Even though the hour was late and the majority of Cairo was fast asleep, Prince Sutekh was wide awake. In the early hours of the evening, the boy had crept away from the palace and made his way over to an archery range on the grounds in order to let out some of the neverending frustrations that came from his new lot in life. Though he doubted that his quiver had nearly enough arrows to deal with all the negative feelings that he had bubbling up within him.
Sutekh had heard that this space had been redesigned by his father shortly after the man had married Isetheperu. If the legends were to be believed, he had proclaimed the course designed by her ancestors to be too simple. After having spent many nights out here under the cloak of Nephtys, the Prince was inclined to believe that Imopehatsuma had succeeded in making things more difficult. Despite the countless years of experience Sutekh had under his belt -- including even rising to the rank of Captain in his family’s unit-- he was struggling with hitting all of the targets. As loathe as he was to admit it, Sutekh missed one arrow for every four he let loose from his bow. It was downright infuriating to the Prince as he knew that he was better than this. He had to be.
There was a thousand different things that he could blame this shortcoming on. Not only was he unfamiliar with the course, but in addition he was practicing under the cover of the night rather than in the day as a sane person would. That made the targets harder to see and far easier to knock off course. None of the targets was the same size as he was used to. This area was designed for a chariot rather than one eager boy. Excuses, excuses, excuses. Sutekh could rationalize it however he liked. At the end of the day, he knew that he could really blame no one, but himself and he just needed to keep pushing himself until he didn’t miss a single arrow. It would certainly take a few more late nights, but given that Sutekh was not going to run out of steam that he would need to blow off anytime soon given the circumstances that life had thrown at him -- clearly the boy would have plenty of chances to get used to this archery layout and to his new bow.
In truth, the bow was probably the main issue that was keeping Sutekh from reaching his full potential out here. This weapon had been a gift to him shortly after his world had been completely turned upside down from an old military friend. His brother in arms had heard what had happened and knew that Sutekh probably wouldn’t have been allowed to collect the archery supplies he had owned for years in the chaos that had unfolded. Knowing how much the sport meant to the new Bastard Prince of Egypt, he had sent it to Sutekh as a way to keep his spirits up. Needless to say, the boy was immensely grateful for the generous gift as the man who was currently serving as Captain did not need to do such a thing, and based on the high quality of the craftsmanship, it had not been cheap either. The young man only wished that he could travel back to the camps one last time to thank his friend in person for single-handedly keeping him sane amid the revelations and ill-intentions on his health.
However, as grateful as he was, there was a major problem with the bow. It was nothing like his old one. For centuries, Egyptians had relied upon longbows for all things related to archery. It was simply the only design that existed in the kingdom. That had changed. Now there was a rival design that his friend adamantly stated was vastly superior to a longbow… but only in a chariot. Sutekh could see that he was right. The bow had a sleek curve that put more power behind every shot that Sutekh took. The only downside was that it was rather unwieldy for him due to the sheer knockback of power that came from it. Sutekh supposed he’d grow more used to it in time, especially if it seemed as if the forces were leaving the longbow behind, but until he could use it in a chariot, he didn’t have the faintest clue if it really lived up to the hype.
There was one man in the Evening Star Palace who might know, though, Sutekh would never ask him about such a thing as the man wanted him dead. The Pharaoh had earned his grand position as the lucky man who married the young Queen on account of his successes on the battlefield. Not only would he know more about this compound bow, but he would be able to judge it having a place any future conflict. However, Sutekh was not a fool. Iahotep was half the reason why Sutekh practiced under the cover of night as he did not want to face any accusations thinly veiled as excuses to get rid of the Prince. He would be a madman to make Iahotep aware of this interest of his.
However, Sutekh was far too trusting of the notion of everyone else in Cairo being asleep at such a late hour… especially regarding Iahotep. As not only was the Pharaoh awake, but the man was currently moving through the Evening Star Palace, heading to the same place where the Bastard Prince was quietly practicing amid the starlight… utterly in the dark about the fact he was soon about to be in the company of the last man he wanted to see that at such a late hour…
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