

His hands, now clutched behind his back, began rubbing together… slowly at first, then at frenzied pace.  As the lightning streaked overhead, flickering violet light over the limestone walls, she thought she saw his fingertips turning white, then glowing with an eerie cast.  Over the rhythmic rush of the rain and thunder, she could clearly hear him saying something… something that made the others even angrier.

“Do not move any closer.  If you threaten me with your words, then I will have words to say myself.”

One of the men laughed insolently.  “Our words are not to be feared… we have something far stronger than that.”.  The shadows on the walls inside the temple were all that Linda could see, but when they grew and lurched towards him, she knew what was about to happen.  Covering her face with her hands, she dashed out of the doorway and past the pool, towards the wall covered with hieroglyphics.  The warm rain soaked her clothes and hair, but she didn’t notice.  Her eyes were trained on the edges of the wall, and as her fingers felt along the limestone and carvings, frantically searching for an edge revealing a hidden door, she heard the ripping thunder above her.  Looking back across the small courtyard, she couldn’t see anything… she was tempted to go back, but knew she couldn’t help him.  The sick feeling of helplessness and sadness wrenched her inside all at once, and she kneeled on the ground to catch her breath and compose herself. 

The rain seemed to be pouring down even harder now, almost defiantly, as if to beat her into the earth, but she didn’t care.  As the storm swept over the courtyard, the valley, and everything surrounding it, she closed her eyes and covered her ears but the thunder grew louder and louder.  A bolt of lightning hit the pool, sending water everywhere, snapping Linda back to reality.  She jumped to her feet and ran to the wall, searching in vain for the hidden passageway as the lightning smacked down around her, nipping at her heels.  Her ears rang and the hair on the back of her neck stood straight, sending a rush of nausea and dizziness to her head, and for a moment she had to grip one of the columns to keep from falling down, but her knees buckled underneath her.  As she slid down the cool length of the stone column, trying to keep her eyes focused, the skies suddenly grew quiet.  A static purr pulled through the air, tugging at her and wrapping itself around her body, and for an instant she felt a warmth and hesitancy that she’d never felt before… it was apprehension, unworthiness, but yet she couldn’t shake off the idea that she was safe.  Closing her eyes as the rain shifted direction and hit her from the side, she wrapped her arms across her chest to keep warm.  At that moment, a bright white flash broke the ground mere inches from her feet, and the shock knocked her head back into the column… and it was quiet once again.

Linda wasn’t sure how long she had been asleep, but when she opened her eyes the first break of morning light was creeping into the entrance of the temple, and she shivered a little, from the cool air and the weirdness of it all.  Carefully standing up and brushing the dust off her clothes, she peeked outside and was more than relieved to see everything as it was the night before… modern conveniences in delicate balance with remnants of ancient culture.  It was rather sad to see a McDonald’s sitting next to an open market selling jewelry and sashes, or a taxi pulling up to the cast iron gate of a mosque… almost as if the Egypt of ancient days was a burdensome guest staying long past its welcome.  Still, she was thankful to have seen it all and was dreading her flight home in just a couple of days.

Hoping nobody would notice her leaving the temple, Linda poked her head out the door and saw that the streets were mostly empty.  As she walked down the street to her hotel, she noticed a bookstore with some interesting figurines in the window.  She recognized all of them as representing the Egyptian pantheon, especially the one to the far right with his famous enlarged member.  Giggling to herself as she remembered her crazy dream, she knew she had to have it.  Nobody else would know what it really meant to her, but that didn’t matter.

The store was musty and dark, with a low ceiling that made her feel a bit cramped.  Much to her surprise, it was already open for business, and she approached the counter with the figurine and a few pamphlets on various sights around Gebtu that she probably wouldn’t get to see.  As the clerk rang up her purchases, she felt compelled to ask him about the temple and about Min in particular.  His stubby, calloused hands clumsily wrapped the figurine in paper as he thought carefully.

“I know so much about it… people ask me all the time.  All the time.  They see his big penis, and they wonder, ‘What is it’?”, he said with a grin, his stilted English soft and lilting.  “You know he was a god of fertility, yeah?”

“Yes, I know about that.  But are there any legends about him… stories?  He’s not talked about very much in Egyptian mythology.”.

“Oh, yes, he is not talked about much… but he was very important to farmers, and to women as well.”, he laughed.  “You know the story about the dark priest?”.

When he mentioned this, her ears perked up.  “No… I haven’t heard about him.”

“There was a man who had great power… it is said that he was really Min in a man’s body, and he was a priest for a long time.  But he did not follow the path of the other priests, and so was kept from entering the temple.  But when he left, the valley was dry… there was a terrible drought.  One night three priests went to the temple to pray to Min, to bring rain, but it began to storm along their journey.  The dark priest was already there.”.

She could barely speak… her throat, swollen and dry, constricted her breath.  “What happened then?”.

“They found him inside the temple, and tried to harm him, but he brought lightning down from the heavens and killed them.  The rains came… for two weeks, they came.  Then it was over.”.  As he handed the bag to Linda, he added, “It was said that the dark priest sacrificed a woman to Min, to appease him.  But of course, women were not allowed in the temple.  This was why he was to be killed… but yet, he did not die.”.

Not knowing what else to say, she thanked him and walked back to her hotel room as her hands, numb with shock, ran over the smooth, shiny wooden figurine… it was amazingly detailed in bright colors and patterns.  What kind of weird **** was that?, she wondered to herself as she tucked it into her suitcase.  She laid down on the bed, her back eagerly giving in to the soft mattress underneath her, but willed herself to keep her eyes open.  The last thing she wanted to do was fall asleep again… as exciting and erotic as the whole experience was, it was just too weird for comprehension.  Maybe it really was just a dream, the details fueled by her imagination and her existing knowledge of Egyptian mythology.  Maybe she’d already heard that story before and forgot about it until last night… either way, it was kind of hot.  As she thought about those gorgeous blue eyes, completely out of place yet strangely perfect, she felt a warm tingle rush over her body and realized that she would never experience a thunderstorm quite the same way again.