DANCER OF THE NILE and Renenutet the Snake Goddess

VS sez: One from the Archives. I just sent the new book, Magic of the Nile, back to the formatters so hopefully it'll be out in  a week or so.

One of the aspects of writing paranormal romances about ancient Egypt that I enjoy most is being able to include the gods and goddesses in the action. Isis, queen of the gods, and Horus the Falcon appear in pretty much every book of mine but then I search for a way to feature a lesser-known (to us) deity as well. For my latest book, Dancer of the Nile, I started with the idea that Nima, the title character, was the daughter of a disgraced priestess, who had been granted one final wish by the snake goddess Renenutet. The wish wasn't for the priestess, but for her child, to be redeemed in the future, at some time of dire need.

As she grew up, Nima wore her amulet with the sacred bead faithfully, but she wasn't sure the wish would be granted.  and when the enemy kidnaps her, she begs the goddess Renenutet to help her, with no result. The ancient Egyptians relied a great deal on amulet beads, wearing them in life and placing them inside tombs to help the spirit of the deceased win safe passage to the Afterlife. King Tut, for example, had 143 small amulets made of gold, carnelian, faience and , turquoise placed inside the wrappings of his mummy, including one that was serpent-headed.  Here's the description of Nima's amulet from the novel, as Kamin, the hero examines the bead:

Holding her hand carefully in his much bigger one, Kamin examined the single glazed oval bead, about two inches long, threaded on a simple black leather thong, knotted loosely to circle her wrist. Pale aqua green in color, the flat bead under the glaze had a partial hieroglyphic on one side and a raised, snakelike design on the other, with two tiny enameled flowers flanking the reptile’s head. 

During the course of the novel, Nima encounters her patron goddess (not going to give any spoilers here).  I described one such encounter last year in this column, when the novel was still in the Work In Process stage. You can read that post here. For today, here's another short snippet of an exchange between Nima and the somewhat testy Great One Renenutet:

“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.”

I’m proud to say DANCER OF THE NILE hit the Amazon Best Seller list the first day, in the Romance=>Ancient World category. Thank you to everyone who purchased the book, giving it such a terrific head start,  and I hope you’ll enjoy the story!

DANCER OF THE NILE is AVAILABLE on Amazon   Barnes & Noble   All Romance eBooks  iTunes

And here's the latest Kay Perry video for her song "Dark Horse" - she portrays the magic of ancient Egypt in her own wonderful style - enjoy!

Renenutet the Snake Goddess - Excerpt from Dancer of the Nile

Since I just celebrated a birthday this week, I decided to take a look at some Ancient Egyptian traditions surrounding a person’s birth. Apparently they didn’t make much of a fuss over individual’s birthdays, not even Pharaoh’s. Festivals and celebrations were more likely to be tied to important dates in the cycles of the Nile, or the key events of a ruler’s reign, such as a great victory in battle. The Egyptians did celebrate the birthdays of some of the gods, however.

Their calendar was quite accurate, consisting of twelve months with 30 days each. Unfortunately this system left them five days out of sync with the Earth’s journey around the Sun every year, so the practical Egyptians solved the problem by slotting in some celestial birthdays. Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis and her sister Nepthys received the honor of a day set aside for them.

The precise details of the ancient festivals are lost in time, but I can imagine there was feasting, drinking, dancing and a good time was had by all, don’t you suppose?

The Egyptians had beliefs centered around the birth of a child, however, including the idea that when you were born, the snake headed, cobra goddess Renenutet whispered your secret name in your ear. I’ve written Renenutet into one of my Tales of the Nile (currently a Work in Progress), as a protector for my heroine, although it’s not easy to summon the Great One. My heroine, Nima, Dancer of the Nile, and Kamin,  the warrior traveling with her, are trapped by black magic hyenas.

Here’s an excerpt from the WIP:

“I was an observer at a ceremony for Renenutet the snake goddess once,” Kamin said.

Shutting her eyes for a moment,  Nima shuddered.  “Yes, but I’m terrified of snakes.”

“If the goddess is attuned to you and sends her serpents to aid us, they won’t turn on you, I swear. What do we have to lose?” He held her away from him, gazing into her pale face.

“Magic for magic.” Nima nodded. “What do we do?”

“I’ll have to cut the amulet off.”  Reaching for his knife, Kamin raised one eyebrow, waiting for her permission.

               Nima swallowed hard.  

              Carefully he inserted the tip of the blade under the knotted black leather cords and slashed the bracelet free, catching the clay bead as it fell. “Do we have any bread left?”

                “You’re hungry at a time like this?” Reaching for the packs, she rummaged through the contents, coming out with a piece of flat bread.

                “Renenutet is a goddess of grain and harvests. Bread is the closest to a proper offering we can get on this rock,” he chided. Holding the bead carefully, he got up and walked to the edge of the ledge, checking on the hyenas. A chorus of eerie howls rose as he peered over the precipice.  “Still prowling. I had no real hope of their giving up and slinking away.”

                “What do we do now?” She rubbed her bare wrist.

                Setting the bread in the sunniest spot on the rock, Kamin laid the bead in center, pushing it into the soft bread and coiling the broken ends of the black thong in a circle. “I need one drop of your blood, sweetheart, so the great one hears the call through your bond with her –“

                 “You have a certain grim logic to this insane idea, soldier. Should I be concerned how much you know about black magic?”

                Gritting her teeth against sharp pain for a brief moment while Kamin made a small incision in her wrist with his belt knife, Nima clenched her fist in the fabric of her dress.

Kamin stood up. “I’m done. Let’s see if this will work.”

                As he moved the knife slowly over the bead, Nima watched first one, then two drops of her ruby blood fall onto the raised snake design on the amulet’s surface, coating the entire bead without dripping off the edges. Kamin laid the knife aside and spread his hands out, palms up. “Great One Renenutet, we pray most earnestly for you to send us thy servants, the black cobras of the rocks, to kill the hyenas waiting below. We ask for the one intervention you promised this woman’s mother, when you whispered Nima’s name into her ear at birth. Our need is dire and Egypt’s fate may rest on our shoulders.”

                Eyebrows raised, hand extended toward her, he nodded expectantly.

                Pure panic froze Nima’s vocal cords for a moment. I don’t know any chants! What does he want me to add?  She swallowed past the lump in her throat, licked her lips. “Please, if my mother meant anything to you, as a dancer, as your priestess, help Kamin and me now,” Nima said.

                A  thin tendril of black smoke spiraled up from the bead. Kamin half lifted Nima  away from the spot as first the bead and then the bread burst into angry purple black flames. Writhing in the fire’s grasp, the leather thongs grew, splitting in two and then splitting again,  lengthening, fattening and spreading beyond the circle of the offering, in a tangle of tails. Nima screamed as eight black cobras raised their heads from the center of the fire circle, sinuously weaving and entwining around each other, red eyes gleaming, black tongues flicking. Hood pulsating, a ninth cobra, black like the others but with a golden head, reared four feet off the surface of the rock. Lowering its heavy head the snake extricated itself from the tangle of lesser snakes, slithering  toward Nima.

               

And that’s a good place to leave it, for this blog post LOL. I’m editing as fast as I can, to be able to submit the manuscript to my publisher! A very happy birthday to any of my fellow Libras who might be reading this post - how did you (or will you) celebrate?