3

There she first went into hiding and tried to get the blood away. But it was more difficult than she thought. Atemu came up to her, wanted to help her.
"Don't do that!" Cleo suddenly snapped at him in a dangerous tone.
"I just want to help you. I ..."
"Don't touch me!" She yelled at him.
He backed away. His eyes wide with shock. Her otherwise light green eyes had just turned pitch black. Now they were back to their old color and the prince wondered whether he had just imagined it. When Cleo saw his face, she turned her back on him.
"I'm sorry!" She whispered. Even when she tried hard, Atemu could tell from her words that she was crying.
"I'm sorry!" Repeated Cleo.
Tears ran down her face. She knew what was coming next. It was always like that! He would hate her now like everyone else! But Atemu reacted very differently than expected:
"Is everything ok?"
For some reason he knew exactly what had happened: Cleo had killed the men! She killed them all! Atemu slowly dared to come closer to her again. Now he was behind her. But he didn't dare touch her.
"Cleo? Are you okay?"
She turned around perplexed. Only now did she notice that he was standing right behind her. Their eyes met. They looked at each other for a long time and Cleo sank back into the glow of the magenta eyes.
"You should start a fire," she said finally.
"Give me your clothes. I'll wash them"
"Thank you," was all Atemu said. In the evening they didn't say a word until they were sitting in front of the fire again, fully dressed. Cleo was trembling. Despite the warming flame, she was bitterly cold.
"Are you freezing?" Asked Atemu.
Cleo nodded. Atemu, who had been sitting on the other side of the fire, got up, walked over to her, and sat directly behind her. He placed his legs next to hers, his arms wrapped around her torso and hugged her.A comforting feeling spread in Cleo. Soon she was no longer cold. She was too tired to break away from Atemu's arms, but she didn't want to either. Again and again her eyes closed until she finally fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning Cleo was gone. When Atemu woke up she had disappeared without a trace. The horse was also missing. It took the Crown Prince a while to reconstruct the last day in his memory. Then he got up and called Cleo's name a couple of times. Finally he gave up and dropped to the edge of the lake. Why did she just leave? Atemu couldn't find an answer to that. He sighed.
"Good morning! Or should I rather say: good noon?"
When Atemu turned around he looked into Cleo's grinning face. She looked cute when she smiled.
Cleo swung from her horse.
"Where have you been?" Atemu asked harder than he had intended.
"I got us breakfast"
"Aha", Atemu only said when he looked at the souvenirs.
"Why didn't you wake me up when you left?"
"You just looked too cute when you slept! I didn't mean to wake you," she informed him and immediately his cheeks turn red.
"Oh yeah and ..." Cleo rummaged in a saddlebag for a moment.
"Here!"
She tossed him ink, pen, and a piece of papyrus.
"You should write to your father quickly that you escaped. He's probably worried about you."
"Thank you," Atemu replied, confused.
"But there is time. First we eat something. I'm starving"
When Cleo turned around, the prince unconsciously watched her every move. How could he have thought that Cleo would leave him here alone. They ate together and then Atemu wrote his letter. Cleo hadn't forgotten anything and had brought a carrier pigeon with her. Atemu wondered where she got all these things from, but he preferred not to ask about them, decided it was wiser not to want to know.When it was all done Atemu asked:
"How are things going now?"
"How do you mean? "; asked Cleo the counter-question.
"Well, what do we do now? We can't stay here forever"
"Oh. So first we have to see where we can get provisions from. Then I'll bring you home."
"Are you taking me home?"
"Yes, or do you really want to let me know that you know where Thebes is from here?"
"Of course I know!", He looked indignantly at her.
Cleo raised his eyebrows and smiled smugly at him.
"Well then. In which direction do we have to go?"
She knew full well that he had no answer to her question, but she enjoyed teasing him.
"That way!", Atemu said without hesitation, because he didn't want to show anything.
"Wrong guess! After Thebes it goes in the opposite direction"
"I thought so!", Atemu grumbled.
Cleo laughed and kissed him on the cheek.
"Come on! We have big plans for today!"

There was hustle and bustle in the nearby town. Traders had come from all over the place to sell their wares in the market. The Crown Prince was blown away. He had never been to a market before, at least not without his bodyguard. Cleo had to keep pulling him, otherwise he would have stopped at each stand.
"(^ *> {|) (= * # °%) (µ: |) (. °[+[) (; °:% °) (+ °:[)!"
"(§- =) (& ° %% §)!"
After quite a while of walking, they came to a small house. Cleo told Atemu to wait for her and when she came back she had everything she needed to travel on. Then she said that it would be safest to travel a long distance in a caravan. So they went looking for someone to go in their direction. They did not find a caravan that went as far as Thebes. Just one that they could travel with for about two weeks. But that was better than nothing, after all.

"My Pharaoh! Look, look!"
Shimon burst into the throne room laughing, a dove in his arms."What's this?"
"A message! From your son, Your Majesty!"
"Show me!"
The Pharaoh couldn't believe it. He read the papyrus several times. It was clearly the Crown Prince who had written this message. Only he used these special characters, which were only used in the royal family. Pharaoh also knew his son's writing. It was clear. He jumped joyously from his throne!
"Wonderful, wonderful! He escaped. He will be here again soon!" Said the delighted king, who had had deep wrinkles on his forehead for some time because of the worries he was worried about his son.
"My Pharaoh, now we can stop the production of the duplicate of the queen's jewel"
"No!"
The Pharaoh raised his hand. Then he smiled.
"You never know if you can still use it, Shimon," he winked.
"Very well. Shall we send troops to meet your son?"
"That won't be necessary. He'll take care of himself. Besides, we don't know where he is at the moment. I think he probably doesn't know himself, otherwise there would be something in the message."
"But if he doesn't know where he is, he can't know how to get to Thebes", Shimon pointed out.
"He writes that he found someone to help him. I'm sure he will find his way home"

"Did you hear that, Mahado? The Crown Prince is coming back!"
Mahado covered Mana's mouth and dragged her away from the palace door.
"Shut up, otherwise they'll hear us! By Ra, how could I let myself be persuaded by them to listen to the audience?" Mahado asked, more to himself than Mana.
"Well, everyone is a little lawbreaker. You too, Mahado, you should come to terms with that," grinned Mana.
"I am not a…"
"Did you forget that you just overheard the Pharaoh, Mr. Perfect?"
"Mana, you would do well to stick to the rules more"
"And you would do well not to stick to your rules all the time"Mana stuck her tongue out and ran away.
"You little…."
The rest was drowned in Mahado's sigh. Mana was really lovely. Everyone liked her, and Mana's cheerful and clumsy manner was something beautiful to him too. But sometimes he wished Mana was a little more serious. After all, life wasn't just about fun, it was also about a lot of hard work.

It was a long way to Thebes. After two weeks, Cleo and Atemu were on their own again. Atemu was a little surprised that Cleo always had money, even though she hadn't earned anything since she fled. It wasn't much, but it was enough to survive. It also kept disappearing and eventually reappearing as quickly as it was gone. Atemu decided to keep an eye on her from now on. He liked Cleo. But she was a complete secret to him, guarded and protected like a baby. The prince wanted to know more about her. And that's what he did. In retrospect, he would rather not have wished it.
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