Apprentice Of The Dead: The Apprentice Of Anubis #1 by Laura Greenwood

Author:Laura Greenwood
Language: eng
Format: epub

Nine

I head towards the mortuary along with the other apprentices. Everyone is tenser than normal on account of the vizier's death and not knowing for sure what that's going to mean, either for us, or our education.

Even Nik's quiet, and that says everything. I'm half surprised he isn't talking to us all about exactly what a state funeral is going to entail. Maybe he'll get there once the shock has worn off.

Hori is waiting for us just inside the mortuary doors with a solemn expression on his face. As far as I'm aware, his main job is supervising the people currently training in the temple. Not an enviable position to be in given the circumstances.

"Good morning," he says as we all fall into line in front of him. "As I'm sure you'll probably have guessed, we're going to be a little busier while some of our top embalmers are focusing on preparing the vizier for his funeral. We were all impressed by how you've been handling the volunteer bodies, so we're wanting you to take on a bit more responsibility. You'll have junior priests around to be able to check the work you're doing. Some of you will also be approved to work on partial mummifications as well."

My eyes widen. That seems like a big step, especially as it involves cutting the body open, something none of us have done before. I wish they allowed dissection in our anatomy classes, but there aren't enough high-level criminal bodies to do that, and those that exist are given to the trainee doctors to practise on. Something I'll probably be grateful for if I ever need an operation.

I've seen plenty of it done here, and I suspect the junior priests will walk us through it.

"All right, to your stations, you'll be collected when someone needs you, but I expect all of you to be busy even when you're not explicitly needed. This is a chance for the ten of you to prove to the temple that you have what it takes." Hori dismisses us and we make our way over to the cleaning stations.

I hope I don't have to be here long. If we're allowed to have more responsibility, then it wouldn't be fun to get stuck cleaning up mortuary tables and dealing with rotting guts.

But I'm not going to complain out loud, especially not when there are people listening in.

I lose myself in the routines of the work, making sure I make everything as spotless as possible. No one says anything, I think we're all hoping that we'll attract the attention of one of the priests doing something interesting.

"Nik, Ani, can you come join me please?" someone says.

I look up to find the junior priest who worked with us the other day standing close by. What was his name?

Oh, right, Bebi.

I make my way over to him, trying to decide whether I'm more nervous or excited to have been called.

"You're going to come and assist me on a partial mummification," he says. "Pay close attention and do everything I tell you to.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.