Nu’s Ark

By Jon Jacks

To bring the war against the Northern Kingdom to an end, Pharaoh’s daughter Herit is to be married to the Pharaoh of the South.
And yet, when a boat crewed by animal-headed men is sent to take her up the Nile, her father insists that the untrustworthy Gebelen accompanies her.
He’s only interested in uncovering secrets.
And to learn the secret of eternal life, he’s prepared to sacrifice even Herit...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jon Jacks
• Release date: Jan 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005348632

Jon Jacks

While working in London as, first, an advertising Creative Director (the title in the U.S. is wildly different; the role involves both creating and overseeing all the creative work in an agency, meaning you’re second only to the Chairman/President) and then a screenwriter for Hollywood and TV, I moved out to an incredibly ancient house in the countryside.On the day we moved out, my then three-year-old daughter (my son was yet to be born) was entranced by the new house, but also upset that we had left behind all that was familiar to her.So, very quickly, my wife Julie and I laid out rugs and comfortable chairs around the huge fireplace so that it looked and felt more like our London home. We then left my daughter quietly reading a book while we went to the kitchen to prepare something to eat.Around fifteen minutes later, my daughter came into the kitchen, saying that she felt much better now ‘after talking to the boy’.‘Boy?’ we asked. ‘What boy?’‘The little boy; he’s been talking to me on the sofa while you were in here.’We rushed into the room, looking around.There wasn’t any boy there of course.‘There isn’t any little boy here,’ we said.‘Of course,’ my daughter replied. ‘He told me he wasn’t alive anymore. He lived here a long time ago.’A child’s wild imagination?Well, that’s what we thought at the time; but there were other strange things, other strange presences (but not really frightening ones) that happened over the years that made me think otherwise.And so I began to write the kind of stories that, well, are just a little unbelievable.

Book preview

Nu’s Ark

Jon Jacks

Other New Adult and Children’s books by Jon Jacks

The Caught – The Rules – Chapter One – The Changes – Sleeping Ugly

The Barking Detective Agency – The Healing – The Lost Fairy Tale

A Horse for a Kingdom – Charity – The Most Beautiful Things (Now includes The Last Train)

The Dream Swallowers – Nyx; Granddaughter of the Night – Jonah and the Alligator

Glastonbury Sirens – Dr Jekyll’s Maid – The 500-Year Circus – The Desire: Class of 666

P – The Endless Game – DoriaN A – Wyrd Girl – The Wicker Slippers – Gorgesque

Heartache High (Vol I) – Heartache High: The Primer (Vol II) – Heartache High: The Wakening (Vol III)

Miss Terry Charm, Merry Kris Mouse & The Silver Egg – The Last Angel – Eve of the Serpent

Seecrets – The Cull – Dragonsapien – The Boy in White Linen – Porcelain Princess – Freaking Freak

Died Blondes – Queen of all the Knowing World – The Truth About Fairies – Lowlife

Elm of False Dreams – God of the 4th Sun – A Guide for Young Wytches – Lady of the Wasteland

The Wendygo House – Americarnie Trash – An Incomparable Pearl – We Three Queens – Cygnet Czarinas

Memesis – April Queen, May Fool – Sick Teen – Thrice Born – Self-Assembled Girl – Love Poison No. 13

Whatever happened to Cinderella’s Slipper? – AmeriChristmas – The Vitch’s Kat in Hollywoodland

Blood of Angels, Wings of Men – Patchwork Quest – The World Turns on A Card – Palace of Lace

The Wailing Ships – The Bad Samaritan – The 13th Month – The Silvered Mare – SpinDell

Swan Moon – The Unicorndoll – Lesser Nefertiti – My Shrieking Skin – Stone in Love

Font of All Lies – The Bared Heart – The Fairy Paintbox – An Angelic Alphabet

Forewarnings and Three Grapes – Death of a Fairytale Princess – The Incurable Caress

Text copyright© 2021 Jon Jacks

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Chapter 1

Herit had been told that the ship’s master would have four heads.

Thankfully, it had been a lie; he only had the one head, that of a ram. With long corkscrew horns growing horizontally out each side.

As he invited her aboard his boat, a boat she’d been told he’d entirely constructed himself (another lie, perhaps?), he politely addressed her as Bithia, The Lord’s Daughter. His attitude to her retainer, however, was far more circumspect, doubtlessly because he’d been expecting female companions.

Herit’s preference for one of her regular attendants had been set aside by her father’s insistence that only Gebelen should accompany her. Gebelen had orders to protect her at the first sign of treachery; a strange thing to be preparing for, surely, when her marriage to the Prince of the South had been arranged to peacefully bind the two kingdoms together.

Besides, the boat that the prince had sent to collect her – serpentine in shape and elongation – was quite consciously large enough to impress and ensure a safe journey. It was of a size enabling it to be entirely self-contained, while efficiently functioning under a crew consisting only of three others, as far as Herit could tell.

Towards the bow their stood a man who seemed entirely human, bar the sly, apprehensive way he’d watched her approach the boat, as if possessing some animalistic sense. A snake-headed man controlled the rudder at the stern, whereas a bare-chested man with a falcon’s head was waiting on deck to show her towards her seat.

And what a seat it was.

Raised on four oaken pillars and set beneath an elaborately wrought canopy, it was a throne of gold, carved with all manner of statue and figures.

But Herit didn’t dare take another step towards it.

For it was perfectly reflected in what could only be a surrounding pool of water.

*

‘Why the hesitation, Bithia?’ the falcon-headed boy asked kindly.

‘The water…’ Herit replied unsurely; and then, realising she was allowing herself to appear ridiculously timid, lifted her robe a little and stepped forward.

Rather than sickeningly sinking into water, however, as she’d expected, her foot was met with a reassuring solidness. The surface was of metal, it seemed, polished to an incredibly smooth finish.

Even the most prudent can be deceived when she judges only by appearances, she told herself admonishingly.

‘The Master Builder wished to astonish you, Bithia!’ the boy declared proudly.

‘The master builder?’ Herit asked, wondering who the boy could be referring to. ‘But I’ve been told it was Chnum himself who’d constructed this boat?’

‘So many things have been built by Chnum,